We’ve lost a business leader, pal

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 07 July 2009 14:07

We are saddened to hear the news that our good friend and longtime Hillsboro businessman Jerold Vogt died Sunday night. I knew he had health issues that had slowed him a great deal in recent months—we are just not ready for this moment. I know Karleen and his family will miss him immensely as will I and so many others.

Jerold was the dedicated and tireless patriarch of Vogt’s grocery store, which he took over right out of high school when his father passed away nearly 50 years ago.

He has supported this community for all of those years including as Chamber of Commerce president and many other roles of dedicated service. His leadership in the Hap Dumont baseball program was recognized and rightly so a few years back.

Jerold was a...

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Obama's 'fixes' are boggling

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 30 June 2009 13:57

My head is spinning from trying to keep up with what President Obama and his party are attempting to push through in Washington these days.

There is a daily dose of fixing this and fixing that, with mounds and mounds of more borrowed money and government intrusion.

To put the cost of health care reform into perspective I tried to take a trillion dollars and enter it into my calculator to find out how much that number is divided by 46 million—the estimated number of uninsured Americans—and I can’t put that many zeroes into it.

Pretty soon we’ll have to buy a new calculator that accounts for these huge numbers without fancy math.

Smart people can figure these numbers using the number 10 to the power of 10, 14 or whatever. I...

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Dad's day was a good experience

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 23 June 2009 09:40

It was a great Father’s Day with calls from my children, a very mild and restful day with just a little work and a terrific meal just the way I ordered it.

Here is my idea of the perfect dad’s day meal—which is exactly what I got: Ribeye steak on the grill and cooked medium rare, baked potato with sour cream, garlic bread, salad with banana peppers, garbanzo beans, olives and balsamic dressing, plus my favorite beverage and ending with a small dish of Tin Roof Sundae ice cream.

The banana-pepper thing is new for me; I discovered it last week in Califor­nia. I’ve had them before but didn’t realize how good they really are.

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The finishing touches are being put on our new window as I write this week’s column. They’re...

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L.A. area is a different world

Written by Hillsboro Free Press Wednesday, 17 June 2009 06:58

It’s a whole different world out in Southern California. We flew here last Wednesday to take in our niece Whitney’s graduation from UCLA during the weekend and catch up with her parents and other relatives in town for the big event.

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On the shuttle to the airport, we came across a young family from Colwich who were also headed to L.A. to see relatives and go to Disneyland.

They had four children ranging from toddler to about 9, and they were all wearing orange shirts. The mom said that was so she could keep track of them.

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I’ve been following the car trade-in bill and it appears to be a lemon. It’s the one where you may receive as much as $4,500 to buy a more fuel-efficient vehicle than your present one.

It’s just...

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