When it’s time to go, go
Dear Editor:
We moved to our 63-acre farm in Carlton in 2018. Evidence of the Carlton Complex Fire was obvious within a football field away. We heard stories of neighborhoods having no electricity for days so they had barbecues every day to use defrosting foods in freezers; we were told of Hank filling vehicles for free so people could evacuate. We learned that smokejumpers started in our very own Methow Valley. It caused our family to make an evacuation plan and “go bags.”
Yet nothing impressed us more than on July 9 on our way to a movie in Omak we stopped at Smallwood Farms for coffee. Getting back in the car we noticed a small stream of smoke like you see from a chimney rising down the road. By the time we got down the hill into Okanogan — less than 8 miles — there was a level 3 evacuation and the area was ablaze.
My daughter, a home health RN, became aware one of her client’s home was nearby so we drove there and my daughter helped her dress, confirmed her family was on their way and got her cat in a carrier. The flames were moving toward her home. Gratefully the wind shifted toward the hills and her home was spared.
The speed of the fire going from a puff of smoke to a raging wildfire in minutes made a true believer out of me. When they say evacuate, do not hesitate, grab your bag and go.
Sandra Momilani Clarke
Carlton
Thoughtful planning needed
Dear Editor:
The July 22 Methow Valley News story about the Milltown housing development and, more broadly, the pace of growth in Twisp raised important issues for all of us in the valley.
I commend the town council for scheduling time to begin talking about community concerns. That’s responsive elected representation. As they proceed, the community should expect decision-makers to be clear about their assumptions regarding development, use the best available data, and do rigorous analysis of outcomes and options. Their work can be a model for others.
It will not be easy nor will there be quick solutions. No community can simply “fix” the development code to change the direction of development. Changing development entitlements currently in place raises legal issues. Policies underpinning future development goals require amendments, if not wholesale revisions, to the comprehensive plan. Be reasonable and pragmatic about what can be changed and how fast.
Change is hard and the pace of change upsets people. No community is locked in amber reflecting varying visions of the good old days. We need to have a collective community vision of the future and the willingness to make compromises to see that future come about.
Steve Oulman
Winthrop
Beware of increasing prices
Dear Editor:
The Milltown discussion as reported in the July 22 Methow Valley News included comments by the commissioners on the possible need to constrain growth by revamping the town’s building codes.
I might add a note of caution; wherever residential real estate has been constrained in some fashion, the price starts climbing and any plans for “affordable” housing go out the window without government (read Town of Twisp) subsidies. I appreciate the goal, but the method should be approached with some clear understanding of the potential consequences. One aspect as reported the in the previous week’s News may be the need to stop issuing water connection permits in town as the town’s legal limit approaches maximum. Again, this will have the same effect of constraint causing price increases.
Bob Hunt
Twisp
The threat of AI
Dear Editor:
As a retired educator of over 40 years, and an early adopter of technology-assisted learning, I was dismayed by the front page headline indicating that our local school district is embracing AI as a tool for learning. AI is an intellectual and environmental menace, and just because it’s there doesn’t mean we have to use it.
Research indicates that AI deprives our brains of the challenges related to problem solving, activities crucial to higher order thinking skills. AI is untrustworthy, fabricating nonexistent legal cases and other bodies of “information.” It’s rampant with plagiarism, culling information from any published source without regard to authorship or permissions. As a writer myself, I am concerned that AI can pull my work from the Internet and use it at will. AI fosters a false sense of “creativity” by fabricating products from the barest bones of an individual’s input and “creating” something “new.”
Every teacher I know is combatting the use of AI in students’ work where it’s used to “write” essays and summarize texts instead of reading them. It creates a mishmash of loosely related but unexamined information. It’s a short cut to produce assignments without actual learning.
AI is an environmental menace. According to research conducted by Cornell University, “by 2030, the current rate of AI growth would annually put 24 to 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the emissions equivalent of adding 5 to 10 million cars to U.S. roadways. It would also drain 731 to 1,125 million cubic meters of water per year — equal to the annual household water usage of 6 to 10 million Americans. The cumulative effect would put the AI industry’s net-zero emissions targets out of reach.”
