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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2015)
PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 17, 2015 KeizerOpinion KEIZERTIMES.COM Candidates deserved more If you’re going to hold a candidate forum, hold an actual candidate fo- rum. That is the takeaway from what was billed as the Keizer Chamber of Commerce’s candidate forum dur- ing Tuesday’s monthly chamber lun- cheon at Keizer Quality Suites. There are a number of races in next month’s election, with vari- ous seats on the Keizer Fire District Board, Salem-Keizer School Board, Marion County Fire District Board, Salem-Keizer Transit Board and the Chemeketa Community College Board. Chamber offi cials invited candi- dates for all races to the luncheon, which was a tight time squeeze to begin with. Luncheons start at 11:30 a.m. with food, with the main pro- gram running from noon to 1 p.m. What happened Tuesday was still a bit puzzling. Squeezing a candidate forum into a luncheon can be done. After all, the same chamber did so for last fall’s election. This time was different. To start, candidates didn’t sit up front at a head table. They were placed around the room at various tables, with the idea being that lun- cheon attendees would be able to chat with the candidates. Considering the number of can- didates, that seemed reasonable. Except not all of the candidates were there. If all were present, there would have been 23 candidates. Roughly half of them were absent, with a couple of opponents such as Chuck Lee taking advantage by get- ting in cheap (and inaccurate) shots. But this was a prime chance for candidates to give speeches. Many would suspect candidates would jump at the chance and fi gure out a way to make it work. That wasn’t the biggest problem. Normal luncheon announcements and reminders were made. Mary Stewart from Oregon State Univer- sity Extension Service talked about that group’s program. She was kept to fi ve minutes. Here is the problem: by the time Joe Egli was done with a 20-minute talk about the upcoming Iris Festi- val, it was about 12:40 p.m. Since the chamber puts on Keizer’s biggest an- nual event next month, it absolutely makes sense to have Egli promote it. But it left just 20 minutes for the normal self-introductions of the 50 or so people in attendance, plus time for door prizes. The candidate forum still hadn’t even started. People were asked to keep their self-introductions brief. It was announced candidates would get a minute or two to talk about them- selves. At an event billed as a candidate forum? In short, candidates didn’t get the forum they deserved on Tuesday, nor did voters. - CM Vote for Betty Hart big picture vi- sion. If the 12 years as a city councilor were his only ex- perience, that would certainly be enough; but that’s really just padding to his re- sume when compared to his decades of service to the community in other areas. A local businessman, Rotar- ian and Little League coach, Jim has dedicated his life to the community and his vast experience will be a wel- come addition to the fi ne members of the fi re board. If you want an ex- perienced, detailed and watchful eye keeping track of your tax dollars, join me in voting Jim Taylor for Keizer Fire District board of directors. Brandon Smith Keizer The election of citizens to the Keizer Fire Board does not raise much attention. This is a shame because the deci- sions made by the board affects life and property in Keizer. I believe it is im- portant to elect knowledgeable people to those positions. This is the reason why I am sup- porting Betty Hart to the board of directors. I attended monthly board meetings for more than eight years and I have always seen Betty there. In addi- tion, she has also attended budget and advisory meetings consistently. Betty has been active in supporting much- needed levies to ensure the people in Keizer were protected. I believe Betty deserves a position on the board be- cause of her knowledge and devotion to the district. Please join me and vote for Betty Hart. Bill Quinn Keizer Vote for Jim Taylor The City of Keizer is fortunate to have a number of respected and qualifi ed candidates running for the Keizer Fire District board of direc- tors. However, none have the back- ground and experience of Jim Tay- lor and I am pleased to endorse his candidacy. Mr. Taylor has been a member of the Keizer community his entire life, giving him a unique perspective and letters Keizer Rapids concerts I don’t think it is right that they are making a for-profi t operation out of the concerts at Keizer Rotary Amphi- theater. It was always non-profi t for the people of the community, put on by band members of the community. Now they are going to