Posts published in “Letters to the Editor”

Apparently the efforts of the county grand jury result in nothing more than a futile exercise. The grand jury investigates selected government financed county operations and provides their findings and recommendation based on all the facts discovered and published in a public report. Whereupon the county administration goes into denial and obfuscation indicating that the grand jury has got it all wrong and the Board of Supervisors are reluctant to admit anything could be done wrong during their watch.

My doctor is Mark Apfel, wherever he may be practicing. If he is denied residency at the Boonville Clinic, I will no longer attend or support that institution and would encourage others to do the same.

A Response to the Recent Grand Jury Report about Mendocino Animal Care Services: Having been a volunteer at the Mendocino County Animal Care Services Shelter in Ukiah for the past 8 years, I feel an obligation to correct several misstatements and add a few points, in regards to the Mendocino County Grand Jury's report on, and a Ukiah Daily Journal opinion piece about, the shelter.

Don MacQueen, 88, a long-time AVA subscriber and contributor, died in Eugene, Oregon, on June 28, 2014. He was a major part of Sonoma County's literary scene in the '80s and '90s, helping found the Russian River Writers' Guild, which sponsored a lively reading series, quarterly newsletters and occasional poetry collections, notably “A Stone's Throw,” a major anthology of local poetry, including several Mendocino County writers. Don helped edit Rich Benbrook's feisty quarterly “The Tomcat,” and “Tiny Lights,” Susan Bono's periodical of short fiction. He also helped with “Green Fuse,” which published political and environmental poetry, some of which appeared in the AVA. Don's terse, witty poems appeared in virtually every Sonoma County publication of those years.

I think it is outrageous that the AV Health Care Center has suspended the dispensary of medications. This is a serious deterioration of its services. What is this useless Board of Directors thinking?

Privatization of Mental Health Services failed. Proof lies in: two Grand Jury Reports, Mental Health Board Reports, Coast Hospital Mental Health Forum List of Ortner Problems, and countless human stories of Ortner’s failures in each of your districts. You can see from Exhibit A of the Ortner contract that they are in breach of contract. What else do you want to end this mental health nightmare for people? What?