Fund 4-H

It has recently come to my attention that our 4-H programs and others put on by the OSU Extension Office are in trouble.

Our beloved 4-H Extension Agent, Billie Stevens, will soon retire on June 1 and OSU will not be replacing her position for 18 to 24 months.

Currently, the only proposal on the table is to hire a temporary person to oversee one or two of the many areas in the staff chair’s responsibilities, such as 4-H and the OFNEP program.

This leaves many programs out: Smart Start Eating and Reading in every grade school in the Hood River County School District, study groups, 4-H and FFA, Master Gardener program, Family Food Education program, JOBS program and the Spanish-speaking population outreach program, just to name a few.

If Billie’s position remains permanently unfilled, Extension Service programs will surely be missed.

Please join me in contacting the regional director, Doug Hart, and let him know how much these programs mean to us and our community. Contact Doug Hart, regional director, Extension Administration, 101 Ballard Hall, Corvallis, OR 97331-3606.

His phone number is (541) 737-2711 and e-mail is doughart@oregon-state.edu.

For our community and children, please contact Doug Hart about filling Billie’s position and keeping these programs.

Kristina Worsham
Parkdale

Moved to give

I was so moved by the article in the (Feb. 18) Hood River News regarding the plight of Joshua Dommer, who was recently diagnosed with testicular cancer. Many of us who live and work in this community are just one bad medical diagnosis away from financial ruin because of lack of insurance or unemployment. In these terrible economic times it is important to take care of others in the community who are in dire need.

I am the manager of a very small company in Hood River and I am proud to say we were able to donate $100 to the Joshua Dommer Benefit Fund at Columbia River Bank. I urge other businesses in Hood River to donate what they can to this fund. It is the right thing to do because the next time it might be you or me.

Cydney Linden
Hood River

Reality ignored

In response to Jean McLean’s letter of Feb. 14 (Don’t rush CLHS), it is obvious that her priorities are the casino first and the school second.

It contains no rational solutions or alternatives to closing the high school if the oft-promised casino does not come this year. She ignores the reality of interchanges, construction time and almost certain litigation.

Ray Cless
Cascade Locks

Ask the poor

You talk about affordable housing (Feb 12). Duh. That’s why we moved out five years ago from Hood River and now you find out that there is no housing for the low-income people.

You need to talk to the people in need, not the rich people that own most of the houses and they rent them for ridiculous prices; and the city making money off any land that is available.

Ramon Orozco
Billings, Mont.

Help with bills

Pick up the newspaper these days and we all see more dire news about the economy. At Pacific Power, we see, hear and feel the pain in our communities and from our customers directly as they call to talk about their bills. These calls are welcome.

We have very experienced and conscientious people available 24/7 who can help customers manage their bills. This might mean working out a payment plan, figuring out some energy-efficiency measures or maybe referring a customer to a local agency for help with their energy bills.

In a downturn this severe, a special concern is customers who may have suddenly lost their jobs, people who never expected to find themselves and their families in this position and who may not know of options available for them.

Under these unexpected circumstances, the tendency may be to put off paying some bills in the hope that things will be better next month. Unfortunately, this natural reluctance to seek help can snowball into a much bigger problem. We’re urging customers to call in as soon as they think there might be a concern and let us help.

To help keep these concerns from developing into even bigger problems, we’re making a concentrated effort to let people know about their options. We’ll be putting more information in bills, distributing flyers locally, putting a new emphasis on our Web site and talking to the media to get the word out.

And, as always, we’re here to help anytime of any day when you call. Our company and our employees are a big part of the communities we serve, and no one is immune from our nation’s current economic difficulties.

We understand and we can help. Call us toll-free, (888) 221-7070.

Pat Reiten, president
Pacific Power

Un-Merrie Melodies

This month scientists and writers from many countries are talking about underpopulation. February 2009 is Global Population Speak Out (GPSO month). Google it.

“The Merry Old Soul,“ a fractured nursery rhyme Merrie Melodies cartoon, is GPSO 1933.

The YouTube version is gone now; this is a summary of the seven-minute picture worth a thousand words (in only two hundred):

Premise: Old King Cole marries the woman in the shoe.

After the wedding, the couple arrives at the shoe. Old King Cole wants to kiss his new bride, but three babies pop out of a cupboard, more from a closet, under the couch, all so pleased to meet their new papa.

The old lady is absent from the remaining five minutes while papa tends to feeding, bathing, powdering, and diapering the babies on an assembly line conveyor belt with mechanical arms to do the chores. Another contraption conveys the diapered children to cradles being rocked by an industrial overhead cam shaft belt driven by the treadle sewing machine on which Old King Cole is hemming more diapers.

It’s night; the children fall asleep; papa stops sewing; one child wakes, cries; they all wake and cry. Papa starts sewing again and rocking the babies to sleep; stops, repeat. Finally exhausted, Old King Cole falls asleep; the treadle stops; a few babies get out, grab blankets off others, run to the treadle, and pump it like crazy tossing other babies out of their cribs who all run to papa crying.

The music ends and the cartoon closes with Old King Cole smothered with crying babies, and bawling himself; a perfect metaphor for the inability of science and technology to keep up with primordial gene-busting growth.

Bruce Howard
Hood River