>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

A few weeks ago Cove Preschool had a yard sale as a fundraiser for the preschool. We had asked for donations of items from the parents of preschoolers and had sent the word out into the community that we were in need of donations for our sale. The response was completely overwhelming. We received more donations than we ever could have hoped for.

The community also came out in droves and purchased items from the yard sale, often paying more than what the price tag said. People were friendly, supportive and generous beyond measure. Those of us who worked at the sale were amazed at the support that the preschool received.

I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who helped make our fundraiser

a big success. Cove truly is a great

community.

Lisa Boquist

Cove Preschool teacher

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I would like to publicly express my gratitude to the voters and members of the North Powder community for their attendance at the regular city council meeting May 7. Many of you, I feel, attended that meeting in my support following the front page report of the special meeting last Wednesday that was published in The Observer May 5.

I truly appreciate that each of you took the time from your evening to see firsthand how this issue and other city matters were handled by the people you elected for office. There was definitely a broad interpretation of character displayed.

As I said in January, "I will, to the best of my ability, faithfully perform the duties of the office of Mayor of the City of North Powder during my continuance therein: so help me God."

Bonita Hebert

Mayor of North Powder

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I read the article in the paper on May 5 about North Powder. I am the mayor of Elgin and have a full-time regular job so I am in and out of the city office, sometimes after hours, to pick up paperwork to sign or check my box. I have a key to the office and am able to come and go as needed. I can't imagine that it would be a problem if I wanted to take care of the office phone calls or even spend a day in the office.

I believe that the mayor or councilors not being "allowed" to be in the office at any given time is a serious issue. It is never a bad idea to have more than one pair of eyes on financial documents, daily work flow, taking care of city issues or just dealing with the constituents of the city. Teamwork is what it is all about when the day is done. Respecting others is part of it, but you can respect someone and still "check" on what is going on.

Keeping abreast of what is going on financially in city practices and policies is what the council and the mayor are elected to do. It is their responsibility to make sure things are being done correctly, financial obligations are being met and the daily work is being done.

Cities need strong leaders, people who are there for the betterment of their community. You will not always please everyone; that's the nature of politics.

Carmen Gentry

Elgin

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I am grateful to all the folks of Wallowa County for making my all too short visit one I shall never forget.

I am especially grateful to the residents of Joseph and the rancher Biden Tippett moving his cows near the Zumwalt Prairie and especially to the logger Kelly Couch who explained to me from the Buckhorn Overlook how the creeks and canyons that are now inaccessible, unused, unmanaged and full of dead timber once teemed with ranches, families, wildlife and visitors from across the country. Your kind insights and experience were much appreciated and very enlightening.

I was honored that the Oregon Freedom Alliance invited me to speak at their symposium at the Joseph Civic Center. The interest and commitment that I discovered in your community is precisely what made this country great and is necessary to sustain it into the future.

Although a visit to Wallowa County is surely memorable due to its stunning beauty, the scenery pales when compared to the people who live here.

Jim Beers

Retired USFW Wildlife Biologist

Centreville, Va.

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You may have noticed recently that

La Grande's city forest has gotten greener. Over the past few weeks, 84 new street trees have been planted by volunteers under the supervision of La Grande's Parks and Recreation Department, guided by Tree Educator Teresa Gustafson.

More than 50 volunteers contributed 180 hours to this effort. Even at minimum wage, this contribution exceeds $1,400. Of course, volunteers received no pay, and for them tree-planting is a labor of love. Many individuals have been helping each spring for several years.

We are grateful to property owners who adopted trees, and to all the volunteers who came to get their hands dirty. Among them are families, EOU students, master gardeners, Starbuck's employees, Teen Court kids, Training and Employment Consortium volunteers and Community Landscape and Forestry Commissioners. We would also like to acknowledge Ted Kramer and The Observer for their support.

Purchase of street trees is shared by the City of La Grande and individual homeowners. You may obtain a tree for the right-of-way adjacent to your home or business for low cost and by agreeing to care for the tree. If you are interested in obtaining a tree or to volunteer to help plant trees, call Teresa Gustafson at the Parks and Recreation Department at 962-1352.

La Grande has been named a "Tree City, USA" for 17 consecutive years. Together, we are making La Grande a better place to live.

Mike McInnis

Community Landscape & Forestry Commission

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Every time I read the stories of the little dog Tuck, I want to cry. I hope the ignorant man who took such a sweet little dog from a fenced yard gets caught. Boy, that jerk sure is sick in the head.

He should have a rope put around his neck and be dragged behind a car until he sustains the pain he inflicted on such a helpless loveable animal. But knowing the law, he probably will get (I hope) 10 years in prison, a soft sentence for what he inflicted on Tuck.

The sad ignorant person is probably a coward, too scared to surrender his miserable hide for his act of cruelty.

Florence Palmer

La Grande

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The article on the petrified wood found near Yakima ("A Forest of Stone," May 10, 2007) was interesting. However, it always amazes me how quickly this thing of millions of years comes up without any proof whatsoever. Just quickly pick a number before someone gets the idea that God may have had something to do with it.

Friend is exactly right when he calls it "God's little creation." The Bible clearly teaches that the earth is about 6,000 years old and that there was a global flood about 4,500 years ago, and there's lots of evidence that backs it up. There is no proof anywhere that the Earth is millions of years old.

What Friend found is likely a deposit of trees carried there by a mud flow or the like as a result of the global flood in the days of Noah and then buried under a lake for a number of years to petrify. That would explain why the trees have no roots. They are in growth position, but not growth location. Similar things happened at Mount St. Helens when it blew up in 1980 and caused a mud flow.

For more on this subject, read the book "Footprints in the Ash" by John Morris and Steven A. Austin.

