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Opinion Letters Letters and Comments for January 11, 2010
Letters and Comments for January 11, 2010
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Lemon, Sykes, Procter
Volunteers are key
Jan. 19 is the date for the first “Volunteer Link” to be held at La Grande Middle School from 4 to 6 p.m. Union County needs dedicated volunteers for our local agencies to provide services to families in our community. Volunteers are an integral part of the Department of Human Services. There is a broad range of volunteer opportunities that help serve DHS clients and staff. Volunteers are recruited and placed in jobs that help to meet community and DHS customer needs. Volunteers provide personalized ways to help DHS clients, staff, offices and communities in a wide variety of ways. Every effort is made to place DHS volunteers to opportunities that best meets their abilities and interests. As a volunteer you do not replace paid staff but donate your time and skills to supplement staff services. DHS offers a broad range of volunteer opportunities, including transporting clients; locating resources; support and training for clients; family advocacy; tutoring and interpreting; supporting the independence of people who are elderly or disabled; activities for clients; child care, education and recreation for children; office assistance; mentoring; and seasonal programs. DHS also utilizes families who come forward to provide a safe and nurturing home by providing foster care to Union County children in need. For more information on volunteer opportunities with DHS or on providing foster care, join us and other Union County agencies on Jan. 19 in recognition of the National Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. Contact Billie Jo Craigmile for more information on “Volunteer Link” at 541-962-8835 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it “Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.”
Foster home certifier DHS Child Welfare Opposed to trapping
I disagree with Mr. Turner about trapping. Hunting and trapping are two different things. Hunting means choosing your animal and aiming at it for a quick, clean kill. Hunters don’t target somebody’s dog when hunting elk. Trappers hope to get their target but often trap the wrong animal, including pets. Trappers kill slowly and agonizingly. They’re required to check their traps only every two days. Trapping is like shooting into a crowd of animals: trappers hope they hit what they want, but if not, they keep blazing away. I don’t think trappers are “protecting their families” or anything else when they trap bobcats, raccoons, weasels, skunks, coyotes, the occasional bird, the occasional pet, the occasional deer, the occasional whatever. They are simply amusing themselves. Last year 765 active trappers sold $255,000 in furs, about $330 per trapper statewide. That averages $23.57 a month per trapper over the 14-week season. Trappers are not supplementing their income, they’re subsidizing their cruel sport. Mr. Turner says pets should always be leashed, but that’s not the law. Hunters, ranchers, hikers — all normally go onto public lands with their dogs unleashed. After all, it’s public land, not a trapping theme-park. Trappers don’t recognize this. They never mark their traps. They never post signs. They put their traps next to roads and trails. They are inconsiderate of their fellow citizens and contemptuous of the animals they kill. And since when do pets need to be leashed to protect them from “predators?” Mr. Turner makes it sound like we’re surrounded by huge ravening monsters. Where pest-control trapping in Portland is necessary, it’s designed to avoid catching the wrong animals, and injurious or lethal traps are posted. Cage traps are the norm. About all Mr. Turner gets right is that trapping is legal, but that can change. Wally Sykes Joseph Too much secrecy
The recent article on Joseph City Councilor Lacey’s call for Mayor Sands’ resignation touched on what many people in Joseph see as the mayor’s very troubling pattern of behavior: He all too often acts in a way that appears inconsistent with city charter and Oregon law, and continues to believe that Joseph has a “strong mayor’’ form of government. Without required city council approval the mayor or the city public works director have independently contracted with a law firm for consultation and research on the city’s water rights and expended city funds. It was Councilor Lacey who at the August council meeting questioned a $3,000 expenditure to a law firm other than the council-selected city attorney. After citizens’ requests produced six letters to the city from two law firms concerning the city’s water rights, we learned that the city received the first letter raising the water rights issues in December 2008 from lawyers representing the Associated Ditch Co. At that time, the previous mayor and council should have been given copies of that letter, but they were not. Over a year later, only a few people close to the mayor know anything about this issue. It appears no closer to resolution than it did in December 2008. Added to this, information is being withheld from the citizens and rate-payers of this city. What role the mayor, city staff and other councilors played in this matter remains a question largely due to the secrecy that’s surrounded dealings on the issue. Recent requests to gain access to the larger file have been denied, claiming attorney/client privilege. Effective public processes do slow down the decision-making process. Speaking from 20 years’ experience, however, they also often lead to better decisions. An effective process includes publicly addressing opposing points of view.
Joseph |
