My husband and I have lived for 34 years on Shaner Armstrong Lane. We are strongly in favor of the county proceeding with this project because driving Dolphin Bay Road on Orcas Island in its current condition is dangerous . We oppose the current petition which appeals to the notion of protecting our rural environment.

The proposed section for chip sealing is a very curvy road with many blind corners, soft shoulders, numerous potholes during the wet season, and seriously impacted by corduroy like road conditions.  All too frequently vehicles, attempting to avoid these driving hazards, drive down the center of the road, instead of close to the unstable edge of the road.

Paving the first two miles 20 years ago completely removed these issues. Now it is time to address the next 1.5 miles. The number of residents who live along the next mile and a half of Dolphin Bay Road has grown considerably as well as road traffic.

All of us who drive that unpaved portion of Dolphin Bay have experienced near misses from vehicles driving on the wrong side of the road, or had family members involved in accidents for the same reason. Let’s not wait until someone dies to recognize that paved is safer!

Truly, Dolphin Bay Road is a scenic drive, but it will remain so even if this next section is chip sealed. A chip sealed road will provide adequate width with secure edges, a yellow line down the road, and hopefully more attention give to the proper elimination of brush and grass that obscure vision around the many blind corners.

Please, please think twice about signing a petition to preserve this dangerous portion of road as a gravel road when you don’t live here nor drive this road day in and day out.   Our entire county is rural, our roads are scenic, and those of us who pay taxes and live on Dolphin Bay Road also deserve to drive with the same guarantee of safety in place – a yellow line running down a chip sealed road.

Moriah and Daniel Armstrong