My wife and I volunteer for the City of Kirkland and maintain the yellow pedestrian flags (ped flags) around downtown Kirkland. I’ll cut to the chase here; there are a lot of yellow ped flags disappearing each week.

During the first six months of this year, we have replaced 455 yellow ped flags at the 17 crosswalks that we maintain. Divide 455 by 26 weeks and you get 17.5 flags stolen each week. I don’t know who is stealing yellow ped flags, but they must have a big inventory by now.

And now some more bad news: during the summer months, the thievery increases with more activity around town. This morning was the limit, on the day after celebrating our nation’s birthday, we replaced 40 yellow ped flags. At $4 each, that’s an expense most taxpayers won’t like, including us.

Don McConaghy, Kirkland