Cell phones needed

To the Editor:

Shelter From the Storms 911 Cell Phone Project was initiated in 1997 and since then has grown exponentially.

The cell phones are deactivated and checked out to victims of domestic violence and or stalking.

They give victims a sense of security and empowerment in every type of daily activity.

The shelter currently has several bag phones that are operated by a cigarette lighter-adapter.

While these bag phones help those victims who have vehicles, they do not help those who either are unable to drive or do not have access to vehicles.

The shelter currently has a large need for regular cell phones and we will be conducting a 911 Cell Phone Drive through Sept. 30, though donations are welcome throughout the year.

If you would like to donate a deactivated, used cell phone, you may drop it off at the Shelter From the Storm office, located at 1111 Fifth St., Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

These donations are tax-deductible.

If you have any questions about the phone drive or about our services in general, please feel free to call us at 963-7226.

Thank you for your past and continued support in our mission to create a violence-free society.

Lisa Rodgers,

shelter coordinator

and victims advocate

Shelter From the Storm

La Grande

Reach out to help victim

To the Editor:

The Observer has been running articles about the hobo spider; the picture of Sharons leg is not a pleasant sight.

Sharons friend Vanessa Clemens has set traps in her house and garage and has caught three big spiders and some smaller ones. I have seen them and sure do not want any in my house or my garage. Vanessa has even caught a black widow in her daylight basement under the couch. These spiders are poisonous, too.

Some people may pooh-pooh the idea of hobo spiders being in La Grande, but according to the Internet, the brown recluse doesnt live this far north, so the spider that bit Sharon had to be a hobo.

Well, I dont know how dumb you may be to not hear the truth from someone who has experienced the results of a bite. But be assured science has not produced a serum yet to treat these bites.

Is it worth the suffering youd have to endure, possibly the loss of a leg or arm because you wouldnt think it was a spider bite and do something about it, like Sharon who thought it was a wasp.

When peoples houses burn, others help them to recover. Well, when a person earns a living standing on her feet, but because of the spider bite has missed so much work and lost customers and is trying to work, they should be on the list of people to be helped too.

A friend of Sharons opened a savings account at Pioneer Bank. I went by with a donation and urge all of you to donate to help Sharon too.

With loss of so much income she will never be able to catch up, and she shouldnt be standing on her legs so much.

Florence Palmer

La Grande

Harrison Ford story embarrassing

To the Editor:

I have lived in La Grande for more than 20 years now by choice. I love the people, the community, and especially the environment.

However, I often find myself defending La Grande to people from outside because they say that the community is too small, the people are too shallow, there isnt any culture or we lack diversity. I admit that La Grande lacks some of those things in abundance, but I have been adamant that in spite of our lacks we have many assets that definitely make up the difference.

Up until last week, I seldom felt ashamed of our town. However that has changed because the article in The Observer July 26 about Harrison Ford stopping in La Grande where he dined, what he ate, etc. etc. For the first time in years I felt embarrassed to say I am from La Grande.

There are many important things to put on the front page of the paper, newsworthy items locally, nationally and internationally, not to mention the many valuable local people whom The Observer could praise.

Jane Sabin-Davis

La Grande

Fire efforts appreciated

To the Editor:

Words and simple thank yous do not seem to convey the full appreciation I feel toward the people involved in dealing with the fire at our home last week.

Although very little was salvageable, the items the firemen were able to save hold deep sentimental value to me and my family.

I am grateful to the firemen from Cove, Union and Island City. I appreciate the efforts of John Califf, Sonny Johnson, Larry McLaughlin, among many others whose names I might never know.

Jeff Poppe, Josh and Lenae

Cove

Do we support farmers?

To the Editor:

Now is the time to decide what we want to do.

Do we want to save a species from extinction, or do we want to let it go by the wayside, such as the dinosaurs or in more current times, the carrier pigeon.

The Interior Department has chosen to greatly reduce the water into the irrigation canals in the Klamath Basin. Is this going to allow one species to live and another to die?

We have to ask ourselves and our federal government which is going to make a greater impact on the world as we know it, the Lost River Sucker and Short Nosed Sucker, or the American farmer. Which species will die?

Johnny Arnold

La Grande

Just not enough homes

To the Editor:

The result of each pet that breeds is overpopulation. One unspayed dog or cat mating with an unneutered male twice a year, with just two pups or kittens surviving to reproduce, can create 6,561 offspring in only eight generations less than four years.

Being cute, cuddly or even purebred doesnt matter. There just arent enough homes for all of them.

Having pets spayed or neutered when they are young is simple, humane and cost-effective. Even allowing your female dog or cat to have just one litter directly contributes to the problem of pet overpopulation.

