Letters To The Editor

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Let those who want road open pay

I have been following with interest the controversy concerning the Boundary Creek Road in Boundary County. I am somewhat familiar with this road, having traveled it a few times.

Nowhere have I seen any mention of the fact that the road goes into Canada on its way to the Continental Mine. Assuming the road is kept open on the American side, what is to keep the Canadians from closing it? They did so in the past and we had nothing to say about it.

With this in mind, and knowing the physical condition of the road and topography of the country it traverses, I would say it should be closed.

If the citizens of Boundary County want it kept open, they should be ready to assume the costs of maintenance and the negotiations with our Canadian neighbors. I would like my tax dollars used for something else. L.O. Smith Sandpoint

Lake situation all wet

Re: “There’s new law on the lake,” (Aug. 26).

If the tribe gets jurisdiction because it is a sovereign nation, I wonder why our taxes should pay for double services. Why should Benewah and Kootenai counties have officers patrolling the lake? Do they really have any authority? What will the new fees actually be used for?

The state of Idaho should be the governing body for the water. It seems silly to divide up the lake and the St. Joe River. Rhonda L. Stancil St. Maries

Chenoweth hardly a Californian

Re: Nancy Lynne’s Sept. 6 letter bashing Rep. Helen Chenoweth.

As usual, Lynne has her facts skewed. She refers to Chenoweth as “this disgraceful woman born and raised in Los Angeles.” The facts are that Chenoweth was born in Kansas, lived in California for a short time during World War II while her father worked for a defense contractor (hardly a sin) and then spent the remainder of her youth on a farm in Oregon. Matthew T. Roetter Rathdrum

WASHINGTON STATE

A lot of heart and hard work

I have just finished my fourth fantastic summer at Camp Cowles Boy Scout Camp working under the direction of Sen. Jim West. I have read the disparaging remarks against West ever since his slip of the lip. As a camp staff member, I wish everyone could know him as we know him.

West is probably the most sharing man I have known in my life. He not only shares his time, talents and experiences but his personal resources. He does a lot of things for others that no one knows about because he doesn’t do it for personal recognition. I’ve watched him teach, mentor, counsel and be substitute father. He asks nothing of his staff that he isn’t willing to do himself. He’s done dishes for more than 300 people so the dish crew could have an evening off. He’s dug latrines, washed walls, carved turkeys and flipped pancakes, all to make our jobs easier. He opens car doors for ladies, gives flowers for the sake of giving flowers and get misty-eyed over kids and sentimental things.

I’m not condoning what he did, nor saying he can’t be obnoxious. After all, he is Jim West. But about a foot beneath that flippant tongue beats a pretty tender heart that keeps his constituents in his thoughts, his staff and Scouts at camp protected. Legislator can’t be that different from the camp director. Staff people have one word for him as boss: “awesome.”

Don’t sell our camp director short. Grace E. Bostrom Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Sweetser innovative, accomplished

Nicole C. Leslie’s Aug. 29 letter suggests you should look at the facts before voting for prosecutor, so here they are.

Jim Sweetser is a caring manager.

His turnover rate is approximately 10 percent - average for any organization with 140 employees.

Many departures were career advancements.

Sweetser focuses on and encourages career development, and would never hold his staff back.

Sweetser is working with county commissioners for deputy pay increases.

He organizationally transformed the prosecutor’s office by restructuring to utilize team-based management, incorporating strategic planning and developing staff evaluations.

Sweetser and his staff get results.

Felony teams set all-time trial record - 188 in 1997.

Domestic violence team partners with law enforcement and victim service providers in a nationally recognized model.

Gang team’s aggressive posture contributes to the reduction of youth and gang violence.

Civil team saved the taxpayers more than $100,000 in 1997 in outside attorney’s fees.

District Court team has tried 69 cases during the first half of 1998 - a record pace.

NOPA team received more than $1 million in grants for innovative programs increasing victim services and community outreach.

