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About Sandy post. (Sandy, Oregon) 1938-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 6, 1981)
The Sandy Post Von Braschler. Publisher Caroline Duff Office Manager Editorial & Opinion Mark Floyd. Editor Dan Dillon, News Editor SANDY OREGON THURSDAY. AUGUST 6. 1981 Does Postal Service really listen? The U S. Postal Service has come a long way from the days of the penny “ pony e x p re ss.’’ Some might say they’ve gone too far. Those were the days when dedicated young riders would wear their horses into the ground for two cents worth of postage. With rising prices, two cents might sound cheaper than it was. Many readers probably remember three and five cent postcards not long ago, when the Postal Service had gotten things out of the horse and buggy days with automation, planes and trains. Now rising labor costs and public demand for faster service drive the cost higher perennially. U S. Postmaster Geneal William Bolger says a 23-cent stam p for first-class delivery may be possible by next year. The new' 18-cent stam p just isn’t producing enough revenue, especially with recent concessions in recent labor negotiations that nearly ended in a national mail strike The Postal Service like any na tionalized monopoly gets its way, of course. Postal patrons in Canada have witnessed the m ailcarrier’s stranglehold there, where the only way to get a letter through the strike line is by hand over the border and then east or west across the U S. to another border town where another Canadian can cross the border to pick it up. But that’s what happens when you nationalize a monopoly and then allow labor to organize against the public they serve. We’re not complaining about the devoted effort of public servants locally, but the bureaucrats and big labor leaders who rule the roost from on high. It could be worse. We could be s a d d le d w ith n a tio n a liz e d telephone companies, power com panies and oil companies. It could be better, too, since we already suf fer with nationalized passenger railroad. Those who still argue that government can provide public ser vices cheaper and better haven’t been paying attention lately. The U P S. vans deliver the bulk of the packages today, and do so cheaper and faster. Locally the U S, Postal Service has an excellent chance to prove they’re still in the business of public service with concern for community preference on their new post office site. To date the city council’s 1978 p etitio n for local downtown b u s in e s s d e liv e ry h as gone unanswered. Now the regional of fice s k ir ts the c ity ’s long- del iberated Comprehensive Plan with hints any new Sandy post of fice may have to be situated out side the downtown core area. The council is trying not to sound dictatorial in suggesting specific sites, but would like to be con sidered local advisors in the plann ed move. After all, the Postal Ser vice invited their advice. Now they should listen, especially since any conditional use permit for any new post office here must be reviewt»d by the local city council. Council members are concerned i®i?éi V**’ FEATuíí? about traffic and trucks, access from east, west and secondary roads plus walking distance for downtown business persons who Letters to the presently have no in-town delivery. Moreover, they’d like to see (he downtown core area of Sandy maintained and not gutted by aban donment of service centers who City eyes PO site move down the strip within a We would like to set the stone’s throw of town. record straight on our in Like dumping a 23-cent stam p on volvement and that of the Ci o u r la p s , d u m p in g S an d y ty Council with the Postal concerning the con downtowners would show a blatant Service struction of a new post office lack of sensitivity to the public they in Sandy and the request lor serve, their community and their local delivery service It appears there is at least needs. We expect more one in our community who They fed the horses right. The feels that the local communi feds will treat us right, too, we ty should not be involved in the decisions ot the post of hope (VB) OUR NEWEST BI6 IDEA: THE DOTTYOUBSELF STAMP.' iil Hydro, postal site draw reader focus Salem scene: State woes mirror 1963 JACK ZIMMERMAN Associated Oregon Industries As the 61st Legislative Assembly finally neared adjournment in Salem, a veteran of the process remarked the session was a re run of the struggles experienced by the 52nd Assembly back in 1963 Indeed, there are similarities as there are between nearly all biennial meetings of Oregon lawmakers Those that tie 19G3 and 1981, however, are quite striking While the play is much the same, the cast has changed substantially Several prin cipals are still around however, and they bear mentioning at the outset In a lead role then was present Gov. Victor Atiyeh He was completing his third term in the House of Representatives In addition to running successfully for the Senate the following year. he campaigned strongly for a revenue- increase plan No other House members were serving then, bu, three members of the current Senate served in that chamber during the 1963 session E D i Debbsi Potts i D-Grants Pass) was a second session freshman, and Edward Eadely 11) Eugene) and Ted Hallock 11) Portland' were experiencing their first in unbroken strings of sessions marking continuous service in the upper chamber Some issues regularly haunt nearly every session of Oregon’s Assembly notably taxes and funding for public education Compensation for injured workers and unemployment pay also have been subjects for review each session for more than four decades Perhaps the biggest issue linking 1963 to this year was a economy that failed to generate enough revenue from taxes to ade quately fund the 1961 63 biennium lawmakers came to Salem on January 14, 1963 facing a $14 5 million deficit Republican Gov Mark Hatfield was pro posing a general fund budget for the new biennium amounting to $405 