After the Burien City Council has squandered time and money for several years on the annexation, ignoring existing city needs, North Highline has rejected the overtures of the council to annex North Highline.

A recent statement made by Burien City Manager Mike Martin, which appeared in the Nov. 16th issue of the Highline Times was an eye opener. The statement read, "It's a good thing to know where our borders are.” We knew where the borders were before all the annexation falderol. Brilliant statement.

Now it has been reported in the recent Burien City newsletter that the city has to dip into the reserve fund in the amount of $1.1 million dollars to make ends meet. Since King County could not provide desired and necessary services to North Highline, how would Burien have been able to afford the annexation?

Sounds like a lot of the costs of annexation were conveniently ignored or left out during the annexation appeal. The next election can't come soon enough.

James Sharkey
Burien