Letters To The Editor

Wed., Feb. 23, 2000

Washington state

Restrooms closure plan stinks

When will our “representatives of the people” quit passing the Initiative 695 lack-of-buck by cutting or reducing state programs and start appropriating from the state funds surplus to make up money lost from license plate revenues? We, the people, who are well aware the state has sufficient reserve to maintain programs, are being made to suffer layoffs, reduced police and fire protection, reduced or eliminated bus transportation, limited library hours, etc.

The latest is a threat to close half of the state’s roadside rest areas. The Department of Transportation maintenance engineer, Ken Kirkland, and his staff have no concept of how difficult it is to use bathrooms in private businesses. Most will not allow public access except to a customer. Even convenience-gasoline businesses have turned away the public unless they buy something.

I challenge Kirkland’s choice of closure priority. Only one in King County is on the list, yet he wants to close bathrooms in remote areas between Seattle and Spokane on Interstate 90 where they are most needed. It’s the same old song. We Eastern Washingtonians take back seat to the provisions given to Western Washingtonians.

Kirkland’s plan would leave only one bathroom open between Sprague and Cle Elum (Indian John Hill); Winchester Wasteway (between Moses Lake and Vantage). Winchester Wasteway is closed most of the time for maintenance or repair anyway.

The traveler needs a second bladder to last this cross-state trek! John E. Brown Spokane

Health insurance comment sickening

I am in receipt of a report from my legislator, Rep. Brad Benson.

Aside from the usual and pointless inanities we’ve all come to expect from professional politicians, it contains - toward the end, in an afterthought submerged in small print - the explanation that his refusal to wholly support the Patients Bill of Rights doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care about the hundreds of people in his district who can’t afford health insurance. Oh, no, it’s not that. It’s just that we don’t really need it.

The way to make sure everyone has health care, Benson assures us, is to eliminate the cumbersome regulations that so inhibit giant corporations. He neglects to tell us how this would work. For example, how would deregulation help seniors afford the outrageous prices of life-saving medicines they must often do without in order to buy groceries? And which regulations, exactly, does Benson want to get rid of? Is he against making doctors wash their hands?

Maybe Benson can’t see the problem because he doesn’t have it. Like all legislators, Benson’s family is protected by a regulated, tax-supported generous insurance program. But why does he think his children are entitled to better health care than the children of his own district? Maybe it’s because his policies are influenced by the multi-jillion-dollar insurance PACs that help finance his campaigns, and sick children can’t write checks. Terrence Knight Spokane

Work restriction would be ruinous

The state Department of Labor and Industries is proposing an “ergonomics standard” that would be imposed on all industry in this state. The rule would put limits on employees’ repetitive motions such as lifting, bending, pinching, grasping, kneeling, etc. Such activity could be limited to as little as two hours in any given work day. The theory is to reduce musculoskeletal disorders and in turn reduce worker compensation claims.

This would have a minor impact on some businesses and a devastating impact on others, such as construction. What would happen to the cost of goods and services in this state? What would happen to the cost of a new home? What would happen to the cost of groceries? Would companies flee the state to work under less stringent OSHA standards? I think so.

Do you think businesses that stay will absorb this cost? Who will pay the price for this rule if it’s enacted? You and I, the consumers of all goods and services, would. Timothy Spilker Spilker Masonry Co., Spokane

Hit uninsured at license renewal

Re: “Bill would toughen insurance law” by Ed Weilep (Letters, Feb 12.) It’s interesting to note that a bill, SB 6777, is currently in committee in Olympia.

Another possible solution to the problem of uninsured drivers could be implemented at little or no cost. When an individual’s license tab renewal is due, they would be required to provide to the licensing clerk a valid driver’s license, proof of vehicle insurance and emissions certificate, if required. Failure to produce any of these items would result in denial of license tab renewal.

