Typewriter

While so many negative thoughts and actions are filling our headlines, I want to report a positive experience. This morning, I met a friend at Market of Choice for our once-monthly coffee. We settled at a table only to have the sun change its angle and shine in our faces, so we packed up to move to another location. Later, I realized I’d left my purse at the first table, hanging on the chair. I rushed over to find someone else sitting there and no purse. The woman assured me there was no purse there when she arrived. Stunned and almost unable to move, my friend led me down to seek the lost and found. The kind manager showed up and unlocked the lost and found. He came out with my purse saying that the employee cleaning the tables had turned it in.

Wow! I felt my world come back into focus. Thank you, employees of Market of Choice for making my day, week, and month and for showing me that honesty and integrity do exist.

— Suzy Beal, Bend

Allow impeachment for state officials

The Oregon Constitution is the only one lacking an impeachment provision for elected state officials. House Joint Resolution 16 is in the House Rules Committee, and its sister is SJR-13, in the Senate Rules Committee. They are designed to correct this error. They provide impeachment over elected executive branch officials. It has bipartisan support. With the quasi-legal activities of our last two governors, these bills are sorely needed.

We do not know if Tina Kotek will be any better. Please call your legislators and request that hearings be granted. The head of the Senate Rules Committee is Kate Lieber. Her telephone number is 503-986-1714. The head of the House Rules Committee is Julie Fahey. Her phone number is 503-986-1414.

— Erin Bruce Thurber, Sweet Home

No gas station

There have been many concerns and eloquent letters written against the gas station in question, at the location in question.

This includes over 2,000 Bend citizens protesting the placement. The reasons to reverse the gas station planning are all valid.

The pro gas station decision seems to exist only to support the oil company. There is no dearth of gas stations nearby, and residents of the neighborhood oppose the station.

The City Council is urged to accept the appeal review. It would be greatly appreciated by the southeast Bend community.

Thank you,

— Colette Blum-Meister, Bend

Satisfaction with Bend dropping

A recent Bulletin led with a feature on the growth challenges of the Old Farm District as residents see more Ponderosa pine and juniper removed by developers to make room for more houses. With required hook-ups to new sewer lines, the area is being urbanized, and many residents feel helpless to do anything about it.

A survey of Bend residents in the same paper shows that residents rate the quality of life down 20 points from 2014.

Only 41% of residents believed the city was headed in the right direction. Satisfaction with police and fire services also dropped.

Probably few are surprised by these results. City and county councils have concentrated their efforts on building more homes with little attention to the side effects of rapid growth; for one, clearcutting of native trees.

As cities grow, it is predictable that traffic congestion will increase as well as crime, crowding of recreation areas and loss of a sense of community. It has been shown that growth does not pay its way causing taxes for services to increase.

Despite this, our city councils focus on more houses because it is what the business community demands and it increases the tax base. Promises to retain a high quality of livability ring hollow.

I predict the next survey will show a continued drop in quality of life. We need to elect councilors unencumbered by the tunnel vision of building more houses and having sensitivity to the negative side effects of growth.

— Larry Nelson, Bend

Do you have a point you’d like to make or an issue you feel strongly about? Submit a letter to the editor.