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TUESDAY January 27, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels Letters to the Editor: Thanks, we'll be there when you need us the most The South Valley Amateur Radio Emergency Service wishes to publicly recognize and thank the Ashland Community Hospital Foundation for their generous contribution toward the purchase of emergency communications equipment for the Ashland Community Hospital. This equipment will provide the hospital with a vital backup communications capability for use during emergency incidents when normal communications are disrupted. The equipment that will be installed at the ACH will include both a voice and a digital capability to match those same capabilities being provided to Providence hospital and Rogue Valley Medical Center. The ACH joins these two hospitals, along with Three Rivers Hospital in Josephine County and, in the future, the hospital in Klamath County, to form a network in which the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) provides direct hospital to hospital communications to support emergency services during periods when normal communications have failed. While everyone hopes that such emergency communications capabilities will never be needed, it should be reassuring to note that ARES operators in the Rogue Valley are trained and ready to provide communication services to all regional hospitals when needed. Don Montgomery, Ashland Stop funding the violence I am a science teacher at Ashland Middle School. Our district, along with all others in our state is suffering from a massive funding crisis. Over the past three years we have seen our janitorial and classified support services cut by up to one half. Classrooms now get a cursory cleaning two days a week. Our certified teaching staff is being reduced yearly, while class sizes increase and the number of at-risk students skyrockets. Teachers who have retired are not replaced. Remaining teachers are expected to teach more students with less support staff and fewer dollars for curriculum materials. In our district this year, 10 contract days were cut from our calendar; a cut in teacher pay which amounts to $150 to $350 per month for every teacher, depending on their position on the salary scale. This makes the $250 tax credit afforded teachers on their federal tax returns an insult to every teaching professional in our state, as well as to an intelligent and informed public. It is akin to throwing the dog a bone after you have starved him for several weeks. Our Congress needs to stop funding terror in the form of U.S. war around the globe, and use our tax dollars for "our most precious national resource," our children. Call our write your congressmen today and tell them to fund schools, housing and healthcare, not violence. Lynn Kunstman, 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: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams