To all elected officials:

(Former) County Chairman Rodger Schock voted against Wal-Mart’s enlargement.

Linda Streich may be the end for the Cascade Locks casino.

Do we want elected officials venting their personal opinions instead of their elected obligations?

We are neither pro nor con on the Cascade Locks issue.

Don’t attack Sheriff

I am writing this letter in response to Mr. Bob Davidson’s announcement (March 12 edition) of his intent to challenge Sheriff Joe Wampler in the upcoming election. It was sad to start reading Mr. Davidson’s announcement and the first sentence wasn’t complete before Mr. Davidson starts with negative assaults on Sheriff Wampler. What a shame Mr. Davidson is evidently not confident in his own qualifications for the job and has to take the negative assault on the sheriff. It has been my experience to find that those who downgrade others are in themselves insecure in their own abilities and must use that strategy to hopefully make themselves look better. I have lived in this valley now for almost 50 years. I know neither man personally, but have followed their public lives in the paper. Over the years Joe Wampler has served the city as an officer and the county as sheriff very well. Mr. Davidson’s announcement had nothing to say about his qualifications, only negative attacks on Sheriff Wampler. It could be his credentials can’t stack up to Sheriff Wampler, and that is why he feels the need for the negative attacks.

Great service

On Wednesday, free yard waste day at Hood River Garbage, I arrived home less three cans of debris and my cell phone.

I immediately called the office. Jody Loop suggested that she would go out to the huge rubbish heap and call my phone. Within 20 minutes she found it. How did she do it? She waited until the big trucks stopped compacting and the vehicles unloading left. Then she started calling. There was an answering ring so Adan Renteria and Les Perkins dug through the mound of debris with their hands.

There at the bottom was my phone.

Thanks for the great customer service

‘Finn Spirit’ found

Although The St. Urho’s Day Parade was cancelled (March 16) “Finn Spirit” was spotted on the sidewalks of Hood River. Two Iron Maidens looking for a parade and an Iron Maiden Special at Sage’s Cafe.

Gambling a danger

No casino in Hood River or anywhere else in the Gorge!

Gambling is a habit-forming vice. Not much better than alcoholism or being addicted to drugs. Why ask for more trouble than we already have in our society. Having a casino so close makes it much more accessible for our family, friends and neighbors to become addicted with another vice.

If we need to depend on this to support our families, schools, towns, etc., shame on us!

‘Stimulus’ too late

After receiving a notice in the mail about President Bush’s economy stimulus package, I got to thinking. The average middle class won’t be going out to their local malls to go on a spending spree. I for one will be using that money for neccessities.

For starters, to help pay for the rising high gas prices and we are not even at our summer peak. Second, to pay for the high price groceries that are due to the $4-plus diesel fuel prices that bring our goods. I think it’s a little too late to stimulate our economy now. If Bush had done that back in 2001 I might have gone to the mall and spent a little money, but I have my priorities to think of.

Catastrophic, yes

Thank you Mayor Linda Streich for voicing Hood River’s position on a Gorge casino: “At no time has the city of Hood River supported the siting of a casino in any location in the Columbia River Gorge.”

I concur that a casino located in our nation’s only national scenic area would be a mistake of catastrophic consequences. This massive development would cause irreversible harm to our spectacular Columbia River Gorge.

No to Broughton

Congress created the Scenic Act to protect the Gorge and keep it beautiful for generations to come. If the Gorge Commission changes the rules to allow Broughton to be developed, it will be a huge detriment to the Gorge — for those of us who live here and those visiting. And for what? Corporate profit?

Compromising the Scenic Act will benefit few and will darken the Gorge for the other 99.99999 percent of us who will ever have the privilege to pass through this wonderful place.

Future generations will have no idea how special the Gorge used to be.

Thanks, subscribers

Dear Hood River News subscribers, I would like to thank everyone for buying subscriptions through me. I was successful with your help, in winning the Hood River News Kids Campaign. I hope everyone who has renewed or bought a new subscription enjoys the paper. See you next year!

No ‘escape pods’

A Portland developer wants to build high-priced condos on our waterfront?

From what I’ve been reading, what this county really needs is affordable housing for families who want to live where they work.

What we don’t need, it seems to me, are more luxury “escape pods” for wealthy weekend refugees from Portland!

I-84 choke hold

Imagine adding 3.2 million visitors a year to I-84, that’s 8,828 per day! Yes, that is how many would be added by a Cascade Locks casino for the second year of operation.

That does not include the 1,700 plus commuting employees. This is the forecast from the BIA environmental impact report. With that kind of traffic congestion, who wants to drive to Portland, or to Hood River? How will this affect our economy, businesses and jobs? I-84 is the only major East-West transportation corridor for Oregon and much of Washington. According to a 2004 Oregon Department of Transportation report significant traffic congestion and delays currently affect portions of I-84 —- 20,000 vehicles travel it daily. The Oregon Business Council is concerned. Their 2007 study found that more than one in five jobs in Oregon (over 400,000 total) is in transportation-related or -reliant industries. It concludes, “Recognition of the sensitivity to increasing travel times is vitally important for Oregon to continue to grow its economy and job base.” Why put our economy and jobs at risk when the EIS report shows that placing a casino on the reservation will more than meet the Warm Spring’s $26 million shortfall?

Mayor was right

Mayor Linda Streich did the right thing when she stood up to testify at Monday’s Hood River hearing on a proposed casino in the Columbia River Gorge.

