Letters, letters, letters

The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer's name, address and phone number. Letters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.

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A note from the Editor:

Last week, we added an Editor's note to a letter from Nancy Kelm regarding horses in Tollgate. Ms. Kelm's letter expressed her disappointment that no horse owners were on the ad-hoc committee deciding the future of horses in the subdivision.

Our note stated that we had been told there was a horse owner on the committee. In fact, we misconstrued information provided to us. Apparently, Ms. Kelms husband was on the committee, and other committee members believed the Kelm's were bringing a horse to Tollgate, hence horse owners were represented.

While the Kelms wanted to preserve the option to bring a horse, they have no immediate plans to do so and still believe that a current horse owner in Tollgate should have been on the (six-person) committee.

Ms. Kelm wrote to the Editor, asking for clarification and observing that our note made it seem that she was either being untruthful or didn't know what she was talking about.

That was not our intent, and we should have contacted Ms. Kelm before adding the note in order to clarify the issue.

E.D.

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To the Editor:

I would like to thank Nancy Kelm for her letter of support on the horse "issue" in Tollgate, and all of those who voted against removing the right to have them in the future.

Having been interviewed for the original article ("Tollgate ponders ban on horses," The Nugget, June 21, pg. 1), I have had several calls from concerned property owners out of the area, worried that our rights might be taken away.

Hopefully, we can as Nancy said, "resolve this dispute between individual neighbors without eliminating everyone's horse rights," and put this issue to rest.

With only 2 percent of our residents presently being horse owners, we are not a big threat. We are definitely a minority.

We are willing to abide by rules, but... harassment... with an every few years survey aimed at taking away our rights makes me wonder... just WHY and WHO keeps pushing this issue!

Thank you also, to our non-horse owner neighbors who have been good enough to stop by or call offering their support.

Sue Durbin

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To the Editor:

It will be a sad day when the residents of Tollgate give up another right. We have rules in place to tell us what color we can paint our house, what type of fence, how many garages and what trees we can cut down, etc. I'm sure these rules and the right to have horses have been in place for as long as this community has existed.

Some of the questions on the Ad-Hoc committee's questionnaire were biased to the point of ridiculous. As far as having more flies, dust and smell, we spend winters in Arizona and have flies with not a horse within 10 miles. We have dust, too, and when the wind is right and the sewage treatment plant is overloaded, well, we have smell. But we live with these things because the good things outweigh the bad.

Tollgate is a beautiful place to have horses with the bordering forest land and all the trails and roads to ride on. I just can't imagine anyone being so selfish and wanting to ban horses and the pleasure they bring to their owners.

We don't like the idea of a swimming pool we never use or the proposed multi-use path, but there are people who want and enjoy them. I guess the keyword here is tolerance. We have so few rights now on how we use our property do we really want to lose another one?

In closing I think there are bigger issues in Tollgate than horses that people should be concerned with.

Dick and Mary Ann Kelly

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To the Editor:

In the recent past, you wrote an article about families being evicted from Circle 5 RV Park (The Nugget, May 31, pg. 1).

We are two of the families and we were not evicted. John and Sandy (Youngblood) had a repossession of property notice. And Judy Goodell was given a two-week notice. Neither were given any reason why!

So, like always, we complied. Our rent was always paid on time. We have good rental references. Our families have become very close through this and would like to rent a house together.

It would be easier to afford the high price of rentals in the Sisters area.

We are having no luck so far and would like some help finding a place for one or both families. We would like to stay in the Sisters area. We have good jobs with established employers.

Our kids are in the middle school and one in elementary and we are very pleased with how the school has helped our children.

So if anyone could please help us in finding a place or places, please call us at 419-9547 and please keep trying or drop a line to PO Box 386, Sisters, OR 97759.

It would be gratefully appreciated.

Thank you,

John and Sandy Youngblood, Judy Goodell and children

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To the Editor,

As a person who utilizes the Sisters library -- along with my family and friends -- I believe the Sisters city council's decision to charge rent for the use of the Sisters Library is ludicrous.

The city seems to have overlooked the fact that our library was built with money taxed and freely contributed by the people of the City of Sisters AND surrounding communities (including Camp Sherman, which is in Jefferson County). In that light, I think the library belongs to the people who put up the money, not the city.

