Letters to the Editor: Oct. 24, 2025

Places to thrive

Over the summer, I spotted something different happening around McMinnville. I began to see young people with fishing poles in their hands instead of phones.

On an early fall paddle on the Yamhill River, it was a reassuring surprise to see some of my former students standing knee deep, fishing in the calm waters.

The students I recognized waved in a friendly way as I rounded a bend, passed near their lines and moved on. They nodded their heads, acknowledging our presence, but maintained stillness and concentration on the movement of the water and the possibility of what they might catch.

Rarely did I find students maintaining such stillness and concentration in the classrooms, hallways or cafeteria at school, and assemblies could be a challenge. This setting brought out a different side of who they were and had always been.

The Yamhill River belongs to all of us just as much as our public schools do, but currently, accessing it is a major challenge. So it remains a hidden gem, unknown and unavailable to many.

Bond Measure 26-237, the parks and rec bond issue appearing on the current ballot, supports local “alternative” settings: improved parks, an improved public library, a new community center, initial river access and more.

These are places where younger children, teenagers, adults and senior citizens can all explore who they are and who they might become together.

None of us are one-dimensional. But the multiple facets we each contain cannot be fully unleashed unless environmental pathways and structures are provided.

Please join me in voting yes to provide more ways to access the full-faceted magic of residents of our community.

Anna Marrant Barsotti

McMinnville

No room to complain

I want to congratulate Peter Enticknap for rousing me out of my doldrums and causing me to write a letter to the editor for the first time.

First of all, I agree that maintaining services to your home is expensive. I live in the city of Dayton which has just raised its water rates well beyond what you could imagine in the lovely city of McMinnville.

But you mentioned the cost of electricity. Here is a little set of facts for you.

McMinnville Water & Light charges about 7.7 cents a kilowatt hour for residential electricity. We in Dayton could only wish we could go back to the 1950s to get that rate.

Do you think these horrible, wasteful, publicly owned utilities are taking advantage of you?

Well, our current rates in Dayton are 39 cents a kilowatt hour in the summer, and, hold on to your hats, 60 cents per kilowatt hour in the winter. That’s really, really close to 10 times what you are paying.

If you are a lower-income or fixed-income individual and can’t afford these incredibly inexpensive rates, you can apply for help through McMinnville Water & Light. But I’m guessing that’s not the case for you.

If you would like to swap utility bills sometime, please let me know. In the meantime. those of us who are paying real-world rates for our electricity would encourage you to zip it.

Mark Pederson

Dayton

Fostering connection

Some of my favorite memories in McMinnville come thanks to our Aquatic Center — watching my daughter and her teammates race through the water at meets and hearing my mom talk about her water aerobics classes, which keep her active and connected with friends she’s grown close to over the years.

The pool has become more than a building for our family. It’s become a place of connection, growth and joy.

But the facility is aging. After serving us for decades, it’s reached the point where maintenance and small fixes can’t keep up with all the ways our town uses it. And it’s beyond being modernized to breathe new life into our community.

Measure 36-237 gives McMinnville the opportunity to build something that meets today’s needs and welcomes future generations.

It would fund a new recreation center, expanding pool and deck space and adding areas for fitness, recreation and community gatherings. It would also invest in our library, senior center and parks — places where we learn, play and connect.

This is about more than new buildings. It’s about creating a place where our kids stay safe and learn, our grandparents stay active and connected, and we all come together as a community.

Vote yes on Measure 36-237.

Leah McGlade

McMinnville

A path for all

I am incredulous that 2/3 of our county commissioners feel they have the right — with the backing of a few county residents who stand to benefit greatly from their decisions — to cancel use of OUR right of way for the future Yamhelas Westsider Trail.

The flimsy argument that it might otherwise become light rail in the future is absurd. The plan all along has been for a 17-mile hiking, biking and equestrian trail, with full community input on signage, lighting, fencing and infrastructure.

