CONCERNED PARENT’S VIEWPOINT

With three children now enrolled in the OSD, two in High school and one just starting Kindergarten, Washington state schools in general scare me. Budget constraints mean our children have outdated text books which they are not allowed to bring home. Our Kindergartners, at the peak of their knowledge potential are being given what amounts to three hours of daycare. I mean come on, how much can a child learn in three hours? By the time teachers settle the kids down; it is time to get them ready to go home.
This state has fallen behind the national standard of full day (state funded) public education for our children, especially our kindergartners. For the amount of tax dollars we throw at the schools in this state, you would think that sat at Gold plated desks, but they don’t.
I recently met a teacher and who tossed the idea of buckets of money and how one matters and other doesn’t without blinking an eye. In this case it was special needs children over the other children in the school district. I told her she should care, because from my perspective, there is only one bucket of money, the tax payers and their wallets.
So don’t blame OSD. Sumner, Bonney Lake and Puyallup are just as bad. Blame how your school tax dollars are spent.
Couple examples are
1. Brand new middle school with not one solar panel on the roof and the lights are on all night long. Why is that? Save the spotted owl and all that? You would think we were more environmentally conscious or something??
2. Just be thankful that a few concerned parents and teachers went to a recent school board meeting to help vote down the schools plans to go to two full days per week for our kindergartners all in an effort to save ~$15-18K in transportation costs. The district did the right thing and rejected that idea and I commend their efforts. If we want to see our children have a chance at attaining higher levels of education is this state, more needs to be done. So yes, Grandma, you have right to be appalled and the district should listen to your concerns, for you are not alone. In the 21st century we should have 21st century schools that are bent on preparing our children to compete in a global economy. Least we all start speaking Chinese.

Saving Cities During a Lahar

If you are a resident of Orting, Sumner, Puyallup or Fife or if you know a resident of these Cities I would like to ask that you share this posting to the appropriate individual(s). An unsolicited proposal entitled “Saving a City during a Lahar” is being prepared that will describe a system which purpose is to save lives and to protect a city during a lahar. Based on past lahar flow and the structure of Mount Rainier, the Cities of Orting, Sumner, Puyallup and Fife has been designated the most at-risk in the event of lahar activity from the mountain. This unsolicited proposal will be completed within 3 months. If there is a desire by a city to review this unsolicited proposal, please have the City Administrator, the City Manager or the Mayor email me requesting this proposal. When contacting me, please provide the recipient’s name, the recipient’s position, the recipient’s mailing address, the recipient’s email address and the recipient’s phone number. This proposal will be emailed to the recipient after it is completed. After reviewing this unsolicited proposal, it is hoped that the city will benefit from the $850 billion infrastructure spending plan that is now in place by the Obama administration, which could lead to the construction of this system, if this system is desired by the city. Within the cover letter (pages 1 and 2) of this proposal there is a contact person (Mr. Richard Gordon, P.E.), which members of the executive branch of the city is to contact after reviewing this proposal. He will be more than happy to answer any questions concerning this proposal. This unsolicited proposal will be valid for a period of 90 calendar days from the starting date of its review; the starting date of this review, is the date that will appear within the cover letter of the proposal. By obtaining this unsolicited proposal to review, does not obligate a city.

Timothy M. Young   timothymyoung@hotmail.com

Grandma Apalled by $2400 Parents Must Pay for Kindergarten Tuition

I was dumbfounded to read the article from the new primary school principal about the $2400 that parents have to pay for their child to go to kindergarten. http://www.ortingnews.com/article/comments/841/ 

If my tax dollars are paying for children to go to Headstart programs up to age 5 and public school after age 5, why in the world are parents getting hit with this horrible financial burden for their 5 year olds?

I am an apalled grandmother, who doesn’t understand this at all.

What Do You Think Of PFD 18 – East Pierce Fire Dept Consolidation?

Excerpt from 8/4 meeting…”While commissioners reviewed options other than consolidation with East Pierce, such as hiring its own chief, they agreed consolidation was the most economical option. Consolidation typically means District 18 will give its finances and equipment to East Pierce, said East Pierce Chief Jerry Thorson. However, language in the contract will keep any current legal and EMS levy issues solely with District 18, Mahoney said. Currently, the operating agreement between District 18 and the City of Orting involved the city selling most of its equipment or giving it to District 18 as in-kind to pay for the nearly $1 million yearly cost of providing emergency services for the city”…

See full 8/5/09 article at http://www.ortingnews.com/article/news/863/

STOP SIGNS FOR BICYCLISTS!

