A4
V IEWPOINT
Hood River News,
Saturday, May 16, 2015
O ur readers write
JOE PETSHOW
Publisher/President,
Eagle Newspapers, Inc.
CHELSEA MARR
General Manager
JODY THOMPSON
Advertising Manager
DICK NAFSINGER
Publisher, Emeritus (1933-2011)
TOM LANCTOT
Past President,
Eagle Newspapers, Inc.
Not for CL
KIRBY NEUMANN-REA
Editor
TONY METHVIN
Columbia Gorge Press Manager
DAVID MARVIN
Production Manager
Subscription $42 per year in Hood River trade area. $68 outside trade area.
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
ASSOCIATION
Printed on
OREGON NEWSPAPER
PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
recycled paper.
Official Newspaper, City of Hood River and Hood River County
Published Every Wednesday & Saturday by Hood River News,
P.O. Box 390, Hood River, Oregon 97031 • (541) 386-1234 • FAX 386-6796
Member of the Associated Press
‘Like’ Local
Keeping your money close
to home helps everyone
H
ood River is now a year-round destination, as
publications including Sunset magazine have
recently noted.
Yet May-to-October remains the “high sea-
son,” and with the winds and warm weather
kicking in, that season is now.
Canada’s Victoria Day (May 18) is the traditional
“soft opening” of the visitor season, and so we welcome
all our friends from north of the border who have ar-
rived to enjoy wind sports and all that Hood River has to
offer.
Many wind-related businesses are year-round con-
cerns along with a wide range of shops, restaurants,
breweries, galleries and other businesses, and shopping
locally is a 365-day idea around here. Hood River News
works with local businesses in an annual campaign,
happening now, as a way of showcasing the goods and
services available to the community.
Locally-owned businesses deserve the support of fel-
low locals. There are few things anyone needs to buy
that cannot be found in local stores, and those business-
es are predominately owned and operated by a fellow
local. The best way to support local jobs is to keep your
spending money in the community as much as possible.
You don’t have to use social media to “like” a busi-
ness.
Lack of parking in downtown is generally a misper-
ception, and the city has taken steps in the past year to
free up off-street parking — namely the Fourth and Cas-
cade lot — so that customers have a convenient place to
park. On the Heights, parking remains free, and locally-
owned businesses are helping add real vibrancy to that
commercial area.
By supporting local business, residents can help with
the multiplier effect that happens when local money
stays local, and it’s simply a good way to maintain com-
munity by making the direct and personal contact with
businesses, and fellow customers, encountered at busi-
nesses close to home.
Flags Lowered
Honoring Peace Officers
G
overnor Kate Brown ordered all flags at pub-
lic institutions throughout Oregon be flown at
half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Friday,
May 15, in observance of National Peace Offi-
cers Memorial Day and Police Week 2015.
“We honor the brave men and women of Oregon who
keep our communities safe and bring lawbreakers to
justice,” Gov. Brown said. “Let us keep in our thoughts
and prayers those peace officers who lost their lives in
the line of duty.”
The full Presidential Proclamation is available on the
White House’s website.
W HERE TO WRITE
President — Barack Obama, White House, 1600 Pennsylva-
nia Ave., Washington D.C., 20500
E-mail: president@whitehouse.gov
U.S. Senators — Jeff Merkley, SDB-40B, Dirksen Senate Office
Building, Washington D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-224-3753; E-mail:
oregon@merkley.senate.gov; Ron Wyden, 717 Hart Office Build-
ing, Washington D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-224-5244.
Web address: www.senate.gov/member/or/wyden/general/
2nd Congressional District Representative — Greg
Walden, 14 N. Central Ave., Suite 112, Medford, OR 97504.
Phone: 541-776-4646;
E-mail: www.walden.house.gov/contactgreg
Chelsea Marr
General Manager
CMarr@hoodrivernews.com
Founded in 1905
419 State Street
Hood River, OR 97031
P.O. Box 390
Phone: (541) 386-1234
Operations:
Joe Petshow
Publisher
President, Eagle Newspapers
JPetshow@hoodrivernews.com
Chris Stenberg
Bookkeeper
CStenberg@hoodrivernews.com
Front Office/
Classified Advertising:
Kelly Gallagher
Eagle Classified Director
KGallagher@eaglenewspapers.com
Stacey Methvin
Classifieds/Receptionist
HRNClass@hoodrivernews.com
SMethvin@hoodrivernews.com
News coverage and a slick YouTube
video produced by Nestlé might lead
Oregonians to believe that everyone
who lives in our home town of Cas-
cade Locks supports a water bottling
proposal here. But that’s far from the
truth; we have discovered many oth-
ers who feel that the State and our city
are failing to conduct proper due dili-
gence of Nestlé’s proposal.
Five years ago, it would have been
hard for many to believe that Oregon,
Washington, and the entire west coast
would experience widespread
drought. However, this new reality of
global climate change gives us pause,
especially with our own Gov. Kate
Brown’s recent announcement of
droughts in seven Oregon counties. Is
inviting an extractive industry into
our community really the right way to
meet our economic development
needs when the future of water avail-
ability is so uncertain?