Juvenile team partners with Volunteer of America to implement a victim-offender mediation program and a parents network program to assist our community with keeping our children safe. Timothy O’Brien, community affairs manager Spokane County prosecutor’s office

Harris deserves praise, not mud

I’ve not gotten involved in Spokane politics since moving to Diamond Lake, but when a candidate is running for office and the major thing she has to say about her campaign is to blacken the name of another candidate, I have to put in my two cents’ worth.

Kathy Reid obviously doesn’t know Phil Harris. I have known Harris and worked for or with him for 18 years. He is a very honest man. I know he is very good at budgets and cutting the fat from them, so I have to believe the budget surplus is at least in part due to his efforts.

I have in 18 years never known Harris to put anyone down unless they weren’t doing their job, and if so, he tells them outright what he expects. If department heads are complaining, it’s most likely because Harris expects them to do what they get paid for and they resent that. As for people who slip notes under doors, I can only believe that if they do this, it’s because they are cowards and liars.

We who know Harris know he’s a gentleman with women, even though he treats us as equals. In 18 years, I have never heard foul language from him.

I hope Reid finds something for her campaign besides lies. As a Democrat, I would never vote for her because of her mudslinging. Billie Goodno Newport, Wash.

Join deputies in supporting Sterk

There is no substitute for experience. While it’s possible to study, read, watch and listen, no one can become truly effective in their profession until they pay their dues with years of practical experience.

As president of the Spokane County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, I am proud to represent a body of law enforcement personnel that has an accumulation of experience spanning hundreds of years in service.

It’s common practice when running for office to get friends and neighbors to write letters of support to the newspaper telling everyone why they should vote for you and what a great elected official you would be. This is what’s happening in the sheriff race. But being the next sheriff of Spokane County will take more than being a nice guy with good friends.

That’s why the Deputy Sheriff’s Association voted overwhelmingly to endorse Mark Sterk. We know the issues and problems facing the department and the citizens’ law enforcement needs. We ask you to please join us in our support to elect Sterk. Jerry Brady, president Spokane County Deputy Sheriff’s Association

OVER THE LINE

Sandpoint theater idea a great one

Re: “Sale to support theater restoration,” (Sept. 1). This is a great idea, as a theater in a small town makes for entertaining the youth in healthful and friendly atmosphere. Sandpoint is a great city and it always has been supportive of entertainment. I am sure this will not be an exception.

Best of luck on the fund-raising drive. Jack E. Milner Spokane

Batt right to reject gambling

Kudos to Idaho Gov. Phil Batt for his refusal to approve gambling in Post Falls, as stated in The Spokesman-Review on Wednesday. As I am a 19-year-old voter, I applaud the governor’s stand on this moral issue.

In a society founded on moral principles, it was encouraging to see someone in a position of leadership who is willing to take a stand against this kind of demoralization to families in our society. This demoralization has been clearly evidenced and documented in the ills associated with gambling.

Thank you, Gov. Batt! Diana Bertholic Spokane

Disgruntled dancers can just leave

Thanks for the informative articles on adult entertainment in Spokane and Idaho. On the bright side, we can be thankful that Deja Vu is cleaning up its act.

For dancers interested only in money-grabbing, they are welcome to leave Spokane. It also forces Deja Vu to provide cleaner and safer entertainment.

I wonder why prosecutor Connelly-Walker has not looked into the spa-salon industry as truly a blight on our community. Although I lack solid proof, a number of those places are possible fronts for prostitution and perversion.

I challenge investigative reporters at the Review to consider an expose of these establishments. Perhaps Idaho can do a better job than Spokane in curbing vice. Let’s hope so. Larry E. Clark Spokane

THE ENVIRONMENT

Dam position all wrong

I was very disappointed with Opinion editor John Webster’s misinformed editorial on dam removal. His cataclysmic predictions are based on several false points.

The four lower Snake River dams in question for removal or breaching were constructed in the 1960s and 1970s to provide the river transportation system that allows farmers to pay one-tenth of the cost of moving their wheat to market, while the rest of us pay 90 percent. There is no flood control value, little irrigation value and the electrical generation is a mere 5 percent of that in the region (which could easily be made up with a bit of thoughtful conservation).