make every- body pay and as usual only the folks that can afford it will go. It’s too bad these greedy people are doing this to the community. Tom Bidwell Salem Following the trail of the phone menu BY DON VOWELL As an illustration of the time I invest in research for these rants, I called the offi ce of this newspaper during normal business hours. They answered the phone. Hal- lelujah. My gratitude is out of proportion because I had just fi nished a call to the offi ce of a large phar- macy several time zones out. When I die and am rightly sent to some mid- dling level of Dante’s Inferno, I suspect my eternal torment will be restricted to speaking only with automated phone systems. The opening greeting of my pharmaceutical call was “If this is a medical emergency hang up and dial 911.” Duh. The button pressing be- gan when I needed to choose a lan- guage. That’s reasonable. There was a needless warning to listen closely as menu options may have changed. This one sometimes crosses me up. My mounting dread many times prevents me from devoting full at- tention to the recording. Option 4 seems like it could be right, but I keep listening all the way through 8 in case there is a choice that actually works for me. Sometimes I start over because I don’t remember if I was supposed to press 3 or 4. Next you are advised if you know your extension number you may dial it now. It looks like an escape hatch until you are shunted to yet another automated system. If you were unable to take that exit the menu op- tions begin. Press 1 if you are a doctor or a hospital, press 2 to re- fi ll a prescription, 3 if you are a new patient (get out now if you still have that choice and fi nd a pharmacy that answers the phone), 4 if you have questions about the amount of your co-pay, 5 for billing questions. Billing questions, that’s me. Sens- ing victory, I press 5. There’s an electronic click, a panic-inducing silence then a ring tone indicating a new call to another department. Ms. Automated System picks up the call to advise me that my call may be recorded for quality control. Maybe that shames a few of us into not screaming when we fi nally get through. Then begins yet another set of options to categorize your billing question. Your last button press makes you think you are about done. You are told the average wait a box of soap Saving water? It’s really not that diffi cult BY GENE H. MCINTYRE The classic Two Years before the Mast tells the story of Bostonian Richard H. Dana’s experience as a common seaman aboard an Ameri- can sailing ship that rounded Cape Horn to Mexico’s California in the 1830s with return by ship to Mas- sachusetts. Six years before the Desert relates the adventures of this col- umn’s writer while working for the Ara- bian American Oil Company (Aramco) in the 1980s. Thoughts of Saudi Arabia have been fresh on my mind as news out of California this year is mostly about its drought. Much of Southern California takes on the likeness of a desert unless water by irrigation is available, so that state’s governor Jerry Brown announced last week a historic statewide measure that would aim for a 25 percent reduction in water use by the end of 2015. Incidentally, it was reported on April 7 compliance is at 2 percent now and, unlike Saudi Arabia, with an autocratic government, Cali- fornia practices America’s brand of “freedom” which “gives” everyone the “permission” to-do-as-he-pleas- es, ignoring and sometimes inten- tionally subverting what amounts to a water crisis in that case. But back to my story: Saudi Ara- bia’s eastern-most city is Dhahran where my family and I lived while employed in that country. The most important fact to convey to our neighbors to the south is that desert circumstances are not only surviv- able, but survivable with grace and style. How much water California can pump to the surface from deep wells to compensate for lack of rain- fall is not known, but Aramco had several deep wells to provide what was called “sweet” water. Meanwhile, most of the water for uses other than drinking and dish washing was from the process of desalinization. Aramco discouraged its employ- ees from drinking desalinated water because its composition bears no re- semblance to water from a fresh wa- ter stream in Oregon. If one should indulge himself, we were told, the result would be something like the purging of an aggressive enema. We – my wife, myself and our children – took their word for it but had to get used to desalinated water for bathing, clothes wash- ing and the watering of outside plants. The use of sweet water from a bucket fi lled at the kitchen sink had to be employed to clean up a car’s exterior or otherwise the result of a car wash Oregon-style meant a fi lm on the