This subject is another near and dear to this writer.

My wife and I moved here a little over three years ago from a Southern California city in north San Diego County which has a reputation for having the best and best maintained streets in the county, if not the state.

The city also has a reputation of being one of the best fiscally managed cities in the state, always ending with a solid surplus in its budget. That’s called good management.

Now, back to the subject of this letter — streets.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (www.transportation.gov) has specific grants designated for streets which maintain active bike lanes and will fund construction, repair and maintenance.

Our former city, San Marcos, California, has a bike lane on every main and subsidiary local street in the city, thereby receiving federal funding for its superbly constructed and maintained streets. This prudently managed city also has one of its few staff members acting in the dual capacity of grant researcher and grant writer, charged with searching, applying for and maintaining the city’s aggressive grant program for other areas — such as the development of affordable housing, which also is one of the most aggressive in the state.

We submit there is no shame in accessing funds from state or federal coffers when the purpose benefits the safety and welfare of local communities, regardless of how fiscally conservative local government and/or its elected officials may be.

Undertaking a definitive and aggressive search for available funding for the building, rebuilding, repair and maintenance of Poulsbo’s streets (all with existing and proposed bike lanes) should be tangential to developing an overall plan and schedule being proposed by our city leaders.

Adding “the city with the best and best maintained streets in Kitsap” to the most historical city in Kitsap would have a nice ring to it.

Bill Effinger

Poulsbo