An act of kindness

A couple of weeks ago, I had finished my shopping at Safeway and Costco. I left Costco, two large coolers full. After traveling 17 miles to the southeast, I noticed the tailgate was down and one coolers was missing. I back tracked, and found the cooler on the south side of Highway 20 at 27th street. I turned around went to pick up the cooler and everything I had purchased was inside. Someone put the cooler on the sidewalk. With all of the tension around today, I just wanted to say thank you to whoever you are.

I have made an anonymous contribution at Erickson’s in Prineville to reward you. My daughter told me the Lord takes care of pets, young children and old men. I am the latter, and she is right.

— Fred Carlson, Mitchell

Try an e-bike

Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes are limited to 750 watts — about one horsepower — and 20 mph top speed; Class 2 has a throttle, which is helpful when first starting out. You can’t just throttle up much of a hill without pedaling; the throttle itself is not capable of spinning the tire in those circumstances.

Most e-bike users are older and ride conservatively. I never expect a rider to loose momentum so that I can pass, regardless of whether I’m walking, riding a regular bike or an e-bike. If I want to pass, I wait for a safe place to do so — it’s all about courtesy. Have you never been passed by a non e-bike?

Look at places where e-bikes are currently allowed. The National Park Service allows e-bikes on many of their trails. We have ridden our e-bikes on trails in Canada along with hikers and regular bikes with no conflicts. We even received compliments about our e-bikes.

Finally, I will never come buzzing up behind you because e-bikes are as quiet as a regular bike … why not give it a try?

—Randy Noyes, Bend

Thanks for clearing homeless camps

I would like to express my appreciation to all the agencies and people who worked together to remove the high concentration of squatting occurring along the Highway 97 corridor through Bend. Bend is a great city and I love calling Bend home. It is a beautiful city in a beautiful place. There is no surprise that Bend is consistently listed as one of the best places to live in the U.S.

Great cities are built and maintained by repeated collective contributions of its citizens. These contributions come in the form of working, building, running businesses, volunteering and paying taxes, just to name a few. If a city is not constantly nurtured by the contributions of its citizens, it will deteriorate and everyone will suffer. The squatting or unlawful occupation and settling on the open spaces along the Highway 97 corridor is a public health hazard and drain on public safety, emergency medical and transportation services.

Everyone’s situation is different and often complicated. Some of those occupying these areas want help. Fortunately, there are services available for those that want help. Others have been interviewed and have stated that they just want to live free and be left alone. The problem is nothing is free. Taxpayers pay to clean up these areas and the city suffers when public safety and emergency medical services are repeatedly dispatched to these areas. To put it frankly, those squatting do not participate in the collective contributions of our citizens in making this city a great place.

As the contributions of our citizens continue to build and nurture this wonderful city, I would like to vocalize my support to the city of Bend, state of Oregon and our public safety and emergency medical agencies for fulfilling their obligation to enforce the laws prohibiting the squatting of the open spaces along the route 97 corridor.

— Joe Moore, Bend

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