The variety of news reports in today’s paper prompt a mixture of emotions for us.
First is incredulity, a result of our story on page 1 about the meeting to discuss the future of the Foster Post Office.
It’s not surprising that U.S. Postal Service officials are looking for ways to cut money by trimming hours at Foster and reorganizing the management a bit. Frankly, that makes some business sense.
But what’s the rationale behind the conundrum that residents on the east end of Cascadia Drive find themselves in – not being able to get road delivery to their mailboxes? That’s what a letter writer referred to in last week’s edition and it came up again, less directly, at the meeting. Essentially, residents are saying that mail carriers turn around 1½ miles from the end of Cascadia Drive and those who live between that point and Cascadia State Park have to drive the 30-mile round trip to Foster to get their mail.
We wonder, have postal decision-makers ever even been out to Cascadia to actually assess the situation out there?
It’s easy to get hot under the collar and make comments about “overpaid public servants,” but what really needs to happen here is some good, old-fashioned common sense.
The USPS representative at last week’s meeting deferred repeatedly to “Portland,” so we’ll have to assume that these little wrinkles need to be ironed out there.
Whoever is making these decisions, though, needs to remember that this is still about service and Cascadia residents have generally gotten the blunt end of the stick in that regard. It’s pretty clear that either the right people aren’t thinking about this, or somebody’s not thinking at all.
Another emotion that rises within us today is embarrassed disgust.
That would be the result of another story on page 1, this one about the arrest of yet another Sweet Home man on animal abuse charges after his brother’s dog had to be put down due to injuries he allegedly inflicted on it.
What’s particularly embarrassing about this is the fact that this is the second such incident in a community of some 15,000 people in two weeks.
What’s going on here? Maybe nothing. We must remember that these two arrestees will need to have their day in court before we jump to conclusions aboiut what happened. Still, it’s a little jarring to see that “SWEET HOME” dateline on all those stories on the Internet about cruelty to animals.
The fact is, arrests on these types of charges are relatively infrequent in our community. Most folks value their animals and give them appropriate care and affection, but the rest of the world isn’t seeing that very clearly right now.
If you’re going to beat your dog or starve your livestock, do it somewhere else. That kind of behavior is not appreciated here.
Another emotion, also stemming from a page 1 story, is, well, satisfaction.
It’s not often that we publicly comment on new hires in the community public agencies, but we think city officials were right on with their decision to employ Laura Goodrich as director of city planning operations and general jack-of-all-trades.
The reason why we think that is because Goodrich, during her year as a RARE student at City Hall, has proven herself to be someone who takes initiative and makes things happen.
Anybody involved in the early steps of the Liveability Initiative and last winter’s general discussions on providing summer activities for local children can attest to that because Goodrich put all of that and more together – see our story.
With the departure of Economic Development Director Brian Hoffman to another field, there’s been a need for someone with insight and initiative. Even though Goodrich’s job description encompasses far more than that and she will have many duties that will be part of day-to-day city operations, we like the energy and insight she brings to the table as Sweet Home moves forward.
There are many other players, to be sure, and they are all important. She’s just one more, but we think she may be a vital one.