The fact an animal is purebred and beautiful is not a reason to add to pet overpopulation. A great pet doesnt necessarily produce more great pets and that is a genetic fact. Purebred dogs are often found in shelters; sometimes up to 30 percent are purebred.

Every hour in the United States, more than 2,000 dogs and 3,500 cats are born.

The yearly statistics include more than 17 million dogs and 30 million cats. Add these animals to an existing pet population of 54 million dogs and 56 million cats and the total becomes phenomenal.

Animal care agencies do their best to find loving, responsible owners for as many pets as possible, but there simply are not enough homes.

To prevent the euthanizing of thousands of unwanted animals every year, and a mounting taxpayer bill, we all must spay or neuter our pets now.

Marge and Henry Woodford

La Grande

Adventist school available

To the Editor:

Carolina Porter wrote in her July 23 letter to editor that the community has a void related to Christian schooling for children.

While we did not have children enrolled in the La Grande Christian School, we can, however, empathize with her dilemma of a void in the community.

As a parent of two students, we have chosen a Christian educational system for their learning. We have enrolled our children in the La Grande Seventh-day Adventist School.

While the name Seventh-day Adventist may lead some astray thinking it is only intended for Seventh-day Adventists, it is indeed a Christian school open to all qualified students, regardless of religion, creed, color or sex.

The Seventh-day Adventist educational system is the worlds largest protestant educational system, with more than 130 elementary and secondary schools throughout the Northwest alone.

We are honored to have our children enrolled locally in this education system. The Seventh-day Adventist educational systems primary aim is to provide the opportunity for students to accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior, to allow the Holy Spirit to transform their lives and to fulfill the commission of preaching the gospel to all the world within the context of academic excellence.

The school has caring, committed Christian teachers, an excellent established curriculum, and, yes, even a playground and an enclosed gymnasium.

If you, like Carolina, are concerned about having your children thrust into the chaos of public school, and would like to have your child have not just an education of reading, writing, and arithmetic but lifelong learning, please consider the La Grande Seventh-day Adventist School.

Were glad we have.

Come visit the schools information booth at the Union County Fair this week.

David and Cathy Riley

Union

Look whos objecting

To the Editor:

The opinion in The Observer on July 27 Why the nine-year wait for term limits ruling? kind of answers the question you ask in the headline. If more people participated in elections, then perhaps there wouldnt be a need for any form of term limits.

What you didnt ask is why people dont vote. Why should they? The legal part of our government took nine years to say the citizens had no right to pass this piece of legislation on term limits. Why vote?

In a system that is supposed to be of, by and for the people, why should people vote if the judges decide after nine years that their vote is no good?

We are supposed to be governed by a representative form of government where individual citizens decide what is best for them, rather than have a bunch of power-hungry professional politicians where no term limits apply.

When you buy a new car as an example, you expect to spend some time fine-tuning it. Why should the time spent in government service be any different? There are lots of options. Lets look at many of them. Who is objecting? Not the citizens who voted, only the politicians who got voted out.

James A. Sayer

La Grande

Step in right direction

To the Editor:

The Klamath Water Users Association supports Interior Secretary Gale Nortons recent decision to release nearly 75,000 acre-feet of water to parched farms and ranches in the Klamath Irrigation Project.

As reported in the media, water levels in Upper Klamath Lake are higher than anticipated, making the water available for farm and ranch operations within the project that were deprived of a water supply earlier this year.

On April 6 the Department of Interior reallocated all of the Klamath Projects water supply for environmental purposes.

Nortons action illustrates that the situation in the Klamath Project is unacceptable and that the Interior Department should utilize all of its resources to remedy its previous decision to shut off the water supplies to more than 1,400 family farms and ranches.

Nortons step, although welcome, wont resolve the Klamath crisis. In the short-term, the United States must provide emergency financial assistance for the community.

The Interior Department also should immediately initiate an independent review of the science and the scientific processes used by federal officials to call for higher lake levels in Upper Klamath Lake and for increased Klamath River flows.

Interior should also closely examine the Hardy Process in light of continuing questions over this process.

In the long-term, the United States should initiate a more balanced and comprehensive restoration plan for the fish and wildlife species that utilize the farmland, the refuges and the rivers, streams and lakes of the Klamath Basin.

So far, federal officials have neglected to pursue meaningful actions to protect species of concern. Earlier this year, the Klamath Water Users Association, Ducks Unlimited and the California Waterfowl Association provided the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with several beneficial actions to aid waterfowl in the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. The Fish and Wildlife Service has discarded these collaborative recommendations.

Our association also has developed two restoration plans for the listed sucker species. However, the service has ignored these plans as well.

James L. Moore,

acting executive director

Klamath Water Users Association

Klamath Falls