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We appreciate your work. You printed "The Jolt" article on the Port of Olympia, below.

Who ever wrote this "Jolt" article seems to be almost "an apologist' for the Port of Olympia, and their votes, their actions.

There are several examples of this.

This article "white washes" the issue of the Port Comm. Amy Evans-Harding investigation, into "conflict of interest" between her full time job as a realtor for the huge real estate firm, Kidder Matthews, and her work as Port Commissioner, voting on real estate deals for the Port of Olympia. This issue was discussed in the Olympian Newspaper, before her election.

 This article below, does not give details that are listed in the Amy Evans-Harding "conflict of interest" investigation. The investigation report that said, "There are possible conflict of interest issues regarding the Evans-Harding work with the Port and her employer, Kidder Matthews".

The investigation was conducted by another Port attorney," in-house" (outside of Olympia). This is unacceptable.

This article says that Harding was "cleared of this issue"; that is incorrect.

The person who wrote this article did not mention that the employees who work for the Port, demanded to be

heard, they felt that they had been bullied by the Port Director S. Gibboney, in their letter to the Port. Some of

them were fired for their actions. This issue was not addressed in this article. (Port Staff Allen Roe was recently

put "on leave", from this job at the Port.)

We think that this action to Allen Roe, by the Port (S. Gibboney) was retaliation for his writing this letter on behind of the Union workers at the Port.)

And below, there is a part of this article that discussed the huge expensive Budd Inlet dredging issues coming before the Port Commissioners.

This issue talks about "clean up" of the toxic dioxin "hot spots" in areas of Budd Inlet, without giving any details.

This dredging issue is in fact two fold; clean up of legacy contamination (dixin), and navigational dredging. These two different types of issues, two different types of dredging concerns, they have different funding sources. How will the Port pay for the navigational dredging for Swan town, listed in this article? This article never talks about these funding issues adequately. Correct?

$100 million Budd Inlet cleanup budget

Before the Capitol Lake Dam is removed, the Port would have to spend around $100 million to clean up Budd Inlet so the area could accommodate the additional flow of sediments once the dam is gone. Even without the estuary project, the Port would have to conduct the cleanup as part of an agreed order from the Washington State Department of Ecology to investigate and clean legacy contamination.

As part of the cleanup, the Port would dredge several portions of Budd Inlet such as along the navigation channel, Swantown Habor, and the south of East and West Bay. The Port is working with Ecology to finalize the preferred cleanup method by the spring of 2023.

And lastly the article states;

Olympia Regional Airport reconfiguration

"There is also an ongoing commercial service feasibility study being conducted which seeks to evaluate the airport’s compatibility to meet requirements for regional commercial service. A preferred layout plan included in the master plan update showed the airport with a commercial air service area."

The author of this Jolt article fails to mention the huge "push back" of the local Tumwater population to this proposal.

Many in our community do not support the expansion of the Tumwater airport, or a new "greenfield" airport.

I could go on and on with a list of problems with this article. (It did not mention the harassment of former

Port Commissioner E. J. Zita, before she left office. It did not mention the glaring problems with the Weyerhauser lease.)

On the other hand, perhaps I should be grateful that these issues will be discussed at all, by The Jolt. It seems that The Olympian Newspaper will not address these glaring issues, listed.

From: Port of Olympia’s top stories for 2022

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