Letters to the editor for Tuesday, Aug. 12

• Published August 12, 2008

• Comments (0)

Don't let the sparring between the politicians of the City and Fire District skew the need for the levy request. A solution to the bigger problem:

Annex the city into the fire district so that everyone pays the same levy rate for fire services. Most other similar city/fire district relationships made this change years ago. Lacey firefighters deserve your support on Aug. 19.

Casey Sobol, Olympia

Preserve the viewsfor all the people

On July 22, 2008, the headlines of The Olympian read "Planners back height increases". That same day, my August issue of Sunset Magazine arrived in the mail. I opened the cover and looked at the two page ad just inside celebrating the beauty and public access of the 363 continuous miles of Oregon coast without a high rise condo in sight and how a visionary governor, Tom McCall, made possible a law that states "it is the public policy of the State of Oregon to forever preserve and maintain ... the ocean shore ... so that the public may have the free and uninterrupted use thereof."

I couldn't help but substitute in my mind "the magnificent view from the Washington State Capitol Building down across the waters of southern Puget Sound out to the Olympic Mountains" for the words "Oregon coast" each time they appeared in the ad. What a painful coincidence that on the same day should come the reminder of an historic and visionary decision to forever preserve for all the people a priceless vista, contrasted with the recommendation by our planning commission to raise the building height limits on the isthmus, thereby denying our own precious vista to all the people in deference to the benefit of a wealthy few.

I urge that all, and the Olympia City Council members in particular, look at this Sunset ad and ponder what courage and vision it might take to decide that this priceless space should be retained for ALL the people.

Virginia Taylor, Olympia

Search for oil isa dead-end tactic

I understand those who think we are crazy not to scrape for every last drop of oil we can, even if it takes 7-10 years to see the first hint of that limited amount of gas, which will be for sale on the open market to the highest bidder, not automatically directed into the U.S. oil supplies. It is an emotional issue and these are difficult times.