Letters, letters, letters

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To the Editor:

I apparently have a neighbor who does not like my homebased business. I thought I was being courteous, but apparently I have not been. I apologize for that.

I have been unable to find affordable, correctly zoned property from which to operate. I'm tired of the battle.

Deschutes County has made zoning impossible, and development has driven the cost of land up. The next time you talk to any contractor, ask them how they operate; chances are they work from their home.

The reality of the situation for many small contracting businesses today is that we start with a strong desire to be independent, we work several years just to accumulate the tools of the trade ($50-$100,000 worth) and develop a sound business strategy. With any luck, we don't get taken to the cleaners by someone more interested in their best interest than ours.

We put together a client base that talks well of us and we spend many long, hard days bent over the tools of our trade. These days usually last from 5 a.m. until at least 8 p.m. Our desire to do good work is what started all this. At this point, when someone complains because you drive by their house on your way to work, you begin to ask yourself why you do this.

It would be different if we just jumped in our Honda and ran to the office each day. Contracting doesn't work like that. Trucks and equipment are required to perform the job. When was the last time you had a contractor show up at your house in a Buick?

If affordable development is not possible, then where will your contractors go when you run them out of their house and shop? Do you have a spare room in your house? Pets OK? Oh, I forgot, you don't have a house, unless you built it yourself.

I know Deschutes County is not on our side. Funny thing about that though, they're willing to look the other way as long as you pay your (unbelievably creative) taxes, licenses, permits, and fees.

I would just be tickled plum to death if somebody has a solution.

Most sincerely,

Roy Manbeck, Roy's Blue Boy Irrigation

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To the Editor:

Like Carla Booker, I am also disappointed that you chose Molly Ivins to replace Mike Royko. The Ivins column that you carried in your June 11 edition had already run in The Bulletin (6/4) and The Oregonian (6/8).

Anyone interested in reading editorial page columns probably already gets The Bulletin and/or The Oregonian and read her column there. In particular, get someone who's not already being published in The Bulletin.

Mr. Blatt indicated that he finds Ms. Ivins to be humorous. Her latest column on Paula Jones was anything but humorous. Ivins claimed to be "one of the leading rooters in the Feminists for Paula Jones camp."

Yet her column reeked of contempt for Paula Jones and her lawyers. Like N.O.W., Ivins is, belatedly and grudgingly, jumping on the Paula Jones bandwagon. Feminists, like Ivins, prefer to ignore the fact that Clinton's alleged sexual misdeeds are far worse than those which drove Senator Packwood out of office or which Anita Hill accused Justice Thomas of committing.

Mr. Blatt may find Molly Ivins humorous, I find her humor to be rather sick.

Brigitte Gager

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