Councilor clarifies business-panel picks

I need to clear up any misconceptions about my role in the Corvallis Independent Business Alliance's (CIBA) absence from the Business License Program Stakeholders Committee that may have been created by Kate Lindburg's recent letter. For the record:

The mayor's appointments to the committee were announced July 7.

On July 8, as chair of the Stakeholders Committee, I suggested to the mayor that the committee would benefit from retail and small manufacturing sector (CIBA) representation, and gave him a list of potential candidates.

By Aug. 18, when no additional appointments had been made, I did tell Mayor Tomlinson that it was probably too late to be adding members. My reasoning was that the earliest new members could be appointed would be the next City Council meeting on Sept. 2. At that point, the committee would have already completed two of its three decision-making meetings and the new appointees would have little opportunity for meaningful participation.

It should be noted that the proposal for a business-license program originated with the Downtown and Economic Plans Implementation Committee (DEVPIC), a group that did include CIBA representation. The Stakeholders Committee is only charged with "filling in the details" of the DEVPIC proposal. We're not deciding or even recommending whether or not to have a business-license program. That decision will be made by the City Council on Oct. 20.

The Stakeholders Committee will be holding a special meeting to hear public comment on the proposed Business License Program on Thursday, Sept. 11, at 7 p.m. in the Downtown Fire Station. Your participation is encouraged.

Bill York, Corvallis City Council

Business-license fee is just simply unfair

If not a business fee, then what?

Is it truly what it seems? Does anybody in the pro-business fee camp have a clue? Since when is speaking out against a proposal an attack? Does the author of the editorial (Sept. 8) really believe he has a grasp of the issue? Unfair is unfair and that is all there is to it. Supporting the "Prosperity that Fits" general funding plan does not mean one of three stakeholders should foot the bill, especially when the largest employer in Corvallis is surprisingly given exempt status.

Let's get real here. The current attempt to fund the "Prosperity That Fits" plan is a weak effort at blatant insider backroom solution making, as is the GT editorial. If this plan is so widely supported in our community "why" have citizens not been asked to pay for that which benefits all? Voting is the American way. Good community stewards craft articulate plans and submit it to the citizenry, who, recognizing the merit of the plan, vote "yes." If a plan fails to gain public affirmation, perhaps there was little support to begin with.

This uprising has nothing to do with shelving a good idea. It has to do with postponing action and sending the proposal to the voters to decide how much real support there is. There is no hurry to make funding happen. There is no raging firestorm requiring immediate action. There is time for rational behavior.

John Howe, Corvallis

Palin's plan: Divide and demean

In her acceptance speech, Sarah Palin lied about Barack Obama and dismissed his service to his community, state and country. In doing that, she effectively demeaned millions of Americans in small towns and urban communities who work every day to make conditions better for others. She swept aside as unimportant the work of those who have fought for our civil rights, health care, voting and labor rights; she mocked the millions who organize and act whenever needed to deliver relief from hurricanes and other natural disasters.

In Palin's view, the only person in this election who has fought for us is John McCain. My father gave his life for this country. I know the cost to family of that ultimate sacrifice. But in the America I grew up in and believe in, military service is not the only service that counts. What about teachers, nurses and public defenders who may not have worn the uniform but who fight for our education, health and fair legal representation?

From the beginning, Obama has made me believe that those with separate viewpoints can still agree to meet in the middle, that together we can face our common problems and find solutions. Palin is his polar opposite. She is set on deepening the divide that Bush and Cheney have established. She promises an America in which millions of us are unimportant, and in which I feel unwelcome.

Cristina White, Corvallis

Garbage in the road spurs anger, disgust

I don't know how any one else feels but can guess that it's probably the same way my husband and I feel: Anger and disgust!

We live out in the country, and I am tired of people taking their garbage out to the landfill and finding out what it costs to dispose of their unwanted items and turning around and dumping it off wherever they damn well please.

