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Letters
July 3, 2010
‘Sharpie party’
Have you arrived home after work and had
to go on the hunt for your garbage can lid?
Here’s a great way to outsmart the Hood
River wind! I saw this simple, effective solution this morning and
had one of those “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this” moments!
Take a sharpie and write your address on
your garbage can lid. Have your own neighborhood sharpie party!
Samantha Irwin
Hood River
Keep 4th clean
The Safety/Security team at the Waucoma
Center on Wasco Street asks that, if you plan to view the Fourth
of July fireworks display from our parking lot on Sunday:
1. Shrubbery and bark dust are easily
ignited. We ask that you please leave your personal fireworks at
home, in order to keep the viewing safe for everybody.
2. Please, “If you pack it in, pack it
out!” Thanks for tidying up and leaving the parking lot free of
food wrappers, beverage containers and any and all litter.
Your respect for Waucoma Center property
and the safety of everyone is greatly appreciated.
Have a safe and happy holiday!
Shanna Spring
Hood River
Wrong priorities
In a way I am hesitant to write regarding
the library issue. The last time I wrote I had an individual call
me and ream me about my “faulty math.” They did not offer proof
that it was faulty, just yelling about my information.
Ironically, this same individual has since
written letters stating that the community now needs to find
methods of keeping the library open.
In any event, this last paper had an
article, written by Janet Cook indicating that her portion of the
bill, at 70 cents per thousand would have come to $217.
According to my computations, faulty or
not, this would place the ASSESSED value of her house at around
$310,000.
I highlight the word, ASSESSED, because
usually this is around 65 percent of the market value of a house.
Notice, I used the word USUALLY, because this might be a few
percentage points higher or lower. In any case, this would place
the value of Ms. Cook’s house at around $500,000. I think that she
overestimated the total cost to her.
This is the same type of computing that
allowed opponents to the library bill to emphasize that the
average cost would be around $300 per year. This, I think, was
intentionally used as a scare tactic. I have never seen any of
their math backing up this figure.
I can not understand how our community can
fund a Waterfront Park while failing to fund local services such
as a library. I think that we have our priorities wrong.
I used this “park” as an example because I
know how cold it can be next to the river, even in summer.
Leonard Hickman
Hood River
How we got here
The library closing has made me realize
that I didn’t fully understand what was going on, so I decided to
try to find some answers that might be helpful to others. This is
from the Task Force Recommendations.
In 2004, after the expansion of the
library, county revenue was restricted and a citizen feasibility
study group was formed by the county commission to consider
options; whether the library would stay the same, have an
operations levy, have a county service district or have an
independent district.
The group’s recommendation: to provide for
long-term, stable funding by forming an independent library
district to provide taxes dedicated to the library, to establish a
permanent tax base, with an elected board that would be directly
responsible to local residents. The recommendation was to form
this district at a time the county commission decided it
necessary.
The county decided at that time to keep
the library in the county’s general fund. No additional staff was
added for the new building and the book budget, frozen since
fiscal year 2000, would remain frozen.
In 2009, the county funding crisis further
reduced library funding. Thirty percent was cut from the total
library budget; staff hours and benefits were cut 20 percent;
hours were reduced from 96 hours per week to 58; and the book
budget was reduced by 60 percent.
The county declared that county funding
provided for the library would end June 30, 2010, and that it
would put the measure on the May 2010 ballot to form a library
district. A new task force was formed to make recommendations by
November 2009 on how that district would run and what funding
would be needed.
The measure failed. That is how we arrived
at where we are. We will have no use of the library but will
continue to pay for it until about 2015.
I understand that we had a $2 million
reduction in timber revenue. I understand that a county is not
mandated to provide a library, but do you throw away our past
investment?
Did you know?
140,000-plus items were borrowed
30,000–plus reference questions answered
53,000–plus hours public Internet
workstation usage provided
14,000–plus hours wireless access for
personal laptops provided
3,000–plus hours of volunteer
support given
272 programs provided to children and
adults
Nearly 13,000 GorgeLINK interlibrary loan
items used
(From the 2009 Recommendation Report by
the Task Force)
Susan Ratliff
Hood River
Wide vote needed
A library tells the story of the community
in every country throughout the world. Some communities do not
have a library and a visitor will understand the community either
lacks the desire for knowledge and/or cannot afford to fund the
library.
Even the tiniest of towns have one-room
libraries. Our library survived the Great Depression, but was
gobbled up 98 years later by the Great Debt. Ten years ago, the
same voters chose debt to expand the library and park. Today, we
are without a library and are still paying for the debt and
maintenance of the property.
In January 2010, Carolyn Hattrup
(Parkdale) wrote a letter to the editor regarding a proposed tax
increase. In this letter, Carolyn opined that “Maybe it’s time for
Oregon taxpayers to stop playing the part of the ‘co-dependent’ to
their state government’s spending addiction, and start becoming
proactive in demanding accountability.“ Clearly, Carolyn believes
that the voters must demand government accountability.
Closing the library did not address
government accountability concerns. What are you willing to
sacrifice next year when the county business case fails to close?
Where were you in the last four years when the county tapped into
the financial reserves (monies held for unrealized risk) when the
missing timber sales failed to materialize? Where have you been on
the subject of reserve management for aging water/waste systems,
road maintenance, and police staffing? Where have we been on
personal accountability?
Part of personal accountability — the
decision to live in a particular zip code — requires supporting
the community infrastructure. Which brings me to the last
observation: The property owners who were not allowed to vote
because they own second homes in Hood River County (estimated at
30-40 percent).
If all people who own property in Hood
River County were allowed to vote for things that affect their
community and investment, then perhaps the library would still be
open and relatively debt free.
Anne Coxon
Hood River
Closure a shame
It’s a real shame that the library will be
closing its doors on June 30. Why can’t Hood River have a library
in its town for the public to use? For the kids to use for
information they needed for their homework or checking out a good
book that they wanted to read? Or getting books for their kids to
read?
People who didn’t have a computer in their
home could check the computer out to use in the library, or if
their computer wasn’t working they could use the library ones.
Story Time, where the kids could come with
their parents and hear a good book that someone is reading to them
that they want to hear. The library has so much to offer the
public.
My mom would take us kids in there all the
time to get a good book to read. My mom liked the books on tape.
What am I going to do without the library in our town of Hood
River?
For the people who voted no on the
library: Shame on you for making our library close its doors.
Pam Smiley
Odell
Life in drawing
One Saturday in April 1979, Joyce Bryerton
hired a nude model and started a weekly life drawing group in a
local funeral home.
The group became a series over the years,
managed by John Bennett, until a Saturday in May 2007, 28 years
later, when John held the final meeting of the cooperative group
in St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.
In the intervening years of operation
(continues except the summers) numerous artists participated in
and used the resources of the expanding group.
Trained artists as well as weekend
painters came regularly from as far away as Portland and The
Dalles to draw from the figure and share ideas.
Joyce Bryerton is gone now, but eight
large stained glass windows which she built for the church survive
as a memorial, and a dozen drawing benches which the artists
bought for themselves remain in storage.
John Bennett
Hood River
Helping no joke
I would like to thank The Gorge Heroes
Club for their recognition ad thanking our stores and employees
for supporting the troops.
Some folks may raise their eyebrows over
sending tobacco to the troops. If they want to enjoy a smoke or
chew after dodging bullets and explosive devices all day, so be
it. My son has had two Middle East tours and daughter-in-law just
returned from Iraq.
My family and employees support many
causes in the Gorge; we are happy to be able to do it.
Mark Freeman
Hood River and The Dalles Liquor Stores
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