Gilkey Square and $21,800

I am opposed to the same-ification of this place with placing still another selfie spot in a world full of them. Our rich foundational history is being lost. I would spend that money on engaging signs that inform our visitors, new residents, and our Town Staff of what used to be:

• Tillinghast – the seed company. Located where the restaurant Seeds was. (I think even the seed bins are gone now with the newest iteration.)

• Dunlap Towing – The log rafts are gone. The tugs are gone and soon the office will be gone. After that, the memory.

• The Mosquito Fleet landing area.

• The docks for loading the grains and hops from the newly growing agriculture industry (likely on the north end of First Street.

• The old Morris Street bridge that connected us to Swinomish Village where the kids walked across to school here.

• The gas and oil stations on Morris Street – particularly the one where Sliders is. The history of that spot is a trip through time and technology. It looked like a mid-century gas station before it was made to look like a western town. (Maybe before we had the historic preservation district.)

• Hedlin’s ballfield.

• Guy Anderson’s earliest studio or the art school in the Pennington Building.

As I walk through the town, I see people discussing the signs on First Street. The new signs could be like those or could be like the sign on Gilkey Square with historic pictures of the town and its early streets.

Give us something that will enrich rather than diminish us.

Regards,

Linda Talman

La Conner