PAGE A6, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 29, 2022
A public library for Keizer:
Looking at the big picture
PUBLIC SQUARE welcomes all points of view. Published submissions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Keizertimes
Schools make policies
without public input
To the Editor:
I am writing in response to an article
the Statesman-Journal printed on April
14, about the new transgender policies in
the Salem-Keizer School District.
As a former Salem/Keizer district
teacher, I found the article to be incredi-
bly one-sided. It did not address concerns
that parents are voicing across the nation.
Who was involved in making these poli-
cies? Which staff and community groups
had a say? What parents were asked for
input? Why were administrators even
caught off guard? How will young women
be protected in bathrooms? How will the
integrity of womens sports be protected?
Why do children as young as kindergar-
ten need to be introduced in public school
to the topics of gender and sexuality?
Will this be violating parent's religious
rights as protected under the first amend-
ment? What about teachers, such as
myself, who feel that being forced to teach
such a view would go against my sin-
cerely held religious beliefs? The rights
of some citizens should not take away the
rights of others. These questions must
be answered. I can assure you I speak on
behalf of many who have the same ques-
tions and concerns.
Stephanie Montgomery
Marion County
Support for
Tobias Read and
Carrick Flynn
To the Editor:
People admire other people, often also
finding them likeable. These personal
preferences usually happen because other
people have led or are leading lives in
ways agreeable and highly acceptable to
us.
For multiple reasons, especially as
a boy and, later, a teenager, I liked the
actors Gene Autrey and Jimmy Stewart.
Letters
As I grew into adulthood and took note of
Oregon leaders, I admired and preferred
the leadership styles of former governors
Tom McCall and Robert Straub.
We will soon decide for whom we will
vote in the upcoming primary. It is not
my advantage to vote for anyone I per-
sonally know. So, I only know them by
information about them and appearances
in advertisements on TV. Of course, I’m
not able to say that I like Carrick Flynn for
my Oregon U.S. Representative or Tobias
Read for my governor because they can
skillfully ride a horse or belt out a cow-
boy song (although those abilities may
be possessed by them) but I’ve concluded
regarding both of them that they’re the
kind of people who in public office, will
inspire likeability, trust, confidence, lead-
ership attractiveness and, ultimately,
cheering for effective work.
I believe Flynn and Read have the abil-
ity to speak up and advocate for those
issues and matters which will benefit the
people of our state. They appear tough in
spirit and strong in motivation like Tom
McCall while they both know numbers
and how to put a budget together to serve
all of us, as Bob Straub was able to accom-
plish. Further, these two candidates main-
tain established families, having shown
caring and responsibility while their lives
overall have demonstrated a dedication to
work with integrity.
To vote is important for many reasons,
no reason greater now than that of elect-
ing persons who will protect and preserve
our Constitution, rule by law, freedoms
and way of life. Two Democrats, Carrick
Flynn and Tobias Read, promise to deliver
the best for their constituents. Please join
me in voting for them in the May primary.
Gene H. McIntyre
Keizer
By DON BECKMAN
In her Keizertimes guest opinion (It is
time to vote on a library, April 22) former
Keizer mayor Lore Christopher weighs
in on the Keizer Community Library’s
current bid to seek public library sta-
tus and secure American Rescue Plan
Act (ARPA) funding for three years to
pay for one full-time library director, a
half-time assistant, plus some additional
operating expenses.
She noted that, unlike 15 years ago
when she and Richard Walsh unsuccess-
fully attempted to get a scaled-down
library approved by the Chemeketa
Cooperative Regional Library System
(CCRLS), CCRLS will no longer put
up prohibitively-high requirements for
CCRLS membership, and American
Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds are now
available.
After three years of funding via
ARPA funds, library costs would have to
come from local sources. Christopher
then goes on to argue passionately that
“No new taxes for any reason should be
added to our water bills without a vote.”
She is incensed that two “fees for ser-
vice” were added to Keizer water bills
without a vote, a $4 per month fee to
support Keizer parks, and another $4 per
month fee to support Keizer police. The
latter was recently increased by a whop-
ping 25% to $5 per month. She contends
that she is a supporter of public parks
and a supporter of the police--but she
didn’t get to vote on these taxes. She
feels that we should not fund expanded
library services without taking the issue
to the voters.
As much as I respect Lore Christopher
for her years of service to our city, I sub-
mit that she is 180 degrees off course in
this conclusion. I think we need to look
at the big picture—what is the role of a
public library, and what services does a
city “owe” to its citizens. And I think we
need to look at what we should expect
from our elected representatives, in this
case, our mayor and city councilors.
Funding a public library is, in my
opinion, a fundamental responsibility
of any city, similar to its responsibility
for providing schools, roads, and public
safety. Keizer should have a library that
is adequate to meet the needs of a city
of almost 40,000 people. We are the only
city of our size that does not have a full-
fledged city-supported public library.
Personally, I believe that the Keizer
Community Library is too modest in its
request for three years of operational
funding. In my opinion we should use
a chunk of the one-time ARPA wind-
fall to finance building a new library
building and pay for library operating
expenses via fees for service, which
would be substantially less than the
fees for service for parks and police. We
need a local library that is big enough to
attract and serve all of our citizens, with
sufficient resources (local and CCRLS)
to meet their needs. A library should
also be a cultural resource for the city,
hosting events like lectures, musical
performances, author book signings,
reading activities for kids, etc. Keizer
Community Library volunteers have
guest
OPINION
been making the best of an unfortunate
situation for years. We need more than a
couple of rooms in the Keizer Heritage
Center. We need to build a library that
we can all be proud of. And we need
city funding so we can adequately staff
a new library. Volunteers would con-
tinue to be the primary work force, but
recruited, trained, and coordinated by
professional staff.
What should we expect from our
mayor and city councilors? I suggest
the following: vision, leadership, and
courage. Our city government is not a
“direct democracy” where citizens vote
to decide every issue. Our system is a
“representative democracy,” where we
elect persons to represent us and make
decisions on everyday matters for us.
Some of our mayors and city councilors
have shown remarkable vision, lead-
ership, and courage. Some examples
of their successes are the Keizer Civic
Center (thank you, Lore Christopher
and others), Keizer Rapids Park (thank
you, Richard Walsh and others), and, I
submit, the securing of additional fund-
ing for Keizer city parks and our police
department (thank you, Cathy Clark and
others). In a representative democracy,
the people still have the final say: if
the voters don’t like a mayor’s or coun-
cilor’s action, they can vote her/him
out at the next election. This is where
courage comes in. Our leaders need to
decide what they stand for. If they truly
support better parks, a stronger police
department, and a public library with
expanded services, they will find ways
to pay for them and be willing to run
the risk of possibly being voted out of
office. Keizer voters are frugal, myself
included, but I cannot imagine anyone
being voted out of office for approving
a couple of dollars a month in a fee for
service for library operations.
So I say to Lore Christopher, “Chill.”
And I say to our mayor and city council-
ors, “Cowboy up.” Three years of ARPA
funding for a public library, followed by
public funding, is the very least we can
do. We should do more.
(Don Beckman lives in Keizer.)
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