4 A
❘
WEDNESDAY EDITION
❘ APRIL 27, 2016
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
RYAN CRONK , EDITOR
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
EDITOR @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
Opinion
LETTERS
Appreciate public service
May 1 through 7 is Public Service
Recognition Week. Across the country and in
communities like Florence, federal, state,
county and local government employees serve
us every day.
Please join me in publicly acknowledging
the good work done by the active and retired
federal workers in Oregon.
At a time when much of the talk about fed-
eral employees is biased or uninformed, let’s
use this week to talk about what federal
employees really do.
They work alongside our military at home
and abroad to defend our country. They con-
duct cutting-edge research to improve health
and prevent disease. They regulate food and
drug products to keep us safe. And, when nat-
ural disasters strike, they are there to provide
relief and help us rebuild.
Despite popular belief, 85 percent of federal
employees work outside of Washington, D.C.
All around this country, federal employees
help seniors get their Social Security benefits,
guide airplanes safely through our skies and
care for our veterans and wounded warriors.
During Public Service Recognition Week,
please join me in recognizing the important
work of the public employees in our commu-
nity and thanking them for their service.
Jim Parrish
NARFE Siuslaw Chapter 1751, Florence
Uncertain about bond
I have been reading about the proposed
school bond for the new high school here in
Florence and was feeling like a yes vote for this
community need until I considered the politi-
cal/taxation situation beyond our small town.
I thought about proposed tax increases,
which could effect all our budgets in the
future. These could include tax increases to
pay for free college for everyone, free medical
care for everyone and new carbon taxation,
which increase the costs of all kinds of things
like food, transportation, gasoline and elec-
tricity.
Florence was just voted one of the most
beautiful towns in America. That’s great, but
as property values increase so do property
taxes. Add to that possible new taxes to pay
for campaign reform and new taxes on Wall
Street financial transactions (which could
impact retirement/401-K plans or pension
plans, like PERS returns/unfunded liabilities)
and suddenly my yearly budget becomes any-
thing but certain.
And, uncertainty leads to caution. So when I
think about this long-term bond issue (a debt
obligation I take very seriously as a taxed,
fixed income property owner) to make sure I
can pay it within my budget, I look at it as a
small piece of all federal, state and local taxes
and expenses I am responsible for.
So if I vote no, it’s not because I’m against
a new high school. It’s everything else.
Politicians should think about that before pro-
posing grand plans that someone else must
pay for.
Dave Peck
Florence
Enough is enough
Vote no on the school bond measure. As a
frustrated home owner, 60 percent of the prop-
erty taxes go to the schools.
Graduation rates — Oregon rates second
worst in the nation and Siuslaw School District
second worst in Lane County. How is a new
$40 million school building going to improve
those results?
Shame on the mayor and city council for
endorsing this bond measure. We all live on
the coast, if a major earthquake and/or tsunami
should occur, who’s going to go to school any-
time soon?
The school exterior, grounds and athletic
fields look beautiful. It does not take $40 mil-
lion for necessary upgrades. Get real!
Thanks to Oregon for the $4 million, but for
us property owners to shovel in another $36
million, what’s the return for that money?
If the bond passes, we will look for an
increase in the graduation rates and all the eco-
nomic development. If this does not happen, I
told you so!
Eric Pearson
Florence
In favor of school bond
Yes, it’s a lot of money, and no, I’m not a
rich person. I have to balance my bills with my
declining income. But, we all know building
costs do not go down, only up. You can fix an
old truck for only so long before you have to
replace it or just get used to walking a lot.
Have you ever been at home in an earth-
quake where floors crack, exit doors jam and
ceiling fixtures fall? No one who has lived in
Florence all their lives has experienced even a
5.8 earthquake, and we are told to “expect an
8.7 or greater earthquake lasting up to five
minutes, at any time.” A magnitude 8.7 is 794
times bigger than a 5.8 quake as measured on
seismograms, but the 8.7 quake is about
23,000 times stronger than the 5.8 earthquake.
The Siuslaw School District is above the
potential tsunami line, but we are all living on
sand. The new high school design will be a sta-
bilized building and it can be built on the same
property and be fully functional as the old
school is dismantled.
Sooner or later the kids we love need to be
in safe, up to code schools, and it should be as
soon as possible. It’s difficult to learn in
cramped, airless, upstairs classrooms.
If you have volunteered at Siuslaw High
School, did you see they had no kitchen or
cafeteria, that girls sat on the rough cement
floor in a corner of the upstairs hall to eat food
from home, that there was limited space and
seating so some did not eat at all?
Did you see there was no safe way for a dis-
abled person to get upstairs? Restrooms and
the gym are near the main building, library
space is doubled up as classrooms, office
space for staff is limited with inadequate heat-
ing, cooling systems and fire suppression.
Power supplies are maxed out and not all stu-
dents have personal laptops and tablets for
studies. The old SHS is past its “sell by” date.
Students need help to stay in school long
enough to graduate. A high school diploma is
the basic tool to get a job or enlist. Staying in
high school to get one year of college work
done and earn certification in a trade means a
job starting at $20 an hour.
