I only met John Sakowicz once. It was sometime after Wall Street and the “investment bankers” had nearly bankrupted the country — and had put the big hurt on my people — and our meeting didn’t go well. It was at KZYX, of all places. I had some biz there and while I was waiting in their waiting room I realized that Sakowicz was next door in the studio wrapping up his radio show. I’d listened to his show before and, since I’ve always admired folks who have a way with numbers, I enjoyed hearing what Sakowicz had to say. Seemed he had Wall Street expertise and finely-tuned administrative skills (life as a spreadsheet) and no doubt the dude likes spouting off and I liked that, too. Also somebody had recently written a Letter to the Editor accusing Sakowicz (the damned carpetbagger) of padding his sparkling resume and that, on balance, increased my sympathy for him. The dude must be making some kind of waves, I figured, and I’ve always been partial to that sort of person. The complacent and the apathetic are too docile to suit my tastes.
Posts published in “Letters to the Editor”
I have some news for John Sackowicz, Ukiah's self-anointed "people's tribune" and windbag-about-town, as well as for the misguided former members of Sgt. Bowe Berghdahl's unit should they happen across the AVA. Bergdahl was not responsible for the deaths of ANY American soldiers in Afghanistan. George W Bush and the neocons of the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) were the culprits who orchestrated that war as well as the one on Iraq (while taking not a single casualty) followed by Barack Obama. They are responsible for all of the more than 2000 US soldiers who died fighting a war in a country that had never attacked the United States nor threatened to do so. All of these criminals are still at large
Regarding the frost fan controversy, I’m curious about the decision-making process local grape growers used that produced giant, community-disrupting noise machines? For example, did they do any research at all into alternative, quieter wind machines such as Shur Cold Air Drains and the 4-blade Australian Frost Fans? And, if so, why did they choose the loudest alternative? Was an alternative of having more, but quieter fans rejected as too expensive? Was it a strictly bottom-line, community-be-damned decision?
As a Mendocino employee I would say your reporting on the contract negotiation snafu has been pretty accurate during the last few years. SEIU clearly staked out an adversarial position, first to stonewall the need for a pay cut, and now to restore it whether the County has the money or not.
According to Phil Frisbee, as reported in the Willits News, Caltrans plans to dig up 100,000 cubic yards of soil from the south end of Willits and dump it on the wetlands on the north end of town. They intend to start “as soon as site conditions allow.” This translates to: “As soon as that muddy, old wetlands dries up enough to support heavy equipment, we are going to take steps to kill it.”
My name is Wendy Read and I am the one who organized the community meeting last Wednesday to address the use of the nocturnal frost monsters now employed by some of the grape growers in Anderson Valley. If you live near one, you know what I mean. If you don’t, it’s difficult to impress upon you the devastating noise and vibration that roars through my home and dozens of others when these monsters are active in the wee hours of the night.
My name is Eric Arbanovella. My wife Cindy works as a Nurse Practitioner at the Anderson Valley Health Center (AVHC). I am a stay-at-home dad and a volunteer driver with the Anderson Valley Ambulance Service.
As I slumber high atop my ridge in the blissfully warm early spring morning, doors and windows open to allow the outside in, I am awakened by an all too familiar sound. You gotta be kidding me! Vineyard fans. At nearly 50°F.
Recently, after 39 years of coaching basketball at Ukiah High, the coach was, in my opinion, let go because players and their parents spoke to the principal. This is usually because they feel they don't play as much as they should and feel they are better than others. I feel the community who don't know Coach Heath should know how dedicated he is.