Driving with expired license tabs is also illegal. Rolf Walling Spokane

Spokane matters

Option 4 best districting plan

I attended the districting meeting at Northeast Community Center. Attendees’ written and oral comments gave Option 4 the most support. It preserves neighborhoods and precincts, has population balance and follows recognized boundaries.

Your editorial board objects to Option 4 because it gives four council members to north Spokane. Most people in Spokane live in north Spokane; The Spokesman-Review should accept this.

The options you suggest ignore the north-south divide that you acknowledge exists. They would exacerbate tensions while doing nothing to address their causes. North-south bands would permit continued domination of the City Council by South Hill residents. Elections would remain costly due to the wide areas candidates would need to cover to reach voters. East-west bands allow the middle band no growth room and eviscerate many neighborhoods.

You claim to seek healing, consensus and cohesiveness. You have this with Option 4. Its supporters include Democrats and Republicans, men and women, whites and nonwhites, the employed and the unemployed. Your concern for the needy is touching, but the needy would be touched indeed were they to accept your proposed districts. Scatter the poor among the three districts, and no one will represent them - just as in the past.

Spokane voters want change, not the status quo. Attempts to maintain things as they have been will be seen through and opposed. Don’t cry peace when there is none. Marian Hennings Spokane

Change need not mean demolition

The current City Council majority has made a mockery of the offices they have sworn to uphold, which has cast a dark shadow over our community. The arrogance and underhandedness of Mayor John Talbott and Council members Steve Eugster, Steve Corker and Cherie Rodgers (as most recently exemplified in the travesty of an animal control administrator’s receiving the city manager appointment) take on the dimension of pure political corruption.

Any fool can disassemble complicated equipment, destroy a beautiful building or, as in this case, dismantle a once proud city organization. Employees are the lifeblood of any enterprise. We have witnessed an exodus of highly competent, professional and seasoned city employees as severe demoralization has permeated the remaining work force. Even at this early stage, the cost imposed by this political wrecking ball is incalculable.

In the field, a tourniquet is applied to stop the bleeding. Recall is a democracy’s equivalent. Don Bott Spokane

Priorities out of whack

We live in a backwards city that subsidizes a failing parking garage for private business owners, yet closes the main public library branch on the weekends due to a lack of funds.

Shame on Channel 6 for running “Success by Six” public service announcements urging parents to read to their children while remaining silent about the elimination of the only day working parents have to take their children to the main downtown library. The state of Spokane is in disarray. Reopen the main library on Saturdays, now! Darren R. Balch Veradale

Thanks, Metropolitan Mortgage

Recently, a full house at The Met tremendously enjoyed the timeless musical, “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” The professional New York cast and pianist joined by Spokane’s bassist and drummer were outstanding and equal, in my opinion, to the original New York cast, which I enjoyed several years ago.

Metropolitan Mortgage and Securities, Inc., presented this as a benefit for Spokane’s Mid-City Concerns. They are to be commended and we thank them sincerely for their corporate sponsorship of many nonprofit organizations. Their giving often goes unheralded and perhaps unnoticed but Spokane’s quality of life, which we all enjoy, is in large part due to their generosity. Norma Stejer Spokane

The environment

Beetle damage evidence irrefutable

I am responding to a recent article and Huckleberries column challenging the integrity of our presentation to the public of the scope the Douglas fir beetle epidemic and corrective actions we have taken to date. It is regrettable that such misinformation and inadequate analysis is afforded this kind of recognition.

I don’t know what more can be done to illustrate that this epidemic is real and serious. Aerial surveys conducted by the Forest Health Protection Team in July of 1998 showed 5,700 acres of land under attack from the beetle. Surveys in 1999 showed that acreage increasing to 108,000 acres. Flights to be flown in July will show even more infestation. The dying Douglas fir is visible on the hillsides around Hayden, Coeur d’ Alene and throughout the rest of the forest. This is the largest infestation since the 1950s.

