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The Mid-county Memo is your newspaper. We want to hear from you. Discuss an important issue or address a concern you want to call to the community’s attention. We prefer e-mailed letters to the editor sent to Darlene Vinson at editor@midcountymemo.com. Please put “Letter to the editor” in the subject line. You may also mail your letter to 3510 N.E. 134th Ave., Portland, OR 97230 or fax it to 503-249-7672. The deadline for the March issue is Monday, Feb. 16.

Merkley’s missive to Mid-county
Former Oregon House Speaker and mid-Multnomah County District 47 Rep. Jeff Merkley, left, reenacts his Senate swearing-in ceremony with wife, Mary, children Brynne and Jonathan, and Vice President Dick Cheney.
Courtesy Senate Photographic Studios
Earlier this month, I formally resigned my seat as the representative of Oregon’s 47th House district. Last week, I took the oath of office as Oregon’s U.S. senator. I have been very proud to represent this district over the last 10 years and am grateful to all the residents who allowed me to serve in that post. I am excited to be able to continue to serve them in the Senate.

Our state and our nation face many challenges: an economy in recession, an unemployment rate that continues to skyrocket, our armed forces engaged in two wars, global threats from climate change and the proliferation of nuclear weapon states. It is critical that we all work together to put our nation back on track.

It will require bold thinking and a nationwide effort. But we have to remember that a strong nation is built one community at a time. A nationwide effort to spur the development of the green economy can create living-wage jobs in the heart of District 47. Infrastructure improvement projects can be the foundation for economic growth in Multnomah County for decades to come. And ending predatory business practices will reap dividends for workers in Portland and beyond.

I am excited to jump right in and get to work addressing the problems facing the nation. To succeed, I know that we must work together on a bipartisan basis and be in close touch with Oregonians. It didn’t take me long to learn that to be successful in the Oregon House, I needed to be as accessible and available to the residents of District 47 as possible.

Community meetings and forums allowed me to hear all sides of every issue, often giving me valuable information on how to best tackle a tricky problem — and sometimes, my mind was changed as I learned more from the folks on the ground. I will strive to maintain that level of accessibility as a U.S. senator. To start, every year I will hold public forums in every county so that I can learn from the experiences of Oregonians across the state.

I learned in District 47 that if we work hard, we can accomplish great things. We did it in Oregon in our last legislative session and we can do it in Washington by making sure we have a government that works for working Americans.

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley
senator@merkley.senate.gov

Will a community garden invite crime?
Thanks to Heather Hill for the great coverage (Crime concerns threaten County Digs project, January 2009). We are a small group attempting to engage a large geographic and highly populated area. With that in mind our, thrust is to keep our community livable by facilitating very local projects. We do invite participation dealing with crime, parks and any other worthwhile issues.
Tom Lewis
Vice Chair
Centennial Community Association
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