Letter: Ideas tendered on a few topics

As a transplant from Cowlitz County, I now enjoy the beauty, convenience and friendship of Vancouver and Clark County.

Face it, we all have a need for some kind of oil. Corporations are trying to provide it. We are basically dependent on its many uses. Driving wisely, mileage and cost will continue to improve. Hybrids will continue to improve for those who can afford to purchase one.

Yes, railroads must continue to improve tank cars and existing tracks, and build overpasses to eliminate hazardous crossings. Many uninhabited areas exist for possible side track passing.

Do bridges truly need to be so high as the great bridge that crosses the Columbia River at Astoria? Would the cost of a new Interstate 5 structure be considerably less? Factories that construct products of great heights upriver could be relocated downriver with government assistance. Several river crossings have been widened by a lane on each side of existing lanes, dismantling the old to be replaced by new, keeping traffic flowing during construction.

Would the oil terminal be better located north to an industrial area fronting the Columbia River on both sides of the Longview-Rainier bridge, thereby increasing employment greatly for many cities’ residents?

Environmentalists must consider not what we alone want but what the entire state needs — employment.

C. Robert Suess

Vancouver