Fluoride issue should be behind us

We have been talking about fluoridating our water supply in Skagit County for years. It’s time to take action so we can move on. The case is clear: We voted for fluoridation, and the state attorney general indicated that the Board of Health has the legal authority to order fluoridation, so it did, telling the PUD to build the system. What’s the hold up?

I, personally, am concerned about our elected officials having time to focus on other issues, like the plans for the new county jail, protecting farmland and the economy. We need to cross fluoridation off the list, so to speak, and get down to the many other aspects of improving the county.

The debate is over, and the time to act is now. The Skagit PUD should put the fluoridation system in place. As an aside, considering the Skagit PUD’s inability to get water fluoridation done up until now, do you want it in charge of our electrical system (Proposition 1)?

Jennifer McCoy
Mount Vernon


Glad Ecology eyeing old landfill

Regarding the Sept. 30 article about the old dump on South March Point Road:

I want to clarify that the majority of the testing the Department of Ecology did at the “old Fidalgo landfill” was at the tide flats between BNSF rail line and the Snow Mountain Mill. The Snow Mountain Mill has been taking water samples north of South March Point Road, which borders Snow Mountain Mill, for numerous years.

I know this because I observed Ecology doing the testing as well as the owner, Stein Svendsen, taking samples to turn in. Stein Svendsen is aiding Ecology all the way. I know because he has told me, and I worked 23 hours one weekend moving our entire inventory of logs so they could conduct electronic testing, which I also observed.

I’ve managed the logyard at Snow Mountain Mill for the past eight years and have voiced concerns about this issue numerous times. I grew up about a half-mile west of the mill. My family moved from Anacortes to just west of Reservation Road, on South March Point Road in 1968.

I remember as a child and into my teens finding treasures in this old dump. I collected beer and pop bottles, plus any metals I could scrounge. This helped pay for school clothes and supplies growing up. At that time, most people looked down at people who did this.

At times, I just wonder how I survived to age 50 being exposed to some of the toxins I played in as a child and was exposed to as an adult.

The moral of my letter: Thank you, Ecology, for getting this process finally started, and thank you to my boss, Stein Svendsen, for being morally committed to work with Ecology to resolve this issue.

Rickey E. Bates
Bow


Dahlstedt doesn’t support ag

It appears Commissioner Dahlstedt does not support preserving agriculture in Skagit County. Dahlstedt has no stand on all of the issues that deeply affect Skagit County. In his reasoning, Dahlstedt flip-flops around trying to be politically correct with his nonagriculture agenda.

Behind the scenes, he shows his true colors. Under Dahlstedt’s watch, the Farmland Legacy Program has lost its director to the consolidation of programs, weakening all of the natural resource programs. Legacy’s board has not been allowed to hire a full-time director. Now, the Farmland Legacy Program must share a county employee who does not have the time to devote to the needs of the program.

We need a change in the county commissioners’ office to stop Dahlstedt’s eight years of flip-flopping. Vote for Don Gordon for county commissioner. Don Gordon has leadership skills, supports preserving farmland — which includes the Riverbend area and south Mount Vernon — wants to keep growth within existing urban growth areas, supports agriculture and opportunities for preserving farmers, stands up for property rights, and knows how to manage a budget.

Don Gordon has been endorsed by the Skagit County Farm Bureau.

Aileen Good
Sedro-Woolley


Petroleum companies to blame

Regarding the Oct. 1 Skagit Valley Herald article “Locals wonder who’s to blame”:

All they needed to do was to look at the prices on the gasoline pumps. I have been answering the requests for money by politicians by saying, “I ain’t got none,” because of the price gouging by the petroleum companies. And I have wondered why no politician has ever protested those prices or done anything to get them under control.

During the (contrived) gasoline shortage in the 1970s, the media reported how much the petroleum companies gave to the Richard Nixon presidential campaign fund. But when a reporter told how much was paid into the Hubert Humphrey fund, the media seemed to lose interest in the matter.

So my question is: Have all the politicians been bought out by the petroleum industry? If not, why aren’t any of them doing anything about the outrageous price gouging? Have you noticed the exorbitant profits the petroleum companies are making?

The Arabs denied that they were holding back shipments in the 1970s. So one news columnist chartered a small plane to fly out over the Outer Banks of the Atlantic; he saw loaded oil tankers anchored there. So it was a fake shortage.

Having lived through the 1930s, the coming recession will be worse unless they do something about petroleum prices. The trucking industry, which pays the highest price for diesel fuel (which is easiest to distill and should be the cheapest), are having to charge more and more to deliver products that we must all have. Have you noticed the price of groceries lately? That is just one answer about “who’s to blame.”

John C. Wilkens
Oak Harbor


Local control for our liquid gold

There are thousands of publicly owned utilities throughout the country with communities that would fight to keep them.

As for promises of lower utility rates: It has been widely circulated through the media that utility rates will rise greatly this winter throughout the U.S. There will be no escape.

We have liquid gold here in Skagit County with out hydroelectric energy. Why would anyone want to give control of our water supply to foreign interests or mergers with the usual succession of corporate buyouts with high profit expectations?

Apparently, Puget Sound Energy thinks of Skagit County residents as a bunch of yokels to whom they only have to say three words, “Save your money,” and they’re in.

Our country is in deep financial trouble. It is now providing $750 billion in bailout money to banking institutions, supposedly the safekeepers of our money. It is yet another “gift” from our government and Congress to us taxpayers. We don’t need “help” from foreign investors interested in making big bucks from our utilities, especially since our country is already broke to the tune of $9 trillion.

Therefore, I urgently and fervently ask Skagitonians to think local and support local by wholeheartedly supporting our public utility district, PUD, by voting yes on Proposition 1. These people live here and are available to see, talk and work with.

