Pasco will lose a piece of history with the Lewis Street Underpass | Opinion

Demolition is sad event for Pasco

The forthcoming demolition of the Lewis Street Underpass (March 4,2026 “Why the $3.5M sprint to demolish a 90-year-old Pasco underpass?”) saddens me.

Its design paralleled those of the Works Progress Administration, although it was not a part of the federal program. The landmark divided Pasco into two sections. Crossing through the dark passageway defined East Pasco as the proverbial “other side of the tracks.”

At present the tops of two 6-foot walls with interstices emerge from the rubble filling in the underpass east and west of the train tracks. Demolishing these standing remnants would erase Pasco history.

Thankfully the city has stored segments of the underpass, so it can be memorialized on the downtown side of Lewis, across the street from the rail yard.

While this remediation is better than nothing, the corner’s physical distance from the BNSF property divorces these fragments from the train tracks. Removing the underpass will allow BNSF to expand rail operations, but economic development does not have to come at the expense of preserving history.

Hopefully BNSF will entertain relocating the aforementioned barriers elsewhere in the yard. Seeing these concrete walls as one looks onto the rail yard from Lewis Street would honor those who regularly traveled underneath the tracks.

Preserving parts of this historic resource and moving them on BNSF property will allow locals and visitors to learn about the inextricable relationship between the area and the railroad. Heritage tourism and economic development can work together to benefit Pasco!

Although history can be painful, it’s important to not forget where we’ve been. Questioning what at one point seemed acceptable to many of us enables us to hold the looking glass to what we consider all right today.

Tanya Bowers, Pasco

Pasco students excel at awards

In Pasco, you don’t have to look far to find students who excel. We have state champions, national champions, record setters, college signers and scholarship winners.

Pasco High’s excellent dance team is a national champion for the second year in a row. FCCLA has won many state and national competitions. Other extracurricular activities at middle and high school like student government, FFA, DECA, FBLA, Chess Club, Lego Club, debate, solo and ensemble, choir, marching band, mariachi, jazz band, orchestra, drama and more gives students a chance to share and shine.

Team participation builds character, sportsmanship, collaboration and leadership. It contributes to good physical and mental health and forms friendships that can last a lifetime.

Let our Pasco students continue to shine and excel. Don’t take these opportunities away from them. They are our future and deserve to be as well-rounded as possible.

Local school levy dollars make these things possible. Many old Pasco Bulldogs like us urge you to vote early, vote yes, and drop your ballot at a Franklin County ballot box collection site to be sure your vote counts for all our kids.

Pasco pride is real!

Larry and Sandy (Wren) Farnsworth, Pasco, PHS Class of 1970

Pass Pasco levy to help our kids

I hope Pasco voters pass the school levy. My children attended Pasco public schools K-12. They went on to college, and now they have good jobs.

Thanks to the Pasco community’s support for schools, they all benefited from music programs, sports programs, and many other educational opportunities. Those activities teach kids important things like teamwork, communication skills, social skills, loyalty, and the value of hard work and practice.

How thankful I am for the voters who said “yes” all those years ago! Especially the retired folks, the single people with no children in school, and the empty-nesters who still voted yes for those levies back in the day.

Now, my grandchildren are benefiting from Pasco voter support. How proud I am to enjoy those extracurricular activities these days!

In a few years, I’ll have no grandkids attending Pasco schools. I’ll still vote “yes” though, because it will be my turn to return the favor and vote yes for other people’s children.

Marsha Dunstan, Pasco

Vote yes to keep school stronger

Voting for taxes is always hard but in Pasco we pride ourselves on a reputation of trying harder.

In 1972, I was a junior high kid in 9th grade when Pasco schools had a double levy failure. I helped Pasco Citizens For Better Schools committees run bond and levy campaigns for decades to prevent that from happening again.

It seems each generation has this lesson to learn. Voter apathy saw levy failure in 2000. In a rapid 30-day turnaround campaign, it passed.

Today, yet another generation is asked to learn the lesson. A new group, Pasco Votes for Schools, is now campaigning to pass a second levy. You should volunteer to help, I am.

Because I remember my history, I ask you to remember to vote for the April 28 Pasco School District levy. Tell others to remember how incredibly important public schools are to our community and how important it is to vote.

Get the facts at www.psd1.org. Ask questions.

Make history you can be proud of, vote early and vote yes!

Mike Miller, Pasco

Schools an asset for our community

One of the principal assets of any community is the strength of its K-12 public schools. People and businesses do not move to communities where the schools are weak or underfunded.

On April 28, we will be asked to pass a levy that provides critical funding for our schools.

This is not a new tax but a replacement for an expiring one. State funding does not cover all the essential services and personnel a great school district must provide.

The levy that will be on the ballot for your approval covers 13% of Pasco School District’s budget. This amount includes State local levy assistance funds, which would also be lost if the levy fails to pass.

Levy dollars help fund district services and activities benefiting all Pasco students, including athletics, teacher salaries, music programs, school nurses, gifted programs, maintenance costs and more. Failure to pass it will mean that activities funded by levy dollars will have to be significantly cut or eliminated. And once cut or eliminated, it can take years to recover.

So on April 28, join me in showing our Pasco Pride. Vote Yes!

Bill Pennell, Pasco

Kadlec’s stance disappoints staff

I’m disappointed that the administration of Kadlec Regional Medical Center is continuing to disrespect the nurses and are so willing to put the patients in the hospital at risk.

The nurses have been negotiating for four months, asking for:

1. Fair and comparable wages to Sacred Heart Medical Center, the only other Level 2 trauma center on the east side of the Cascades.

2. To make sure that the departments that are miserably failing to provide breaks and lunches to explore changes in the staffing and care flow to allow the staff to safely take there breaks without putting patients at increased risk of complications.

3. To put public and staff safety as a priority by preventing the entry of guns, knives and other weapons entering the facility, by installing metal detectors. Multiple incidents of guns being in the hospital and security responded to make sure they were removed, let’s prevent this!

Is this really too much to ask from a corporation that provide million-dollar salaries and multi-million dollar bonuses to it executives, who don’t do patient care or care for the staff that does the patient care for them.

A concerned resident of the Tri-Cities,

Tim Davis, Richland