Dear Editor:

I am writing to express my opinion on the effort on the part of incumbent County Commissioner Frank Gordon and his supporters to turn this race into a referendum on the oil trains/oil terminal issue, since it appears he has nothing else to offer the citizens as positive results from his time in office.

The county commissioners have no statutory authority with respect to either of these issues. They will cast no votes on them.

If we as county citizens have an issue with oil we need look no further than the biodiesel plant already operating on Port frontage property and clearly capable of having an accident that would affect the environment. If we apply the same safeguards to its operation now in place to any future “oil” facility, we should be well served. The two entities with legal authority to make that happen, the affected community and the state Department of Ecology, are the places we, as citizens, need to go to make that happen.

I have had the privilege of interacting both with Mr. Gordon’s opponent and the sitting commissioner not on the ballot as well as Mr. Gordon. Clearly Mr. Gordon is the candidate who has outworn his welcome in the community and did not get the county departments ahead of the technology curve during his early years in office.

This county needs new leadership in District 2 willing to work to modernize our service systems and get a real economic development program in place to revitalize the county economy. That person is definitely Randy Ross, and I hope we the citizens of Grays Harbor County get behind him in this election.

Allen Kasper

Ocean Shores