Back the levy lid lift

We are writing to ask for support for the upcoming levy lid request for Clallam County Fire District 3. It has been 14 years since they have requested additional dollars. Seems to us there are a lot more people and businesses here than there were 14 years ago!

Evidently, there has been an increase in call volume of 33 percent in just the last seven years. With hundreds of new homes under construction and with new folks moving in everyday the simple math says that the call volume will only continue to rise.

This extra revenue will go to the general fund that pays for maintenance of facilities and equipment, additional staff and most important of all training. When you are in an emergency, modern equipment is a minimum requirement. However, training, as a team, on how to implement and use apparatus with efficiency and accuracy, is vital as well. Our firemen and women need the opportunity to train and train together so that they can maximize their team’s ability when needed most. Right now with call volume so high it is almost impossible to get the opportunity to train together.

We care deeply about this beautiful valley we have called home for 24 years. We are so lucky to have Chief Ben Andrews and all of the men and women who work for the fire district. They keep all of Sequim safe.

Please join us in supporting the levy lid request.

Virginia and Conn O’Neil

Sequim

Wilke is the real deal

I would like to recommend Jodi Wilke for Legislative District 24, Position 1. Jodi is a hard-working advocate of working people and small businesses — she is one of us. She is against big government, excessive taxation and laws that impede the average working person and small business.

Often, small businesses are adversely impacted by unnecessary bureaucracy, licensing and regulations where fewer or none are needed. Jodi wants to ensure a healthy economy for our district’s people.

Specifically, Jodi wants to ensure a healthy infrastructure that facilitates growth, meaningful jobs for the community, safe and secure schools, and a reduction in bureaucratic entanglement in big government webs, which liberal politicians impose to satisfy their endless thirst for more tax money.

Maybe the highly paid workers on the Seattle side of the Puget Sound like big government, since they have excess incomes and can easily afford it. But many people on the Olympic Peninsula are on fixed incomes and lack the high-tech jobs that provide surplus incomes that politicians want to exploit.

Jodi wants to ensure that the Olympic Peninsula economy is not dragged down by those that want to over-regulate, over-spend, over-restrict, and have their fingers in every imaginable bit of commerce. She wants to ensure a level playing field where a local trades person or merchant can earn a good living and provide for their families.

We need more candidates like Jodi Wilke to represent OUR interests, not the wealthy and their tax-and-spend politicians.

Jodi is the real deal and is an excellent representative for our lives on the Olympic Peninsula.

Bobbie Piety

Sequim

Family supports a new Sequim library

Our family moved here in 2008 after traveling around the country in an RV, purposely searching for a community to call home. To us, Sequim felt like home.

The Sequim Library quickly became a place to meet with friends, a place to do fun kids events and extracurricular classes. The library was a safe haven for the kids after school and on weekends, a place to do homework or meet up with their friends. My son Robby learned how to create his own videos and edit them with a class he took at the library. Robby volunteered at the library and my husband Robert joined the Board of Trustees.

For the Streett family, the Sequim Library has been an integral part of our lives.

I feel a great library is an essential piece of a safe community, and a resource that brings family and community closer together. A great library should be important to anyone living in or visiting a smaller community. Support for the library says a lot about the value citizens place on their community, learning, and culture.

The Streett family wants to do everything we can to ensure that the library is able to continue meeting community needs for decades to come. We wholeheartedly support Propositions 1 and 2, to expand and modernize the small and outdated Sequim library building, and hope that you will join our family in supporting our community in this way.

Grateful for books, small towns and libraries.

Josslyn Streett

Sequim

Consider impact of I-1639

Do you want to give up the right to protect your wife and children from intruders by being required to lock up your weapon? Would you want to have to run and unlock your weapon before you could confront a possible robber or rapist?

Initiative 1639 does this, and more: It redefines your semi-automatic “hunting rifle” as an assault rifle; and even as the victim, “You may face criminal prosecution” (quote from voters’ pamphlet), and up to 12 months in jail if this intruder obtains possession of your weapon; and almost requires you to purchase a gun safe to keep your shotguns or rifles secure (as defined by this initiative).

By the way … the Supreme Court invalidated a similar law as a violation of the Second Amendment and therefore is unconstitutional!

More liberal leftist seeking votes in November.

Travis Williams

Sequim

Library propositions worth our votes

I grew up with the Sequim Library since I was two. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been able to grow with me, or with the community, which is why I will vote yes twice for Propositions 1 and 2.

By the time I was 9, I had read through the kids section, by 15, the teen section, and now, at age 24, I struggle to find a space for myself in the library. I love to read in quiet, and I love seeing the community gather at a place of knowledge and connection. But I learn by moving, touching and experiencing as well as by reading.

The current Library building is outdated and too small. Lack of space for seating, study rooms, places to gather, and separation between quiet and active spaces, puts unnecessary limits on collection and library services. The outdated facility doesn’t support modern technology and 21st century expectations about access and use very well.

If Propositions 1 and 2 are passed, the library can create age specific spaces, for the toddlers to learn to love reading, for teens who want to hang out, for people doing research, or needing a computer for online business.

As an occupational therapy student, one of the top benefits I see is that the new library will be more accessible for people with disabilities, so they too can access information freely, learn, attend lectures, or support groups in sufficiently large meeting spaces. So much good will be accomplished if these propositions are passed!

I have seen the City of Sequim grow continuously during my life there. Let’s support the Sequim Library in growing with Sequim. Vote yes on Propositions 1 and 2, as I will.

Erin Henninger

Sequim

A PUD carbon collision

The simple fact is our planet has a serious problem. Our climate is degrading rapidly. This has become crystal clear. We have children, grandchildren, and loved ones who are living their lives but are now being funneled into an ominous deadly future.

Carbon in our atmosphere is the principal cause of this catastrophe. The PUD Commission president, Ted Simpson, and the other commissioners oppose the proposed carbon fee (Sequim Gazette, Oct. 10, 2018). This fee is designed to encourage reduction in carbon in our air and help develop technologies that will help make this happen.

That would clearly be a win-win. Simpson, a PUD commission candidate, said, “This is going to cost us money.” Ted Simpson, how much is it going to cost us not so solve the carbon problem? How many lives? Sometimes the door needs to be closed no matter how hard you need to push.

John Konrath

Sequim

For better tomorrow, solve student loan issue

Today, the USA, richest nation in the world, is ranked 16th overall in education, 19th in science and 30th in mathematics.

One reason for these low numbers might be the costs of secondary education, after graduation, from K-12 public schools. U.S. four-year college/university tuition ranges from $13,000 in South Dakota to $39,000 in Vermont, not to mention costs of fees, books and supplies, housing, food and transportation. As a result, most students require monetary loans to attend these institutions.

While most people do not know the details of student loans, interest rates are extremely high and loan repayment schedules are demanding. The net effects are substantial personal debt ($50,000 to more than $200,000) for extended periods, which impact one’s future life like buying a home, supporting a family and ancillary expenses (insurances, transportation, food, recreation, property maintenance, et. al).

Some politicians are advocating free college/university education to qualified K-12 graduates, which may not be practical. But just reducing student loan interest rates (currently 5-8 percent) to inflation rates (e.g., about 2 percent) would be a significant education cost incentive for many capable students to pursue secondary education.

Moral: Penalizing capable students with high interest rate, high cost loans is self-defeating, both in education incentives and later earned/desired quality of life.

Richard Hahn

Sequim