Editor:

OMG! I was stunned to pick up the March 5 North Coast Journal (on March 4) and see election results (NCJ Daily). What an amazing job. Congratulations and a heartfelt thank you for having these results available and in print.

You are serving this community as journalism should be serving.

Dave Rosso, Eureka

Editor:

I am disappointed that Measure T, the tax for maintenance and repair of Eureka school facilities, went down in a narrow defeat. I'm the tightest guy in town. When I approach, folks mistake me for the Pied Piper of Hamelin there's so much squeaking. The tax would have cost my household around an extra hundred bucks a year in property taxes, and my wife and I both voted affirmative on the tax. We're seniors with no children past or present enrolled in local schools. We feel it's our civic duty to open our wallets for the students so they have adequate facilities.

I'm not sure why it should be the sole responsibility of home owners and struggling businesses to fund vital school facilities when the entire region benefits when students have the school facilities they deserve. Nevertheless, the need is there and we hope another funding source is identified.

This is no time to be cheap with the future of this region, and giving local students the educational facilities they need to succeed in an ever challenging world. Please support future efforts to give our local students a fair shot at success by ensuring the schools they — and we — deserve are adequately funded.

John Dillon, Eureka

Editor:

The recent failure of the Arcata Fire District's Measure R funding vote was quite dismaying. There was even an organized group that opposed the funding measure, largely on financial grounds. They even had the temerity to suggest that volunteers be tasked with manning the stations. What a joke!

Volunteer fire departments nationwide are suffering from a grave deficit of volunteers. Let's face it ... firefighting and emergency medical response is essential for a fully functioning society. Looking at cost/benefit and consider the following: Proposed $100 per year increase per parcel equals $8.50 per month, or 28 cents per day — or roughly one penny per hour — to have a team of expertly trained professionals, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment, at your service, 24/7, to risk their lives to save yours! The financial impact goes even further. Fire insurance companies rate their risk by how close a fully staffed fire department station is to a home.

Homeowners insurance rates will go up. Not a penny an hour but possibly hundreds if not more per year! Do the math.

Elliott L Levin, Trinidad