Your account does not include highlighter on images.
Searches Highlighted on Image
National Sponsors
| March 2, 2011 Indian Valley Record |  |
|
©
Indian Valley Record. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 16 (16 of 28 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
March 2, 2011 |
|
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader 
|
8B Wednesday, March 2, 2011 Bulletin, Progressive, Record, Reporter
EI)ITORIAL and
OPINION
EDITORIAL
Piledhigher
and deeper
Following last week's editorial about the
county declaring a snow day for ';non-essential"
employees, County Administrative Officer
(CAO) Jack Ingstad posted the following state-
ment on the county's website Feb. 23.
"Another foot or more of snow is expected to
fall in Plumas County beginning Thursday. A
decision was made by the CAO last week, in ac-
cordance with our personnel handbook, to close
county offices for inclement weather. The
weather service stated an hour prior to making
the decision 'a significant winter storm or haz-
ardous winter weather is occurring, imminent,
or likely, and is a threat to life and property.'
"In response to employee complaints, the dif-
ficulty of making the decision, and the public's
perception, the CAO has further defined the
calling of a snow day with an e-mail to depart-
ment heads, The e-marl was sent in anticipation
of another winter storm scheduled to hit
Plumas County on Thursday with more than a
foot of snow.
"Employees that cannot work due to in-
clement weather conditions must obtain autho-
rization from their Department Head to remain
offwork using compensatory time off, vacation
or unpaid leave. Time cards must reflect this
leave accurately. Authorization to remain off
work shall not be withheld if the employee can-
not drive safely to work. This requirement is
consistent with the county's personnel hand-
book.
"The CAO will no longer declare a snow day if
public safety and snow plow drivers are work-
ing. In the event the Sheriff and Public Works
remove their employees from the roads due to
inclement weather, the CAO will then consider
calling a snow day. The change in past practice
of calling a snow day is an effort to balance the
safety of our employees with fairness to those
that are required to remain during the in-
clement weather."
Last Friday, Feb. 25, was a snow day -- by
anyone's criteria -- in Quincy. The entire town
was out of power from 7:30 a.m. until early af-
ternoon. The 30 inches of snow that fell Thurs-
day night left many people unable to get out of
their driveways. We know someone who even
tried to ski to work and. couldn't make it. Our ..... --)t
point is that there ts a differetmd between being"
unable to work and it being inconvenient to
work.
And then there are those who work no matter
what: sherifffs officers, California Highway Pa-
trol, Caltrans and public works snowplow dri-
vers, and PG&E service workers (some of
whom, we're told, rode snowcats for three hours
just to get to the scene of downed lines).
Contending with the elements is part of living
in the mountains. Mountain folks are hearty,
resourceful people. By and large, everyone was
back to work and all services functioning with-
in a day of the latest big storm. Why? Because
that's what we do.
00paper
f Breaking News ....
go to plumasnews.com
Michael C. Taborski ............. Publisher
Keri B. Taborski ...Legal Advertising Dept.
Delaine Fragnoli ........ Managing Editor
Alicia Knadler ........ Indian Valley Editor
M. Kate West ............. Chester Editor
Shannon Morrow .......... Sports Editor
Ingrid Burke ................ Copy Editor
Staff writers:
Joshua Sebold
Will Farris
Sam Williams
Barbara France
Susan Cort Johnson
Kayleen Taylor
Ruth Ellis
Brian Taylor
Pat Shillito
Christian Young
Diana JorgensOn
Mona Hill
Feather River
Bulletin
(530) 283-0800
Lassen County
Times
(530) 257-53211
Portola Reporter
(530) 832-4646
Westwood
PinePress
(530) 256-2277
Chester Progressive
(530) 258-3115
Indian Valley
Record
(530) 284-7800
Check
Out Our
] 'o we haue a national uision?
MY TURN
DIANA JORGENSON
Portola Editor
djorgenson@plumasnews.com
A couple of months ago I read on an Inter-
net news source that the recession was over.
I was very, very happy to hear it. But before
I could get too excited, I read further: "But
the effects of this would not be seen for
three years."