In my opinion, the city council exists only to serve the 911 people living within city limits. The council has no right to make decisions -- or levy a library tax -- for all the rest of us who live outside the city.

The decision by the people of Deschutes County (at last year's election) created an independent library district that freed the library from the confines of a bureaucracy that repeatedly left the operation high-and-dry both financially and administratively. Now the city wants to undo what the people voted for, and fine us for using our own library.

It is preposterous that the city council would even consider canceling the contract with the Deschutes Public Library System. That would amount to political suicide at the least, and is probably illegal at the worst.

Neither does the Sisters City Council have the right to contemplate selling the library (which, in my opinion they don't own). For the good of the community, I am morally certain they should turn it -- and the land -- over to DBLS and have done with it.

Jim Anderson

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To the Editor:

With the completion of another Little League season, we would like to thank the Sisters Community Church for allowing us to use their facilities once again this year.

Also, we owe many thanks to our sign-board owners, whose annual contribution helps us purchase new equipment, as well as our team sponsors, whose monetary support helps us provide new uniforms for our baseball and softball programs.

Little League also owes a debt of gratitude to the Sisters Rodeo Association for allowing us to volunteer at the concessions in exchange for a very nice donation on their part to our general fund.

And lastly, we want to thank all of the parents who have given lots of time and effort to see that their youngsters have a rewarding experience on the ball fields.

Sincerely,

Lanny Schreiner

President, Sisters Little League

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To the Editor

The Deschutes National Forest Sisters Ranger District and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife would like to thank the businesses that donated raffle prizes for the National Fishing Week Free Fishing Day 2000 held at Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery.

We would also like the thank the organizations and individuals who donated their time and expertise to teach this year's children casting, fishing, and the aquatic environment.

These businesses, organizations, and individuals helped introduce fishing and the aquatic environment to approximately 600 young kids on June 10.

Thank you everyone for making Free Fishing Day 2000 such a great success.

Brad Houslet

District Fisheries Biologist, Sisters Ranger District

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To the Editor:

Some of my co-workers and I, along with a supervisor, were featured in an article in The Nugget that was circulated on May 31.

Your reporter, Mr. Craig F. Eisenbeis, included us in his piece on inmate work crews performing fire suppression work in the Sisters-Black Butte Ranch forest districts.

We would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt gratitude to your organization for the interest shown in our efforts here and for extending them community-wide in a professional spirit of responsible journalism.

Our experiences with Dave Moyer (of the Sisters Ranger District) prompted us to involve ourselves with Mr. Eisenbeis. It is to his great credit that none of our comments were carelessly misrepresented.

You all are to be commended, with hopes for many blessings, community-wide.

Brian Brinson

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To the Editor:

Once again we are on the move. In a whirlwind of necessity, we have decided to move into town.

Currently our residence is seven miles out of town and it has been a learning experience. As I am not a native Oregonian, I seem never to close my mouth or blink my eyes. My surroundings have me constantly awestruck; this is one reason we need to be in town.

I suggest each new Oregonian take a scenery awareness course. Perhaps hours of mountains, deer and various other natural phenomenon flashing across a screen would keep fools like me from drifting into oncoming traffic.

Now that we will be living in town, I will no longer be a threat everytime I run out of diapers.

I will miss driving by painted ponies and trimmed llamas, but in return I get neighbors. The lack of human contact out here at mile marker seven has turned me into a babbling blonde.

When I encounter a human being willing to chat, I talk about what I know. Not anymore. Another piece of advice to newcomers: this is a small town; chances are the person you're talking to knows the person you're talking about.

My mistake was complaining about a car that drives by every night playing their music for everyone. I believe I used the phrase "vehicle sound assassin."

Overall, I'm excited! We will be close to the park, which in itself is worth four people stuffed in the cab of a U-Haul for 1,600 miles, and the festivals will be out our back door.

I'm excited to experience each one for the first time and watch my children's eyes light up at the sight of a beautifully hand sewn quilt or the slow drip of a quickly melting sno-cone.

Mostly, though, I no longer have to worry when my husband rides his bike to the Sno-Cap. He'll be in the safety of a community out of range for looky-loos on the loose.

Dana Bettencourt