Letters to the Editor February 12, 2009

Bruno de Solenni family asks public to wait for memorial

This is to again thank this wonderful community that responded with so much compassion during the loss of our beloved Bruno de Solenni. Our grief was only assuaged by your support. During the last several months, several requests have come to our attention by persons who want to commemorate Bruno by a mural or other dedication. Again, we are overwhelmed by your love.

Since our family members have had to deal with so many ramifications of Bruno’s death, I can say that emotionally we are on “overload.” I would ask that you delay any such memorials for a few months, and that you contact the family regarding the intended tribute for our family’s consideration.

I’m sorry I haven’t finished sending thank-you cards, including those who contributed to his memorial. Locally, you donated approximately $7,200 and I am still receiving contributions. The money was given to the Emergency Fund for Families of the Oregon National Guard. Bruno was a member of this unit; perhaps later, we can do something for any local military family needing assistance, but this seemed the most efficient at the time. By now, you should have received acknowledgement of your donation by the Guard; if you have not, please contact me.

Again, thank you, but please wait a few months and then contact the family before proceeding with any tribute.

Only one reason for PLA but numerous reasons against it

I attended the Monday evening meeting regarding the union-sponsored Project Labor Agreement with the Del Norte Unified School District.

The unions presented only a message of “vote yes for me and we will establish a construction technical career academy.” They appeared to me to hold the School Board hostage (vote for PLA or no technical school). I found no other reason to vote for the PLA in their presentation.

The no-to-PLA people presented a variety of reasons for a “no” vote:

• A trade school can be established without a PLA.

• Union contractors can bid and be awarded contracts without a PLA.

• More jobs will use local labor if there is no PLA.

The funding for the proposed projects will come from Measure A money directly from the pockets of Del Norte county residents. As much of this money as possible should stay in Del Norte County. Therefore I hope the school board will vote “no” at its meeting today.

Stimulus is liberal power grab to control private sector

President Obama is getting off to a rough start by not being truthful to his campaign promises. He said that he would not sign non-emergency bills and place them on a Web site for five days to get public comment, then promptly signed at least two bills before the five-day limit.

He promised to have a transparent, above-reproach administration, but has had four people vetted and still they have problems: Tom Daschle and Nancy Kilefer both had unpaid taxes, and Gov. Richardson had to withdraw due to state contracts investigation. Only Treasury Secretary Geithner got confirmed even though he did not pay self-employment taxes.

Now President Obama is trying to ram a “stimulus” bill for $820 billion through Congress, but it is mostly payback to election contributors and non-essential spending. This legislation is nothing more than a power grab by liberals to put government in control of the private sector, similar to Europe socialism. If you or I operated on the same premise as our government and we had financial problems, we should spend more money and put ourselves deeper in the red; common sense would tell me to cut non-essential spending and set goals for getting out of debt. Our government now wants to use the same old idea used by FDR and Carter, which gives us only more debt, higher taxes and greater inflation.

Japan tried to spend itself out of a recession in the 1980s with more than a trillion dollars and still is mired in rough times. When one looks at the dismal record of accomplishments of our government and its inefficiency, the outlook for American workers is bleak. What we need is for the government to “allow” us to keep our own money and spend it more efficiently in areas we want to spend our money.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this “stimulus” package will not help our economy and may very well decimate it.

Council gives money to one farce, ignores three others

I see where the City Council earned its increased pay by giving the Visitor Center funding so it can remain open during business hours of 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday. After all, you don’t want to have the tourists taking some of their valuable time on the weekends to try to find out what to do in town.

Why doesn’t the city help them further by providing the following ads for tourist publications:

Come fishing at our B Street pier. Please ignore the burned out porta potty and scorched planks at the beginning of the dock. We have asked our federal pork barrel representative to provide funds to replace the whole shooting match. We estimate that if we are lucky, we should be able to apply for these funds in about 18 months. Then it will only take us about six months to have public hearings, a year and a half for the environmental report, say another year to defend it in court and nine months to go out for bid. Two years from then we should be able to fund the overruns and complete the project. After all, we have experience on the wastewater plant. As you can see, this is much better than us spending budgeted porta potty and repair costs now.

Another: Homeless, welcome! Do-gooders are all over the place. The police won’t arrest you for stealing shopping carts and will look the other way when you take the cans and plastic bottles from the recycle containers. Law enforcement is too busy catching locals driving without seat belts and tourists not stopping at the totally unnecessary stop signs at the old A Street clinic. You can block the sidewalks begging for money for drugs (oops), food. You don’t have to license your dogs or get them rabies shots. If you have any problems I’m sure the Community Watchdogs will sue the city on your behalf. You can also disregard the no-camping signs, as misguided citizens placed them.

Sarcasm aside, why can’t the city fix the pier, remove the useless stop signs and do something to rid us of the homeless?

Without a local newspaper, life would be hard here

Thanks for the Feb. 10 column, “We’re all in this together, Del Norters.” It is a hard subject to discuss. National banks have failed, one of them locally. Our state is almost bankrupt. It cannot pay all its bills. Even our local food stores are laying people off.

A 10 percent cut in pay is nothing to the 10 percent who are unemployed in Del Norte County. If you think not, imagine the result of a prison closing.

After reading the Editor’s Notes, the wife and I bought a nightstand at a local store, and decided to write this letter.

We want to urge everyone to support our local newspaper for our own good. The Daily Triplicate is more than a newspaper. It is the way we stay connected. It’s the way we find stuff. It is the answer to many questions. Without a local newspaper, life would be hard here. We read it all the time.

As for future editorials, I hope to read about the sustainability of modern life. Can people expand their consumption enough to put us all back to work? Can anyone stimulate faith in the markets after the curtain is lifted and the shell game is seen? What about the real change that must happen if our economy does what Iceland’s has done? How do 300-plus million people switch from a consuming mind-set to a producing mind-set? Is it possible? Would leaders allow it?

We hope the answer is yes. We are trying to do so ourselves. Good luck to you all, and thanks to The Daily Triplicate.