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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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.

To the Editor:

We were attracted to the Sisters area due to its many natural amenities including clean air, forest, and wide open spaces... assets that few towns possess in this accelerated world of technology and business.

As new residents escaping the sprawl of Phoenix, Arizona, we were saddened to find that the land we have moved adjacent to is in jeopardy of disappearing. Apparently the city council and citizens of Sisters do not realize that it offers what is not available in much of America -- a charming small town that draws visitors for many reasons, irrational growth not among them.

Sisters has potential to become a health, garden or art resort surrounded by pristine nature.

An industrial park has no business being located within a 10 mile radius of any promising resort town. I can say this from experience. I have resided in Banff, Whistler, Lake Tahoe, and other smaller resorts for years. All of those towns had the foresight to locate industry 10-15 miles outside town. However, Whistler did not have the foresight to leave open space in town -- its overcommercialization has created traffic jams that infuriate the locals.

From our understanding, the majority of veteran residents here prefer the open land and believe that the proposed development should be located elsewhere. It appears that a city plan has never been implemented. The quality of this town can remain intact if a plan that enhances the existing benefits of Sisters not available elsewhere is enacted.

The proposed industrial park is only going to benefit the few investors who are pushing for its development. The rest of Sisters will not benefit. Property values will decrease all around the industrial zone, and traffic patterns will become disrupted.

Businesses that currently depend on the natural beauty of Sisters will be harmed as Sisters loses its charm and becomes overdeveloped, commercialized, and polluted.

As residents on the edge of the proposed Barclay industrial park expansion, we oppose the denigration of the serenity that brought us here. We question whether we want to establish our lives in an area that is a diamond yet desires to become a piece of charcoal.

Sincerely,

Drs. Shelley and Eric Yarnell

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To the Editor:

Thanks for your paper's editorial stand to make city officials aware that tall cell phone towers will destroy the rural beauty of Sisters.

Apparently it has not fallen on deaf ears; I read with great interest The Nugget's article "Mayor pledges to protect skyline on your website today.

I think, however, that the mayor has been misled regarding the 1996 federal communications act regarding such towers; cities and counties have every right to decide the size, location and other specific details regarding these towers.

The best background we've found regarding this is on the website of a consulting firm in Tiburon, California, that advises cities and counties about cell towers.

The site is http://planwireless.com. The firm is Kreines & Kreines; it is a resource the city and residents should know about.

Many of the myths of the "rights" of cell tower companies are explained in plain English.

The city has set Thursday, January 25, at 7 p.m. as the hearing date regarding the appeal of Spectrasite to build a tower at the sewage plant site.

Sincerely,

Tom Grimm

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To the Editor:

Let's go for the win-win for our community. Sisters is not about to revert back to the 1940s and be a lumber and mining town. It also cannot sustain itself on boutiques for the tourists.

And contrary to contrarian Russell B. Williams, 20 acres of low cost housing on the disputed U.S. Forest Service lands is not what makes a viable, sustainable local economy. Housing comes after a diversity of good jobs is created. First good jobs, then housing follows. And yes, low cost housing should be a priority and dealt with seriously.

Multnomah Publishers has been a good employment base for Sisters, and it looks promising that it will continue to expand and offer more good, clean non-minimum wage jobs to our community. The same could be said for Weitech and others.

It's common for publishing companies to have beautiful campuses. It's common for local governments to look out for ways to complement appropriate businesses that benefit the community. It's common and very appropriate for us tax paying citizens to be concerned with zoning and land use.

I agree, Multnomah's plan should be scrutinized by a citizen's board. So let's do that. But also, let's get a win for the community by stipulating some desires like: 1. pathways and park setting open to the community; 2. plan for a theater/auditorium that would benefit the community without a bond; 3. a contractual guarantee that upon a sale in future years, any windfall profits would be seriously shared back to the community, namely the schools; 4. contractual guarantees that the city would need to approve any new company should a buyout occur; 5. ensure the development is ecologically sensitive.

Go for a win for a job-based community and set aside our parochial arguments.

Jack Addison

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To the Editor:

As usual, the major news people are presenting a one-sided view of the campaign in opposition to the nomination of John Ashcroft as U.S. Attorney General.

Mr. Ashcroft is not racist, as some are vociferously and falsely claiming, most notably, Ronnie White, the African-American whose judicial nomination Ashcroft, along with 53 other Senators, opposed.

In this grudge campaign, White and others are making distorted claims that ignore Mr. Ashcroft's record.

His opposition to White's appointment was not on racial grounds. In fact, Ashcroft voted for 26 of Clinton's 28 black federal court nominees.

He appointed at least five black judges to Missouri courts, and signed laws honoring the accomplishments of several notable African-Americans. He led the fight to save Lincoln University, which was founded by black soldiers.

Mr. Ashcroft was twice elected Missouri's attorney general, and twice its governor.

He was also honored by being elected chairman of the National Association of Attorneys General. He believes in treating everyone with equality, stating that "I will promise no one that I will consider race in the appointment process. I only promise that I will not consider it."

He is a man of proven ability and integrity with strong pro-family values, qualities very much needed in our disintegrating society.

Your support is needed now, if you're concerned about the direction our country's leaders have taken, by contacting Senators Smith and Wyden and urging them to confirm John Ashcroft's nomination.

Lorene Richardson

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To the Editor:

I work at a local business here in Sisters and our neighbors have informed us that "you are not being a good neighbor" due to the fact that some of our peanuts from packages we opened were blowing all over their yard.

First I would like to say that we recognize the fact that dumping in another's Dumpster is illegal and by no means would we ever participate in this action. Second we have no control over Mother Nature. Sorry!

Over the past two years the few incidents we have had with this business we have done everything to work with them about our "garbage problem."

We have gone to local businesses who need peanuts and have let them know our garbage schedule so they could come pick them up. We have spoken with the local Garbage Company who informed us to box and tape the peanuts up not to use sacks and this should help.

We also put our peanut boxes out at night or early morning so that they won't be exposed any longer than necessary to the elements. There has been maybe a handful of incidents over the past six years that we are aware of and we have dealt with each concern to the best of our abilities.

When somebody who doesn't even work with us accidentally threw a piece of garbage in the neighbors Dumpster and the police were called in, we didn't complain.

As to the December 18 incident we put out our garbage in the morning for the garbage truck and due to very windy and rainy weather conditions a few boxes blew away which we chased down.

We picked as many peanuts as up as possible with the help of a very nice employee of the neighbor business. We stayed after work late that night to try and get as much as we could even jumping in the Dumpster in the pouring rain to stomp the boxes down. The remaining peanuts, due to very could weather, froze to the ground.

We have not complained to you about the times you have used our Dumpster, we frankly didn't even care but maybe we should now.

So my last resort will be to ask whoever reads this that might have a better solution to our "not being a good neighbor" problem to please let us know.

Or you can just come to terms with the fact that Mother Nature does with garbage what she feels and you can just pick it up and throw it away!

Amber Prince