If you have received a red-and-black postcard from a group called Skagit Committee for Reliable and Affordable Energy, you would be wise to look up this group on your computer to see who’s supporting it.

Doris Deamud
Mount Vernon


Palin and Bush sound a lot alike

Listening to Gov. Palin’s folksy “plain talk” during the vice presidential debate and hearing her reassurances that she’s just an everyday person like me reminds me of another candidate who seduced voters on the basis that he was a Washington outsider speaking the language of the people.

George W. Bush’s early appeal was based largely on his “gosh darn” ability to speak the language he attributed to everyday Americans. Bush came into office ready to serve the needs of “his” people, but the rest of us have discovered that his people are a very small group indeed.

Similarly, Palin’s group is much smaller than she would have us believe. She and McCain favor tax cuts that benefit the wealthy and a health plan that hurts more than helps. She’s spent more effort supporting big oil companies than hockey moms. Her fundamentalist religious views represent a minority even McCain doesn’t align with.

Palin tells us that she is a straight-talker, yet in the recent debate she dodged the questions, rarely willing (or perhaps able) to give direct answers, even telling the moderator she’d be choosing to ignore some questions in favor of more straight talk. This, too, reminds me of Bush. By making unsubstantiated claims posed as reassuring straight talk (“Mission Accomplished?”), Bush continually masked his inability to address complex issues. And he often avoided answering questions at open news conferences.

Although Palin gives us a wink and plays on her middle-class roots as though she is the only one who understands us, the truth is Biden and Obama both grew up in working-class homes mirroring those of most Americans. The McCain campaign seems to believe that we aren’t smart enough to see behind Palin’s folksy image to her lack of understanding of crucial issues.

Beverly Faxon
Burlington


PUD David versus PSE Goliath

On Thursday evening at the Burlington Library, there was a cozy grass-roots meeting where electricity charged the air! How fortunate I felt to realize the strength of communities discovering their collective power to study the facts, even when bloated mastodon Wall Street utilities — of which PSE is one of the very worst in so many categories — hire public relations people to defeat the obviously superior neighborhood PUD solution with scare tactics of the dirtiest kind!

Puget Energy’s rates are the highest in the state of Washington and are slated to go higher to spew dividends and golden parachutes galore at our expense! Particularly exciting that night was to be addressed by Richard Lovely, the general manager of the Gray’s Harbor PUD, who’s a top-notch electrical engineer with an MBA. He made it so clear that terrific talent can be attracted to our PUD to steward the transition from Goliath to gentle, caring David right here at home!

We the people can scrutinize and refresh our Skagit PUD with the power of the ballot, because we own it Don’t miss the debate at 7 p.m. Oct. 15 in McIntyre Hall in Mount Vernon, and vote yes on empowering our PUD to explore electricity distribution, please.

George Jay
Blanchard


Vote Haddon to rein in Olympia

Olympia is out of control! Whatever the problem, Olympia’s attitude is, “Let’s throw money at it and see what happens.” And what has happened is a 30 percent increase in state spending in just the past three years alone. The previous surplus we had has disappeared into a very deep hole.

The Legislature continually seeks to take away our right of initiative and referendum. Local control of our schools is long gone, and our children have suffered with lower-quality education because of it. Cities and counties are often hit with unfunded mandates and higher taxing requirements. All of this results in Olympia gaining more control over local issues. 

When you consider the above and the current shambles of the ferry system, it becomes obvious that Olympia is broken and in dire need of a “makeover.” Linda Haddon will do just that!

Linda is a businesswoman with wide-ranging experience, which includes past membership in the Save NAS task force, originating and working on the board of three social service organizations serving widows, membership in several other service organizations, and also working as a former member of Island County Planning Commission.

She is a fiscally responsible person who will fight for budget controls. Linda has stated, “As your state senator, I will go through the state budget line by line looking for ways we can improve service while cutting waste,” and she will do exactly that! Also, she will fight to institute the performance audit recommendations that will save millions for the state, which the current “free spenders” ignore. 

We need Linda Haddon in Olympia.

Anita W. Johnston
Oak Harbor


Authorize study of PUD ownership

Vote yes on PUD Proposition 1.

Do you want to “own your home,” building equity over time, or pay rent forever?

Do you want guaranteed local control over our electric infrastructure, or would you rather leave ownership of our vital resources to the whim of whatever foreign corporation, with an Enron-like business plan, offers the highest bid to distant shareholders?

Do you want to have some say in how your utility is run and rates are established, or would you rather put your faith in a private corporation and the regulatory board (the UTC) that all too often rubber-stamps what the private owners want?

Do you understand that Prop. 1’s passage would mean the PUD would commission an exhaustive study to determine if we can afford this? It would include many public hearings during the process. It would not authorize an immediate takeover.

Do you believe the propaganda coming from PSE, which has pumped $230,000 into its campaign in Skagit County to fight public ownership? It is protecting its shareholders and the more than $50 million in executive bonuses expected from the sale to Macquarie, not you and me. Their campaign members live in Seattle and use a UPS mailbox store as a local address.

What is more deserving of your trust — an  elected commission, made up of people you live around, that has to be responsive to voters or a huge corporation with ivory towers in Bellevue whose financial records are blacked out before being released to the public?

Don’t believe the hype all over television, the newspaper and our highways.  That $230,000 represents your ratepayer dollars at work.  

If, like me, you have faith that Skagit County, like 23 other counties in Washington, can manage our own electric utility — and over time reap the benefits of local ownership and lower rates — vote yes on PUD Proposition 1.

Ginny Wolff
Bow