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Letters
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- Written by: Tobie Edmonds
Lake County Fire Protection District quickly responded to the incident and initiated treatment upon their arrival. I was transported to St. Helena Hospital Clearlake by Lake County Fire Protection District medics.
Due to bad weather conditions in Sacramento and Santa Rosa I was unable to be airlifted to trauma centers in those cities. Instead I was airlifted to Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport which is a lower level trauma center then the ones located in Sacramento or Santa Rosa.
The cost of the flight from Clearlake to Lakeport was $24,000. Injuries sustained included back, chest and neck pain as well as difficulty breathing. It is unknown at this time if there will be any long-term effects from the injuries sustained.
Like many other Americans I have no medical insurance and may have to pay all the medical expenses myself unless the other driver's insurance pays. I am also now without a vehicle to go to and from work, doctors appointments, or to get my kids to and from school.
Highway 53 at Olympic Drive is a dangerous intersection for anyone who has to travel it. There is great risk for anyone who has to enter or exit the highway to turn onto or from Olympic Drive due to the cross traffic on the highway traveling at 55 miles per hour with no traffic control devices such as stoplights to allow traffic to safely enter or exit the highway.
Being such a hazardous intersection and having been fortunate to have survived a serious accident in that intersection I fully intend to seek improvements at this location before someone else in unfortunate enough to be seriously injured or even killed.
I intend to meet with Caltrans, the county Board of Supervisors, and the city of Clearlake to seek improvements and encourage any other accident victims or family members of victims that have lost their lives to join me in bringing about these improvements.
Tobie Edmonds lives in Lucerne.
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- Written by: Broc Zoller and Toni Scully
Agricultural spray operators are trained to always be observant, especially at the end of rows with the potential for passing cars. It can be difficult while negotiating a turn to cut off spray manifolds at the precise time to prevent movement of fine spray near the ends of rows. This challenge can be compounded by the speed of oncoming traffic. The operators accomplish this task most of the time without incident.
Signs are placed at the spraying sites so that passing motorists can be reminded to be watchful for a sprayer that may be nearing the end of a row, or for droplets that may not have completely settled. We certainly do not want to spray cars, and we ask passing motorists to assist us in this effort by proceeding slowly and perhaps waiting for unintended residue to settle. Please bear with the farmers and spray operators trying to do a good job while being sensitive to the needs of people passing through our rural areas.
It sometimes does take a number of spray trips through an orchard or vineyard in the course of a season to avoid many plant diseases and insect perils. Pears, in particular, are a very difficult crop to produce, owing to a number of potential problems. The pear industry has been extremely proactive over the last 30 years in funding research (primarily with the University of California) to reduce pesticide usage for pest and disease management.
These integrated pest management (IPM) methods have included the development of weather-based disease control models for bacterial and fungal diseases which require exact timing of preventative treatments based on weather conditions. Lake County pear growers were instrumental in developing mating disruption techniques for control of our primary insect pest, the codling moth. This technology has greatly reduced the number of sprays required to protect the crop from destructive worms.
The pear industry is committed to funding ongoing research toward improved cultivation methods and spray reduction in the face of increased concern about the use of pesticides and the spiraling cost of these materials. These efforts have resulted in the California pear industry being awarded a national USEPA Environmental Stewardship Award in the 1990s and in the Lake County pear industry being chosen as recipients of two statewide CDFA Integrated Pest Management Innovator Awards in the 2000’s.
As a result of this work control sprays which remain necessary continue, but at lower levels with decreased frequency. Our new “softer” chemicals are specific to various pests and break down naturally in the environment and more rapidly than many older materials no longer used. They are applied only when indicated after careful monitoring of insect traps and bacteria counts as predicted by weather models.
We continue to fund research to be good stewards of the land, to improve our farming methods, and to work to keep Lake County a place in which we are all pleased to live and work.
Broc Zoller lives in Kelseyville and Toni Scully lives in Finley.
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- Written by: Ron Green
In a newspaper story on Jan. 15, 2010, concerning the Dinius suit against District Attorney Jon Hopkins and other Lake County authorities, Hopkins is quoted as saying: "There's absolutely no truth to anything they say."
Well, Jon, when you stick your glass jaw out like that begging to be hit, I feel that I simply must oblige.
So, Jon, disregarding all the other allegations, are you saying that I just imagined that you published a lengthy open letter pushing your view of the Dinius case in the Lake County News and the Record-Bee while the jury was being selected? And, I suppose I imagined that it referred to Dinius as a "drunken sailor"?
Hopkins made a mess of the Dinius case because of stubbornness, incompetence and extremely poor judgment. Based on his demonstrably false statement that "there's absolutely no truth to anything they say," it is clear that Hopkins is continuing to exercise very poor judgment and just doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut and say "no comment."
Ron Green is an attorney who lives in Lower Lake.
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- Written by: Philip Murphy
Supporters argue that the project will bring jobs, competition and sales tax revenue lost to other counties back to Lake County, and the city administrator claims it's the city's only hope to avoid bankruptcy.
These commonly held beliefs have a common thread, as when examined more closely they all fail to pass muster.
This debate isn't about simply whether or not a new hardware store will be good idea, as this project will mean several new businesses will be located at the Pearce Field site, which will likely be more national chain retail stores and fast food restaurants, meaning other local businesses besides lumber yards will get hammered too.
We need to decide if we want to follow the model of many areas across the country where they've replaced their local economy with a generic corporate American version, which leaves one town indistinguishable from another with their cookie-cutter like sameness.
It must also be considered if sending many more millions of dollars out of the county every year to giant corporations forever is better than investing it in our own communities where it gets recycled many times over, creating more jobs and growth.
Local hardware stores have stepped up and done a good job of keeping the losses to Mendocino stores down to a minimum by making big investments in their stores without enormous government handouts, so a new Lowe's store will do little to keep tax dollars here and will mostly just take them out of the county's coffers and cripple or kill off local competitors – meaning less variety and competition.
It seems likely that few if any jobs will actually be created by Lowe's since there will certainly be many jobs lost at their competitors, plus the best-paying management jobs tend to go to people who transfer here, not locals.
For the city of Clearlake there is also the question if they want to spend their last redevelopment dollars available to further relocate their center of commerce to the highway and ruin the chances of the merchants along Lakeshore Drive to survive by reducing travel down that street while completely ignoring the Vision Task Force's plea to make saving downtown a top priority.
It is almost beyond comprehension that spending millions of local tax dollars to help national chain stores bankrupt local businesses would even be seriously considered by anyone here, but sadly that is the case.
If the city was really serious about saving money they would cut the lush benefits for council members, lower the city administrator's pay and hire the sheriff's department to do policing.
It's time to decide, folks: Do we put our fate in the hands of our friends and neighbors on Main Street or do we entrust our future to the people sitting in corporate boardrooms in far-off places?
Philip Murphy lives in Lakeport.