As a former owner of The Seafood Market and Magic Wash Laundromat, and a longtime resident of Lewiston, I am responding to the recent story about the city of Lewiston’s decision to not renew its contract with David Hediger, the director of planning and code enforcement.

The city then proposed ending its local inspection program in a response to the city’s handling of the recent temporary closure of DaVinci’s Eatery.

I agree with Robert Macdonald when he stated, “during my 33 years working for the city of Lewiston and six years as the city’s mayor, I cannot remember a Lewiston employee being terminated for doing their job.” He further describes our current City Council as, “brand new and feeling their way around.”

Gil Arsenault, the former longtime director of the department, was paraphrased in a Jan. 24 article as saying that if the city was “unable to respond to the DaVinci’s complaint, staff from the state program would have done the inspection, and also required the restaurant to close.”

I feel that giving up local inspections would be a mistake and deferring to the state would be a step backward. For the Seafood Market the local health inspector, Gertrude Mynahan, was far more informed, familiar and concerned than any of the state inspectors that I encountered.

Kirk Lundstrom, Georgetown