Letters to the Editor 06/01/2005

To the Editor:

Politically, I admit to having been rather apathetic most of my life. I have observed many charming and beautiful towns slowly change into generic ones in America, as unguided “free enterprise” showed its effect like weeds in a lawn. I did nothing except complain!

Many of us may have noticed this effect on the places we love and often take for granted. And now we, the people who live here in Sisters, have a chance to speak up about what we want for the future of our town, our home. Now is the time to speak up.

Our City Council listens to this community, provided we say something. These wise gentlemen are talented in many ways, but they are not mind-readers. Now is the time to speak up to them and direct your town’s future.

On June 9, The so-called Formula Food Ordinance, which limits the number of Corporate Franchise Fast-Food Restaurants to four will be presented for ratification to the Sisters City Council. This ordinance has been very carefully written by the Sisters Planning Commission and it was unanimously passed by that board on May 14 to the enthusiastic applause of over 50 citizens and business owners present.

This proposed ordinance does not stop free enterprise as Mr. Kevin L. Dumas suggests in his Guest Editorial in last week’s Nugget. With careful forethought, this ordinance seeks to guide our town’s future so that it might retain its remarkable character, its personable and charming livability, so that true local free enterprise may thrive here without being dominated by giant outsider corporations.

It is my understanding that the ordinance does not punish the existing “franchise” restaurants now in place here, they are “grandfathered in.” These businesses are supportive members of our community and the language of the ordinance supports them. What it does seek to do is simply slow down the chances of Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy’s, KFC, and the like from building here, at least for awhile.

Please take a moment to inform Eileen Stein at City Hall what your wishes are. Call her at 549-6022, or e-mail City Hall at [email protected]

John Simpkins

To the Editor:

After reading the guest editorial by Kevin Dumas (The Nugget, May 25, page 2), I was inspired to comment.

Mr. Dumas, you have quite a flowery vocabulary. At times I had to re-read your paragraph-long sentences to try to understand what exactly it was you were trying to put across. I got the point that in your opinion you measure progress and a free economy by how many formula food restaurants there are in a community. In my opinion, progress and a free economy expands to encompass all businesses in a community.

The only limit the city of Sisters is asked to consider is the issue of having only four formula-food restaurants. And the community has been able to express their opinions in order to guide the city fathers in making a decision that will suit the majority of residents. Government has been asked to make a decision but we the people are guiding the decision. Isn’t that called Democracy?

As far as “denying an individual access to a fair and equal opportunity,” look at the Depot Deli, Seasons, Ali’s, Bronco Billy’s, just to name a very few. They are all unique to Sisters. You talk about free enterprise, in my opinion, those are the restaurants that have really emulated free enterprise, building a business from the ground up, not standing on someone else’s advertisement or someone else’s reputation.

You talk a lot about freedom of choice. We have four places just to get a bottle of wine, we have six places just to get a cup of coffee. And the prices are competitive. Isn’t that free enterprise?

Mr. Dumas I don’t know what brought you to Sisters in the first place but obviously you should be in a bigger city. I came from a big city and I like the small home town community we have. I do not feel that any of my “inalienable rights” have been limited in any way and I will tell you this, if I felt that I did not have the number of choices I wanted or felt that I could not afford to be here or felt any kind of “tyranny from the majority,” then I would pack up and move on down the road.

Sandy Marlow

s s s

To the Editor:

Yes I think formula fast food restaurants should be restricted in the City of Sisters. They should meet the same restrictions that we place on any business choosing to locate in our fair city.

Developing special restrictions to exclude specific types of businesses is a step down a slippery slope. What might we choose to limit next? Gas stations. Grocery stores. Newspapers. Tire stores. Banks. Motels. Real Estate firms. Gift stores. How about churches? You can certainly make a case that we are adequately provided for by the existing business that provide these services to us now.

Do I think that the spread of large corporate business is going to be the ultimate demise of the small ma and pa’s? Yes, I certainly do. Large corporations are owned by stockholders like you and me and we all demand that they make a profit. We are the customers that these large corporations derive their profits from.

In other words we the people are the problem, not the large corporate businesses. We are the problem, as a very large percentage of us speak out of both sides of our mouths at the same time. We are tickled to death when our McDonald’s stock takes a big jump and aren’t we pleased with ourselves when, after hours of shopping, we find the lowest price on a new TV at Wal-Mart, or on a new hammer at Home Depot.

But by golly, don’t you dare think of putting one of those awful things in my back yard. I firmly believe we should support our little town’s independent businesses, but then again, I too speak out of both sides of my mouth at the same time. At least I recognize it and I am attempting to change.

Thank you Mr. Baldwin for providing the picture of a Norway McDonald’s showing that they can nicely fit into any community when given proper guidance by zoning ordinances and development codes.

In an attempt to save my 35-year marriage, I should disclose that the above statements solely represent the opinions of the author and not necessarily those of my better half.

Phil Frye

s s s

To the Editor:

I happened to be at the Sisters Post Office and witnessed what could have been a very bad situation: An uncontrolled and unleashed big dog meeting three toddlers face-to-face on the city sidewalk.

The dog in question was a loving black lab that probably did not have a mean bone in her lovely old body, but you couldn’t tell that to the frightened toddlers as the tail-wagging lab ran up to them.

One child went bananas and ran to her mom for solace, while the other two struggled to stay cool — but you could tell they were also very worried. The owner of the lab attempted to grab the dog’s collar, but said dog was so thrilled at meeting the little ones that she was impossible to stop by voice command.

Translate that loving — but frightening — experience to a dog with a much different personality and attitude and you have a disaster in the making.

There is a leash law in Sisters, Deschutes County and Deschutes National Forest which, I am sad to say is disregarded by a lot of people who don’t care what their dogs do and others who think it’s cool to walk their dog off the leash. I meet them — and their wandering dogs — all too often throughout town, the forest and surrounding BLM lands.

If the county sheriff is going to patrol the streets of Sisters their work is cut out for them: Put a stop to uncontrolled dogs BEFORE a catastrophe takes place and everyone makes the front page of The Nugget. Please dog owners, have respect for those who don’t know your dog is a loving pet — keep it on a leash when off the home range.

Jim Anderson

s s s

To the Editor:

Many of us have watched with dismay as Central Oregon Community College has been forced, due to budget cuts, to withdraw more and more from Sisters.

The college still offers local classes and is even working with the Sisters School District to develop a plan to hold COCC college credit classes at the Sisters High School. But it was forced to withdraw staffing from the heavily used Sisters college center two years ago. Now COCC has had to withdraw the local staff person who up until recently worked out of the SOAR office one day a week. That individual now has to work all her hours in a Bend office of COCC.

A few of us would like to see if there are any other Sisters residents who would like to find a way to get some kind of COCC office back in the community. We are thinking of trying to hold a Strategy Session with interested parties to look for ways to find grant money that could help achieve such a goal. We also need to connect with other organizations in Sisters who offer educational opportunities to see how a COCC presence could improve access to all educational opportunities for all interested parties.

If you would be interested in helping in any way with such a project, please contact me, Jean Nave at 549-8755. When we have heard from some of you we will set up a time and place to gather and explore possibilities.

Jean Nave

s s s

To the Editor:

I am writing this letter because recently I’ve seen a big change in our — or what used to be our — community.

We live on a road that has several homes on it which basically used to be a farm community. The school busses pick up the children from our road on Highway 126 so we drive to the end of our road, park and wait for the bus twice a day.

Friday, May 27, I was waiting for the bus with my six-year-old grandson. We were standing beside our pickup when a couple in a Hummer came down our road and stopped beside us. The man got out of the Hummer and asked if he could help me.

I told him no thanks, we were waiting for the bus. On the side of the road where we were waiting is a flower bed.

The man proceeded to ask me, so what happens when the bus gets here, which I thought to be a strange question and asked if this is my car and what happens to the car when the bus comes. He said, “I thought you might be stealing our flowers.”

How humiliating and embarrassing. I told him I didn’t need his flowers so he turned around and returned to his Hummer.

As far as I’m concerned you Hummer-driving folks that have moved into our community with your rudeness and nerve to humiliate anyone can take your money, politics and rudeness back to where you came from. If having money gives you the right to treat people this way, to me it’s worthless.

We are, and us locals will continue to be, the polite, friendly and welcoming people that made this community the place people dream of living in.

Not only was I humiliated, but by his comment, that meant I was having my six-year-old grandson steal. When he left my grandson said, “Did that man think we were stealing flowers Grandma?”

Shame on you, mister!

Marilyn Harrison

s s s

To the Editor:

There’s a strange cognition virus infecting the brains of many people these days: mistaking belief for fact. One writer citing President Bush’s hypocrisy of his views on stem cell research cited Bush’s support of the death penalty as proof. Bush has long declared that he supported the death penalty because, “I believe it deters murder.” Yet at least 40 years of studies prove that the death penalty does not deter capital crime. But Bush believes it does, so his belief allows him to discard fact and cling to a false view of reality.

In the May 25 Nugget, Lorene Richardson adds her own Creationist twist to this strange malady.

She, like many, apparently doesn’t believe in evolution despite the mountains of biological, zoological, geological, chemical, and DNA empirical evidence that buttress the theory.

Ms.

Richardson complains that teaching evolution and censuring the “scientific” information of Intelligent Design in the education of children is “ethically dishonest.” But there is no “scientific” evidence to support Intelligent Design despite what Ms.

Richardson believes.

The Creationists are so desperate to sell their silly fairy tale, that they’ve glommed on to Intelligent Design to “prove” that life forms are so complicated and perfectly conceived, that only some form of “Intelligence” (read God) could have created life.

Well, if some “Intelligence” created life through Intelligent Design, how does one explain the millions of species who have become extinct since life evolved on the planet? Indeed every year thousands of species become extinct. How intelligent is a design that would allow this to happen?

R.T. Tihista