So, what does that mean exactly? The re-
cession is over, but it will still look like a re-
cession, feel like a recession and continue
on in the current dreary state of high unem-
ployment, few jobs and a never-ending
stream of local foreclosures?
Should I be happy now or should I wait
three years?
I was, however, stopped short by the idea
of an event that could apparently not be
seen, but could still be noted by financial ex-
perts, and effects that wouldn't manifest --
until years later.
The parallel with the children's story
"The Emperor's New Clothes" comes rather
quickly to mind. In the story, a couple of con
artists sell an emperor with an inflated
sense of himself a beautiful set of clothes
that could only be seen by the wise. As they
wove the "material," they invited visitors to
inspect the beauty of the cloth, and visitors,
who could not actually see anything being
woven, pretended that they could so that
they would be deemed "wise."
The emperor, who also saw nothing, had
to also pretend that he saw something
where there was nothing, because he, of all
people, could not appear less wise than his
subjects.
All went well, until a small boy, not in-
vested in his social standing or dignity,
spoke the obvious truth: "The emperor is
naked."
So, the question is: are the financial ex-
perts who "saw" the end of the recession,
which was invisible to the rest of us and
which will remain invisible for some time to
come, the same wizards who did not see the
Where in the world?
Sharon Geney and Becky Weatherson, co-owners of Good Vibrations in Chester, at-
tended the Seattle Gift Show. Next time you travel, share where you went by tak-
ing your local newspaper along and including it in a photo. Then e-mail the photo
to smorrow@plumasnews.com.
economic collapse coming, until the effects
were manifest to even the most uninitiated?
A couple of weeks ago, I read another
news article that said that the official end-
ing of the recession was July 2010. This is
good to know. With invisible events, it is
nice to have the date established, so you can
begin counting the days until you can see it.
After acknowledging the caveat contained
in "The Emperor's New Clothes," there are
other aspects of invisible events to consider.
First of all, visibility is an act of perception,
ultimately a subjective experience, shared
by consensus.
In other words, just because you can't see
it doesn't mean it's not there.
I use the Internet every day and how
those e-mails get to their destinations in the
blink of an eye is a mystery to me. Yet noth-
ing is visible about the process but the end
result. To me and to others, it is real.
On a metaphysical level and in the lan-
guage of physics, the Universe is a great
Thought and even at our everyday level of
operation, thought precedes the act of the
manifestation.
This is truly a powerful principle. If we,
all of us together, believe that the economy
will show its61f recovered in three years,
and hold to that thought for the entire three
years, then it is likely that it will. The trick
is that we must all hold to the same thought.
For that, we need a national vision. What
do we want our future to look like?
"No more taxes," I hear; "less government
regulation," is another common refrain.
Most discussion and c/'iticism of govern-
ment deficits concentrates on the negative
and what has gone wrong.
That's fine, as far as it goes. It helps to de-
termine what went wrong with our econom-
ic belief system, and hopefully, reminds us
not to repeat it. But it's not a vision.
It doesn't say what we do want from our
government and how we do want to live and
love and share with one another.
Hopeful wishes for the return of prosper-
ous days now gone are not a vision either.
Were those days to return with the same
conditions, the economic system would sim-
ply collapse once again. High housing costs
totally out of whack with prevailing wages
was a sign that imbalance had occurred.
In order to capture the national imagina-
tion, a national vision must be inclusive,
leaving out no segment of society and ac-
counting for the overallwell-being of all.
........ Fbi" the Thought to accuhlif6 weight(we
must all participate.
We must all hold the Thought, each
adding our vision of a more cooperative and
prosperous future for all. Ariything less is
unworthy of us and our potential.
R.EMEMBER WHEN
KERI TABORSKI
Historian
75 YEARS AGO... 1936
Total circulation of books through the
Plumas County library system is currently
9,917. Of that total, 8,200 books were circu-
lated through fifteen branches in Plumas
County and 1,717 books were circulated
through branches in Sierra County.
50 YEARS AGO... 1961
Twenty-six blocks of Portola real estate,
ranging from one to twelve lots and aver-
aging about eight acres was sold at public
auction this week for a total price of $9,565,
although the minimum bid was $4,640 set
by the Plumas County Tax Office.
