Letters 8/13/2025

• Memo Of The Week
• Trump Can’t Stop Tilting At Windmills
• Eye Of The Beholder
• Felonious Politicians
• Rural Residents Need Landline Phones
• IOC Should Pull Olympic Games
• Mendocino Preservation Fund
• Grateful For The Dead
• How Much Guvmint?
• The Politics Of ‘We’re Not Him’
• Trump Could Use Some Help With His Arithmetic
• Trump’s Harsh Policies Are Causing Malnourishment

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MEMO OF THE WEEK

Anderson Valley Fire Department

Annexation Update

July 28, 2025

Dear Property Owner,

Over the past decade, the Anderson Valley Fire Department (AVFD) has been working to officially include areas outside our current legal district boundaries that already receive our fire and EMS services. The proposed annexation area is 117 square miles and surrounds our existing 159-square-mile fire district. All properties within this proposed area currently receive the same emergency 911 response as those already within our district.

Since AVFD is the agency that will be called to emergencies on your property, we believe it's reasonable and appropriate to formally include your property within our legal district. This would allow a portion of your existing property taxes, which you already pay to Mendocino County, to be reallocated directly to AVFD for such services.

Currently, Mendocino County collects your property taxes, and unlike properties within our established district, none of these revenues are allocated to AVFD. Our annexation proposal aims to formally transfer fire and EMS authority to AVFD for these areas and to allow us to receive the existing property tax rate that the rest of the district property owners currently pay. This proposal would not add any new or extra taxes to property owners. As Mendocino County does not operate its own fire department, this transfer would simply formalize the responsibility for fire and EMS response to the agency currently providing these vital services.

Our previous annexation proposal in 2016 was refused. Again, in 2025, after two years of extensive administrative effort, the county has declined to support this annexation unless AVFD assumes full fire department authority without any percentage of existing property tax allocation. This situation means that residents within our current district are effectively subsidizing emergency services for outlying areas. Unless the county changes its stance, we will be legally required to enter into annual contracts for these services, year after year.

Please feel free to contact AVFD if you have any questions. If you have concerns or complaints, we encourage you to reach out to your Mendocino County Supervisor.

Respectfully,

Andrés Avila, Executive Director / Fire Chief

Anderson Valley Community Services District / Fire Department

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TRUMP CAN’T STOP TILTING AT WINDMILLS

Editor:

In Scotland, Donald “Don Quixote” Trump addressed European Union leaders with a long diatribe about windmills. They remained silent while he talked. No one in that room would believe that this is a rational man. He is an embarrassment to our country. Striking out at imaginary enemies is all that he knows. Whether it is some crazy accusation against former President Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or James Clapper or John Brennan or Jerome Powell, he never stops. While serious issues like the war in Ukraine continue, he just keeps “tilting at windmills.”

Gary Harris

Forestville

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EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

Editor,

Regarding “We have seen better days, San Francisco” thank you, Carl Nolte, for your notes about the “new” city without criticizing anyone.

I prefer Russell/Woolpert over Chase Center, Tony Ponce pitching both ends of a doubleheader at Seals over $18 beers at Oracle, and George Christopher over any other mayor.

But today’s 20-year-olds will have their own nostalgia someday and I hope it’s as happy as mine.

Mark Allan

Inverness Park

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FELONIOUS POLITICIANS

Editor,

While Trump supporters like to sling accusations at the undocumented, we should note that they do not qualify for government assistance. None. (Documentation is required.) On the other hand, the IRS and the Department of Labor record information on their activities. IRS and Department of Labor records indicate that they seek work, and when their employer writes a check, they deduct Social Security and income taxes, which the laborer cannot collect. A paycheck is evidence that the poor pay taxes, which is what wealthy citizens, like Donald Trump and Elon Musk, do not; let’s not ignore that the poor’s taxes fund programs like NASA, a program that Musk collects money from. Wealth gives many Americans a good reputation, most of which they do not deserve. While the conservatives demonize the defenseless, they rob them of due process. And yes, if voters are searching for role models, they should look no further than the victims of conservatives’ lies.

