Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Hood River news. (Hood River, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (July 4, 2015)
A4 V IEWPOINT Hood River News, Saturday, July 4, 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 all CL wants Nestlé 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 Beautiful Bounty Enjoy the July 4 pomp and creativity “Beautiful Bounty” is a parade theme that well-de- scribes the event itself. Essentially it refers to the work of the group that is this year’s grand marshal: the people who volunteer at FISH food bank. And the phrase can serve to describe what goes on starting at 10 a.m. Saturday on the Heights: the low-key, user-friendly, vibrant Hood River July 4 parade. Our thanks to Lions and the many volunteers who spend the year organizing this event and carrying it out, more like clockwork every year, for all of us to enjoy. Grand marshal choices over the years have been imaginative and inclusive: among them Lila May Schow, 4-year-old cancer fighter, and Ed Bartlien, and World War II “Jungleer” veteran. This year, paying tribute to the folks from FISH reflects the organizers’ sense of community and is timely as well, with the re- cent opening of the new food bank facility. Kollas- Cranmer Walk/Run participants will pass the new FISH facility as they approach the home stretch on Tucker Road about a mile out. Cheering on the walk- ers and runners as they complete the course on 12th Street just before the parade is a time-honored tradi- tion, and the runners blend in once the parade gets started. The parade organizers have made some notable changes in recent years: encouraging local participa- tion, discouraging the tossing of candy and other items, and instituting the advance registration. Asking people to donate $10 as an entry fee might have been jarring at first, but it makes sense given the Lions’ mission, and most people have no problem with the fee. It also streamlined the parade, and reduced repeti- tion and casual participation. Providing cash awards to the top entries was another welcome addition. There’s also an increased attempt to connect the pa- rade and what goes on afterward at Jackson Park. This year, the grand marshal choice ties in nicely to that: canned goods for the food bank program may be donated during the barbecue, kids’ activities and music at the park. Preventing the indiscriminate tossing or distribu- tion of candy and other hand-outs improves safety, cuts down on litter, and directs the focus of the parade to where it should go: kids on decorated bikes, Little Leaguers on fire trucks, church summer programs on flatbeds, the guy in a tuxedo playing the trombone, the horse-and-rider pomp, and the whimsy and beauty of clowns, carts and antique cars. These types of entries and the ones that will surprise and delight us this year make the parade a community activity for which the community can be proud. 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 Fax: (541) 386-6796 Operations: Joe Petshow Publisher President, Eagle Newspapers (541) 386-1234 JPetshow@hoodrivernews.com Chris Stenberg Bookkeeper CStenberg@hoodrivernews.com First, I would like to thank all of the townspeople who came out and en- dured extreme heat on July 25 to at- tend the town hall in Cascade Locks. I saw a great many of our residents with very pertinent things to say about the Nestlé water bottling pro- ject. A point of clarification: the groups NO Nestlé in Cascade Locks/Local Water Alliance repre- sented at the meeting are made up largely of our own citizens. Local Water Alliance is almost exclusively residents of Cascade Locks. The format the city planned for the town hall completely ignored the ac- cepted practices for creating a conver- sation. When doing my own research on facilitation, the group I was corre- sponding with (Six Rivers Mediation in Hood River) told me how the town hall was organized is exactly how NOT to do it. Additionally, the first fa- cilitator they hired was a PR guy known for his methods of marginaliz- ing critics. All of this leads me to be- lieve the city has not been sincere in trying to find out what the people real- ly want. Yes, the meeting got a little rowdy. There are a lot of Cascade Locks resi- dents who are sick and tired of being ignored and dismissed. Wholesale acceptance of the project in Cascade Locks is not as pervasive as Stacey Methvin Classifieds/Receptionist HRNClass@hoodrivernews.com SMethvin@hoodrivernews.com As I was luxuriating in my shower the other morning, my mind wan- dered to water. Water we consume that is essential for life, that can ren- der us weightless, that cleanses and refreshes, the music of water in the ocean surf and the cascading falls. It was during this particular shower, just a few days ago, when I turned off the water to soap up and decided to recommit myself to climate justice. Having experienced a severe drought in San Diego during the late 80s early 90s; I remembered how dili- gently many responded to the coun- ty’s recommendations: replace lawn grass with xeriscape (“dry” land- scaping), replace shower heads with low-flow types, install low-volume Don’t bottle up long-term health and vitality of Cascade Locks By PETER FROTHINGHAM To: Cascade Locks Mayor and City Councilors urge you to reconsider Cascade Locks’ plan to enter into a con- tract with a private corporation to provide hundreds of millions of gallons of water annually to be bottled and sold. I attended the public hearing last Thursday and learned from city man- ager Gordon Zimmerman, among other things, that the recharge area for Oxbow Springs and the wells for Cascade Locks is quite small. This year the rainfall to resupply that area was down some 14 percent, not an in- significant decrease. That watershed has never been asked to deliver hun- dreds of millions of gallons of water year after year. No environmental impact study has yet been done on this proposal. It seems to me ex- tremely likely that this level of draw will quickly lower the water table on which Cascade Locks depends for its well water. At the least, I think the City Council should thoroughly in- vestigate the likely consequence of this demand on the watershed. If the proposal moves forward and a contract is drawn and the plant built, it is said that there will be 200 trucks a day moving in and out of Cascade Locks. In a 24 hour day that means that there will be a truck going through the city every 7.2 min- utes. Though Mr. Zimmerman said that the Council and he are doing I News: Kirby Neumann-Rea Editor HRNews@hoodrivernews.com everything they can to get those trucks off of Forest Lane and WaNa- Pa, unless a new interchange, is built there is absolutely no other way for them to access I-84 as they will need to do. He spoke of $10 million to be spent to improve Forest Lane and WaNaPa to, at least, improve things with cur- rent truck traffic. It does not seem to me that the city council has thought- fully considered the impact on city businesses and tourist activity of ad- ditional trucks passing every 7 min- utes. For instance, it seems to me that the very popular ice cream store on WaNaPa will suffer a significant and possibly fatal change in its busi- ness due to the difficulty (and dan- ger) of people parking, seeking to cross the street, or simply standing at the store amidst the noise and diesel fumes of the passing trucks. Access to and from Marine Park probably will be compromised, either leading to traffic accidents or reduced use. Many cars make left turns into the Char Burger and Best Western, not to mention the hundreds of cars making left turns to cross the Bridge of the Gods. How are those turns to be made safely in the face of trucks passing every 7 minutes? Furthermore, when vehicles are unable to make those left turns quickly and safely, traffic, including the trucks, will back up until WaNa- Pa is grid locked. Has the Council considered how this will impact the community and the city’s relation- LisaAnn Kawachi News/Features LKawachi@hoodrivernews.com Advertising Sales Production: David Marvin Production Manager Jim Drake Advertising: Jim Drake Entertainment Jody Thompson Advertising Manager JThompson@hoodrivernews.com Production JDrake@hoodrivernews.com Trisha Walker News/Features TWalker@hoodrivernews.com ■ Peter Frothingham lives in Hood River. Kirsten Lane Ailene Hibbard Archivist BenMitchell@hoodrivernews.com ship with the private corporation? Someone said at the public hearing that this proposal has been under consideration since 1988. I’m unsure of the accuracy of that statement, but it apparently has been discussed for as much as two decades. As re- ported by Mr. Zimmerman, the des- perate situation in Cascade Locks with regard to jobs has changed in recent years with one new company planning to provide up to 40 new jobs. The completion of more of the old Columbia highway is bringing bi- cyclists and other tourists to Cascade Locks. It’s my understanding that many in the city, though eager for ad- ditional jobs, want them to be locally owned businesses and sustainable jobs. It seems that there is already a trend in place to provide the jobs that Cascade Locks has desperately need- ed and that some imaginative and creative leadership to provide more places for people to gather and to meet other needs of both citizens and those visiting will strengthen that trend. In light of all of the above, I be- lieve that the city council should re- consider whether this proposal is still the best way to address the long- term well-being and vitality of the citizens of the City of Cascade Locks. Thank you for this opportunity to express my concerns and point of view. KLane@hoodrivernews.com Patrick Mulvihill News/Features PMulvihill@hoodrivernews.com News/Features Circulation: Esther K. Smith Circulation Manager (541) 386-1234 Ext. 205 ESmith@hoodrivernews.com Commit to climate justice flush kits in toilets, only flush when necessary, turn off water while brush- ing teeth, and while soaping up in the shower. Collect gray water for plants. A few years ago, my daughter and I re- turned to view our former home. Again, with a grass lawn! This is now more than drought. Call it what you will: carbon pollu- tion, climate disruption, climate change, global warming. No longer is this a far off future event. We know what this is and we know what’s causing it: extreme consump- tion of fossil fuels. We know what’s making it so hard to stop: large cor- porations who have become embod- ied with mega-power through wealth created by extracting said fuels. We know that we need a different eco- nomic system and that we need to stop taking excessive resources from Earth and mass producing so much unneccessary stuff. We know that our earth can’t sustain another dou- bling of population. It’s easy to feel powerless. But, as resources dwin- dle, the population grows, the climate changes faster than predicted, entire species die out at alarming rates – we need to ask ourselves: Don’t we have a moral obligation to do what we can on behalf of the children and future gen- erations? Don’t all beings deserve a healthy environment that is life sus- taining? Or, do we continue to buy gadgets, burn fossil fuels and look the other way? Keri Bradberry Hood River ANOTHER VOICE Ben Mitchell Front Office/ Classified Advertising: the city would like everyone to think. I realize this almost every day as word gets out and more and more citizens rally around the opposition. It sounds to me like the letter writers here just want the opponents to be quiet and let the city make an irresponsible deci- sion with no dissent. I have not ob- served the city to pay attention to any information other than what Nestlé has told us, therefore the citizens are only getting one side of the story. We can do better. Deanna Busdieker Cascade Locks City Council Liana Stegall Advertising Sales LStegall@hoodrivernews.com DMarvin@hoodrivernews.com JDrake@hoodrivernews.com Allen Diers Commercial Printing ADiers@hoodrivernews.com 419 State Street Hood River, OR 97031 P.O. Box 390 Phone: (541) 386-1234 Fax: (541) 386-6796 Tony Methvin Plant Manager (541) 386-1234 TMethvin@columbiagorgepress.com Lisa Becharas Commercial Printing LBecharas@columbiagorgepress.com
