Letters for Dec. 15, 2022

City sanitized background checks

A prospective tenant offered to pay a year’s rent in advance and double the security deposit. He also sent me a picture of his open safe with stacks of cash. He didn’t want me to run a background check and his dog’s name was cocaine, I just said no.

I’ve had a bad experience with a drug deal gone bad at a rental, but under the current law I couldn’t evict the tenants. Even if I could, my costs would be in the $1,000s.

There’s a drug house near my wife’s former school. The drive-by shootings last year are a concern for the school and the neighbors.

Landlords’ hands are tied from dealing with such issues. But the City Council wants to make it easier for convicted criminals like drug dealers to move into rental properties. A new bill before the City Council provides prospective tenants with a city provided, sanitized background check.

The bill requires landlords to attend Landlord Association run classes. These classes stress the need for landlords to do thorough background checks and screening. Because the city edits out most criminal records on their background check, it’s not thorough, therefore of no value to landlords. The landlords then pay for complete background checks and pass the cost onto tenants in the form of increased rent.

Please contact your City Council member and ask them not to pass this legislation. Maybe ask them to rethink their tolerance for drug houses, they seem to attract crime.

Jerry Bishop

Chattaroy

Local law enforcement

I’ve been critical of our local law enforcement over a variety of issues the past few years. However, I have nothing but praise for their response to the recent school shooter hoax. Particularly noteworthy are the first officers arriving at Lewis and Clark High School who, believing children’s lives were at risk, charged into harm’s way to protect them and school staff. Well done to all involved!

Kirk Jackson

Spokane

Paper should be impartial

We have taken your paper for over 30 years and I would like to know why the paper won’t cover the Twitter scandal and all the emails they have found, how Twitter was black listing and censoring everything about the Hunter laptop. Twitter interfered with the 2020 election and The Spokesman-Review doesn’t cover any of it. The people have a right to know the truth. I doubt the paper will even print this letter because of it’s own political views. Even though the paper is suppose to be impartial.

Mildred Valentine

Cheney

Economy of using a heat pump

Elizabeth Wise (Letters, Dec. 10) is very wise to use a heat pump for heating her home more than with an inefficient, CO spewing oil furnace. Modern oil furnaces only reach about 80% efficiency, which in simplest terms means that for every gallon of heating oil burned, 20% of the oil goes up the exhaust pipe as wasted heat and the corresponding CO pollutant.

Oil heat is the second worst offender of wasted heat and polluter of CO, as wood heat is the worst.

Wood heat ranges from a terrible average efficiency around 15% for old masonry fireplaces to a better, but still bad, 40% to 75% efficiency with a high end wood or pellet burning stove. High quality wood or pellets with daily maintenance are needed to get anywhere close to 75% efficiency and poor quality wood, pellets, or maintenance quickly tanks their efficiencies and skyrockets CO output.

For contrast, natural gas and propane furnaces are 95% to 98% efficient and very low CO output. Electric furnaces are at zero CO output and 100% efficient but infrastructure will not support everyone going to straight electric heat anytime soon.

As for Elizabeth’s heat pump, it heats her home using 30% to 40% less electricity than an electric furnace alone and her oil furnace is only needed maybe 10% of the heating season for back up heat on frigid days when the heat pump doesn’t keep up efficiently. A little more electricity and a lot less heating oil? Great leap ahead Elizabeth. Everyone leap, please.

Jim Darby

Spokane Valley

Advice for Griner

I’ve nothing against Brittany Griner. I’m happy she’s home!

But, when I think of Paul Whalen still in prison and mass murderer of Brittany’s fellow Americans, Viktor Bout now free, I have something simple to say to her.

Never again let anything as childish as possession of recreational weed endanger or add misery to the lives of others. Instead, as Tom Hanks’ character Captain Miller said with his dying breath to Matt Damon’s character Private Ryan, “earn this!”

Joseph Booth

Spokane Valley