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SHERIFF MATT KENDALL’S REMARKS TO THE SUPERVISORS at last Tuesday’s Supervisors discussion of the resolution to (sort of) oppose the decommissioning and removal of the Potter Valley Project dams and diversion infrastructure:
What happened to our small towns in Mendocino County. Most folks don’t realize the number of towns which have disappeared, and all but disappeared.
Places like Longvale, Leggett, Piercy, Hales Grove, Dos Rios, and Rock Port once had thriving industry. Mendocino County had a booming economy. Most folks don’t realize we have had several towns like Irmulco and Sherwood which have completely disappeared. Where did they all go? Many of the small towns we have left are simply a shadow of what they once were. Some still have a small store and a fuel station if they are located on Highway 101, many of them no longer have the economy to support even a grocery store.
Our small towns employed many people who were able to buy or build homes, raise their children and put down roots. Logging, fishing, lumber milling, cattle and agriculture fed our families and kept our homes warm. These people were the backbone of Mendocino County, now many of these blue-collar jobs are considered evil, from the looks of things they are almost extinct.
During my lifetime I have seen most of the jobs in these industries slowly go away. The loss of these industries created a vacuum and sadly much of that vacuum has been filled with criminal activity and illicit markets.
Many of our industries have been destroyed by policies and legislation. We have to face the fact that even the most well-intended legislation and policies can go too far. When a goal is accomplished, all too often the goal posts are moved forward multiple times over decades, and the result is crippling to our economy and our communities. When policies don’t want loggers removing trees from our forests, however millions of acres have now burned, it’s time to ask if the policies were actually good for our forests?
Policy decisions made which negatively affected these industries also negatively affected public safety, while destroying the environment they were hoping to protect. We have known for a long time, poverty often creates crime. People won’t go without their needs being met and many will turn to the only thing left available to them.
I continue to see the environmental degradation left in the wake of the illegal marijuana industry. Trash, blight, water diversions and illegal chemicals in areas which are extremely hard to reach are now common. Now we are all concerned about water storage and with the complex issues of dam removals looming, I pray our county won’t see continued decline in farming.
We are in a time where people don’t seem to be looking for a “win win” situation. Many of these folks people have become polarized and we see the fights between the parties have become more important than the people who are being served. It’s beginning to look like our representatives feel things have to be a “win lose” which often becomes a “lose lose” before the dust settles. LOL
As we move forward in Mendocino County, I am hopeful we can all come together and make our voices heard throughout the state. We should be demanding a balance between the environment and industry. I’m certain there is a balance we can all live with. The experiment we are currently living in isn’t sustainable and hopefully we can turn things around before we lose even more than what we have already.
THE BOOK JUGGLER (Willits): New local history from the fabulous Malcolm Macdonald, author of Mendocino History Exposed. Read all about the longest manhunt in 19th century California and a mythical encounter with the county’s most famous and least seen resident…Bigfoot!
LEGEND has it that in 1954 when Ernest Hemingway, at the time the most famous novelist in America, visited Toots Shore’s New York saloon where every New York swell, resident or visitor, made a point to be seen at one time or another, Hemingway was introduced as a famous writer to New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra who immediately asked, “What paper ya with, Ernie?”
— Allen Barra
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