Joe McCarthy died many years ago, his republican tactics live on.

Tom Fantulin

Fort Bragg

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RURAL RESIDENTS NEED LANDLINE PHONES

Editor:

There is a particularly pernicious bill making its way through the state Senate that would have serious implications for Sonoma County during emergencies. It is AB 470, which would leave rural and low-income communities without reliable home phone systems and location-specific 911 services. This bill was written for AT&T.

Many Sonoma County residents rely on copper wire phone services, the most reliable during disasters such as wildfires or floods. They also allow first responders to know the exact address of a call to 911. AB 470 would allow AT&T and other conglomerates to abandon copper wire lines. They’ve already started in some of the areas of Southern California devastated by recent fires.

The good news is that our state senator, Mike McGuire, is well situated to help prevent this bill from passing. If you are concerned about emergency notifications in the event of a natural disaster, if you have someone in your household who may need to rely on emergency personnel responding to a 911 call, if you are concerned about the county’s ability to organize a safe and effective emergency evacuation, please email McGuire’s office and ask him to oppose passage of AB 470, [email protected].

Phil Grosse

Petaluma

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IOC SHOULD PULL OLYMPIC GAMES

Editor:

The International Olympic Committee should pull the Games and give them to another city, region, country, especially if the MAGA/Trumpian policy of keeping all sorts of people out of our country is still in force.

Reassigning the games won’t happen, of course — the IOC is not high-minded enough to do it — but Trumpian exclusions and expulsions on the basis of skin color, accent, national origin are exactly counter to what the Olympics should be about, the youth of the world meeting in friendly competition.

Bruce Colman

San Francisco

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MENDOCINO PRESERVATION FUND

Update on the Fight to Save the Main Street Water Tower!

There’s great news to share: The Mendocino Preservation Fund has secured an agreement and court order from the Mendocino County Superior Court that prohibits alteration or demolition of the historic water tower on Main Street in Mendocino while our lawsuit to enforce environmental laws proceeds. The Mendocino Historical Review Board repeatedly denied the demolition request but was overruled by the County Board of Supervisors.

We formed the Mendocino Preservation Fund to defend exactly this kind of irreplaceable historic structure and preserve the character of the town we all love. Your donations are invaluable in providing the resources needed to keep Mendocino the special place that it is.

How You Can Help

Mail a check to:

Mendocino Preservation Fund
PO Box 556
Mendocino, CA 95460

Or drop off a check at any Savings Bank of Mendocino County branch

Online: gofund.me/639a4744

Thank you for standing with us to protect the heart of Mendocino for this generation and the next.

The Mendocino Preservation Fund Board
John Cavanaugh, Lee Edmundson, Blair Foster, Ed O’Brien, Dan Potash

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GRATEFUL FOR THE DEAD

To the Editor:

Jerry Garcia was one of the greatest improvisational musicians of our time. He was, in my opinion, up there with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and John Coltrane. When we celebrate his justly enduring legacy, that’s what we should focus on — not his “political legacy.”

The notion of Jerry Garcia as a hippie avatar after the mid-’70s is absurd. Jerry designed ties, for gosh sakes. His family sells everything Jerry-related on a website today. He was, in his own way, a capitalist. That he “exercised freedom rather than waiting on the government to grant it” is hardly distinctive to any great artist. But his solo on “Morning Dew” at Cornell ‘77 — that was distinctive.

Matt Adler

Voorhees, New Jersey

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HOW MUCH GUVMINT?

To the Editor:

I am a boomer and a child of the 1960s, not quite a Deadhead, though I like some Dead music very much. So on the whole I get the sentiment expressed in Jim Newton’s essay. But even Jerry Garcia appreciated clean water when he turned the taps, a flushing toilet that took waste away and that traffic lights and walk signs at intersections were (for the most part) obeyed.

