Will Skagit keep farming?

Will Skagit County officials allow us to continue farming?

In 2005, we received a Notice of Violation of Skagit County code, concerning livestock access to a creek for water purposes. We attempted to acquire a grant, but that process became too costly. We received no other communication from Skagit County until three years later in February 2008. We then received a Notice of Correction from Department of Ecology accompanied with Skagit County’s original notice, this time with threats of $10,000 daily fines. This was not a water quality complaint. Private monitoring and testing was conducted showing no e. coli pollution. There was no data to justify water pollution, but was an order to correct size of a water gap.

Skagit County and Department of Ecology were quick to issue a notice of correction and only allow 30 days to correct the problem. The problem was corrected within 30 days. Department of Ecology agreed the complaint has been satisfied, but yet it’s been almost seven months and Skagit County has failed to close its complaint against us.

Will we be able to save our farmland from the county officials’ hidden agenda and continue farming? Or is our farmland destined to be another flood control project turning our third generation farmland into wetlands? Time for a change at the courthouse.

Bev Macken

Bow

Healthcare costs are a drop in the bucket

In the Sept. 3, 2008, edition of The Argus, Don C. Brunell wrote in a guest column the problem with the federal debt could be blamed on Medicare and Medicaid — “entitlement programs.”

He made no mention of the billions of dollars and thousands of lives the current administration has spent on creating a police state in Iraq, or the tax breaks given to corporations. Those aren’t “entitlement programs?” Now that Bush and Cheney have managed to give their friends the monetary surplus they were handed by Bill Clinton, they have incurred debt my grandchildren will have to pay back.

The events of the last two weeks break my heart, but Don C. Brunell believes the federal debt is the result of giving people minimal health care.

My daughter was born very premature. The first bill we received was for $51,000. Fortunately, my husband was employed and we had health insurance. I presume that if we hadn’t been fortunate enough to be able to afford that insurance, we should have let her die, because people such as Mr. Brunell believe socially responsible programs for people less fortunate are entitlements that should be done away with.

Seriously, how does the cost of Medicare and Medicaid even compare to the wanton greed and fiscal irresponsibility exhibited by many of this country’s financial instituions?

Lynn Morrow

Edison