Letters in the Editor's Mailbag.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Revenue goes to state

I would like to comment on the Dec. 18 letter from a reader who calls into question the revenue gained from traffic citations.

I have been employed with the State Police Department for nearly 12 years, and while I can not speak for other agencies, I can tell you that the state police do not directly receive revenue from citations for the purpose of funding trooper positions. Revenues outside of the unitary assessment go into the state's general fund.

The entire budget of the state police makes up approximately 1.5 percent of the state budget. The unitary assessment money is disbursed as outlined in the Oregon Revised Statutes. The state police receive a certain amount of this money to run the crime labs, and a small portion goes into a fund to pay for commercial vehicle enforcement.

People should question where the money goes, but they should not automatically assume that the money is going directly into our pockets. If a citation is written solely for the purpose of gaining revenue, then it is being written for the wrong reason. For what the public asks us to do, you would think we deserve to be cut a little slack.

Let me ask you this: How many fatal car wrecks have you been to, and how many death notifications have you had to perform?

BLAINE HLEBECHUK Eugene

Support local business

Dallas Troutman's Emporium has been serving the Pacific Northwest since 1955. The Emporium offers high-quality goods and great service at fair prices.

The Troutmans and their company are outstanding citizens of our community. They provide 1,600 jobs. They support countless community events and charities. They are major supporters of University of Oregon and Oregon State University athletics. They are major supporters of the Children's Miracle Network. Think about all those premature babies who were given the chance to survive and enjoy a healthy life due to the efforts of the Troutmans.

Now the Emporium is experiencing difficult times. It is time for all of us to support the Emporium - not just for a few days or weeks, but on into the future. We need businesses like the Emporium in our community. The only interest the national chains have in our community is how much money they can make off of us. Spend your money with good local businesses like the Emporium where it will be reinvested in our community instead of places like Chicago or Arkansas.

Our community owes a great debt to the Troutmans for their good work and citizenship. Let's make sure the Emporium can continue for many years to come.

BILL POTTER Eugene

Time to build trust

It is time for our leaders to start taking a proactive approach to foreign policy and national defense. The actions our leaders are taking right now, including the missile shield and our preemptive strike philosophy, are reactive and based on fear. Is it any wonder that the farther we go, the more we have to fear?

We need to take responsibility for the situation that we find ourselves in and start taking action based on hope. This means starting to create conditions conducive to peace from this moment on. Our motto should be: "If you want peace, prepare for peace."

What we need desperately at this point is to build trust with countries around the world. Building a missile shield is doing exactly the opposite. If I were North Korea watching America putting up a missile shield to protect itself from me, what would I think? Would I be more willing to talk out a solution with them? Would I feel inclined to scrap my nuclear weapons program? Or would I feel more threatened than ever at the prospect of a country with a huge arsenal of nuclear weapons, a shield to protect itself with, and a preemptive strike policy?

Let's find a way to open dialogue with North Korea, and take actions that will build trust. Let's find a creative way to spend that $8 billion a year to help suffering people and put other countries at ease.

CRAIG NIELSEN Eugene

A man of gentle nobility 

While living in Washington, D.C., 21 years ago, I became friends with a legislative aide named Dan Evans. Evans' father was pastor of National Presbyterian Church, which I attended. He was an avid tennis player, and while I could hold my own, I was not on top of my game.

One Friday we had a tennis date with former Congressman John Dellenback. Evans had spoken very highly of him, but Evans knew a lot of interesting people. Dellenback was my partner. We had spent only moments together when I knew I was in the presence of genuine kindness. He was a fierce competitor, all the while not letting an opportunity pass to encourage me in every possible way.

There are only a handful of times in my life that I have merely met someone and been deeply impressed. He was one of those people. He was gentle nobility. At the time, I was corresponding with an Oregonian I had met in Colorado the previous summer. The relationship was moving toward commitment, and being a multigenerational southerner, I had apprehensions of a long tenure in the Northwest. Dellenback was among my first introductions to the state that would be my home.

I often read the euphemism that Dellenback was "a man of faith" applied to him, as if the object of his faith were a formality. It was his faith in Christ that gave him the base from which he served. He did that very well.

PHARES GILCHRIST Eugene

Leave 911 system alone

Lane County residents are fortunate in having one of the best 911 systems in the country. But a small group of state legislators is about to change that. This group has voted, supposedly as a cost savings measure, to provide state funding for only one 911 call center per county.

However, the state doesn't fund 911; you do. You pay a monthly fee as part of your telephone bill that is dedicated for 911 services. And in Lane County, consolidation would likely result in cost savings of less than 10 percent

What you will get, particularly if you live outside the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area, is significantly slower dispatching of emergency personnel and periodic loss of 911 service (when telephone trunk lines are damaged; it happens more than you think). Residents in the Mapleton, Florence and Oakridge areas will be most impacted.

Citizens need to contact their state legislators immediately and tell them to leave the 911 system alone. Local governments must retain the authority to decide what configuration of 911 call centers best suits the needs of their populations.

Lane County residents also need to know that the Community Emergency Notification System, developed to alert citizens and provide instructions by telephone during an emergency, was shut down for lack of funding on Dec. 17. A monthly fee of 3 cents on each telephone line in the county would have kept this important public safety tool going. The Legislature needs to be told that authorization for this type of fee is necessary and desired.

FREDERICK W. SCALISE Eugene

Historic district needed

The Register-Guard's Dec. 15 articles on the West University neighborhood's problems should encourage South University residents to support the proposed historic district for their neighborhood.

The neighborhoods share similarities: architectural diversity, access to neighborhood businesses, wide streets lined with trees and close proximity to the University of Oregon and downtown. Like West University, South University feels the population pressure from college students. Our neighborhood is now more than 50 percent renter-occupied. Four blocks along 19th Avenue have renter-occupancy rates of 76 percent to 89 percent.

Factor in several large, loud, out-of-control parties on 19th Avenue and Agate Street over the last few months, and area residents are reminded that the troubles of the West University neighborhood aren't very far from home.

With the protection of a historic district zoning, we can keep what we have. A historic district overlays requests for changes in zoning density or use. It can stop quick-buck, opportunistic actions that would wreck our neighborhood.

South University needs a historic district. Otherwise, we could be the next West University, searching for ways either to reclaim our neighborhood or sell our property at diminished value.

MARILYN MILNE Eugene

Headed for bankruptcy

It is frightening to think about all that is going on in our country - the war that you know we will have regardless of what Iraq turns over to U.N. inspectors and the economy that keeps going deeper and deeper into the pits while the rich just keep on getting richer with their outrageous executive compensation packages. (Now we have someone who ran a railroad in charge of the economy; we all know how well railroads have fared.)

I wonder if Americans realize what a dangerous situation has been created by putting Republicans in charge of all branches of the government. I guess we are about to find out.

I hope we have a country left when they get through carrying out their agendas for their friends and their moneybags. At the rate of deficit spending that is occurring now and that is projected to pay for the war and tax cuts for our richest citizens, we will be bankrupt like a Third World country that doesn't know how to manage its resources. Incredible!

ALLAN SPARKS Florence

CAPTION(S):

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