[obol] Royal Sting?

[SHOLAAS Margaret G]

?       Worse yet, the Lane Co. Sheriff's Dept. does not even investigate a property crime until the loss is greater than $10,000.
?       This fabulous piece of news was advertised for all to see in the article. Think petty thieves don't know the county has written them a blank check to take all the want???

I understand your frustration. Fern Ridge is my favorite place to bird, and now I'm afraid to go there.

But it sounds like you might believe this situation exists because Lane County SO is lazy and doesn't give a rip. Nothing could be further from the truth. I work for Lane County supporting computers and networks. I know many of the deputies personally, and they are as frustrated as we are. They work very hard, often under difficult and extremely dangerous circumstances, and they want to keep us and our property safe. There is just too much to do and not enough people to do it because of Lane County's financial situation, which has been bad for years and now is even more precarious because of the threatened loss of the Secure Rural Schools funding.

But every time a bond measure to increase funding gets on the ballot, voters shoot it down. I can also sympathize with people who are frustrated with government/taxation in general and local government in particular, but the fact of the matter is, you can only do what you have money to do, and right now Lane County doesn't have the money to do everything that needs doing.

Perhaps some believe that if Lane County managed its money better, it would be able to fund important law enforcement functions now going begging. I would encourage those people to do some research with open minds to determine if, in fact, there is some obvious budgetary change to fix the situation that the commissioners have missed because of cluelessness or malfeasance. I don't think there is. Lane County has a lot of responsibilities and the budgetary process is a hellaciously complicated thing. But if someone has genuine ideas, contact the commissioners. Just don't expect them to be thrilled about dealing with someone who hasn't done his homework, and therefore doesn't know what the commissioners are dealing with, wanting only to vent his frustration and abuse them.

One thing that I've wondered about is whether a volunteer program could be set up, a sort of Neighborhood Watch for areas like the Fern Ridge parking lot, like the program created by Eugene PD where volunteers (mostly retirees, I believe) provide extra eyes and ears patrolling areas with officially marked trucks. Also, maybe webcams could be put in such areas. Just publicizing the patrols and webcams in itself might result in some deterrence. I'll pass those ideas on to see if they might be feasible.

If you have ideas, Lane County needs you!

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