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When the Flying Wallendas brought their death-defying high-wire act to the United States in 1928, they debuted in Madison Square Garden before a sell-out crowd that couldn’t wait to see the family’s famed four-person, three-level pyramid — performed 50 feet in the air.
Problem was, the Wallendas’ safety net had been misplaced during shipping prior to their American debut. But in the tradition of performers throughout the ages, they went up the ladder anyway, climbed on each other’s shoulders and performed flawlessly in a show that ended with a 15-minute standing ovation.
In Douglas County, we’ve lost our safety net. It wasn’t misplaced, it was taken away, and although this isn’t a circus, we do get the feeling sometimes that it would be possible to get most of the members of Congress inside of a little toy car and watch as they drive away, amazing and mystifying — and in this case, really disappointing — the audience members who depend on them the most, their constituents.
All of that tomfoolery aside, we rise to enthusiastically applaud a performance announced recently by the county.
Several county parks that had been slated for closure were saved at the 11th hour by a combination of volunteers who selflessly came forward to help, and by outsourcing maintenance services to a company that is able to provide upkeep a little cheaper than the county.
Iverson Memorial Park on Coos Bay Wagon Road in the Callahans, Cavitt Creek Park and North Myrtle Park east of Myrtle Creek — all due to close at the end of June — will now have volunteers mow the grass and perform other light maintenance duties. Groups of citizens in each of those areas contacted Parks Director Jim Dowd and offered to help. We appreciate their efforts.
And High Lakes Sanitation of Idleyld Park has begun emptying trash, picking up litter outside buildings and restocking toilet paper and paper towels at several parks outside Glide.
The company is being paid $10,000 a year, less than the $12,000 it cost to send a parks employee and truck over the same route two days a week.
This is the kind of situation we hope to run up against more often as the county budget faces pressure from the loss of the timber safety net.
Innovation and volunteers — people who genuinely care about their communities — could go a long way toward taking up the slack in areas that range from helping the library system keep longer hours to providing services to senior citizens and children.
We can persevere by standing on each other’s shoulders, and working without a net, if we must. Although we still think that’s a fundamentally unfair situation into which to put this county.
Regardless, we must always remember that net or no net, the show must go on.
Problem was, the Wallendas’ safety net had been misplaced during shipping prior to their American debut. But in the tradition of performers throughout the ages, they went up the ladder anyway, climbed on each other’s shoulders and performed flawlessly in a show that ended with a 15-minute standing ovation.
In Douglas County, we’ve lost our safety net. It wasn’t misplaced, it was taken away, and although this isn’t a circus, we do get the feeling sometimes that it would be possible to get most of the members of Congress inside of a little toy car and watch as they drive away, amazing and mystifying — and in this case, really disappointing — the audience members who depend on them the most, their constituents.
All of that tomfoolery aside, we rise to enthusiastically applaud a performance announced recently by the county.
Several county parks that had been slated for closure were saved at the 11th hour by a combination of volunteers who selflessly came forward to help, and by outsourcing maintenance services to a company that is able to provide upkeep a little cheaper than the county.
Iverson Memorial Park on Coos Bay Wagon Road in the Callahans, Cavitt Creek Park and North Myrtle Park east of Myrtle Creek — all due to close at the end of June — will now have volunteers mow the grass and perform other light maintenance duties. Groups of citizens in each of those areas contacted Parks Director Jim Dowd and offered to help. We appreciate their efforts.
And High Lakes Sanitation of Idleyld Park has begun emptying trash, picking up litter outside buildings and restocking toilet paper and paper towels at several parks outside Glide.
The company is being paid $10,000 a year, less than the $12,000 it cost to send a parks employee and truck over the same route two days a week.
This is the kind of situation we hope to run up against more often as the county budget faces pressure from the loss of the timber safety net.
Innovation and volunteers — people who genuinely care about their communities — could go a long way toward taking up the slack in areas that range from helping the library system keep longer hours to providing services to senior citizens and children.
We can persevere by standing on each other’s shoulders, and working without a net, if we must. Although we still think that’s a fundamentally unfair situation into which to put this county.
Regardless, we must always remember that net or no net, the show must go on.
