Letters To The Editor

Fri., March 21, 1997

(From Letters to the Editor, March 25, 1997:) The March 21 letter from Rick Bailey contained an error. Dick Adams and his “group of nine” did not hire a lawyer to try to keep the Lincoln Street Bridge from being built.

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Language law an all-around debacle

I am astounded by the actions of Kootenai County Commissioners in passing the resolution declaring English as the official county language. As if their actions were not insulting enough, their comments were even worse.

I perceive Commissioner Dick Compton’s comment that he supported the resolution “to get this damn thing behind us” as an admission he’s ready to capitulate on future ideas Commissioner Ron Rankin may bring forth, rather than spend time and energy fighting them. Commissioner Dick Panabaker questioned the need for such a declaration. But, nevertheless, he made the motion to pass this resolution.

Rankin was quoted as saying “The commissioners will not let themselves be influenced by paranoid special interest groups like the task force.” This comment makes one wonder who is really paranoid - a group whose special interest is equal human rights for all people or an elected official who fears that the county’s 1 percent minority population represents a threat to our language.

Many of us are working hard to make Kootenai County a place where bigotry has no home. It is very disappointing to have our so-called leaders embrace ideas such as the English-only resolution. Judy Whatley Coeur d’Alene

Humane society needs public support

I am former Humane Society board member. My experience is that even before the population increase, it was a struggle to keep the shelter operating.

The shelter’s policy has been to accept animals brought in from the Silver Valley and Spokane because if they didn’t, people would dump them alongside the road. Then, we would end up having to deal with them anyway.

The Humane Society has but few members, most of whom pay only the low membership fee. I was a fund raiser for the society. I know firsthand how hard it is to get donations from businesses asked daily for money by good causes.

Tough choices must be made. Either the public supports the shelter (it’s not county supported) or the shelter staff must do whatever it can to remain open. No one wants so many animals abandoned and destroyed. We know what special people it takes to operate the shelter and make the tough choices as to which animals will be put down.

Animal people like me tend to deal on an emotional level. One of my dogs is older and I tell myself I will give him “comfort only” health care. But when he has a problem, I immediately get him to the veterinarian for whatever he needs. Nevertheless, I realize we must look at all the facts unemotionally, facts such as having 200 animals taken to the landfill yearly, the costs of keeping the shelter operating, etc.

If you feel strongly that accepting Washington State University’s proposal is wrong, the Society needs you as an active member - a thrift store or shelter volunteer. Public support is vital. If there’s no response, perhaps the county should be asked to take over the shelter. Ethel Hurst Athol

WSU should redesign its program

Re: “Shelter faces tough choice” Feb. 24. Performing an unnecessary surgical operation on a healthy living being and then killing it is offensive and runs counter to my understanding of the word “humane.”

Washington State University is in a prime position to develop and promote the use of alternative teaching methods that do not rely on vivisection. I believe it has an ethical responsibility to do this rather than search for a cheap source of living creatures to cut open.

The university’s position is that by practicing on living animals that are killed soon afterward, its students will become better veterinarians, thereby providing a future benefit for animals.

If this is the goal, why not establish a free clinic where students can treat sick and injured animals under supervision, to make them healthy again? Better yet, why not make internships with practicing veterinarians a requirement, as it is for beginning medical doctors. The students could actually see results of their efforts.

I challenge WSU’s veterinary school to pave the way for other universities and establish teaching programs that truly benefit the animals students are trained to care for. The proposal to the Humane Society smacks of parsimonious self-interest. Carole Richardson Rathdrum

SPOKANE MATTERS

Chamber stand on racism admirable

I applaud the Spokane Chamber of Commerce for taking a stand beyond restating the long held mission statement that has guided it for many decades with regard to racial intolerance.

Chambers of commerce were organized for the purpose of fostering a favorable climate for business growth and development. The chamber of commerce and its members have taken a moral step beyond their mission statement.

All of Spokane should take notice. All of the region should take notice. The Spokane chamber has set the moral crossbar for other chambers in the region. John K. Savage Coolin, Idaho

Static minus sense equals nine

I am responding to Dick Adams’ March 6 letter, “Listen up, bureaucrats.” Adams and his group of nine repeatedly take stands against anything that comes before the City Council and never offer anything of substance, just ridicule.

Take the matter of the Pacific Science Center. They didn’t want anything that would bring families to Riverfront Park because it would be too costly. Then, they didn’t want the Lincoln St. Bridge - again too costly - so they hired a puppet lawyer to try to stop it. Thank you for small favors; it didn’t succeed.

This lawyer continues to file frivolous lawsuits at taxpayers’ expense and is rarely successful.

Now we are faced with a pothole problem. What group started the campaign to stop the bond issue? I would not have a complaint about a tax to fix the potholes and I hope the people of this group get the first flat tires. They were the first ones after the bond failed to ask, “What are you going to do about the streets?”

Perception, not fact, is reality to this group. The City Council has no choice but to try another bond issue. Please don’t listen to the paranoid propaganda of this group of nine. For once, let’s think progressively about the future of Spokane. Rick Bailey Spokane

STATE GOVERNMENT

Boatright’s moves, motives misstated

An article by staff writer D.F. Oliveria (“Call him Sen. Votes Right,” Feb. 27) about votes cast by state Sen. Clyde Boatright did not accurately portray the issues. Since I was in attendance at the meetings and heard the debate on the Senate floor, perhaps I can clear up the confusion.

