I am not lost. I do not need to address candidates with sarcasm and innuendo.
I would hope that we, as citizens of Battle Ground, are able to communicate clearly and respectfully. To also suggest that current Council Member Mike Ciraulo pushed the skate park because his kids were into skating is not just patently false and unsupported by any facts, but it is bordering on slander.
I was opposed to the skate park and voiced my opposition continuously to the parks commission and the City Council. The reality is that in every survey related to parks projects at the time, the skate park and community center were favored. Any one of our parks commission members will verify this.
I also do not quite understand how anybody can label Ciraulo as a typical “progressive.” Ciraulo is a member of the City Council who has helped keep Battle Ground as the third lowest taxing municipality in Clark County (sixth out of eight, check the County’s website for verification). Mike Ciraulo is a council member who helped keep the city solvent during one of the worst economies of our generation without raising taxes. Good fiscal management and good civic project planning has made this possible.
I still don’t like the skate park even today, but I don’t begrudge any member of the council because it has hosted National Events, some have been televised. The Community Center is always in use. I am happy that two potential projects, such as a pool and baseball facility are in the planning stages, and have been for about eight years.
I am equally happy, as a conservative taxpayer, that Ciraulo is taking the time to try to find ways to fund these projects without changing the overall tax position of our residents. Other have tried but have not been successful.
I also don’t understand the insinuation that there is something underhanded in the support of Mike Dalesandro for Mike Ciraulo. Lisa Walters and Shane Bowman supported each other in the last election. How is that different?
Let us, as citizens, avoid the childish baseless ranting so typical of elections these days. Let us not engage in the tawdry attack of the candidate we don’t like, but rather support the candidates we do like. I support Mike Ciraulo because of his proven integrity, leadership and lack of “party ideology.”
Jim Lawrence
Battle Ground
