Mayor Tim Leavitt’s “Local View” column in the May 27 Columbian — “Crumbling roads, bridges show why Congress must act” — urged Congress to act on a transportation bill to fund repairs to roads. He finished by stating we deserved better than another extension of old funds that do not include funding for the Columbia River Crossing.
Actually, I agree. The citizens of Vancouver, the state of Washington, not to mention Oregon, California, Canada and Mexico, deserve better than shameless cheerleading of costly, ineffective and frankly unwise transportation programs.
I would venture to guess Leavitt might get more support from Congress for these plans if they did not propose replacing solid infrastructure with “pork.” That is the stuff that Europe’s politicians do. We do not live in Portugal, Italy, Greece or Spain, so it would behoove our local political leaders to stop calling for Congress and others to act like “pigs.” Better that you get serious about cutting costs and lowering debt — instead of calling for more. No “improvement” is a better use of taxpayer resources than the CRC’s light rail bridge plan. It is not worth funding.
Citizens of Clark County deserve a plan worthy of support.
Dennis Henry
Vancouver
