PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, AUGUST 28, 2015
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
The west is on fi re
The smoke that hung over west-
ern Oregon last week was just a
small taste of what residents of east-
ern Oregon and central Washington
have been living with for weeks
now.
The Grant County fi res near John
Day and Prairie City have destroyed
more than 30 homes and many
other structures such as barns. The
fi res in the north central Washing-
ton includes the Omak fi re, now the
largest wildfi re to ever hit that state.
Tragically, three fi refi ghters near
Lake Chelan lost their lives when
their vehicle went over an embank-
ment in an effort to escape fl ames
that suddenly surrounded them.
Wildfi res are unpredictable, never
more so as when weather condi-
tions whip fl ames into all directions.
Gusty winds and high temperatures
have fueled some fi res to greatly in-
crease in size. Fire fi ghting resources
have been stretched to the limit.
Oregon National Guard personnel
joined the fi re fi ghting effort after
getting trained for the hard work.
Crews from as far away as Australia
and New Zealand are joining the
hundreds of men and women who
have been on the front lines for
weeks.
Those in the John Day area who
escaped the fl ames with little more
than the clothes on their back dis-
covered their homes had burnt to
the ground. The people who live in
rural areas look out for each other.
The relief effort to house and feed
those who lost everything is an ex-
ercise in selfl essness and community
spirit. Friends opened their homes
to strangers, the business commu-
nity rallied to donate food and other
necessities.
By nature of the area, there are
a lot of animals, domestic and farm.
Horses and other ranch animals
were un-paddocked and allowed to
fl ee the fl ames. Those who could
grab their dogs and cats were met
by volunteers in town who offered
pet food, crates and kennels and toys.
The wildfi res can’t be any less stress-
ful for the animals than the humans.
There are raw opinions about the
response of the Forest Service and
others to the fi res when they were
still supposedly containable. But as
an editorial in Blue Mountain Eagle
said, the time for fi ngerpointing and
blame is far off in the future. The
only thing to concentrate on when
fi res are decimating the forests and
ranchlands of the west is for the
safety of the residenrts and the fi re-
fi ghters.
Each year brings bigger and big-
ger wildfi res. Some blame it on poor
forest management, others blame it
on climate change and El Nino that
brings drought to an already-dry re-
gion.
Fires caused by lightening is one
way nature clears out forests and
rangeland. But with more people
living out in the wilds we should
build and live responsibly where
such disasters are becoming the
norm.
—LAZ
Medical providers prescribe
books for young children
By JULIANNE BROCK,
checking off boxes during the exam.
FNP-C
They realize we want their child to
Regular medical checkups ensure succeed in all areas.
children stay healthy during their
The program encourages families
early development, plus receive to read together 20 minutes a day—
proper vaccinations.
and afterward ask kids
As a certifi ed family
to express what they’ve
nurse practitioner at
learned.
Willamette
Health
The
Marion-Polk
Partners Family Medicine
County Medical Society
clinic in Keizer, I use that
provided funding for
opportunity to talk to
the program’s fi rst year,
parents and kids about a
which covered the cost of
likely unexpected topic—
buying 2,000 books.
the importance of reading.
We have so much
Reading every day is as
opportunity to expand
important for children as
the program. Our main
brushing their teeth. Early
limitation is that families
literacy in kids leads to
need to come to the clinic
future success in life.
to be exposed to it. That’s
Developing
early
where the Community
literacy is also important
Health Education Center
for Marion County. An
(CHEC)
at
Salem
Julianne Brock
October 2014 study
Hospital comes in.
found:
Promoting
early
Fifty-nine percent of the students literacy falls directly in line with
in Salem-Keizer Public Schools were Salem Health’s mission to support
living in poverty. (A strong correlation the community. CHEC staffers are
exists between poverty and literacy.) exploring possible story times for
Nineteen percent of the students kids, along with fun themed events
spoke English as a second language. like puppet shows.
Studies show that achieving
Plans are also forming to serve
literacy by third grade is an important children in Polk County. The new
benchmark. It also indicates how school-based Central Health and
well they will do in high school. Wellness Center in Independence
A team effort strives to tackle that could become an outlet to encourage
challenge in different ways.
early literacy.
Willamette Health Partners
It is a privilege for me to see
recently made a commitment to children at such a critical time of
promote the Reach Out and Read their young lives—now with the
program at its six family medicine added opportunity of sharing the
clinics. The successful national joy of reading.
program discovered a strong link
Meanwhile, medical providers
between building vocabulary and gain a different focus by promoting
introducing books to children from early literacy. We become part of a
ages six months through fi ve years.
greater cause knowing these kids
Children receive an age- will become part of society—and
appropriate book during their we want them to succeed.
(Julianne Brock, FNP-C, is a
checkup, while parents go home with
certifi
ed family nurse practitioner
handouts that stress the importance
of reading to their child every day. with Willamette Health Partners
Family Medicine clinic in Keizer.)
Kids love getting the books and
parents appreciate that we’re not just
guest
column
Keizertimes
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All sides need to make Bottle Bill work
We Oregonians are told that a ma-
jority of us support the doubling of
the state’s deposit on bottles and cans.
Why do we want it? So more of us
will be motivated to return the emp-
ties, one Salem resident was reported
to have said. But what prompted her
to say she wants a bigger charge for
the purchase of bottles and cans?
The answer for a fi ve cent raise has
its origin with the Oregon Liquor
Control Commission. The commis-
sion tells us that fewer bottle and can
purchasers are returning their emp-
ties, resulting in a decline of redemp-
tion rates. The decline has apparently
been underway for some time with
return rates as recent as last year and
the year before, or 2014 compared
with 2013, dropping three percent.