I love biking and I love that folks like to use the trail but… I have noticed repeatedly that bicyclists just tear through intersections WITHOUT stopping or even slowing down where it is CLEARLY posted that THEY have to STOP! Cars should really be stopping twice. Once before theycross the ‘bike trail’ and again before they merge onto 162. We have seen awful accidents and serious near-misses.. Lets becareful! ALSO! Can we put signs ON 162 to direct bicyclists who are riding there to MOVE onto the TRAIL??

Ann

WE’RE WATCHING YOU FIRE COMMISSIONERS

The commissioners were responsible for overseeing the pay vouchers. They were responsible for the chiefs contract, the contract with the city, etc. The commissioners signed off on all the pay recieved, yet they took no responsibility. Instead they laid blame on the chief and did so in a public manner designed to make him look guilty of more than he was. Overblown sense of authority?? Overly influenced by the union or miffed employees?? Overstepping the boundaries between the job of the chief (who is supposed to handle the hiring and firing, etc) vs the job of the commissioners?? Too many agendas in the way… yes I know, the “records are sealed”. 

Sent in by an area citizen ‘Watching You’ in reference to Orting News stories on the firing of PFD 18  Chief Randy Shelton   http://www.ortingnews.com/article/comments/799/ and the Opinion Blog http://ortingnews.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/commissioner-responds-to-questions/

STRONG OPINION ON GOLF CARTS AROUND TOWN

I hope to shout that the city does not allow golf carts to be driven around town! How is it going to determine the weight/size or style that is appropriate? What about age and experiance, where does that fall! I can’t believe that they would even think about. I can imagine that Schoenbachler has created a stir with the NEW town people as he has been allowed to drive his “mule” around as he ALWAYS has since before we ever got stop lights…back as far as I know in 93! I hope it is stopped!
Ms. B

This opinion is making reference to an article in Orting News that can be read at  http://www.ortingnews.com/article/business/850/

DRUG DEALS, SPEEDING, VANDALISM IGNORED BY OPD – WHAT NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH?

I just read about the Orting police department setting up Neighborhood Watch. The residents on the end of Varner by the old Middle school have called the police repeatedly in regards to kids hanging out, speeders, people driving the wrong way on a one way street, people running the 3 stop signs, drug deals, vandalism and the list goes on. Even the police and fire departments run the stop signs and go the wrong way down the one way street. They almost ran into me one day. We have yet to see anything done about any of these issues. So, am I getting it right that if there is a title given to your concerns, Neighborhood Watch, and we contact them then our years of concerns will finally be addressed? The stupidity of this amazes me.

Reader says “CONFLICT OF INTEREST” Mayor

I wholeheartedly agree with the statement made by resident and Orting News reader “Dick”.  In fact his statement hit the nail right on the head.  “This is  where ‘assume’ makes an ass out of you and me.   I assumed in voting for Mayor we’d have a person that would act in the public interest and work to generate public trust. We all have a right to make a living, but to pull a  “Dick Cheney” and use your position for self-profit and convenience seems a horrible blind eye to the citizens she’s sworn to serve.   While people under her are fired for their shenigans and she expresses dismay, she prowls the very city she directs looking to list as many homes as possible when she has the unfair advantage of ‘knowing what’s coming?’ ”

 Cheryl Temple does NOT listen to the citizens of Orting nor does she care what the citizens have to say.  Cheryl doesn’t care that the pollution from an asphalt plant and a concrete plant 4 miles from Orting will destroy our pristine view of Mt. Rainier, Cheryl doesn’t care that truck traffic will increase through town from 200-600 trucks per day, Cheryl doesn’t care that all our valuable farm land is now gone forever due to all the sub-divisions.  Cheryl only seems to care what she can profit from (our loss….her financial gain….again another Dick Cheney trait Cheryl?)!!!

Our Mayor has stated she will not read the Orting News and has told all her employees not to read the Orting News as well.  How can she completely know and unreservedly be informed of what is actually happening in Orting, how the citizens of Orting feel if she does not read our articles, blogs and opinions.  Cheryl won’t even answer citizen emails.  What type of Mayor distances herself from the people she serves?

Cheryl Temple needs to choose be Mayor or a real estate sales person.  Being both, real estate sales and Mayor she would have too much “privy to inside information”.    Definitely a “CONFLICT OF INTEREST”.  Cheryl Temple by law must excuse herself (even as tie breaking vote) on all land use issues, zoning, water, sewer, permitting, growth management issues, too many other issues to mention (so we pay to have a part time mayor?).  Whose to say she isn’t getting this inside information from the Mayor’s office and then funneling that to her cadre of ‘behind the scenes’ real estate helpers where we’re suddenly hit with a double whammy and she makes a profit off the citizens of Orting.

