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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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:

I have some thoughts I would appreciate Mr. Jim "Not In My Backyard" Anderson's considering.

I do understand your concern with the notion of "the booming of firearms...just down the road." However, the proposed site for the relocation of the Bend Trap Club is hardly "just down the road."

It is 1.7 miles from that site to the entrance to Sun Mountain, and your letter indicates you live some distance down Central Street, which is on the opposite side of Highway 20. Frankly, I doubt you could hear shotguns being discharged at the site from where you live, given the terrain and sound-absorbing vegetation.

It must also be borne in mind that while it would be the goal of the gun club to attract numbers of shooters (a large number would be 200 to 300) the nature of the sport involves five shooters at one time on a field, with perhaps 12 fields in use at one time during a truly major shoot (i.e. a state championship).

That would be a maximum of 60 shooters at one time, taking turns shooting at targets and these kinds of numbers would be present only rarely. More normal weekend activity would see two or three trap fields in use at any one time.

The attendant noise pollution would thus be a great deal less that that being discussed in some circles where the concept of "500 shotguns going off" has been presented as fact and as if the total number of shotguns could be expected to be in use simultaneously. That just wouldn't happen.

You and others have suggested the Millican area as a good alternative to the site being discussed. That isn't really a good alternative, because trapshooting is a sport involving flying targets and the wind in that area makes it very inhospitable for trapshooting purposes.

It's not preposterous for the Bend Trap Club to consider the location in question. It's actually quite a desirable site for a trap club, and I strongly support the gun club's relocation to it.

Jerry Wright

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To the Editor:

The traffic scene in Sisters will soon be in for a change.

Recent letters have suggested going first class with a city by-pass. Why not go first class? A first class solution is a by-pass because it takes Sisters to the higher level of a genteel tourist shopping destination devoid of the fumes and annoyance of through traffic.

For example: Oakland, Oregon on I-5; Leavenworth, Washington; Cannon Beach, Oregon; etc. These are all unique towns with specialty shops that benefit immensely from having a by-pass.

A couple of years ago I went to a Sisters traffic planning meeting. At that time ODOT was determined to cheap out on Sisters with a couplet solution. Merchants at that time seemed to fear traffic would not stop if we had a by-pass.

In reality, a by-pass would add to the charm and Western flavor the town desires and deserves. Why not go first class and work toward a by-pass? In the long run we will all be the winners and that includes our downtown merchants.

Doug Wood

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To the Editor:

I have noticed as I walk around our lovely small town that many people feel it necessary to drive from one side of town to the other. Why? I do not know.

Sisters is very pedestrian friendly and small; it only takes 15 minutes, at the most, to get from one side of town to the other by foot.

I want to encourage people to enjoy our town by walking more. If you live outside of town and come here to shop or go to the post office then why not park your car once and walk around town and do your errands?

I witnessed a person drive from Bank of the Cascades to Lutton's and park, about four blocks and then she had the tenacity to get in her SUV and drive half a block to Season's.

I was in shock. We have enough traffic problems here in Sisters without compounding the problem by driving across town. As you walk around town you will better yourself with a little exercise, not pollute the air and you may just meet a neighbor or go into one of our nice businesses.

So please do me, yourself and our town a favor by parking your Volvo or SUV and taking a walk. Enjoy Sisters!

Jonathan Meier

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To the Editor:

Judging from the turnout at the Deschutes County Planning Commission meeting on Thursday, February 12, one might conclude that the residents of Sisters do not have an interest in the growth of their town.

Only one Sisters resident stood up and spoke, representing the other 1,079 members of our population.

This meeting was to determine the outcome of the proposed urban growth boundary. This proposal includes zoning three huge pieces of land for development. These parcels include land adjacent to Pine Meadows, the high school, and the airport.

According to the population projections for Sisters, roughly 91 acres is needed to meet these growth demands. Yet all three parcels total 134 acres. The population projections have also come under scrutiny as being inaccurately inflated. This raises the question of the actual need to rezone this significant amount of land.

Ten percent of each parcel is zoned as commercial. I hope that just got the attention of you business owners out there. Sisters has traditionally had tight control over the development of the city. This new proposal is allowing sprawl in three different directions. With the designation of commercial space in these parcels there is a good chance Sisters residents could see a strip mall thrown up near them.

As for the planning department's assertion that this has been a carefully planned proposal, I would like to ask, was it also carefully planned that the new low-income apartments were placed amidst industrial development?

If this isn't the way you would like to see your community grow, I would suggest you turn up at the County Commissioners meeting. The residents of Sisters still have the opportunity to voice their opinions, but very soon they will not.

I hope The Nugget will do a better job of posting notification of when and where the next meeting will be held.

Concerned citizen,

Christian Noteboom

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To the Editor:

I'm absolutely astonished that the ODFW (Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife) biologist (Stephen George) was interviewed by The Nugget and made few if any remarks on "behalf" of the disadvantaged cougars who live in an ever more perilous world.

A biologist should always explain things to the public from the standpoint of wildlife, since wildlife has no other spokesperson to explain why things happen.

The ODFW biologist never mentioned the things people don't know or want to hear, which are the primary reasons we continually experience these uncomfortable close encounters with wildlife. He never talked about how we (as humans) continue to fragment cougar home ranges with roads and island developments (Camp Sherman, Tollgate, Crossroads).

He really never expounded on how we lure the cougar, who is after all a predator, to our homes. What better place is there than water, food, and shelter. At our homes we have swimming pools and fountains, pets and pet food, and patios and decking which make great temporary shelters for animals. He never mentioned how cougars are extremely shy of humans and try to avoid us.

Another thing that troubles me is how people can make a huge decision to live in a forested environment and not accept the risks associated with it. For instance, my neighbors constantly complain about the deer eating their plants around the house. I do not want to be rude, but I always feel like asking them why didn't they consider a house in Portland or Salem?

Those who say that Measure 18 is responsible for an increase in cougars are absolutely wrong. Nature itself and other factors control cougar populations. An overpopulation of cougars would cause weaker cougars to starve or be killed by competing cougars. Many are hit by cars. Some are hunted or poached.

I have hiked and mountain biked all of my life and never seen a cougar in the wild, so those who would like us to believe they are everywhere and stalking people are exaggerating.

In closing, I think we are fortunate to live with cougars here in the West. Most people who live in the eastern half of the U.S. will never have the opportunity to brag about this, with the exception of Florida, but Florida will soon lose their cougars due to habitat loss.

Jim Rutherford

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To the Editor:

I hope our Senators, Ron Wyden and Gordon H. Smith, will censure President Bush for misleading us into war.

From his first days in office, President Bush was planning for war with Iraq. That decision having been made, the president ran a campaign of misinformation, hype and hysteria that led America into an unnecessary war.

Before the war, Bush was repeatedly told there was no definitive evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. He knew Iraq was not a nuclear threat. He knew there was no Iraq connection to 9/11. Iraq posed no imminent danger to the United States. There was no case for a pre-emptive war.

Yet he relentlessly led us into a war that has cost 500 American lives, left 3,000 seriously injured and wasted tens of billions of dollars.

Our Senators must act to censure President Bush.

Sincerely,

Pamela Jo Hunter