City Hall seems to forget that our
water rights are given to us by the
state, who has the final authority on
how best to protect it for all. In the end,
water rights don’t matter much if
there isn’t enough water to fulfill
them, and if the city were to sign a
contract allowing Nestlé to pump a
specific amount of water, are they re-
ally still our rights? If something goes
wrong, will we be able to fight their ex-
pensive lawyers, and how long would
it take to force them to cease and desist
while they continue pumping?
As residents, we want local, sustain-
able, and socially responsible long-
term economic solutions that benefit
us for generations to come. The ac-
ceptability of selling public resources
for private profit belongs in the past,
and the only way to move forward is to
discover new industries to develop.
Cascade Locks has a history of
pulling together to get things done,
and Nestlé does not seem like a good fit
or an appropriate industry. We can do
better.
It is disappointing that an agency
charged with protecting our water as a
public resource would disregard the
potential long-term implications of
this project. While we are especially
concerned about what a water rights
swap would mean for our community,
we recognize that public water be-
longs to all Oregonians. So the time to
weigh in is now!
Deanna Busdieker, Cascade
Locks City Council
Edward del Val
Cascade Locks
Budget
breakdown
I’ve always been confused as to why
there should be a budget deficit when
the expenditure per student is $11,656
in our district (a very high figure).
Taking an example of grades 4-5, with
an average class size of 26 students,
that equates to revenue for each class
of roughly $303,000 (26 x $11,656).
An average teacher’s salary is
around $65,000 (for a teacher with 14
years of experience). Adding in over-
head of 35 percent (or $22,750) to cover
health insurance, sick pay, vacation
pay, operating expenses. The total ex-
penditure for a teacher would be
around $87,750.00 (or $88k) for that
classroom.
What is happening to the other
$215,000 ($303k minus $88k)?
It’s becoming painfully obvious that
there is a tremendous amount of over-
head and unnecessary support and
services.
For instance, there is a line item of
almost $5.5 million for health insur-
ance on total salary costs of
$20,663,649. That equates to health in-
surance being 26 percent of salary
costs. That is an outrageous figure.
Most companies’ health care costs are
closer to 8 percent of salary costs.
$3.6m a year is spent on building main-
tenance. Considering this is for 8
schools for 8 months, that figure seems
especially high. $2 million for some-
thing called “office of the principal.” I
couldn’t figure out if those were costs
outside of the normal salaries. $1.5
million for English as a second lan-
guage. $500k for counseling services.
$1.8 million for school transportation.
The list goes on and on.
The other glaring figure is the
amount of support staff. Within the
entire district, there 505.9 full and
part-time employees. Out of that num-
ber, only 214.4 are teachers. Support
staff takes up almost $8 million in
Circulation:
Esther K. Smith
Circulation Manager
(541) 386-1234 Ext. 205
ESmith@hoodrivernews.com
News:
Kirby Neumann-Rea
Editor
HRNews@hoodrivernews.com
Ben Mitchell
News/Features
BenMitchell@hoodrivernews.com
salary while teachers take up almost
$13 million. That figure is simply un-
acceptable. Support staff should be 20
percent of teaching staff and that
number should be closer to $2.6 mil-
lion.
I understand that schools need to
cater to a wide variety of needs and
services. At a certain point, we need to
get back to fundamentals of what ser-
vices a school should be providing.
The question isn’t getting more
money, it’s effectively managing the
money we have. That means making
hard decisions. Cutting down on sup-
port staff and services. Getting con-
trol of building maintenance and
health insurance costs. I see no reason
why any of the humanities (art,
music, literature…) or athletics
should need to be cut and we why we
can’t get the student ratio to 18-1 given
our current budget.
I’d also really like to see the budget
and expenditures for individual
schools (rather than being lumped to-
gether). The budget provided was pret-
ty good, but a lot of raw data without
explanation.
Joe O’Neill
Hood River
For Fairchild,
Fenner, Watson
As a student at CGCC, I have no-
ticed firsthand how severely lacking
the student services department is. We
need Stu Watson, Lee Fairchild, and
Guy Fenner on the board to fight the
good fight. It is very clear to me that no
one else on the CGCC Board of Educa-
tion is going to fight for the wellbeing
of the faculty and staff at CGCC or me
and my education other than Watson,
and I want to see the wellbeing of the
school prioritized over the stagnant
and political current Board of Educa-
tion.
The current board wants to cut 110
classes. Do they know that enrollment
will stop if degree-seeking students
can’t receive an education through Co-
lumbia Gorge Community College?
Do they know that cutting staff and
faculty will decrease the quality of the
education available at the college fur-
ther dropping enrollment? Apparently,
everyone on the current board (except
Watson) has not thought about those
aspects of budget cuts and layoffs.
