Now that the dust has settled after the regrettable pit pull incident (column by Patricia Railton, Aug. 6) let’s try to separate fact from fiction:

If the pit pull’s owner came running right behind his dog, he could hardly have been in a meeting when the incident occurred.

The fact that the pit bull’s bite did not break the little dog’s skin means that the pit bull’s intentions were not deadly. Anyone who knows anything about pit bulls knows that their jaws are strong enough to kill a dog that small in fractions of a second.

The pit bull’s owner paid BozLee’s total vet bill, no questions asked, and without any hesitation. That’s hardly irresponsible!

In the nine-plus years the pit bull has been alive, this is her first attack (warning, actually). I have personally known the dog since it was a pup.

Both pit bulls referred to in the letter love all humans, great and small, especially the wee ones. I can sympathize with how incredibly scary this incident must have been for Patricia and her BozLee, but let’s try not to get carried away, condemning a dog to death, and her owner to a lifetime loss on their very first offense.

Priceless legacy

As a downtown business owner for the past 25 years, I have watched many changes happening to our beautiful county.

One change that can have a more lasting effect on our future would be the passage of the Oregon Treasures Wilderness Bill. This bill will expand wilderness land in Hood River County, help protect the Crystal Springs watershed and our drinking water, and allow an important land exchange that would help protect the north side of Mount Hood.

Before becoming a business owner, I was a Wilderness Ranger for the Mt. Hood National Forest. I saw firsthand how a wilderness experience could transform an individual. I saw how just walking in wilderness births a perspective that stays with you forever. I have since realized how an increase in wilderness acres improves the economic viability of a community and how “wilderness dollars” positively impact the businesses in our community that serve visitors.

We have the opportunity to increase and protect wild lands and special places in Hood River County for future generations. Please encourage our county commissioners to vote at their Aug. 18 meeting to support the Oregon Treasures Wilderness Bill. If they do, the bill has a great chance of passing in Congress. But it is crucial that they act now. This is a priceless legacy for our future.

“If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.”

— President Lyndon B. Johnson, on the signing of the Wilderness Act of 1964

Study the issue

Immigration has proven to be a complex and polarizing issue. Opinions in the Hood River News often reflect the views of those at the edges of the immigration debate.

Until more people in the middle make their opinions known on immigration reform, our nation’s debate over immigration reform is unlikely to move forward. I encourage everyone to become more knowledgeable on immigration issues. We need to ask hard questions about how we meet our national interests, while remaining true to our values and history as an immigrant nation.

How do we move toward enforcing employment verification laws without crippling businesses that employ immigrant workers? How will farmers survive without a viable Guest Worker Program? How do U.S. farm subsidies and trade policies contribute to pressures for immigration? What pressures should we place on Mexico and Central American countries to reform land, economic and political policies that leave millions in desperate poverty? How do we promote accountability for violating our immigration laws while addressing the 12 million people here illegally? How do we ensure that enforcement policies do not become cover for racism and discrimination?

Nations have both the right and the responsibility to establish and enforce immigration laws. But these laws and their enforcement must also reflect our beliefs and values. I do not believe that most people want either uncontrolled immigration or enforcement-only approaches that violate our values and that fail to deal compassionately and realistically with the millions of undocumented immigrants here today.

I do believe that once people begin to speak out on the need for comprehensive reform, we can begin to develop immigration policies that serve both our interests and our values.

‘No say’ policy

I am still wondering when the independent assessors are going to evaluate the 33 percent sewer rate increase in the urban growth area.

I am concerned that the city of Hood River will continue to levy and raise fees on individuals who have “no say, but have to pay.” We do not have the luxury of getting another sanitary service, nor do we have the luxury of not having it. My understanding was that any utility increases by independent companies or those run by municipalities must be approved by a governing body.

The sewer rate increase was approved for a group of people who are only represented by a single county commissioner. We are not represented by the Hood River City Council and their decision. I do not understand how the council’s decision is ethical or legal without proper discovery of the facts. Bob Francis’ approach to balancing the Hood River City budget and reducing its debt is apparent: Raise fees for those who have no say and make them pay.

Bob Palmer, who is running for mayor, put it simply: The city takes the sewer and water fees and places them in the general budget. Then, they use it for whatever they want. Bob Palmer does not support this way of governing and is also a former mayor.

The city government needs to be transparent with the facts. I do not mind paying a fair share, but I am concerned that these increases will have no end. I am concerned that the city is trying to sidestep its responsibilities to its citizens. Raising fees is a much more efficient way to raise money from the urban growth area than annexation of that area. Fees provide needed revenue without any increase in services.

Annexation requires the city to provide expensive services to those areas. I am still not sure what the appropriate response by the urban growth area citizens should be.

We could all sit idly by and continue to watch Bob (Francis) raise our sewer rates 33 percent every year. Forget about oil, we have a new liquid gold.

Protect watersheds

As one of the many Hood River County residents whose water supply depends on the quality of Crystal Springs water, I think it important that our county commissioners timely vote (Aug. 18) our county’s support for the Mount Hood Wilderness bill that will ensure both the health of our mountain area and the health of the Crystal Springs watershed.

Back wilderness

Dear Hood River Board of Commissioners,

On behalf of the Hood River Valley Residents Committee (HRVRC), we request that you reconsider your decision to postpone taking a vote regarding the Oregon Treasures Bill. This legislation would protect Oregon’s iconic Mount Hood and the wildlife, old growth and rivers that are sustained by her.

