Letters: Snake River dams, safety at Hanford, blasé about masks and more | Feb. 28

Benton plowing crews do good job

We have lived in Rancho Reata since 1989 and have not seen snowplows up here very often up until this year.

Thank you to the Benton County Road crews who have not only sprayed the main roads, but our side road. They have also been plowing main roads and side roads, too. We are very appreciative of their hard work!

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Brad at Bart’s thanks coworkers

I recently had a nice article written by the Tri-City Herald commemorating my many years in business in the Tri-Cities. It was a wonderful article, but I would be remiss if I didn’t notice the absence of the fact that I couldn’t have run my car lot alone. My coworkers, Darlene and Ron, were huge in making Bart’s Auto Den be successful. They were loyal employees for most of my 38 years in Richland. My failure to call attention to them is my fault alone. 

Thanks, Darlene and Ron!

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Dear Idaho: tear out your dams

Dear Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson:

Lead by example and tear out your own Snake River dams, which Idaho built in the 1950s and ‘60s with no fish passages while the science and engineering capability to build those were well proven and with no rocket science required! You doomed all future generations of fish migration with concrete walls.

How audacious and hypocritical it is now for you to suggest destroying our lower-Snake River dams with their fish ladders and base-load power production capabilities! Then, to suggest bribing our region with $33 billion dollars in hush money?

Sir, that money doesn’t exist in the United States Treasury and you know it. Remember, our country is a free-spending borrower — not saver. In effect, your bribe is nothing more than an addition to our massive national debt. In other words, on we the taxpayer’s shoulders.

Congressman, you best consider the jeopardy that intermittent power sources such as those in California and Texas have placed on their citizens — blackouts and freeze-outs. If you feel that old wrecking ball urge and want to tear out the “greenest” base-load power source on Earth, tear out your own dams. We’ll keep ours, thank you!

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Safety the only priority — Really?

It’s very good to know that safety is the only priority on the entire Hanford site cleanup. Not progress, not productivity, not milestones, not prior commitments to the state of Washington and certainly not getting those known leaking tanks emptied on any firm schedule despite the sad fact those tanks are leaking some of the most toxic substances known to man into the groundwater.

The current estimate for finishing the cleanup is $110 billion, and sadly there has been from $2 billion to $3 billion per year spent for the past 25 years. Ironically, much of what has been done thus far is the “easy” part. The “hard” part, the leaky underground tanks that are the biggest threat to the river and groundwater and everything downstream still remain, virtually untouched from the beginning of the cleanup.

A good question is why the writer of the article had such an accident-prone and injury period in his younger years. Makes one wonder why he is the head of WRPS that the stated sole goal of is nothing but safety.

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$15 wage rules for elected officials

I’m all for the $15 minimum wage, but with some caveats. Every federally elected official is paid the same wage, they pay their own way for any/all travel, they receive no compensation for anything, and they get no armed protections in any form! Equal footing for all works just fine as far as I’m concerned.

One last item: They’re not allowed any weapons while on state or federal grounds or in any schools, whether public or private, even if they have a concealed carry permit. If the above is good enough for the citizens, it should be good enough for those elected officials!

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Find new ideas, not $30 billion fix 

$30 billion to remove the Snake River Dams? Perhaps it is time to think a little outside of the box.

With that kind of money, perhaps build an artificial salmon stream around the dams? The dams could then be used more like storage reservoirs and to help control the water temperature. We get to have the carbon-free electricity and salmon.

I am sure others could come up with some more out-of-the-box ideas.

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Time to get back to governing country

This letter is to the leadership of the Democratic Party.

President Trump is no longer president of the United States. President Biden defeated him in the election. You spent the last four years trying to get President Trump out of office, including impeaching him. This was done instead of doing the work you were elected to do and at the expense of the people of the United States.

Then, when he was out of office, you spent time and our money impeaching him again, which was a waste of time and money. Now there is talk of continuing to hound him to make sure he is gone from politics forever, spending more time away from your jobs and more of our money.

I think it is time for you to get back to work and do the things you were elected to do, and if your specific jobs were being run smoothly without you, we don’t need you in Congress.

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GOP leaning to Kremlin-style lies

Lately it would seem the Republican party actually wants a Kremlin-style form of government with the anointed Donald J. Trump to be its savior, benefactor and shining example that there’s wonderful things to be had in corruption, lies, and the killing fields of insurrections.

No one stole the election, but someone or something stole the collective mind of most Republicans for them to want an immoral grifter who told over 30,000 lies and said of over 400,000 COVID-19 deaths, “It’s not my problem!”

President Biden tries to streamline vaccine production and distribution, he seeks relief money for all (ALL) Americans during the pandemic, he suggests a kind of CCC program to deal with the infrastructure — the kinds of social ideas Mitch McConnell, Cruz, Hawley, McCarthy, Gohmert and other in the Obsequious Party want to crush.

I repeat, “No one stole the election.” To the GOP, it’s an inconvenient truth. 

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Dems in charge, gun sales soar

It has come to my attention that gun sales have spiked upward among women and Blacks and others. Is there any connection between Biden’s gun control and the public’s fear of Dems control of the Second Amendment?? Hmmm.

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Are we too blasé about masks?

Is the Tri-Cities at the tipping point where it is just a shrug your shoulders and tsk at citizens who organize to mob stores without masks? Where those who follow the mandates are challenged and possibly put in danger for doing so?

It would seem the police effort to educate is not working. They say their hands are tied as there is no municipal code. Those who could accomplish (it) encourage such mobs with their silence. This is not a few bored people who are mad that they can’t get together for margaritas or martinis. They are not peaceful, respectful or kind if they are entering and remaining on premises that clearly state masks are mandated.

Does anyone think this is all they will do? That it won’t escalate beyond an annoyance? If these organizers aren’t known and no attempt to “educate” them is done, we are headed for that escalation and then perhaps when real harm is done, action can be taken. This blame lays squarely in the lap of our municipal code makers. What poor leadership.

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Newhouse vote showed integrity

I have always heard that integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching. I now know that integrity is also doing the right thing when everyone is watching. Rep. (Dan) Newhouse demonstrated integrity and leadership abiding by his oath of office and putting the country first.

Thank you, Rep. Newhouse, for your courage. You will never regret doing the right thing.

This story was originally published February 28, 2021 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Letters: Snake River dams, safety at Hanford, blasé about masks and more | Feb. 28."