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Thank you to the Cheney Free Press for your opinion on the Cheney School District’s bond issue published in last week’s Cheney Free Press. I attended the last school board meeting and was appalled by their lack of response to a taxpayer’s comments living near Snowdon Elementary. She stated she was a single parent, owned her home, a workingwoman and receiving treatment for cancer. When she asked the district to reconsider the bond of $44 million for 20 years, there was no response from the school board or school admin...
Given all the frothing by hawkish U.S. Senators about Iran’s possible development of nuclear weapons, one might think that Iran was violating the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). But it’s not. The treaty, signed by 190 nations and in effect since 1970, is a treaty in which the non-nuclear nations agreed to forgo developing nuclear weapons and the nuclear nations agreed to divest themselves of their nuclear weapons. It also granted nations the right to develop peaceful nuclear power. The current negotiations in whi...
StageWest Community Theatre, Inc. just finished their run of Paul Elliott’s “Exit Laughing.” We enjoyed large crowds for most of our performances. We would like at this time thank the members of Emmanuel Lutheran Church for the generous use of their building for our auditions, rehearsals, and performances of this play. We would also like to give a hearty thank you to Mike Hartman for the delicious dinner he catered for our dinner theatre. More thanks also goes to the members of the community that continue to support us throu...
On April 28 the Cheney School District will rerun its $44.88 million bond issue intended to fund a massive remodeling of Cheney High School. Call it “Bond Version 2.0” if you will as if it were compared to the latest release of a software product. The district’s revised effort attempts to address minor glitches that they think resulted in the Feb. 10 ballot measure that fell about 1.5 percent — 100 voters or so we’re told — short of the 60 percent needed for passage. But is this version being rushed to taxpayers too soon ...
Folks in the Pacific Northwest may not like what Matt Ridley has to say, but we should consider his points about energy. Ridley, a British journalist and author of several popular books on science, the environment and the economy, is a businessman and member of the House of Lords. He is often shunned because he owns land where coal is mined. Recently, Ridley wrote in The Wall Street Journal that while oil, gas and coal have problems, their benefits are beyond dispute. He...
Back when some prominent Republicans were reasonable, they endorsed some measures now advocated by the Obama administration. Quickly coming to mind is Obama Care, which essentially copied Massachusetts’ 2006 health care reform under then-Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, who now effectively opposes his own plan. This Massachusetts reform included the individual mandate of Obama Care, now opposed by Republicans, but also included in the Republican response to the Clinton administration’s unsuccessful 1993 health care reform pro...
On Saturday afternoon, March 7, around 4 p.m., I left our house near Sutton Park to collect some materials from the Cheney Library. Before I opened the door to leave, I heard a train rumbling around the curve. It got louder as I approached the library, and after I checked materials out of the library, I could hear the continual clicking of the train down First Street, so I headed southwest, and met cars backed halfway down the street toward the Cheney Federal Credit Union. I continued to Mitchell’s Harvest Foods, and met m...
March 5, the Free Press printed Dave Daugharty’s letter re: Washington Policy Center (WPC) and six related issues. Dave — a long time colleague/friend — and I both wish the best for our country, our state and our people but have differing views on what that means. I wish to address each of his six points. 1. Dave’s claim: A supermajority needed for state tax increases will “ensure tyranny by the minority.” He then asks if such represents democracy. Of course not. The United States has never been a democracy but rather a repre...
As one of the “Uninformed” voters who live on the West Plains and north of Fairchild Air Force Base, I was one of the ones who voted no on the Cheney School District’s last bond issue. This was not because I don’t support schools or children’s learning, but more about living within a budget. According to my property tax statement for this year I paid $2,087.98. Out of that, $814.47 or 39 percent of all taxes raised goes to schools. Over the last few years, Cheney School District has come to the voters to approve a $79 milli...
We all should make informed decisions when we vote. In regard to the need for an auditorium at Cheney High School, I would like to address some points presented in previous letters to the editor. Perhaps on-the-job experience of a 40-year, music-teaching career will help. Multipurpose rooms One one-third of the CHS student population participates in the performing arts. Part of the students’ learning experience (required by the state) is performance etiquette while watching other groups. The multi-purpose facilities in the di...
Whoever coined the phrase, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” probably never dealt with bullies. Maybe they did but never told anyone about it. Bullying is one of those problems that never seem to go away. No matter how far advanced we like to think we are as a society, bullying continues to exist in different types of forms. I like to think bullying began in the caveman era. The bigger caveman pushed around the smaller caveman and messed up the latter’s cave paintings because he was jealous...
Thank you Cheney, for your generous support of Feed Cheney during the “Souper Bowl of Caring” on Super Bowl Sunday. In addition to the special collections at eight local churches — United Church of Christ, United Methodist, Church of the Nazarene, Emmanuel Lutheran, St Paul’s Episcopal, Cheney Faith Center, Cheney Community Church, and St. Rose of Lima Catholic — donations were received from the Cheney Kiwanis Club, as well as from individuals who donated directly through the Feed Cheney web site. The goal of the fundraise...
I am asking for readers’ support of House Bill 1735 and Senate Bill 5740. Your support is needed to help “finish the job” and fully implement Extended Foster Care (EFC). So far EFC has been successfully implemented for four out of the five eligibility categories allowed by the federal government. The last group that remains is unfortunately the most vulnerable of the vulnerable — youth with documented medical conditions that prevent them from participating in school, work, or other programs that would help them obtain...
