James Campbell, of the Port of Astoria Commission, complains he’s hired six Tongue Point students in the past, who all proved useless, so he believes Tongue Point ought to close. 

I can lend a personal anecdote from my own medical practice. We hired three students over the years. They were all motivated, and one of them was outstanding. She would have really liked to stay on, but was unable to afford a place to live in the area, so was forced to leave.

It’s risible to call the Port of Astoria “non-political.” Their little fiefdom has a baffling amount of power and controls a lot of money, with very little oversight by any other entity. In terms of being a “partisan” enterprise, Mr. Campbell might remember that Cyrus Javadi, Suzanne Weber, and Betsy Johnson also signed on as supporters of the Job Corps projects. Doesn’t that make the existence of Job Corps a “non-partisan” issue?

Perhaps the feds will turn Tongue Point into a detention camp, run by the prison company that already operates it, Management and Training Corporation. The county stands to make a lot of cash with Trump’s plan to build hundreds of prisons, where his enemies will be detained, with our tax dollars.

Is this what Astorians want?

SUE SKINNER

Astoria