Thanks for ‘fitness food’

I would like to give both Nash’s Organic Produce and The Red Rooster Grocery Story a very big ‘thank you” for donating organic vegetables and fruit to the Sequimming Around the World “Get Fit” volunteer program for all staff in the Sequim School District. 

From February to June of 2012, I would stop by these local businesses every two weeks for a bag or box of donated goodies (fruit and vegetables). Then the winning school, or department, would receive the basket of goodies based on their Sequimming mileage, which was a way to track time and miles of individual staff members who walked, ran, did weights, biked, etc. in their time away from work. 

Our Sequimming “Get Fit” program was a fun way to promote a healthy lifestyle for staff members. Thanks, Nash’s and The Red Rooster for being so supportive of our Sequimming “Get Fit” program. You made the difference and the winning staff members loved sharing in the assorted goodies you donated.

Wendy Turner

Sequim

Turner is a teacher at Sequim High School.

What a way to go

We have had the privilege to be the team leaders for the class of 2012 grad party. It has been a year of fundraising, with raffles, golf tournaments and flamingo flocking and once again we learned that the generosity of the Sequim community is unsurpassed even in these hard economic times. Today, we are writing to acknowledge and thank the dedicated parents of the Class of 2012.

What a diverse group of go-getters those parents are! The majority of people at our first meeting in September did not know each other particularly well. A mere nine months later we were a force to be reckoned with. We were organized with one thought in our middle-aged heads: to make sure our kids had a great time the night of their graduation and stayed safe and substance-free in the process. 

The decorations committee went above and beyond with a set that was something worthy of a Hollywood production and largely at their own expense. The games committee brought out the tried-and-true casino games and then added some really fun additions. The food committee was creative and never stopped for the entire evening providing great inventive choices for the kids. Security kept them safe going to their cars and ticket design got them excited about coming in the first place. Our webmaster and slideshow parents helped keep us efficient and showcased our kids so that every single grad was featured in an all-night slideshow presentation.

Thank you, fellow parents for working so hard for every one of our children. It has been a pleasure to work with you. We kept the kids safe, they had an awesome time. Mission accomplished! 

Virginia O’Neil, Mary DeFilippo, Lisa Cibene, Kathy Steichen 

Sequim

Vote no, Sequim

City residents: Please say NO to this! The sales tax does not need to be increased to 8.6 percent to fund cops. If anything the streets of Sequim are more important than a new city hall/police (station).

Sequim already has the highest tax rate. I am very against another tax increase. This city can find the money instead of asking for a tax increase.

I do not want to pay 8.7 percent! Vote no! We need to keep taxes down — not increase taxes!

Noelle Levesque

Sequim

What’s the cost?

City manager Steve Burkett and the City Council) are using smoke and mirrors so they can influence your vote and build their Taj Mahal on your dime; or better said, your .001 raise in taxes. They say it is for building a new Police facility (which by the way is needed), but the rub comes when they want the public to back the tax hike when they cannot fully explain how they are going to fund the rest of the City Hall project. Where is THAT money going to come from? 

If it is from a proposed bond, then why not finance the entire project that way? If the public passes the hike in taxes, but the city can’t get funding for the rest of the project, will the police station still be built?

Would you start building a house without knowing how you were going to fund the project? Would a bank give you a loan for just a portion of the house without you proving how you were going to pay for the rest of the house?

It is still unclear as to how much everything will cost since the estimates keep changing. Why should the public vote to raise taxes until everything is penciled in? A bank wouldn’t approve a loan like that, why should the citizens of Sequim?

Of course, that is just my opinion.

Bob Lampert

Sequim

Cloud a wise choice

Now a candidate for our 6th Congressional District, Doug Cloud, works with real budgets, real deadlines, and produces real results as a self-employed, small business attorney.

Cloud emphasizes our Founding Fathers’ three priorities of protecting, defending and promoting life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. He understands we can only achieve genuine happiness through a limited government that enables individuals to strive toward their full potential.

This effort and its rewards, both spiritual and material, provide wisdom, self-worth, knowledge, skills, and funds that generate our ability to assist and satisfy the needs of others—the key to happiness.

Cloud believes that Big Government excesses destroys incentive, our citizens’ work ethic, productivity, independence, goodwill and ability to pursue and reach their full potential.

“Every decision I make,” Cloud pledges to voters, “will be rooted in the constitutional limitations of the office, my principles of expanding individual liberty and prosperity, and my knowledge that the best way to do that is to make sure that enterprise is free and government limited." (Source: www.dougcloud.com/the-issues.html)

“Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles, discouragements and impossibilities: It is this, that in all things distinguishes the strong from the weak.” — Thomas Carlyle

Susan Shotthafer

Port Angeles

Apolitical fires raging

The following is not germane to what is happening around Sequim at the moment, nevertheless it affects all of us.

I have a question based upon the following fact.

There are severe forest fires burning (at last count a total of 17) in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado. Besides the states with fires the smoke from these fires is evident in parts of Kansas, Wyoming and Texas.

Questions: Why doesn’t the Environmental Protection Agency follow these fires and determine the amount of particulate matter being spewed into the atmosphere because of them? 

Could it be that the pollutants are the result of natural causes and not from evil, polluting, gas guzzling SUVs or coal-fired power plants? 

Also could it be that (Environmentalists will never admit this) compared to the nature of our planet which has existed for some 4.6 billion years the effects of man are so minuscule that they defy description and must be demonized?

Ethan Harris

Sequim