Letters 6/2/2025

• Save Mendo’s Water Tower
• Lake Isn’t Enough
• Fanning The Embers
• Disparaging Harris
• Bad Bogus Bill
• KZYX Moving In Right Direction
• Skyhawk Resigns
• Respect For Veterans
• Stop This Cruel Cut
• Demand On-Site Vets For Rodeos

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SAVE MENDO’S WATER TOWER

AVA,

We have a historic water tower in Mendocino that the owner, who inherited the property a couple of years ago and lives in Ferndale, was denied three times by the Mendocino Historical Review Board to demolish it.

Her name is Jennifer Raymond. She hired attorney Brian Momsen, who appealed it to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday for her. Ted Williams voted to keep it, all four of the other Supervisors voted to demolish it.

This is a large water tower on Main Street. It is part of the character of Mendocino. There is a rule in the Town Plan and Mendocino Historic Guidelines that everything in the Historic District, which has the designation as a Federal Historic District (the whole town) must be preserved.

County Planning Director Julia Krog surprisingly supported taking it down. A group of citizens may be filing an appeal with the California Coastal Commission within 10 days.

Ted Williams is in support of keeping it.

Besides mine, there were numerous other letters in support of keeping it that were submitted as public comment, and there is a Mendocino Beacon article of when the demolition was denied by the MHRB board.

The property is on the market for sale, it is a mystery as to why Jennifer Raymond is so adamant about taking it down. She lives in Ferndale, the water tower makes her property more valuable.

Here is the listing: 45040 Main Street - Pamelahudson

Thanks,

Deirdre Lamb, Broker, Mendocino Realty Company

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LAKE ISN’T ENOUGH

Editor:

Removing a dam and concurrently eliminating water storage for a drought-prone area is madness. Spending $50 million to pump “flood stage” water from the Eel River over to the adjoining Russian River basin when presumably the same flood stage events are going on down here defies description. Water storage, properly managed, helps us even out the effects of dry periods. Waiting until the drought breaks to replace water will be too little, too late.

The $500,000 study to consider expanding water storage at Lake Mendocino (offered by Rep. Jared Huffman) is a delaying maneuver. Those of us who are old enough to remember the Sonoma County “sewer wars” of the late 20th century remember it was studies that were used repeatedly to stop infrastructure development.

It wasn’t until raw sewage started oozing up in residential neighborhoods in west county, and the grand jury sanctioned a former 5th District Supervisor for his delaying tactics, that the necessary tertiary treatment sewage facilities were allowed.

If this goes ahead, the only reliable water supply left on the North Coast will be Lake Sonoma. It will not be enough.

Malcolm t. Manwell

Santa Rosa

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FANNING THE EMBERS

AVA:

When did you change your masthead? Are you no longer fanning the flames of discontent? Just wondering.

Timothy P. Furey

Longtime reader.

ED REPLY: The flames ate my fans, and reality has made most of us flame fanners, making my slogan redundant.

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DISPARAGING HARRIS

Editor:

I realize the 2024 election is over. I’m not trying to rehash it. I concede that Donald Trump won, just as Kamala Harris conceded. But I want to take a moment to touch on something. This is directed to Trump voters who have daughters. There were a lot of vile things said about Harris. From Trump saying she was “dumb” to others saying she slept her way to the top, or that she was merely a product of DEI.

Let me ask you this: If your daughter went to law school, became a respected prosecutor and then by election became the district attorney of San Francisco, then the attorney general of California (and reelected), then a U.S. senator for California and then was selected as a vice presidential running mate, won the election and served four years as vice president, how would you feel about your daughter? Would you not be the proudest parent in the world? Me too.

Then what am I missing here? Look, people have the right to disagree with any specific policy position but to support and cheerlead the baseless and vile things that were said about her is unserious and childish.

Adam Charp

Santa Rosa

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BAD BOGUS BILL

Editor,

President Donald Trump’s nightmarish “Big Beautiful Bill” feels like a multipronged assault on the American people.

If enacted, the tax and domestic spending bill will hobble the government with oceans of red ink and trillions in additional debt at higher rates, thanks to the recent Moody’s downgrade.

When combined with Trump’s disastrous tariffs and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency’s slapdash evisceration of federal spending, we’ll likely see slower growth, higher prices, more limited supplies and diminished public services.

