Letters to the Editor 03/02/2005

To the Editor:

I am writing to express my opinion about the idea of a McDonald’s fast food restaurant going up in Sisters.

I was with one of 12 families who came to your beautiful town for the SOAR-sponsored basketball tournament over MLK Jr. Weekend. Each year we look forward to Outlaws hospitality and a chance for our kids to throw snowballs and basketballs in such wonderful surroundings.

I hope you all will continue to vote out having any fast food chain restaurant erected in your town. Resist the temptation! Let me tell you why: Our city of West Linn has a Mac’s at each end of town. Styrofoam bookends. You will spare yourselves and your children and your high desert beauty the exposure to a disposable lifestyle of throwaway containers and unhealthy eating and zipping up to a window full of carry-out without stopping to smell the sage.

If you miss that convenience, well, look a few miles east: “Bend there, done that.”

Karen Bonoff, West Linn

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Dear Rep. Whisnant:

I read the other day in a regional daily that you said, before the state gives more money to schools, the schools need to “be more efficient.”

With experience as a member of the Sisters School Board (though I am not speaking for the board, that’s for sure), I would like to extend an invitation: Would you please come on over and help us find some of those “efficiencies”?

We could sure use your help. The state PERS program is tearing us up, wages are not going down, energy costs are increasing and I just don’t know where you think these dollars are hidden.

Last year we cut five days out of the school year with the gracious agreement of our teachers and bus drivers and custodians and office personnel. Five days. They gave up a week’s worth of work.

Kinda like an additional little tax on our school employees, but you don’t have to call it a tax if you don’t want to. I understand that word is difficult for you to say.

Maybe, when you are here, you can explain to some of us who are really pretty conservative why a good public education is not an investment in the future of Oregon.

Is it not a good thing to have an educated work force? Aren’t they more productive, more competitive in a world market? Isn’t opportunity good for democracy, too, replacing despair with hope that here in America, even the poor can succeed if they apply what they learn in our schools?

Rep. Whisnant, we here in Sisters have one of the better school districts in the state, with tremendous local support. The schools have been a factor in the economic expansion of our area. They could be even better. More money may not be the only answer, but I am fairly certain that less money per student, larger class sizes and fewer days in front of a teacher aren’t going to help that much either.

We are about to start the budget process this spring, so now would be a great time for you to get involved. Give me a call.

Eric Dolson

Editor’s note: Eric Dolson is the publisher of The Nugget.

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To the Editor:

I read with interest the article in the February 23 edition of The Nugget about the Hayden Homes development plan on 43 acres in northwest Sisters (“Development hits planning hurdle,” page 1).

I can’t believe the incompleteness of their plans. And especially do I wonder about the availability of electric power to all those dwellings. Central Electric Cooperative has just lost their fight to cross certain property in order to upgrade the power capability for the Sisters area.

The area is already critically short of power to electrify the existing homes and current developments not yet completed.

Diana Raske Lovgren

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To the Editor:

To the wonderful people of Sisters — thank you from the bottom of my heart.

I am the person who lost her best friend, Pattycakes. And now we have been reunited and are once again a happy pair. Pattycakes, by the way, is my 13-year-old basset hound who was lost for three days and nights.

She was found by the Redfields, to whom I am eternally grateful. I also wish to thank all the businesses around town who allowed me to post my missing dog flyers — I appreciate it so much. And you wonderful people of Sisters who called with great ideas for searching and tips on basset sightings. Thank you all so much.

I had strangers come up to my van painted with lost dog signs on it to express their concern and willingness to keep on the lookout.

I saw such warmth, caring and concern — it was overwhelming.

And above all to my sister Leslie who spent almost 10 hours posting flyers and three hours taking them down. We love you very much and look forward to walking with you on the wonderful trails around Sisters.

I have only been here for 17 months but I have never lived in a more generous and caring community. Pattycakes and I wish you all the best.

Hugs to you all from Mary Jo Swaner and Pattycakes.

Now, let’s find Maggie, the dachshund missing since February 16.

(See “Pet Place” on page 12).

Sincerely,

Mary Jo Swaner