Spinklers yanked from public garden

I am a kindergarten teacher at Hoover School. For the past two years, my students have planted, cared for and embellished a butterfly garden for all to enjoy and learn about. This year’s parents purchased a motion-sensor sprinkler to deter deer from browsing. It was working beautifully.

Monday morning, when I went out to tend the garden, I was dismayed: The sprinkler had been savagely disassembled and broken parts were strewn around the primary playground. Help? What can one do to establish a public garden without destruction? I am so disappointed.

Katie McNutt, Corvallis

Measure 49 is not Fischer’s problem

The crisis faced by Charlie Fischer, who is trying to pay for his wife’s nursing home care, is very moving. The May 13 article, “Benton County hears Fisher appeal,” reported “shifting land-use regulations have placed him and his ailing wife in a desperate situation.”

I submit that the desperation has been caused not by our land use regulations, but by our health finance system. Lack of universal health care is what is really behind the Fischers’ efforts to sell their beloved land in exchange for skilled nursing care. We should all be ashamed that America, alone among industrialized nations, forces hard-working people like this to liquidate their assets to secure essential health services.

After publication of the June 11 story about the Fishers, “Owner can split lot but not build,” one person commented only that Mr. Fischer selling off his land is “obviously his only means of providing for his family.”

In a compassionate America, selling off a lifetime’s work would not be our only option when disaster strikes.

For years, we have heard political conservatives bemoaning the horrors of inheritance taxes, saying that personal property is sacrosanct. Yet these same politicians have consistently opposed universal health insurance that would protect us from financial ruin brought on by health care expenses.

Every other civilized nation respects the property and assets of citizens and provides health care for the elderly and infirm. Oregon and America must do the same to prevent further tragedies like the Fischers’.

Charlie Fautin, R.N., Corvallis

Time traffic lights to curb pollution

The June 9 “As I see it” column by Trish Daniels and Anne Schuster raised many good points as to why car idling wastes both gas and the Earth. Here is another suggestion to help save both:

Corvallis traffic folk should re-examine the timing on the more than 50 traffic lights in the city — particularly those located where side roads intersect with more heavily traveled roads — with the view to reducing total idling time and to improving traffic flow.

Examples of wasteful timing cycles are the lights at Harrison Boulevard at 35th and 36th streets and the light located at Philomath Boulevard and Brooklane Drive. Before these lights were installed, it was rare to see more than one or two waiting to access Harrison or Philomath boulevard from the respective side streets.

With the lights installed, it’s not uncommon to see dozens of cars waiting to let one or two cars access these main roads. Wouldn’t it be better for saving gas and improving traffic flow to have a few cars waiting one or two minutes than to have dozens backed up on the main roads?

And, as Daniels and Schuster point out, they could turn off their engines while they wait.

Jim Landkamer, Corvallis

Stop war on bugs weeds and water

Our “sustainable community” is at war in trees and on the ground, and nature has no voice, so please pay attention:

There are consequences for preened yards and dead weeds. Birds die and children suckle on toys tossed in dirt and lawns. Chemicals by the ton are poured onto the earth, so it will look tidy and green. Roses are fed systemics to kill bugs and grown in soils gassed to prevent weeds. People sprinkle poison for ants and snails.

Are all bugs detrimental; do any “weeds” serve a purpose? Is this planet so ugly without our “help”? Is Mother Nature thinking by putting bees in the ground?

We poison the water we drink (by) thinking safe, filtered and sweet.

Are lawn weeds a dent in your reputation, bugs a stain in your domain? Grubs in the lawn don’t threaten the future of mankind, and ladybugs are harmless.

People come unglued over blackberries and spray 2, 4, D on them. They think at least there’s no berry there, but maybe there is, and the kid next door just wolfed one down. Shouldn’t we care that 2,4,D takes so long to decompose?

Lots of doctors here and in the next town are making a living off of health issues due to our ignorance. Shouldn’t we stop to think, to realize that poisons don’t know when to stop killing? It’s really up to us to ask how many times can we poison the well before we become afraid to drink.

Daniel Wood, Corvallis