Letters To The Editor

SPOKANE MATTERS

Way to not go, planners

Surprise, surprise! Now the new and improved Indian Trail road isn’t wide enough for fire trucks. This project has been a nightmare from the beginning.

What will happen to next winter’s snow when the plows try to clear the road? It’ll go up on those medians and onto the sidewalks, making traffic worse, not better.

We truly enjoyed living in the Sundance-Woodridge neighborhood until this project started. Now, we feel like we’ve been cheated out of what was promised: a practical roadway. We need a four-lane road, not fancy landscaping. We only wish the planners had followed the KISS rule - keep it simple, stupid! Carol Voogd Spokane

Goodbye, Pupo, and thank you

Thank you, Bill Pupo, for giving 23 years of dedicated work to the citizens of Spokane. We know the last two years caused a bumpy road. You did your best under the circumstances.

Our City Council will have a very hard job finding someone to fill your shoes. For years to come, your work, honesty and dedication to our city will be much appreciated. Good luck Bill on your future adventure. Bob L. Flemming Spokane

Don’t obstruct people’s will

The people have gathered enough signatures and the strong-mayor issue should be on the ballot. How can a former mayor stop this now? This is just one more piece to prove how corrupt our city government really is. Steve Eugster and his group went about gathering signatures legally and filed them as they should have. Now, let the people have their vote on this matter. Darlene Le Claire Spokane

Let’s get with it, people

I was reading another Chicken Little story regarding Y2K when it occurred to me why Spokane is so fearful of crossing over into the next millennium. It’s still 1989 here. I see the habits and mindset of so many Spokanites and an unwillingness to welcome progress. A progress which is essential if we truly have the desire to become a world-class city.

I see a community unwilling to share the road with bicycles, let alone other vehicles. Half the children cyclists don’t wear helmets and many don’t wear seat belts when in cars.

I see drivers blatantly throw refuse out their car windows. I see egos and people’s self-worth too dependent on the vehicles they drive. I see shortsightedness running rampant. This region has so much to offer, yet the collective disposition falls short when it comes to fostering new long-term business necessary to sustain a thriving economy. We need to be receptive to new ideas and let the city planners welcome the north-south freeway. Those who think the population and traffic are somehow going to decline lack foresight or are living in the past. It’s this lack of vision that prevents good industries from setting up shop and sends them running - not walking - from Spokane.

It’s time to step up and welcome the year 2000 with fresh approach to the way we need to live. Let’s resolve to be a community mindful of its long-term needs and be willing to rise above the standards with which we’ve become complacent. Greg Simonetti Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Detective’s report a real piece of work

In the Aug. 8 story by Craig Welch (“Ex-trooper fights RV tab case”), a sentence begins, “While the circumstances are unusual …” To say this is an unusual case would be an understatement.

I am the brother referred to in the story and my name and address appeared in Detective Tracy Hanson’s investigative report, which was forwarded to the Spokane County prosecutors office (which declined to prosecute) and then to the Department of Revenue. I am a Washington resident and a recently retired Washington State Patrol sergeant. Why my name was in the report is disturbing but what is even more disturbing was the misinformation and/or lies that I feel were in this report.

Hanson stated that I had visited my brother in California during a specific time, which was not true. She and her sergeant, Rich Wiley, photographed my brother’s Jeep parked in my assigned parking stall at my apartment while my brother was visiting last summer. They entered a gated parking garage to do this. They also photographed a trailer belonging to one of my neighbors and stated in the report the trailer belonged to my brother. Her entry onto Trooper Wunsch’s private property to take a photo of the motor home, based on my experience, would constitute trespassing.

These are just a few examples of the many problems I feel are contained in this investigation.

I have to agree with my brother’s attorney, Greg Staeheli, when he was quoted in the story, “It’s a stacked system, a trap for the unwary.” Chris Powell Spokane

Proposition 13 wrecked, ripped off

Re: Jack L. Thompson’s Aug. 11 letter, “Pass 695 and watch `bleaters’ squirm.”

California used to have the top-rated public education system in the nation. The last ranking by states that I saw some time ago had California in about 43rd place.

