Letters, letters, letters

To the Editor:

Last week's paper reported that the city council plans to cram a sales tax down our backs to fund a sewer system.

It was reported that three drain fields per month fail. How many of those failures are within the city limits or are they in the Sisters "area"? What is the difference in failure rates in Sisters, Bend or Redmond (soils are the same).

Reasons drain fields fail: poorly installed, not periodically pumped out, saturated by leaking fixtures, not sufficient for the demand, being driven or parked over, none of which justify a sewer.

So far there are no reports of ground contamination to wells from sewage and we have a city water system. We've had no reports of hepatitis or any other health risks. Until there is a certifiable problem, DEQ will not interfere with how our city runs its business.

I'm absolutely in favor of a sewer, but not at the expense of a sales tax, and not based on exaggerated claims or fear-mongering by some state agency.

Our tourist season is essentially from Memorial Day to Labor Day, about 100 days. A sales tax has to be paid 365 days a year with or without tourists. Oregonians have voted down a sales tax nine times and for good reasons. The percent never stays the same, it is the most expensive and labor intensive to regulate and collect, and it intrudes into every sales transaction in your life: food, gas, clothes, cars, land, houses, even your garage sales.

Tourists won't be the ones to pay our bills for us. If half the Sisters residents are below poverty levels as the mayor claims, why add another 2 percent to their cost of living?

It is pitifully mindless to think that Oregonians will be willing to pay a sales tax in Sisters when it's not authorized anywhere else in the state. The point is, they will shop elsewhere. A sales tax is one anti-business plan that won't go unchallenged!

Ed Beacham

To the Editor:

Now that our four new classrooms are on a roll and our middle school is getting squared away, I just want to encourage everyone to vote for Measure 52. It's almost like free money. Just think, $240 per student, and all you have to do is vote. Five minutes of your time and a 32-cent stamp and we're in business.

The lottery originally said that some of their proceeds would go to the schools, so let's hold them to it. Let's make a big statement and show our support to our educational system in a way that really makes a difference.

Sincerely,

Lori Kallberg

To the Editor:

I don't know where I was when the most beautiful little ponderosa pine on our whole block came down. It grew at the edge, on the alley way, of the garden of the dear late Dorothy Haney. She may have planted that tree 30 years or so ago. I know she loved it. We often remarked on its beauty, so perfect was its form.

Last spring, a young man from the city came around who'd been assigned the job of cutting branches for the easy access of our garbage truck. I called to his attention at the time how beautiful it was and asked that he treat it gently, which he kindly did, eliminating only the tips of the branches as he deemed necessary.

Sunday, at first light, I walked into the alley and thought "My God, what's wrong? It's much too bright." It was our privacy. It was our view. Now it's just gone.

Which will be the next tree to hit the ground? My apple tree, perhaps, that sits right on the border of my property, the one that Mrs. John (Cecilia) Bagne planted years before that bloomed and bore abundantly, after 20 years of our living here, for the first time the year she died. The one I check with Andy about each spring to make sure the branches aren't bothering him and cut back in the fall.

I hope that you who cut these precious trees so wantonly are given trees to plant and time to repent and that you'll consider yourselves lucky when you do. I have some planting to do, too.

Anita L. Kirkaldy

To the Editor:

We have just completed a "tour" of Oregon and wanted to take this opportunity to say how much we enjoyed the Sisters area.

The clean, fresh look of the new businesses upon entering your town from the east give the tourist a good feeling upon arrival. The beautiful flowers in their planters in front give it such a fresh look.

Hopefully more of the merchants will realize what a difference they can make to your community by "upgrading" their storefronts to this more modern motif.

Sincerely,

R. Evans

Thermopolis, WY