Another look at Shelter Bay's town hall

I agree with the writer’s statement (letter: “Weekly News story misreports Shelter Bay forum,” March 8) “We live in challenging times and a plague of misinformation stands in the way of finding solutions.” The writer then went at length to explain how the Weekly News provided misinformation in several ways – quoting social media, not providing direct quotes, attributing a statement to the board president who was not in attendance, failing to tell the readers that the board members in attendance did an excellent job of addressing some of Shelter Bay’s very complex issues, etc. The letter closed stating “The La Conner Weekly News owes the Shelter Bay Community an apology for amplifying misinformation … .”

Unfortunately, the writer evidently missed the statements in the article: “With board chair Wendy Poulton out of town, the forum Feb.26 was moderated by board member Gary Ladd, who reminded the audience the session was for community members only based on legal counsel. Weekly News staff then left.”

Therefore, by not being able to report by attendance, the Weekly News decided to finish coverage by quoting other sources, which I agree is a poor way to provide news, but one the reporter chose in order to complete his assignment. The Weekly News had covered the January town hall meeting and I felt they did a good job for being a great resource to the ones of us that could not attend. So, I complained (to Shelter Bay board representatives) about the Weekly News being excluded and was told that the plan is to provide a Q&A summary of each town hall meeting on the Shelter Bay website – this feature is still in work.

Over the past couple of years, the Weekly News has been providing more Shelter Bay coverage than in the past. I think this expanded coverage is a benefit to all in this trio of co-located communities – La Conner, Swinomish tribal community and Shelter Bay – especially since each has quite different forms of governance, rules and modes of operation. The Weekly News is and should be, an important part of assisting each community in understanding the issues and problems of themselves and the others!

Maybe the writer owes the Weekly News an apology. However, the letter did provide a great example of how missing a key component can lead to misinformation.

Chuck Norris lives in Shelter Bay.