Vote for Walden

Greg Walden is the best choice for representative of the 2nd Congressional District. He has worked hard for the people of Oregon. He travels to all 20 counties to make sure he hears the views of his constituents. I’m just your average citizen, but he cared enough to buy breakfast for me and my husband and two other couples while traveling through Bend this summer.

He updated us on his accomplishments and gave us plenty of time to share our concerns. Greg Walden has worked hard to help veterans, promote legislation to stop opioid abuse and better manage our public lands, so that our forests don’t burn every summer.

I trust Greg Walden. I do not trust his opponent, Jamie McLeod-Skinner. She was fired from her post as city manager of Phoenix, Oregon, in March of 2017 after only four months. In an August interview, she claimed it was because of financial and personnel issues.

Here is what the mayor of Phoenix had to say in The Dalles Chronicle: “The narrative that she’s portraying about Phoenix and the reasons behind her contract being terminated are just not true. Period,” said Mayor Chris Luz. He went on to say, “She interviewed beautifully; she was wonderful,” said Luz. “But a couple months later she was like an entirely different person. She was insulting, condescending and not a team player.”

Phoenix Police Chief Derek Bowker is on record calling the atmosphere under McLeod-Skinner toxic. Join me in voting for Greg Walden.

Joyce Waring

Redmond

Vote McLeod-Skinner

I should be one of Greg Walden’s biggest supporters. I am a man of a certain age who has worked for a living for nearly 50 years, acquired some property, ran a business, made payroll, paid taxes and I don’t like the government taking so much of what I worked hard to get, without giving back.

But the results of Rep. Greg Walden’s tenure have not been worthy of support. The erosion of the “American Dream” is nearly complete.

Homeownership, access to adequate health care and a college education are all more difficult to achieve and vastly more expensive than when he took office.

Upward mobility has been replaced by income inequality. Greg, we have been in a constant state of war around the world for nine of your 10 terms. Your strategies for reducing the threat of wildfire have not worked, judging by the smoke in the skies.

And now you are either a participant or an enabler in an unnecessary trade war that will hurt the agricultural economies of the 2nd District deeply.

I realize that you are not solely to blame for the above. You may be working very hard to change all those things. But I can only vote for one member of Congress, and I cannot justify rewarding your effort based on the results.

It is time to collect your 20-year pin and your pension and see what life may bring you outside Washington, D.C. You have had your chance. I will vote Jamie McLeod-Skinner.

Jeff Rola

Tumalo

Vote on Mirror Pond

The lack of public input with respect to the dredging of Mirror Pond is concerning. The Bend community last gave input almost 10 years ago and was evenly divided on the issue of dredging, regardless of funding.

However, 74 percent of the community supported removal of the dam while reintroducing habitat to the banks of the river along Drake Park, creating both fish and recreation passage and preserving the water elevation of Mirror Pond. Unfortunately, dam removal is currently not an option.

The land and silt beneath Mirror Pond is privately owned by Mirror Pond Solutions. The city and stakeholders have been holding private closed door meetings, to which the city was subject to an unsuccessful lawsuit. The city is now looking at taxing residents and charging river user fees to pay for dredging of private property.

In addition to the question of funding, the ecological impacts of dredging should also be considered. Personally, I prefer allowing the Deschutes to return to a river for ecological, recreational and visual appeal over a pond. However, Mirror Pond is a community icon and its fate should be decided by the community.

Perhaps the private owners of the land beneath Mirror Pond should pay for its removal. At the very least, the residents of Bend should be significantly involved in the decision to dredge Mirror Pond and pay for the bill. The dredging of Mirror Pond for $6.5 million should be placed on a bond measure to let the Bend community decide.

Dan Pilver

Bend