windows so thick from the minerals that one could not see out to drive. It was much too laborious to proceed that way very often, so we got used to a thin coat of dust on our four-wheel machines as well as all things outside. Then, too, regular wind storms meant the opportunity to taste the fl avor of Saudi Arabia’s desert sands. It was my privilege to visit many a Saudi home, invited there by workers who were Saudi citizens. There were no grass lawns. Na- tive indigenous plants of somewhat scarce abundance meant homes fi t in with the arid landscape and pro- tected its natural display and the survival of fl ora and fauna. Inside Aramco’s compounds the com- pany planted and cared for small patches of lawn mainly there, it was believed, to protect the American employees from devastating bouts of homesickness. Yes, Aramco provided its em- gene h. mcintyre Keizertimes Wheatland Publishing Corp. • 142 Chemawa Road N. • Keizer, Oregon 97303 phone: 503.390.1051 • web: www.keizertimes.com • email: kt@keizertimes.com NEWS EDITOR Craig Murphy editor@keizertimes.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Eric A. Howald news@keizertimes.com ADVERTISING SUBSCRIPTIONS One year: $25 in Marion County, $33 outside Marion County, $45 outside Oregon PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Publication No: USPS 679-430 Paula Moseley POSTMASTER advertising@keizertimes.com Send address changes to: PRODUCTION MANAGER Andrew Jackson graphics@keizertimes.com EDITOR & PUBLISHER Lyndon A. Zaitz publisher@keizertimes.com Keizertimes Circulation 142 Chemawa Road N. Keizer, OR 97303 BUSINESS MANAGER Laurie Painter billing@keizertimes.com OFFICE INTERN Allie Kehret LEGAL NOTICES legals@keizertimes.com Periodical postage paid at Salem, Oregon time to speak with a representative is currently 12 minutes. These systems are sold to busi- nesses in the name of effi ciency. Effi ciency means saving businesses a little time by costing customers a lot of time. A robotic system that took several minutes to steer you to the right employee could have been eliminated by an employee that an- swered the phone and connected you with the right party. If Giant Pharmacy gets 1,500 calls a day they still must speak with each one, pos- sibly excepting those that gave up on the automated phone system and hung up. If those calls cost each cus- tomer three minutes system naviga- tion time that’s a total of 75 hours. In the name of corporate effi ciency they spent 75 hours aggravating their customers. It could be that customer sat- isfaction and goodwill have fallen way behind net profi ts and stock performance as corporate goals. If any of those businesses are reading this please know that you can win lifelong loyalty just by answering your phone. After all the money you spent persuading the Supreme Court to declare your personhood, you might as well act like one. (Don Vowell lives in Keizer and regularly takes to his box of soap in the Keizertimes.) ployees with a golf course but to play the game meant getting used to fairways, tees and greens fi xed in place by a thin coat of asphalt-grade oil. As far-fetched as an oil course may sound, Aramco employees played on it regularly and reported it as fun to do. If the Governor Brown order works effectively, Californians will have to surrender their courses to brown grass and desert plants to which, after a decade or two, it’s surmised, they’d get used to. Californians may wish to adjust their mindset to rather drastically- changed conditions. Freshly washed cars may be an unusual sight while lawns will become a rare phenom- enon (the great American lawn is, after all, an English affectation and, really now, who wants to imitate those U.K. Windsor-worshipers!). Swimming pools will be used strictly for skateboarding. Some lo- cations in California may become uninhabitable and return to the domain of desert-natural Southern California fl ora and fauna. It’s a sure bet more tourists will visit the Northwest. We’ll continue to enjoy most everything they will have lost in California. We will even continue to fl ush our toilets at the same rate as has been true of us in past times. Our cars will be shiny clean and our pools open for use. Meanwhile, what has been envy for “greener pastures” down south will reverse its direction. Hence, there’ll be need of another former governor Tom McCall, he who admonished outsiders to visit Or- egon but don’t stay, which has had the same result as the English king who planted his throne close to the ocean’s front and ordered the tide to stop. In other words, as California dries up, the always dreaded Cali- fornication will increase as those folks literally seek “greener pas- tures.” (Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.)