Oregon residents welcomed
the Bottle Bill in 1971 and presum-
ably still support it—if the poll that
determined this view is valid. It was
sold to Oregonians from day one
as an anti-litter bill. It appeared to
work very well for quite some time
as the nickel return on a deposit was
worth the effort to return the empty
container. Those in favor of an in-
crease from 5 to 10 cents argue that
the increase will motivate returns
when a nickel doesn’t encourage re-
turns well enough.
Meanwhile, it should be a whole
lot easier to return the empty con-
tainers as Salem has currently estab-
lished two BottleDrop redemption
centers. These redemption centers are
located on south Commercial Street
and on Lancaster Drive. Of course
grocery stores and supermarkets of-
fer redemption sites where bottles
and cans are placed into counting
machines that issue a receipt for re-
demption at each store’s cashier sta-
tions.
Back when returning bottles and
cans was quick and easy—among the
items in one’s shopping cart—the
return of bottles and cans could be
completed at cashier stations. Now
the stores that
sell
bottles
and cans of
pop, beer et-
cetera
send
their custom-
ers to a small,
crowded room
or outside into the weather. Inside
or out, the areas are most common-
ly pinched in size, sticky-fl oor dirty,
full of shopping carts that are stacked
to the top and overfl owing with bot-
tles and cans along with those wait-
ing with two to three more heaping
shopping carts deep full of bottles
and cans.
These conditions totally discour-
age most people except those who
are presumably so cash-strapped they
will endure the wait and horrid con-
ditions to realize the receipt slip—
after an hour or more wait—for a
mere few dollars in reward. If the
state is really serious about motivat-
ing people who live in the state to
return bottles and cans they will have
to open and maintain many more
BottleDrop redemption centers. For
example, there are about 37,000 resi-
dents in Keizer without one Bottle-
Drop Redemption Center.
Then there is the problem of
those who throw their bottles and
cans whenever they fi nish with
them and apparently could care less
what becomes of public areas in our
cities, towns, forest lands, and beach-
es. If you hadn’t noticed, there are an
abundance of places all over Oregon
that have become garbage dumps. If
it’s not discarded bottles and cans it is
used needles, empty styrofoam con-
tainers of all kinds and sizes, sandwich
wrappers, used diapers, dog drop-
pings, food waste, cigarette butts, and,
among an almost limitless list of oth-
ers like water (of which some can be
returned), wine and whisky bottles
from a huge portion of the popula-
tion that doesn’t give one hoot how
bad the place looks, how many chil-
gene h.
mcintyre
dren are exposed to danger and how
much vermin it all attracts. Those
responsible walk away from their
garbage after not making the small-
est of effort to fi nd a trash container
or take their used items home with
them.
Oregon was not a litter land just
a few years ago. Why it has become
one would most likely fi ll a whole
encyclopedia full of reasons. Adding
fi ve cents to the refund may help to
lower the piles of litter but it will
take a major reform in what’s be-
come a throw away society to make
anything like a signifi cant difference.
Elementary school teachers can talk
to their students about picking up
after themselves but if their parents
set an example by being slobs ev-
erywhere, then efforts in schools are
probably for little or no results.
Here’s the bottom line: What be-
gan as a great idea put into practice
by dedicated Oregon leaders more
than 40 years ago has been allowed
bastardization by grocery stores and
supermarkets that want the profi t
from sales of beverages but are not
willing to be responsible citizens,
sending those seeking redemption to
“snake pits” where they are discour-
aged from taking their empty bottles
back unless they’re economic cir-
cumstances are desperate.
Those grocers seeking profi t
without participation have made a
good thing into an ugly thing while
the current crop of offi ce-holders in
Salem let them get away with what’s
become of the Bottle Bill circa 2015,
that is, it’s broken. No fi ve cent in-
crease is going to turn a corner
on what’s become an abomination.
Such reform will happen when gro-
cers behave responsibly and do their
share again and most Oregonians
once more embrace the mindset that
prevailed in practice throughout Or-
egon in the early 1970s.
(Gene McIntyre’s column appears
weekly in the Keizertimes.)
Citizen legislature still the best system
The way the Oregon Legislature
was originally designed, it was
supposed to be a citizen legislature—
meaning that the representatives had
other professions and came together
for a few months every other year to
approve a budget for the state. Then
they went back to their regular lives.
Now that we have yearly sessions, it
can make it diffi cult to hold down a
job and be a legislator. I know I have
run into many of you at my “summer
job,” as the voice of the Volcanoes.
The legislature will get back
together at the end of September for
three days of meetings, and in the
interim I’ve been doing my best to
report back to you, my constituents,
on what happened during the 2015
session. For example, I spoke to
members of the Keizer Chamber of
Commerce about the effect of the
session on our business community.
Business owners are often so busy
keeping their doors open that they
can’t keep track of laws that are made
that will impact them. I think it was
an eye-opening speech for some of
them.
I was very interested and concerned
with what was going on in our
neighboring city in House District 25.
While a proud resident of Keizer, I do
represent Newberg, too, and wanted
to show support while the town was
in an upheaval with their city manager
and chief of police being put on leave.
I’ll be hosting a town hall there in a
from the
capitol
By BILL POST
few weeks as well. I have been invited
to speak at a couple important rallies
this summer and have welcomed
every opportunity to be involved in
our community.
I was very pleased with a
constituent letter we sent out this
summer as the response was fantastic.
In the past few weeks I’ve had multiple
people tell me they have never heard
from their state representative before,
and even though they may be in a
different political party than I am,
they appreciate being kept in the loop.
I may have my opinions and beliefs,
but I work for you, the residents of
House District 25, and I want you to
feel like you can contact me at any
time and share your thoughts about
what is happening in our community
and in our state.
(Bill Post represents House District
25. He can be reached at 503-986-
1425 or via email at rep.billpost@
state.or.us.)