Letters - Jan. 14, 2010

In response

After reading the letter to the editor that Rick Squibb wrote last week I must respond. When I was commissioner I spent most of my time on the Hawkins (stateline project). The only reason why that project hasn’t happened yet is of no fault of the commissioners.

There were issues that slowed the project beyond the county’s control. Mayor Chaney of Moscow single handedly brought the water transfers to a halt in excess of a year. You don’t start a project until you have water, and if we would have had Hawkins move ahead (which they wouldn’t have) and they didn’t get the water people would be saying why didn’t the commissioners do their due diligence. The county would have been on the hook for the bond payments. As the county isn’t in any position to put the county at that level of risk.

I know commissioner O’Neill ran against the project. He used my position on the project to beat me up during our campaign. I know the anti-growth citizens held that against me.

The reason the project has been put on hold now is because of the banking debacle that the county had no part of. Until the banks start lending again and potential tenants feel safe to start signing leases the project isn’t going to move forward. Don’t blame the commissioners for that. This is way beyond their control. And from what I read the experts say that the recession isn’t going to be over for some time.

As I remember Squibb wrote a letter in the past speaking against the county bonding the project. In regards to the money in the county treasury if the commissioners don’t take a cautious approach with the budget with an ongoing recession the county will be out of money by 2012.

The budget shortfall is because of sales taxes receipts and most importantly the interest earned off of cash reserves and cash flow. Take the dollar gap in the budget and look at the interest earned last year verses 2008. You will notice that this is the dollar gap.

I think citizens should and must hold the commissioners’ feet to the fire, but before they write letters criticizing them they might do some fact checking so their complaints have some merit. So until the recession is over and interest rates go up to bolster the county budget, people should be happy the cuts weren’t deeper and that the county is trying to preserve jobs and services.

Everyone knows that all Mr. Squibb is doing is positioning himself to run for commissioner in 2011. Someone so ill-informed would be a terrible commissioner.

G.R. (Jerry) Finch, Pullman

Ex Commissioner

With a whine

Rosalia’s Mayor Jacobs retired with a whine. His final newsletter once again reminded those of us with short memories of his many outstanding achievements and ever altruistic motivation, sort of like Mother Teresa with a shovel. It’s hard to criticize one with such superlative qualifications.

He got a bit snippy with those U.S. citizens daring to use public forums, such as a letter to the editor, to criticize his regime, thanking us for our letters and “hateful rhetoric,” as that led him to delve deep to examine the roots of his motivation for serving has mayor.

Unfortunately for some politicians, citizens have First Amendment rights in this country and even in Rosalia. Dictatorships don’t tolerate criticism of government, but in the representative republic our Founding Fathers established, government is not to be shielded from examination and critique.

Those active in the political scene act firmly entrenched in the open government ideals of Jeffersonian democracy. On the other hand, we have those wishing to govern free of citizen review and criticism. These politicians embody Richard Nixon’s view of the Republic far more than that of our Founders.

Arthur Lund,

Rosalia