I read with interest your article “Failure of MPD…”

Back at the beginning of the second round of dreams of an ARC (Aquatics, Recreation and Community center), a small survey of 400 people indicated that 80 percent of Kirkland residents wanted the ARC. Wow. Lets move forward. However, potential costs were not included in the survey. Lots of flaws in such a small sampling so the city hired a consultant to do a more inclusive survey of a higher percentage of the residents.

I was at the presentation the consultant made to council. Yes, at first passing, there was lots of support for the idea of an ARC. But as probable/possible costs were laid out, support percentages quickly went down. At the time of this survey, I think city was working on placing the facility at Juanita Beach and had more facts available re costs. What happened to this consultant’s data? And the money spent on it? The city seems so interested in hiring consultants hoping no one will hear the results and they can take the facts they want to use and ignore the others.

The city spent half a million dollars doing drawings for Juanita Beach and estimating costs for various renditions. But when it came to the ballot, it really concerned me that the city was not upfront re Christ Church property. Are they interested in selling? How much? Is an exchange for North Kirkland Community Center land still a consideration? Such lack of information makes one wonder if the city council will come back with the need to find another property raising the price even higher. More transparency is needed in our smart and educated community.

I was involved in the ARC project for a minute. I heard many, many objections to such a high cost facility used by a minority of the population. And then there were the comments about “what do our taxes buy.” It does come across that city wants but they are not putting any money into it. And a reminder, this is the second vote where residents turned down funding an ARC or similar facility.

Has Kirkland ever considered focus groups for important decisions that are to be made within the city? It’s appalling that the council did not realize the faults of this campaign. Information is key to acceptance. We didn’t have enough information.

Karen Lightfeldt, Kirkland