Dan Hooley

Cove

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Portions of the following epistle were printed in the Chieftain and Observer in March. The reason I have resubmitted these words should be obvious to anyone who has remained abreast of today's news. The letter goes as follows:

Time flies for the most incompetent administration this country has ever known. More appointments of inept Bush disciples to essential government positions.

Condi Rice, an overeducated, underexperienced pianist as secretary of state!

Wolfie Wolfowitz (can't balance his own checkbook) as head of the World Bank!

John, the bully Bolton (noted for hating the United Nations) as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.!

And then, of course, Rumy Rumsfeld (architect of this never-ending invasion of Iraq).

Oh, yes, I almost forgot about Gonzales!

Looks like Bush and his sharpshooter pal Cheney are batting 1,000 with Condi, Wolfie, the Bully and Rumy. Can't wait for Curly, Moe and Larry on the Supreme Court. How could more than 50 percent of our population support misfits of this caliber? I'm convinced it has something to do with the Machiavellian principle that a well-fed, well-housed middle class will tolerate an evil big-business-oriented puppet regime without question. Germany and Italy of the 1930s are good examples.

After reading the preceding I'm sure most of you realize the above predictions have come to pass. In addition you should have concluded that impeachment is the only solution. Lying to congress was sufficient to impeach Nixon and almost impeach Clinton. Both of the above offenses don't begin to compare with the disastrous military, economic and cultural damage this administration has perpetrated.

The answer? Impeachment.

Robert J. Casey

Enterprise

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I would like to express my gratitude to the people of Union and Baker counties for the opportunity to serve them on the ESD Board for the last year. This has been a great opportunity to work on behalf of children and education in Union and Baker counties, which has always been my top priority.

I have also had the pleasure of working with Superintendent Mary Apple, my fellow board members and the staff at the ESD, who have done a great job under adverse circumstances.

Finally I would like to congratulate my successor and wish him well with his new term on the ESD board.

Les Balsiger

La Grande

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The Observer's 10 May article titled "Rare Surprise, A Forest of Stone" by Lynda V. Mapes was about a petrified forest in the Yakima, Wash., area. Mapes described it as "a forest of stone, more than 15 million year old." Shown is a picture of tree trunks in an upright position with dirt and rocks tightly holding them in position.

I offer the young Earth model, (7,000-8,000 years old), instead. Yes, I said, seven to eight thousand years old. The young earth model includes the worldwide flood that happened about 4,000 years ago.

The classic modern-day model for a young Earth is Mt. St. Helens, which erupted for nine hours on May 18, 1980. Spirit Lake was right next to it. At the time of eruption, there was great seismic activity that threw the water from the lake over to the adjacent mountain, which was covered with evergreen trees, Douglas fir included. The power behind the water was so forceful that the water pulled millions of trees and soil back into the lake.

According to the documentary video "Mount St. Helens: Explosive Evidence for Catastrophe" (produced by Creation Research Institute, El Cajon, Calif.), five years after the eruption, geologist Steve Austin, Ph.D., put on a wet suit and dove into Spirit Lake. His purpose was to look at the soil content below the floating logs. He discovered that there were many logs with no roots, floating upright.

The upright trees were already starting to turn to stone, to petrify. In fact, wood does turn to stone when the silica from the soil, combined with water and wood, are together constantly.

So what Clyde Friend of Yakima has actually discovered on his property is evidence for the great worldwide flood.

Lucy Gilchrist

La Grande

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On Mother's Day, I sat listening in the early morning to the trucks hauling past our Telocaset home, and I wondered, What is the price of "green"?

Before the onslaught of the wind generator frenzy, I would go to sleep listening to the howls and yips of the coyotes. Early in the morning they would speak again, but for a while now, they have been silent. I would stand in my front yard and see the nine-member herd of antelope making their way up the hillside, but I haven't seen them since the development took place. Out my back window I would see deer grazing and watch the eagle pair flying, but there are towers up and roads being built behind us now.

What is it that spells g-r-e-e-n for those wind generators? Surely not the thousands of gallons of diesel being used in their trucks. Not the torn hillsides. Not the logs being shipped out on trucks hauling the wildlife's habitat away. Nor the tons of metal being used to construct their tower monsters. Not the clean power it will provide our town; we have to buy it for a high price from Idaho Power.

Green is the temporary money that the jobs will give a few. They worked on Mother's Day because the big bosses were promised hundreds of thousands of dollars more to get the job done earlier. That is what is green, the money and the greed.

Those who know me feel empathy for me, but those who think they know me say we need green energy. I say you should try living with it disrupting your lives, seeing what you love destroyed. There is a cleaner, less harmful way to go green.

I feel very strongly about letting nature talk and not money. It is so heartbreaking to watch the hillsides get torn up and the animals' habitats leave our once beautiful farmland.

Green energy does not have to be paid at such a cost. There were better alternatives.

Fay J. Stein-Swanson

Telocaset

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In response to Jack Lane's recent letter to the editor, I would like to say that he is absolutely correct: I am not an EOU Booster. And I have no plans to become one as long as Rob Cashell remains employed by the school.

Tell me why my former teammates and I should be the ones to, quote, "save baseball" at EOU? Is that our responsibility? After Mr. Cashell mishandled the budget and cut our program, we are supposed to just pony up the dough, eh? If that's the case, let's cut every Mountaineer athletic program and make the players pay for everything. How's that sound?

Personally, I feel no responsibility to EOU and am even embarrassed to call myself an alum. If you are so concerned, Mr. Lane, feel free to contribute all you want to an athletic department that has a track record of caring more about money than its own athletes.

Please don't act like you know something about the players who played under former head coach Wes McAllaster just because you two were college roommates.

Landon Johnston

Cortez, Colo.