The Sflncfy Post
Editorial & Opinion
Von Broschier Publisher
Corolme Duff Office Monoger
Don Dillon Editor
Scott Newton News Editor
SANDY. OREGON THURSDAY AUGUST 26 ,982
Alternate finance SUHS answer?
Sandy High’s budget levy Sept.
21 looms as a critica l showdown
between school boosters and tax-
sensitive property owners over
continued operation of the school
The union high school failed in
an earlier attempt this year to
establish a new tax base and
recently joined only a handful of
state school districts who failed a
second serial levy try.
Kail sports are threatened by
possible supplemental B levy
failure Sept. 21 and the entire
school could close by the end of
September with failure of A levy
for basic operations.
A lte r n a tiv e fin a n c in g fo r
avoiding futu re budget levy
scares therefore sounds pertinent
for long-range planning
A universal sales tax on all
items except food and drugs
might prove logical successor to
property tax as prim ary local sup
port for schools. Property taxes
for schools discriminates against
citizens who own real estate.
Meanwhile, younger parents who
rent logically present best voting
support for continued school fun-
ding Maybe we should put these
renting parents behind the wheel
now, too
Another alternative, consolida
tion of SUHS and Sandy Elemen
tary School District, might save
taxpayers a bundle on busing
alone. Possibly there are other
duplications consolidation could
erase to save dollars.
A grassroots steering com mit
tee of form er area educators
could be formed to help review the
possibility of consolidation The
tw o d is tr ic t school boards
themselves couldn’t do it
Volunteerism as cost-cutting
measure in the school is another
a lte rn a tive w orth discussion
Staff teachers to save their jobs
m ight volunteer to serve as
coaches, monitors, chaperones
and advisors Much of the athletic
budget, for instance, could be
whittled by donation of time by
coaches and assistants If no staff
members volunteer to coach,
perhaps the school could fill in
with volunteer lay persons where
qualified. In fact, Sandy High is a
pioneer in creative use of outside
volunteers and could expand its
established program for greater
public involvement.
Public finance of large schools
like Sandy High is difficult these
austere times no m atter how you
slice it. The SUHS board may
have stepped on many sensitive
toes already to make the d istrict’s
crucial Sept. 21 levy palatable to
voters
It behooves all of us now to get
behind our public school to sup
port it during its hour of need and
share the task for planning to
avoid such pain in the future.
(VB)
Civic volunteer scarce commodity
A lady caller at The Post this
week questioned whether former
city councilman Bruce Cook legal
ly could serve on Sandy’s screen
ing committee to review city
manager candidates since mov
ing to Thomas Road on outskirts
of town.
Indeed, who can serve on city
advisory committees?
W hile some positions like
mayor or city council member re
quire residency within municipal
lim its, many advisory committee
appointments can be filled by non
residents The major qualification
is public concern
A boundary that separates
where you sleep from where you
work is no major concern What's
important is a strong sense of
community and service, so lack
ing these days of television ex
istentialism and solution less pro
blems
Will Sandy establish financial
security as a municipality with a
new tax base, as proposed? Will
Sandy continue to grow as a
bedroom or add new commerce
and local jobs? Should the ciy core
revitalize with floral landscaping
or western pioneer fronts? Will
the m unicipality be left holding
the bag over costs of a costly
Heritage Square parking lot? Will
Sandy be ruined by a proposed
shopping center near the Boring
interchange, with city hall fears
over lost business or possible
sewer demands on Sandy?
