Perhaps you, as well as I, have noticed the increased crush of traffic on Harrison Avenue in the last few years. Huge trucks and double semi trucks from businesses at the Port of Centralia pull their loads along Harrison to connect with the Interstate highway. School buses and passenger cars vie for the road space with huge commercial vehicles at times during the day when the traffic is bumper to bumper. It is dangerous!
Why, you may ask, has neither the director nor the board of the Port of Centralia not thought ahead and foreseen the traffic snarls which are now clogging our major roads? Why did they not work collaboratively with the city of Centralia, WSDOT, and the FHA to effect a connective road which connects the port to I-5, thus taking heavy commercial traffic off Harrison Avenue and other roads? This should have been done before large businesses were sited at the port. Is it all business and profit ahead of citizen safety and pleasant neighborhoods? As yet, we have not received adequate answers to these questions.
We citizens of Centralia pay a large portion of our taxes to support the Port of Centralia. Where does that money go? What do we receive for our investment?
We are tantalized with announcements of popular chain grocery stores planning to come to our city. We need them! Where are they? The port’s communications with the public consist of self-congratulatory announcements of things to come not of actual achievements!
It is time to elect someone to the Centralia port board who is a citizen advocate and has a proven record of working successfully with other government entities to establish positive change. It is time to elect someone who has no conflicts of interest. It is time to elect someone who believes in open communication. Bonnie Canaday is that person. When elected, she will listen, ask the hard questions, and represent the interests of concerned citizens of Centralia. That person is Bonnie Canaday. She has my vote.
Janet Leth,
Centralia
