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MONDAY February 23, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels January 9, 2004 Make your voice heard about new DEQ standards Alert! Something eminent and terrible is being proposed for our valley! Do you want industrial emissions pouring over your community and doubling the present air pollution level? Even Ashland could become another White City. If not, get involved; speak out now or forever hold your breath. The Department of Environmental Quality admits that removing requirements, which keep new industrial pollution in check, would increase industrial emissions, while assuring us pollution would stay within EPA limits. But the proposed EPA pollution level is near double our present level, so prepare for great increases in pollution when the harness is unleashed from industrial polluters. Over 250 attended the DEQ meeting Dec. 16 to just say no to this frightening plan. But DEQ doesn't live here or get the message. And thousands who live and breathe throughout our valley have no idea what's happening. Spread the word! Only a massive grass-roots effort, for the common cause of keeping the very restrictions that have led to dramatic air quality improvement over the past decade, will help us fight this assault of industry and politics. Let's "pack the house" at the DEQ meeting Jan. 21 at South Medford High School, 5 p.m., and tell DEQ to retain all present air quality restrictions at the meeting and by contacting David Collier at DEQ: (800) 452-4011, or e-mail [email protected]. Join "Keep it Clean" Citizens for Clean Industry in Rogue Valley - e-mail [email protected] or 608-0378. Dismay won't help - public outcry will! Irwin Hurley Medford Closing Lincoln will crowd kids into Walker It will be too crowded at Walker Elementary if the Ashland School Board closes Lincoln next year. My daughter attends Walker, where the number of students jumped from 275 last year to 320 this year after Briscoe closed. We have lots of great new friends and activities, but things feel crowded. There is limited space for any extra activities or projects - when I visited last month, I saw many students working on art projects at tables in the hallways. If Lincoln closes, there will be 200 more students to fit in. Although demographers predict lowered enrollment in the future, we need to keep Lincoln open for now. Unfortunately, I fear the school district may not have a choice but to close Lincoln if the Feb. 3 ballot Measure 30 does not pass. We have great schools in Ashland. Let's keep them that way! Marcia Pinneau Ashland Measure 30 is a reasonable way to balance taxes This February 3, we have a choice: Choice one: Tax gifts to the rich, subsidized SUVs, cheap cigarettes and 10-buck corporate taxes. This option would continue to put unearned dollars in the pockets of the fat and sassy while you and I struggle to fund state services out of stagnant wages. Choice Two: Stop subsidizing Humvees. End the $10 corporate tax. Help fund services to seniors and children by restoring fairness to the tax system. Measure 30 will cost most of us about five bucks a month or less. Lower wage-earners will pay nothing. Passage of Measure 30 funds a basic level of services and, if we don't need it, it goes away. We can do this, and save our state. Or, we can keep paying for those rich people's Humvees. Hmmm. Phil Newton Murphy Thank you to the woman who helped Monday On the afternoon of Jan. 5, I injured myself while in the Ashland Shopping Center parking lot. After several screams for help a young woman in Dollar Tree heard me and came to my rescue. I have no idea who she is, other than a Dollar Tree customer, but I want to thank her. If you are that woman and you read this letter, know that I am truly grateful. You were the highlight of my day. Thank you so much for coming out to see what was wrong! If you know this woman (maybe she mentioned the incident to you), and you know she probably won't see this letter, then please show it to her. Again, a very big thank you! Bethany Weathersby Ashland DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: A new improved archive search is coming! Look for it in mid-February! .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams