We have a great library
To the Editor:
One reason I choose to make my home in Goldendale is that I can live in a friendly, rural community and still have one of the best library systems in the world at my fingertips. We don’t always appreciate what a good deal we have as part of the Fort Vancouver Regional Library. I like being able to order any book I need online and pick it up a few days later at our Goldendale library, but the library is important even to those who never check out a book.
In these hard times, people are using the library more than ever—to cut costs for magazine subscriptions, book purchases, and internet access. They also use the library to search for employment and sharpen their skills.
At the same time circulation and the demand for services has increased, funding has decreased, and library staff positions have had to be cut. The library doesn’t have the money it needs to purchase enough books and other materials to keep the collection up-to-date. Goldendale library has had to close its doors on Mondays, and if the levy doesn’t pass, there may be further cuts.
This August voters will be asked to decide if they are willing to restore library funding by raising the levy rate to the full 50 cents per $1,000 assessed valuation. For example, the increase will cost the owner of a $250,000 home about $20 per year additional, or $1.67 per month. All of the increase will go to restore library hours and purchase books and materials for the library’s collection.
Passing the levy will bring back Monday to our Goldendale library! Please vote yes for the library levy lid lift.
Mary Jean Lord
Goldendale
Support our hometown heroes
To the Editor:
The Gorge Heroes Club (GHC) received an urgent needs request from one of our hometown heroes who is fighting on the front lines in Afghanistan. This brave Marine is in a unit of five, including one medic. Having a medic with them on patrol gives us a good indication of their daily lives.
We are learning that these Marines are digging holes in the ground to sleep in at night, holes that are often shared by spiders and insects. As the daily heat is now hitting upwards of 110 degrees, our troops are carrying upwards of 130 pounds of survival gear on their backs. Showers are available to these men once every 30 days or so, and they are living off military rations of dehydrated foods.
The lips of men in these infantry units are blistered and cracked from exposure to the elements. Their primary mode of transportation — their feet — are sweating and blistering. Their eyes and ears fill up with grit as the massive sand storms swallow everything in sight for hours on end.
Statistics have said that every soldier touches more than 300 lives in their own home towns. These brave heroes could be your neighbor, your child, your minister’s son or daughter, your classmate, co-worker or friend.
The Gorge Heroes Club needs your help in providing the following items for our urgent-need hometown heroes:
Hygienic wipes (individual packages)
Foot powder
Knee-high over-the-calf black socks
Anti-fungal cream
Individual powdered drink mixes (Crystal Light, Gatorade, etc.)
Jerky
Please help GHC provide our troops with some of these urgent-need items. Your donations will go a long way in keeping the morale high and helping to ensure a safe return home for our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines. For more information, visit our blog at: www.gorgeheroesclub. blogspot.com.
Terri Hansen
Hood River
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