A woman called us recently to tell us about her concerns regarding two Kirkland transit centers.

She said the downtown Kirkland Transit Center and the Evergreen Healthcare Totem Lake Transit Center are “jokes.”

Millions of dollars were spent on both projects.

The one downtown, which reopened last year after a year-long renovation, now has six bus bays, five passenger shelters, new pedestrian lighting and even a civic plaza, 71-foot trellis and granite staircase that provides a gateway to Peter Kirk Park.

The transit center near the hospital, which opened in 2008, also features six bus bays with sheltered passenger waiting areas.

But those waiting areas and added features at both transit centers do no good to protect bus riders from inclement weather, the woman continued. Whenever it rains, the benches are always soaked and she has no place to sit down. As a frequent bus rider, this is frustrating, she said.

She was also upset that this was the second time she had called the Reporter about this issue and she wanted us to write a story about the wet benches.

With more than 80,000 residents in Kirkland, I’ll bet there are thousands and thousands of concerns like this woman’s.

And while we can’t guarantee that we’ll write a story about each concern (as we would have more stories than we would have pages in our newspaper), I can guarantee one thing.

We are listening.

Each time a reader calls or emails us, sends us a Facebook message or Tweet, we listen. All story ideas – big or small – go into what I call our story cupboard, a computer file where we keep all the concerns, issues, new businesses, interesting people, exciting places and more in Kirkland.

Sometimes we open the cupboard, pull out a story idea and report on it. Sometimes we just don’t have time. It all depends on how many breaking news stories that come up in a given week that demand coverage, and what my staff can get to.

If you have a concern about something – whether it’s a barking dog next door, a rant about a council member, or a great new business you just visited – we encourage you to let us know. You may also send us a letter to the editor, at: letters@kirklandreporter.com.

Your ideas could lead to a great story, a thumbs up, thumbs down, a community news brief – or even an editor’s note.