Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891
Sorted by date Results 876 - 900 of 2578
To The Eagle: If you’re thinking that having the federal government guarantee coverage to all Americans is a big deal, it’s actually not. The government already pays for about two-thirds of health care costs. Among other things, it pays for Medicare, Medicaid, VA, TriCare and a wide range of state and local health care programs, along with private insurance for government employees and tax subsidies for private insurance. Whether you call it single-payer or Medicare for All, it isn’t some socialist pipe dream. It’s a sensible, efficie...
To The Eagle: In these pages a fortnight past, Dennis Gordon performed his annual gauntlet-flinging ritual, challenging several of us to a town hall style debate, to which we once again demur, but note in passing the invisible elephant in the room, which is that that debate has been going on for at least a couple of decades right here in The Eagle. And that parley has been au courant with the scientific illiteracy of the enviro movement and the malfeasance and ineptitude of our state government as it applies to more local issues such as forest...
To The Eagle: As superintendent of our school district, I am charged with ensuring our children get a quality education and that our district remains an accurate reflection of our wonderful community. I truly appreciate the dialog that has taken place over the past several weeks and I want to extend my gratitude to all who participated in the conversation, particularly those who took the time and came to the school to share insights and see for themselves the issues that face us as we move forward. My door remains open and I look forward to...
To The Eagle: I found it incredibly ironic of the author in last week’s Letter to the Editor in The Eagle to advocate busing our students to Longview rather than spend new tax dollars for a school modernization. I know we’re all struggling financially but: - Has he considered we’re at least getting something of great direct and indirect value for our invested dollars? - Has he considered that under the new tax code the Trump administration initiated that we’ve added trillions (T) to our national debt? I doubt he’s done the math what 24 trilli...
To The Eagle: Is it not safe to assume that politicians of all stripes are self-serving to some degree? The question voters must answer is “whose self-serving activities are injurious to my country?” The difference between Biden and Trump is clear. Biden’s stance vis-à-vis his son’s activities in Ukraine and his past nebulous connections with corporate and financial powers are unacceptable and render him untrustworthy with respect to protecting the interest of the average American. Although Biden, unlike Trump, did not compromise our 2016 pre...
To The Eagle: WSJ, 01/28/2020; “US Natl. Debt Will Rise to 90% of GDP, by 2030, CBO Projects.” Due to tax cuts, which mainly benefit wealthy Americans, and excess federal spending. But Republicans claim to be the party of financial restraint. The US is on a chaotic course of fulfilling the Trump’s whims. But give Trump credit, he is working to divide the country, promote white nationalism, and deface (humiliate) democracy. He does work to promote discrimination at all levels of society (culture wars). He and his team deny women their repro...
To The Eagle: So, back to the disputation about fact vs opinion, the latest round of which centered on Venice becoming the new Atlantis due to Trumpogenic climate change. Editor Rick’s contribution to the contretemps appeared in the editorial column under the rubric “Facts aren’t hard to find” and went on to list links to several fact-checking outfits he considers “trusted outside sources.” Ironically, he first cites the Associated Press, the provider of the yellow-journalistic anti-Trump articles in The Eagle that Mike Swift and I, among ot...
To The Eagle: I had the privilege to walk through the front doors of Wahkiakum High School in 1966 and leave through those same doors as a graduate 50 years ago this coming June. The school has undergone very little change since those days. The Mule Cafe (lunchroom) was a side entry and the CTE building did not exist. The main building, aside from a few bandaids, has had no remodeling or major upgrades in nearly 60 years. Well beyond its expected life. My sons both graduated from Wa-Ki-Hi, I worked as a substitute teacher for 15 years and the...
To The Eagle: Well, I have reviewed the bond facts. I am going to vote for the renovations. My one question is: Why is nothing mentioned about taking care of the flat roof on the high school? That was a mistake back when they built the school and we are still struggling with it. Stop using a band-aid fix. Do it right. Our kids need a good education. Carol McClain Skamokawa...
To The Eagle: Wahkiakum School District is one of the great institutions in Wahkiakum County. Over the years it has dealt with most of Wahkiakum County’s greatest asset - its people. In the 50’s and 60’s the current buildings were constructed, the exceptions being the middle school and some additions on both sites. My Dad and other like-minded individuals on the school board planned for and supported the bond issue for constructing the “new” high school. Issues of cost and needs and values were pretty much the same then as now. When the struc...
To The Eagle: First let me say that I am in favor of providing the best education possible in the best facility possible in our community. I think school facility maintenance and repair is an ongoing responsibility of school administration, not a once in a generation undertaking. My issue with what has been proposed for our school is the overall cost. I once served on a school board in a small Washington community and we needed to build a new school for K through 12 grades. That school was 33,000 square feet, the year was 1990 and the cost to...
To The Eagle: Well this past week has revealed that both common sense and taste have fallen into desuetude. I seem to recall a time when trials had real witnesses and entertainment involved more than scantily dressed women pelvic thrusting themselves around a stage for the entertainment of 100 million TV viewers and tens of thousands in attendance at our recent Super Bowl. Becoming an old man has made it seem likely that our days of wine and roses are only of historical note and available only in films from yesteryear. It also seems that half...
To The Eagle: About 15 years ago, I met a fellow who was a retired school superintendent from Montana, visiting a mutual friend. During our conversation I asked him how tough it was to be a school superintendent. He said it was really pretty simple. He explained there is a huge database of information on schools nationwide. The data indicates that a school budget should be 80 percent for personnel and 20 percent for facilities or plant, as he described it. And, he said, if you deviate from this ratio very much for very long, it will lead to...
