A little over 200 years ago people rebelled over Taxation without

Representation. Today we are rebelling against Taxation with

Misrepresentation.

The council and planning commission were elected, were appointed

or volunteered to represent the people of North Bend. However good the

intentions of the incumbents originally were, those intentions have been lost.

Now the people are being strong-armed, manipulated and abused _

fiscally, financially and aesthetically. Following are some of the ways:

• For openers, want to paint your house? Fine. Good for you. Keep

your property in repair. However, before you start, get a permit! Yes, get a

permit from the city, which, of course, will be denied if you do not choose

a color (s) the city has designated.

• Planning on building your dream home and have it all mentally

drawn and ready to hire an architect? Whoa. Go to the City Hall and for a

nominal fee, you can be informed as to the placement of your front porch or

back porch (a requirement), and find that you cannot have a garage which

faces the street (oh, what an eyesore, that!), etc.

• Do you have a business? Do not even think about signage. The

City Hall (again, for a nominal fee) will tell you what your sign will say, its

height, width, breadth and coloration, and placement. And, if they don’t

approve of your business in the place you want it to be (again for the “nominal”

fee) they will wave to you on your way out of town (fee waived).

• As you may recall, the city earlier sent us citizens a questionnaire

as to how we want our city to be. Among the questions we were asked was

one which had to do with median plantings (“brush heaps,” in my

vernacular). Over 50 percent of the people answering did not want them. The one we

do have impedes traffic daily, so we have an example of how they look and

operate. Now our representatives are going to force them upon us, from

the bridge by the Tift House to the U.S. Forestry east.

And speaking of our bridges _ they don’t like them, either.

In case you doubt my words, please spend a few moments and

$14 at the planning commission, (across from the library) and pick up a

copy of the proposals. Oh yes, and pay a lot of attention to the words

“should,” “could,” and “shall,” in these

hundred and some pages.

If by some chance you disagree with these propositions as I do,

let’s do something about it. We could, even if it isn’t on the Internet, vote on

such proposals in the old-fashioned American way, or we can be as sheep

and just bleat while being herded.

These few paragraphs cover very little of the measures proposed. All

in all, they are appalling. This letter will give you an inkling, however, of

the gravity of the situation we citizens face.

JIM AND ZARA FRITTS

North Bend