County missed an opportunity

The Deschutes County Commissioners should have gone ahead with their discussion of issues related to Sisters Eagle Airport, instead of canceling it after it had been announced (see story, page 1).

While it's true that the shape of a proposed state-recognized airport boundary remains undetermined - and thus any discussion would have been speculative - the commissioners would have nevertheless benefitted from a thorough briefing on issues that are of significant interest to their constituents in this part of Deschutes

County.

The County may ultimately have little or no jurisdiction over airport activities in the Sisters area - but the residents who are affected by those activities are still the constituents of the County commissioners. Those constituents need to know that their elected representatives are at least interested in the issues that affect them.

A sense of disenfranchisement is rife in America right now. Across the political spectrum, many people feel not only that their voice is not heeded, but that it's not even heard. The belief that government is by and for the connected and the special-interests instead of by and for the people is spreading. The Deschutes County Commissioners had an opportunity to show a different face of government to their constituents - and they missed it.

Jim Cornelius, News Editor