- A Dark Future
- Save Lake Pillsbury
- Celebrating Juneteenth
- Reparations In California
- Gav's Veto
- The Redwood Valley Elementary School Sale
A DARK FUTURE
Editor,
Dammit. It’s Sunday evening and I’m sitting here with a deep pain in my heart having just heard of a young woman who died beside her car in downtown Boonville. Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! May every billionaire, wannabe billionaire and the apologists for those self-interest asses go to hell. The degree to which we are battering the Earth we are also battering the human psyche and as our four legged, winged, swimmer and creepy crawly cousins die so do we — and far too often it is the young. Back in the Occupy Wall Street demos I carried a sign that said “Damn the source of trickle down greed.” And so it is that every single forever noxious chemical and exploitive practice at cause for our woes pours from the bowels of self-interest capital. Self-medication and drugs come out of imbalance and misery. Bad drugs come out of the greed that oozes and infects as a bad case of diarrhea — it’s a contagion that can’t be controlled with a Band-Aid or N95 mask. Greed is the worst of addictions and for certain the worst is yet to come — dammit. So with the thought of giving our young some tools to deal with the dark cloudy future maybe some guidance on how to be at peace with death might well be in order.
David Severn
Philo
SAVE LAKE PILLSBURY
To the Editor:
Lake Pillsbury from just my observation, in person, at various times in my life, is a savior to many many species of wildlife and waterfoul. Are they even being studied or considered, in the demolition of the dam?
Bald Eagles, beavers, bears, deer and other miraculous creatures live and survive, because of the lakes exsistance. I also want salmon to thrive …but at what expense, to the animals, birds and other fish species now living in the large lake and using the shores as home?
Has an environmental study been done for the many many creatures that have lived and survived until now, because the lake doesn’t go completely dry at the summer months end? We just suffered a 6 year continual drought. How is it possible for the county or state to remove water storage? Not just for us, but for the forest and lake inhabitants that have somehow survived fires and droughts? I’ve seen bears drinking the water and surrounding the lake. Seen Bald Eagles pearched in the dead fire trees. Osprey abound and dive for fish. Beavers, swim the shores and play along the lakes pristine shoreline. What about trout? Best trout in this county is at the Lake.
So take out one of our most unpolluted lakes that still exist, in this state? Please I beg, regard all wildlife and waterfoul, fish and our majestic bald eagles, in any decisions made about a beautiful and precious water sanctuary, like Lake Pillsbury. Anyone knows lakes provide a much larger food source and shore bank habitats, than a river, that bleeds dry of life giving water, in late summer months. Find another solution for the salmon…like zero tolerance of weed grows with water diverson anywhere? And maybe holding water pools, off to the side, further down the river, that keep baby salmon, viable through hot drought years. The salmon go up by instincts….let’s give them many good spots to stop before the dam. A new fish hatchery if possible? Always look for alternatives and save wildlife.
Catherine Lair
Ukiah
CELEBRATING JUNETEENTH
Editor:
I am excited to celebrate Juneteenth this year, remembering the freeing of slaves from the Democrat-controlled state of Texas by the Republican-led Union Army. I am proud to be a Republican — the party of Lincoln and the Union Army. Let us remember our country’s history and celebrate the Republican-led victory over the slave states primarily run by Democrats.
Jeff O’Brien
Petaluma
REPARATIONS IN CALIFORNIA
Editor,
Recently the state’s Reparations Commission reported its findings to Gov. Gavin Newsom. It was a years’ long study which mainly centered on wrongs endured over decades primarily by the Black American community throughout the State of California. By so-called “red lining,” the restricting of Blacks from housing purchases, they suffered..
This Commission almost totally excluded California Indians from its report. During the so=called “contact period,” roughly from about the 1830s until approx. 1925, California Indians were decimated first by smallpox, murders, forced marches, genocide, persecution, and destructions or attacks to livlihoods thru destruction of the natural habitat. Mercury poisoning, pollution of the state during the Gold Rush (appr. 1848 thru 1870) left a trail of destruction unmet in scale until the more recent annual wildfires.
