Letters to the Editor for April 2

The amount of water that is being discussed is very small. The amount being discussed passes Cascade Locks, through the Columbia River, many times each day. It is not an issue about scarce resources.

While I am on this subject, perhaps we should look at the cost of water in Hood River. The cost of water in Colorado, where there is a lot less water resources, is much less per residence than we pay. Why?

Will our cost of water be influenced by this Nestlé plant in Cascade Locks? Will Hood River try to supplement the jobs that Cascade Locks will lose if we vote against this water issue? What right do we, as Hood River residents, have to force our views on them? Do they have the same rights about voicing opinions, through ballots, about Hood River decisions? Could we be forced to vote on any decisions made by any town in Hood River County? Perhaps a Super Wal-Mart is a possibility!

We all have the right to refuse to purchase any bottled water. Do we also have the right to refuse this right to others?

Leonard Hickman

Hood River

Vote yes 14-55

In reply to Mrs. Lamont’s perspective regarding Measure 14-55 (Hood River News, March 30):

Many of us, for years, have urged caution, requested non-Nestlé-funded testing and research, asked for solid answers as to truck routes, how the traffic would affect our local businesses and burgeoning tourism. We never received answers about who was to pay for the road upgrades (additional weight and to provide a left-hand turn into the weigh station) or for the damage 200-truck trips a day would do to our roadbeds. We asked and tried to involve ourselves in the decision-making process. When we were denied answers, year after year, we took it to the people for a vote. This is still America and voting is still the most democratic process we can participate in as citizens.

After she calls supporters bullies, she states, “I’m frustrated as a citizen, a taxpayer, and a lover of Cascade Locks that people can come in here and tell us what they think is best, and do so under false pretenses and intimidation.” I would like to say in response that, I am also frustrated as a citizen, taxpayer, and a lover of my town. But I feel the ones who told us what is best and are still using intimidation are our hireds, our electeds, and citizens who feel that their words and needs should be enough to bypass any process or citizen input.

Town has not been “intentionally ignored.” Many of our citizens are involved in the process. We passed the petition around and gladly signed, we participate in fundraising, phone banking, and there are signs on our lawns and in our windows. Perhaps because Mrs. Lamont’s views were already well known, she is unaware of the enthusiastic involvement of so many of us.

We have done a lot of hard work to give every one of us a voice in this.

Please vote yes on 14-55 and protect our water.

Katelin Stuart

Cascade Locks

‘Great things’

I just received a brochure for the new PoTENtial series at the Columbia Center for the Arts and I want to applaud Hood River’s efforts to bring such outstanding cultural events to the residents of the Gorge and those of us living in Portland. I’m a frequent visitor to Hood River and have enjoyed the recent changes in the art gallery’s offerings. Now, I’m very excited about attending these amazing performances. Kudos to the staff of the Center and to the residents of Hood River for bringing such great things to us all.

Jill Kelly, PhD

Portland

No on 14-55

Looking at the snow on the mountains, it is hard to imagine that we will soon be short of water in the valley. But we almost certainly will be — every year a bit (or a lot) more. We need to take care of our precious water supply, and our future together.

Ballot measure 14-55 asks us to support the effort to stop outside entities from using large quantities of our key (and already seriously diminishing) resource. The proposed water bottling facility in Cascade Locks is a business venture that makes little or no contribution to our economy, and in fact threatens our agriculture and the quality of our life in general. We need to stop it now, before we find out, like so many other communities have, that it doesn’t just come back. “Oops, it’s gone! Too bad. Sorry. Bye now,” just won’t make it feel okay. And our lives will be the poorer, except of course for a very few who will profit nicely for a while.

200,000,000 gallons a year? That’s huge when you think that virtually everyone foresees a diminishing water table. And it won’t only be the Cascade Locks people who pay: past experience shows that some bottling companies regularly import water from surrounding area water resource points to supplement their supply.

I strongly suggest we say a polite but firm “No, thank you.” (Which is a “yes” on this measure.)

Tom Penchoen

Pine Grove

For Sanders

Donald Trump is the overinflated balloon at a party. Eventually someone will step on him, and he will pop, startling everyone, and then they will go back to drinking, talking and laughing as if he had never existed.

Ted Cruz is the uninvited guest who shows up wearing a suicide vest, a Texas grade sociopath.

Be extra wary of anyone clawing their way towards power, who is not invested in life on this mortal plane because he has chosen himself to go to heaven. We should be smart enough to know where this thinking leads.

We have allowed the construction of giant economic strip mining machinery to be built, and given it license to roam the land destroying everything of value in its path, leaving nothing for the future, to deliver profit to a few.

The only candidate of either party to acknowledge the existence of this machinery and challenge its privilege is Bernie Sanders.

Hillary Clinton is financed and beholding the strip miners. It’s a clear choice.

Ben Seagraves

Hood River

‘Fortunate’

Thank you to the Hood River police officers who responded to a call regarding suspicious events in our neighborhood today. We are so fortunate to live in a place where we have a system that protects us and is concerned about the safety of its citizens.

Natalie Speck

Hood River

Yes on 14-55

I have been a minister living and working in Hood River County for nearly 10 years. I care deeply about the health and well-being of our community and about the natural world in which we all reside. Treating each other with fairness and justice, and respecting the integrity of the creation are critical foundations upon which we all seek to build a livable and thriving neighborhood.

Community development is stronger and more sustainable when we are attentive to how we use our precious resources. Giving away our water to a private corporation is neither smart nor just. As the Nestlé campaign to privatize water in our county unfolds, we are all victims of a greedy textbook endeavor built upon carefully crafted false promises of jobs (they have not guaranteed one new job that goes to a local resident). Let’s not be deceived! We are being asked to endorse an exchange of greedy profits of bottled water at the expense of a viable economy built upon truthful economics!

Nestlé uses water tanker trucks to bring in the water it bottles at a central plant — many water sources become vulnerable to this mischievous business plan. The fact that this plant would be located in Cascade Locks affects everyone. Our county is a very interconnected place and we are invited to guard it for the common good of all.

We live in a world that is rapidly changing. The climate catastrophe that is getting world attention has everything to do with our most finite resource — water. Everybody, if they are honest and have their heads up and out of the sand, knows life changing droughts will increase in the future. Let’s be smart, wise and ethically attentive to the fact that giving away water for private business profit should never come at the expense of our prosperity or our long term economic stability.

Join me in voting an enthusiastic and determined yes on 14-55.

Rev. John Boonstra

Hood River