Why stand back and wait for
these results to roll over us like
vertical patterns on a sleepy
television9 Put in your two-cents
worth now by attending city
meetings and volunteering to get
involved any way you can
City hall and council members
always are looking for concerned
invididuals to share the load of
d e m o c ra tic
g o v e rn
ment whether you work here or
sleep here You, too, have a stake
(VB,
Salem scene:
‘Work-share’ may save jobs
1
hv JA, K Z IM M E R M A N
A««<xiated Oregon Industrie*
Recent election campaign rhetoric to the
contrary. Gov Vie Atiyeh is doing positive
things to improve Oregon's economy
A previously little noted piece of legist«
lion, however, is Jus, now bearing frui, and
keeping significant numbers of workers on
Leqitlahvs Rspori «rom the State (.apital
their jobs to earn a living and paying
I K C L U S IV f lo Oregon « Weekly New-.pa
la x «
per« Iroro A« mm lated Oregon Industrie«
The measure, first introduce«! early <lur
ing the 1961 regular session nt the
Legislature at Gov Atiyeh s request deals must have been e ployed continuously for
wdh a concept known as work sharing and sis months or for a year on a part time
traces HL» beginning« to Europe in the basis
Twenties It was enacted first in this court
For example a firm needing a 20 per
try by the California Legislature as a cent reduction might lay off a fifth of its
hedge against feared large scale layoffs of work force As an alternative, the firm
public employes as a result of Proposition could reduce the hours of work for its total
13 Canada has the program on a national force by 20 percent An employe who
scale, and Arizona also has embraced usually earns $2 Mi a week would work four
work share legislation Heading before days Instead of five, receiving $164 In
( ongrMs ta a measure that would en
wages and a $3«» t tax exempt > work share
courage all statea to consider implements
benefit
Hon
Although proposed by Atiyeh early in
Mtmpty put. the Oregon work share plan
81, the »all languished in committee and
enables employers to avoid worker layoffs died when that record long session ended
or shutdowns by redo« mg work week» and Rising unemployment prompted the
spreading work among more employes
governor to try again during this year’s
Ils administered through (hr Employ
first special session in January and the
menl Division and enables employs* Io work share concept was included In
work fewer than norrnal twiurs ami receive another bill enacted and became effective
oitmpfoyrrimf benefits for Ihe (»slant r
a little more than a month ago
Interested employer» need only apply to
la it working0
(he Employment Division of the l»ep-rt
Employment Division already reports IS
men« »if Human Resources in Salem employers at 42 business locaUons have
(T7S5743/ I * find out if they ran qualify
qualified for the work «bare program
Qualtfu-ations include a workforce of Some 3 MS workers are participating,
three or more a 1» percent to 40 percent many of whom might otherwise have been
work redortton in lieu of a leyedf Workers laid off their jobs completely
The innocent Bystander:
School tots find market profitable
Oh. what a heart stirring scene
it was at the Fullertons the other
evening! In front of one and all,
our friend George Pickering
came out of the closet.
"Friend" is perhaps too strong
a word Glynda and I have known
George ever since he married
Midge ten years ago And. to our
knowledge, he's never had a
friend It's not that he was
unlikable m eerely secretive
and standoffish
He certainly lacked the social
graces He clearly disliked par
ties As soon as we began talking
about who'd made how big a kill
ing on which piece of real estate
or how that house down the block
that someone had bought for
$82,5d0 two years ago just sold for
$167,000, George would skulk
away
" I'll het that place of yours has
tripled in value, George," I
remember saying to him once in
an attempt to draw him into the
conversation
Hut all he said was "Hummph"
and wen, off to pour himself
another drink (How did I know
he was only renting’’ »
Hut the big mystery was what
George did for a living Asked
directly, he would duck his bead,
shift his eyes and evasively say
something like, "Oh, no, much
and excuse me while I ge, an
a s h tr a y ”
And when
we
m istakenly put hirn up for
membership in the club, he listed
his occupation on the application
form as "Yes ” Naturally, he was
dinged
Glynda. who is something of a
romantic, thought he was either a
CIA agent or a former Mafioso in
hiding "I'm sure he's had a fact
lift," she whispered dramatical
ly
Hut as G ly n d a th in ks
thousands of people have bad
face lifts ia,bet* all of them
females > I discounted this
Besides I had a clue of my
own On several occasions I had
seen George on the bus reading
magazines disguised in plain
wrappers " I ’m sure of it," I told
Glynda confidently "H e’s a por
no king "
"And they drive an old VW?”
she asked
"M aybe," I conceded, "he's a
porno prince "
The mystery, as I have hinted,
was resolved last Friday evening
at the Fullertons. George, wear
ing a new three piece suit, at
tracted our attention by popping
a champagne cork
"I think it's high time you knew
the unvarnished truth about me,"
he said " I am now and have been
for the past ten years
. " Here
he paused to pu, his arm around
Midge and beam out at all of us
",
a stockbroker'"
There was a moment of silence
and then we all surrounded him
to pat him on the shoulder or grab
his hand Midge was looking up at
him adoringly "He only told me
today when the market hit 869,"
she said "You could have con
fessed to me, George I would've
stood by you ”
" I know. Midge,” he said, pat
ting her hand, "but I didn’t wan,
the kids to know their father was
a . .."
"And all these years when you
went out every morning and
came home every night and
never would say where you’d
been, you know what I tb ught’’ ”
Midge smiled in embarrassment
" I thought you were leading a
double life ’’
"Gosh," 1 said, "a stockbroker.
Think I ought to buy Moonbeam
Preferred'’ It ’s gone up three
points in only two days "
"Right now I'd recommend a
fly e r in e le c tro n ic s ,” said
George, "with a hedge blue
chip . . . ”
That's when that nerd Bill
Fullerton had to butt in. "M y real
estate broker is E F Button,” he
said "A n d E .F Button says . . ."
Needless to say, everyone in
the room froze You could have
heard a feather drop Who in his
right mind would be caught dead
talking to a real estate broker
these days?
Wall Street report:
Secret life of G. Fullerton exposed
Anyone who thinks it's impossi
ble to make money in the stock
market ought to go back to (be
fifth grade
The fifth grad«* in Sullivan.
