Bike forum

Come join representatives from the City of Hood River, the Port of Hood River and local bicycle advocacy and transportation system designers to discuss the current state of bike transportation in the Gorge and how it can be improved.

If you want to know what’s going on or what’s in the works, you won’t want to miss this event, Feb. 24, 7 p.m. in the Paris Fair event space, Fourth and Oak streets. Have your own opinions and passions about biking through the streets and towns of the Gorge? Bring them to the community forum for the question and comment period.

Help Hood River and the Gorge become a more bike-friendly and sustainable community! Please bring a $5 donation to help us continue to bring these events to the Gorge community.

Ben Zimmerman
Hood River

See CAST play

CAST has done it again! Lucky for us, we were able to get tickets to the sold-out Saturday night performance of “The Foreigner” at Columbia Center for the Arts.

The play was an absolute riot! How great it was to have such “gut-busting” laughs to brighten the otherwise gray days of February in the Gorge. If you have yet to see “The Foreigner,“ don’t delay — the play only runs one more weekend (Feb. 27-28).

Based on attendance last weekend, tickets sales will be brisk! Don’t miss out! Visit www.columbiaarts.org for details on ticket sales and show times.

Jeff Nicol
Hood River

Cover Salem

I’m impressed with your news reporting, a broader range of timely articles, features stories and great sports coverage, but I’m amazed that there’s not a breath of news from Salem … Salem, Ore., that is.

Our Legislature has been wrestling with their own stimulus package including affordable housing, mortgage extension, education, transportation, among an overwhelming number of economic problems. Please keep your community current with the Legislature’s activities. Your readers might like to share their opinions with the Hood River News and/or with our senator and representative.

Also, I’m pleased to see that Suzanne VanOrman, who represents us now in District 52, is serving on education, human services and agriculture committees. These committees are a great fit for Hood River. She is expecting to hear from her constituency on Oregon’s stimulus package and other issues and will be coming back to Hood River soon for a town hall meeting.

Nancy Moller
Hood River

A jar full?

Our city budget is like a jar full of cookies and the cookies are the heartbeat of our city. When we need something we just take out a cookie and the city moves forward.

Schools see that the jar in their town is getting empty so they consider working some days for no pay. The governor sees the jar in the state is getting low and reduces his and others’ salaries by 5 percent.

There are towns going bankrupt and making cuts to save their cookie jar. Our town, Cascade Locks, is grabbing cookies out with both hands. You see, our beloved town has more employees than any other town in the state our size and yet we are planning to hire more!

The unemployment rate is going up and up, and when there is no work, people move. The school situation doesn’t look good. It not only affects the high school but also the grade school (brothers and sisters). No school — people move. Worse, they don’t move in.

We can’t wait for the casino. Where is the extra revenue for hiring more people going to come from? We need to find ways to cut back and not expand our expenses or one day we will look into our cookie jar and it is going to be empty.

Lynn Pruit
Cascade Locks

 ‘Twig’ lessons

On Saturday Hood River Reads presented Lise Yasui’s extraordinary film “A Family Gathering.” How appropriate it is for our community to revisit the issues and politics of the internment of the Japanese during World War II.

No one can read “Stubborn Twig,” or any of the other selections for this project, without being deeply moved. What a poignant reminder that we must teach our children and grandchildren not only respect for the rights and dignity of all people, but the need for courage to stand up in the face of injustice.

There are lessons to learn (and sadly relearn with each generation) that the actions of the few, and the inaction of the many, have consequences that can disrupt and even destroy the lives of innocent victims. The perseverance of our Japanese neighbors, who succeeded in rebuilding their lives after being evicted from their homes and farms and spending years in hastily built and sub-standard detention camps, is an inspiration to us all.

Thank you to the library and those who made this valuable program possible.

Sydney Blaine
Parkdale

Scar in Gorge

The SDS gravel pit east of Bingen is currently closed by order of the Department of Natural Resources. This closure comes on the heels of a landslide which forced some 20 residences to be temporarily evacuated from their homes, and which raised concern for the safety of State Highway 14.

The DNR has alleged that SDS’ mining operation has occurred outside the permit area in violation of approved plans. If this allegation proves true, this would be, in my view, a glaring disregard for people and a place most folks view as sacred ground — this place being the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area.

It seems that too many who have attained wealth, either by birth or personal initiative, continue in an insatiable quest for more; even at the peril of others and our national treasures.

Tom Wood
The Dalles

Thanks given

I’d like to thank everyone for their phone calls, and my sympathy cards and the donations to the Hearts of Hospice. Also to the Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital for the care that was given to my husband when he fell at the Ashley Manor and put a hole in the back of his head, also to Dr. Kristen Dillon.

Thanks to Safeway pharmacy for delivering his medicine. Many, many thanks to Linda Adams of the Veterans Home and Patrick Scranton of the Veterans Service for all of the wonderful help they did for me. Also to the Heart of Hospice for the help they did for me.

Juanita Ignawaka
The Dalles