Letters To The Editor

Wed., March 1, 2000

OVER THE LINE

Depot shown to be plenty safe

Now that all of the hearings, technical information, emotions and opinions have been well publicized, Kootenai County commissioners have an opportunity to make a good impact on business and growth in our country. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad conditional use permit is just days away from being granted.

The commissioners can keep control of what happens in our growing county by voting yes. Turning down the railroad, especially after it has offered convincing scientific evidence many times of the safety of the diesel depot, will open the county up to rulings by decision-making bodies other than its own. It takes little research to understand the necessity of the railroad’s request and how past Surface Transportation Board decisions, and even Supreme Court decisions, support the railroad.

I respect the concern of people who hold aquifer protection close to their heart. I profoundly believe, however, that the amount of concern and engineered prevention demonstrated by BNSF puts to rest any further debate on the issue. Rusty Price Rathdrum

Total safety a concept, not reality

The ongoing battle continues over whether to put a 500,000-gallon fuel storage facility over the only source of clean drinking water. How many times over the past century have the citizens been promised total safety, only to have that one-in-a-trillion accident occur?

My wife and I moved to Spokane a little over a year ago from central Texas. We had moved to a small community of 250 homes in Texas over 20 years ago. Our subdivision was serviced by a small water company that had wells close to a convenience store that had underground gasoline tanks. Eight years ago, gasoline was detected in our water. Yes, the tanks were leaking. Fortunately, our community was able to obtain water from a nearby city.

The idea of putting any type of fuel storage over the only aquifer available to this region is ludicrous. Murphy, the founder of the law, is not dead. Whether it’s a natural disaster or a man-made one, the potential is just too great. Anyone ever hear of Three Mile Island?

Darryl O’Sickey Spokane

Will you drink to fuel insolubility?

Re: “Oil leak could not foul water” (Letters, Feb. 25).

Reginald Peacock is right that the oil will float on water but I ask him to consider this. Most diesel fuels have additives that are water soluble and not safe to drink.

Here’s a test: Pour six ounces of pure drinking water into a glass and add one ounce of road-grade diesel fuel. Would you be willing to drink this through a straw, only sucking the bottom five ounces? I wouldn’t. Michael F. Wolf Nine Mile Falls

Why aren’t risk takers in school?

Let’s hear it for Deanna Blair of Spokane (Your Turn, Feb 23). She has expressed the views of many, including myself, regarding the increasing number of dangerous, ill-mannered and hazardous people who ski and board at both Schweitzer and Silver Mountain.

However, most of the violators are on boards and appear to be of school age. I, too, have witnessed several close calls this season which could have resulted in serious injury. It would appear that many of the people are learning from their peers who have little knowledge of civil behavior themselves. I have noticed more “slow” signs at Schweitzer, including the Great Divide.

Also, how is it that so many kids are boarding during the week? Especially when you consider that our schools have earned such a below-average score in national comparisons. As for me, I just signed (for the third time) the petition to implement year-round school. Michael J. Murphy Hayden Lake

WILDLIFE

If you want tamed land, move

While I sympathize with people who lose pets or livestock to cougars, their call for aggressive and indiscriminate predator reduction (e.g. with hounds) is simply not justified.

People who choose to live in remote small towns surrounded by national forest should expect to share the territory with wild critters of all types. That is part of the package. In a similar fashion, ranchers who run stock on federal land are out of line to call for reduction or extermination of cougar, wolves or grizzlies. Federal lands belong to all of us, and should not be managed for the short-term financial benefit of a few. Ranching is one reasonable use of public property if done with care and restraint. But those who graze cattle on public land at low cost should not expect predator control too. Sanitized, sculptured landscapes dominate most of the other states, and persons unwilling to coexist with healthy free-ranging populations of predators might consider relocating to a locale where the wildness has already been subdued. And if you choose to live in cougar country, keep an eye on your dog. You owe it to your pooch and the resident cougar.

Few landscapes are still big and wild enough to harbor large carnivores. Let’s save some of them. John K. Franson, M.D. Spokane

WASHINGTON STATE

Tax cut about making things fair

Senate Democrats want to give every homeowner in the state a $200 property tax cut.

But because our tax cut is targeted just to homeowners, several business groups are calling it unfair. Keep in mind, these are the same business groups that have gotten almost $3 billion in tax cuts from the Legislature since 1993.

Combine that with the fact that giving homeowners a $200 property tax break will finally balance out the amount of tax cuts that businesses and homeowners have received in that same, seven-year period. All things considered, it seems pretty fair to me and the other 42 senators who voted in favor of it last month.

Our plan calls for every homeowner to get a $200 property tax cut, effective April 1, 2001. Under our proposal, the owner of an $80,000 home in Spokane gets the same tax cut as the owner of an $800,000 home in Seattle.

And, because our tax cut is tied to the state’s average personal income growth, the amount of the cut gets bigger as the economy continues to grow.

