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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels June 18, 2004 Talent city hall costs too much Something is amiss with the thinking of our city government when they are talking of building a new City Hall in the price range of $5 million, $6 million or $8 million. Are we building monuments to our City officials? According to their figures, a $5 million building would cost the owner of a $100,000 house (Where do you find them?) a total of $262 per year. Double that for a home assessed at $200,000 or a total of $524 a year for the next 20 years, not counting any assessment increases by the County Assessor. That's about $10,500 over 20 years or $45 per month for the next 240 months. I don't believe working families with children in school or our senior citizens can afford this opulence. Why is this costing so much? The new Jackson County Rural Fire Department cost approximately $2,600,000 including the land. The City of Talent owns its land, why are we even considering such staggering amounts of money? If the City continues on this path in the price range they have been talking about, I will be forming a committee to get information out to the property owners about what is going on and asking their help in defeating any bond measure. I ask your help in forming and working with this committee. Please call me at 535-1600 or mail me at 260 Joy Drive, Talent, Oregon 97540. Also my e-mail is [email protected]. Don Rist Talent Lava Beds worth trip to Calif. On Saturday, I attended the dedication ceremony of a new visitor's center at Lava Beds National Monument, 10 miles south of Tulelake, Calif., off Highway 139. This monument straddles the Siskiyou/Modoc county line in northeastern California about 13 miles south of the Oregon/California border. An article in the June 13 Klamath Falls Herald and News (www.heraldandnews.com) titled, "Community support lauded by park director" covered this event. The current director of the National Park service in Washingtion D.C. was the speaker at the event and quotes in Herald and News article: "America's parks need more community support than ever," and credited local support as a huge factor in the construction of a new visitor's center at the Lava Beds. This national monument was established in 1925 and is famous as the historic site of the Modoc Indian War of 1872-1873. The Lava Beds is a cold, windy region of high desert. Yet during the summer months can get hot due to the sun reflection off lava rock. It has hundreds of underground caves and caverns, birdlife, wildlife, lava formations, and hiking trails. Western juniper, Sagebrush, Bitter Brush, and various shrubs are found throughout the Lava Beds. The Lava Beds National Monument is about a two hour drive and is 110 miles southeast of Ashland. Learn more about the Lava Beds by accessing their Web site at www.nps.gov/labe or contact them at 530-667-2282. James A. Farmer Ashland Nudity discussion not on point Why should my body be against the law? Why should my body be considered lewd and vulgar? These are the questions I have not heard asked during the discussions of the proposed city ordinance dealing with public nudity. What are we saying when be ban viewing the human body? What are we telling our children about their bodies? The claim is that by hiding our bodies and saying that the naked body is evil we are protecting our children. Is that really true? Are not we telling them that just by having a body they are bad? Is this not another way of saying that sex is just a necessary evil that should not be discussed and displaying our bodies is a form of that discussion? The nude body alone is not sexually stimulating unless you see it that way. It is not lewd or evil and we should not label it as such. We should not ban something because of our thoughts but because it is harmful to society as a whole. Because I do not choose to walk the streets of Ashland nude does not mean I favor a law branding my body as a violation of the law. We claim to live in an open minded city, one that considers all people in its laws. But we continue to follow the mores of a society that branded women for their sexual views and burned many at the stake. I note that is not against the law for a man to walk down Main shirtless but that it is for a woman to do the same. Is not a perception that a woman's body is lewd and a man's not? Open you eyes and see your fellow citizens not as evil sexual beings but as those not ashamed or embarrassed own a human body. My body should not be against the law, should yours? William Heimann 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 Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams