Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead...

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Martin Luther King Jr.

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Creswell Skydivers May Return
Click here to read the well written story by Whitney Malkin of the Register-Guard. There is little chance the Creswell Chronicle will tell the real story. If they do, we will apologize. You can read the entire letter from the FAA to the City at the Creswell Public Library.

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                   Creswell Politics, a Lesson in Deception

 

Here is another quote from our local newspaper editor Ms. Hollyer.   “I take my role as a community watchdog very seriously, and do not hesitate to castigate public officials when appropriate. Of course, that means checking the facts and not relying on rumors as the basis for my opinions and comments.”

We can’t help but to wonder why our watchdog isn’t reporting on this story.  Back on October 30^th in a letter to the editor, here is a part of what acting Mayor Hooker said while running for office, “After participating in the candidate forum on October 20 and listening to the responses of the other participants, it became obvious to me that there is a lot of misinformation in our community relating to our city government.

Due to the format of the forum, it was not possible to clear up these misconceptions, so I would like to address a few of them now.

The new city hall has been in the works since the late 1990s. The funds for the new city hall have been in the budget for the past five years and it is being built without having to ask the taxpayers to vote on a bond measure to pay for it. This is fiscal responsibility at its best.”

If our editor was a real watchdog she would be questioning why Creswell is now asking for money from the stimulus program as reported in the Register Guard on Friday, March 27, 2009 where it says:

Creswell City Hall - $1,000,000
City of Creswell
Construction of a new City Hall commenced in October 2008. Phase 1 included demolition of the existing one-story City Hall, construction of building shell, first floor interior finish for staff offices. Funds are requested for Phase 2 which includes finish of the second floor including the City Council Chambers, Municipal Court, supporting offices, two accessible rest rooms, elevator, and steel awnings to reduce heat gain.

Could it be that our Acting Mayor Hooker was misinforming us when he said, “it became obvious to me that there is a lot of misinformation in our community relating to our city government?”  It sure seems like it to us.  If this is not true, why else would Creswell be asking for the US taxpayers to finish a city hall they couldn’t afford and say its been in the works since 1990 and in the budget?

Where is our “Watchdog Now“?  

 

I believe it was Will Rogers who said, “I only know what I read in the newspaper.”  Maybe he was lucky enough to have read newspapers written by editors or reporters who, unlike our Creswell Chronicle editor, really cared and realized their importance in the community.  It appears our editors lack of journalistic integrity is exceeded only by her arrogance.

Interestingly enough, Ms. Hollyer in her editorial dated July 23, 2008, said about a meeting she attended. “I was enthralled by AP (Associated Press) investigative reporter Martha Mendoza's talk, ‘Why Journalism Matters: The Crucial Role of a Vigorous Media in Society Today.’  Mendoza called for reporters to be accurate, to go deep into stories, to be passionate, not to be lazy, to gather documents and post them and to ‘love it [journalism] or leave it,’ emphasizing that the true value of a newspaper was its standing in the community.”  If our editor did attend this part of the meeting, it doesn’t appear she gave it much credibility.  Given the option of loving it (journalism) or leaving it, it would not be a loss to our community at this time if she left it. This editor continues to write stories without interviewing the people whose businesses and lives she’s affected.  It is inconceivable that Ms. Hollyer can maintain her newspaper’s standing in the community if she continues to print openly biased stories and unsubstantiated half truths.

One case in point; our editor reported on April 10^th 2008, regarding a motorcycle gang in town. “Norton described the gang's practice of taking over a bar, ejecting non-gang members and substituting gang members as security. The Mongols are known to have frequented Creswell's Round-Up Tavern, he said.”

That certainly didn’t help business at the Round-Up Tavern.  Wouldn’t you think while this editor has her office just around the corner from the tavern, she would have walked the hundred and fifty feet to the tavern and asked the owners for their comments to her story and about the “quote” from Norton before printing it? Not this editor, she tends not to give others a chance to comment on their side of the story.