Trump and Musk have reduced the country to an out-of-control pariah state — unwelcoming, untrustworthy and uncharitable. But it’ll be a bonanza for the likes of Trump, Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and their oligarch buddies.

John Brooks

Fairfax

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KZYX MOVING IN RIGHT DIRECTION

To the Editor:

Back when I was a KZYX Board member and John Coate was the GM, we knew that the key to the station’s survival was diversity, and by “diversity” I don’t mean the usual DEI bullshit, I mean more conservative voices. We tried recruiting more conservative hosts for public affairs shows, but none showed up. In the subsequent years, KZYX did a good job reaching out to Latinos and Native Americans — which was the right thing to do given the demographics of our county — but yet, no conservatives. No Republicans. Trump remained an anathema. The U.S. military remained an anathema. Christians remained an anathema. The rule of law, and law enforcement, remained an anathema. Corporate America remained an anathema.

KZYX politics reflected the politics of the “lib labs” of the Central Democratic Committee and the usual cabal of county and city government workers. No outreach to blue collar workers. No outreach to folks who weren’t college-educated.

“Cancel culture” and “woke politics” staged a takeover public media — not just NPR but also PBS. If you weren’t “progressive”, you were silenced. You were marginalized. KZYX marched right along with it.

Another thing: The demographics of KZYX’s audience got older and older. More and more grey hair. More balding men with ponytails. More hammer toes. More colonoscopies. More arthritis. More sciatica.

You get the point: Most NPR affiliates — not just KZYX — simply got old and arthritic (to borrow the metaphor)

I don’t know what the answer is. Kids don’t listen to the radio anymore. Maybe KZYX should build out a platform for local podcasts to go along with the radio station.

I do know one thing: KZYX’s current GM, Dina Polkinghorne is great. She fired the woke culture lunatic who was program manager, and she fired the lazy ass and cry baby who was the operations manager. She is moving the station to Philo, where no one lives, to Ukiah, our county seat. She’s building an endowment. She is building a great news department. Her production director and director of operations are brilliant.

Keep up the good work Dina. BTW, your current Board deserves much praise, too, especially for supporting you.

John Sakowicz

Ukiah

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SKYHAWK RESIGNS

Hello KZYX members and community,

This is Chris Skyhawk, I am writing to inform you of my decision to resign as a KZYX public affairs programmer, I am very disheartened with the direction the station is currently taking, I refer specifically to the recent unwarranted firing of Operations Director, Rich Culbertson by interim manager Dina Polkinghorne,

Rich was a dedicated and beloved staff member, who had an almost impossible job, with several satellite studios and outdated equipment, keeping the station on air requires a person with skill, and a supreme dedication to community-based radio, Rich fulfilled both of those categories, and he plead several times with the Board of Directors and Dina for various upgrades that would help him keep the station on air, more easily, but he was fired. It is clear that the station would rather have a scapegoat than a fix. Dina is already known for having poor management skills, for other non profits, yet the BOD allows her free rein.

This firing comes on the heals of the firing of Program Director Alicia Littletree, who also had the trust of programmers and the community. In response I organized a programmer petition, calling for remedies. It’s been signed by over two dozen current and former programers, with decades of dedication to the station , and countless thousands of hours of volunteer work for it. The petition has not generated even notice by the Board, thus necessitating my resignation;

I first became a programmer back in the 1990s when Judi Bari asked me to program “truth to power” on the fifth Fridays of months. That evolved into me becoming a monthly “Ecology Hour” host. After several years of that, due to my interest in philosophy, spirituality, and political movements, and a sincere desire to not always do shows that are preaching to the choir, I renamed my show “Universal Perspectives” and did that show up until the 2008 birth of my twins.

Then after my 2018 stroke, I had more time, and started doing UP again.

As a person who has been a community organizer in a variety of areas, being a programmer and being able to platform many people and causes over the years has been a meaningful and empowering experience for me. But the current iteration of the station is not something that I can morally or ethically tolerate. I will continue to work for the reform of KZYX but no longer work to produce content for it. And while I certainly think the station will survive my absence, I certainly hope my absence will help bring notice for the need for change!

