Letters to the Editor
Want to read a letter to the editor of Columbia Basin Herald? See below to view their letters.
LETTER: The high cost of school construction: A call for reform
Excessive soft costs • 35-45% of school construction budgets are consumed by soft costs – engineering, design and planning – before a single nail is driven…
Ephrata Superintendent message to the community
Tiger Community: Our world seems more divided than ever. Everywhere we look, differences spark conflict, quick judgments dominate conversations, and it can fee…
LETTER: Homelessness demands compassion, not control
In July 2025, President Trump signed “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.” The order frames homelessness as a crisis of addiction, mental illness, …
COLUMN: What does service mean to you?
Veterans Day for me means I will be the recipient of ritualistic platitudes such as “Thank you for your service,” from people who have no concept of the reward…
LETTER: Imagining a better health system
Imagine a national healthcare system not built on profit, paperwork, or exclusion—but on mercy, justice, and love. A system that says: “You are worthy of care.…
A statement to the community from MLSD Superintendent Carol Lewis
I want to take a moment — one final time — to talk about something that’s been at the heart of nearly every conversation we’ve had since May of 2024: keeping o…
LETTER: Reflecting on choices, faith
The ink in my pen’s heavy. You toss, turn, groan and ache while in restoration from the outside world. Your mind channels savage thoughts as if it were sta…
LETTER: Imagine health care as a sacred right
Imagine a national healthcare system not built on profit, paperwork, or exclusion—but on mercy, justice, and love. A system that says: “You are worthy of care.…
LETTER: Politics affects local people's health care
I’m looking at the headlines of our paper today. There’s the congressional response to the shutdown and the announcement that East Adams Rural Health is laying…
LETTER: Support our teachers and students
To the Editor, There was a buzz in the air that something special was going to happen at the ML school board meeting Sept. 18. I decided to go. As I pu…
LETTER: The cost of fire service
To the Editor, Othello is in the middle of elections, and its contract with Adams County Fire District No. 5 has become an issue. Unfortunately, some of th…
Grant PUD commitment: Our lowest possible rates for core customers
Grant Public Utility District commissioners and leadership are committed to ensuring that our “core customers” – residential, ag, irrigation and small/medium-s…
LETTER: Setting the record straight about fire rates
Othello is in the middle of elections, and its contract with Adams County Fire District No. 5 has become an issue. Unfortunately, some of the campaign response…
LETTER: Disappointed in the PUD
To the Editor, The Public Utility District says it serves the community. Yet on August 26, 2025, it just condemned our family’s land, ignoring four other v…
LETTER: On FEMA and its importance
I’ve read and heard of the news that the current administration wants to eliminate FEMA at the federal level and make the individual states responsible for any…