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About Sandy post. (Sandy, Oregon) 1938-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 1978)
Editorial and Opinion No Fear; the paper w ill come through strike The Post advises its readers that we will continue to publish and distribute throughout any possible postal strike nationally. While the possibility of mail slowdown in the Sandy area appears remote, the fact remains that 80 percent of all Post readers get their copies in the mail. However, Sandy’s rural route carriers will not be affected by any union decision to strike, since they are locally contracted labor and not members of any postal crafts group. Sandy postal customers live on rural routes, so losing the in- town services of letter carriers (we never had) will have no adverse effects on delivery of The Post or the city. Creek and other postal areas could find the delay more troubling, so The Post will provide bundles of free papers at local markets in the event of a postal strike. In Boring, copies would be available at the two supermarkets, while Eagle Creek readers would find copies at the Eagle Creek grocery store next to the post office. Should delivery of The Post become unduly delayed in Sandy, additional free copies will be made available at the main office of Clackamas County Bank and at Oregon Trail Savings & Loan. We apologize for whatever in convenience these alterate delivery plans may cause our readers and ask our subscribers to bear with us in the event of a postal strike. (VB) Post readers in Boring, Eagle Is ‘coffee clatch’ a postal alternative ? Two women there decided two years ago to open their own version of a local post office. There is no home delivery or pick-up of letters, and the women leave packages to Uncle Sam and United Parcel to handle. The women simply open 8:30 to 5 p.m. and provide a will- call counter where individuals and businesses can pick up or drop off mail. station to pick up his mail. But then many rural postal customers there must drive miles, anyway, simply to pick up or deposit mail. Residents near Yellowstone Park generally drive to colorful Moose, Wyoming, to check their rental boxes at the post office. Maybe the ladies in Wyoming have a good idea with their no-frills mail service. They provide a place where neighbors get together mornings to talk over t. weather or the latest sale. But they show good business sense, too, in locating just across the street from the U.S. post office, where they can keep an eye on traffic flow enjoyed by the “competition.” When the intended recipient shows up, the letter is there waiting. Can’t beat the price, either. It costs just five cents to “mail” a letter, and businesses get special quotes on prices to send out monthly statements in bulk. We recall, too, that the ladies weren’t opposed to walking up and down the streets to drum up business for their mail service. Wonder if Jimmy Carter dropped in their shop to mail a letter on his recent visit to Jackson Hole . . .? (VB) Naturally, the service is adequate only for in-town use when a person is willing to come to the Chamber ready to assume public leadership? The Sandy Chamber of Com merce deserves to be commended for its recent stand on possible passage of the revised city budget Sept. 12. It’s about time that the chamber begins taking public stands on crucial civic issues, and hopefully this indicates a renewed leadership role for this group. The chamber indicated at its recent general meeting that members favor establishment of a citizens’ action committee for budget passage, to be named by the chamber’s board of directors. As one member stated, voter concern and response requires more kin dling than words of support and notices on upcoming elections in the newspaper. Concerned citizens must organize and campaign for issues they feel are important for the community. Sandy sits at a crossroad of change coupled with confusion, and someone must lead the parade. Growth, political discord and budget problems stagger the city. We commend the Chamber of Commerce for its visible in volvement and hope that it’s in dicative of things to come. (VB) Von Braschler, General Manager John Kline. Editor Caroline Duff, Office Manager Mark Floyd, Staff Reporter Kaye Barton, staff reporter Published weefcly Thursdoys by The Outlook Publishing Co Bo. 68 Sondy Oregon 97055 Second doss postage paid ot Sandy Oregon 668 5548 SUBSCRIPTION RATES In M ultnom ah and Clockomos Count,es per year »7 00 Servicemen ony oddress $7 00 In N orthwest ond Poc.fic Coost States o u N .d . Oregon per yeor q 0 Outside N orthw est ond Poo lie Coost states per year »1100 In Oregon outside Multnom ah and MfMBft Nt 1PÂ P ag ai ER Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association Sandy Poat Sandy, Oraagon 97055 r ByDAVID COIIEN Immediately after Labor Day, the House w ill face its first key test on whether it has learned any lessons from California’s Proposition 13 vote. The outcome of civil service reform w ill tell us whether Congress is ready to respond to citizens frustration and anger toward government by insisting on competent performance by our public servants. The C arter Adm in is tr a tio n ’ s le g is la tio n builds on the concept that citizens w ill receive