Letters
March 31, 2010

Stop illegal truck traffic

This letter is with regard to the excessive big truck traffic on Forest Lane in Cascade Locks, written as a concerned resident nearby.

My husband and I recently moved to this area from the Portland metro area — hoping to find a quieter and more peaceful residence in the Columbia Gorge. We have found the opposite, largely due in part to the big rigs bustling past on a road that clearly states, ‘NO THRU TRUCK TRAFFIC’ posted on both entry points of Forest Lane.

I am unsure of the motive behind taking this alternate route — quicker route, avoidance of weigh stations, or other.

What can be done about this blatant failure to comply with these regulations for the local citizens’ best interest?

My family will soon be growing — with our first child due in merely two weeks! With the number of trucks that currently haul through, most at speeds far exceeding the limit, I can only imagine that this unnecessary noise will only make our sleepless nights that much more relentless.

Whatever you can do, no matter what shape or format that takes — large or small efforts alike, we’d certainly appreciate it.

Sarah and James VanHoose
Cascade Locks

No new tax

I am writing in support of Sue Faulkender’s letter of March 20. I completely agree with her assessment of the library tax.

Those of us on Social Security saw no cost of living increase in 2010 and will not see one in 2011 and in addition our Medicare payments increased.

Those employed by government have not felt any appreciable effect of the economic meltdown. Oh, some lost 10 days’ pay in a year but not their jobs for one or even two years.

Government employees continue to get their lucrative benefits packages and PERS pensions. The unemployed and under-employed get none of that; in fact, a lot of those people are facing foreclosure on their homes. In face of this the library wants to dig into their empty wallets to increase their yearly cash flow by 47 percent over what the County gave them in 2008-09 (see Dave Dockham’s letter of March 20).

Sue is also correct that children should be learning to read in school if the school is doing its job and schools have libraries that we already pay for. She is also correct that many people are at or close to their breaking points and increasing their tax burdens now makes no sense.

Herm Schnidrig
Mount Hood

Try library fee

There was a recent letter to the editor that suggested a pay-per-use for the library. As shocking as this might sound, it is not a revolutionary idea. Over the years we have begun to charge for services that were once paid for by taxes.

Sports programs in our high schools require a participation fee. We once went to our county, state and national parks for picnics and camping without fees, now there are charges to enter and use many of our parks.

Once we went to different recreation areas in the state to ski, cross country ski or ride snowmobiles and parked with no charge. Now if we go to Mt. Hood Meadows, Timberline Lodge or any of our snow parking areas, a parking fee permit is required.

The logic behind these fees: The people who participate in the above activities pay while those citizens who do not are not required to pay. I am sure the fees do not completely cover the cost of the activity but they do help.

A small fee to use a book, video or the online computers available at the library would also help pay for the library costs and not be out-of-line with our society. This fee could be a small item fee or more likely a small monthly usage fee.

Geri Goe
Hood River

‘Stooges’ act

On March 23 Obama and his Democrat lackeys crammed their version of healthcare reform down America’s throat.

What unparalleled arrogance! Are these guys blind and deaf in addition to dumb? No matter what poll you choose to look at between 70 and 80 percent of Americans, whether Democrats, Republicans or Independents, reject Obama’s takeover of our health care system.

So why did he force a vote on this issue at this time? Simple. He knew that after the coming mid-term elections he will have a far less agreeable Congress. Unless he forced the vote now he would have no chance of passing ObamaCare later.

Personally, I think it was political suicide for any Democrat to support this takeover of one-sixth of America’s economy. I think America’s acceptance of Obama’s socialist agenda will play out in this November’s elections.

The handwriting was already on the wall for Obama, Pelosi and Reid to see. When Massachusetts voters rejected a Democrat after decades of supporting the party’s liberal ideology they figuratively handed the “Three Stooges” their butts. A huge defeat for the Democrat Party’s liberal ideology no matter how the sycophants try to spin it.

The real issue with ObamaCare is that it’s one thing to try and help the millions of people in America who lack healthcare. It is quite another to trash out healthcare for the hundreds of millions of Americans like me who are perfectly happy with our insurance and the level of care we receive.

I have a reasonable suggestion for these three people: If you guys really wanted to help the 10 percent of Americans who do not have health insurance then you should have funded Medicaid and opened it up to these people. Most people, including myself, would have no objection and it would be far cheaper for taxpayers in the long term. One plus: Most of the bureaucracy to run that program already exists. Another plus: This plan would not have interfered with healthcare for people like myself who want neither Obama nor the other two Stooges involved in any aspect of our healthcare.

Cliff Mansfield
Odell

Stauffer cares

This May the voters in the area will be given the chance to decide who will be our next circuit court judge. I believe that Janet Stauffer is that person. I have known Janet for over 12 years and have always had positive experiences with her in both her personal and professional life.

Janet and I spent six years together on the St. Mary’s school board. Throughout those years Janet volunteered for positions as the board chair, finance committee, multiple fundraising chairs, and was always willing to help in any activity that would benefit the children and the school.

Janet works tirelessly on any project or committee she is involved in and though sometimes difficult issues may arise, she can always be counted upon to provide sensible, consistent, and reliably sound advice and help any group find a way to achieve their goal no matter how difficult the road ahead.