Proposition 13 not only eased the tax burden on the middle class, it also reduced corporate tax rates to the same level as that of individuals. Talk about corporate welfare!

It pays to have deep pockets and friends in high places. Eugene C. Cade Spokane

Child care bureaucrats clueless

Regarding state-run child care programs, there seems to be a lack of knowledge from the state as to who is actually receiving the money.

After calls to the Department of Social and Health Services, I found out that the person I was sitting for had received money that was supposed to be paid to me. And I was informed that there was a false name and Social Security number given, and money had been paid to the parent. But they would be of no assistance to me in getting the money owed to me by the parent, even though she already collected it.

I was told by the state that I could spend some of my money and take her to court, and that I could not have any information on the recipient to even use for court. On top of that, she still continued to receive benefits.

I can see how the state could have so many financial problems, with no safeguards to protect the providers. They no longer have my support for the programs because I don’t have the time. I’m busy working to pay the taxes to support the program that tells me to spend more of my money and time so they can keep giving her the money that she owes me! And, of course, the money I make, too.

People in the office of the child care program, are you hiring? Wendy Bennett Spokane

Leave taxpayers out of this

So, the Safeco Field people in Seattle need more money - surprise.

Is anything more ridiculous than asking the people to pay more taxes so a bunch of millionaires can play their game in a new stadium? Why doesn’t the Seattle team institute a $25 surcharge on each ticket so the people who go to the stadium can help? Why doesn’t each player donate a small part of his salary, perhaps $100,000, so the people who use the stadium provide some help?

To ask the taxpayers to give more for a stadium for the millionaire ball players makes as much sense as asking Habitat for Humanity to build a house for Bill Gates. Ron C. Garrett Spokane

SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION

Workshop for teachers valuable

Recently, I participated in a five-day teachers’ workshop sponsored by the nonprofit Northwest Natural Resources Institute. Dozens of professionals including geologists, foresters and agronomists donated their time to educate teachers about the science behind how we manage our region’s natural resources. I was able to gain valuable information about our forests, farms, mines and waterways.

As educators prepare their students for the world of work, they need the input and expertise of working professionals. I thank my community and the volunteers for supporting me in learning more about our natural resources that are vital to our economy and standard of living. The honest, accurate information enriches not only me but also my students for years to come. Diane M. Riley Hayden Lake, Idaho

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

Tax cut reality favors super rich

Members of our Republican congressional delegation have been adamant in their concern for the small family farm. Again and again, they have informed us that the reason for ending estate taxes is to save these icons of American life and not just to satisfy obscenely wealthy campaign donors.

I agree with the Republicans that government should help save endangered family farms. So lets look at the current law. In 1997, the Republicans adjusted the estate tax. This included a special exclusion for family farms and family businesses. Family farm inheritors had their taxfree exclusion climb from $600,000 to $7.4 million.

This means that farmers with estate taxable farms are now among the very wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.

Now, just two years later, Republicans feel that the $7.4 million exclusion is insufficient. They have completely eliminated the estate tax in their current tax cut proposal. This leads to only two possible conclusions:

Republicans feel that farmers with a net worth exceeding $7,400,000 are small family farms and are still endangered. In this case, they may be out of touch with the majority of middle class Americans who feel somewhat endangered themselves and have assets of far less than $7.4 million.

Republicans are purposefully misleading the public.

Are Republicans using tax cuts to line the pockets of inheritors of obscene wealth, thus ensuring the flow of million-dollar political campaign donations? Wouldn’t it be better to give those tax cuts directly to struggling small family farms, to ensure their survival? Paul N. Valanoff Moscow

Tax cut plan full of mischief

It is truly laudatory that the $790 billion tax cut bill purports to return citizens’ money to the citizens. However, there is no free lunch. Items:

Over two thirds of the benefits will go to those in the highest tax bracket. Are the richest the most needy?

An estimated $1 billion will go to polluting industries such as petroleum, chemical and timber. Clean air and clean water are big losers.

Instead of reinstating a polluter-pays tax to benefit the Superfund, this bill transfers nearly $1 billion from the Leaking Underground Storage Trust Fund to the Superfund. This shell game seems to not cut the Superfund. Anybody concerned about Hanford leaking tanks?