Thank you,

Chris Skyhawk

Fort Bragg

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Marco here. Not letting good airpeople with interesting projects use KZYX for their show, and ignoring them, and kicking people out, and sabotaging them, and banning them for life simply for not quite being the right sort of people to suit the politburo of decisionmakers there did not start five minute ago, Chris. Everyone, you included, Rich C. included, who’s been there for many years looked the other way whenever it happened, and those I spoke to all nervously said the same thing to explain their lack of solidarity: “I don’t get involved in the office politics. I just want to do my show.” And yez all got to keep doing your shows, because that was the test. Now you’re oldish and tired, and you don’t wanta do your show so much as you used to, you get up on your hind legs and cry /unfair/. I want to say it’s never too late to do the right thing, but that’s not true. Because nobody with any power at KZYX, in front of or behind the curtain, has ever done the right thing, it was too late right off the bat. But go ahead, roll another manager just like all sixteen or twenty previous managers, for something to do with your fingers. Why not?

A real manager would start by paying the airpeople, even if only a pittance, a /token/ of respect. And stop lying that the membership money goes to keep the great shows on the air, when in fact all the membership dollars go directly into the private bank accounts of two people in the office suite who are barely interested in doing radio themselves, and who are so unnecessary to the operation they could just decide not to come in one day and stay home in bed with their phone off for weeks before anybody noticed and asked where they were. That’s one big difference between a worker and a so-called manager. If an airperson misses a single airdate by one minute, that’s it. That shows who’s needed and who’s not, and who should be fricking paid. The atmosphere. The fear and tense palpable angst in that place, whenever I went there. It was like walking into a wall. Can I get an out-loud amen from others who have felt that.

— Marco McClean

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RESPECT FOR VETERANS

Editor:

The National Cemetery Administration manages 156 cemeteries with 4 million graves. Established during the Civil War, it has 1,400 employees assisted by 78,000 hours of volunteer service each year. Burials are conducted by volunteers in full dress uniforms. They fold and present a large American flag to the next of kin, fire a rifle salute and play taps. It is a dignified, moving and unforgettable experience.

Many Americans have loved ones buried in these cemeteries. I have two relatives from the World War II generation at Arlington, and last year, a friend of 70 years was laid to rest at the national cemetery in Dixon. Like many Vietnam veterans, he had battled cancer from exposure to Agent Orange.

After his service, he used the GI Bill to earn a doctorate in astrophysics and taught at a university for three decades.

I encourage everyone to visit these sacred places and walk among the rows of white marble headstones. Each one tells a story. They reflect a deeply human chapter of our nation’s history. My friend’s headstone reads “Sic itur astra,” Latin for “reach for the stars.”

The cemetery administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs face threatened funding cuts. We owe it to veterans to ensure they receive the respect, care and dignity they have earned.

Eric Peterson

Santa Rosa

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STOP THIS CRUEL CUT

Editor,

By holding back funding for Alzheimer’s disease research and care, the Trump administration is destroying hope for millions of young Americans like me.

I’m 26 and lost my mother to young-onset Alzheimer’s disease last year. She started showing signs when I was just 14. It was just the two of us at home, and I was alone in dealing with her angry lash outs, confusion, anxieties and forgetfulness. At the time, her doctor told her it was just menopause that was causing confusion and stress.

Between our family’s lack of information and her doctors’ failure to test, she went undiagnosed for seven painful years. My mom went from the most caring, thoughtful, and kind woman to someone I didn’t even recognize anymore. In high school, I wondered if I was even important enough for her to care and remember things about my life.

Now, as a young woman, I and other family members have the Alzheimer’s gene and a high risk of diagnosis. We must find a cure for my family and others at risk.

Please join me in urging California’s senators and House members to fight for continued investment in Alzheimer’s research and care.

Sarah Scott

San Francisco

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DEMAND ON-SITE VETS FOR RODEOS

Editor,

Rodeo season, alas, is upon us, an activity condemned for its inherent cruelty by nearly every animal welfare organization. Rodeo is mostly hype, a macho exercise in domination.

California boasts the nation’s most comprehensive rodeo law, Penal Code 596.7, enacted in 2000, amended in 2007 to cover the hundreds of Mexican style rodeos called “charreadas.” The law forbids the use of electric prods in holding chutes and requires an on-site or on-call veterinarian at every rodeo and charreada. The law should be amended, dropping the “on-call” vet option. Racetracks, horse shows and endurance rides all require on-site vets. So should all rodeos. State rodeo law also requires that injury reports be submitted to the state Veterinary Medical Board.

These reports are public record, free for the asking. Let your state reps hear from you.

Eric Mills

Oakland