Your voice matters
To the editor: In case you hadn’t heard, the Jo-Ann Fabrics store in Northwood is going to be closing next spring.

We need businesses to come to our area, not leave it. Please, all of you, and I know there are many, contact Jo-Ann’s corporate offices and tell them you want the store to remain open.

Also, contact the Northwood City Council and mayor. Let them know that you expect them to work hard to keep this business in our area.

If we come together in a show of support for the store and its employees, we may be able to keep the doors open. Your voice matters. Use it.
Martha Willey
Northwood

A wonderful event
To the editor: The Holiday Home Tour sponsored by the Oregon-Jerusalem Historical Society Dec. 3 and 4 was a well-planned event.

My husband and I began our tour at 2:45 Saturday at First St. John’s Lutheran Church where homemade cookies with hot mulled cider satisfied our taste buds.

The church members who presented to us were courteous, encouraged us to ring their first church bell and warmly welcomed us to their place of worship. Even though we had not attended a service, we signed their guest book as we left to tour six varied types of homes that were built at various times.

Most of the homes were presented and shared by one of its owners. Not only were we welcomed and delighted with Christmas readiness, but we also learned the history of the homes. My husband was especially pleased to learn more about some of the homes, as he was raised in the area. Throughout our visits, there was no rush to meet times or to wait our turn to enter. The planning committee did an excellent job of allowing the tourists the opportunity to thoroughly take in and enjoy the wonders of the Old Eastmoreland Subdivision.

Our last stop was the Lutheran Orphans’ Home Society where people instrumental in making the orphanage a true home to many people greeted us, told and shared pictures of the beginnings of the home and its history. We also toured the building to view a dormitory and living room areas for the four groups of children who lived and were schooled there. Two boys, now men, told of their experiences and left us with knowledge of their contentment and fortune to be in the orphanage on Seaman Street.

This letter is written as thanks to the members of the Historical Society and all those who graciously told their stories or shared the history of their homes.

As a member of Martin Luther Lutheran Church. I would also like to acknowledge the joy of having the bell choir that assembled and led the music for our worship service on Sunday, Dec. 4. Ironically, they were from First St. John’s Lutheran Church, where our tour began on the previous day.

There truly are many caring and sharing people in this nugget of northwest Ohio.
Kathy Agoston
Oregon

Demand a solution
To the editor: Ohio and many other states have challenged the use of property taxes as the main source of funding for public schools.

In 1997, the Ohio Supreme Court declared Ohio’s system of funding schools through property taxes unconstitutional. Our lawmakers sat idly by.

In 2007, a group called Getting It Right for Ohio’s Future attempted to put an initiative on the November ballot that would have established public education as a fundamental right, which would put the responsibility for funding on the state rather than on property owners. Again, our lawmakers sat idly by.

Community members need to work together to demand that state lawmakers find a solution that will effectively fund the schools by supporting a ballot initiative for voting lawmakers who sit idly by out of office.

Why can’t these school boards realize that? We, the taxpayers are for schools. It is just we can’t afford to pay more taxes with this declining economy and rising prices of gas, utilities, health care, property taxes, groceries and prices in general. Situational poverty is on the rise. Maybe because you have a high paying job, always have had food on your table, and never been through foreclosure, it is hard for board members and proponents of school levies to understand.

All those who are still working with children in school and are so vehemently positive that they are the only ones who care about educating our children should reach deep into their own pockets and contribute the most they can possibly come up with so the schools can continue as usual since the state has abandoned them.
Marlene Snyder
Elmore

Look what happened
To the editor: To Congressman Bob Latta:
I am asking you to vote against HR2309, the “Postal Reform Act of 2011.” To me, this bill does nothing to really help the Postal Service like the previous reform acts.

It seems that every time Congress deals with the Postal Service, it makes matters worse. Congress never asks what the results of their actions will be.

Look what the pension overpayments have done.

Look what letting UPS deliver packages has done.

Look what letting FedEx deliver express mail has done.

Look what delivering non-profit mail below cost has done.

Look what paying the pensions of post office workers before 1981, which the federal government was to pay, has done.

Look what telling the postal service it can’t raise rates has done.

I do ask you to support HR 1351 and become a co-sponsor, if you have not already. I know you won’t be reading this, but one of your staff members will.

What would you do if your expenses when up 8 percent overnight with just the stroke of a pen? That is what the government did to the postal service.

The postal service only paid into the pension system what it was told to do by the government. So all these years, it has been overpaying and you say it is the postal service’s fault and they can’t have any of the money back. Where is the justice in that? I now know why. The Civil Service retirement fund is funded to 41 percent. Of that 41 percent, the federal government is at 11 percent and the postal service is at 30 percent. The federal government is using the postal service to fund the retirement system. Why?

I had my wages frozen for two years and my contribution to the pension system was increased each of those years with no increase in my pension. Where is the justice in that?

What is the government going to do when the postal service goes under and you don’t have a cash cow to squeeze anymore?
Rufus Wallace
Millbury
Editor’s note: Mr. Wallace retired recently as the postmaster of the Clay Center Post Office.

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