Webster says the salmon are in decline in Western Washington on undammed rivers. This should only hasten our efforts to restore the Snake River salmon. Does Webster advocate letting them go extinct?

Instead of dealing with these deadly and unneeded dams, we wring our hands with alarmist shouts, float barges of wheat down the river and truck salmon around the dams. Next time Webster spouts off on the Opinion page, I hope his arguments are based on facts and reason. Greg G. Larson Spokane

Put wheat, fish where they belong

I am glad to see increasing support for retiring some of our federal dams. I can recall stopping at a rest area on Interstate 84 and parking next to several large converted milk trucks full of salmon fingerlings being trucked around dams.

There’s something seriously wrong with spending millions trucking salmon down the highway in order to send wheat down the river. And the taxpayer pays for it all!

Doesn’t it make more sense to return the Snake to a more natural river by removing a few dams so that our salmon can make it to the ocean on their own? Salmon weren’t meant to travel by truck or by barge.

Let’s put the wheat on the highway and the fish back in the river where they belong. Steve J. Bradburn Spokane

Facts indicate dams aren’t needed

Write ridiculous editorials often enough and eventually they lose much of their bad smell. Not because the logic isn’t flawed, research weak and facts aren’t missing in action. But merely because people get used to stupid rhetoric, like the spot of dead grass created by Fido’s indiscretions.

Consider the example the recent editorial about removing the four lower Snake River dams. Sound the alarms. Pretend the region is going to collapse.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, that seems preposterous. It is preposterous.

Just in case facts matter, consider that the four Snake dams have virtually no role in flood control. They produce a mere 5 percent of the region’s power, easily saved by turning off the computers at the nonsense factories. These are not irrigation dams. Only about a dozen farms pull water from the reservoirs behind these dams. Get a longer pipe and keep pulling in the water.

The dams were built for navigation, for the absurd notion of making Lewiston an inland seaport. Next, maybe we should trench and dam all the way to Kearney, Neb., so their farmers can get a cheap ride to the sea.

True, saving the salmon is obnoxious. So is every other effort at responsible living that mildly inconveniences the most prosperous nation on Earth. So is researching before writing. Still, the public has to think about the consequences of reading such ill-conceived editorials before common sense also goes extinct. Hal D. Rowe Spokane

OTHER TOPICS

Women have equal right to go topless

Re: “Lawyer wants topless case dismissed,” (Sept. 2). If men are allowed to go topless in public, then women should be allowed to, too. If the law states women are not allowed to go without their shirts in public, then it should state the same for men. This is clearly a double standard. It is not our fault that men find our chests sexual. Sandra A. Gerlach Moscow, Idaho

Pronouncement on incident hateful

Hate flourishes in Spokane when editorial writers such as Opinion editor John Webster are allowed to spew it. I watched the Aug. 31 council meeting on TV and did not observe what Webster alleges. In identifying attorney Schwartz as “a Philadelphia lawyer” rather than “a lawyer from Philadelphia,” thus implying “slickster” from out of state, hate flows. If the mayor is not getting clear answers on bonds here, I applaud his stance for seeking unbiased information elsewhere.

Why would Spokane care about Schwartz’s opinions? When the council and editorial writers are uninformed or do not care, the people of Spokane are entitled to another view.

I am sorry about the Star of David incident, but to characterize something deeply personal to an individual as a “hissy fit” is even more insulting. Schwartz did not single out Councilwoman Roberta Greene because she was black. Instead, he merely talked to her - albeit loudly - as a member of the council because she had questions on everything presented. The editorial placed the emphasis on “Singling out black council member.”

The manner in which Schwartz talked to Greene, from what I saw on Cable 5, could have been said to any council member. Does that mean that Higgins’ or Colliton’s spouses should have rushed to their defense? If anyone was out of control, it was Councilwoman Greene. In any organized meeting, respect is given to the presiding officer (mayor). Edward Thomas, Jr. Spokane