Cambrian letters to the editor, Sept. 15, 2016

Rumble strip repair stops short

First, I would like to say how important I feel traffic safety is and the advantage that the addition of rumble strips along Highway 1 provides for both the motoring and bicycling public … it will save lives. I also would like to say how lucky the residents on the section of the highway between Burton and Cambria drives are for having the improper installation of the rumble strips corrected by the contractor. But what about us, Caltrans?

Those of us who live along the rest of the highway in Cambria feel slighted by Caltrans for not correcting the rumble strips along our section, too. We have also been subjected to the constant vibrating noise that these strips have caused by wayward drivers. Indeed, the rumble strips are doing their job by alerting these drivers, but now at the expense of our sanity day and night, this is noise pollution at its fullest.

During the past few weeks, there have been several stories in The Tribune about the rumble strip installation. One article had a statement by a Caltrans spokesperson who stated that the rumble strips are meant to be placed 1 foot outside of the fog line.

My question is, where was the Caltrans supervision for this installation that allowed it to be done incorrectly? This past weekend, I had to take a trip to Southern California, and where there was a rumble strip installation, it was always 1 foot outside the fog line. So, Caltrans, what about us?

Christianson gets kudos for Follies

Oodles of credit to Peggy Christianson and her team for the fabulous show they put on on Labor Day weekend (Pinedorado Follies).

Needless to say, we in Cambria are blessed to have all of this talent in our community. Thanks a million for wonderful program.

Pinedorado Follies were a pleasure

Yes, the Follies presented us with another heartwarming delightful evening of the many talents in our community. It was amazing how the group interspersed the “Wedding Party” with the dinner and involved the audience. Right when you think the Follies couldn’t get any better, it does! My husband and I enjoyed the evening immensely.

Thanks to the Lions Club with its many helpers who make the Pinedorado an event to look forward too.

A big ‘thank you’ to first responders

On behalf of the Cambria Fire Safe Focus Group, we are extending our sincere and heartfelt thanks and gratitude to all of our first responders in this past Chimney Fire experience.

Kudos go to Cal Fire, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, CHP, the assorted pilots for the planes dumping fire retardant, and the helicopters dumping water scooped out of local ranchers’ water storage ponds.

Kudos also are extended to the dispatchers who directed the planes and helicopters and the heavy-equipment operators who frantically created firebreaks to try to prevent the spread of the flames.

Kudos also to our own Cambria Fire Department and the ambulance crews from the Cambria Community Healthcare District who were on standby and at a moment’s notice were ready, willing and able to assist.

Kudos to our local residents who paid for meals at the local restaurants they owned or were patronizing.

And, certainly not least, to the staff of The Cambrian, especially Kathe Tanner, who all did a yeoman’s job, under some extenuating and sad personal experiences, in getting the most up-to-date news out to the residents of both the outlying areas as well as those living in town.

We at the Focus Group sincerely hope that our efforts at getting the information about the Ready, Set, Go program from Cal Fire helped to lessen the stress level most of us were experiencing. It certainly did for me!

Garden Club thanks community

On behalf of the Cambria Garden Club, we would like to thank everyone who visited our plant booth at Pinedorado!

What a wonderful, very busy weekend! Thank you for buying our plants, most of which were started and nurtured through the many months leading up to Pinedorado by our Garden Club members and all of which were purchased by you! Enjoy them and come to see us again next Labor Day, when we will once again be showcasing our garden plants!

A very special thanks to all who purchased raffle tickets for two lovely items made by two of our Garden Club members. The drawing was held at the close of the day Monday, and we are very happy to announce the winners, both of whom live in Cambria.

Doris Nielson won the beautiful red and gold quilt made by Pat Moreno. It will be going to her granddaughter, who is attending college.

The beautiful garden fountain covered with multicolored stones and with the very happy frog in the center was created by our very talented Kit Lamparter. It was won by Veronica Downey, who resides part time in Cambria and said she is keeping the fountain in Cambria.