Surveys, events, letters to the editor and the testimony to the board itself have proven the citizens of Yamhill County overwhelmingly support development of this community asset. The health, safety, economy, recreation and convenience benefits of the trail are innumerable.

Progress toward completion of a fully-accessible and community-planned trail has been in the works for more than 20 years.

The land was purchased for this pedestrian/equestrian right of way by the taxpayers of Yamhill County specifically for this purpose. It was never owned by the adjacent landowners.

Citizens of Yamhill and Carlton who wish to go for a walk currently have the option of navigating busy roads and sporadic sidewalks — try this with a mobility device! — or driving to McMinnville, Forest Grove, Banks, Hillsboro or Beaverton — communities that believe in providing their citizens with a safe alternative.

Why is this not going to a vote of the citizens? How do two people get to decide what the rest of us want?

Jane Harloff

Yamhill

Hard to swallow

The massive size and expense of the new rec center scares me. Listening to Oregon news and how much Portland has NOT been able to keep up with its parks and buildings makes me wonder how far behind McMinnville is in keeping up with our parks and rec buildings.

I know for a fact that there are lots of repairs and expenses that have been ignored by our leaders. Fixing what we have is not on their schedule.

What assurance do we have that anything new will be taken care of? Their track record is not impressive.

Many people do not like to repair old. They would rather build new.

In our throw-away society, anything new is considered better. However, many things built long ago are actually better than the so-called “new.”

With the economy as it is, and with all of the other levies and taxes we are having to pay, I find $100 million in new debt hard to swallow. I, for one, will not be voting for the new rec center.

Alice Vinton

McMinnville

Worth the investment

We urge you to vote yes on Measure 36-237. It represents an investment in McMinnville’s future.

Both of our parents moved here in the 1970s when the population was 15,000. Remember flopping your towel on the hot concrete around the outdoor pool?

With our kids, we took advantage of all McMinnville offers. They loved library story time and couldn’t wait to be old enough for swimming lessons.

We love McMinnville. We moved back here to teach middle school and purposely root our family here. It’s a place where you leave for vacation and can’t wait to get back home.

However, we are at a critical pinch point where change must happen. Change is hard, but as we grow as a community, we need safe venues to recreate and upgraded facilities for all.

Wouldn’t you rather have kids at the library, pool, courts, fields or gyms than glued to electronics that do little for mind, body or soul? Well, a yes vote promotes healthy activity for our community.

When people visit McMinnville, they are charmed.

When families come to use our new facilities, they will stay, shop and eat, thus investing in our town. That’s a good thing.

A yes vote is not just a tax on everyone to help a few. This will serve everyone.

Voting yes says we are willing to invest in people and facilities to enjoy for generations. It checks all the boxes. Now it’s time for us to check the box and vote yes.

A painted sign downtown says Love Where You Live. We feel this to our core. And we are willing to pay it forward for our kids, their kids and our aging parents.

It’s an investment in people. The return on that investment will be worth it.

Shannon Dunn and Casey Rich

McMinnville

No on new taxes

The people of Oregon have been forced to tighten their belts over and over since 2019. But once again, state and local government want to stick there greedy hands into our already empty pockets.

While politicians act as though the money is in endless supply, the good people of this state are suffering more and more to make ends meet. We the people should vote a hearty no on all new taxes, if given the opportunity, and vote out all tax-and-spend politicians who think they have no need to tighten their own belts.

Look around, folks. Our once vibrant state is suffering some of the poorest school performance, homelessness is rampant even in the smallest of communities and housing is unaffordable to far too many of our most vulnerable citizens. We are already paying some of highest fuel prices in the nation, and Salem has just decided to add an additional six cents to the gas tax.

I’m not against improving our community, but not at the expense of good people who are just barely hanging on. They wouldn’t be able to afford the fees they would be charged to use those improvements.

Please vote no on all new taxes until the people in government learn to respect the people who make it possible for their existence.

James Williams

McMinnville