In another editorial on November 5^th 2008, she wrote, “Notice that I put being informed about issues before communicating our views. That's because a democratic system can't function properly without its citizens taking the trouble to educate themselves about issues before they contact political leaders.

In her "Editor's Message" dated October 29, 2008, she mentioned the Fire Marshal's moratorium on additional airport construction." Had our editor made herself more informed before communicating, she would have realized it's not the Fire Marshal who put on the moratorium.  It was the city council with their Resolution 2006-01 Title: (Resolution Concerning Adequate Fire Protection to be provided to Creswell Hobby Field Airport) adopted January 9, 2006.  Now that she is informed, it seems the “democratic system” wasn’t functioning with that uninformed story.  Maybe our editor should educate herself before printing stories.

In her November 19, 2008 editorial, Ms. Hollyer talked about what her family members refer to as "Hoosierisms”.  “Their sayings are mostly folksy aphorisms that refer to the oddities of human behavior.” She went on to say, “One of them that came to mind at the last city council meeting is: ‘There are none so dumb as those who refuse to know." She said this about a man who came before the city council with a concern.  Is it any wonder why people are afraid to get up and use their three minutes of Creswell’s attempt at allowing citizens to use their first amendment rights?  It's difficult enough to get up in front of a council that seems not to care without your newspaper editor pouncing on you for not being a great public speaker.  This man had a concern and maybe he was not a skilled orator, but didn’t he have the right to come and speak to the city council without her negative public comments?  The council could have simply answered his concerns and maybe corrected his perception of the problem. 

Regarding Ms. Hollyer’s arrogance, she had her paper “sponsor” the so called debate among candidates for Mayor and a couple of council seats.  Of course she appointed herself the moderator and appeared to have personally made up all the questions that were asked.  If she used anyone else’s questions, she never gave credit to those people.  She then guided the “debate” to suit herself.  It was bad enough that it was obvious who she wanted to win as mayor, she actually had the nerve to report in her paper what members of the audience were thinking.  Maybe they were as transparent as she. 

In her October 29, 2008 editorial after the debate, she had this to say, “It appeared to me that many of those who did attend were supporters of the various candidates and had already made up their minds how they plan to vote, rather than voters seeking information about the candidates' positions.” She went on to say, “What was frustrating was hearing candidates float ideas that revealed a lack of knowledge about how city governments function within the constraints of state and federal law and their own city charters.

So what if the candidates were total idiots.  Did they not have the right to say what they believed and let the voters decide?  It appears that our editor would rather make the news than report it responsibly.

In the August 27^th, 2008 newspaper she wrote regarding airport access fees, in an article titled, “Councilors’ first Responsibility”; “According to Briggs, (the FAA person) a $70.98 monthly fee should protect the city, $50, while low, might skate through, but $35 appears to be inadequate.  Councilors should not place city taxpayers at risk to benefit two individuals, neither of whom resides within the city limits or pay city taxes. Helen Hollyer”

To our knowledge, our editor has never talked with Ms. Joelle Briggs.  The fact is, Ms. Briggs sent an e-mail on September 10, 2008 saying, “In regard to the access fee rates, airport sponsors are to set the fee at a rate that is at minimum on parity with on-airport users.  We do not review the TTF access rates unless we receive a complaint from an on-airport tenant.”

If Ms. Hollyer were reporting more accurately, she would have written, “Because these two individuals were promised use of the airport BEFORE building their dream homes, they are now contributing, through property taxes, over $2,600 each to the Creswell School District, South Lane Fire District and Lane Library district, unlike those who own hangars at the airport who pay nothing to our schools, etc.”

It appears to many of us who were once readers and subscribers of her Chronicle that she is openly biased in her reporting and tends to support Creswell’s expensive, non responsive government.  What a terrible waste of talent and her responsibility. 

 

 

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Creswell Weather

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Politics at their worst
Free Speech gets punished

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HEALTHY LIVING
We are fortunate to have our very own Wellness Clinic. Visit this site for great health information.

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Viewpoint Yours And Ours Write Viewpoint, We Are Interested.

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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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