Letters to the Editor: April 19, 2024

Sadly fault-finding

I recently read some of the letters to the editor about our elected county commissioner, Lindsay Berschauer. I would like to relate an experience I had with Ms. Berschauer just a few months ago.

I sent her an e-mail on her seeming disregard for county parks and open space, citing Crabtree Park and the Yamhelas Westsider Trail. The first words in her response to me were, “I’m not sure where this misinformation is coming from,” and went on to suggest, “likely the News-Register.”

I want to take this opportunity to say that I’ve been pleased to live my adult life in two communities (one in Washington and the other here in Yamhill County, where local journalism was professional, fair and supported by the local community. Rarely, if ever, have I seen blatant criticism of local journalism from an elected official.

Ms. Berschauer’s response, immediately criticizing and finding fault with those who keep the community informed, is both sad and unfortunate. It reminds of several others currently running for public office.

Chuck Morrison

Amity

For the birds

Those of us who maintain bird feeders do so because we enjoy seeing these wonderful creatures flutter in and out of our yards.

But birds don’t need our feeders to survive. They can do that quite well all on their own.

Thus, it behooves us to care for the birds we attract to the best of our abilities. That requires us to clean our feeders and baths regularly in order to stop the spread of bacteria, especially salmonella.

Sadly, I’m finding a lot of sick or dead birds in our northwest neighborhood. Let’s be responsible bird lovers by disinfecting our feeders and baths.

If you can’t do that, just put them away for a while. Please do your part in keeping our little feathered creatures happy and healthy.

Meg Stanko

McMinnville

Lack of vision

At the end of Mary Starrett’s March 29 guest commentary, in which she conjures up every conceivable reason for not creating the Yamhelas Westsider Trail, she suggests the county instead “focus on turning (our) magnificent, underdeveloped spaces into welcoming recreational opportunities for our county.”

How utterly ironic, as by the time Mary became a commissioner, the county’s Parks Advisory Board had already been hard at work for nearly a decade to do just that.

In the process, it had produced a master plan for developing the 95 acres of Whiteson Park into a camping and RV park, complete with hiking trails, picnicking facilities and historic interpretation of the area’s importance to native Americans. It would have served as a perfect complement to potential wine country visitors who didn’t want, — or couldn’t afford — to stay in the county’s pricier venues.

Sadly, when my fellow advisory committee members invited Mary to tour the Whiteson property to share with her our work and outline the possibilities, she did what she has so often done — smile, nod and hurry back to her office to find a drawer in which to bury the project.

If Mary were a problem-solver instead of a fiscal miser, the residents of our county might now be well on the way to developing Whiteson Park into the crown jewel of our park system, realizing a boon to our economic development along the way. Alas, she and her fellow ideological crony, Lindsay Berschauer, seem always willing to sacrifice the greater good of our fellow citizens to the perceived interests of their well-heeled hazelnut and timber interests.

According to the old saying, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” And when the peoples’ leaders lack vision, it is the possibility of a better future that will perish.

Roger Hall

McMinnville

Alpine studies?

Regarding the story on Mayor Remy Drabkin completing a Harvard University fellowship just in time for a mayoral tour and conference in Switzerland:

Of course Switzerland is the ultimate destination to learn how to deal with McMinnville’s problems of homelessness, drugs, crime, racism, lack of affordable healthcare and a rising cost of living. Pristine and spectacular alpine villages with predominantly white citizens and a population of 15% millionaires will most definitely hold all the answers for us.

McMinnville’s pressing need is, no doubt, to learn more about downhill skiing. Go Team Harvard!

Ann Helm

Lafayette

The public interest

Before voting in the May election, I ask voters to take the time to recall decisions by our county commissioners where they put their own interests before the interests of those they serve.

One decision, especially dear to my heart, involved more than $2 million from the American Rescue Plan Act that our commissioners agreed to dedicate toward our urgent need for additional childcare.

With the help of an expert consultant and focus groups of parents, providers and employers, a team of early-childhood experts and community leaders presented a plan to the commissioners more than a year ago that would have added 30 early care and education staffers and 146 to 240 child-care slots throughout Yamhill County. The commissioners brushed that aside and put the newly hired economic development director in charge, causing extended delay as our county continued to face an extreme shortage of providers and workers.

The commissioners’ final decision was to allocate the money to three sources of their own choosing, directing a majority of it to Newberg and leaving our childcare crisis in McMinnville and the county’s smaller communities in further jeopardy. Now, well over a year later, Yamhill Community Care’s Prevention and Wellness Fund Committee is working with Child Care Resource & Referral to determine the most immediate needs since it now has only 1/3 of the amount it was hoping for to “create workforce development programs, grants to support home-based providers, childcare apprenticeships and targeted assistance for Spanish-speaking early educators.”

However, we, as Yamhill County voters, can help by electing county leaders committed to putting community needs before personal interests.

Bubba King promises to do this. Please join me in voting for Bubba King to replace Lindsay Berschauer.

Liz Marlia-Stein

McMinnville