Help with fire appreciated

Dear Editor,

This is probably not your usual letter to the editor, but I have very strong feelings about this and felt I should let those responsible know. Last week we had a fire in Crumbacher. The fire originated just two lots to the south of my home, and it moved very rapidly. From the time I first saw it out my south windows to the time I got to my southern property line, it had gone from what appeared to be stupid person’s burn pile to a fire that was totally out of control and capable of consuming my neighbor’s home. At that point, I felt there was no way his home was going to be saved and had it consumed his home, mine would have been next, my son’s next, my second son’s next and my sister’s next.

Obviously, we had a vested interest in this fire, the response time of the firefighters and their ability to control or divert the fire.

My reasoning for this letter is to thank all of the firefighters who fought the Crumbacher fire. I am told those firefighters were from the DNR, the U.S. Forest Service, the Tonasket Fire Department and the Riverside Fire Department. I would also like to thank the Sheriff’s Deputies in attendance as well as the Tonasket P.U.D. who worked as long as the firefighters, repairing the downed service. I was very proud to be a member of this community and watch the professionalism of all of the firefighters. I am quite sure working a fire so close to homes with all of the onlookers is not an easy job, but it was done quickly and with respect to all home owners and their properties. So to all of you…Thank you! Not just from me, but from my entire family!

Georgine Epley

Owner, Allen’s Auto Parts

Tonasket

New park, old sidewalk

Dear Gary,

The Oroville Streetscape Committee invites you to walk by the new Welcome Gates Park as it develops. This new park is located in front of Lakecrest Winery and Expressions Espresso. The park is across the street from the Saturday Farmer's Market held during the summer at the library. The south pergola is being refurbished to provide pleasant shade for market visitors. Before this park could be started, our head park renovator said that we needed to repair the hole in the sidewalk in front of Centennial Park, our 2008 project. He was right! The danger to anyone walking along that portion of main street was evident. Many citizens of this fair town are under the misconception that the city is responsible for maintaining the sidewalks. This is not true. As in many small towns, the merchant adjacent to the sidewalk is required to keep the sidewalk safe and in repair. This would mean that Stan and Tamara Porter would be responsible by law...but...just a minute; out of their generous spirit, they provided the property for Centennial Park. It was a piece they had just purchased for a tidy sum and the Porters kindly offered to lease it to the city for a dollar a year for ten years. Should they then also be asked to fund repair of the sidewalk? The city helped with Centennial Park in many ways and through the Parks Department, keeps the grass mowed...and the City is not required to repair a sidewalk. So Streetscape felt a moral duty to repair a portion of said sidewalk as a thank you to Stan and Tamara, and out of respect for the city. The deal was made with a very fine concrete guy who has helped in the past. Well...repair it turned out, was impossible. The original sidewalk was so poorly constructed that any repair would not hold up against the shody condition of the existing sidewalk. The total sidewalk had to be replaced and within state and city regulations...whoops...the bill agreed on suddenly went over budget by more than two thousand dollars! It was nobody's fault, it had to be done! Streetscape is suddenly seeing bills that have overrun their budget and threatens what this beautification-focused committee can do in the next two years. We need everybody's help. If you enjoy the hanging baskets, the sidewalk plantings, the trees and tree wells, Centennial Park, the new Welcome Gates Park; if you have volunteered to water the hanging baskets and now you don't have to thanks to the overhead watering put in by Streetscape last year, or if you have ever found one of the ten benches purchased by Streetscape in 2007 to be a welcome resting place; or if you have seen the Streetscape volunteers weeding gardens, planting flowers, setting the new tree wells, or pruning trees, please, please, please donate to keep these projects going so that we keep hearing, "are you that cute little town on the border with all the flowers? As your vote of confidence for what Streetscape has done to make downtown Oroville more attractive please send a donation today to Streetscape, P.O. Box 299, Oroville, WA. 98844 Thank you ahead of time for your generous donation! Barb Drummond Chairperson Oroville Streetscape Committee

Can they deny me entry?

Dear Gary,

Last week while riding my bicycle I entered into Canada legally (I was waved through by the US customs). I was there about five minutes (just wanted some info) and I turned around and went to the U.S. Customs at Nighthawk. They told me that I needed to have all these different forms of identification. I don’t have anything other than picture identification, a Washington State driver’s license so they ran my name through all of their systems.

They continued to give me a bunch of hassle on how come I don’t have this enhanced driver license and how come I don’t have a passport and that I should go to get a passport, it would make their job easier. All of these things went on and on and I very polightly answered the questions, yes, no, I’m not going to, yes, no, no, yes, no, and eventually they let me into the United States, but not without telling me that they did the same thing back in 2009. I do remember that in 2009 they did the same thing and they gave me this big run around. I did not have a passport and they want to know how come I didn’t have one. I said then that it was because I don’t want to get one and I don’t think I need one on and on and on.

Now my question is they allowed me to come back into the United States at a legal entry two times without this identification stuff that they say I have to have and yet they still let me enter. That leads me to believe that they cannot deny me entry into the United States. Is this true and can anyone enlighten me on this? Please don’t tell me that it is my obligation to make their job easier if I want to use the facilities, those facilities are mine (indirectly as a citizen of the United States) and those men and women out there are my employes (indirectly), they work for the government and that is me. Oh by the way six or $7 million on a remodel and they don’t have a drinking fountain, I was turned away without water.

Steven l. Gould

Oroville

War around the corner

Dear Editor,

The world is extremely agitated these days.

In many ways, weather, politics, economy, corruption our magnetosphere, the violent sun flares etc.

We sense the baby is about to be thrown out with the bath water. But will a Golden Age cometh. Perhaps it comes with this idea.

I am hearing about the Law of Absolute Right.

Nobody has written it, because nobody else can say it to you. This absolute law must come from inside us – Evidently, we all know it.

Hard to say if that is true. Why then don’t we humans behave like it? Humans are copy cats I hear. We reflect the outside unto ourselves. What we perceive with our five senses, we copy it.

I have remarked that humanity resembles the same maturing process as babies do. Still not sure if we are in the terrible twos or the re
bellious teens. The maturing and evolving process of mankind will instantly remove our need for the forces out there. Our law of absolute right reigns over force.

That is: Army force, Police force, government forces, and all those laws etc.

The Law of Absolute Right is not something we learn to do it comes naturally as we mature as a species.

Look around and watch all the trouble force is causing in the world. War is around the corner. Preparations are being made, the plan is in place. No wonder we are told that the meek will inherit the world.

We can do better and we will.

Jeez,

Vivian Harper

Oroville

Entering the computer age

Dear Editor,

Tutor-Computer.

Stampede.

I must confess I enter the computer age kicking, bucking, nashing, rearing, jumping and connected. Speaking of connected – I’ve been detected, expected, suspected, inspected, protected, respected, retrospected and infected. But why change horses in mid-Okanogan River? I question the Tutor, “What is nothing but dust; unwittingly brushing myself off upon being ejected from a Bronco.”

Good luck with the cobwebs,

Roger Rylander

Tonasket