She profits from an unfair vantage point of applicable laws, rezoning, variance, government inquiries, etc…another Dick Cheney move…..cha-ching her commission from this knowledge goes outside of town (Shop Orting huh Cheryl?). 

Yes, you have a right to a career Cheryl, but not something you can profit from by using the inside knowledge, the power of your position, using the citizens of Orting to make a profit.  It is time to make a choice Ms. Mayor real estate or Mayor.  You can’t do both and honestly make cognizant ethical decisions when you are riding the profit fence. 

Cindi Bright

Open letter to Murray, Cantwell & Larsen

President Obama’s national health care bill is now being rammed through the U.S. House of Representatives like a freight train through a dark tunnel. The 1000 page document was rushed through committee hearings in just one day. Sadly, it is not a well-thought-out, bipartisan effort, but a force-feeding of the American public – and it distresses me greatly. If passed, this legislation creating a “public health care plan,” would literally destroy the instant-access, high-quality health care that a majority of Americans have come to rely on. Instead of continuing America’s legacy as the world’s premier destination for medical care, this legislation would create a culture of rationing and waiting lines. It would increase the size and intrusion of government into the practice of medicine. It would increase taxes, kill jobs and ration care in a desperate attempt to put a cap on rising costs. I agree that health care costs are unsustainable and that we need reforms. In Washington state 90 percent of the population has health insurance coverage, and the remaining 10 percent is never turned away when care is needed. We do need to find a way to cut costs and improve coverage, but President Obama’s disastrous plan is not the solution. Daniel Hannan, member of the European Parliament from southeast England and a journalist educated at Oxford, speaks extensively about the failed socialist health care system we are being asked to embrace. He begs the United States to avoid making Britain’ socialized medicine mistake because it is irreversible. Just as any Canadian or British citizen how long they are forced to wait for diagnostic tests like MRIs, treatments by a specialist and in-demand surgeries. Talk to the Canadian woman with a brain tumor who is alive today only because she was able to get to the U.S. for treatment after being told she’d have to wait six months for an MRI in her own country. Americans do not want a bureaucrat telling them what treatment they can get and when. They do not want government-run health care. Just look at the nightmare that is Medicare. Already $67 trillion dollars in debt, Medicare is almost bankrupt – and we think an even larger government-run program would fare any better? Government reimbursement for Medicare and Medicaid i so low that many providers simply refuse to see patients. Proponents of the so-called “public plan” is not true. It will simply increase access to a  waiting line. The truth is President Obama’s national health insurance plan does nothing to address the ever increasing cost of care . In fact, this program will cost an addition $1 trillion over 10 years- over and above the $2.5 trillion we now spend annually on health care. Where is this $1 trillion coming from? Some advocate taxing the rich, but that is  pathetically short-sighted. Is is the rich who create and fund new companies, which means new jobs and more U.S. productivity. If we tax the rich to pay for the nations’s health care, that means they’ll have less to invest, which will further cripple our disintegrating economy. Most alarming of all, experts agree that this national health plan will leach an estimated two-thirds of American families away from private insurance. In short, it narrows the health care choices available. American families need more health insurance options – not fewer! We already made that mistake in Washington in 1993, when punishing health care mandates forced dozens of insurers out of state, leaving just three companies, each offering an expensive, one-size-fits-all plan. Government-run health care is not the answer. The answer is to cut costs, and many creeative companies and providers are carving out astounding savings if we would only stop to listen. Take Safeway, for example. The company is self insured and recognized that 70 percent of health care costs are a result of behavior, so the company began to provide financial incentives for its employyeess to adopt healthier lifestyles. Since 2005, Safeway has charged different health insurance premiums based on employees’ participation in lifestyle programs and a demonstration of decreased tobacco use, weight loss, blood pressure control, and cholestrol control.  While health care costs have risen nationally by 38 percent since then, Safeway has maintained its costs at its 2005 level-essentially a 40 percent savings. In short, people will work to improve their health and cut health care costs when they have the financial incentive to do so. That’s where we should be putting our time and effort-not in building another massive, invasive, costly government bureaucracy that will add to our national debt. I urge you to vote NO on President Obama’s “public plan.” It’s not what Americans want. It’s not what we want here in Washington. Please do whatever it takes to keep American health care the greatest on earth. Our Children are counting on you.

Senator Val Stevens – 39th Legislative District