Letters to the Editor: Oct. 10, 2025

Chance to be heard

Attention Yamhill County citizens: Please attend upcoming hearings to let Commissioners Mary Starrett and Kit Johnston know they aren’t fooling anyone with their Oct. 2 attempt to erase the Yamhelas Westsider Trail from the Transportation System Plan.

You will have a chance to go on record in support of the 17-mile pedestrian and bike trail at hearings before the planning commissioners and commissioners. You can get the dates by calling 503-434-7501 or 503-554-7801, or visiting yamhillcounty.gov.

Commissioner Bubba King voted no on the stealth removal effort. “The problem I have is the speediness of which we’re trying to do this,” he said, as the trail item was added after the agenda was printed and no information about it was included in the meeting packet.

Be prepared for Mary and Kit to justify their vote with statements that sound important and governmental, but are actually just plain silly.

They say the trail is a stalking horse for light rail, but they actually took care of that problem at the meeting when they repealed Ordinance 880, obligating the county to provide for potential future use of the right-of-way for commuter and/or freight rail.

Bubba wholeheartedly agreed with this action. He said he was fine with removing the light rail language, saying, “nobody wants light rail here.”

Bubba questioned, however, removing the entire project, due to potential impacts on a future regional water system requiring use of the corridor. It is a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Rail-to-trail projects exist all over the United States. There are 23 in Oregon alone, so there are examples of successful workarounds for all kinds of concerns.

The public was not given enough notice and information before the trail item was raised. Mary and Kit should have given citizens a chance to speak.

Janice Allen

Newberg

Denigrated in death

In the Oct. 3 letter “Racist and hateful,” the writer listed eight instances in which he accused Charlie Kirk of using racist and hateful language. But in only one did he cite his source.

Making direct accusations of such grievous actions and words and attributing them to another person should never be allowed without bona fide references. In private conservation, this writer informed me his sources included Time and Newsweek magazines and The New York Times, among others.

The problem is, these are the same sources that for five years cried “quid pro quo” and “Russia Conclusion,” touting a dossier purporting to prove that Russia and Trump worked together to defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. We the people learned later that this dossier, developed by Christopher Steele, a former British MI6 spy, was without merit.

These same sources denied that the FBI and CIA had been weaponized against conservative organizations, including branding people who spoke out at school board meetings as domestic terrorists, though all such allegations were proven false,

I could continue with additional items wherein the cited references listed many more egregious errors. My plea is, anyone who writes accusations against friend or foe, please reference your sources so that we, the readers, may be better able to evaluate the truthfulness of those references.

I have followed Mr. Kirk’s work for years, and I can tell you he had received many death threats and threats to harm his family. He does not deserve, after his tragic death, to be denigrated by false statements.

Byron Shenk

McMinnville

Trails benefits

Two of our county commissioners have chosen to eliminate the Yamhelas Westsider Trail from the county’s official transportation projects list. This would be shortsighted and counterproductive to the economic growth of Yamhill County.

The Lafayette to Gaston trail has faced opposition from hazelnut growers fearing increased crime. The two commissioners seem to be in their pocket.

I’ve ridden many trails in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia without seeing any such crime emerge.

I recently rode the Burke-Gilman and Sammamish River trails in Seattle, Bothel and Redmond. The cities encompass a huge population, vastly larger than Yamhill County, yet the trails were clean, well-maintained and free of any evidence of graffiti and drug use.

Expensive homes line the trail along Lake Washington, and it serves as a thoroughfare to Husky Stadium where it cuts across the University of Washington campus. I spotted single women jogging, elderly people walking dogs and families riding bikes. What I didn’t see were homeless people, or any other sketchy individuals.

This has been my experience in all but one trail I’ve ridden. And even on that one, I still encountered all types of people engaging in safe use.

What I think makes trails safe is city and county involvement in maintenance. They have recognized trails bring visitors and visitors bring dollars.

On the trip, I spent almost $100 on gas, $200 on lodging, $90 on meals and $80 on aquarium admission and parking in Seattle. This is money I would not have spent had it not been for the trails.

I also drove to Northern Idaho to ride the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes and the Route of the Hiawatha, and the latter required rental of a mountain bike. Most of the dollars I spent on both trips remained in the community.

Trails bring much-needed dollars to communities. Opposing them only hurts communities.

Radford Bean

McMinnville