Council needs update on cameras
Friday, August 29, 2008 11:38 PM PDT
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E-mail this articleAug. 30 Letters to the Editor
Council needs update on cameras
I am dismayed that the editors of this paper called my request for updated information “bordering on absurd” (“The Big Stall,” Aug. 23).
The last time council addressed red-light cameras, we were informed by the marketing company that it wouldn’t videotape the driver. That discussion was two years ago, before a different council, and citizens are still raising concerns. For these reasons, I asked the city attorney for an update on the law.
What perplexes me is, if research is “absurd,” how are we on the council to make decisions? Are we to assume that there have been no changes in the law or are we to blindly believe the marketers who are trying to sell us a costly system? Do the citizens who voice concern have the right to an answer or should citizens’ questions be summarily dismissed?
If council authorizes red-light cameras, it should be after learning the issues and a public meeting where citizens’ concerns can be addressed.
Kurt Anagnostou
Mayor, city of Longview
Primary pleased voters
Concerning the last voter’s ballot that I received, which enabled me to vote for the person instead of the political party, it pleases me very much, and evidently many other voters in Cowlitz County feel the same way.
When looking at the results of the votes in the commissioners race, it is noted that while Kathleen Johnson was not the favored Democratic Party candidate, she won the majority of the votes under that party’s banner and advanced to the general election.
I am a nonpartisan voter and like to vote for the person who will represent me, and I certainly feel that Kathleen Johnson has done just that.
Ted Bryan
Kelso
Letter came as a shock
Recently, you may have received, as I did, a friendly little letter from the county.
What could my county have to say to me, you may have asked? Little to your surprise, you got a letter saying, “Dear Real Property Owner, The assessed value of your real property has been changed.”
What really came as a shock is that most likely your “Real Property Value” just doubled, like mine did.
It is unjust and unethical that our government would use the over inflated prices of real estate that were the result of a nationwide sub-prime loan scam to adjust our property taxes. What’s worse is they did this after the cat was out of the bag. They were watching the same news we were. They saw how banks were closing left and right and people were losing their houses.
We are possibly at the brink of another Great Depression, we cannot afford this. Please, I implore you all to fight this. Go to the assessor’s office and appeal this attempt to rob us.
Sam Hane
Castle Rock
‘Roadies’ do a good job
This letter is in response to Ron E. Axt’s Aug. 24 letter titled, “A huge waste of money.” Perhaps if Axt were to look past his own apparent transgressions toward the county, he could see that much joy is brought to the hearts of those who are lucky enough to get their roads paved by the Cowlitz County road department.
Not only do those “roadies,” as Axt so eloquently referred to them, do a fine job, but they are very polite and willing to answer any questions that motorists may have. This includes the foreman all the way down to the summer help, who often go without water or bathroom breaks for extended periods of time. I often get the urge to bring them flavored beverages and popsicles on some of the warmer days, especially when I consider how much time and energy goes into making our roads look so flawless.
Also, the average citizen doesn’t understand that the chip-sealing process is the best possible way to ensure that the beautiful roads of our county stay crack-free. If you don’t like the rocks getting in your shoes, then don’t walk on them. Nobody is forcing you. And perhaps Axt’s friends should look into getting some new brakes, if a couple of pieces of gravel is all it takes to render them useless.
The only money issue here is how little they pay those poor summer help.
Phillip Culebra
Longview
Bus drivers are professionals
For the past three years, I have driven school bus for the Kelso School District. Although I no longer work there, due to moving to Vancouver, I would like the community of Kelso to know how fortunate they are to have such caring and professional bus drivers.
Transporting students to and from school is a very challenging job that these drivers do every day, with great care, always with safety in mind. This is due to the support of not only their supervisor, but of the dispatchers, mechanics and others.
Kelso bus drivers are the best.
Herb Goebel
Vancouver
Vote for less of two evils
I usually don’t write letters to the editor, but a couple of letters need a response.
When you vote for someone who does not have a snowball’s chance in that hot place to win, you are just throwing your vote away. In effect, you are voting for the party that you don’t want to win. When the person I like is not chosen to run, I vote for the person I believe will do the least damage.
As for whoever gets elected to be governor, do you really think they will lower the gas tax, the car registration fee or any other tax? Dream on, friend, dream on.
H.F. Payne
Longview
Are you better off?
This current president’s economic policies have brought the highest home foreclosures in years, the highest bank failures in years, the highest income gap in years, decimating the middle class, sending jobs overseas while denying unemployment benefits to laid off American workers, eliminating family wage jobs with health benefits while giving tax breaks to ultra rich companies.
His policies have brought the highest gas prices in years, which are strangling American workers and small businesses and leading to more and more bankruptcies. And this president wants to tax workers on their health benefits paid by employers (which is a tax increase).
John McCain agrees with all these policies and votes over 90 percent of the time to support this current president’s policies. So I ask you, “Are you better off today than eight years ago?”
Mike Gibbins, ex-Marine, Vietnam vet
Kelso
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