Letters to the Editor
Published 10:46 am Friday, February 29, 2008
NASCAR
As many ‘Bubbas’ here as in the South
Re: Evan Smith’s Oct. 8 “Forum” column: Although I do not want to see a NASCAR track anywhere within a couple of thousand miles of here, I have to take issue with your “Bubba” remarks.
First, only a small percentage of Southern folk are stupid, no larger a percentage than you’d find anywhere else. We have just as many dumb folks here. They “tag” other people’s property with “art,” or drive like Fast ‘n’ Furious wannabes, or stay home on election day. A Sunday spent at a NASCAR track isn’t much different than a Sunday spent at a football or baseball stadium. It’s even less different than a Sunday spent watching hydro racing, except NASCAR fans have grandstands and the events aren’t held in residential areas.
R. CUPLIN
Brier
Master gardeners
Program should stay
in county budget
The proposed Snohomish County budget eliminates the Master Gardener’s Program, a group of 300 university-trained volunteers that provide horticultural and pesticide expertise to the public, businesses, government, and non profit organizations in Snohomish County for free.
The Master Gardener’s Program began here in Snohomish County 75 years ago and has spread to all 50 states and many foreign countries. Their expertise has resulted in a net reduction in the use of pesticides that have a negative impact on aquatic species, especially fish. Their expertise helps keep a billion dollars of landscaping healthy in Snohomish County. Their expertise also helps the $50 million horticultural business in the county. They even help seniors and the poor with gardening help.
The $140,000 that is being cut is far less than the funds that are supplied by WSU to support the program. However, WSU will not fund the program if the county shirks its responsibility.
Unfortunately, a budget only shows what a program costs, not how much it saves. The county will end up paying much more than $140,000 if they eliminate the Master Gardener’s Program. This is bad policy, cutting a service that saves us more money than we spend.
DON KREIMAN
Edmonds
Pruning gardener program bad idea
Dropping the Master Gardener program from the Snohomish County budget is the most ridiculous idea I’ve heard since Brightwater. The program can best be described as stated in last year’s approved Snohomish County budget
And nothing has changed since then. Let me see, support the program and Snohomish County gets 300 volunteers providing 16,000 hours of free labor; kill the program and there is no one available to deal with the pests, pesticides, and the loss of community involvement. Seems to me that someone has lost their focus during this top-down priority decision-making process. We need more programs that encourage volunteer community participation at the 16,000-hour level, not less.
JOHN QUAST
Edmonds
Vandalism
Real-life lesson hits home with students
Vandalism hurts us all. This morning we came to school and found that someone had thrown a large piece of asphalt through our classroom window. It made a big hole. It scattered glass on the computers, floor, books, and on our personal desk areas. It cost our custodian one and a half hours to clean up when he could have been doing other things around the school.
Vandalism hurts our community. Parents pay property taxes to support our schools. The cost for replacing the window was $125. This money could have gone to buy new equipment or books. Instead it was spent to replace a window.
The point is, vandalism hurts us all. It interferes with our learning, it costs the school money, and it makes us feel angry that someone would do this cowardly act. The worst part is, these vandals not only broke our window, they broke another window in a classroom near ours. Will you help us stop vandalism today?
Mrs. Day’s Fifth Grade Class
Lynnwood Intermediate School
