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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
The plan is simple: Use local taxpayer money to provide soil, sewer, water and utilities to lure big out-of-town corporations to the undeveloped areas of Clearlake, thus putting existing local services out of business!
Many of these big businesses are chains and will bring in their own employees and management teams, so the underemployed and fresh-out-of-school youth will be encouraged to leave the county for better opportunities.
Although local officials could enact zoning that ensures new businesses could not open within a set distance from an already established business (of the same type), this might not be as advantageous to the interloper. For instance, when Starbucks and Barnes & Noble expanded their outlets, they often made sure to land right on top of a neighborhood store expressly to steal their business.
The new store should be located very close to the old store, within shouting distance if possible. Natural selection will pressure existing businesses to fold, in many cases directing profits away from the community to the larger chain. To establish the new corporate pattern quickly, the first targets should be stores that have reliably provided goods and services to the community for years – like introducing a Super Wal-Mart to compete with Rays and IGA for food; or Lowe's competing with Mendo Mill and Four Corners for hardware supplies.
The clever part is getting local taxpayers to pay for upgrading systems like water and sewer for the new business, even if this is done at a loss to the community. (Pure genius, getting the locals to pay for the store’s cost of doing business!) And if the new giant construction kills wildlife or leaks a bit of poison into the soil … well, the county can clean it up later.
If you like the idea of abandoning Lakeshore Boulevard and shopping at cookie-cutter national chains, be sure to attend the public hearing on the proposed Lowe's hardware store in Clearlake, to be held on Thursday, Jan. 7, at 6 p.m. at the Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive (corner of Lakeshore and Olympic).
Express your support for destroying local business by calling Clearlake City Council members at 707-994-8201: Curt Giambruno (Extension 151), Chuck Leonard (Extension 152), Joyce Overton (Extension 153), Roy Simons (Extension 154) and Judy Thein (Extension 155).
Janis Paris lives in Clearlake Oaks.
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- Written by: Claire Grieve
A total of 186 wreaths were made in our three day workshop with 151 of those ordered from the community.
It is no wonder that this project was so successful as 35 members worked on it.
A big thank you goes to all those who donated greenery and to those that picked it up and delivered it. Members snipped, bundled, wired, created and tied bows, took orders and then delivered them. All this effort was enjoyed by the visiting and tasting soups and goodies during the workshop.
The profits from this fundraiser enables our garden club to present two $1,000 scholarships to our local High School students. Watch for the publicity for the 2009-10 scholarships that will be available at the end of this school year; each of the high schools will have the application forms also.
For information about our garden club, visit www.clttgc.org.
The club meets at noon on the third Tuesday of the month at the Scotts Valley Women's Club House, 2298 Hendricks Road, Lakeport.
Members, guests, and all interested are most welcome. President Jo Jameson, 707-263-4039, invites interested gardeners to join us.
Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club is a member of Mendo-Lake District, Calif. Garden Club Inc., Pacific Region and National Garden Clubs Inc.
Claire Grieve is publicity chair for the Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club.
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- Written by: Dave Gebhard
Why is the county only now enforcing zoning laws, and only for this type of business? Is it just for increasing the tax base by rezoning them? If so, why not work with these business owners instead of closing them down.
True, there is now a plethora of housing out there, but low-income is still few and far between. Are we trying to force out the SSI and welfare people? They must live somewhere. Or are we discriminating and attempting to move them to Sonoma and Mendocino counties?
“Not in my backyard” is getting to be an anthem, drug programs were first on the hit parade, now long term housing in former motels.
This is not a new phenomenon, long-term tenants in motels have been part of Lake County for many years. I guarantee, most of these landlords would rather rent to transients, as the rate of return is much higher.
But except for the summer season, there is far too little transient business. Only the fishing tournaments keep the larger motels open and prosperous, but the smaller ones would go broke without the long-term tenants, and who would wash dishes, and do our yard work?
I strongly urge the county to work with these business owners, not against them.
Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport.
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- Written by: Greg Dills
When reading the article regarding CHP’s hunt for the person who dumped the vehicle in Cobb, I couldn’t help but notice one of the comments. One attitude conveyed was to forget the crime and “just tow it.” As someone who spends my time working with people who care about Lake County and the health of our watersheds, my opinion differs considerably.
I applaud Officer Tanguay’s efforts to find the criminal that abandoned the vehicle on Cobb. I can only hope that a civic-minded person will come forward with the information leading to the apprehension of the guilty party.
The “just tow it away” attitude demonstrates the lack of knowledge about illegal dumping issues in our beautiful county and state. Cleanup and removal of vehicles, tires, appliances, construction and household trash costs us, the taxpayers, thousands of dollars every year. Who do you really think pays for these services? As we face another year of budget deficits, we need to reduce unnecessary expenditures wherever we can. In this case, the vehicle could have easily been disposed of legally, at no cost to the owner, during one of the many vehicle amnesty days held countywide.
The impact of illegal dumping on our watersheds is more than the costs of cleanup and disposal. The toll on the environment is even greater. As Officer Tanguay points out, trees were destroyed in this case. Most often I’ve seen car batteries left to leach battery acid into streams, computers dumped to release heavy metals into the environment, oil and sludge to drain out of drive trains, drug labs left to poison the surface and ground water, not to mention the erosion caused by dumping these and other items in the watershed.
If you are interested in being part of the solution and not the problem, I recommend joining one of the county’s many watershed groups. These groups consist of community members interested in the health of our watersheds. Each year members of these groups organize and host cleanup events to counteract this problem. For more information about joining a group, please contact the East Lake and West Lake Resource Conservation Districts at 707-263-4180, Extension 12.
Greg Dills is the district manager/watershed coordinator for the East Lake and West Lake Resource Conservation Districts.