effective government service only if it is im partially administered, provides incentives and rewards for outstanding p e rfo rm a n c e , p e rm its managers to manage, and provides employees with protection against political abuse. These free copies would be available to Post subscribers on an honor system. If you subscribe but find difficulty in receiving your weekly paper, please feel free to take a copy. Should Sandy postal clerks who sort the mail locally go on strike in the next week or so, the local post office could pull through with temporary help and management personnel. The mail might be delayed by a day or a half-day, but the mail will go out. The impending postal strike is reminiscent of a curious situation in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where housewives help to move the mail in a coffee-clatch atmosphere. House to consider civil service reforms Pepresented Notionolly by u s suburban press inc No 35 Aug 31, ;«7S a ... A “ I’m With Kennedy...We Ought To Have National Health Care If It Kills Us...” Letters to the editor Some Memories To the Editor: Recent letters to The Post have explored vignettes of Alder Creek May I dip my oar into the discussion since I am not exactly w earing three-corner pants and can dredge up memories? 1 recall the forest fire in 1926. the loggers had just begun to cut away trees at the edge of the forest and it was a hot summer day. My father had an acre of ground with a creek frontage which he purchased for $400. He built a two story house with lumber which only set him back $150 at the time. Since the fire was close to summer home sites, we were called and advised to remove anything of value from the cabin. Our neighbor, a deeply religious man, joined us in the journey, but first he called his practioneer and asked to pray for rain after a I « — h^hew^ we a rrive d , the woods, barely a quarter of a mile from the highway, had become a seething infero. Birds were screaming and it was a horrible sight. But before dawn the woods, were drenched w ith a heavy downpour which gave the firefighters relief. Tracks were then laid through the wilderness to haul the logs out of the forest. They were hauled to a m ill three miles away. On the hill overlooking the west slope of Alder Creek canyon one might often hear the toot of a steam whistle from a logging locomotive Some years ago I found the rotting ties left after the rails were removed Patches of alder had grown up on the right-of-way. But today all these scars have Sharons food King, been removed by the passage C a r ls o n ’ s C h e v r o le t’ of time. W illaim ’s Thriftw ay; Gios At the time the road from Ford; Decker’s Department Sandy was gravel. It was Store; Paola’s Pizza Bam; often oiled to cut down the Sandy Dairy Queen. dust and motorists would T h e ir c o n tr ib u tio n s swear when they heard the tar-like concoction coating enabled us to enter two their fenders. They would teams in the Columbia return home and scrape it Summer Basketball League. off. In our brave new world In addition, these sponsors they w ill pay to have a provided awards at our two very successful summer chassis undercoated. Sincerely, development camps. William Fenner I would like to include a (W illie of Welches) special thanks to Jim Wolf of Welches Oregon Athletic Equipment and Charlie Driggers of F ra n k Bashor A th le tic Supply for providing ad ditional awards for the summer camps. To the Editor: Your interest in basketball On behalf of the Sandy High School Boy’s Basketball and young athletes is greatly Program I would sincerely appreciated. Dennis Warren like to thank the following Head Basketball Coach Sandy businesses for their Sandy High School financial support: Thank You - Government employees’ unions and veterans’ groups are working overtime in the halls of Congress to maintain the present inflexible civil service. In candid moments, employees, managers and c iv il service experts acknowledge that the federal government is a bureau cratic maze which stifles the in itia tiv e of dedicated government employees while often failing to protect their rights. The accumulation of laws and regulations serves as a shield fo r non performance. Government is complex enough without permitting it to frustrate good managers by giving them insufficient a u th o rity to supervise personnel effectively. Nor should it continue to un derm ine dedicated c iv il servants by failure to reward th e ir outstanding per form ance. When m e rit violations take place with im p u n ity and pay and promotions are made on the basis of longevity rather than performance, our system clearly has to be changed. I f the House is concerned about the taxpayers’ revolt, it w ill face up to four key issues in c iv il service refo rm : (1) Establish a Senior Executive Service. The SES would designate up to 9200 s u p e rg ra d e e x e cu tive s w ithout adding to the g o v e rn m e n t’ s p a y ro ll. Entrance into the Service would be v o lu n ta ry for persons now at high levels Those who enter the Service would be eligible for bonuses for superior performance and would be removed for poor perform ance. The opponents of change are trying to block it with a proposal to lim it the SES to three departments on a two- year tria l basis. (2) Add