The money to pay for our proposal will come from surplus revenue the state expects to collect in the future. This is money that would go into the emergency reserve fund - which by law we cannot spend.

Senate Democrats recognize that a lot of people have not benefited as fully as they should from the state’s red-hot economy. The truth is that these are still tough times for too many working families.

The Legislature has the opportunity to approve an immediate, meaningful, fair property tax cut. Let’s not lose it. Sen. Lisa Brown 3rd Legislative District

Construction work rules a plague

Even though the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has given the construction industry a national exemption from its proposed ergonomics standards, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries is forging ahead with its very own version of ergonomic standards. These would not only include the construction industry but would actually target certain construction trades.

The proposed standards are more than problematic - they are destructive to the industry. The proposed standards would govern how construction workers do their work and were developed by bureaucrats who I doubt have ever pounded a nail or laid a brick. Furthermore, the state does not know if these standards will reduce the amount of claims to L&I they just think they might.

The state’s research on these standards was limited and inconclusive. What’s not inconclusive is that these standards, if implemented, could allow a construction worker to only do about two hours of normal work per day. No kidding. The math is pretty easy.

Instead of reducing L&I claims, the state will jeopardize the construction trade workers’ livelihood - not to mention raising prices for the consumer.

In every other state in which these types of construction ergonomic standards have been proposed, they have been shot down because of the poor science and economic problems associated with them. At the public hearings on this issue held in Spokane, several businesses stated they would be looking to move elsewhere if these standards were put in place. Where is the outcry from our business community here? Kevin M. Krebs Spokane

SPOKANE MATTERS

Garage less costly than parking ticket

I was downtown recently and noticed several cars with overtime parking tickets on them. That costs $10. I know because I had to pay one a few weeks ago, and that is when I decided I would use the River Park Square Parking Garage from now on. It may cost me one or two dollars but I don’t have to worry about how long I stay and I will never have to pay another fine. Seems like a good deal to me. Donna Poeppel Spokane

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

McCain sets sensible course

Having watched several Republican presidential candidate debates, having read extensively about the candidates, listened to commentators and seen the TV ads, I hope Sen. John McCain will be the Republican nominee for president. I would like to have the opportunity to vote for a candidate I can be proud of and respect. McCain is such a man.

As an active duty Air Force officer for most of my adult life, I never felt it appropriate to be a member of a political party. I am still not registered with either party and regard myself as an independent with centrist attitudes on most issues. Republicans seem to be controlled by the far right most of the time, but I can see McCain, although his record is very conservative, standing up to the far right on major issues of importance.

His candidacy has convinced me to register as a Republican to support him.

I wholeheartedly agree with McCain’s central issue of campaign finance reform being critical for the good of our country. I also like his emphasis on debt reduction, rather than the massive tax cuts that Gov. George W. Bush favors. Debt reduction is much more important to the country.

Bush’s attack ads against McCain make me sick. For him to criticize the McCain campaign for going negative is disingenuous. I don’t see him standing up to the far right at all. Charles Latimer Lt. Col., USAF (retired), Spokane

No extra points for hero status

Sen. John McCain was a prisoner of war and is said to be a hero. He cannot be criticized because none of us know what we would do if we were being tortured. He admits he was no hero. There is another way of looking at his service:

My only brother, who served in Naval aviation, was killed. I wish he could have been a prisoner of war and could have come home. Veterans don’t have to feel they should support McCain because he was taken prisoner. That doesn’t qualify him to be president. We honor all veterans. But we should all honor those real heroes who didn’t come back.

I support George Bush. He is a proven, conservative leader. Ruthie Johnson Hayden Lake

We need leader, reformer - not Bush

It’s high time someone said what needs to be said about the all-out war being waged against Sen. John McCain by the so-called Republican establishment. I’m pleased and proud to be that someone.

First, I’m not certain what the so-called Republican establishment is. I’ve always been a conservative, a staunch conservative, somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan, especially as it pertains to defending our nation and caring for our people. That’s why I’m a hard-core McCain man and trying hard to ensure his victory in the 2000 presidential election. I firmly see him as our last chance to straighten out our government.

If the so-called Republican establishment doesn’t approve, they can keep their garbage can lids shut and shuffle off into the sunset; moaning, groaning, sighing and sobbing like the boobs they are. (My, my, my, what a bunch of macaroons.) Don’t they realize that most Americans realize our government is all screwed up and that’s why McCain is doing so well.

Note: If he’s not the GOP candidate, I’m not voting for anyone. Tell that to King George, OK? He’s part of the problem, not the solution. (By the way, one King George was enough.) David W. Farlowe Post Falls

Devious media using McCain

Why are all the liberal newsmen using program after program to promote John McCain? These people voted 93 percent for Bill Clinton. Why would they be so eager to promote a Republican now? Could it be that they think it would be easier to defeat him in the fall? We haven’t heard anything about the Keating Five. If McCain ever became the candidate, just watch the newsmen switch.

Republicans, support Bush! H.C. “Bud” Kirchhoff Coeur d’Alene

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