As a public official, she did the right thing by reading into the public record the Hood River City Councils’ 2003 position that opposes a Gorge casino unless the off-reservation application is found to be compatible with the law. Mayor Streich was forced to do this because the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and their casino lobbyists had misrepresented the council’s position as supporting a Cascade Locks casino. She set the record straight by stating that the council never voted to outright support a casino in Cascade Locks.

Mayor Streich also did the right thing when she prefaced her own opinion by stating: “I believe that siting a casino in the Gorge would not only be a mistake, but it would make a mistake of catastrophic consequences, affecting the livability and quality of life in our region for all time.” The purpose of the hearings is to provide an opportunity for local citizens to voice their concerns. Mayor Streich was among many other elected officials to take part in the five public hearings on the proposed casino. Her statement was in no way out of step with city council procedure nor was it worthy of the biting criticism delivered by the editorial staff of the Hood River News. Mayor Linda Streich deserves credit for her commitment to setting the record straight and she deserves credit for her dedication to livability and well-being of Hood River and the Gorge. The Hood River News should publicly apologize for its irresponsible and ill-founded editorial.

Mayor heartens

Mayor Linda Streich’s statements against the casino at Cascade Locks were heartening for me. It took some courage to stand up and say no, when most officials seem to have acquiesced on this long drawn out proposal.

Most of us don’t want it, but how few of us are willing to make this stand after so many years? I agree with Mayor Streich that “siting this casino in the Gorge would be a mistake of catastrophic consequences ...” Yes, the issues are complex. The Warm Springs people need a source of income that does not seem possible in their current “out of the way” location. Yes, the town of Cascade Locks needs to move out of its poverty mentality and pursue other more beneficial options with the Warm Springs people, while remaining one of the most beautiful places in the world.

I wish that we would just put the monumental casino in Portland — preferably not on good farmland. Close down all the other casinos in Oregon, and split the proceeds fairly among all the Oregon tribes. Why waste the gasoline of three million gambler visits a year, driving down the Gorge or more out to the coast?

Put it near the airport, or in an industrial area that is already wrecked. Next to the monumental casino, construct a huge treatment facility for those with gambling, and drinking and other addictions, and their families.

Why do we think that two wrongs will make a right? If we really wanted to be fair, a dividend from the profits of all the dams and industry on the Columbia River would go to the First Nation Peoples for their ancestral lands, and the use and abuse we have made in this most beloved place.

Apologize to mayor

I read your March 19 editorial criticizing Mayor Linda Streich with some puzzlement.

Your own front-page article quoted her as saying, in a public forum, “I believe that siting a casino in the Gorge . . . would be a mistake of catastrophic consequences . . .”

What part of the word “I” does the News not understand? That is clearly a statement of her own personal opinion, not a reference to any official position of the City — which, along with 73 percent of its surveyed citizens, has never supported a Gorge casino.

An opinion preceded by the phrase “I believe” is certainly a personal one. Yet your editorial wrongly blasts her for “appearing to act as a representative” of the City in making the statement.

Public officials are people too. They have the right — and even the responsibility — to express their personal opinions on important public issues. The News should apologize to Mayor Streich, who was simply doing what all citizens, regardless of their positions on issues, should do.

Davidson can lead

There are day-to-day issues that occur within law enforcement which the general public is not made aware of.

Most things have little or no effect on the general public, however some issues are vitally important whether internal or not. Such are the points made in the announcement article of Bob Davidson’s candidacy for Sheriff.

The current Sheriff attempted to respond in his letter to the editor. Wampler starts off with disappointment that Bob Davidson has not mentioned any of his concerns with him personally. Davidson enumerated many concerns during his campaign eight years ago and since then through the chain of command.

Many of the same concerns remain because there has been little or no progress since. Capt. Jim Thomson and Detective Sgt. Gerry Tiffany are supporting Bob Davidson for Sheriff. Apparently their progressive ideas are being dismissed by the Sheriff also. I am dismayed that there were no statements specific to Davidson’s points. Most of all, Wampler omitted any acknowledgment of the problems at NORCOR.

Perhaps because the Sheriff has not fulfilled his responsibilities on behalf of Hood River County which is the second largest contributor to the NORCOR budget.

Bob Davidson is well aware of the low turnover and knows all of the deputies are very committed to the county. Should somebody have to call “abandon ship” before progress occurs?

Davidson has served in higher ranks during his 30-year police career. He’s not looking to simply move up through the ranks. Davidson aspires to modernize the Hood River Sheriff’s Office and provide the county with the leadership that accomplishes the most for our tax dollars.

The county has grown by about 10 percent in the past several years and index crime in Hood River County (reference Oregon Uniform Crime Reporting) has increased by 42 percent.

Hood River County is one of only eight counties in Oregon where crime has increased. The Sheriff’s Office has not added any positions in the last six years. The public should be made aware that opportunities for additional deputy positions have been passed up by the incumbent.

Election time is when leadership change happens. The Davidson campaign seeks to point out where improvements can be made. Americans have been doing this for more than 200 years. Who can fault a qualified candidate for making factual statements? Davidson has the resources to identify available enhanced funding options.

There are numerous ways to enhance budgets with outside funding. The incumbent has demonstrated this is not a priority to him. Another local law enforcement department has received $3.5 million dollars of enhanced funding since 1999. None of which was soft hiring money. This is not an easy task by any means, but it can be done. Without it law enforcement simply cannot keep up with the changes in criminal trends. Davidson understands that the Sheriff’s Office cannot continue to operate on outdated funding levels. I support Bob Davidson for Sheriff and ask that Hood River County citizens support him too. For more information please visit Bob Davidson’s campaign Web site at: bob-davidson.net