Letters, April 13
April 13, 2010
By Administrator
NEW — 4:45 p.m. April 13, 2010
Community thank you
Providing shelter for individuals a world away
The Snoqualmie Valley Rotary Club would like to thank the community for responding to our request for tents for the people of Haiti.
We were able to collect approximately 90 tents thanks to your donations with special thanks to the Cub Scouts of Pack 452. Our tents, along with others from Rotary District 5030 (King County), will be sent to Florida via the U.S. Air Force and from there to Haiti via the U.S. Navy.
With the efforts of communities like ours across the country, many individuals and families will be able to have shelter from the elements, at least for a time.
Let’s not forget to keep them in our thoughts and prayers. They still have a long way to go before things are normal for them again.
Thank you!
Nancy Whitaker
Snoqualmie Valley Rotary
Snoqualmie Ridge
Not all change is good
I have lived in the Snoqualmie Valley since 1994. I have watched the changes roll over the Valley, and I have a few things to say about a recent farewell letter (“Farewell to a community war,” April 8).
Snoqualmie Ridge is anything but small. Supersized is more like it. If not for the economy it would continue to expand, and as the economy improves it will, until its master plan is complete.
Here is what I have heard and seen over the years.
The city of Snoqualmie was in a bad way, either from a lack of money or poor money management.
The Ridge plan was shoved down the throats of the locals. It was never put up for a vote. The older residents had little to say other than showing up for Planning Commission and City Council meetings. Roads and bridges were already being built.
The reason the Ridge pays more taxes is because it exists. It has also raised the taxes of older residents in Snoqualmie. Postal box fees in North Bend went up solely because of the Ridge. Trickle, trickle.
Not all change is good. I think that many of your neighbors would approve of a big box store like Wal-Mart, too. Do you think that would be progress?
Business will always be business. It’s tougher to stand up to the never-ending change that disrupts that old, small-town feel.
There is nothing visually special about the Ridge. The beauty that was in those hills has been replaced with look-alike housing developments. Like the song by Malvina Reynolds, “Little Boxes” says, “Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes all the same.”
I hope that the Ridge will be renamed one day. Then the original, small, quaint, old town of Snoqualmie can have its name back instead of sharing it with a town it has nothing in common with.
I hope the next small town you move to is more like the one in Iowa you remember. Was that Des Moines?
Gina Gachet
North Bend
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