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Letters
May 12, 2010
Punished in paper
On the front of the May 1 paper there was
an article about one of our family friends, Mary Ybarra. The
article talks about a mistake involving money she made, while
working for the city. It hurt me to see that the paper could
publish someone’s mistake for everyone to see.
The paper is a place to raise awareness of
community issues or events, or advertise special things in our
community. It’s definitely not a place to publish mistakes. Mary
might have done something wrong but she’s a truly awesome and kind
person who doesn’t deserve that humiliation.
Mary is a person to look up to, raising
three children, including two very small kids. She is so nice to
everyone, and everyone should be nice right back.
The issue at hand is only between Mary and
the city, not the whole world and Mary. Mary doesn’t deserve that
and I hope anyone who’s not affected or involved won’t hold
anything against her.
We all make mistakes. But we don’t all get
them advertised to the community that is supposed to support us.
Lauren Winans, 13
Hood River
Is there a limit?
The first sentence of the final paragraph
of Measure Number 14-37, the Library District question, states:
“This measure approves a permanent tax rate of $0.70 per $1,000 of
assessed value to fund library services.” Please note that the
sentence does NOT state “tax rate limit,“ it states flat-out “tax
rate”. Period.
Is the omission of the word “limit” an
“administrative oversight”? Will the omission legally affect the
ability of the library board to set a rate that is less than $0.70
per $1,000?
Paul Kollas
Hood River
Library for learning
May 18 there is an important election in
Hood River. Please be well informed before you vote. And please
take the time to read.
The smartest card. Get it! Use it! At your
library.
Why buy when you can borrow?
Your public library is a gold mine of
books, magazines, movies, CDs and other great stuff.
Keep kids reading.
Your library has something for every age
and interest.
Free at your library:
Most public libraries provide computers —
and classes.
Make learning fun:
Check out story hours and other free
programs for kids and families.
Need homework help?
Encourage your child to ask a pro — your
librarian.
Bring the whole family!
How many places can you all enjoy
together? For free!
If you don’t see it, ask!
The library may be able to get it for you
from another.
Look, listen, and enjoy.
Borrow films and music for the whole
family.
It’s never too late!
Use the library 24/7 online.
Remember, learning begins at home.
See your library’s parenting collection
for tips on how you can be your child’s first and best teacher.
Ann Zuehlke
Hood River
Opposes tax
I am not opposed to having a library in
Hood River County. I am opposed, however, to the formation of a
tax district to fund the library, especially when that tax
district will nearly double the largest budget the library has
ever had. Using the Hood River County summary of 2009-10 property
tax valuation report shows that at 70 cents per thousand of
assessed value on Hood River County properties, the library
district will receive $1,171,544 per year. That’s a lot of books!
Yes, I’ve read the argument that the board
would not take that much in taxes, but if that’s the case why ask
for that much? When has any agency ever spent less than what they
were allotted?
Much as been said about having a free
library. What is free about it? I didn’t know whether to laugh or
be angry when the lady from White Salmon wrote the letter
encouraging her Washington friends to contact Oregon voters and
tell them to “vote for the library. I guess that is when it is a
“free” library.
In the last 10 years Hood River County
taxes on our home has increased 57 percent without doing any
improvements. When is it ever enough?
In this time of economic downturn, when
jobs are lost, homes are being foreclosed and people are taking
pay cuts to save their jobs, it is not a time to add $150 to $300
a year in taxes on homes and businesses of people who are
struggling to keep afloat anyway. Let’s find a different way to
fund the library.
Gary M. Hornbeck
Hood River
Yes to Peachey
I encourage voters to elect Tom Peachey as
our Circuit Court Judge in the 7th Judicial District. Tom has a
long history of community service in the Mid-Columbia Region.
He has willingly volunteered his time and
skills to serve as a basketball referee for youth sports. He is a
committed board member for hospice care in the Gorge and his
actions have improved access to this care for the terminally ill
patients and their families.
Tom has excellent listening skills, good
judgment and lengthy experience in both prosecution and defense in
criminal cases.
I support Tom Peachey for judge. He will
serve citizens well, if elected.
Marianne Durkan
Hood River
Sacred cow?
If we form a library district and agree to
56 cents per 1,000 or 70 cents per 1,000, whatever the case may
be, will the county refund the taxes we already pay to fund the
library? Or are we paying a double tax with our money going to
someone’s sacred cow?
Roger Nelson
Hood River
Decision: Peachey
I have spent a lot of time thinking about
what I would say to a prospective voter about the race between Tom
Peachey and Janet Stauffer for a seat on the Circuit Court Bench
in the 7th Judicial District.
