A Horse in the Race

     It's election time again and our local news paper is busy beating the drum for a new conservative North Eugene county commissioner.  This is well and good, but the Guard needs to come out of the closet and admit to owning considerable real estate on Old Coburg Road--which is inside the North Eugene district.
    In 2008, the Guard advocated voting for both Bobby Greene (for N Eugene CC) and Jim Torrey for Mayor.  Both of these individuals are much more user friendly to developers than the current incumbents.     I wrote a nice letter to the editor pointing out these inconsistencies and calling for the Guard to come out of the closet and admit to having a horse in the race.  For some reason, the letter hasn't been printed.
     Developing around here has always been a way for the few to make a lot of money and then run away and allow the little people pay for the infrastructure.  A classic example of this would be the town of Veneta. 
     Veneta is a small town using wells for its water needs.  Developers threw down a bunch of houses over the protests of local land use watchdog groups and now the town needs a pipeline from Eugene to transport water out to the little town.  The initial estimate was 17 million dollars but it will undoubtedly double or triple by the time the rubber meets the road.
      The developers won't be footing the bill.  The chump taxpayers will.