million, com pared with the $.366 million budget approved in 1961 Democrats then, as now, controlled both House and Senate Gov Hatfield had directed a special interim study seeking workers’ compensation reform Public education was in need of additional state support to relieve a growing burden on pro perty taxes lawmakers of the 52nd Assembly labored long to solve the problems they faced so long in fact the 1963 session became the longest in history by substantial margin It lasted until June .3. extending into that sum mer month for the first time and eclipsing editor: Legislative Report from the State Capital E XCLUSIVE to Oregon's Weekly Newspa pers from Associated Oregon Industries the previous longest session of 1957 by 13 days The 1957 session lasted 128 days, while the 1963 struggle continued for a total of 141' Workers' compensation was not substan tially reformed, but taxes were temporari ly Gov Hatfield succeeded in obtaining tax increases that would have produced the then significant additional sum of $60 million The plan included personal and cor porate income tax boosts, and employers were saddled with more frequent payment of withholding taxes to achieve a one-shot revenue gain Biggest reason the 1963 session lasted as long as it did was reluctance in the House of Representatives to send out a tax program that would jeopardize the political careers of those then serving Voters have a tenden cy to be unforgiving after tax increases, and lawmakers know it. Democrats owned a narrow majority (31 29' in the House and needed liberal Republican support to send a package to the Senate, controlled 21-9 by Democrats That’s coincidentally close to the 22 8 margin by which Demos rule the 1981 upper chamber The 1963 Senate didn't buy the original House tax package, prolonging that session until a compromise emerged The compromise achievement was short lived, however, because the personal and corporate income tax proposals were refer red by initiative petition and soundly trounded by a more than three to-one margin during a special election Oct 15 The tax defeat prompted a special session the following month when lawmakers sue ceeded in extracting $12 million by again changing the withholding tax procedure for employers and giving Gov Hatfield authori ty to further reduce school support and spending to balance the budget In the process of all this wrangling, a general sales tax. hotel motel tax and cigarette tax all were considered and aban doned In each case they emerged from the House and were scuttled in the Senate fice concerning these two issues All of the City Coun cil, as well as the mayor, were elected by the citizens of Sandy to represent them on issues that affect our community We don't recall anyone in the Postal Service ever being elected to repre sent the interests of our local com in unity The issue of a new post of fice for Sandy is not new to the City Council, and the Council has dealt with it for more than three years In April, 1978, the City Council sent a petition to the U.S Postal Service recommen ding a new post office for Sandy and outlining the deti ciencies of the existing post office Since that time, the city has been actively involved in pursuing a new post office for our community The city has, in fact, been working very cooperatively with the post office Representatives of the city and Post Service have me,, and the Postal Service representatives re quested our advice on the location of a new post office in Sandy It was agreed that the City Council would establish a set of policies and serve in an advisory role to the Postal Service in making its deci sion on a new location The Council w ill not be mandating a particular loca tion, but attempting to assist the Postal Service by pro viding local advice that they would no, otherwise have, since the representatives from the Postal Service who are making the decision on the new location are from outside our community It is w ith th is con t inued cooperative spirit that we are working to assist the Post Service in its decision concerning a new location In response to the concern that we are not qualified to deal with this decision, we would only point to the hun dreds of hours that were spent preparing the com m u n ity ’s Comprehensive Plan and the untold hours we spend on similar issues of com m unity wide interest We truly believe that the location of the post office is an important part of our community, and that the Ci ty Council should be involved in assisting in that decision Another major interest of our community on which the city has been working is the issue of local delivery Since April 2, 1978. we have been working with the Postal Ser vice in an attempt to get local delivery service for the city of Sandy On April 3, 1978, a fte r considerable discussion by our communi ty, the city filed a petition with the Postal Service for local delivery Since that time we have written many letters, work ed w ith a v a rie ty of representatives and even performed special studies and mapping at our own ex pense After three years we have not received any final word from the Postal Ser vice about our request Since the downtown area does not have local delivery, the businesses and many others in Sandy must get their mail from the post office We feel the location of the post office is an important decision for our community The location of a post office o u tsid e of the c ity 's downtown walking area and the subsequent use of auto traffic for post office access would have a major impact on our community As Coun cil members we are concern ed and will continue to ex press our concern about these issues Don Blair City Council member Deane Wesselink City Council member Let public know I have been a land owner in the Sandy River Gorge in Multnomah County since 1941 I greatly appreciated your two reports on the pro posed dam and development on B o uld er C reek, a tribu tary of the Salmon River and the Sandy River system by Steven Sweitzer It is a pity