So while it’s true that the scene in San Francisco in the 1960s promoted “a self-contained, self-regulating community,” it is a myth to argue that it was “largely beyond the reach of state and federal authorities.” Then, as now, the ever-present question is: What is the appropriate role for government in our lives?

Harvey M. Jacobs

Rochester, N.Y.

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THE POLITICS OF ‘WE’RE NOT HIM’

To the Editor,

I think this online exchange is somewhat relevant to the national political moment we find ourselves in.

Hello N, about where do we go from here?: I’l start by suggesting we reform the DNC, and back off the Trump outrage thing a little bit this is the party and DNC, they gaslit us all by telling us Genocide Joe was mentally fit, so they didn’t even have a primary or hold a debate and when their lie was exposed, literally appointed KH, a woman who did not even make it to her California home state primary when she ran for Prez. In some backroom deal, while saying they were defending “democracy” I think their hypocrisy did them in!

And even after her “appointment” she continued to vow support for Israel, and their ongoing genocide, a position wildly unpopular with the Public, it may have cost her the election, it certainly cost her Michigan, so on an issue she could have created ideological space between herself, her boss and T-rump, she could not bring herself to speak up for Palestinian children, it makes me wonder if you or any of your friends on team blue, have a moral red line on any issue, but you guys did get the endorsement of Darth Vader aka Dick Cheney, so hello you got that one goin’ for ya’, and I think Colin WMD Powell prefers you guys too,

The entire strategy of the corporate captured DNC is predicated on T-rump being a felonious S!@# bag. Well hello Capt. Obvious! And on social media I watch in horror as you guys stoke the fires of your outrage, but do nothing to reform the party that keeps losing to him. YOUR party embraces the ideology of “free” trade, Clinton, Obama, etc, sent millions of Jobs overseas, decimating entire communities, and embraced the concept of forever wars, spending trillions of dollars while killing millions of people, and then my supposedly intelligent friends can’t seem to understand how a Demagogue, gets traction? C’mon!

Here’s a book I recommend, I first read it many years ago, but fair warning , it’s the most painful book I’ve ever read. The author meticulously deconstructs the corporate takeover of the DNC, rather than getting endorphin hits by posting against book bans, I suggest people actually read this one. Then you might begin to understand why the Orange man keeps whipping you guys!

https://moonpalacebooks.com/item/Il6kMAbOMSfZ9YkttzkeCQ

Chris Skyhawk

Fort Bragg

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TRUMP COULD USE SOME HELP WITH HIS ARITHMETIC

Editor:

As a retired math teacher, I am both amused and horrified by President Donald Trump’s math failure. He says he is going to reduce pharmaceutical drug prices by up to 1500%. If you have one whole object, you have 100% of it. If you cut 10% off, you still have 90%, and so on. The most you can get rid of is 100%, or all of it. Not even Trump can do more than that, and to say so is either ignorance or lying, or maybe in this case it is both. Don’t be surprised if the next insurrection is from a bunch of math teachers.

Dennis Fitzgerald

Melbourne, Australia

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TRUMP’S HARSH POLICIES ARE CAUSING MALNOURISHMENT

Editor:

I woke up to see Donald Trump in Scotland saying his administration is going to spend $40 million to help the starving children in Gaza. This is the same man who eliminated the U.S. Agency for International Development — the very agency designed to feed hungry children around the world. We’ve just heard how the Trump administration is destroying food designed to feed malnourished children that was already purchased by the government. On top of this, Trump is slashing SNAP (food stamps) and other child nutrition programs that help feed hungry people, mainly children, here at home. All this in the name of eliminating waste and fraud. Note that the total USAID budget was less than 1% of the federal budget. The same with SNAP. Eliminating these programs is not going to balance the budget or reduce the deficit. His sudden concern about starving, dying children in Gaza is pure hypocrisy. It fits into the current news cycle, but it’s not sincere. His actions prove that.

Bud Johnson

Lower Lake