|
Become a friend of the Klamath Bucket Brigade All donations are tax deductible |
|
This Website is Dedicated to Alvin Alexander Cheyne January 10, 1921 - June 17, 2005 |
GovTrack.us is an independent tool to help the public research and track the activities in the U.S. Congress, promoting government transparency and civic education through novel uses of technology.
Thumbs up and down to rain; down for VFW woes
Steve Miller
Editor
Thumbs Up/Down: Anyone who is from a semi-arid place with an agriculture-driven economy knows, or should darned well know, you never jinx your community by complaining about rain. (The only exception is great-grandma, who, as she says, has earned the right to complain about any little thing she likes.)
Rain during your picnic? Hallelujah. Rain during your graduation ceremony. What’s a little delay? Rain during your outdoor wedding ceremony? What has to be has to be. Rain during harvest? Oh, well.
So thunderstorms every day? Fine and dandy. If you complain out loud, you could bring on drought. If you can’t appreciate it, you should be quiet.
That must be tough for the people who were caught in the treacherous undertow of our underpasses (we appreciated the blog comment we got on heraldandnews.com suggesting life rafts be standing by), or for people in neighborhoods where the storm sewers are choked up and not accepting runoff.
Thumbs Up: So someone who read our bit last week about how we wished Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement proponents better respected public opinion asked us what, exactly, we thought they should be doing.
-- Organize a Water Festival, like the Migratory Bird Festival a few weeks ago, where people from town get out of their own element a little bit and listen and learn about water and rivers, irrigation, economies, fish, cultures, power rates, dams. Have booths that deals like the Migratory Bird Festival.
-- Organize tours for key individuals from various constituencies.
-- Line up speaking engagements with service clubs and organizations.
-- Organize campaign-style meet-and-greets where people invite neighbors to listen to presentations and people get to see that proponents are not far-out, radical, not-from-around-here types.
-- Do up a simple brochure about why it’s worth the public cost and hike it around door-to-door.
-- Write letters that explain and support concepts, and are not in response to something negative written by someone who took the initiative.
Thumbs Down: We’re sorry to read about declining membership for the local Veterans of Foreign War Post No. 1383. An unfortunate effect is that the post has to dip deeper into its accounts to pay operating expenses, when they’d like to be using that money in helping to support local veterans who might be struggling a bit with their own bills. Maybe the community can help with that a bit by looking for opportunities to support VFW fundraisers. You need to be a vet to receive benefits, but you don’t need to be a member or be a vet to show support.
Thumbs Up: Our downtown is a little cheerier this week, thanks to efforts of the Klamath Falls Downtown Urban Renewal Advisory Committee coordinating a cadre of volunteers who refurbished the flowers and greenery in those nifty looking planters. It looks great, and that means that winter and frost is guaranteed gone for the season, right?
Thumbs Up: Glad to read that the Paisley Mosquito Festival is back on for this year, July 24 and 25. The festival was started more than two decades ago to help raise funds for mosquito abatement. There will be the usual great small-town events.
Thumbs Up: It’s healthy news that Klamath Falls’ downtown was selected to participate in Transforming Downtown, an Oregon Main Street program.
We’ve seen firsthand the work of a couple of different Main Street-style programs, and it seems to us that there are two ingredients vital to success: A good deal of local support for the program and a variety of interests supporting the program. If history buffs support it, great, but that’s not enough. If the downtown business owners get behind it, that’s crucial, but not enough. If people who remember being downtown on a lively Saturday night are interested, that’s helpful, but not enough. If local government is involved, good. ... There’ll likely be plenty of opportunity to take part; don’t feel like you have to be an insider.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Editor
Thumbs Up/Down: Anyone who is from a semi-arid place with an agriculture-driven economy knows, or should darned well know, you never jinx your community by complaining about rain. (The only exception is great-grandma, who, as she says, has earned the right to complain about any little thing she likes.)
Rain during your picnic? Hallelujah. Rain during your graduation ceremony. What’s a little delay? Rain during your outdoor wedding ceremony? What has to be has to be. Rain during harvest? Oh, well.
So thunderstorms every day? Fine and dandy. If you complain out loud, you could bring on drought. If you can’t appreciate it, you should be quiet.
That must be tough for the people who were caught in the treacherous undertow of our underpasses (we appreciated the blog comment we got on heraldandnews.com suggesting life rafts be standing by), or for people in neighborhoods where the storm sewers are choked up and not accepting runoff.
Thumbs Up: So someone who read our bit last week about how we wished Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement proponents better respected public opinion asked us what, exactly, we thought they should be doing.
-- Organize a Water Festival, like the Migratory Bird Festival a few weeks ago, where people from town get out of their own element a little bit and listen and learn about water and rivers, irrigation, economies, fish, cultures, power rates, dams. Have booths that deals like the Migratory Bird Festival.
-- Organize tours for key individuals from various constituencies.
-- Line up speaking engagements with service clubs and organizations.
-- Organize campaign-style meet-and-greets where people invite neighbors to listen to presentations and people get to see that proponents are not far-out, radical, not-from-around-here types.
-- Do up a simple brochure about why it’s worth the public cost and hike it around door-to-door.
-- Write letters that explain and support concepts, and are not in response to something negative written by someone who took the initiative.
Thumbs Down: We’re sorry to read about declining membership for the local Veterans of Foreign War Post No. 1383. An unfortunate effect is that the post has to dip deeper into its accounts to pay operating expenses, when they’d like to be using that money in helping to support local veterans who might be struggling a bit with their own bills. Maybe the community can help with that a bit by looking for opportunities to support VFW fundraisers. You need to be a vet to receive benefits, but you don’t need to be a member or be a vet to show support.
Thumbs Up: Our downtown is a little cheerier this week, thanks to efforts of the Klamath Falls Downtown Urban Renewal Advisory Committee coordinating a cadre of volunteers who refurbished the flowers and greenery in those nifty looking planters. It looks great, and that means that winter and frost is guaranteed gone for the season, right?
Thumbs Up: Glad to read that the Paisley Mosquito Festival is back on for this year, July 24 and 25. The festival was started more than two decades ago to help raise funds for mosquito abatement. There will be the usual great small-town events.
Thumbs Up: It’s healthy news that Klamath Falls’ downtown was selected to participate in Transforming Downtown, an Oregon Main Street program.
We’ve seen firsthand the work of a couple of different Main Street-style programs, and it seems to us that there are two ingredients vital to success: A good deal of local support for the program and a variety of interests supporting the program. If history buffs support it, great, but that’s not enough. If the downtown business owners get behind it, that’s crucial, but not enough. If people who remember being downtown on a lively Saturday night are interested, that’s helpful, but not enough. If local government is involved, good. ... There’ll likely be plenty of opportunity to take part; don’t feel like you have to be an insider.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml