Letters to the Editor 07/15/2009

To the Editor

Dogs...

To a certain dog owner in Sisters: I have a couple of requests.

Number one, if it was your fair-sized white and brown dog running loose (and repeatedly I might add) that drug home an elk skull and jaw bones that I had in my flower beds I'd like them back.

I live on the same block in Sisters that Ponderosa Properties and Sisters Coffee sit on if that's of any help for figuring out proximity to where I live and where you live. My wife spotted your dog a couple of times coming over and attempting to drag off the skull but it always ran off when she went outside.

Number two, please keep your dog in its own yard from now on or on a leash. Despite what you might think of your Fido, it has wanderlust, and was a long ways from your home. It is unlike any known local dog I have seen in my immediate neighborhood.

Unfortunately, despite my efforts to secure the skull, your loose dog-at-large finally succeeded in running off with it while I was away. So... if it's at your house I'd like it back provided there is anything left of it and not chewed to pieces. Please call me, Steve, at 549-7311.

If I never get a response and I catch your dog over here again you'll have to get it back from the pound. I have had more than enough dog-at-large nonsense in this neighborhood in the 20 years I've lived here, so its high time for all you local dog owners to start being responsible.

If you cannot be responsible for your dog then you have no business whatsoever in owning one, as it's almost always the irresponsible owners at fault and not the dogs.

Steve Allely

•••

To the Editor:

"City mulls gas tax" read the headline in the July 6 Nugget.

It appears the City of Sisters wants to increase our taxes and yet at the same time wants us to buy locally. Let's look at buying diesel locally, shall we?

In Sisters this past week diesel was selling for as much as $2.759 per gallon and yet just 18 miles away in Bend you could buy the same gallon of diesel for $2.559. That is 20 cents per gallon for the delivery folks to drive that gallon of diesel 18 miles and fill the storage tanks at the Sisters service stations.

Now let's add 3 cents per gallon to the cost of the diesel and we have now reached $2.789 per gallon. I don't believe for a moment the dealers will absorb the 3 cents. You will pay for it.

Let's play with the math a little, OK? If you average 18 miles per gallon on the highway between Bend and Sisters and you drive 15,000 miles per year, it will cost you $2,132.49 to fill up in Bend for the year (15,000 miles / 18 mpg = 833.333 gallons x $2.559 = $2,132.4999) versus filling up in Sisters, where it would cost you $2,324.16 (15,000 miles / 18 mpg = 833.333 gallons x $2.789 = 2,324.1657).

You will save $191.6666 a year filling up in Bend. Diesel shouldn't cost 20 cents a gallon more in Sisters than Bend, and when it does not, then I'll buy it locally.

Hey, I know what I'll do; with that savings I should be able to pay my school bond levy!

Dave Kane