On a professional level Janet has helped me and my family on several legal issues. Janet took the time to get to know the issues, researched all the possibilities and in the end she provide me and my family excellent advice and represented us extremely well.

Janet has a great sense of community and is committed to the people and businesses of this area. I hope you will consider her for the position of Circuit Court Judge for position number 2 in this upcoming election.

David Jacobs
The Dalles

Where wind blows

As someone whose home may well become unlivable from wind turbine noise should the commissioners’ proposed six-unit industrial wind turbine development go up on Middle Mountain, I much appreciated Greg Shepherd’s letter in the March 17 issue pointing out the risks to health, wildlife, views, etc., from such a project.

More curious, however, was Kyle Williams’ letter, which not only seemed unclear on the distinction between small wind turbines such as the high school’s and large industrial-scale wind turbines such as would top Middle Mountain, but also stated, “I’m not saying that we should cover the valley in wind turbines and put them smack downtown Hood River, but the proposal to put them on Gilhouley (Road) is an idea that I support.“

Does this mean it’s okay with Williams as long as it’s in someone else’s back yard?

Paula Friedman
Parkdale

Peachey better choice

The filing deadline for judicial candidates has passed. Voters in judicial district 7, which includes Hood River, Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam and Wheeler counties, will have an important choice to make.

John Wolf, who is running unopposed, will occupy one of the two available positions. This is good news, given John’s excellent reputation as a civil attorney.

It does, however, cause concern with respect to the court’s ability to handle criminal cases. Everyone agrees: John will not be able to hear matters that the Wasco County District Attorney’s office is involved in. His wife is a deputy district attorney. This means that the entire workload of those cases will fall to the other judge.

There are two candidates for that position. One, Tom Peachey, has extensive experience as a prosecutor and defense counsel in criminal cases. The other candidate has no criminal experiences. Criminal cases are the lion’s share of the workload in Wasco County and the district as a whole.

The court in Wasco County is busy even with two full-time judges handling every type of case. The prospect of having one judge who is disqualified from all of these cases and a second judge who has virtually no experience in the area is troubling.

This judicial race deserves your attention. Tom Peachey has the background and experience. As a trial attorney who is in court almost daily and who has known Tom for several years, I look forward to the prospect of appearing in front of a judge as knowledgeable, experienced and fair as Tom Peachey will be. He is the clear choice for this position.

Jack L. Morris, senior partner
Morris, Olson, Smith & Starns, P.C,
Hood River

Health of books

Today (Sunday, March 21) the House of Representatives is deciding whether or not medical care is a right or a privilege in America. While the bill itself does not offer the kind of full coverage I would have liked, it is a beginning toward what many are calling a more responsible and a more compassionate nation.

As I travel into foreign lands I am amazed at how many industrialized countries have comprehensive health care for all their citizens. Contrary to the often-repeated complaints of American capitalists about the evils of socialized medicine, I more often than not hear from the people themselves how efficient and capable the hospitals and health care professionals are and how amazed they are that we leave so many of our citizens out of the health care umbrella.

Over the years, these conversations have left me saddened by the lack of community and good will that has existed around health care in my own country. Our lack of concern for those less fortunately born, and our capitalistic system of economics often run counter to how we have habitually defined ourselves as a free and equal society.

Even democracy, as advanced as we’d like to believe it is, mostly keeps power and privilege in the same small number of hands generation after generation. The fact is that the slogan so often repeated, “Every citizen is privileged in America,“ remains largely a myth for far too many Americans.

We here in Hood River County have our own opportunity to affect, albeit in a small way, how we want to think of ourselves as a community. Soon we will vote on whether or not to continue supporting our library.

I can’t think of a better measure for the health of a society than the value it places on its house of books. They are, after all, the history of our struggles to understand the past, unravel the complexity of our times and to speculate on our future. The collective record of our journey as a people.

Whether you use the library or not, whether you plan to use medical health care or not. The choices made on these two issues will determine how we see ourselves and how we wish to move forward as a community and as a nation.

John Haugse
Hood River

Keep library open

First: I am in favor of the library tax initiative:

Next: The main reason that we have to make a choice such as this is the fact that Oregon citizens passed Measure 50, which does not allow taxing districts the option of increasing their tax rate. This effectively put the tax rate in Hood River County at around one-third of the rate for Wasco County.

We are allowed to VOTE in a new tax district (the library tax) but will not be able to change the tax rate in the future. In effect, Measure 50 forces anyone wanting a new tax district to select a rate that allows for future needs. It does not allow passage of a rate that meets only today’s needs. That is one of the main reasons that .70 per thousand was selected (that means it cost us $70 per $100,000 of ASSESSED value).

In one letter a writer referred to this cost as being the same that they had to pay for FIRE protection. I sincerely hope that they have not been forced to use this service. I also hope that they realize that it is possible to use the services available at the library over and over, with no increase in costs.

We, as a society, continually question why our youth seem to be getting in trouble. We have limited their physical activities by requiring that they pay additional funds if they want to participate. I do not think that it is wise for us to now limit their access to mental growth.

We also need to realize that many of those who use computer services at the library do so because this is their only access to the Internet.

We should remember, this is not a vote to extend the library services. It is a vote to keep the library!

Do we truly want to limit access to outside knowledge?

I urge all concerned citizens to vote yes on this measure!

Leonard Hickman
Hood River