I am writing you in protest of the roundabout scheduled for this fall. I am a retired architect with west coast experience designing large complex facilities with traffic flows and parking. Locally I have designed most of CVB's buildings, Cashmere High School, Wenatchee High School, around 100 other facilities in Eastern Washington, most of them dealing with access to streets and highways. I have used the parking in front of the Bank for 49 years and survived all the hazards put forth in the Record article and the urgent need for a roundabout. The people of Cashmere will survive just fine as is. I have talked to dozens of intersection users but could not find one that this was a good idea and needed. I have looked at the proposed plan and foresee major problems with traffic backup since you are eliminating 2 left turn lanes and one right turn. These cars, trucks, busses, etc. will now be the 3 remaining lanes extending the traffic backup unnecessarily as each one waits their turn. The rules of the roundabout only allows one vehicle in it as there is no indication where he is headed, left turn, u-turn or straight ahead thus slowing traffic more than the present flow. Roundabout designs prefer pedestrian walkways be back behind the longest vehicle which would be a Semi or bus, your design does not show this. Traffic coming to enter the street access for drive-in banking will be blocked from access by added vehicles from the eliminated left turn and the crosswalk location. Bank parking lot access from the south will be required to u-turn where they don't enter the intersection now. This is stupid, sorry. The elimination of downtown parking must be a blow to businesses already in need of more customers not less access. The ATM parking is needed period! Hard to tell how many good parking stalls you are destroying for a stupid roundabout we don't want or need. Leave the intersection alone. You're impacting the environment of the downtown economics and traffic negatively!
James Blackburn
Cashmere
Mr. Blackburn,
Thank you for your comments. There will be an opportunity at a future Council Meeting to see and comment on a plan for that intersection.
Jeff Gomes
Cashmere
Safety?
Since my last email I looked at federal safety suggestions for roundabouts because I still can't understand why Cashmere needs this one. They say the first considerations should be reduction of accidents and speed and a study should be done to determine the need. I myself have never witnessed an accident or heard of any nor could I find anyone who knew of one. Surely there must have been at least one or two in the last 49 years I have been here. Anyway accident reduction cannot be the reason we need a roundabout. As to speed this cannot be the reason since the posted speed is 15 mph the minimum recommended for mini-roundabouts. What then is the reason? Lets guess. Maybe we don't like some first timers on Cottage Avenue slowing down or stopping before entering an intersection where three vehicles are waiting to enter and we impatiently honk our horn after only 3 seconds to make them move. I say good for them not wanting proceed where an accident might be waiting. Maybe some wonder why those vehicles on Cottage Avenue should always have the right of way in a society of equal opportunity. Put in a stop sign on cottage and all are equal. Putting in a three-way stop light with left and right turn signals would slow down traffic and create long backups. Not acceptable. Maybe the City wants to be update with traffic fads [roundabouts] since "everyone on the west side has them". Why discard so many important downtown parking stalls for nothing gained? Why isolate the Bank from its customers? They are the most visited business in downtown Cashmere. Give them a break. One last thing, in their considerations for the need of a roundabout, the feds say a nearby railroad crossing should "preempt" the use of a roundabout. Why do you want a roundabout? I like it the way it is.
James Blackburn
Cashmere
Aid in dying bill
We are still on that slippery slope of playing God. I am responding to Doctor. Robert Olveras letter on the issue of aid in dying, so far as I am able to determine dying is a side effect of living.
The good Doctor is misguided at best. If not blissfully ignorant. And he does not provide a thread of evidence on the part of medicine nor Roman Catholic teaching. Why any thinking human should fall for this doctrinaire diatribe is beyond my comprehension.
I totally understand that the suffering of Emily Rose was horrific in all respects, She did have great value for her own God given life and even greater for those attending her. My most sincere condolences to the good Doctor and his family. Hopefully the value of suffering did not get lost on anyone caring for her.
I would also point out that doctor means teacher, to teach authoritatively as an MD and a Catholic the facts should not do violence to the patient. Everyone is responsible for his life before God, We are stewards and not owners of the God given life we have. Voluntary cooperation in suicide is contrary to moral law. Regardless of the description, suicide by any means and consent or cooperation is immoral and totally unacceptable. That is to say not negotiable.
The Catechism Of The Catholic Church is a great resource for catholic teaching, and a great addition to any library.
It is important to remember the recent history in fascist dominated cultures. Like Nazi Germany at the bottom of the slippery slope, when tarp covered LKW's would pull up to homes for the undesirable members of society and residents were mercilessly thrown in the back. Never to be heard of nor seen again, All in the name of mercy. These are memories that will never leave my mind, so singing a little louder will not help here either. It is happening again with abortion and assisted suicide, sorry Doctor. I will pray that you will make use of the catholic sacraments of confession at your earliest convenience, lest you forget.
Karl Reuss
Leavenworth
Homelessness
I recently spoke on the phone with a young father with a 5-year-old daughter who was homeless. Every place I suggested that they might go, they had been turned down. Because we already house someone in our home that a homeless shelter refused, we couldn't offer our home. I also couldn't offer to put them up in a motel for one night because our personal funds are depleted helping other homeless folks. It broke my heart that I could do nothing to help them.
Homeless folks aren't invaders from another planet come to destroy our community. They are real people with real faces and heart-breaking stories. Many of them are veterans who were good enough to fight for us but not good enough for us to take care of. They are our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and mothers and fathers. They are part of our community. They are part of "us."
When ministries are started to help them, they are blamed for drawing homeless folks into the wrong areas, and even worse, they are blamed for being totally ineffective. Most of the people who find fault with these ministries have never even darkened the door of one of these places to find out the amazing things they do with almost no money.
Our church and ministry center has 2 full-time staff and 2 part-time staff to make sure wheels keep spinning. Our total salary we can afford to give for all these dedicated workers is $500 per month. That is not $500 apiece, but $500 total. Even then we go through periods of time when we wonder where the money is coming from to pay the bills.
I know and understand that homeless folks cause problems for local businesses. But I have learned from experience that those businesses, ministries and churches that chip in to solve the problem are hardly ever plagued by the problems of homelessness on their doorsteps. Homeless folks understand and appreciate help from any direction. They deliberately stay away from troubling anyone that has ever made an effort to help them.
Homelessness is a community problem. It is a problem that we all own. We can either reactively push them away because of the problems they cause us. Or we can all work together to make a difference. All homeless ministries need volunteers, donations and all around community support.
So anyway, what would you do if a young father with a 5-year-old daughter showed up on your doorstep with no place to go? Would you callously turn them away or would you do everything you can to care and find a way to help them?
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