July 26, 2011

Liz Writes Life

Liz Bowen lives near Callahan, CA. and helps individuals write autobiographies/biographies. Check out her garden photos at: www.lizbowen.com   

Events

The rip-roaring Old Time Rodeo is this Saturday at 5:30 p.m. in Etna. Entries for the Kids’ Calf Riding and Mutton Bustin’ are at 3 p.m. at the concession stands.

John Menke Ph.D. and rancher from Quartz Valley will speak at the Yreka TEA Party July 26 at 6:30 p.m. Dr. Menke will share info on the fraudulent science being used against agriculture. The meeting is held at Decision Life Church at 1301 S. Main St, where the Gil’s Farm and Garden was located years ago.

Oh, I learned from Christopher Liles last week that he was in a terrible single car accident, when he hit gravel on a turn on Eastside Road and smacked a tree. He called again on Sunday night and sounded pretty darned good, even though his leg is crushed and in bad shape. He is in Linda Vista in Ashland.

POW meeting

Our Scott Valley Protect Our Water meeting was a hit with over 120 folks showing up. The meeting rolled along pretty smoothly as we discussed the problem with Pacific Power rates and PUC; the $150 fee that will be assessed to private rural parcels, with a home, for fire protection costs by the state Cal-Fire; and a new Water Quality Control Board letter sent to Jerry Bacigalupi. We also talked about the Keith Darrah case, Dept. of Fish and Game’s newest letter to irrigators; and the redistricting boundaries for voting districts.

Siskiyou County is now back together and out of the coastal districts, but Erin Ryan, from the Redding TEA Party, explained her group is working on getting Shasta County put back on the I-5 corridor as it has been put in with the coastal districts.

Brian Petersen, from the State of Jefferson, talked about creating a network to fight against the Monument designation and Danielle Lindler, from KARE, explained how KARE has been working diligently against the Monument.

Tom Pease announced he is running for a seat on the County Water Master Service District board. The voting for this board will be during the November election.

John Menke attended the RiverKeepers court case last week against the Farm Bureau and explained the Greenies lost their case to become “interveners” in the Farm Bureau lawsuit against the Dept. of Fish and Game. Yea!

Lots of folks brought desserts, so I suggested that the audience should start eating, but we needed to continue. Good manners were in evidence as folks did begin deciding on which goodies to enjoy, but listened as Mike Duguay reported about the special Task Force that critiqued the NOAA Coho Recovery Plan. The Task Force did an incredible job in 10 days reviewing a 2,000 page document.

Then it was time for property rights attorney Fred Kelly Grant, who was in Siskiyou County the entire week speaking at many meetings regarding coordination. Siskiyou will be Fred’s poster child for his Trademark America, Inc. Foundation to utilize this tool called “coordination,” which brings state and federal agencies to the local level and be “consistent” with local policy. Copco Volunteer Fire Department is now coordinating and attended our POW meeting.

Sheriff Jon Lopey was appreciated as he shared how he understands coordination and is already sitting at the table in these government-to-government meetings. As you can tell, we packed a tremendous amount of info into two hours and still had time for Pie N Politics afterwards. Check out www. pienpolitics.com for more.

POW and the Siskiyou County Water Users Assoc. are sharing a booth at the Siskiyou Golden Fair Aug. 10-14 in the commercial building. Stop by and see what our theme is!

Darrah case

Hypocrisy was in full force at the board of sups judicial procedure last week on the appeal by Keith Darrah for shutting down his business. First, this is not a lawsuit. Darrah has not sued the county. He has appealed their decision to shut his business down, which claims he was surface gravel mining on his construction site. Second, according to witnesses at the hearing, I learned that all the things he was doing at the construction site were legal under state regulations. Third, I learned that Supervisor LaVada Erickson told county staff to “go after” Darrah. Why you ask? Well isn’t it odd that Erickson has a trucking business that hauls for Darrah’s competitor, Sousa Ready Mix. A witness also testified the county purchases gravel from competitor Sousa, but has never purchased from Darrah.

This just stinks as the county has authorized $233,000 of our tax dollars for private attorneys in defending their position. Oh, and the hearing was continued to September, so the board will likely be authorizing more funds to persecute Darrah. I allege the board of sups is covering up a case of good-ol’-boy-only-gets-to-be-in-business, but this time it is “good ol’ gal.” Erickson did not run in the last election.

 

Liz Bowen lives near Callahan, CA. and helps individuals write autobiographies/biographies. Check out her garden photos at: www. lizbowen.com