Editor,

In her May 29 letter to the editor, Paula Spina incorrectly stated the Navy as the “bully” in the situation regarding the OLF in coupeville. On behalf of the citizens of Oak Harbor, I was would like to set the record straight.

Unfortunately, the Navy or the citizens of this island have both been named as a “bully” in this situation. This however, is untrue. Neither party is the bully and in fact, the problem lies in those citizens complaining about the noise.

The Navy helped bring much needed traffic to this island way back and helped develop it into a beautiful place of commerce and community. Yes, the Growlers are noisy.

The problem lies where the citizens who, on their own free will with knowledge of the zoning of a “high-noise area” decided to purchase houses and have now complained about the noise. When purchasing a house, those involved need to understand the zoning and what that means for future living. On behalf of the Navy, I apologize for your 20 second delay in silence when a touch-and-go takes place however, when you purchased your home in that zone, whose fault really is it?

The bully is the citizens that complain about a problem that they knew about when purchasing their property. They are not “concerned citizens” or a “community standing up for their rights” as Paula Spina puts it. They are in fact citizens who didn’t read, or pay attention to, their entire closing agreement on their property prior to purchasing in a “high-noise” zone.

Alyssa Ridgway

Oak Harbor