Board Notes 031511
Board Notes 041611
The Board of Supervisors met Tuesday, March 15th in Loyalton at the Social hall. All Supervisors were present. I was there, this is what I saw, other people might have seen something else, and I have a mind like a steel sieve.
The supes said the opening Prayer of Allegiance to the Flag, but some in the room believe this is praying to a graven image (though “sowen image” would be more correct, nothing was graven) and those people put their hands over their hearts and silently recited the words to Onward Christian Soldiers, which is the anthem of Radical Christlam.
The Chair asked the public if there were any comments on issues NOT on the agenda, and to everyone’s amazement, there were!
A gentleman named Dave McClure came forward to tell the Board about a biomass plant the county of Placer intends to build at King’s Beach, Tahoe.
Mr. McClure thinks this is a bad idea; he also pointed out that it would pull biomass from the Loyalton SPI Cogen plant. We don’t like the sound of that. Learn more about this at www.ntcaa.org and www.friendsoflaketahoe.org .
Next was a perky older woman named Sandy Halberson, who identified herself as being from a watchdog group. She was there to watchdog the Board. As representatives from both the Mountain Messenger and the Sierra County Prospect were there, hungry for news, the Board already felt as watchdogged as they could get.
Julie Osburn from Friends of Independence Lake was present to encourage the Board to learn more about “coordination” which causes those using federal funds, like the Forest Service, to meet with local officials.
Under Board reports, it was mentioned that a meeting between the Forest Service and Sierra County water rights holders about Perazzo Meadows didn’t go well. Feinstein will be approached for help. Tom McClintock has already shown a willingness to take on the Forest Circus.
Under Department Manager Reports, Dr. Carol Roberts reported that those worried about nuclear fall-out from the many exploding Japanese nuclear reactors should call 916-341-3947 to learn more.
Tim Beals, Director of Planning, Building Inspection, and Public Works mentioned that the Department of Reclamation is going to raise Stampede Dam 15 feet in case there is a 7500 year flood event. They want to know if Sierra County would like to be the lead agency on the CEQA document. They also offered $10 each for any $20 gold pieces we might have laying around and wondered if we’d let their brother-in-law move in, just until he gets on his feet. The Board thought about it for a moment and laughed and laughed.
Mr. Beals reported that some of the Northern timber counties were getting together to find a political solution to the Forest Service Travel Prevention Program. He also stated that Intermountain Disposal charges more if the trash can is larger than 32 gallons. This has nothing to do with the county.
Stan Hardeman approached the Board to say that Secure Rural Schools is going to go through a graduated sunset, and most likely our local schools will close at that time unless there is a miracle.
The Board then discussed the Teen Center. Supervisor Goicoechia chose his words carefully, dancing like a horse all bug eyed by a rattlesnake. He was so smooth he made hardly any sense. There was consensus, he tells us, consensus between players. There is agreement that there is consensus, though not everyone agrees to the same consensus. The schools are involved, Health and Human Services is involved.
Clearly, the Teen Center is a bad idea. There aren’t enough teens to use it, older teens don’t like to use it and don’t need it if they have a car, kids from other parts of the county probably wouldn’t travel to use it.
Even so, there is money out there for it, and Dr. Roberts has worked to set it up, and kids from the high school have made presentations, so there you go, a teen center.
Next, the Title X funding was discussed. See the story HERE.
There was a long, dodgy conversation about county contracts during which people began pointing fingers at each other at such a rate that some fingers were left over when it was done and the owners had to be sorted out. It isn’t the department heads’ job to read all the contracts, they aren’t lawyers. Jim Curtis doesn’t have time to read every contract line by line. It’s on the supes if they approve a contract that blows up and sinks the general fund. Supervisor Goicoechea stated that the Board needs to know more about contracts before they approve them, because they assume that staff have done a professional job in reviewing the contracts before they go to the Board for approval. I thought I heard, though I may have been wrong, I thought I heard Mr. Curtis say “You touched it last.” We had no idea that was actually a legal term.
At that point, Goody Twoshoes, Director of Dirty Laundry, reminded everyone that this was a public meeting and there were press people poised to write down everything they were going to say, should they accidentally say something, and maybe they should discuss this somewhere the public never goes.
Like we didn’t know no one was reading the contracts! They are what they are, every county signs the same contracts, take it or leave it.
There may have been more; this reporter checked out and went to his happy place before his will to live could be damaged.
