Oak Harbor's selfish, not reasonable

I am responding to the June 24 editorial, “Tourism move makes sense.” The writer stated that it seemed perfectly reasonable for Oak Harbor to decrease the amount of financial support it contributes to the Island County Joint Tourism promotion.

Reasonable is not the word I would use to describe Oak Harbors decision. One-sided, selfish, self-serving, those seem more appropriate descriptions. The writer states that if Oak Harbor substitutes a flat fee of $20,000 it still exceeds the amount from Coupeville and matches the amount from Langley.

Let’s see, how many businesses are there in Langley and Coupeville compared to Oak Harbor? The only fair thing in my mind is a percentage as had been set up and agreed upon by all parties at the inception of the Joint Tourism Program. Now suddenly Oak Harbor decides that it does not want to play by those rules anymore and wants to make up new rules, just for them.

If we begin to start making distinctions as to “us” and “them” we lose sight of the goal to bring tourism to all of Island County. I would believe that if a person comes from out of town for whatever reason, they will more than likely visit more than the one specific destination city. Even if it’s to stop for a soda, use the bathroom or buy a map. Come on Oak Harbor, you are one part of the Island County team, start acting like a team player and pony up to your one percent hotel/motel tax revenue as agreed upon.

Lorene Norris

Coupeville

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