It is sad to see that Mike Nykreim, our local Tim Eyman, is leading the charge against the Aquatic Resource Center (ARC). As a local developer, he has profited handily from the quality of our community, whether community resources (like the ARC would be) or the high quality public schools. So it is unconscionable that after successfully leading the opposition to a desperately needed school bond measure, he is now leading the effort to defeat Proposition 1. The letters to the editor from his team last week, asserting that the Metropolitan Parks District is somehow an unconstitutional method of raising local taxes, are exactly the sort of scare tactics that he used to sink the last school bond. Defeating a levy/bond/MPD can be achieved by simply sowing doubt in the minds of voters.

Reading the text of the measure, I realized that I’m not qualified to determine whether it is constitutional or not. However, I’m in favor of a high quality, year round aquatics facility in our neighborhood, because kids learning to swim every summer and then forgetting how to swim over the winter is a recipe for tragedy. So I am still planning to vote in favor of Proposition 1: let the lawyers argue over whether it is constitutional later. This November, Kirkland voters need to decide whether we want our children to be water-safe, or not, and we need to prevent the fear-mongers from sinking the ARC.

Dr. Christopher Carlson, Kirkland