They don’t want to cause a fuss or complain. And they certainly don’t want any attention at all. But they, a handful of nearly silent residents who live on Third Avenue, are getting the shaft.

For decades and decades — 10, as a matter of fact — generations of Poulsbo residents have flittered about on Third. Many young couples have settled in, raised families, become grandparents and sometimes passed their home to the next generation.

Through life’s emotional highs and lows, residents of that tiny street have bonded through conversations of beautiful sunsets. On a clear day, they can see forever right from their back porch.

Third lies nestled between heavier trafficked roads, perched upon a hillside and offers a breathtaking view of the Olympics and Liberty Bay.

Future generations, however, won’t be able to see the forest for the trees. Actually, they won’t be able to see the mountains for brick wall.

Poulsbo’s city hall will be cropping up, slowly but surely, on Third and Moe Street over the course of the next two years. Gone will be the spectacular sunsets. Gone will be the view of the majestic Olympic Mountains. Gone will be picture-perfect views of Fireworks over the Fjord.

Progress — 30,000 square feet of cement, brick and glass progress — will replace them. From Third, new city hall will reach a height of 42 feet.

It’s agonizing and unfortunate that, in the name of progress, the folks who have come to derive comfort with a cup of tea and a view overlooking God’s creation, will be left with nothing to look at but a building.

Granted, it’s a necessary edifice, and it was many, many years in the making.

But it’s unfortunate that, when blazing a trail to the future, these residents will have to lose a piece of their past.

City leaders held public forums and offered mockups to assure residents that city hall would fit into the neighborhood’s character.

And some residents, including Sandy Kienholz, who’s lived on Third for 18 years, spoke out at city council. Poulsbo Mayor Kathryn Quade did agree to meet with Kienholz.

“The height is very disturbing to me,” Kienholz said. “I just feel like there was no way to input, no way to be heard, and now we live with the disappointment of having that huge thing in front of our houses.”

It will be a huge (and unfair) adjustment for these residents — the residents that progress is steamrolling — to look out their windows at sunset and, instead of a canvas of colors, see a big building.

City hall’s presence won’t bode well for future generations of Third Avenue dwellers economically, according to Poulsbo John L. Scott agent Don Hamilton, as it will likely decrease property values.

“Who wants to live across the street from city hall?” Hamilton said.