Cambrian letters to the editor, March 17, 2016

More coordination on downed lines

Is there or should there be a courtesy protocol among PG&E, Charter and AT&T since they share poles?

A PG&E pole came down in Cambria, ripping lines and blocking a street. When PG&E began removing it some 12 hours later, the Charter and AT&T lines were cut and left scattered on the road, in puddles, bushes and trees. PG&E crew members were surprised to see a pole blocking the street with lines at knee and waist height blocking driveways and running down the middle of the street. They had been told only that there were lines in the trees. Who missed this communication item?

Some 23 hours later, PG&E had installed a new pole and restored electricity. Thirty-six hours after the incident, AT&T was out repairing its lines; 36 to 48 hours after the incident, Charter began assessment and some preliminary repairs.

Meanwhile, a succession of calls by this writer and neighbors resulted in a dizzying array of answers including, “We have no reports of outage in your area,” scheduled and missed appointments by technicians and phone representatives reading cards about turning on the TV, despite being told “we can see our ripped lines in mud puddles and on the road.”

We managed to speak with some seemingly concerned and helpful representatives as well, but they were somewhat clueless as to the extent of the problem. Getting to speak with a human is an ordeal; speaking with a local is even more unlikely. Why?

Doesn’t a utility owe it to customers to provide timely and helpful information? Couldn’t Charter take a cue from PG&E and provide those helpful texts or calls with outage updates?

Is there a role in this dilemma for government regulatory oversight? Don’t citizens and paying customers deserve better?

Connection backers thanked

The board members, staff and volunteers at the Cambria Connection wish to express our sincere appreciation to all the community merchants who support us. Special thanks go out to the Cambria Café, Lombardi’s Pasta and Pizza, Mojo’s Village Bean, the Texaco General Store, the Cambria Roasting Company, Safe at Home and the Main Street Grill. The gift certificates and merchandise you so generously donated helped make last month’s Super Bowl party fun for everyone! Thank you for helping us help our community.

The Cambria Connection is a nonprofit community resource center. We serve families and individuals seeking solutions to the challenges of aging, economic misfortune, parenting, illness, grief, alcoholism and addiction. The Connection partners with other nonprofit groups throughout San Luis Obispo County and local community organizations to offer an array of community services not otherwise available on the North Coast. Your generous donations will help us achieve our goal of being of assistance to our wonderful community.

Surcharge vote was premature

This letter addresses the Feb. 18 meeting of the Cambria Community Services District and the re-evaluation of restrictions on water usage.

At that meeting, Director Jim Bahringer suggested that surcharges in place for Cambrians who exceed their allotted water usage might be “unfair.” His opinion was based upon conversations he held with unspecified people.

Director Greg Sanders asked whether there were data available regarding the overuse of water. CSD staff stated that the information was not immediately available but could be obtained in a timely manner. In the absence of hard facts, the board voted in favor of suspending the surcharges until July. Director Amanda Rice was the only dissenting voice.

The fact that overuse surcharges have been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars indicates that there is still a significant portion of the Cambrian community that is not taking our drought seriously. The CSD should be researching the primary causes for overuse and working with those residents/businesses in lowering water use.

California is continuing statewide water restrictions through October 2016. Why could we have not waited until the surcharge data are available to make this important decision? Now there is less incentive for residents to conserve water during the drought, as there will be no penalty for overuse. This is irresponsible policy making.

Account set up to help Jimmy Welch

On the evening of Feb. 4, Cambria resident James Welch passed away unexpectedly. James (known as Jim to many of his friends) was a member of Santa Rosa Catholic Church in Cambria, where he attended daily Mass. He was a talented watercolor artist and spent his days painting the ocean and countryside around Cambria.

James was dad and caregiver to Jimmy Welch, 17, who is a senior at Coast Union High School. Jimmy is receiving emotional support from Father Mark of Santa Rosa Church; his mother, Sophie, of Santa Cruz; the DiMaggio and Chisler families; the Rev. Theresa Desmond and Kathy Preciado, all Cambria residents. He and Sophie have also received many generous meals and local restaurant gift cards from Cambria friends.

Jimmy will be finishing up his year at Coast Union High School and then will be off to college. Jimmy has applied to the University of Southern California, five University of California campuses, two California State University campuses and Cuesta College. He is waiting to hear about acceptance.

We ask the community to kindly consider a donation to the James Welch Memorial Account, which has been set up at Heritage Oaks Bank in Cambria. Gifts can be deposited at any Heritage Oaks branch. The money will be used for cemetery expenses. The remainder will be saved and used for Jimmy’s college education.

Please consider helping this fine young man with his college fund. He is a wonderful person and is well loved by community adults, his teachers and his peers.

Less national politics, please

I subscribe to The Cambrian because I love to read your articles about our local events: wildlife activities, the weather, art festivals, gardening tips, real estate and views on our local water-issue debates. I do not subscribe to The Cambrian to read long-winded opinions on national politics. Based on The Cambrian’s traditional content, I just don’t see that type of material as being appropriate here.

In your March 10, 2016, edition, page 8, John FitzRandolph’s tag line says he is a writer who “covers sports for The Cambrian.” What do his personal political views have to do with sports? And what do his political views have to do with “Pacing Through the Pines” for that matter? This is not the first time that Mr. FitzRandolph has inappropriately veered off from the topic of sports or local wildlife, and I’m tired of it. If The Cambrian is going to morph into a national political rag, then two things should happen: (1) it should objectively strive to cover all views, equally, not just the views of the left; and, (2) I should let my subscription lapse — because there are many alternative, and far more complete, sources of political information out there; this is simply not why I signed up for The Cambrian.

This story was originally published March 16, 2016 at 9:10 AM with the headline "Cambrian letters to the editor, March 17, 2016."