Editor,

Yesterday I went to the Coupeville Wharf and clicked my smartphone on a QR diagram on the wall. It said that the web page could not be found. Very disappointing.

The QR diagrams were put there by 4-H students at the time Jim Patton was the Port of Coupeville executive director and with his approval and encouragement. The 4-H students put many hours into researching the history of the wharf, the marine environment around the wharf, and the facilities on the wharf. They also learned to code the information in HTML and add the material to the Port of Coupeville website. The QR codes were designed and built by the students to give visitors to the wharf the chance to quickly learn all about the wharf, its history, and its environment.

The website has been closed and a new one built to replace it. The new one was built with Go Daddy Website Builder, which is normally only for the use of people who do not know how to program with HTML, CSS or JavaScript. The code is very limited, and the user must use the templates that are provided. For the port, this is a step backwards given that the last webmaster was a fully qualified, cost-effective, college student.

A quick look at the code for the new website will reveal that no human wrote it. Removing a website before a replacement is ready, tested and approved is widely considered bad practice in the computer industry.

For some reason , the Port of Coupeville office is now effectively located at the Greenbank Farm, and while the farm is receiving funds and attention, the Coupeville Wharf is being neglected to the detriment of Coupeville taxpayers, visitors, and port staff.

The wharf is a tourist attraction and needs to be properly managed by a caring and respectful team.

Perhaps it time for the commissioners to review the management style and the decisions being made by the current executive director.

Robert Elphick

Coupeville