Included in this legislation is the “land swap” that would protect 2,000 acres of the wild north side of Mount Hood as well as the Crystal Springs watershed, which provides water to 25 percent of Hood River County’s citizens.

After investing significant resources and one-and-a-half years in mediation with HRVRC and Meadows to resolve longstanding conflicts, Hood River County was on board with the swap when they signed a settlement agreement in 2005 defining their intent “to work in good faith to accomplish the exchange.” Yet, today Hood River County is dragging its feet in the final steps of this marathon — and time is of the essence.

As it stands, Hood River County is on record opposing the Oregon Treasures Bill. Currently, Congress is in recess and is scheduled to return Sept. 2-24. If the commission waits to comment until Sept. 2, it is feared that any input provided to Congress may simply be too late and thus irrelevant.

Unfortunately, Chair Rivers declared on Aug. 4 that even after three public opportunities to comment on the proposed legislation that citizens should have not one, but two more opportunities to comment. This would mean not voting until Sept. 2, the day recess is over. If Hood River County waits this long, any input provided to Congress may be irrelevant. This would be an awfully ironic idea of “democracy.”

In the name of democracy, please take the evening Aug. 18 for public comment and then vote to support the Oregon Treasures Bill and protect Hood River’s drinking water.

Happy with CL

To those on the outside of Cascade Locks looking in I would like to tell you there is another voice in Cascade Locks. Not one of anger and discontent.

There are those who do value the employees at city hall and public works, and think they are doing a great job. These people are our friends and neighbors and they are doing the best job they can do for the community. We greatly appreciate our city administrator, Bernard Seeger, and his hard work, perseverance and guidance through the growing pains of this city.

We very much want to thank our fire chief, Jeff Pricher, and the Cascade Locks EMT volunteers for their hard work and dedication to protect our community and surrounding areas. We do appreciate them and take pride in their expertise.

We also want to thank our city council and mayor for their many hours of tedious work in making good decisions for our community, even if they are not popular with some. We also take great pride in our school and we believe our children are getting a good education.

So, to all of those who are watching us, just know the majority of Cascade Locks citizens are not disgruntled. We appreciate that we live in one of the most beautiful places on the planet, have one of the lowest (if not the lowest) tax rates in the state and feel that our city is doing the best they job they can, and why wouldn’t they, they all live here too!

Wilderness now

In the article concerning the county commissioners hearing testimony about the proposed Wilderness bill (Aug. 6), I was quoted as supposedly saying that the “transformable value of Wilderness was incalculable.”

I don’t even know what that would mean, but at worst it would mean something like “Wilderness offers an incalculable resource to be transformed.” No! The word I used — though I can’t provide you with all the exact words that I used — was the word “transformative.” And I used it twice at least to describe the amazing effect that experiencing wilderness firsthand can have on our attachment to, and understanding of, this earth of ours.

Many of your readers will recognize this effect. It is something more precious than any resource we can extract from the land in question.

Our children and grandchildren deserve to be able to share this profound experience of the wild from which we all were born. The second quote seemed reasonably accurate: “If we don’t safeguard a good chunk of it now we are losing probably our last chance to do so.”

Yes, we can’t just keep on putting this matter off. We have got to find a good outcome for wilderness preservation now.

Info welcome

Hello from Athens, Ga. This is Sally Randall, great-granddaughter-of E.R. Bradley.

In the Hood River News’ Legacy publication I found some interesting information about my great-grandfather on page 109. Both he and his wife, Sarah, were Incorporators of the News-Letter Publishing Company that was established in 1905. I can’t tell from the article if E.R. stayed on as editor when the paper was purchased by two men in 1909 and became the Hood River News. If that information is available to you, as well as the names of the people in the photo on p. 108, I would like to know that information.

You also offered to search your archives for other news about E.R. Bradley. I am in no great rush, but would love to have other news. The family called him Eber and, at one point, he lived up on Prospect, I believe, just one or two houses from the steps. Eber ordered the house from Sears and built it on Prospect. It is of gray concrete, molded to make large stone-like bricks. I talked a little with the current owners when we were there in July.

My mother, her sister, and her mother, Pearl Hollingworth, lived with grandparents Eber and Sarah Bradley while my mother’s father, Carl Hollingworth, was going to medical school in Portland. This would have been in the early- to mid-1920s. My mother remembers staying in town at her grandfather’s office after school and then walking up the steps with him to go home in the evenings. I imagine any Hollingworths that you come across would be my family because most people still had the s in the name and it was Hollingsworth.

Thank you so much for any time you have to search for any news of my family. I am working on scrapbook/photo albums for my three daughters.

I can be reached at:

sallyrandall@earthlink.net

Bicyclists, obey laws

Your July 9 “See bikes” editorial made a suggestion that law enforcement agencies should conduct a “bicycle emphasis” similar to those done to promote pedestrian and crosswalk safety.

I agree, with emphasis on bike riders and obeying the law. I have ridden my bike tens of thousands of miles, mostly to and from work, and I rely on drivers’ respect and courtesy for my safety.

Each time a bicyclist violates a traffic law or rides in an arrogant way, the probability I will be injured or die in a bike wreck increases. Think about that!