As a member of our forest community, we have tried very hard to keep our community fully informed and involved in our response to this forest health issue. It is a response designed to improve vegetative composition, aquatic resources and reduce fuels to protect homes and provide a higher level of public safety. Since the project is in its infancy, I ask that folks be patient and measure the end results, our accountability, at the conclusion of our efforts.

The hills are alive with the presence of beetles. Look to the mountains for the affirmation of their destructive power. Dave Wright, forest supervisor USFS, Idaho Panhandle National Forest, Coeur d’Alene

Damage scope minuscule at worst

Epidemic is defined in Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary in several ways, including: “excessively prevalent” and “a natural population suddenly and greatly enlarged.” The American Heritage Dictionary defines epidemic in a number of ways also, including: “spreading rapidly and extensively among many individuals in an area. Said especially of contagious diseases” and “a temporary widespread popularity, as of a fashion or a fad.”

The recent story about the non-epidemic attack of bark beetles was correct, as is pointed on page III-76 of the Bark Beetle Final EIS. Page III-76 indicated that if no logging occurred, about 2,050 acres in the Coeur d’Alene National Forest were projected to have a substantial loss of forest tree cover. The forest is over 700,000 acres in size and 2,050 acres amounts to substantially less than half of 1 percent of the forest. The one epidemic that does exist is the never-ending chain-saw-itis by the supposed experts who believe they always have been and always will be omnipotent regarding forests and trees. J. Michael Mihelich Coeur d’Alene

Timber sale was the only disaster

None would deny an increase in beetle activity after the heavy snow and blow downs of 1996. It did not, however, warrant the-sky-is-falling media blitz. Epidemic proportions, a disaster for the forest? I don’t think so. The Forest Service’s own documents would concur. The disaster is a timber sale of this size and scope that will have a long-term negative impact in already damaged drainages.

I attended public meetings to be more informed about the Douglas fir bark beetle and this project on our public lands. Most importantly, I started to go out on the ground to look for myself. What I found were timber sale areas planned with too broad a brush stroke - Douglas firs marked to be cut that were green, surviving and healthy, and other tree species marked to cut thrown in that had nothing to do with the bark beetle.

I also encountered what I would call micro climates, ridges that get dryer and draws that are wet and shaded, each with its own tree species and climate. In those areas I found that the trees were marked to be cut the same way right on through the draws and ridges, with total disregard to the landscape.

The bark beetle timber sale isn’t about protecting and restoring the forest and the ecosystem. It is the leadership on the Idaho Panhandle National Forest that appears to be more interested in resource extraction and the influence of the timber corporations. Babs Egolf Priest River, Idaho

Odd policy for anti-coal group

The assault on coal-based electric power by Washington, D. C.,-based National Environmental Trust (“Health and safety notwithstanding” Spokesman-Review, Feb. 16) gives readers little reason to trust an organization that indulges in half truths, omissions and irrelevancies to make its case.

Their spokesman condemns coal-burning utilities because “extraction of energy from coal hasn’t changed in 200 years,” presumably because coal still has to be burned to release its energy. He lists coal’s share of air pollution from stack gases that contain nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, without admitting he’s referring to gases from stationary sources only.

In Earth’s atmosphere of nearly 80 percent nitrogen and 20 percent oxygen, oxides of nitrogen and carbon are inevitable byproducts of carbon combustion. The sulfur in hydrocarbon fuels like gasoline, diesel and natural gas forms sulfur dioxide when it burns. Coal’s overall share of these gases is minuscule compared with the emissions from hundreds of millions of engines burning hydrocarbons in cars, trucks, buses, trains, aircraft, boats, ships and other mobile sources.

The Trust spokesman concludes with an appeal for a “switch to renewable sources” and “far safer, less polluting energy sources.” One wonders how the Trust can reconcile its position with other environmental organizations serving the same constituency that have worked for years to disable existing hydroelectric dams with their renewable, safe and nonpolluting power. Robert Barcus Spokane

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