SOUNDOFF: City’s in crisis as families leave

Currently there is doubt whether Oak Harbor’s state playoff high school football team will play a home game this year on their field.

We rejected a levy request to renovate the high school and athletic facility. Acrimony between the school district and the city regarding the reopening of Broad View Elementary School centered on the construction of a sidewalk. Oak Harbor teachers believe they need additional compensated days to educate our students — the district contends they lack the resources to provide them. Oak Harbor School District receives funds from the U.S. Navy for Navy families — many in our community contend it is not enough.

Is there a message being sent to families of Oak Harbor? The answer is yes.

Intended or unintended, families understand they will have less support and resources here than in neighboring towns of Coupeville or Anacortes. More importantly, we are limiting our children. By word and deed, they know to expect less in Oak Harbor. We have failed.

I have supported every school levy since buying my first home in Oak Harbor in 1987. I actively promoted the levy campaign that passed in 2001. However, perhaps I was wrong in supporting those measures and those that opposed were correct. If previous levies failed, maybe a later, more equitable, solution for all students would now be in place.

I honestly do not know the answer. What I do know is that an acceptable alternative is not in place for the families and students.

Is it politics? Is it ineffective leadership? Have the proposed alternatives been improperly focused or too grandiose? Perhaps all of these are true to a degree.

Those who have opposed levies I supported are not wrong nor do I believe them "anti" children. Nonetheless, we collectively have failed. For the city of Oak Harbor and its residents, there are long term implications — economic, social and societal — that will result.

Should we care? We must.There are negative economic, social and societal consequences. Oak Harbor will become poorer. As the city grows poorer, raising revenues will be more of a burden for everything — parks, libraries, services.

The social and societal results will be to drain away from Oak Harbor people that add value to us all. The value they add is not merely in tax dollars. These families choosing to live elsewhere are depriving us of their energies, talents and other human resources.

When I came to Whidbey Island Naval Air Station 18 years ago, every officer in my squadron lived in Oak Harbor. The squadron I left this past June had only half its officers living in Oak Harbor. While you may choose to think of my experience as an anomaly, I do not believe it is so. Why would families of modest means elect to live in a community where their children will be less supported than another? Families are choosing not to live here because of lesser opportunities in Oak Harbor. Others have chosen Oak Harbor and are now leaving.

I believe that Oak Harbor is in crisis. We are in a downward spiral we must act now to correct. Our town has enormous beauty and terrific people. We must now mend our political differences, change our leadership, or identify what in previously offered solutions made them unacceptable.

For too long our actions have said, we care less about families and children than our neighbors. We have a civic obligation to meet. Failing to act is an action. I submit failing to do so will have a much greater cost. Let us act now or the costs, while more difficult to measure, will be much higher than the levy dollars needed for Oak Harbor School District.

Navy Cmdr. Tom Payne is assigned to Industrial College of the Armed Forces (part of National Defense University) in Washington, D.C. His family is still in Oak Harbor.

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