The money raised through the plant and raffle sales benefits Coast Union High School with scholarships for a student or students graduating in the spring of 2017.

Thank you once again, Cambrians and visitors! Your generosity will certainly be appreciated by a local student or students heading off to college next year.

Mileur, Gray, Bianchi for CCHD

The Sept. 8 Viewpoint by Cambria Community Healthcare District Trustee Mary Ann Meyer (“CCHD should maintain its focus”) criticizing fellow Trustee Barbara Bronson Gray brings to mind Albert Einstein’s quote, “You never fail until you stop trying.”

Gray and her colleagues Shirley Bianchi, Laurie Mileur and Mike McLaughlin (recently deceased CCHD trustee) have creatively and tirelessly worked to expand quality local health care. Conversely, Meyer and her board majority associates, Kristi Jenkins and Bob Putney, haven’t tried.

Specifically, Meyer criticizes Bronson Gray for spearheading a survey that polled residents on their health care needs and wishes. Armed with the survey’s results (which unsurprisingly found overwhelming community support for expanding local health care) Gray, Bianchi, Mileur and McLaughlin have vigorously pursued expanding care locally at no expense to the district. Rather than embracing this initiative, Meyer mocks the effort and falsely claims the survey wasn’t representative.

Let’s be accurate. The survey statistically represented the community, it was available in Spanish, and everyone was invited to express their views at CCHD meetings. Few, if any, individuals complained publicly that they were not polled or that the survey’s conclusions don’t represent their positions.

Residents can make a powerful difference in their health care options. How? By supporting Laurie Mileur at the CCHD board meeting on Sept. 21 at the Old Cambria Grammar School to fill Mike McLaughlin’s vacant board seat and in November voting for incumbent Barbara Bronson Gray and Shirley Bianchi as CCHD trustees. Barbara, Shirley and Laurie will never stop trying for you.

Mileur a good choice for CCHD

The Cambria Community Healthcare District (CCHD) has an open trustee position that will be filled soon.

While multiple people may be interested in the position, one extremely qualified candidate is worth selection. As an applicant, Dr. Laurie Mileur fits the needs so well that it would be foolish not to ask that she serve, and we urge current CCHD members to appoint Laurie to the open seat when they take action on the matter.

Laurie has extensive health care-related education and experience. She earned BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees in medical dietetics, nutrition science and exercise physiology, respectively, and is a registered dietitian after her long career as a research professor at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

Dr. Mileur has been active in the community. She has worked with multiple local groups to lend her expertise in areas such as nutrition seminars and osteoporosis workshops, and was a member of the Health Professionals Committee of the CCHD.

Laurie is passionate about helping our community. She intends to promote the vision of improving health care for all members. As a mother of a fireman/paramedic, she is committed to the needs of the staff in the district along with those of health care consumers. And having already worked on significant projects such as the communitywide health care survey, she understands how things work and get done in our health care district.

On behalf of our community, the CCHD should seize this rare opportunity to appoint a candidate who can perfectly fit the CCHD trustee role!

More big bucks predicted

Thank you, John FitzRandolph, for describing the CCSD’s bureaucratic folly in your column (“Pacific Wildlife Care a contrast to bureaucratic folly,” Page 9, Sept. 8).

The Emergency Water Supply project never got a Coastal Development Permit. But that’s OK, because that project doesn’t exist anymore.

Now it’s a different project, a Sustainable Water Facility project. We Cambrians never got to comment on the switch, and we’re still paying $9 million plus interest on the emergency.

The new project is in the “Draft Subsequent Environmental Impact Report” on the Cambria Community Services District website. It’s pretty long, 2,000 pages, and makes major changes to the plant.

For example, if this gets approved, we’re going to have to pay additional big bucks for project modifications that involve four new Baker tanks, a surface water transfer pump station, a surface water treatment plant, new controls to maintain and monitor basic water levels, five interconnecting new pipelines, and trucking off brine to an unchosen spot.