I call upon the school district to do the research about what they’re proposing. Does it make certain tasks easier, of course. But it’s more than just a technical tool. It’s a technology without humanity’s cognitive and emotional skillsets. And its impact on our precious unreliable resources make it a scourge on the future our children will inherit — whatever’s left of it.
Subhaga Crystal Bacon
Twisp
Be ready
Dear Editor:
I wanted to applaud Solvig Torvik’s column in the July 29 Methow Valley News.
She talks about fire fuels, specifically in Winthrop, but it could be about to other towns in the valley.
Key takeaways are that we should not be complacent and take it for granted that those who fight fires will be able to save our houses or towns.
Stamped concrete boardwalks would increase fire safety. Expensive, sure, but the alternative of having to replace structures because of no FireWising is off the charts and would be devastating. Not to mention possible loss of life.
She suggests a block-by-block inventory of fuels, followed by actions of removing fuels. Take a look at roofs. See old dried-out shakes. Take a look at every bush, grass and tree that is right next to the home or business. Create a buffer zone.
Everyone has been told this over and over again, but as she says, 12 years later and there is fire fuel everywhere.
People are indeed working and have limited time. Or there are elderly people that can’t physically do the work. This is where teamwork should come into play and the town leaders need to help develop a plan to make it happen.
Fire readiness is being addressed but it is, as she says, it’s an “all-hands-on-deck moment” which seems not to be heeded.
A fuels reduction ordinance is suggested, but is it timely enough? With the next weeks, months stay dry and as winds may prevail, don’t wait for the fire to come to you.
I was shocked at just how close the Hamilton Fire came to the town up on the bluff across the river at the north end of town.
I am one of those whose house has been in the “black” in the 2015 fire. Shrubs had been cut, grasses nubbed and soil was exposed around structures and it made all the difference and helped the firefighters save our house.
Get going now.
Pearl Cherrington
Twisp
Pause on AI
Dear Editor:
The recent article, “Local school leaders seek to harness AI use,” presents artificial intelligence as something schools must embrace because it is “here to stay.” As a parent and as someone who works in tech, specifically in edtech, I believe there is a better path forward: the Methow Valley School District (MVSD) should pause on AI adoption, so that it can be done thoughtfully and effectively.
Superintendent of Public Instruction Reykdal’s stated that “AI is here, and slowing down isn’t an option,” but that’s simply not true:
Over 250 organizations and institutions nationwide have signed a pledge to pause for five years on AI in schools. And more and more parents are opting their kids out of edtech products and 1:1 devices. Slowing down to think critically is key to making informed and intentional decisions.
If we’ve learned nothing from the social media experiment on youth in the last two decades, we should have at least learned not to assume “safe until proven otherwise” but that our approach should be “unsure until proven safe.”
We need to be informed and intentional about how we’re using any tech, especially AI. What are we exposing our children to, why, and at what cost? We should pause on a full embrace of AI in schools until we can clearly and confidently answer those questions so we can make more intentional decisions for our kids.
Recent research from the Brookings Institution concludes that, in AI’s current form, the risks to children’s foundational development outweigh the educational benefits unless its use is carefully limited and intentionally designed (Brookings Institution, 2026).
Right now, MVSD should double down on the experiences AI can’t create: rich classroom discussion, social-emotional learning, debate, hands-on science, art, music, outdoor education, collaboration, public speaking, reading full books, and extended writing completed without digital assistance.
Melissa Brumer
Winthrop
Can’t support
Dear Editor:
Let’s see if I have this right. Robert Grim resigned his position as a Superior Court judge to run for the position of Mayor of Winthrop. Now less than a year after taking office he is running to become a District Court judge.
Yes, I can understand leaving one job for another higher-paying job, however, the position of mayor is a four-year position, and less than a year into that job he may quit if elected and not finish a job he committed to.
Don’t know how others feel and call me old fashioned or of a generation where at one time your word was your bond, but I cannot vote for a person who can’t honor a commitment he voluntarily took.
Vern Herrst
Winthrop
