He chose to be uninformed
Many of us, including me, have little idea of what our Pullman City Council votes on during their routine business. At the meeting of July 13, however, a project close to me was under discussion.
This is the Sarah Moore Memorial River Nook, a deck to be built at Neill Public Library along the river. The River Nook is a project long envisioned by library staff, but one that lacked city funding. Sarah was a decades-long volunteer at the library, including designing and planting the landscaping around the library. In discussion with library staff, we decided we would privately fund the River Nook as a fitting tribute to Sarah’s volunteer service.
At the council meeting, questions arose from council member Al Sorensen about the project, and he cast the lone nay vote against it. He complained he had not seen plans and did not know what he was voting on. The plans are on the city website. Any competent council member knows this, yet he chose to be uninformed. bit.ly/3z3xzGs
He further stated, “we could have people donate money all the time to the city for a project, but we don’t know what’s happening.” Yet, this project was first proposed by the library, not me. There was a good description of the project in the meeting agenda. This matter has come before the city council before when it was approved to go out for construction bid.
Yet Sorensen remained willfully uninformed about it. Furthermore, this enhances downtown and advances the city’s goals of activating downtown Pullman. Sorensen’s nay vote indicates he does not have the best interests of the city and the people of Pullman in mind.
Matthew Root
Pullman
A better bond
I’m getting hints of distrust of the city of Moscow’s tweaking of the bond we passed to build the new police station and fix up a few of its operations buildings. Since I steadfastly attend meetings, it’s been a sensible evolution to me and I’m unsure of the objections. Multiple meetings have explored changes and several news articles extensively reported them all along. Actual dollar figures and details have been repeatedly disclosed and will be again at the City Council public hearing Aug. 2.
Simply put, here’s how I’ve seen it develop. We passed the bond, including a hefty interest savings. Then construction costs skyrocketed. They made some cuts in the police station design but not to the point of undercutting the purpose of building it in the first place. Regarding solar panels, that didn’t make the cut but the building is solar-ready so panels could be added later (other energy savings were incorporated). Nevertheless, we were over a million dollars short.
Unexpectedly, the Haddock Building became available; it’s notably cheaper to adapt to city use than the more complicated refurbishing of the old police station. The Haddock even has its own parking lot for city vehicles and won’t take up public spots. With both the goodly chunk of money saved by switching to the Haddock and selling the old police station instead of remodeling it, we’ll almost meet the shortfall on building the new police station. I like the math.
Zoning, public entities parameters, all that above-board stuff is in line. The Prichard Art Gallery wants to stop leasing and own the old police station, which is a straightforward rehab into a gallery and a logistical improvement for them and the downtown. All this meets the same goals of the bond we passed. What’s not to like?
Victoria Seever
Moscow
Confused by ‘honesty’
I read the opinion “Left or right, please take an honest look” (Daily News June 26). Well, I did take a look and discovered a disconnect between the word “honesty” in the title and the opinion’s content. “Fraudulent”, “deceptive”, or “mendacious” are better choices. The opinion came across as the rantings of “one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group” (quotation is from Google’s definition of bigot). ”Hateful”, frequently used, is a bold brush to vilify a group.
The writer presents few real data and/or facts woven with misinformation and disinformation throughout the opinion and tends to be uninformed. The information concerning Carl Nassib is opinion, not fact (see the article at Blaze Media). Here is a fact about Carl Nassib; he is a registered Republican in Florida and Nevada. Any issue with this?
The writer’s information on the Jan. 6 Commission is misinformed. The commission was to be bipartisan with an equal number of members from each party. The commission did not fail; it was never allowed to begin. The Republicans could ill afford Rep. McCarthy’s telephone call and statements from Jan. 6 and 7, and as well, testimony from the insurrectionists.
To promote “honesty,” the Jan. 6 insurrection is a brush stroke to paint the right as “hateful.” A real event with five deaths, more than 100 Capitol policemen injured, attempted assignation of the vice president and speaker of the house, and damage. I would suggest to anyone interested in nurturing “honesty” to read a study by Fairleigh-Dickson University. The study concluded that people watching Sunday morning talk shows, PBS NewsHour and NPR are the most informed television viewers. See at bit.ly/2UiMjlT
Brandon Burch
Pullman
Time to act is now
According to an NPR story last week, ranchers across the west are selling off cattle at a loss. They are running out of ways to feed their herds in the midst of severe drought and record-setting temperatures.
According to articles in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News last week, Julietta, Harvard, and Genesee are experiencing water shortages. Washington state is in a drought emergency. Despite years of asking citizens to use less water, towns, cities and states are now having to legally mandate restrictions in emergency conditions.
According to national headlines and my own experience, we are in the midst of an extraordinarily hot dry summer, with wildfire season starting far earlier than usual.
We must act now on climate change. The time to ask individuals and corporations to do better on carbon pollution is past. We must take legislative action to ensure a livable future.
I applaud Idaho senators Risch and Crapo for voting in favor of the Growing Climate Solutions Act, which helps farmers scale up conservation practices on their land and incentivizes carbon sequestration. The next step is to put a price on carbon. We can each take action right now by urging our members of congress to support carbon pricing legislation like the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (energyinnovationact.org)
Casey Johnson
Moscow
