Letters, letters, letters

Last updated Oct 16, 2001 12:0pm0

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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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:

As a taxpayer who supported the bond issue to build a new high school, I do not recall a promise to give back the interest earned on bond fund reinvestment. What I recall is a promise to build the best facility possible to serve the children and the community.

I expect the district to deliver on that. The logic being expounded by board members Steve Keeton and Heather Wester is misguided appropriation of available funds. Good fiscal management by the school district Û in this case the astute reinvestment of the bond funds, has provided a cushion of money that can be used to build better facilities for education.

In a small community, the connection between school facilities and the community is interwoven. A larger auditorium and additional gym facilities are community assets: hosting concerts, weekend sports events, church functions, and out-of-town groups which bring vitality and additional income into our community.

Cutting corners in order to give back to voters an average of $14 per household that they never expected anyway, can only be construed as ignorance of sound business practices. Proposing to do this prior to completion of construction tells me Ms. Wester, as board chairperson, is in way over her head.

As for limited resources, school buildings endure a long time. One needs only to look at the middle school at the east entrance to town to realize this. For once we have funds to do the job correctly. Let's dispense with the draconian thinking and build it right.

Jeff Jones

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To the Editor:

Regarding the Sisters School Board's current quandary on whether or not to use the interest from the high school bond:

In May of this year, the majority of voters passed a $20.5 million bond issue to build a new high school. The money is represented in the buying power of $20.5 million in May of 2001. Due to inflation, $20.5 million will have less buying power in the future.

This is a fact of life. The only way to preserve the buying power to May 2001 levels is to put the money in the bank and draw interest.

The bond issue didn't direct the school board to sell bonds for $18.5 million and use that money, plus interest to build a $20.5 million school, it said use $20.5 million to build a school. Using the interest allows us to build a $22.4 million school in 2002 that is the same as the $20.5 million dollar school was in 2001.

I have heard the argument that a $22 million bond was turned down and now the board is still building a $22 million school. Sorry folks, that argument doesn't hold water. A school built from a $22 million bond would be a $24.3 million package.

Using the interest is the standard and customary practice for construction used by every school district in the State of Oregon and I for one, do not believe that the students of Sisters are less deserving than the students of any other city in Oregon.

Hopefully this will become a moot point, as the present downturn in the economy should result in favorable low bids that will allow the board to return a sizable sum of money to the public.

T.W. Scannell

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To the Editor:

"Sage" Boley a female Australian Shepherd mix was presented to Sisters Veterinary Clinic about 10:30 a.m. on October 13.

She was in shock at the time she came in and unable to stand. The owners had mentioned that she was fine earlier that morning. A gun shot wound was found on her right flank. No hemorrhage was noted from the wound. Her mucous membranes were white and she had no pupil responses. We started shock therapy and placed an IV catheter to start fluid replacement therapy.

We then x-rayed "Sage." The x-rays showed an apparent .22 bullet in her abdomen. We kept her on IV fluids and under observation for further hemorrhage.

She died at the clinic at 12:30 p.m. with a distended abdomen. Cause of death was acute hemorrhage due to a bullet in her gut. She did have hemorrhage out of her anus upon death which would lead us to suspect that the bullet had indeed pierced her bowel.

We were unable to reach the owners at their phone number. Mrs. Boley called the clinic at 2:15 p.m. and was informed of "Sage's" death.

Dr. Laura Waters

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Editor's note:

The following letter refers to the shooting death of the dog "Sage" described in the preceding letter. The author of the letter is the sister of the dog's owner.

To the Editor:

On Saturday, October 13, at approximately 10:30 a.m. there was a terrorist attack in my front yard located on South Elm Street near Black Crater, and just like the one in New York it was a hideous waste of life.

And like the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, it was a cowardly act against humanity!

It has hurt the survivors of the dead to their core, first with anguish that a loved one has been ripped apart from us and her happy life, and then perhaps even deeper knowing there could be someone so un-American and willing to do such a violent and criminal act against a family in our own home town.

Good-bye to our companion and friend "Sage."

Now we live in fear of more attacks, concerned that we may be victimized again and instead of the bullet hitting a family pet it could miss and hit one of our children.

If anyone has information regarding this shooting please contact the local sheriff's office (549-2302).

Deborah Chamberlain

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To the Editor:

I sorrow with all of America for those who were lost and for those that were left behind to grieve, due to the bombing in New York and in Washington.

But as a person who strives to follow Jesus' teachings, I cannot be happy about the solution our leaders came to.

Jesus taught to turn the other cheek. How is it that a proclaimed Christian nation is so eager to wreak vengeance on a nation that has so little communication that the average person has no way to even know who it is that is killing them?

Jesus taught that it was through the hard lessons given, that we learn to turn to God. I saw a good example of this on the news. A woman who lost her husband to the bombing, a man who was a Vietnam veteran, yet she knew he would not want us to retaliate. There was also a Mexican man, who lost his son and spoke beautifully of his wish that America not strike back.

I saw the real Christ in these faces.

I am a person on the very lowest end of the nation's income and I have everything I could ever need and most of the things that I want. Our wealth, just as Jesus taught us it would, has made us greedy and selfish.

Jesus said sell what you have and give it to the poor. Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if we really did that? What if we had spent all the money we are now spending on this war, to bring some of our wealth to those poor starving people in Afghanistan? I would bet that you might get rid of the militant groups that way.