The business of casting an informed vote
in a judicial race is often difficult because most voters don’t
have a lot of firsthand knowledge about the candidates. Whether a
sitting judge, or a practicing lawyer who aspires to be a judge,
the candidates mostly do their work outside the public view, and
it’s hard to determine who is the better candidate.
In this race, the decision is even more
difficult, because we have two candidates, both of whom are fine
people and very good attorneys.
I have a great deal of professional
respect for Janet; I have referred clients to her and she has
referred clients to me. I have also had experiences with Tom where
we represented opposing parties, where we were on the same side of
a case, and where he served as arbitrator. With a couple of
exceptions, I think most of the glowing endorsements that have
been published in these pages over recent weeks could be ascribed
to either candidate.
There are two reasons why I would vote for
Tom if I lived within the 7th Judicial District. First, I think
actual experience handling criminal cases is important. I don’t
believe you can truly understand what it is like to represent a
member of our society‘s underclass, or to understand the role and
functions of a prosecutor, for the first time from the bench.
Whether Tom’s experiences with criminal
cases occurred 25 years ago or not, is irrelevant in my view. The
winner of this position will be handling nearly all the criminal
cases that come before the court in Wasco County, and that person
simply should not be learning about criminal law through on the
job training.
My second reason for supporting Tom is
that he has made all the appropriate contributions to prepare for
this candidacy and he has made them in the judicial district for
which he seeks to serve. He has in effect “paid his dues” to the
legal community, to the school athletic programs, to nonprofit
organizations and to his church.
I am encouraging voters to cast their
ballots in favor of Tom Peachey.
Teunis J. Wyers
Hood River
Ignorant act
Thank you to the people (?) who spray
painted the Library Tax No sign on Highway 35. It appears as if
vandalism is the correct way to state your political view.
Who’s the “Dumb Hillbilly” now?
Alan Bailey
Hood River
Definitely Peachey
Lawyer Tom Peachey, after acting as a
private lawyer for over 30 years, now seeks to offer his
experience, integrity and judicial commitment as a Circuit Judge,
which is a position of general trial authority in Hood River,
Wasco, Sherman, Gilliam and Wheeler counties.
His more recent legal experience over the
last 10 years includes acting as an arbitrator after being
selected by both parties to hear the evidence and render a
decision as an alternate remedy to court trial.
Last fall when Tom Peachey mentioned that
he would be submitting his experience and reputation to the voters
of our five counties, I volunteered my unqualified support in
whatever manner might be helpful.
My own law practice in Hood River, which
now approaches 50 years, has given me the opportunity to
experience Tom Peachey’s professional character over the last 30
years as he engaged in the law serving the Mid-Columbia area.
I am definitely voting for Tom Peachey as
one of our future circuit court judges. Tom Peachey is very
qualified to receive your vote as well.
Wayne C. Annala
Hood River
Library for freedom
I am writing in support of the creation of
a library district for Hood River County. I am a librarian, and I
would like to share why I chose this career, what it is about
libraries that inspired me and why they are so valuable to
communities.
The first day of my first job in a library
I was given the American Library Association’s Freedom to Read
statement and the Library Bill of Rights. These documents inspired
me to become a librarian (which involves going to graduate school
and earning a master’s in library and information science — not a
choice made lightly). The Library Bill of Rights put into words
something I always knew, but never fully realized. Public
libraries provide FREE and EQUAL access to information (in any
form) to ANYONE, regardless of age, race, background, views or
income.
Access to information is a basic right for
everyone in our democratic society. It is one of our freedoms, and
by closing the library you would take away one of our most basic
freedoms, our intellectual freedom. The free access to information
for all is priceless.
A couple of things to remember, as I know
times are tough for everyone, including myself: Hood River County
has the second-lowest tax rate of all the counties in Oregon, and
even with the additional library tax we will only move up one or
two slots. The library board candidates are going to do all they
can to not levy the full $.70 for at least the first couple of
years.
Also, the board is voted in by you and is
therefore held accountable by you. This will essentially be a
library run by the people of Hood River County.
The tax is on your assessed property
value, not your market value (which can be as little as half of
market value). And even though times are financially tough for
everyone right now, if we do not pass this library district, times
will become dire for the overall well being of our community — our
knowledge, our education, our enlightenment, our freedom, and our
access to information and thoughts will be diminished, and that is
so much worse than paying a little more in taxes every year.
I’d like to share one of my favorite
quotes from the ALA’s Freedom to Read statement: “We believe
rather that what people read is deeply important; that ideas can
be dangerous; but that the suppression of ideas is fatal to a
democratic society. Freedom itself is a dangerous way of life, but
it is ours.”