protections for w histleblow ers. An in dependent counsel would be authorized to investigate allegations of im proper reprisals against those who blow the whistle on wrong doing within the government. This properly reverses past practice when government employees who revealed the existence of unlawful and improper behavior by their agencies too often became targets of agency reprisals. (3) M odify veterans’ preference. The effect of m o d if y in g v e te r a n s ’ preference w ill be to open greater opp ortu nities to qualified women, minorities, and young people while assisting those veterans most in need of help — the Vietnam era and the disabled veteran. (4) Oppose changing the Hatch Act. The Hatch Act is an essential protection against partisan p o litic a l interference with the civil service. I d a system based on performance, it becomes extraordinarily important to protect civil servants against such political interference. The most aggressive op ponents of c iv il service reform are at the same time trying to promote changes in the Hatch Act. These are unwise and irresponsible. The choice for the House is: w ill it be responsible in remedying many of the problems facing our civil service system and show that it is paying attention to voter d is s a t is f a c t io n w ith government performance, or w ill it continue to cave in to the intense pressures from ve teran s’ groups and governm ent employees’ unions who have a stake in a status quo that results in poor government per formance? Cohen is president Common Cause. of - # From other editors: RV fuel plea has selfish ring Testimony reported from a hearing in Portland on the p ossibility of gasoline ratio nin g was hard to believe. How can people be so dense! The Department of Energy was sponsoring the hearing on a contingency plan for gasoline rationing. The plan could cut o ff fuel for “ recreational vehicles.” That presumably includes everything from motor homes to dune buggies and snowmobiles. Because it is required by law, the government has been working up a stand-by their allocated fuel for RV program fo r gasoline travel People could use their rationing even though no one individual gas allocations for in the administration, as far anything they wanted If, as is known, is actually however, they wanted to use contemplating putting such a up their allocation on a plan into effect. The plan is weekend of racing motor- intended as something to fall boats. they might not be able back on in case of a severe to drive to work the following gasoline shortage of the kind Monday. that might be caused by a renewed war in the Middle East. Tourism and travel in dustry representatives were reported to have told the hearing that no matter what, a rationing plan should not cut off fuel for RV’s. One spokesman said the plan was unfair because it would hit the travel industry harder than any other And he worried that the disruption of the travel industry because EPA A d m in is t r a t o r of lack of fuel would have a Douglas Costle explained the change this way: “ Dropping disastrous effect on Oregon Another spokesman denied the highway and combined removes that that “ recreational travel’’ ratings was a luxury Instead, he irresistible but human urge said, it’s an “ integral part of to accept the highest num bers available in buying a American life.” car Publishing only the What do these people think lowest number should help would happen to the rest of the economy and the rest of make customer expectations more realistic. the country if we had a fuel shortage of such dimensions T he E n v ir o n m e n ta l that rationing had to be Protection Agency is going to started as a last resort9 It issue only one mileage rating takes a singular kind of for 1979 cars instead of one blindness to talk of damage each for highway and city to the travel industry or of d riv in g and a combined travel as a way of life in average of the two, as in the circumstances that surely past The new miles-per- would involve dramatic and gallon quotation w ill be d is a s t r o u s c h a n g e s based only on city driving throughout the country It’s a sign of our selfish times that representatives of one special interest would dare go before a public hearing and say, in effect, 'We don't care what happens to the rest of the country in a gasoline emergency as long as we get ours." Albany Democrat Herald From other editors: EPA sees some progress with cars The proposed gas rationing plan, of course, wouldn't prevent people from using This is progress, but not enough “This is not a fin al solution This single rating is a temporary step It's the most immediate action we can take to make the 1979 ratings more accurately reflect consumer experience. We are continuing to con sider possible changes in the program that w ill make the ratings more representative of actual driving conditions.” I t ’s the latter point that people care about. Most d rive rs get much worse mileage than predicted in the EPA estimates The announced change represents progress in the sense of reducing the number of fictional figures EPA will be posting on the window sticker But the important thing is to try to make what is printed come closer to real life “ consumer experience ” — Eugene Register Guard
