Didn’t your elders teach you to clean up after yourselves? | Letter to the editor

Posted 3/2/23

Keep fairgrounds fromcontinued damage

I live near Jefferson County Fairgrounds and walk through it frequently. It was sweet to see our fun county fair resume this summer (clean grounds before, …

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Didn’t your elders teach you to clean up after yourselves? | Letter to the editor

Posted

Keep fairgrounds from
continued damage

I live near Jefferson County Fairgrounds and walk through it frequently. It was sweet to see our fun county fair resume this summer (clean grounds before, during, after) as well as THING (no noise or problems, immediately cleaned upon campers’ departure). 

But devastation left by a mud bog group last fall was never cleaned up. They left fuel-contaminated standing water, deep gouges, dirt piles, old tires and cement debris, and seriously degraded a whole section of our fairground. These scars left on public land indicate grave negligence on the part of the event group, fairground facility management, and county enforcement. Why wasn’t this group charged for negligence and required to pay for damage mitigation?

Our fairgrounds deserves and requires immediate long-range planning attention before it degrades even further. We can take this opportunity to welcome all: Start by honoring the past and present uses of this public land by Indigenous Peoples. 

We should clean up our own mess. A conservation easement could commemorate and protect these lands in perpetuity to recognize and sustain Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Northwest Tribal Canoe Journeys.

Jane Freeburg
PORT TOWNSEND

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  • greggk47

    I understand your comments and the desire to see a clean Fair grounds. Hasn't the mud bog races been a reoccurring event? Wouldn't the next event produce gouges and dirt piles? Certainly the tires should be cleaned up.

    I am having a hard time understanding how a conservation easement that recognizes and sustains Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Northwest Tribal Canoe Journeys connects to mud bog races except to exclude this vastly popular event.

    The Fair needs attractions to increase attendance and revenue to sustain the Fair.

    I think we all relish the canoe Journeys and are glad when they come to Port Townsend on their migration. I certainly wouldn't recommend a conservation easement to exclude indigenous canoe journeys to honor the mud bog racers.

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