The closing of our libraries would be
detrimental to Hood River County. Do not let us become a town
where no one wants to move to, or visit even; where businesses do
not consider relocating, or even opening. Do not let our property
values fall.
So VOTE YES for the creation of a library
district. Save our county libraries, save our community, save our
citizens, save our freedom.
Amanda Goeke
Hood River
Center of learning
Q: When is a library not a library?
A: When it’s closed!
Don’t let this happen in Hood River
County. Our ballots are here. Answer “yes” on the last item,
placed at the very end of the white flip-side of the ballots. Mail
in your ballot! Or take it to a designated drop-in box in Hood
River or Cascade Locks.
If all the folk who intend to submit valid
“yes” ballots actually do so, the library will become not a closed
and empty shell, but a vibrant community center of learning,
teaching, meeting, reading, cyber spacing, music, art, children
and fun.
Wendy Best
Parkdale
Already decided
The library supporters have now found a
unique way to get around the “open public meetings law.“
Hold a secret meeting before they’re
elected. Mike Schend writes in the May 5 Hood River News that he
has already convened a private meeting of all eight candidates for
the proposed new library board and “it was concluded and supported
by all eight board candidates that the rate that will be taxed is
about 56 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation.”
So to all Hood River residents: Don’t
waste your time going to any so-called “hearing” IF you vote to
create the library district because it’s already been decided that
the new tax rate will be 75 percent higher than the 32 cents of
two years ago. Also, don’t mind that the rate of inflation over
the past two years is ZERO percent.
In fact, apparently it’s preferred that we
don’t have a mind period except enough of a one to pay the next,
increased tax statement, of course.
Dave Dockham
Hood River
Library and economy
I am so sick of people telling us that we
cannot afford “not” to spend money. We can’t afford to let the
mortgage lenders, or auto manufacturers, or banks go under; so we
(bail out) spend money we don’t have. We can’t afford to have a
terrorist threat, so we wage a war we can’t afford, halfway around
the world, with money that we don’t have.
Have we lost our sanity? Has anyone
considered only buying what we can afford (have the money for —
not credit)?
The solution is simple; cut back on
spending at the library until they can pay the bills. A library
will never have the same level of priority in my book as the
police or fire departments. That’s where I want my taxes spent.
Gary Simpson
Hood River
Peachey clear choice
When it comes to electing a judge, there
are only two things that really matter: experience and integrity.
Those are exactly the reasons we are supporting Tom Peachey for
Circuit Court Judge.
Tom has been practicing law in The Dalles
for over 30 years. He has direct experience in every facet of the
law, civil and criminal. He is the only candidate in this race
that can say that.
Besides being the only qualified choice,
Tom has also earned a reputation of unquestionable integrity, both
as an attorney and an active community volunteer.
There are a lot of tough choices on
Election Day. Choosing our next Circuit Court Judge isn’t one of
them. Tom Peachey is the clear choice for judge.
Bob Bailey
Barbara Bailey
The Dalles
‘Socialism’ so bad?
This country is beset with an excess of
problems. We have: two unending wars, millions without health
care, high unemployment, infrastructure decay, rapidly increasing
poverty, many mortgage foreclosures, homelessness, failing
schools, inadequate care of veterans, political corruption and
economic meltdown.
Additionally our financial institutions
are running amok, some of our major cities have become little
Somalias and many of our states are bankrupt.
All this is under our capitalist system.
Would we be that much worse off if we had single-payer “socialist”
health care?
Bill R. Jones
The Dalles
River City’s finale
An era of entertainment, thrills and
excitement ended last Friday night with the close of the River
City Saloon. We want to thank our friends and supporters for the
last nine years and for the spectacular turnout for our last
night.
I’ve only experienced a mosh pit once, a
Hank3 concert at Dante’s Inferno; ours was bigger so the only way
we can say thank you to all is via this letter. A special
acknowledgment has to be recorded for the gifted artist and
literary talent (?) who chose to leave us with one final display
of remarkable felt tip pen work on the restroom hallways, men’s
room, and on the pool table.
Don’t dismay, the establishment will rise
and take flight like a phoenix in a few short weeks as the Waucoma
Club completely refurbished with an expanded venue and menu, and
introducing the first sports bar in Hood River opens in early
June. The timing is perfect and the season is right.
We hope to see you there to thank you
personally for all the friends made and join Mike and Jane in
welcoming you to the Waucoma Club.
Ciao,
Bob Carnahan
Underwood, Wash.
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