Thank you to Leslie at Molalla Mini-Storage for space donation, and a huge thank you to all of our staff and volunteers who assisted with the event.

Thank you!

Beth Faulhaber

Molalla PAL

I agree with the gentleman who wrote a couple of weeks ago about fishing in Shortys Pond. I do agree that there should have been some better planning on getting people into the area to fish.

Right now there is no way to get into the pond. I did notice that someone has made a makeshift ladder to get down to the bank after you’ve climbed over a 4-foot handrail.

There should have been gates, ramps, or trails put into place before they stocked the pond.

I have a question for Russell Bassett and Ryan Morgan. Did they check the pond for year round water flow? The reason I ask is that, with in a couple of weeks the water coming into the pond will dry up. Then the pond size starts to shrink and algae starts growing.

As a matter of fact, right now it’s starting to look ugly on the east side of the pond. The pond will shrink to less than half its size. What’s going to happen to the stocked fish? When the pond dries up and the water goes stagnant, then there will be no oxygen and they’ll start dying.

I believe that if better planning was made for people travel into the pond and water flow into the pond, it would have made it a lot safer for fishing people and the community.

I have walked the path in Ivor Davies Park for the last two years. During that time in the rainy season the pond is full and flowing and in the summer the pond has almost dried up.

If Russell Bassett and Ryan Morgan don’t believe me, take a walk around the path now, and if the weather stays warm and dry for the next week, go look at it then. You will see that the water flow coming into the pond will be gone and the pond will be shrinking.

I believe that there was some bad planning on this project to get your picture in the paper.

Colin Kolb

Molalla

Thanks to your generosity, I will be attending college

I want to thank all who contributed and supported the Rebecca Bryan Memorial Scholarship. I am honored to be awarded this scholarship in her name.

Thanks to your generous support, I will be attending Clackamas Community College in the fall of 2009.

I look forward to starting my college career and following my aspirations of becoming a teacher.

Courtney Miller

Molalla High School senior

The Molalla Community Planning Organization was honored on May 26 by a visit by two new Clackamas County Commissioners, Ann Lininger and Bob Austin.

They outlined goals to provide transparent, inclusive, financially responsible, and sustainable government.

The commissioners heard our concerns about HB 3058, an LNG-related permitting bill that would allow state process to begin before legal land rights are attained.

Lininger was so pro-active that she immediately contacted the county’s Salem rep about this abusive bill.

Bob Austin, former mayor of Estacada, explained Estacada’s success in promoting good relations between rural and city dwellers.

Estacada makes a point to include citizens from both sides of the borders on all committees — that way; they don’t have to deal with the “outsider” label that Molalla government is fond of throwing out when rural dwellers attempt to participate.

City councilors Ryan Morgan and Glen Boreth were present at the CPO meeting. I hope they listened carefully and will start to research the happy public relations that Estacada enjoys.

The commissioners told us that rural Clackamas County makes agriculture No.1 in the county’s economy and that the commission is eager to work for the south county area. Thanks, commissioners!

Molalla City Planner Shane Potter appeared to try to defend the Ground Hog Day comp plan, displaying the same incorrect soil maps he has trotted out for two years.

Soil mapping is of primary concern in land use. Why, after two years of complaints — and Potter’s admission before the CPO that the maps are incorrect — can’t he produce a correct map?

When Potter insisted that he is continuing to use his “bought” population numbers instead of the legally mandated safe harbor figures, I left in disgust.

I’ll save my objections for state and county hearings, since citizen input to Potter falls on deaf ears.

The next day, I called Jennifer Donnelly, the DLCD rep who has the unenviable job of trying to guide the city to success.

Donnelly was shocked about Potter’s refusal to accept safe harbor. She said that Potter and the lawyer who advises him have been telling DLCD that the city understands that safe harbor is the only path.

After I left the meeting, Councilor Boreth attempted to tell the CPO that he would help those who want to be in the city limits get in and help those who want to stay out, continue to be rural.

Boreth’s empty promises represent all that is wrong with the planning effort, since state rules strictly outline how land may be considered for future Urbanization via an objective path based on a complex list of development efficiencies and soil classes.

That objective process has no room for Boreth’s “who wants in/out” baloney and proves yet again that city leaders fail to understand the hole that planning has dug for the city.

Potter and city leaders: Is your game simply to insult us by dragging the process on and on forever as you play one side against the other, telling different stories as the mood fits?

It is time for a house cleaning in the planning effort. Get your FACTS straight for a change.

Learn from our county commissioners what leadership is all about.

Susan Hansen