Do votes not mean anything?

I refer to Jim Allen’s article in the Spokesman dated January 15 (“Downtown stadium back from the dead?”).

Michael Baumgartner, Spokane County treasurer, revisits the proposed build site for a new outdoor stadium at Albi. Baumgartner suggests “it would be a 30-year mistake as well as a lemon” if built at the Albi site. He offered that the north bank site could save two million with no evidence as to why or how.

Further, again without any evidence, “there could be substantial state funding available if built on the north bank.” Why not Albi then? Maija Druffel, on January 18, offered a very romantic evening of visiting downtown for dinner (after paying to park), paying $75-$100.00 for dinner for a family of 4, walking thru Riverfront, enjoying an evening watching your favorite team (another $30.00 for concessions) and then walking back thru Riverfront Park with two sleepy children at 10 PM. Is this woman for real? OK- enough negativity.

The reality seems to be our votes no longer mean anything. Once again, I knew exactly what I was voting for on the advisory vote for the location site. But yet some want to believe and with no evidence otherwise tell us we did not know what we were voting for. Thank you for clarifying my lack of intelligence!

Simple enough, Spokane: put it to a vote again. Spokane School Board, do the right thing: either accept my vote as it stands or put another advisory on a ballot. Clarify all those issues we were supposedly confused over. This should be about what the average citizen, wants not our local civic/political “leaders”.

Jack Rountree

Spokane