Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Hasson performance just sickening

On Feb. 14, my husband and I were naive enough to believe we would be attending a regularly scheduled meeting of the Spokane County Board of Commissioners. Instead, it turned out be be a one-man comedy act totally dominated by one bad comedian, County Commissioner Steve Hasson.

I expected to see people present testimony both for and against items on the agenda. Instead, I was witness to Commissioner Hasson’s arrogant, insolent, demeaning treatment of persons presenting testimony with which he did not happen to personally agree. He continually interrupted presenting people, not for clarification regarding a particular statement, but rather to interject his opinions, which ranged from accusations of prejudice to inability to understand why they would spend so much time collecting data supporting their view of the agenda item.

His rude behavior toward people who are in fact paying a portion of his salary was absolutely inexcusable. His behavior was so malodorous that I felt compelled to call one of the persons who was ridiculed and taunted by Commissioner Hasson and offer an apology on behalf of those citizens of Spokane County who still believe in good manners and the working of democracy.

I learned two lessons on Wednesday evening. One was that most issues on the agenda for the board of County Commissioners have already been decided in advance of the public meeting. The second is that it is better to go to their meetings without eating dinner, because Commissioner Hasson’s infelicitous behavior might cause you to regurgitate. Muriel A. Stopher Greenacres

Compost site fiasco: Send it packing

In 1993, the Solid Waste Disposal Project was issued a “conditional use permit” to operate the city compost facility in Colbert. One conditions required that grass and small shrubs be planted over the berm along Yale Road.

As I live across the road from that facility, I was able to witness a hastily sprayed hydroseeding effort done in spring 1994. As there is no water there, it all died. I phoned the Solid Waste Disposal Project in June and was told they would probably try again in the fall.

Now, as I look out my living room window, the only view I have is of a huge, ugly dirt berm with dead weeds - no grass, no shrubs, nothing. To add insult to all this, we were told this was going to be an eight-foot-tall berm but it ended up approximately 18 feet tall.

Now we are finding out there are some real health problems stemming from this site that both the Spokane County Health Department and Spokane City Council are slow to inform us about.

Furthermore, when the health department sent out its health survey questionnaires two months ago, myself and two neighbors, who all live within 75 feet of the facility, were not even included on the mailing list. How can they gather accurate data when the people most affected aren’t even included?

We have children living this close, including a 9-monthold baby.

We are all losing faith. If they can’t deliver what they promised, then let’s show everyone connected with this facility the road out of town. Neil Membrey Colbert

County government obstructs

Once again Spokane County has succeeding in killing the expansion plans for a small local business.

Unanticipated additional costs of $120,000 killed the Goldenwest Manufacturing plan to expand its business and put more local people to work. An initial budget of $400,000 was driven to in excess of $500,000 by unrelenting, inefficient and unaccountable county bureaucrats.

Since Roland Lamarche won’t be able to expand his business, a local towing company won’t be able to buy Mr. Lamarche’s property and expand its business. The negative ripple effect continues to expand.

Recently, Spokane County placed $200,000 in ridiculous requirements on Safety Kleen Corp. As a consequence, the company abandoned plans to put its industrial solvent business on the West Plains, over the basalt plateau, and was forced to remain at its present location over the aquifer in the Spokane Valley.

The bureaucrats hide behind rules, regulations and ordinances which serve no useful purpose. In the end, they are accountable to no one and remain out of touch with the basic economic element in our community: small business.

Kootenai County people recently formed a group called Concerned Business of North Idaho. They had to out of self-defense. Businesses in Spokane must do the same.

Government needs to work for the people. My experience in recent years is that any time I’ve had to deal with the county, it has become a battle.

The attitude at the county needs to change from “What can I do to make your life difficult?” to “What can I do to help?” Peter R. Thompson Spokane

Towers would damage our lives

I am responding to a Feb. 20 article regarding the radio towers.

The Paradise Alliance addresses the issue “tower” in a general agricultural zone to the county Zoning Department. No description or number of towers allowed has been supplied. Therefore, the comment that general agricultural use includes radio towers may not be accurate.

Mr. Gott proclaims that the sole reason for placing these towers in our area is commercial and business needs. Since general commercial businesses are prohibited in our area, why does the county consider this permit acceptable? Gott says this move will reduce the number of towers from six to five but fails to address the fact that they range in height from 200 to 415 feet - substantially higher than the towers currently in use.

