I am a former resident of Oak Harbor. I was reading the article on the expanded no building zone off of Highway 20 (News-Times, March 12). Can I tell you this is a joke.

Has anyone looked at other bases? Portland Air National Guard base in Portland, Ore., is at the Portland International Airport. The east end of the runway houses a huge new business park: IKEA, Best Buy, volume stores, under the runway, with hundreds of flights per day! No issues.

I don’t want to hear that the planes at Whidbey carry ordnance. A few thousand pounds of jet fuel from an airliner, same result. Take precautions, be safe, but not unreasonable.

Frank LaMee

Vancouver