Many of us recently received in our mailbox the 2016 Mercer Island Center for the Art’s Annual Report. Coupled with their 2015 report, this private, nonprofit developer has now paid out $1.8 million spent on admin, fund-raising, planning and design (primarily consultant and architect fees) expenses for its building project.

And yet they plead poverty with the city and ask for a $1 per year rental payment for a prime retail location in Mercerdale Park.

As more and more Islanders are suggesting, apparently without success, locating a site away from Mercerdale Park would be a quicker and less expensive approach to meeting its mission.

We can only hope here in 2017 that MICA comes to its senses.

Peter Struck

Mercer Island