Letters for Jan. 19, 2022

Utterly shocking

I often read with interest in The Spokesman-Review the challenges the city of Spokane and others have with the homeless situation. It appears a very frustrating dance of shuffling that population from one location to another, especially in the winter months. The recent gift of unrestricted access to the Convention Center for the homeless as a 24-hour refuge from the weather was most gracious. Additionally, warm food, clothing, blankets, personal necessities, etc. were provided at no cost to the attendees.

The headline article in the Northwest section of the Spokesman on Jan. 10 (“Warming space at convention center closes”) detailed the closing of that facility after a period of just two weeks, and the temperatures are still near freezing. An average of 150 people used the offering daily. Two short paragraphs hidden in the middle of the article summed it all up for me and speaks volumes to the REAL issues at hand faced by the city and other gracious providers. The first paragraph noted that the estimated cost of running the shelter for just two weeks would fall around $400,000! That’s over $28,500 PER DAY! The second paragraph was even more dumbfounding and tore at my compassionate state of mind. The paragraph stated, “it could take tens of thousands of dollars to repair the damage done to the floors and bathrooms”. My goodness, by about 150 people gifted with generosity for two weeks? Try to wrap your head around that. I’m at a loss for more words.

Jeffery Clacy

Liberty Lake

CVSD Board must stand up to bullies

I attended the Central Valley School District school board meeting on Jan. 10 and was appalled at the lack of adherence to the mask mandate. There were many students in attendance. This is not the type of example the district should be setting for their students.

Additionally, the new meeting space is small and social distancing is impossible. The public should be able to attend these meetings without the fear of participating in a superspreader event. The mask mandate must be followed, it must be enforced!

It is up to the district and the board to enforce these rules. If people do not want to comply with the mask mandate or other common sense safety measures they do not need to attend the meetings.

We are in the middle of a pandemic and many students and teachers are out sick. East Valley School District even had to shut down due to lack of staffing. Be smart people; let’s not go backwards.

When I was a teacher and coach in the Central Valley School District it was up to all of us to model and enforce the rules. We cannot allow bullies to silence the voices of people who want to safely participate in our democracy. The Central Valley School District must enforce the mask mandate at future school board meetings for all our sakes.

Stan Chalich

Liberty Lake

Public facilities district buying property

So when the voters voted to build a new stadium at the Joe Albi site, we were told that we needed to have it downtown. But we said what about parking? Not to worry, they said, we did a study and there is plenty of parking downtown. Now they are going to spend another $5.25 million to buy the Value Village property valued at only $3.3 million because we don’t have enough parking.

I guess the only time the politicians lie to us is when their lips are moving. There is absolutely no excuse for this and I hope that we vote each and every one of them out of office. Suppose they will override that vote, too. Absolutely incredible.

Ron Shores

Spokane

Ask the right COVID questions

Please answer some key questions for your readers. This is very important as our state considers mandatory vaccinations for school children. Much COVID messaging does not logically track with CDC and SRHD data. This data is readily available from excellent tools on CDC and SRHD websites.

Spokane individuals older than 65 years old (who are now more than 89% vaccinated) still represent the largest number of Spokane hospitalizations. This group continues to drive the stress on our hospitals. What is the change in availability of treatments for these folks? Relevance: Vaccinating kids will not directly alleviate the largest strain on our medical system.

Over the past two weeks, eight individuals younger than 30 years old are recorded as Spokane COVID hospitalizations. How many were admitted due to COVID and how many were admitted to treat another condition and happened to test for COVID? Relevance: The risk of serious illness for kids remains miniscule.

Why is the seven-day (1,683/100,000) and 14-day case rate in King County (82.5% vaccinated) 50% higher than the seven-day (1,105/100,000) and 14-day case rate in Spokane County (62% vaccinated)? Similarly, the recent hospitalization rate in King County (19.75/100,000) is almost 60% higher than Spokane (12.4/100,000).

I am not “anti-vax.” But if we focus on populationwide vaccination statistics and case rates rather than treatments and hospitalization rates, we do not solve the current COVID challenge. We will ineffectively try to reduce cases by vaccinating healthy, young people rather than reducing hospitalizations and deaths through targeted treatments and vaccination/boosters.

Steve Blaska

Spokane