Please help me receive the education
that I deserve by voting for Stu Wat-
son, Lee Fairchild, and Guy Fenner.
Watson is the only currently serv-
ing board member who is dedicated to
the students and faculty of the college;
at all board meetings I have attended
he is the only one who demands that
transparent and proactive decisions.
Also earning my endorsement is Guy
Fenner. He has a Master’s Degree in
Engineering believes that “it is
CGCC’s responsibility to provide
these students with the support ser-
vices they need to achieve their acade-
mic goals.” He also believes in a trans-
parent board, one in which the an-
nouncement of the potential closing of
the Hood River Campus won’t be a
knee jerk reaction to a budget crisis
thoughtlessly overlooked.
Lastly, Lee Fairchild is an extremely
important addition to the CGCC
Board of Education. He recognizes
that “the CGCC budget over the last
few years is unsustainable” and has
experience in education. He has both
taught at the University level and has
worked in corporations and run his
own business.
We need more board members who
are engaging in open and honest com-
munication with the employees and
addressing their concerns instead of
leaving a feeling of helplessness and
Forest Plan
needed
Northwest logging towns and en-
dangered forest ecosystems are in de-
cline and will disappear unless we re-
tain the current Northwest Forest
Plan (NWFP) and reverse these trends.
Timber workers are not heard de-
manding an end to mechanized log-
ging and the export of raw logs and
milling jobs to foreign markets. “Joy-
stick logging” allows one person to re-
place many, costing careers. The cul-
prit is not owls living in the few re-
maining old growth stands.
In Oregon there are already five
times more jobs in forest recreation
than in logging. These include habitat
restorers, trail workers, guides, camp-
ground workers, etc. Indirect jobs are
in hospitality, transportation, equip-
ment sales and rental, etc. Decommis-
sioning roads, defragmenting water-
sheds, and rebalancing the forest for
nature increases its appeal as a recre-
ational resource and supports towns
and people even in the short term. In
forestry, the motive is to reduce
human participation. In recreation,
the goal is to increase it. More habitat
means more recreation and more jobs
in rural towns. Forests will continue
to provide careers in the wood prod-
ucts and recreation industries if we
improve them via the protective stan-
dards of the NWFP and include
buffers protecting riparian areas, re-
duction of the harmful impacts of old
logging roads on streams, water quali-
ty, and fish habitat, and maintenance
of public access to trailheads, camp-
grounds, etc. To achieve maximum
profitability, USFS should manage the
NW forests as a whole, not forest by
forest. All mature and old-growth
forests should be off-limits to salvage
and logging to protect wildlife habitat,
provide carbon storage, and build the
recreation industry.
We can increase rural paychecks,
protect habitat, and “sink” carbon in
healthy old-growth trees, all by man-
aging forests as one, limiting “no-
labor” logging and exportation of un-
milled logs, and embracing recreation
and habitat.
John Wood
Hood River
A note on letters
Several of the letters in this edition of
“Our Readers Write” are beyond the
stated 350-word limit. They have been
edited down from longer (and in two
cases, much longer) original lengths.
Realizing that this goes back on our re-
peatedly-stated policy of limiting letters
to 350 words, we are allowing the over-
age because in this case we lacked the
time to send the letters back to the writ-
ers and ask for reductions.
In light of the circumstances, and the
fact that some ofthese authors are first-
timers, we are allowing these that go be-
yond 350, albeit in edited form. Mean-
while, we’ll try to refine our system so
that more timely response can be made
when letters do go over 350, with the
earnest reminder to all readers to limit
letters to 350 words.
Thank you.
Kirby Neumann-Rea, editor
Trisha Walker
News/Features
TWalker@hoodrivernews.com
Liana Stegall
Advertising Sales
LStegall@hoodrivernews.com
LisaAnn Kawachi
News/Features
LKawachi@hoodrivernews.com
Kirsten Lane
Advertising Sales
KLane@hoodrivernews.com
Patrick Mulvihill
News/Features
PMulvihill@hoodrivernews.com
Ailene Hibbard
Archivist
Advertising:
Jim Drake
Entertainment
JDrake@hoodrivernews.com
betrayal among staff members. Is it
possible that the current board should
be working with the staff and faculty
to come up with decisions about how
to fix the problems in my school? It’s
time for board members who are on
the side of the employees and students
of Columbia Gorge Community Col-
lege.
Ashley Platt
White Salmon, Wash.
Jody Thompson
Advertising Manager
JThompson@hoodrivernews.com
Production:
419 State Street
Hood River, OR 97031
P.O. Box 390
Phone: (541) 386-1234
David Marvin
Production Manager
DMarvin@hoodrivernews.com
Tony Methvin
Plant Manager
(541) 386-1234
TMethvin@columbiagorgepress.com
Jim Drake
Production
JDrake@hoodrivernews.com
Sarah Methvin
Sales/Customer Service
SDMethvin@columbiagorgepress.com
Lisa Becharas
Commercial Printing
LBecharas@columbiagorgepress.com