READERS

Letters to the editor: Drivers on Commercial Street SE, traffic on Cordon Road

Statesman Journal

Editor's note: Mike Allegre's letter has been updated to correct the name of a military records request form.

Drivers on Commercial St. SE

In the space of less than two weeks, and on a stretch of less than a quarter-mile, there have been four serious accidents on Commercial St. SE.

I am appalled at the way people drive on Commercial St. SE. They exceed the speed limit, run red lights and follow you too close if you dare to drive the speed limit.

City of Salem, what are you doing about this? I very seldom see any police activity along Commercial St. SE. The only time it seems the police are there is when there is an accident, which is too late. 

The people that are going too fast and running those red lights need to be ticketed, or at least given a warning so maybe — just maybe — there would be less accidents on Commercial St. SE.

Karen Welch

Salem

Project highlights traffic woes 

Regarding the subdivision project at the old PictSweet Mushroom Farms site ("What’s going on at former mushroom farm site," Sunday, Nov. 10, page 1F): missing from Lee Clarkson's article is traffic on Cordon Road.

The construction site at 4910 Turner Road SE, at the corner of Kuebler and Turner.

That road requires widening to four lanes. It should've been done a decade ago.

Of course, the city and ODOT won't consider it.

Jim Fryckman

Salem

Later start times would be better

Your child comes home cranky from school and just wants to sleep all the time. This is because high schools start early in the morning and teenagers barely get enough sleep.

As a sophomore at West Salem High School, I can truly say that teenagers don't get enough sleep. High schools should start later due to lack of sleep for teens. How much sleep do teenagers need? Well, teenagers need at least 9 to 10 hours of sleep a night and most teenagers are only getting 7 hours.

Most high schools start around 7:30 a.m. If schools started an hour later in the day, it will improve attendance and grades will improve because students are getting more sleep. Starting later also would improve health-related issues due to lack of sleep.

We need more sleep because we have to get up early to either help a sibling get ready for school or just take a very long time to get ready.

Teens need more sleep to be able to fully function and stay engaged at school. High schools start way too early for teens to be able to get enough sleep.

Jacob Fobert

Salem

Combine cities' sewer district

The cities of Idanha, Detroit and Gates have no sewer systems. Mill City is due for an expensive upgrade and hasn't paid off their original bond yet. By combining all four cities into a common sewer district and getting federal funding to pay for this project, as well as the debt owed by Mill City, it is a win-win for us all.

Marion County has already spent thousands of dollars to help us get this thing off to a good start. The project will cost the landowners little to no money to get a new septic tank and connect with the new system, only a small monthly fee. Property owners will no longer need a drain field, giving them more room to build on their property or even divide larger lots.

We have had 36 meetings to date. At 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 19, we will have a town hall meeting at the KYAC radio station. Come in or call in and ask questions and be informed of the progress that we have made.

At present, we have hired an attorney and an engineering company to help with the research so we will know how big of a grant we will need. Because of our being so close to the Santiam River, we could cause contamination from failed systems into the river. Salem and other down-river water users will help with this project to protect their water resources as well.

Jerry Marr

Gates

Checking veterans' IDs good idea

Many thanks to all the businesses who once again provided discounted merchandise and free meals to military veterans on Veterans Day.

I also saw that most of these businesses are asking that veterans provide some sort of legal ID to verify their military service. For many years, some people have taken advantage of the graciousness of these establishments, called themselves a veteran and expected to be served free food or receive discounts.

A military hat or shirt is not proof of a veteran’s status. Presenting a military discharge paper (DD 214/215), active duty or military retiree ID card, ID showing you’re a member of a veteran’s organization or are a VA medical patient identifies you as a veteran. Oregon drivers also can present their DD 214 to DMV and have the word Veteran placed on their driver’s license.

If veterans don’t have a DD 214/215, print off and complete a SF 180 from online and mail it to the National Personnel Records Center to receive their records free in 6-8 weeks.

The grumbling by some veterans who expect free meals and discounts without a legal veterans’ ID card is unneeded. Most veterans weren’t fed at the chow hall, made purchases at the PX/BX, or at times get on base unless we showed our military ID. Obtaining a veteran’s identification is not difficult and is worth the effort.

Mike Allegre, U.S. Air Force veteran

Turner

Democrats looking for justification

Since the inauguration, Democrats have wanted to impeach Mr. Trump. Their reasons: he beat Ms. Clinton, for revenge, Trump’s an outsider, their personal dislike, and policy disagreements. However, these aren’t illegal or impeachable. They’re still looking for justification, but finding little.

Democrats claim that his presidency is illegitimate. Their leaders – Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Schiff, and others – for three years have claimed that Trump colluded with Russia (possibly their best hope for widespread support). They called him a stooge and puppet of Mr. Putin. He committed treason. Further, they claimed to have clear, overwhelming, “in-plain-sight” evidence of their claims. Trump’s certainly guilty.

Mr. Mueller was given unlimited power, a staff with many Trump-haters, two years, and more than $25 million to investigate. Trump cooperated by making his staff available and not claiming executive nor attorney-client privilege. But Mueller found nothing to warrant formal charges.

If the Democrat claims are true, why couldn’t Mueller find the evidence? Why didn’t the Democrats making the claims reveal their evidence to Mueller? Because the claims were lies.

Given this history, why would anyone believe these Democrats, now, about their current claims regarding impeachment? Why didn’t journalists, in their fact-checking, find and reveal these discrepancies?

Russell W. Reed

Salem

Some ideas to solve problems

Oregon has thousands of people living on the streets every day. Businesses everywhere are looking for workers and finding none. What’s wrong here? 

Oregon has thousands of people needing mental and medical help and thousands going to bed hungry. No matter how much money is pumped into the K-12 school systems, Oregon is at the bottom of the nation with test results for all grades before their senior year, if they get that far. This has been going on for 20 years.

Our elected legislators are working on the so-called carbon bill that they say will save the Earth. Past history shows us Earth has been going through these cycles of extreme weather for millions of years. Find out what happens every 40,000 years and see what Earth has gone through and why.

The folks backing the Carbon Bill want to raise the prices of all fossil fuels. Some even want to eliminate all fossil fuel in ten years. This will hit the middle- and low-income folks the hardest, driving additional folks to live on the street

We can do some small things to help lower our carbon print, but let’s work towards solving the problems I listed above and save Oregon. If we need to elect different legislators to accomplish this, let’s do it.

Bill J. Kluting

Monmouth