The rural lifestyle of this area’s people would certainly be invaded. We’d be forced to listen to radio signals off of ductwork, refrigerator coils and other appliances. Our pleasures in life will be affected, if not our viewing of stars at night then certainly by denying us a choice of radio stations. I moved here to get away from noise. I would likely lose the use of my mobile phone due to interference. These restrictions compromise my quality of life.

I urge the county to take a strong look at the lives and welfare of the people of this residential area. Are they going to allow radio towers to be erected anywhere Citadel Communications Corp. chooses at the expense of Spokane County residents? Jane Roberts Spokane

Speak up for north-south freeway

In noticing the heavy traffic in our city over the last few years, I can only say that we are in desperate need of a north-south freeway. The Spokane City Council must realize that this town really has grown and must do all to enhance and accommodate the people of this city.

A north-south freeway has been talked about for 30 years, yet nothing has been done. Turning a part of Division into a one-way street has been great but will only serve as a temporary solution. It’s like putting a bandage on a deeper problem.

We live up by the Y and no matter what direction I take, it still takes me 25 minutes just to get to the freeway. I often think, as I am driving, how much easier it would be to have a north-south freeway; it would only take five-10 minutes to reach the main connection.

Much of the expansion of Spokane has been on the North Side, so that a north-south freeway would save us all a lot of time and would reduce the 5 o’clock traffic frustrations we all feel.

I encourage those of you who feel the same way to express your thoughts on the city’s need for a north-south freeway. Joan M. Johnson Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Forum to consider college imperative

Colleges and universities are where new knowledge is created and skills learned that allow the state and its citizens to prosper in the increasingly global and technologically-oriented society. Unfortunately, Washington ranks 49th out of the 50 states in per capita access to a four-year higher education. The economy and social fabric of Washington may be existing on borrowed time.

During the last 15 years, Washington’s higher education budgets have been seriously eroded. The proportion of the state general fund going to our public four-year colleges and universities has dropped from 15.2 percent in 1975 to 8.6 percent for the current biennium. During the last three years alone, Washington State University has suffered more than 9 percent in budget cuts, resulting in the elimination of 211 faculty and staff positions.

To exacerbate these problems, population trends are creating a higher demand for higher education. Over the next 15 years, the number of high school graduates will increase by 50 percent. If we hope to assimilate this large cohort into the economy and society, we need to provide these people with the tools to be socially and economically successful.

The WSU Faculty Senate, Graduate and Professional Student Association and the Associated Students of WSU invite Spokane citizens to a higher education forum to discuss the emerging enrollment crisis on Saturday, Feb. 25, at the WSU Spokane campus. On the panel will be legislative and higher education leaders, including Sens. Nita Rinehart and Eugene Prince; Michael Ormsby, president of the EWU Board of Trustees; and faculty and student representatives. Douglas Baker, chairman WSU Faculty Senate

College tuition going out of reach

I am a student at Spokane Community College and I can’t afford another raise in our tuition. Gov. Mike Lowry’s proposal for tuition increases and budget cuts to help pay for the faculty’s much-needed salary increase is outrageous.

We are already paying 28.8 percent of the college cost. That’s the national average. Our tuition is expected to go up about 3 percent a year. But in the past 10 years, our tuition has almost doubled. In the past year alone it has risen 15.5 percent.

Not only are they raising our tuition, they’re cutting our budgets. Going by the percentage of those 17 and older attending college, Washington has dropped from being 27th in the nation in 1991 to being 32nd today. As of 1992, Washington ranked last of all the states in the percentage of those 17 and older attending four-year colleges. Do they really think that raising our tuition and cutting our budgets is going to make this average any better?

If the state doesn’t do something soon, our colleges are either going to become crowded, low-quality institutions, or a place for the rich only. Tina Howard Spokane

Agency sacrificed for pet project

Demise of the U.S. Bureau of Mines could have easily been predicted the instant Secretary Bruce Babbitt took over the Department of Interior and announced his intent to establish a whole new federal agency for the survey and cataloging of every species of plant and animal within the United States.

Funding for the U.S. Biological Survey has not been mandated by Congress. Therefore, Babbitt must go elsewhere within his department to loot funds to finance his legacy. By eliminating offices and jobs within the Bureau of Mines and U.S. Geological Survey, which Secretary Babbitt and the environmental elite of this country find purely nonessential and a hindrance to their total dominance of our public lands, he hopes to find the funds to finance this folly.

