Letters for June 16, 2023

Greed raises its ugly head

Once again, greed has raised its ugly head. Spokane should really disband its motto of “Near Nature, Near Perfect” because it obviously doesn’t know what that means. Between the city and developers, our natural areas don’t stand a chance.

Just last week, another beautiful parcel of woods went up for sale for $450,000 – a place that is a resting place for moose moving around our community – a place where deer feel the cool on a hot summer day – a place where coyotes migrate from their den to Latah Creek – a place where wildflowers still bloom and birds sing their songs in the early morning. Where are the benefactors that care for our natural habitat instead of building more homes in an already crowded area? Why is it up to individual citizens to have to fight for every piece of land to protect our wildlife and trails in Spokane? Whatever happened to owners of land wanting to preserve it for their future generations? No wonder our wildlife have to go into communities to find food to eat – their land has been taken away from them. What a sorry state of our city that they can’t stand up to a developer and say, “No. Not this time.”

Patti Berg

Spokane

Welcome to North Idaho, Mr. Durst

I write to congratulate Mr. Branden Durst on his selection as our new West Bonner County School District superintendent. I voted for him in the Republican primary last year for state superintendent and I couldn’t be more thankful and impressed that he chose to apply for the job here. It shows sincere dedication to the cause of bringing solid conservative-minded reform to our educational system and deep caring about the residents of our county. It is truly a just reward for our strong support of his campaign, and we wish to extend a warm welcome to him and his wife as you settle in to our little community.

Chris Anderson

Sagle, Idaho

Thanks to WBCSD for the vote

I want to publicly thank Keith Rutledge, Susan Brown and Troy Reinbold for all that they have done for our West Bonner County School District this year.

The road has been challenging. They have shown perseverance and real hearts of service to our community in making the tough decisions that truly represent the majority of school district residents.

Standing up to a well-organized special interest group that is used to having things its way can’t be easy, but the right thing to do never is.

We appreciate the sacrifices you have made on our behalf to protect the families of the district and our neighbors without children, who together entrust you with the administration of our public schools and the fiduciary responsibility of spending our hard-earned tax dollars wisely.

We look forward to engaging with you and Mr. Durst to improve our schools and make them a valuable asset to our community and a model for other areas of the state and country. God bless.

Kristen Stycket

Ponderay, Idaho

Simple questions led to full reprimands

I am one of the 16 volunteers who resigned from Spokane Humane Society and moved our playgroup programs to SpokAnimal.

In my first year, I had 1,555 hours of volunteering. Of those, 788 hours were dedicated to fostering dogs, mostly with medical needs. In March, administration sent me an email requesting a meeting regarding an “incident” involving one of my foster dogs. I had asked a simple question involving his medical care, but because I didn’t ask the foster coordinator, I broke the “chain of command.” They then issued a corrective action, and strangely, had me sign it even though they concluded I was not at fault.

This was one of many meetings I had been called into for questioning.

In an attempt to showcase SHS dogs during our volunteer-run playgroups, I created a TikTok account, and even offered collaboration with management. The policy at the time said volunteers were allowed to post about available animals without approval. I soon received an email demanding I discontinue posting as it was not approved by management. I was even ordered not to return to volunteer until the account was terminated. It was not uncommon practice for SHS to be careless about communicating policy changes and reprimanding volunteers who didn’t know of them.

Since relocating to SpokAnimal, I, and many others, have been met with honesty, trust, support and excellent communications. I feel SpokAnimal is where efforts are best made to improve lives for the animals and the community.

Nefy Gliha

Spokane Valley

Wokeness cures sleepiness

There is a segment of the population that is opposed to something they call woke or wokeness, but there doesn’t seem to be a solid definition of what that means. For most of us, woke means awake with the possibility of awareness. Awareness, maybe, of the humanity of people who don’t look like you or think like you. It is the sleepiness of these folks that is causing the denial and limitation of some basic rights of their fellow Americans. Sad, really.

David Allen

Liberty Lake

Classify classification

I am surprised that no one I know of has raised this issue:

One absolutely critical element in the classification of anything is that the very classification has to be known, must be available to anyone dealing with this item appropriately for its classification status.

How in Hades is this supposed to happen if Donald Trump can, in his own mind, change the classification of something when the Donald does not bother to tell anyone? Are we all supposed to be clairvoyant?

Tim Rolfe

Spokane