Last modified: Friday, October 24, 2008 11:17 AM PDT Letters to the Editor Vote yes on school bond Editor, I was a member of the first graduating class from the newly built Ontario High School. That was in 1953. This building, which is still serving as the high school, is now 55 years old. Since the time when this facility was built, we have had only one major bond issue that has passed. That bond added a voc-tech building to the high school and the Tiger gym at the Ontario Middle School. This bond was retired in 2000. In 55 years, the building has become overcrowded with students and the use of old equipment. A volunteer task force committee was formed. The citizens who have shared their creative and intelligent ideas are local community members who have integrity. They have spent untold hours planning, as their main goal, a safe environment for our students. I think they are on the right track. My parents and other members of the community 55 years ago were faced with this same issue, and I am thankful they decided it was a situation that needed to be corrected and helped pass a school bond that would build a new school. I urge you to please vote yes with me and help the community go forward in the right direction. This is our chance to show our community and children  we are concerned with their future. Jim Nakano Ontario Don’t let our children bear the burden Editor, There were a few reasons why I was against the last bond. I felt uncomfortable with the way it was presented to the community. It seemed decisions were made with my money before I could even vote. When the bond did not pass, I was relieved for about a minute, and then I thought, “What will happen with our diminishing schools? When I have kids, will the facilities be adequate enough to provide them a safe and quality education?” Once I heard of the new bond coming up this November, I knew I had to find out what it was really about. As my husband and I spoke to a neighbor who was on the Ontario School Facilities Task Force, we got really excited! It seemed as though there was hope! The first thing I heard about the new bond was this task force of volunteers from our community came together and listened to what we all thought we should do and could do for our schools. Survey results were configured into a data report showing a majority wanted to keep the schools we have and update them. The task force also brought in an architectural firm paid for by a state grant and assessed every public school in Ontario to see what was needed most at each site. Once the needs were assessed, a schedule of improvements with a budget was made. At $1.49 per $1,000 of property assessment, it is a small price to pay for the future of our children and the future of our town. If we want a thriving community then we have got to start striving to work together to make Ontario a place people want to be educated in, live in and work in. Megan Brown-Cook Ontario Not the right time for school bond Editor, For those of us who are occasionally dyslexic, the “vote yes” on the Ontario School Bond has been immensely entertaining. While I was gung-ho for the school bond when it was originally introduced, times have changed and a national recession is happening. Indeed, this is no different than the time in 1993 when I paid $2,000 for a new coat of paint on an old Camaro. The engine was dead and automatic transmission jumped freely from first to third gear on its own and occasionally in reverse. Other bills came, and I never did earn enough money to fix any of the mechanical problems. Earlier this year, I would have voted for the school bond, but things have changed. All of us have either read the front page of a newspaper or heard a few moments of spoken words from the mass media America’s stock market has fallen into recession. Now, the U.S. government has stepped forward with a $700 billion bailout for us taxpayers. So, I have a large question for everyone. What will be cut out? What will we lose during the next three to five years? Let me put it in short: what services are subsidized through our state by the helpful hand of the government? We are in a poor neighborhood. Many of us are helped by food stamps, Oregon Medicaid, subsidized housing, etc. Just as I quickly wasted a lot of money on a broken-down, useless Camaro so it looked fast, we need to wait and see what happens during the next couple of years before we even bring this topic of a school bond into consideration. Idaho Gov. Butch Otter said it best when facing this national tidal wave of trouble that will soon be upon all of our doorsteps, “We better tighten our belts.” So, I say, no to this school bond. Not yet. Dan Rollins Ontario Crume wrong about sales tax issue Editor, The article in the Sept. 24 paper that quoted Ontario City Council candidate Norm Crume included more false reasoning and misinformation that seems to plague our city government. Crume was quoted as saying that “with new growth comes new revenue, and we won’t have to be looking at things such as the sales tax.” This is so blatantly false one has to question the veracity of the person, however, it is typical of the false information that led to the defeat of the sales tax proposal when it was proposed to the city residents. Consider, the proposed 1 percent sales tax should bring in an estimated $2 million or more, which would only balance the current proposed city general fund budget of a little more than $5 million. Consider also, the total property tax contribution to the general fund is not much more than half of this $5 million budget. Therefore, to have growth and property tax income to provide for the budget needs of the city would require the city property assessment to double in size. Then what Mr. Crume? Do you think a city of 20,000 would require the same city services as a city of 10,000? This growth solution is exactly the same thinking that has allowed the big-box retail growth in the east end of Ontario. Growth that requires a bigger police and fire budget. Growth that takes from our library, parks and recreation. Growth that is being subsidized by the property owners of the city of Ontario. In fact, Mr. Crume, this new growth is exactly the reason the city of Ontario needs the 1 percent sales tax. Bill Blankinship Ontario taxpayer Fuller the right person for state senate Editor, To the good people of District 9, I have known and followed Wayne Fuller’s career for more than 40 years. In the 1960s, Mr. Fuller practiced law in Caldwell and represented my father and many other state employees in a class action suit concerning overtime work and appropriate compensation. Mr. Fuller successfully appealed this dispute to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in a precedent-setting, landmark decision.   Over the years, Wayne Fuller has helped countless low-income and hard- working men and women fight big government and greedy corporations. He earned respect and a reputation as a competent, fair-minded attorney. Later on, Mr. Fuller became a district judge and served honorably for nearly 10 years. He could now retire and rest on his many laurels but instead has chosen to continue to be of service to this great state by running for the District 9 senate seat as a moderate Democrat.   Wayne Fuller will fight for small business, farmers and ranchers. He will defend seniors and the hard working folks who struggle every day to make ends meet in these unstable times. I know Wayne Fuller is a good, ethical and fair man who will do his best to make Idaho a better place to live and raise our families ... please join me and vote for Wayne Fuller on Nov. 4. Monte Hickman Council         Media does not portray Sali accurately Editor, Congressman Sali has done some really good things for Idaho in the short amount of time he’s been in office. He successfully blocked an attempt by the federal government to ban recreational shooting on public land. He worked to get the Sand Creek Byway project moving forward. He’s been fighting FEMA to protect property owners in Nampa and Caldwell. He’s been supporting recreationists who use Lake Cascade and have private boat docks. The list goes on. Unfortunately, the media has refused to report on any of this — the substantive works that have been done by Bill Sali are largely ignored in favor of pot-shots aimed at his character and staff. The responsibility of the media is to portray the candidates for office in a responsible and effective manner that shows them for whom they are and where they stand. Unfortunately, Idaho’s media has been woefully negligent in this manner. Chris Casteel Boise