Letters to the Editor 11/04/2015

To the Editor:

Your October 13 article on the two emergency air transport services in our area was informative, and I am truly grateful to have these professional emergency services available to us in Sisters Country. I have great respect and admiration for the medical and aircrew personnel and for the lifesaving work done by both Life Flight and AirLink.

I am, however, less enthusiastic about the membership arrangements needed for these two services. As discussed in the article, one must buy full membership in both services to ensure that the cost of an emergency air evacuation will be covered. If a family has signed up with only one company, they may discover in an emergency that the response comes from the other - resulting in huge out-of-pocket costs despite thinking they were insured against this.

I do in fact subscribe to both services for the reasons above. But this is essentially paying double for a single product. If hypothetically only two auto-insurance companies existed, and drivers were obliged to pay full premiums to both because it was uncertain which company might cover an accident, I doubt that arrangement would be acceptable to consumers.

The obvious solution is reciprocal membership. In this arrangement, membership in one service would cover an emergency response by either provider, with appropriate cost reimbursements exchanged between the two companies afterwards. Although the companies were described as "working toward" reciprocity, there is significant financial dis-incentive for either company to do so. This is because it would almost immediately cut revenues in half for each of them - as dual subscribers would quickly shift to membership in just one service.

To mitigate this financial downside for the companies, I would not mind paying more for a single membership with reciprocity - if it would eliminate the awkward redundancy and doubled cost of having two memberships. I would be interested in hearing more in the future about real progress being made toward reciprocity by Life Flight and

AirLink.

Bruce Williams

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To the Editor:

The Sisters High School (SHS) astronomy class has created a Dark Skies Survey to gather community input on the value of Sisters Country's dark skies. The survey can be found online at http://bit.ly/darkskiessurvey. (Click on address).

This survey was created for Sisters-area community members by the SHS astronomy class to gain an understanding of how much the community values having dark skies and how well community members understand the local dark skies ordinances.

While any question may be skipped, we greatly appreciate your input. All responses will remain anonymous. Once the data has been analyzed, the outcome of the survey will be shared with the community. We hope as many community members as possible will give their input. The survey will be open November 4 through November 11.

Rima Givot

SHS science teacher

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To the Editor:

I would ask Mr. Mackey (Letters to the Editor, October 28) what he thought of the previous president presiding over the second-worst financial disaster in this country's history, and invading Iraq for the search for weapons of mass destruction that were never found.

Talk about a bamboozler and bumbler.

Oh, and you do realize that Obama has taken less vacation and signed fewer executive orders than Dubya, as well? Who really failed to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution?

Jim Williams

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To the Editor:

I was disappointed to read recently that a visitor from Tualatin to Harvest Faire this year had a negative reaction to a barking dog incident. He was apparently also distressed by a "gentleman parading three greyhounds." As the escort for the greyhounds in question, I wanted to assure our visitor that we meant no stress to anyone. We walk only along the outside edge of the event, never wishing to crowd anyone.

Rather than "parading," perhaps a better description might have been "campaigning." These three greyhound ambassadors are in fact on a mission to enlighten anyone who will listen to their story about how they raced like the wind (which they do very easily and enjoy it). And how at the end of their commercial value to racing, they are deemed surplus and available for adoption at the age

of 4 or 5.

Sadly, there are 30,000 available each year and only about 5,000 find adoptive homes. The remainder are euthanised or worse, by the very same folks who made so much money from them. So, these three greyhounds have vowed to attend as many outdoor activities as they can, and spread the word, to try to save more of their friends still at the track. "Maybe if people see how gentle, and affectionate we are, they will want to have a greyhound of their own," they will say to you with their big brown eyes. Or just lean against your leg and allow you to pet them (that's caused a few adoptions)!

Finally, if you are still set on the idea of parading greyhounds, you are in luck. The Sisters Holiday Parade on November 28 will include a group of 15 to 20 colorfully dressed hounds PARADING down Main Avenue to welcome Santa and the holiday season.

Next time you see us, be sure to stop and chat.

Jeff Omodt

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To the Editor:

I wanted to comment on your article about the irrigation district in the October 21 edition. The comment attributed to Marc Thalacker about the drought of 1977 was the first I've seen in print. My husband and I owned Three Creeks Lake Store at that time, and the employee for the ranch, which had the lake water rights, would come up, open the weir and my husband would shut it the next day or so.

He came back up to ask what happened; no water was getting down to the ranch. The water in the lake was down to the natural level, as it is now (because the State Water Board deemed the dam too dangerous to be used a few years ago).

We were accustomed to the lake level just below the front of the store. One of our sons, who was running the store that summer, built the rock wall that still exists to prevent more erosion.

That summer there was a small fire (campfire-sized) on the face of the rim. 25 female fire crew climbed up and put it out before the smoke-jumpers got up there. Jumpers landed on the beach. Great history!

Cathy Pittman

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To the Editor:

KZSO (formerly 94.9 FM Sisters Oregon Community Radio) would like you to sign this petition to save our hometown station.

Due to an FAA & FCC error in protocol, our frequency was reassigned to another station here in Central Oregon with only a 48-hour notice to us.

We would like the Sisters Country community and any involved with community radio projects to join us in resolving this ASAP and returning to our original frequency of 106.5 FM. We need your support in showing that this resource and its Web-content of school, local, and regional events are valued and supported. Thank you for your vote!

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/save-sisters-community-radio-kzso

(Link available below)

Michael Richards