In 2005 I published a book, which took many years to write, entitled “KILLING FOR LAND IN EARLY California.” The point is that unless present-day Californians first acknowledge the wrongs committed in the past, how can we ever begin to make any kind of meaningful apology?
While Blacks are certainly due some kind of reparations, Indians too deserve something.
Frank H. Baumgardner, III, Author,
Santa Rosa
GAV'S VETO
Editor:
Gov. Gavin Newsom championed the seizure of large amounts of fentanyl by the CHP in San Francisco. However, deaths from fentanyl overdoses continue to spiral upward. After losing my son to an opiate overdose, I am indignant at Newsom’s recent veto of the safe consumption site bill. The worsening mortality crisis demands much more than trying to arrest our way out of it.
There is only one way that Newsom can resuscitate my support. That would be if he actively promotes a similar bill, adding the improvements he claims the vetoed legislation needed. Otherwise, I will sadly assume that he put his political aspirations well ahead of those who have died, their loved ones and those who elected and supported him.
Dr. Wal Maack
Healdsburg
THE REDWOOD VALLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SALE [AVA Comments]
Adam Gaska Notes (regarding the pending fire sale of the old Redwood Valley Elementary School):
The old Redwood Valley school campus has a few issues. It has asbestos and lead paint. It also is limited on water availability with the equivalent of 3 domestic water hookups. Our district is currently on rationing of 55 gallons per person per day. We have been able to secure more water but need to repair our treatment plant in order to lift restrictions which should happen in a week or two. People looked at making it a community center years ago and were told tear down would cost $10 million because of the contamination.
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ms replies: The County just awarded the demolition contract for the Whitmore Lane facility, a demolition that was over specified by the costly Sacto architect, to a Lake County outfit for under half a mil. Granted it’s smaller and apparently has no lead/asbestos, but $10 mil sounds pretty high. Back in the 1990s when the late Pete Richardson got in union trouble with another Ukiah school asbestos component of a demolition contract I don’t recall the cost of that being astronomical. How confident are you of the $10 mil estimate?
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Gaska: I can ask Marvin Trotter. He was the one pushing to have the campus turned into a community center similar to the ARC in Ukiah. It did seem high to me but I am guessing that included disposal of all the material as well.
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Following Up on the Redwood Valley Elementary School sale, Adam Gaska writes:
I talked to Marvin [Trotter]’s wife, Cassie, and she said the school would cost $10 million to tear down according to Ukiah Unified School District.
The District’s 7-11 committee report, Page 52, says to bring the campus back up to par would cost $10 million in 2016. So demolition would probably be less. They probably got the numbers mixed up.
Here is a link to the sale information which includes the toxics’ report: https://www.uusd.net/apps/pages/RVES
The school has ADA compliance issues as well which would need to be addressed to reopen as a public school. They also mention water availability as an issue.
I have heard River Oak charter school is interested. I imagine they would need to deal with the ADA compliance. UUSD would have to sign off on them moving there. Where the money would come from to get it back to standard is anyone’s guess. It would cost more than $10 million today due to depreciation/continued neglect and inflation.
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James Marmon commented on the situation as well:
A good portion of that school was renovated just about 2 years before its closure. The main building may be a problem but the newer structures (classrooms) should be fine. My stepfather’s grandfather donated that land to the “Redwood Valley Community” to be used for “School Purposes.” Cassie Trotter calls me now and then about the property and recently told me that some Charter School is interested in buying the property. Apparently, the Ukiah Unified School District can’t find the deed, that’s because they probably didn’t annex it legally when they took it over. In my mind the Redwood Valley Community still owns it.
The only deed on record for the property is recorded at the recorder’s office in what’s known as the “Book of Deeds”.
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