Ohio, to tie specific
For a group of pint sized future
capitalists there has shown how
profits can be made even amid
the glummrot market conditions,
thereby beating out nearly 1,000
oti.^i class«*« and groups in a con
test sptmsored by an educational
newspaper What’s more impor
tant, they did so with the kind of
cool logic and fresh thinking tbAt
many of their elders might
usefully emulate
As their principal, David L
Ritchie, tells it to me the 23
students in the fifth grade math
class taught by Linda Krieder
took seriously the challenge to
“ in v e s t'' Io.ooo th e o re tic a l
dollars last October IS, with an
eye toward showing gains by
March IS During that five month
period, stock prices continued to
erode with the Dow Jones In
dustnal Average oil another five
percent And mo», of those who
entered the control, like most
adult investors playing with real
money, went with the tule only
40 of the mythical portfolios end
ed on the plus side Bui the ten
stocks picked by Mrs Kreider s
budding Bernard Baruchs show
ed an average gain of nearly 15
percent
What's more, the Sullivan
champs didn , rely on one lucky
hit to bail out an otherwise
mediocre hatch of losers Fully
eight of their ten selections «ruled
on the plus side perhaps moat
significantly, they bypassed at
tempts to go with the crowd by
picking what was "hot.
and
their unfamilianty with some of
the more arcane extremes of
technical market analysis may
have saved them another bundle
What the kids did do was apply
common sense to what they
alreadv knew about the world
Their short term winners includ
ed. for example Eastman Kodak
< which they picked in the belief
that ’ people would tie buying
film and cameras, taking pic
tures at C h ristm as'), Quaker
Oats ( "everytody eats hot cereal
in cold weather"» and J C Pen
ny iwell and favorably known to
them and their families, after a
discussion and a vote, it won over
Sears as the department-store
choice >
Their biggest gainer up 79 3
percent in those five generally
d is m a l
m onths was th a t
children's favorite. Mattle, which
they selected as a way to par
ticipate in the Christmas holiday
enthusiasm for electronic games,
(Other reasoning, some more
successful than others Goodrich
because "everybody will need
tires.” Greyhound because one
student w ith an a ir-tra ffic -
controller father said more pen
pie would be traveling by bus.
IBM to participate in computers
and for something expensive,"
Monsanto because “ oil and
chemicals are in the news, and it
must be good business to have
some," Ralston Purina because
“ everybody has p ets” and
Smuckers because it’s an Ohio
firm ” >
Now, obviously, there's some
fairly unsophisticated financial
thinking in there, along with the
practical insights, and it's worth
emphasizing (a ) that most of the
other competing classes —also
presumably seeing the world
through unspoiled eyes— had
generally disappointing results.
tb) that smart investing does not
necessarily reap five-month pro
fits but often must wait years for
its rewards, and (c> that a vague
feeling that a known company
ought to be doing well ought to be
followed up with some solid
research
To their principal, all this is
proof that "the public schools are
still alive and well."
Letter to the editor
Interior Secretary James Watt
wants to open virtually all of the
U S coastline to offshore oil d rill
ing This would have a disastrous
impact on the scenic beauty of
the Oregon coast, its important
tourist industry and our already
hurting commercial and charter
fishing industries.
Denny Smith, who is running
for ( nngress in our new Fifth
Congrrosinal District, supports
Watt and his call for opening the
Oregon coastline to oil drilling.
Indeed, Smith is on record as sup-
portin g en ergy ex p lo ra tio n
wherever it might occur and at
whatever cost to the environ
ment As he told a town hall con
vening in McNary last year, " If
the energy is out there we should
get It."
Smith’s stance is not surprising
to those of us who have followed
his slipshod performance during
his first term in Congress la b e l
ed as a Reagan Robot" by the
Wall Street JOURNAL, Smith
also has been found to be the
fourth highest Congressional can
didate in the country for cam
paign gifts from big oil and gas
corporation political action com-
mittero With credentials like
those, it is small wonder that
drilling Oregon's coastlines takes
precedence over their preserva
tion in Smith's mind
Fortunately for we who believe
that reason should play into mak
ing energy decisions, we will
have a choice to Denny Smith in
the November Congressional
e le c tio n . S ta te Sen Ruth
McFarland opposro Smith in the
Fifth District and also opposes
his desire to open up the Oregon
coast to offshore oil drilling Sen.
McFarland, herself a scientist,
offers a reasoned position on
energy development as well as an
understanding of the importance
of preserving our scenic and
economically valuable coastal
areas
If elected, Ruth McFarland will
represent the interests of Orego
nians and not he beholden to
Texas and Oklahoma oil in
terests Let's dump Denny Smith
and put somebody in Congress
who represents the true interests
of Oregonians
Paul L Franklin
Rhododendron