Let’s see if I have this right. According to Paul Delaney, Feb. 26, 2015, now is not the time to tackle climate change because he’d have to pay more to fill up his tank. Delaney is taking Gov. Jay Inslee to task for his “Don Quixote quest,” of “singlehandedly” combating climate change by “adding ethanol to our fuels.” According to Delaney, making him pay more to drive to and from work at the Cheney Free Press is not only onerous, it’s unnecessary. Why? Because by Delaney’s “math,” the Earth has only warmed 1.4 degrees sinc...
On the surface it certainly sounds good. Bumping the minimum wage in Washington state from its current $9.47 per hour —the highest in the nation — to $12 could help some people elevate themselves out of poverty. House Bill 1355 recently passed the Democrat-leaning chamber of the state Legislature and is now in the hands of the Senate, primarily a Republican body. The conjecture is it will either die there, or undergo significant changes before it reemerges. But before it might see daylight, what are some of the other costs be...
I’ve been thinking about Coral Muscarella lately. I’ve also been thinking about Lorissa Green. The latter many area residents will remember as the Cheney High School 16-year-old girl killed in a Jan. 17, 2009 collision at what used to be the at-grade intersection of Cheney-Spokane Road and State Route 195. Thanks to the dedicated, focused efforts of her mother, Debbie Hammel, who worked tirelessly to make legislators aware of the dangers, that deadly intersection is no more — replaced by a safer, $11 million inter...
I am writing to encourage the residents of Cheney School District to get behind our kids and vote “Yes” to rerun the bond for the remodel of Cheney High School. We only had 30 percent of our voters turn out for this election. Our kids need you to mail in your ballot. It’s like not turning in your homework when you only have to mark one little circle. It is not hard! Having a child in the high school, I have to say sitting on the floor in the hall to eat your lunch because there is no room in the cafeteria, is not only germy...
I recently listened to a speech by the Spokane director of the Washington Policy Center. His opening claimed the center is an organization dedicated to improving our state, he then, in my estimation, proceeded to explain an agenda detrimental to our state. The booklet he presented to us confirms my suspicions. Examples are: 1. Any tax increase should only be passed by a supermajority. Such an action ensures tyranny by the minority. Is this a democracy? 2. Medicaid expansion should NOT be increased. Judeo-Christian and Greek...
Cheney has incredible teachers and schools. The high school may be in need of additional classrooms but I find most of the other items on the bond to be excessive. Bill Johns’ alternatives to the school bond are informative and well researched. I agree with Chris Stewart’s letter that the financial impact on voters with two bonds to pay off is not affordable for many people. Students have eaten lunch sitting in the hallways for as long as I have volunteered there the past 20 years. It is their choice and comfort. The gym sit...
I attended the school board meeting on Feb. 25 and got to listen to the staff of the school district belittle those who dared question the bond issue for nearly two hours. Various teachers and students demanded and insisted they “deserve” or “have a right” to my tax dollars in various ways. Not a single one said, “please” or “thank you” for the tens of millions of dollars we already give them. My tax dollars are not a “right” and as a voter I am entitled to know they are being spent carefully and all due diligence is being...
Any time we talk about levies and bonds, it is important to remember they are simply taxes, specifically taxes on homes and property. We need to be very careful that we don’t endanger our neighbors’ ability to keep their homes, for the sake of something unnecessary. Regarding the proposed Cheney High School bond, it is easy to toss around numbers and forget the tax hike is a significant amount for many families. The $.75 per $1,000 valuation is about $100-$200 per family. What if a family can’t afford this? Would it reall...
As a parent, community member and educator I ask Cheney’s citizens to consider the important role quality facilities can play in the education of our youth, and also about the message sent to the children and educators in our community when people choose not to vote. I have lived and worked in Cheney for nearly 12 years. Cheney School District hires outstanding people, and I know they will do their best work given any circumstance. However, the amazing new facilities we have built for our Cheney and Westwood middle school s...
With the county’s certification of the Feb. 10 special election last Wednesday, Feb. 25, the Cheney School District’s nearly $44.8 million construction bond for expanding and remodeling the high school has come up short of the needed 60 percent majority for passage. The bond received 3,712 yes votes, 58.43 percent, which according to school district officials and bond supporters is about 100 votes shy of passage. With an eye to possibly re-running the bond in April, the district’s school board accepted extended public input...
You had to like that nice Christmas present, and maybe some of the extra cash with gas costing under $1.75 a gallon provided, right? I know my wife and I enjoyed saving about $300 a month from the fuel bills that were nothing short of overwhelming eight years ago when I first started working at the Cheney Free Press in the latter half of 2007. That’s when gas hit the mid-$4 range and the minimum 50-mile daily round trip was quite a shock to the wallet and budget. Especially f...
Somebody is going to have to cut the cancer out. When it comes down to defining a strategy on how to deal with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or of Iraq and the Levant, depending on your preference, that statement is pretty much it in a nutshell. The question then becomes, who is going to do it? Who will take the lead in removing from the world a terrorist organization that revels in beheadings and burning people alive to enact its vengeance and to enforce its form of ultraconservative, theocratic form of government?...
