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
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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