Photo by Claudia Dickinson
A mother picks out a gift at the Holiday of Hope toy shop at the Angle Lake Family Resource Center.

LETTER: Thanks from SeaTac

Jan 16, 2012

“I just want to say thank you to every one in my community that helped my children get gifts for Christmas. There was no way for me to get my kids gifts this year. You have no idea how happy they are going to be. Every one helping out had large smiles and sweet words to say. You don’t find that too often when you’re getting help, but I feel great about what all you have done for my family this year.”

The above grateful comment was written by a Holiday of Hope shopper who took a moment to stop by the crowded Thank You Card Bar where recipients packed in shoulder-to-shoulder and struggled with language and spelling to find the right words to express their delight and gratitude.

For the third year running, Angle Lake Family Resource Center collaborated with the community to host the Holiday of Hope toy shop in December. This year the event was held at the Angle Lake Family Resource Center (ALFRC).

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LETTER: Quit whining about libraries

There are a group of citizens in the North Highline, White Center and Burien areas that are nothing but a bunch of whiners. They seem to be encouraged on by their city officials who also write complaining letters.

Many of these complainers pay less in taxes to the King County Library System but feel that they deserve more in services than the rest of us.

They work the system by being the loud, squeaky wheels gathering signatures on their ironing boards to whine about how they are being cheated.

The Burien/North Highline area has one library per 16,000 residents. The rest of us in the county get one library per 70,000 residents.

Burien seems to feel that they should get these extra services because they have fewer cars than the rest of us in the county.

Well, that is not so. According to the most recent 2011 survey of King County, the percentage of residents of Burien, White Center and Boulevard Park who do not have a car is 8.3 while the percentage for the rest of King County is 8.06. So cars are not the issue here.

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LETTER: Base annexation on facts

Jan 23, 2012

On Jan. 9th I attended a Boundary Review Board meeting at Cascade Middle School to listen to people make their cases either for or against a Burien annexation of what is known as “Unincorporated King County Area Y.”

Only one thing was really clear when I left this meeting: I am really concerned about how this annexation is being approached.

To be clear right off the bat, I have not decided if I am for or against annexation of North Highline yet and I had hoped that these meetings would help me decide. What I experienced at this meeting was a lot of noise and what I am starting to believe is willful ignorance towards the facts.

Person after person got up at the meeting and talked about how the city of Burien was trying to pull a fast one on everyone or how the BERK report was a scam or incomplete or how we don’t want “those people” or “all that crime” in Burien.

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