To the editor:

I am thankful for the Alexandria Times thoughtful coverage of the eligibility of Councilwoman-Elect Alicia Hughes published on June 18. It is a testament to the need for a hometown paper.

I will leave it to the experts to determine if Hughes was indeed eligible to run for our City Council. However, your story highlighted the state of disrepair that Hughes home in Baltimore seems to currently be in as a result of her abandoning that home. The photos in your story helped to shed additional concern about the visible blight and security issues such abandoned homes can have in neighborhoods. All of that is to say, if Hughes was eligible, it should give all of us as citizens some pause that someone new to our city and now representing our interests seems to show such little regard for the place she just recently called home.

Perhaps there are circumstances that Hughes has not fully explained about why that home is abandoned, without utilities, and overgrown with weeds. She should explain those.

In the meantime, if Hughes wants the support of citizens in her new home, show us you care enough about your previous neighbors in Baltimore and attend to your home there.

William (Bill) Smith,Alexandria