The tax cut plan contains hundreds of millions for nuclear power and for construction of sprawl-supporting highways.

The above information is from the University of Wisconsin’s Center on Wisconsin Strategy.

Finally, note that in a recent column in The Spokesman-Review, David Broder said that giving a tax refund to a white-hot economy is asking for inflation. K. Julian Powers Spokane

In hard times, liberals become friends

Many people in this area have an antiquated wrongful idea of what a “liberal” is. They think that if a person is a liberal, there is something wrong with him. That just is not true.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, one of our most liberal presidents, led our country out of a terrible economic depression. He started the Civilian Conservation Corps, which gave thousands jobs. Or how about the Works Project Administration, which also got men out of the bread lines, into respectable, paying jobs? How about Social Security? That program is as liberal as it gets. So the next time you slam us liberals, just remember who helps you when you are down and out. And it certainly is not any conservatives. Tom Akren Post Falls

IDAHO VIEWPOINTS

Parade situation has created a crisis

Our community is now in crisis. No longer can we shrug off in embarrassment this tiny gang of Nazi sympathizers. No more can we tolerate being labeled as living in a Nazi haven as we travel and gather in America.

We must take charge of our destiny. We must speak out as one voice about what we will support and accept on the streets of our town.

The people of Coeur d’Alene must put aside all differences and bring together our best judicial and legal minds to find an acceptable answer to this crisis.

Of course, we defend always the right of every person to peacefully assemble in this land, no matter what their message. We cannot, however, be expected to give part of our working wages to pay for these unwanted assemblies when these scarce resources are needed for services that will benefit us all.

With the blessing of the federal court, Coeur d’Alene may well become the little parade capital of America for every dark or divisive cause, to the delight of the media and the shame of its residents.

It is truly a community crisis and there must be an earnest call to action for all of us and for all of our leaders. Steve N. Badraun Coeur d’Alene

OVER THE LINE

Worse threats than fuel facility

There have been many letters lately concerning the proposed Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad refueling facility at Rathdrum.

I agree there would be risks with such a facility. But each day, many trucks and trains loaded with fuel of various types travel across the aquifer.

At the same time, houses and businesses are being built all over the aquifer with septic systems that have the potential to leach sewage to the water supply. Then there are all the animals associated with rural living whose waste goes directly into the ground above the aquifer. That amounts to a far worse problem every day than a maybe-someday oil spill.

The only answer is, if you stop BNSF from building its refueling depot, you also have to stop all building where a septic system would be used, remove all animals from land over the aquifer and start a program to take back developed areas where the sewer will never reach.

One question a person has to ask is, would you rather have a trace of diesel fuel, sewage or neither? Ron Blank Spokane

Bad land swap attitude obvious

Congratulations, staff writer Ken Olsen. Once again, you’ve demonstrated blatant disregard for intellectual honesty, supposedly in the name of informing the public. Had you intended to fully inform the public, you should have contributed the following information to your July 15 story, “Land trade stripped couple of dream lot.”

Potlatch Corp. was approached in 1990 to sell or trade 55,000 acres of river bottomland hardwood forest in Arkansas to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife. Approximately 20 percent of the original bottomland hardwood habitat remains intact today in the Lower Mississippi Valley. This region along the Cache-Lower White River represents the last unimpaired functional river ecosystem along the lower Mississippi. It has been declared a wetlands area of international significance and is home to a diverse array of fish and wildlife. Hundreds of thousands of mallards winter there when migrating to and from Canada.

The overriding public benefits derived from public ownership of Potlatch’s holdings in Arkansas are worthy of discussion. However, Ken Olsen continues to be blinded by his passion to stop all land exchanges, no matter the environmental benefits. To serve this end, Olsen skips information that might lead reasonable people to see the merits of land exchanges. Olsen is a puppet of Janine Blaeloch of the Western Land Exchange Project and is more interested in advocating her agenda than informing the public of the facts and pertinent information to allow for informed public opinion. Heather M. Sparano Spokane