We have several large bags of garbage, a couch, a full-size bed (both pieces) and now a lovely washer, which they left in the middle of the road on a blind corner and which we almost hit with our car.

Now I can only guess that these idiots are not true Oregonians, because we have always taken pride in our beautiful state. But if you are, shame on you.

If you have unwanted furniture take it to Goodwill or any other place that could use it; not everyone is lucky enough to be able to afford to toss out good usable furniture. And whoever tossed out the washer, you could have taken it over to Albany and turned it over for some hard-to-come-by cash.

So please quit dumping garbage on country roads, take pride in our state and help keep it beautiful. If you don't want to help, then move back to where you came from.

Mona Goetzinger, Monmouth

McCain and Palin are most qualified

An everyday mom with five children (one an infant), who is also a former mayor of a city with a 6,000 population, and later a governor of a state with a little over 300,000 citizens wowed the Republican convention with an address to be vice-president of the United States!

But, wait: No, No, No! Her speech was written by a speech-writer for President Bush, according to Democratic hacks.

I suppose the next thing they'll tell us is that Sarah Palin didn't present the speech, that it was a remarkable facsimile of Mrs. Palin, brought in from Tinseltown to actually make the speech. After all, according to them, what woman with this background could compose such a speech, let alone deliver it?

Come on, you Democrats, listen to your own Joe Lieberman. John McCain is the most qualified for president, both in experience, and most importantly with real, honest-to-God proven character. Same for Sarah Palin.

Barack Obama as yet has neither.

There is an old athletic axiom that says, "You can't just talk-the-talk, you gotta walk-the-walk."

Chuck Wenstrom, Corvallis

What does Iraq 'victory' mean to Palin?

A recent Gazette-Times article quoted some "slashing" remarks that vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin made toward Barack Obama. Palin attacked Obama's concern with reading "terrorists" their rights when our war in Iraq is so close to "victory."

I would like to ask Mrs. Palin: "What exactly is victory to you?" Is victory measured by lives, Iraqi and American, lost? Can we claim victory when every single assailant who would use the same tactics of violence we employ, is killed or maimed? Perhaps victory will come with the signing of a glorious cease-fire that proves once and for all the clear vision and righteous action of the United States?

Indeed, there will be no "victory" because our military actions in Iraq don't constitute a war. We are engaged in an occupation at the cost of $430 million (in) tax dollars every day. No peace treaty will ever be signed. The "terrorists" in Iraq are nothing but ragtag disparate armies, militias, and angry individuals who possess minuscule firepower when compared with the colossal United States. Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11! To assert that Iraqi "terrorists" pose a viable threat to the continental United States is preposterous, contemptible hogwash.

Palin's warrior bravado is shameful. The occupation of Iraq must end. Palin and her ilk use fear to obfuscate simple truths: We should never have gone to Iraq in the first place, and the justifications given for the undertaking were, and are, nothing but a pack of expensive lies.

Alex Goldner, Corvallis

Will stalled project finally get resolved?

It's been two months since the G-T carried an article concerning the stalled construction of the CCC Plaza Mall wrapped around OSU Federal and Office Max at Ninth Street and Spruce Avenue in north Corvallis. At that time, Craig Clark - president of the California development firm C.W. Clark Inc. - admitted that putting together the finance package had run into problems, due to the slowing economy, after the construction had begun. He noted that he had three tenants, in addition to the Wilco Farm Store, close to signing deals that would allow resumption of construction.

Mr. Clark stated, "I would expect by the end of July I can announce a start date, and we can have the shell of all the buildings done by the end of the year." That appeared to be a tall order considering the state of affairs then with three tenants still unsigned and the property in abject disarray. Wilco president and CEO, Doug Hoffman - the only committed future tenant - declined to comment on the situation at that time. I'm not aware that any announcement has been forthcoming.

I don't understand a permitting process that allows a major development to get under way without sufficient financing to carry it beyond the creation of an eyesore second to none in Corvallis. How, when and by whom will this situation be resolved?

Mike Wolf, Corvallis