Leaving school with no skills or a high
school diploma can mean years of minimum
wage job hopping with no benefits and raising
a young family.
Our dedicated teachers are doing the best
they can to give your children a chance to do
their best to have a good start in life. A good
start for a good job and a secure future.
Please review the “Just the Facts” document
with details on the upcoming bond measure
and visit the website http://safesmartschools
.wix.com/bond for more information.
Jenny Velinty
Florence
Protect our children
I take exception to the fact that the only
information that seems relevant to Mr. James
McCoey (“Vote ‘No’ on School Bond,” April
20) is financial. The safety of our young peo-
ple is obviously of secondary (if even that)
importance to Mr. McCoey and others who are
as shortsighted.
The high school is not safe for two crucial
reasons.
Firstly, it will be a death trap if an earth-
quake should strike while our students are in
school. People that keep their heads out of the
sand know that we are overdue for a serious
quake resulting from the Juan de Fuca Plate
subducting under the Continental North
American plate in the Cascadia Subduction
Zone. Although more severe north of us, dev-
astating damage is expected to occur all along
the coast.
Secondly, inherent in the high school design
is an openness that was appropriate circa 1970
but is far from optimal in our current society.
As more and more schools fall prey to violent
gun crimes being committed on campus and
children and youths being murdered, it is time
to have a high school designed with security as
a priority. It won’t happen here? I am sure
schools where attacks occurred wish they
could go back in time and address security
issues.
So, yes, it is a matter of money. A matter of
citizens voting to pay more in their taxes in
order to protect our most valuable resource,
our youth. That is what direct elections are all
about; letting people voice their desires and
concerns.
A little more money in your pocket or safe-
ty for our students? Doesn’t seem much of a
contest to me, and no, I am not wealthy.
Cris Reep
Florence
A safe school
May ballots to Florence-area voters will
soon be in our hands, giving us an opportunity
to vote on District 97J’s bond issue to con-
struct a new Siuslaw High School. Because the
district has worked diligently to maintain the
school, it looks good. In reality, the building
looks good but performs poorly.
Siuslaw High School was built in the pre-
digital era, before computers entered the class-
room, before energy costs drove us toward
double-pane windows and well-insulated roofs
and walls, before accessibility was mandated,
before building security and safety included
lockdowns, before the building code anticipat-
ed the probability of a significant earthquake
and tsunami in our area.
Like many buildings of its era, Siuslaw High
School was constructed as a slab on grade
building with a relatively shallow foundation.
All the building’s loads transfer to a founda-
tion inadequate to resist the forces emanating
from a strong earthquake.
It would require an enormously expensive
effort to now attempt bigger foundations under
the existing building as well as to install all the
needed connectors for structural integrity from
roof framing and walls to foundation through-
out the school. Its vulnerability to structural
failure explains why our high school is not a
designated place for refuge in the event of a
disaster.
A host of age-related conditions also make
the Siuslaw High School expensive to main-
tain and operate as well as inadequate for the
educational curriculum and student needs. It is
OK to love the school, but we need to be real-
istic about the economics of trying to maintain
a building that has many severe shortcomings.
Maintenance and repair costs take increas-
ingly larger chunks from the school budget
while students and teachers endure environ-
ments that, depending on the particulars, can
be too small, too hot, too cold, too disrupted by
noise. The problem with remodeling is that
what is in place must often be removed or torn
apart and then replaced, refinished and re-
installed — a more labor-intensive process
than simply building new.
A major remodel (the big BandAid
approach) could cost 70 percent to 75 percent
of new construction. Remodeling would not
provide the benefits of a more functional plan,
all new construction, new materials and new
warranties. Major remodeling would also
involve displacing students to portables for a
year or more at an estimated cost of $500,000
to $1 million.
Some are asking, “If the school isn’t safe,
why isn’t the school district doing something
about it?” We voters, our neighbors, our chil-
dren are this school district. It is up to us to
recognize the advantages of a new building.
If the school’s bond issue passes in May, $4
million in grant money from the State of
Oregon will help us pay for about 10 percent
of a new building. If the bond fails, the $4 mil-
lion will go to some other district.
Now is the right time to build a new school
that addresses important design and opera-
tional concerns, but first and foremost is safe
for our students and community.
Sandra Sampson Jones
Florence
A burden on seniors
Wow — just outrageous amounts of money
Siuslaw is asking for a brand new high school
and such a huge burden on taxpayers.
And, as always, the heaviest financial bur-
den is on seniors, who struggle to get by on
fixed incomes without reasonable social secu-
rity, cost-of-living increases, etc.
Why can’t the school system work within a
budget like the rest of us are forced to? Yes,
maybe a new school gets built, but a lot of the
monies will go to adding more “staff” and
perks as most bureaucracies do with budget
increases.
Vote no on any/all tax increases like this on
May 17.
Ralph Wagnitz
Florence
Editor’s Note: According to the Siuslaw
School District’s Bond Measure FAQ sheet, if
any bond funds remain after construction of a
new high school, the district will focus on
safety and security upgrades in all district
facilities, technology and curriculum upgrades
for K-12, and energy efficiency improvements
at the elementary and middle schools.
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