That’s only 10 pages of the mitigations needed. I’ll let you know when I get the other 1,990 pages read.

Harry Farmer, Tom Kirkey and Dewayne Lee are running for CCSD board of directors. They want fiscal responsibility and no more expensive, dangerous folly.

Keep Robinette, Sanders on board

It wasn’t that long ago that Cambria’s well levels were so low that the town’s water supply might last only a few months.

The Cambria Community Services District adopted strict water conservation measures, and Cambrians responded admirably to extend the water supply. Both the CCSD and the state declared water emergencies. The CCSD completed the Emergency Water Supply project on an amazingly short schedule, providing extra water in the past year. And Cambria got some big storms early in the season that eased the water shortage. We were lucky!

Others were not so lucky. Near Fresno, many wells ran dry, and some homes have been without water. They didn’t get our rains. Moreover, they did not have someone like the CCSD managing the water supply and preparing for drought conditions with a new water source.

California’s drought is far from over, rains are unpredictable, and climate change makes it worse. Some opponents of the Sustainable Water Facility seem to think the water shortage is some kind of a hoax the CCSD created, and that no action to complete a permanent supplemental supply is needed.

We were lucky to get some rain, and lucky to have a CCSD board with the foresight to take action on the water shortage before we experience a health and safety disaster. I am supporting Gail Robinette and Greg Sanders in the coming election; both have worked tirelessly for years for a solution. It’s time to fix the problem, not fight over it until the well is dry.

CCSD board actions were inappropriate

I watched the Sept. 6 CCSD meeting in disbelief and alarm.

Gail Robinette, the CCSD board president, attempted to silence two speakers during public comment. One speaker, Christina Tobin, was providing the names of candidates running against three incumbents when Ms. Robinette informed her she couldn’t do so. Another board member bullied Ms. Tobin by subjecting her to what amounted to a courtroom cross-examination.

Such behavior by public servants is inappropriate and unacceptable. It serves to stifle public comment and makes one wonder if that is the intent of such behavior.

There are four candidates running against three incumbents. They are R. Thomas Kirkey, Dewayne Lee, Harry Farmer and Jeff Walters. Cambrians have a right to be heard rather than silenced and deserve responses to their concerns and questions. Vote in the three new board members for a majority that will listen and respond to community concerns and questions and who have the best interests of all Cambrians at heart.

Sanders, Robinette deserve election

Cambria is finally on the cusp of achieving a long-overdue solution to its seemingly intractable water resource problem. Thanks to people like Gail Robinette and Greg Sanders, we have an operating emergency water treatment plant that is moving toward permanent status. The path has not been easy; we’ve seen intense opposition from naysayers and incredible regulatory hurdles. Through it all, the CCSD board has forged a path that is financially sound and environmentally responsible.

Shelving the effort to complete the project would be a huge step backward. A reliable water system that meets Cambria’s modest consumption demands is critical to our health and economy. Fire protection efforts will be improved, and yes, having a little water for our trees and shrubs is a plus.

Retaining Gail and Greg will allow the CCSD board to see the project through to completion. Let’s move forward!

Re-elect Robinette, elect Sanders

In the past year, our CCSD board has made critical decisions, under difficult circumstances, that benefit the whole community.

While attending meetings, I have come to admire Gail Robinette’s ability to remain calm and dignified as she and the board are often faced with grade-school level personal attacks and name-calling.

As I see it, the CCSD board stood its ground and succeeded in bringing us further on the path of problem solving, especially regarding our water shortage.

Having a different policy opinion and freely expressing it makes for a better community. Vitriolic accusation is not policy, and it just isn’t nice.

My vote will go to keeping the CCSD board strong by electing Greg Sanders and re-electing Gail Robinette.

This story was originally published September 14, 2016 at 8:48 AM with the headline "Cambrian letters to the editor, Sept. 15, 2016."