Letters to the Editor

To the editor,

Residents of Dayton School District and Citizens of Columbia County, your vote is a personal decision. The results of elections have consequences. Some consequences are more quantifiable than others. Taxes collected that help fund the school are easily measured, and impact any property owner. How the school spends the money in its budget is public record, and also very measurable. The board and administration can be held accountable to spend your tax dollars on the highest priorities of the District. Setting the priorities is an ongoing process that requires participation of stakeholders. If you have concerns about how the school spends money, please don't just write the school off and figure you are sending a message to the school of how it needs to change by casting a silent "no" vote. Get involved. Talk to the Superintendent. Talk to the board. Take steps that lead to improvement. Be proactive.

Dayton Schools are competing with other small towns for students. The community of Dayton is competing with other small towns to draw in positive, active people who help strengthen the community. One of the very first things a family considers before moving anywhere is the quality of schools in any prospective location. Appearance of school facilities, safety features of facilities, reputation of how supported the school is by the community; these factors are all things that can persuade some positive, contributing people to move here. Conversely, if first impressions of the school are negative, it can make someone decide to move to a different small town. I have recently traveled to several other schools of similar size to Dayton, and it is easy to tell which communities support their schools the most. In the future, I would take pride in knowing that visitors who come to our school can see that Dayton strongly supports its school. The tax rates (even with proposed changes) that our school district currently has are lower than most of the small communities in the area with whom we are competing for families and students. It takes financial commitment to make the school stand out as something that our community takes pride in.

What are some benefits that the community can expect from a well-supported school and facilities? Employers in the county have a better chance to have employees live here. The quality of teachers and likelihood of retaining quality teachers is higher. The likelihood of having future generations return to live here and building upon family legacies is higher. Rental property owners have a higher likelihood of having quality renters. Property owners thinking about selling have a higher likelihood of having a stronger demand from buyers. Parents with young children are more likely to spread positivity and pride in the school, and are more likely to invest time into their child's education. Community organizations have a higher likelihood of increasing active participants.

Dayton has a lot of positive attributes. Perfect? Of course not. The school has a lot of things that have been moving in a positive direction. Perfect? Of course not. A lack of perfection is a poor reason to let something degrade to the point of failure. A strong school in our community is something that I'd hope everyone could support.

Clay Hutchens

DHS alum, farmer/business owner, property owner, parent, coach, community volunteer

Dayton, Wash.

To the editor,

I am sharing my thoughts on these F words: facilities, future events, fairgrounds, furry friends, and fecal matter.

We are rewarded in a rural community with freedoms and opportunity. With a short visit to our local museum, I learned that our community started celebrating the talents of local families with a fair type event in 1932. As interest and need grew in importance an association was started with stockholders loaning some $20,000 to purchase the current location of the fairgrounds from Deau Brown. The Garfield County Fair Association started as a private association but became public out of necessity in 1954. The state ruled that in order to receive state fair funds, the fair association had to be publicly owned as part of the county government. In early 1958 the fair association turned the property over to Garfield County. I value the sacrifice original stockholders made allowing this to become public property.

I have utilized the fairgrounds as a parent of a 4H/ FFA student, as an owner of horses, and as the owner of several dogs over the years. I value the area in which to exercise and train our dogs. I show my respect for the facility by bagging the poop. There is a need for everyone taking their dogs to the fairgrounds to clean up after their dog on mowed and irrigated lawn and on pavement near any of the buildings.

The buildings are used many times of the year for family and community events such as July 4th fireworks. In fairness to all users; owners of dogs visiting the fairgrounds must clean up after their dogs. Driving around and following your dog in a vehicle makes you less aware not less responsible.

As we enter February the calendar moves quickly toward the Jackpot show on April 6th and the Spring Plowing days April 12-14th. All dog owners have an opportunity to be responsible and leave a good impression. The open gate at the fairgrounds is helpful to travelers and campers for short stays. Community members utilized the water during the last cold spell to get water when theirs had frozen. The fair board and commissioners may have to look at access issues if current dog owners do not clean up after their pets on the mowed grass and near public buildings.

Sue Nelson

Pomeroy, Wash.

To the editor,

With global world war on our threshold, what do you think we need most of all? Peace? No way buckaroo's, we had that with Trump and we didn't like the taste of it. We want wars! Lots of them and we need leaders to make that happen, someone like Slow Joe O'Biden and the current Pope. This past Christmas our church listened to damage control from the pulpit. Like Biden, our Pope gets his mouth right in a spot where it is easy to trip over as a Catholic, I ask myself what I want from my top religious leader. Yep, you got it, a climate activist. He is progressive. The first pro gay, pro trans, pro-abortion Pope, and he is green to the gills.

Everyone thought that the inept elitists, Greta Thunberg and Al Gore were all the punch the global socialist movement needed. Wrong. They needed a woke Pope to carry the charge. Our Christmas message was trying to explain or to unwrap a twisted thinking and attempting to make it appear straight. The Pope was blessing something that had not been accepted before.

Lately, he has been after surrogates. Some of the big names in the Old Testament used surrogacy under the protection of the Almighty. Sometimes when you go to the cabinet for a new Pope, you get someone like the bar bouncer we have now. We may have run dry of John Paul II's. I miss him. Lord, I miss him.

If a woman would offer her body to grow and carry the life of a couple (man and woman) not capable of such a feat, to me it seems almost Christ like. If she was compensated monetarily, it would be appropriate. If a sister was to be an incubator for her sister and husband, a greater gift she could probably never offer in life to them.

This Pope defrocked a priest for being too "prolife". The priest was not being sexually inappropriate and nor was he stealing church funds. He also fired Bishop Strickland for being too conservative. I'd trade that bishop for the one I have now so fast it would make your head spin. My bishop got on his knees to Jay Inslee, the dumbest governor in the northern hemisphere. My bishop closed our church, took joyous song from it and then muzzled the congregation. In Idaho just over the fence, they remained in a free state under God, free to worship as guaranteed in the Constitution.

I suppose it all fits into a master plan concocted by communist, socialist and democrat leadership at the highest levels. Abraham Lincoln once remarked that America can never be destroyed from outside. Its demise will arise from within. The same is true for Catholicism. My church may die someday, but Christianity will never perish. It will outlive the universe.

Eric McKeirnan

Pomeroy, Wash.