I agree with the July 19 letter of Laurie E. Sison in the Auburn Reporter issue. It’s well said and she nailed it when she wrote that “Auburn needs to be fixed.”

The residents of this town are indeed fed up and “tired of seeing the same old downtown that looks like a deserted ghost town.” And that this city needs “young business owners and young families to take over the reins of Auburn … to revitalize its growth.”

I also have lived in this town for over a decade, and I have grown fond of it and of its people through the years.

But unfortunately, what many residents of this town and I have seen, just like what Ms. Sison had seen, had been the deteriorating looks of this town.

I also believe that Scot Pondelick, being the new guy on the block, has the right ideas and the plan on how to invigorate this city to the “next level.” And he truly listens to various “concerns” of the residents of this town.

I’ve emailed my own concern to Pondelick, and my concern was about the rusting and deteriorating infrastructures on the railroad side of A Street. I specifically pointed out the rusting World War II quonset huts on the property of Tyee Cedar and Lumber store. I told him that it’s an “eyesore,” as well as a “hazard to the public.” He immediately emailed me back and said he’ll look into it. And he did look into it. He went there himself to investigate my concern.

He said that because it sets on a private property, those rusting eyesores cannot be legally removed from the property, but evergreen trees and some bushes can be planted on the side of the street next to these eyesores to cover them from view. He provided a viable solution to my concern, and that tells me he would listen to every resident’s concern.

I also emailed Ms. Nancy Backus about the matter. But it took her over a month to respond. And she reasoned that there’s nothing she can do about the matter, because it does not violate the enforcement code of the City of Auburn. And that those quonset huts have got a “historical and military value” in them and that she would get them moved to a museum. When would that take place, Ms. Backus didn’t say.

Those rusting structures and their so-called historical and military value in them, have sat on that property for decades … I believe, almost as long as Ms. Backus had sat as a councilmember and as a deputy mayor of this town. And yet, none has been done nor an attempt had been made on her part.

Time to fix Auburn. Let’s have the new guy on the block take its reins. He’s also an Army veteran, whose job then in Iraq was to look for IED’s that were planted on its war-torn streets and to defuse them. A job that I believe entails nerves of steel. And a trait that I also believe would make him the best man for the job as mayor of Auburn.

– Jesse Jose