Letters (Week of June 25, 2008)

Written by Hillsboro Free Press Tuesday, 24 June 2008 15:13

House leaders refused to talk on coal plant

Last week in a published interview, State Rep. Don Dahl announced his retirement and expressed a disappointment with a few key issues as being the reason to not seek another term.

One of those issues was the Holcomb coal-fired power plants that Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Robert Bremby chose to deny a permit based on CO2 emissions.

The legislature passed at least two bills that would have stripped the regulatory powers of KDHE and paved the way to permit the power plants. Gov. Sebelius vetoed both bills but offered a compromise to permit the building of a scaled-down plant of a size that would have taken care of the future electrical needs of western Kansas.

The...

Read more: Letters (Week of June 25, 2008)

Letters (Week of June 18, 2008)

Written by Hillsboro Free Press Wednesday, 18 June 2008 07:08

Another perspective on concert conflict

 

In regard to the article in the June 4 issue (Countywide), the Florence Labor Day Committee feels the facts should be stated publicly in regards to the Marion County Firefighters Association meeting that “doused” the conflicts between our 71st annual Labor Day venue and the MCFA’s first concert event.

1. No Florence Labor Day Committee member was contacted by the MCFA. Yes, we were aware of the meeting, but only through a resident of Florence.

2. It was stated at the meeting that the Labor Day Committee, in regard to this conflict, had never contacted the MCFA. The Labor Day Committee met with the MCFA in January 2007 to politely suggest the MCFA not compete with our long-standing...

Read more: Letters (Week of June 18, 2008)

Letters (Week of June 4, 2008)

Written by Hillsboro Free Press Wednesday, 04 June 2008 10:49

Toward ag that is truly ‘sustainable’

 

Webster’s dictionary defines “sustain” as to keep going or prolong. By extension, “sustainable agriculture” would mean a system of food production that can be depended upon to keep going or prolonged to produce food for a population.

Paul Penner’s column last week seemed to take a rather narrow look at a few components of sustainable agriculture and generalize them to the whole. Sustainable proponents look at the current industrial agricultural model and ask some basic questions that beg to be addressed.

Agriculture is very fossil-fuel dependent with the fuels for farming machinery, fertilizers (especially since 1909 with the Haber/Bosch method of using natural gas to...

Read more: Letters (Week of June 4, 2008)

Letters (Week of May 21, 2008)

Written by Hillsboro Free Press Wednesday, 21 May 2008 07:01

City workers’ efforts are appreciated

 

This letter is long overdue. Last week I saw something that reminded me I still hadn’t written to offer my thanks and appreciation to our city workers.

Last winter when we had our big ice storm, there were trees and branches down all over the city. What a mess! One evening I was watching the news and noticed that in a larger city nearby, they were reporting that the “city would not be responsible to clean up the mess.” It was up to each owner to get their debis hauled away, or they could pay to have it done.

The next day I read in the Hillsboro Free Press that if owners would drag their broken branches to the curb, the city crews would get to it as soon as they could.

I thought...

Read more: Letters (Week of May 21, 2008)