Secretary Babbitt has little awareness for smart spending, as was demonstrated in his push for the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park at the price of somewhere around $750,000 per predator. So, with the intent well known, how much will we be paying for the search and cataloging of all the various species of plants, animals, molds, microorganisms and bacteria that may sometime in the future be classified as rare or endangered and have to be protected? Jerry Stacey Spokane

HUMAN AND ANIMAL BEINGS

More to cat training than tricks

In response to Denise Masiello’s letter regarding “cat tricks” (Feb. 18), I am one of the keepers and trainers for the Asian leopards pictured in The Spokesman-Review on Feb. 10.

The word “tricks” is not completely a correct term. At Cat Tales, we teach husbandry behavior to make them easier to work around; for instance, teaching a cat to sit in a corner to have blood samples drawn so we don’t have to anesthetize it and cause it undue stress.

We also work the cats on naturalistic behavior so we can show what the animals would do in the wild. The picture of the leaping leopard is actually to demonstrate the jumping ability of leopards - which is 20 feet up and 30 feet out. We do this so we can show people the beauty and power of these animals.

I hope this puts Ms. Masiello’s mind at ease. And I can personally assure her that Bobo does not work out here. Joe Sullivan Spokane

Spay Day: Do the right thing

I would like to draw the public’s attention to the fact that Feb. 28 is National Spay Day. In honor of this special day, I strongly encourage everyone with unaltered pets to have them spayed or neutered.

Currently, thousands of unwanted dogs and cats are euthanized in our community’s shelters each year. Then take into consideration the thousands of communities nationwide, knowing that they all have the same wasteful problem. The only humane answer we have now is to painlessly administer euthanasia.

Some opponents of spaying say to send the “surplus” animals to laboratories, giving the reason of “getting some use out of them.” The fundamental problem with this idea is obviously a fate that is worse than death, and it’s extremely inhumane.

The answer lies in spay-neuter promotion and public education. It is our responsibility to quell this population explosion because humanity’s fascination with domestic pets originally created this predicament.

Please join me in celebration of Spay Day 1995 by having your pets spayed or neutered. Deanna E. Knudsen Spokane

TOBACCO

Tighten screws on producers

I consider it major news that four tobacco companies are defendants in a class action lawsuit. The main points are, I believe, that nicotine is an addictive substance and that the tobacco industry has known this and concealed the fact - indeed, even to the extent of a group of seven tobacco company executives perjuring themselves before a congressional committee.

Gov. Mike Lowry was recently questioned in public about Washington state’s ability to accelerate tobacco control. I was encouraged to hear him say that the trend toward a tobacco-free Washington is making enduring progress.

What would satisfy me greatly, for the short term, is having a state authority declare that nicotine is addictive; that juveniles who smoke and are either in diversion or serving a sentence in a juvenile facility, be required to take smoking cessation classes; and then have tobacco consumers, through taxes or tobacco companies through legal action, pay for the work done to cure juvenile tobacco addicts.

Let’s stamp out tobacco sales in Washington. Tobacco companies have known for a long time that they’re on the losing side of this issue. Fortunately, there are still smokers alive who can benefit from learning that they need to switch sides - and they can. Steve A. Johnston Spokane

Anti-subsidy stand laudable

On Monday, Rep. George Nethercutt again demonstrated that he is acting in the best interest of the people when he stated in Republic that he definitely would support an end to tobacco subsidies. Also, he has remained steadfast in holding to an early campaign promise that he would not accept donations from the tobacco industry. Such money could easily have kept his campaign out of debt and would have made it unnecessary for him to take out a personal loan to complete that campaign.

Responsible legislators like him deserve our continued support. Dennis W. Biggs Jr., M.D. Spokane

LAW AND JUSTICE

Lapse of justice imperils us all

Janice Hess should stop wallowing in self-pity and be thankful that our defective judicial system is treating her with kid gloves.

She chose to drink and then she chose to drive. Her premeditated activities resulted in the deaths of three innocent people. As an emergency worker on the scene that night, I witnessed firsthand the carnage that she alone caused.

That Ms. Hess is able to influence her own fate within the court system is a disgrace. The people she killed that evening cannot choose their destinies.

Anyone who kills three people and believes she shouldn’t be incarcerated for even one night poses an enormous threat to society. And so does a judge who imposes a nine-month jail term as “punishment” for the crime. Kathy McNelis Coeur d’Alene