To the editor:

I urge you to vote for Proposition 1, to build a safe, secure police and court facility for Bainbridge Island.

Such a facility fulfills a 25-year plan to replace our 70-year-old police building, and to locate our police and municipal court in Winslow. Please look at www.securebainbridge.com for details about the obvious need, lengthy selection process, and preliminary project plans. You will see this is the right time and place for this move.

No one disputes a new police station is needed. And, anyone who thinks seriously about the municipal court recognizes that it should be moved from its long-temporary home at Rolling Bay to a location adjacent to the police station.

Some suggest a new police-court facility should be located somewhere else. There is no perfect site, but the selected property north of city hall has many advantages, including increased accessibility for citizens and improved efficiencies within city government.

Significantly, this central location also has the greatest likelihood of reducing the natural barrier between police and community. Perhaps I am thinking too much of Mayberry, but I have visions of our police officers walking to lunch, the gym, and barber shop, etc. — in other words, easily getting to know our community. Putting them permanently outside Winslow limits that type of community interaction.

Please vote yes.

ANDY MARON

Bainbridge Island