Letters to the Editor for Nov. 9

Powell deserves thanks for greenway efforts It has been brought to my attention that Belva Baz recently wrote a letter to the editor thanking me for the Washougal River Greenway vision. Paul and Belva Baz were the first landowners to donate their property to the city to launch the implementation of the greenway plan. For that I am truly grateful. Since then, so many generous land owners and other citizens have helped to make Camas' open space vision a reality. I want to thank one person in particular, Ken Powell. Ken instigated and pushed through the Washougal River Greenway portion of our citywide green space plan. I had a great passion to ensure that as we grew our wonderful community, it retained its abundant parks and green space per citizen ratio. Ken volunteered to chair the committee that planned for citywide green space acquisition, pushed hard for the inclusion of the land along the Washougal River where he had played as a boy, and chaired the committee that convinced Camas voters to pass a million dollar bond levy for acquisition of parks and green space. We are truly blessed that so many other good citizens, city staff and elected officials have worked so hard over the years to make Camas' and the public's green space vision a reality. I wish I could name all the names, but I know I would overlook key players. You know who you are and should feel very proud of the role you have played in creating such wonderful public green assets in our community. If you haven't already walked some of our great trails and enjoyed our magnificent nature scapes along the way, do so now. You'll be happy you did. Nan Henriksen, Former Camas mayor Not a good time to raise rates In the Oct. 12 issue of the Camas-Washougal Post-Record, the City Council of Washougal stated they were going to propose increases in the water, storm water and sewer rates. I have a quick question for all of us. When have the rates ever stopped going up? I don't know about the rest of you, but my rates have been going up, sometimes monthly it seems, ever since Waste Management started to do their own billing. In fact, my utility bill is now higher than it was before Waste Management left. And now we're being asked for increases of from 13.5 to 28.5 percent more? Come on City Council, there's never really a good time to tax and spend, but it most certainly isn't now. Fred M. King, Washougal

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