This editorial will appear in Friday’s print edition.

The proposed plan to move the Camp Murray main gate into Lakewood’s Tillicum community isn’t ideal. But it may be as good as it’s going to get, and the alternative – the status quo – is not a good option.

The plan is much better than what camp officials had in mind 10 months ago, when they wanted to move the gate to Tillicum’s Portland Avenue with virtually no mitigation for the community.

The City of Lakewood rightly pulled the plug on the earlier plan by refusing to issue the necessary permits. Read more »

I live in Lakewood and noticed campaign signs by City Council candidate Paul Bocchi in my neighborhood. Which I thought was a little odd since no one filed to run against him for the open Position 7 seat (Walter Neary bowed out after two terms). For that matter, no one filed against incumbent Don Anderson or against businesswoman Marie Barth for Claudia Thomas’ open Position 6 seat.

I emailed Bocchi – a budget analyst for the Pierce County Council – asking why he was putting up signs when he didn’t have an opponent and why he thought the three races were uncontested. In the past, Lakewood council races have drawn plenty of candidates. I don’t think the city has ever had three races without at least two people filing.

Here’s his response: Read more »

This editorial will appear in Thursday’s print edition.

Here’s a novel ballot measure: A fire district is not asking voters to either increase their taxes or renew existing ones.

Instead, the Lakewood Fire Department is asking voters in its fire protection district to approve a merger with the smaller University Place Fire Department as a way of making more efficient use of taxpayer dollars.

If Lakewood voters approve the Feb. 8 ballot measure – and they would be wise to do so – the merged department would be known as West Pierce Fire & Rescue. That agency would be led by Lakewood Fire Chief Ken Sharp, and his deputy chief would be University Place’s current chief, Mitch Sagers. It would be governed by the merged five-member boards of both districts, with the new 10-member board shrinking to five as terms expire. Read more »

This editorial will appear in Friday’s print edition.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord troops back from Iraq or Afghanistan might think they’ve left a war zone only to face an army of road warriors on Interstate 5.

What once was a 40-minute commute between Tacoma and Olympia on most days to somewhat longer if an accident created backups has now become much longer – mainly because of thousands of additional personnel at JBLM. It’s not unusual anymore for the trip between Tacoma and Olympia to take 90 minutes or more.

For South Sound commuters heading north on I-5, HOV lanes provide an incentive to ditch their vehicles and take the bus or carpool. Not so south of Tacoma. Without HOV lanes, buses and carpools get trapped in the same interminable gridlock as single-occupant vehicles.

JBLM is taking one welcome step in response to the traffic: On Monday it will open a new entrance on Mounts Road from 5 to 8 a.m. so that northbound I-5 traffic going to the base in the morning can opt to exit before piling up at the main entrance. Read more »

This editorial will appear in Thursday’s print edition.

Do the Washington National Guard folks at Camp Murray really want to pick a fight with their closest neighbors – the people who live in Lakewood’s Tillicum community?

That probably wasn’t their intention when they made public their plans to move Camp Murray’s main gate. But it sure has been the result; the plan has Tillicum residents up in arms.

The reason: According to a draft environmental assessment released Friday, moving the gate from its current location near the Berkeley Street Southwest/Interstate 5 interchange will mean 63 percent higher traffic volumes on Tillicum’s residential Portland Avenue Southwest. If the gate is moved, drivers will take the Thorne Lane exit and go through Tillicum to reach Camp Murray.

Residents are understandably worried that the higher traffic volumes will have negative impacts on their quality of life, their children’s safety and their property values – at a time when they were starting to look forward to the improvements a new sewer system and master plan promised to bring. Read more »

This editorial will appear in Wednesday’s print edition.

A recent incident at American Lake in Lakewood – related in Kathleen Merryman’s column Saturday – illustrates what can happen when rules are too broadly applied.

In this instance, a woman pursuing the newly popular sport of paddleboarding encountered a police officer strictly enforcing rules that obviously were meant to apply to boats. She was told that she must license her paddleboard and pay a $10 launch fee at the lake’s new boat launch.

She was treated as if she were trying to illegally launch a motorboat when all she wanted to do was get in the water with her paddleboard. Licenses aren’t required for kayaks and canoes, much less paddleboards.

Figuring, justifiably, that it was ridiculous to charge a person $10 to put a paddleboard in the water, she walked to the nearby swimming beach and got in the water there. One problem with that move: Flotation devices like rafts, surfboards and paddleboards aren’t allowed in the popular swimming area – at least when a lifeguard is there enforcing the rule. Read more »

This editorial will appear in Tuesday’s edition.

The 60 or so families who live at Fir Acres Mobile Home Park in Lakewood are in a desperate spot, one not of their making and one seemingly beyond their capacity to remedy.

Too many families in Pierce County are in similar positions, hamstrung by the county’s unmet need for housing that is both affordable and decent.

Fir Acres has deteriorated to a dangerous state, and the City of Lakewood’s efforts to get the park’s owners to fix up the place have failed. Now, with the property in foreclosure, the city may have to evict the tenants rather than continue allowing them to live in substandard conditions.

For many residents, eviction would be tantamount to the seizure of their homes – their mobile homes are too old or frail to move.
Even if the homes could withstand relocation, owners would be hard-pressed to afford the cost, much less find space at the shrinking number of mobile home communities in the state.

Read more »

Domestic violence is a societal cancer that is heedless of factors such as income, ethnicity, religion or military status.