Why I challenged the sale of Hedlin Field

In late 2014, I advocated on behalf of two dogs in the town who were suffering tremendously at the hands of their owners due to inadequate protection from the elements. The dogs belonged to the town’s code enforcement officer at the time.

No one in the town would help them. In fact, anyone who had the authority to do so backed off because of the interference by town officials.

Because of this, I intervened by taking the dogs, trying to get them away from these owners – to no avail – although one was euthanized due to significant medical issues two days later, which was a blessing. I was later arrested on inflated charges.

The circumstances following this event give me a unique perspective as to what La Conner’s town officials will do to silence opposition and advance their own self-interest.

Prior to even engaging an attorney to review the sale documents of Hedlin Field, I reached out to the La Conner community to see if there was support for such an effort. I was assured there was, so I proceeded.

My ultimate goal in this matter has always been to keep the land as open space. And as I’ve seen in the records and minutes that I’ve reviewed, the only way to do that is by hiring an attorney. There may have been a less litigious way of doing so, which I endeavored at times to follow (below), but I support the attorneys in their matter of course.

In August, the mayor’s reaction was to accuse me of threatening to sue the town before. Not wanting to re-open old wounds I emailed the attorney indicating I had “gotten a taste of what the mayor will do to make this a very unpleasant process” and would he call Bryan Gentry to ask if he would just let us buy the property back indicating the “ultimate goal is to reclaim the open space and field for the town and little leaguers” and that “despite my earlier experience with the Town of La Conner I still believe in the inherent goodness of people and believe they deserve a chance to do the right thing (Perhaps naively so).”

Again, on September 21st, I sent a second request asking “what do you think about calling the attorneys for Maple Field, LLC and asking them to interface with Maple Field to see how much it would cost for us to buy the property back from them?”

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If you believe there is any value in this, would you please reach out to them? It seems to me the more we try to resolve this without a lawsuit and with an open dialogue, the better it will be in the long run if it comes to involving the courts.

The attorney in this matter believed there was value in reviewing the documents to see if there was a legal basis for overturning the sale and to proceed in that manner. We still believe we have a valid claim.

It’s important for anyone living in La Conner to realize that the town meeting minutes support the assertion that the wishes of its citizens are not considered by town officials, especially when you look at the public comment by the little league president confirming the town officials could not have cared less about the future of little league baseball.

The one thing I can say for certain is I will be able to drive every day on Maple Avenue knowing I did absolutely everything I could to keep Hedlin Field as open space. A certain peace of mind that is solely my own.