Oliveria said Boatright voted yes on a bill in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee that the senator opposed. Boatright did vote yes on the bill - to send it to the 14th order for amending, not for final passage. Boatright’s committee vote was to send the bill to be amended in an attempt to take out objectional language in a portion of it, not to recommend passage.

When the amendments failed, Boatright voted against the legislation when it was before the full Senate, since it did not contain the language suitable for his support. This is a much different scenario than the one written by Oliveria.

The writer also criticizes the senator for killing his own bill in committee that involved protecting carnival operators from lawsuits filed by injured riders. After committee discussion on the bill, Boatright saw several items raised that were legitimate issues of concern in his bill. Instead of pushing for a bill that wouldn’t fully solve the problem as intended, he made the motion to hold it in committee.

His willingness to listen to people and their concerns is proof that he votes what he believes, not what leadership wants. Brad Hoaglun Boise

A state divided can get by …?

Our esteemed Idaho Legislature has done it again. The lawmakers assume North Idaho people are a bunch of backwoods hicks.

They will not send the measure to the voting public on Highway 95; they feel we are not informed enough to decide on whether we need to fix up Highway 95 or how to fund the project.

Those people who were elected ought to travel the road from Boise to Bonners Ferry. Then they would know why it’s called the goat trail and why people hate to drive to Boise. If people do drive it, they take the route through Washington or Montana - making those who sell food, gas, and lodging along the way really happy.

Of course, if they leave it the way it is, it accomplishes what they like: it keeps North and Southern Idaho separate. Dale R. Broadsword Rathdrum

IN THE PUBLIC EYE

Peffer case: Let’s not go overboard

After all, it was a time for St. Patrick’s green revelry, and perhaps Assistant Police Chief David Peffer was greener than most. But let’s not turn the charge of DUI for his bibulous blunder into more than a relatively minor local police department implosion.

Reasonable punitive measures, not the loss of a job, should suffice to show the department to be fair and certainly imputrescible. Roy R. Lamb Spokane

Incinerator manager got burned

I am responding to “Incinerator career simply flamed out” (Spokesman-Review, March 15).

It’s the same old facade retold to millions of managers who have benefited a company with profit and improved our land ecologically: Rather than praise and reward him, fire him because he’s the fall guy on the edge of technology.

I was a career design engineer in the aerospace industry prior to my retirement and am knowledgeable that any structure, system or mechanism designed by an engineer or engineering organization includes a margin of safety. Sometimes this is labeled “safety factor.” The 300,000 tons of trash burned annually for four years is only 20 percent higher than “capacity,” 248,000 tons.

I’m not knowledgeable of the specific margin of safety our Spokane incinerator was designed for, but I’d be surprised if it were any less than 50 percent - a long way above 20 percent.

It sounds as though Steve Wotruba is a victim because his boss, Bill Carlson of the Wheelabrator Co., is trying to save his own skin. I’m sure that Wotruba’s age is a factor, too. After all, it’s common knowledge that anyone near or over 50 years of age is a worn-out shoe that needs to be discarded rather than praised as a technically competent manager and revered as a champion of the environment.

Carlson ought to review the wisdom of his termination action. John D. Brown Spokane

NUCLEAR WASTE

Bad trend is well under way

The issue of whether or not it’s a good idea to have a radioactive waste dump at Ford, Wash., is much larger than that tiny community. Decisions made there can affect thousands of people for hundreds of years.

I don’t care if it’s low-level waste, NORM waste, select material or 11e(2) material. Washington state should never have dragged Stevens County into the cutthroat, multi-million dollar national radioactive waste dump dialogue.

The health department’s OK to convert the defunct uranium mill at Ford into a dump for any kind of radioactive waste marked the first time such permission has been granted. It set a terrible precedent for Washington and for every other community where a mining company says it doesn’t want to pay to clean up its mess.

We were told the dumping plan was a unique idea. Now, other mining companies are attempting the same move. The handwriting on the wall is obvious.

Maybe the people in Ford who are for this dump are too close to the issue. By the way, are these the same people charged with the awesome responsibility of overseeing what gets dumped at Ford? Lonnie Anderson Springdale, Wash.

Waste inadequately described

Dawn Mining’s plans to close its uranium mill site near Ford, Wash., has been the subject of a Roundtable column (March 8) by Ford resident Lois Heglin, and earlier articles (Feb. 26 and March 2) by reporter Karen Dorn Steele.

Steele’s recent articles on this issue leave out a lot of important information. They also sensationalize the issue by referring to imported material as “uranium-laced rubble” and “uranium dump” when it is actually uranium mill tailings (11e2) that would go into the existing lined pond (TDA-4).

One must ask why Steele leaves out so much information that Heglin objectively includes in her short column. For example, Heglin mentions, and Steele omits, that 11e2 material brought in would expose individuals living near the site to less radiation than they would receive by living in a brick building, flying in an airplane or getting chest X-rays; 11e2 material would be transported the entire route in sealed containers, thus enhancing transportation safety; and the state’s trust agreement only allows the money generated by importing 11e2 material to be used for cleanup, not for profit by Dawn.

The federal government is trying to take responsibility for placing 11e2 material in a proper permanent facility because a significant part of that material was produced for government-sponsored programs.

Incomplete reporting should not be allowed to sway public opinion and policy. Dwight Janzen Spokane

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