that notification of people affected in the river basin is not made man datory in Oregon After all, Oregon is uniquely a riverine state, and all Oregonians live and are affected by river syste m s: W illa m e tte , Rogue, Deschutes, Wilson, Sandy, Hood, Owyhee, etc Activities that affect the environment at any one point, almost certainly will affect ,t at most other points along the river basin, both up and down As it is, a “ hearing” or notification only has to go to those living within a quarter or half mile of the project Thus these conditional-use permits often are “ slipped by,“ and affected citizens above and below by many miles or across a county line wake up to a fait accompli It seems to happen time and time again, and only an alert press and citizens con stantly on the prowl to pick up the news that something is about to happen (that is, if they’re lucky), prevent a rip off Twice I have been down to Salem to testify against HB 2730 that slipped through the House almost unnoticed and was sent to the Senate Com mittee on Agriculture and Natural Resources The same Steve Sweitzer testified that he wanted to spend $960,000 tor a dam on Boulder Creek, if only the law could be changed to allow unlimited impound m ent and rem ove the m in im u m flo w re quirements. I suspect that this present application may be his fa ll back position At a minimum it represents a foot in the door and will almost certain ly be followed by other power projects and diver sions and developments that will inevitably spoil the San dy River as a vital fishery resource, as well as the natural beauty area that we are a ll so proud of. Remember, tourism is our third largest industry. I hope the people of the en tire region hear about this and will rise up against the application with letters and testimony Be at the hearing and w rite the Planning Board in Oregon City, as well as the Water Resources Board in Salem, so they may clearly understand you! Do it now or it may be too late! Arch W Diack Boring L E T T E R S P O LIC Y : The Post asks that all letters to the editor be typed, double-spaced and signed. Deadline is noon, Tuesday, letters should be accurate, free of libelous remarks and in good taste. Guest editorial: Rep. Weaver fights to ban log exports by JIM WEAVER U.S. Congressman. Uh Disl. An economic wound is bleeding the Northwest’s economy to death I refer, of course, to the export from this region of two to three billion board feet of unmilled logs every year With sawmills already standing idle because of high interest rates, we continue to allow the export of logs instead of em ploym ent- producing lumber and plywood to Japan and East Asia I ^ t me review some of the reasons why I feel so strongly about this issue Every log that goes out of this country without being milled into fin is h e d lu m b e r or plyw ood represents direct job losses suffered by our economy Somewhere else workers w ill be turning our forest resources into high value finished products and e n rich in g th e ir economy by that amount It is incredible to think that we would make tax funded investments in managing our public timber and then allow that public timber to be exported through a loophole in the law. We ought to be concerned with the export of private timber as well Ex ports from any source diminish the logs available to the Northwest's mills and push the price up for stum- page With all the cries about an im pending timber shortage, echoed by many of the major timber exporting corporations, one would think these very same companies would be keeping their logs home and suppor ting legislation that would require everyone else to do so. But they don't, and it is obvious that private timber owners w ill not give up exporting logs until we close our borders against the bleeding of this prized resource Within the Pacific Rim trading area, the Northwest is blessed with a unique resource in its fine grained, old growth sawtimber Nowhere else is there the quality or quantity of timber available here If we banned log exports, the Japanese would not be able to replace that loss with Siberian timber as many exporters claim The Russian timber is too difficult to access, is prim arily low quality larch and is encumbered with a host of political problems cut lumber to Japanese specifica tions. pay the shipping costs and still be competitive with the products of Japanese mills Further, New Zealand does not have the capacity to supply the volume needed by the Japanese, and the Far Eastern hardwoods do not have the qualities of our old growth softwoods. Canadians could not replace our logs either, because they have wise ly banned the export of unprocessed logs since 1905. If, out of spite, the Japanese replaced the log volume we supplied with Canadian lumber imports, the Northwest would still benefit Since Canada now supplies the U S with 29 percent of the lumber we consume, a diversion of Canadian lumber to Japan would allow the Northwest to supply a greater portion of the eastern U S. market with lumber But no one is willing to invest in such an operation when he or she knows that the Japanese w ill prefer to buy logs, and that trade barriers exist that prevent the free flow of U S milled lumber to Japan It is claimed that this is a free trade issue Yet the Japanese sub sidize their mills, and the U S gives tax benefits for log exports Nor thwest millowners say they could Log exporters say we should negotiate such issues, not legislate them This is absolutely ludicrous' We have waited ten years for fruitless negotiations with the Japanese to result in any sustained or significant increase in exports of American finished lumber The Japanese are willing to pro tect their workers and their small businesses by supplying them with logs at almost any cost It is a political issue in Japan, and their politicians respond to their consti tuents At the same time, our mills sit idle, unprotected by elected officials and suffering from false arguments about free trade
