Long-term care workers

It is appalling that home caregivers have to gather signatures for a ballot measure to receive more training, and even more ludicrous that anyone would oppose Initiative 1029.

Senior citizens and individuals with disabilities always seem to be the “throwaway people.” Everyone should have the choice to receive care in their home, especially since it is more cost effective.

Everyone also deserves to know that the person coming into their home is not a felon from another state. Individuals receiving in-home care also deserve services from a quality provider. A quality provider requires just as much if not more training than a hairstylist. As it stands now, a hairstylist receives well over 300 hours of training while an in-home care provider receives a mere 34 hours. There is definitely something wrong with this picture.

I-1029 will improve training for caregivers and should be passed with a resounding yes.

Debbie Palmgren

Federal Way

Support for Skip Priest

Skip Priest has served the citizens of Federal Way with great distinction and has brought great honor to his position as our elected representative in the state Legislature.

I’ve known Skip Priest for over 15 years, chiefly because unlike some politicians, he shows up at every community event our family has ever attended in Federal Way.

Representative Priest cares deeply about our community and is easily approachable, willing to listen to concerns from all members of our city, honest in that he will tell you what he will do and won’t do and then he keeps his word.

Skip Priest’s entry on Wikipedia and Google lists just a few of his accomplishments (he’s humble and hardworking enough to leave quite a few things off the list).

Not only is our Representative Skip Priest a leader in his own political party, but has demonstrated bipartisan leadership and a spirit of cooperation at its best. Plus, he just plain gets things done.

As a longtime Federal Way and lifelong South Puget Sound resident, I urge everyone to review what Skip Priest has accomplished for our community and re-elect him.

Skip Priest is our best voice in Olympia for concerns from small business to public schools and from low-income housing and support of the South King County Multi-Service Center to environmental champion and Hylebos conservation award winner. He has received a King County Municipal League “outstanding” rating in 2002, 2004 and 2006 (each term he has served us).

Skip will never toot his own horn or tell you any of this. He truly is only concerned about Federal Way and not advancing his own political career. How fortunate we are to have Skip Priest work for and represent us. He has my vote and deserves another term in the Legislature.

John S. Jarstad, M.D.

Federal Way