Letters to the Editor 12/14/2022

RE: Nurses Overwhelmed
and Understaffed News, 12/8

Thank you for raising attention to the nursing shortage and the toll it takes on nurses and patients. It reinforces the need to figure out how to keep ourselves healthy using nature’s medicine so that we don’t need to lean on nurses/doctors so much.

A portion of the subtitle of your piece is what caught my attention. It states “survey of nurses in Oregon and across the country show understaffing is one of the primary causes for an ongoing crisis in health care.” I think a more accurate statement would be “…is one of the primary symptoms of an ongoing crisis in health care.” I would think that the primary cause is the system of health care itself. Then add in the lack of courage in addressing it, the greed we allow in Big Pharma and Big Ag, suppressed information on nature’s medicine, the lack of access to healthy food and the dismal education system. There should be no surprise that there is a nursing shortage.

—Darlene Weaver

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• @britney.in.gram
• It’s getting cold, but Central Oregon is still climbing.

Thank you, voters!

On behalf of the staff and students of Bend-La Pine Schools, I’d like to offer my hearty thanks to the voters and local community for your overwhelming support of the construction bond on the Nov. 8 ballot. Thank you for showing your commitment to students and public education by supporting this measure, which will upgrade safety and security, modernize classrooms and provide for critical maintenance and preservation projects across our district.

I believe the approval of this bond will ensure a better future for our students, our schools and our community.

Thank you to the many volunteers who helped lead the advocacy campaign. Thank you, also, to the numerous civic leaders, businesses, students and community members who endorsed the bond and helped support its passage.

As we move ahead with 89 proposed projects, we will seek to honor the trust our community placed in us. We take our financial stewardship seriously and will aim to keep community members informed as the work progresses in the months and years ahead.

I am proud to be part of this community and, alongside our staff, will continue to strive to make our schools the best in the state and a source of pride for local residents.

In partnership,

—Dr. Steven Cook, Superintendent Bend-La Pine Schools

Danger Zone

The situation on Wall and Bond streets in downtown Bend is a DANGER ZONE. Emergency vehicle access is dangerously curtailed when streets are clogged with traffic and parked vehicles. A pedestrian is a highly vulnerable target crossing two lanes if either driver fails to stop. Extended length parked vehicles force drivers into the adjoining lane of traffic. Vehicles backing into traffic is problematic at best. The extension of café seating beyond the sidewalk further reduces traffic space and safety.

Suggestions to increase safety for pedestrians, cyclists, emergency vehicles and drivers are as follows:

• Make Wall and Bond streets in downtown Bend not only one way but also ONE LANE for vehicular traffic and ONE lane for bicycles.
• Restrict vehicular parking to one side of each street.
• Permit parallel parking only.
• Clearly mark boundaries for the length of parked vehicles and fine violators.
• Post and enforce speed limits.
• Install flashing yellow lights at pedestrian crossings or install traffic lights at all intersections.
• Reduce the number of street signs to focus primarily on safety information.
• Provide a variety of Tiny Trolleys for pedestrians to circulate in downtown without vehicles.

—Sue Bastian, For a Better Bend

RE: Lemon Gulch Project Aims for Ochoco Bike Trails. Outside, 12/1

I’d like to thank you for the Lemon Gulch article published on November 30th. I’m the board president of the Central Oregon Trail Alliance (COTA) and would like to share more details about the project alternatives.

Lemon Gulch is proposed within a 3,000-acre area of the 850,000-acre Ochoco National Forest. This would give bikers a better riding option and would reduce strain and conflict in other areas of the forest. Alternative #2 calls for 52 miles of new trails which is enough to allow something for everyone. More mileage in Lemon Gulch reduces the need for bikers to go elsewhere and that’d reduce conflict with hikers and equestrians. It also means more trail variety, which is great for riders of all abilities. Expert riders frequently contact COTA about the lack of technical, downhill trails and alternative #2 is the best option for that.

The other alternative worth considering is #6. This emerged from the process and reflects that compromise is required when accounting for other factors such as ecological and resource impacts. Alternative #6 offers a reasonable range of trail styles and mitigates a large amount of concerns raised with alternative #2. It’s still a step in the
right direction.

COTA has many members in Crook County and they’d love to see this project come to fruition. I hope the community will join us with its support. See the Ochoco Trails site for more details: https://ochocotrails.org/lemon-gulch/

—Bill Lynch

Snow Country Customs

A note to newcomers: when someone’s car is stuck in the snow in front of you, you may be tempted to sit in your vehicle, angrily fuming, until an “official person” comes along to unstick them. What you are supposed to do, unless you are injured or disabled, is get out of your effing car and help! Help by pushing, help by putting cat litter or sand under the wheels of the stuck car, or help by directing traffic around the stuck vehicle.

Now you know.

As Red Green said, “I’m pulling for ya, we’re all in this together.”

—Kake Huck

Letter of the Week:

Kake: For real, though. To quote Alice Walker’s book title, “We are the ones we have been waiting for!” (The phrase also appears in June Jordan’s “Poem for South African Women.”)

Great timing after the weekend’s snow. Come on down and grab yourself a gift card to Palate.

—Nicole Vulcan

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