To The Eagle: I agree that our high school needs improvement and I’m all for giving the best for our students but I’m voting no on the school bond. The amount they’re proposing to improve is way too much. For that same amount it’s best to demolish the school and build a new one. This way it will be built right with up-to-date codes and technologies. After all, this is a small town and we are dealing with the total students, freshmen through seniors, probably less than 300 as compared to other schools that have the capacity of 300 or more st...
To The Eagle: An article in last week’s Eagle announced that Cowlitz County is the first 911 center in the state of Washington to have Text to 911. However, an important word was missing. It should have said that it was the first 911 center in the State of Washington to have “integrated” Text to 911 service, which means 911 texts are delivered through their 911 phone system. Wahkiakum County has had Text to 911 since July 2016 but uses a web browser-based system. Fourteen other 911 centers in the state of Washington use the same method as Wa...
To The Eagle: I support our children and our schools but not this time; this property tax burden increase is way too expensive. Local homeowners’ taxes will go up 30 to 50 percent if this passes, let me repeat that, 30 to 50 percent. That is just too much all at once for our limited number of property owners. The best advice I can give the school board is that if the buildings are in such bad shape why would you want to invest 28 million dollars plus into them? I understand new Pre-Fab Building techniques lower the cost of new buildings d...
To The Eagle: A message from Naselle School Board Chair: Chuck Hendrickson [Naselle school board chair] - Jan 25 7:09 PM “I’m school board chair at Naselle and have been following the discussion regarding your [Cathlamet] proposed renovation with great interest as we are also considering a renovation of one of our buildings. We have been advised by ESD112 [SW WA Education Svc District] to approximate construction costs at about $400 per square foot. I have been in contact with the superintendent of South Bend’s school district. They are buildin...
To The Eagle: The jackass party has done it [the Iowa fiasco] again. Blame the Russians, anyone? It proves that it has no claim or right to govern our nation. Go away sore losers, poseurs, fools. Take the pussy hats off and think for once. You bad-mouth your fellow citizens and its traditions. You deserve all the derision that your infantile behavior begets. One more; 34 million dollar price tag for a new high school? A fantasy. Who is going to be able to afford this nonsensical and onerous burden? 1700, 1800 property tax payers in this tiny...
To The Eagle: Do the math. If approved, your total property tax bill will swell from $7.92 per $1000 of assessed value to $11.29, a 42% increase. The percentage of your total tax bill paid to the school district jumps from 19% to 43%. Considering there are currently nine other taxing districts at a combined average of 9% it’s obvious something’s out of balance. In its first year alone the school bond would garner approximately $1.44 MILLION in revenue, a staggering amount increasing annually if the county’s appraised value continues its 11% g...
I think it's an admirable goal: If you're going to do something, do it right the first time. My coaches, Paul Spears and Terry Bonny drilled that into me during the seasons I was a Wahkiakum Mule football player, 1965-68, and I've honored it through the years since I graduated. Of course, expediency has its place--one step at a time when your ready and the time is right . . . but sometimes what you're trying to accomplish never gets quite completed in this way of working. Voters in the Wahkiakum School District now have a choice--expediency or...
To The Eagle: After reviewing long postponed and now essential repairs to Wahkiakum school buildings we reflected on everything that good school facilities mean to a community. Positives include increased property values as families and children stay in the area, federal and state payments in support of schools continuing to bring essential revenue that ripples throughout the county, community pride and quality of life reflected in youth activities and accomplishments, and encouragement of employment and job growth. Then we reflected on...
To The Eagle: How good it is to have a few weeks to decide if we want to buy a $28.75 million house with a no down payment 22 year mortgage? Depending on the interest the cost could double. Not only that but some investor is making a profit on the amount of property taxes we have to pay. This is my way of summarizing why I will vote no on the proposed bond issue. I hope everyone else will, too. Please join me in encouraging our school administrators to work for us in the most economical way possible by using levies instead of bonds. Working...
To The Eagle: I have been working on getting numbers for Wahkiakum School District 200 and after a bit of hair-pulling, I am ready to share them. The current taxable value of the district is $428.5M. This excludes $11.0M of value for properties subject to the senior exemption. There are 4,146 properties in the district owned by 2,147 people. 772 properties are exempt (government owned, etc.) There are 233 personal property accounts valued at $13.8M. Another 166 senior properties contribute $3.1M in value not exempt from taxation. The remaining...
To The Eagle: The Wahkiakum School Bond measure is coming up for a vote and there appears to be a fair amount of misinformation out and about. The current high school building reached its predicted end-of-life 20 years ago, and should have been renewed then, but wasn't. The last bond, 20-plus years ago, upgraded the elementary school to the bare minimum, leaving the school district to absorb ongoing maintenance and ongoing repair costs from money that could have gone into instruction. The predicted cost of this bond, based on the school...
To The Eagle: The Wahkiakum County Democratic Party voted at its general meeting January 11, 2020 to support the Wahkiakum School Bond after studying the facts. We urge everyone to educate themselves on facts and go on a scheduled tour of the high school Thursday and Friday for three weeks. Anyone can also call Brent Freeman at the high school and ask for a tour. Please vote yes for the school bond. The above was written as Vice Chairman of the Wahkiakum County Democratic Party. On a more personal note, for several past years I sent my...