Current snow depths and water content
measured On the Plumas National Forest
are among the lowest on record to date.
25 YEARS AGO... 1986
The Plumas Unified School District
school board chose Floyd Warren to
succeed current PUSD Supervisor John
Malarkey when he steps down in August.
Warren is currently Assistant Supervisor
and is in his twentieth year employed at
PUSD.
10 YEARS AGO... 2001
The Plumas County Veterans Service
Department received a new eight-paasen-
ger van donated from AMVETS to provide
transportation to Plumas County veterans
to travel to the Reno Veterans Hospital for
medical appointments.
t 00umans take lead, doffs play hardball
.... ( ::',
MY TUR.N
MONA HILL
Staff Writer
mhill@plumasnews.com
I blame Dorothy really. Be sure to get two
Great Pyrenees -- a pair will be more ofa'
challenge for predators, she said.
I heard predators, not challenge. Two 70-
p()und, 6-month-old puppies are more than
a challenge for anyone, never mind a
predator. I even think they could beat the
demon squirrel.
My poor husband labored through the
hot summer building a nice fence: best
quality no-step fencing, cemented-in fence
posts, evenly spaced. It was a thing of beau-
ty.
It cannot keep Houdini One and Two con-
fined. They've escaped more often than
Steve McQueen. If they are not tunneling
under, they're climbing over or going
through.
Everyone in the neighborhood knows my
"cute" dogs because they go visiting faster
than we can bring them home.
I'm sure my arms are six inches longer
from trying to teach them to heel, sit or
stay -- especially stay. Jack would rather
choke himself than heel.
Of course, Jack is the evil twin, known to
Steve and me as Jack the Lad. He's a nice
dog, just a happy-go-lucky mule, deter-
mined to find mischief before it finds him.
He is the instigator, leading George astray
at every opportunity. And he's so happy.
George is devoted to Jack, hates to be
separated from him. He's steadier, quicker
to learn and shows signs of becoming a fine
livestock guardian. Well, except for his un-
fortunate willingness to follow wherever
Jack leads.
Pyrs think everything they see is their
territory. The breed developed back in the
day when sheep roamed free in the Pyre-
nees and there were predators in Europe
(besides today's two-legged variety). They
were bred for size and territoriality, to go
where the flock went and protect it.
Pyrs also make great family dogs. They
are loving, if large. They're protective of
their people. Did I mention they're large?
However, they are happiest doing what
they were bred for: guarding the flock in
the great outdoors. They need space.
Problem is: the outdoors has been
parceled out and Pyrs don't know it. Some-
how, two-thirds of an acre for three alpacas
and two dogs is not great outdoors enough.
Steve works at home and he was so busy
trying to corral Jack and George that he
wasn't working. He dug, he shoveled, 'he
hammered and he sawed, trying to create a
Maginot Line.
My backyard fence looks like a scrap
yard -- tin, cement, rocks and wood are
piled up to fortify it against our canine es-
cape artists.
To no avail. Logs? Drag them away.
Large boulders? Push them aside.
They climb hay bales and leap tall build-
ings in a single bound.
Events came to a head in February: Jack
and George were bounding away so often
we thought the fence had disappeared. As
with the Germans, our line was ineffective.
I made an appointment with the vet to
neuter Jack and George in hopes that
would decrease their drive to wander at
will. We also ordered an "invisible" fencing
system, complete with the radio collars and
500 feet of cable.
The fencing system arrived to coincide
with the first major storm in weeks. Of
course.
My lovely, patient, salt-of-the-earth hus-
band began installing it the next day.
Steve soldiered forth, clad in his flannel
. lined jeans and bright yellow canary suit to
do battle with the elements and install the
fence. The canary suit is'a full set of yellow
waterproofs and my 6-foot-5-inch husband
is a sight to behold in it. He loves it, says
it's the best $30 he ever spent.
Most of it was comparatively easy, tying
it to the existing fence line. I say compara-
tively because despite the accumulated
snow, it was nothing compared to burying
the cable at each of the two gates.
After wading through hip-deep snow, at-
taching the cable with quickly frozen fin-
gers, he came up 20 feet short. I nearly had
to put him in therapy he was so distraught.
At the weekend, we found and bought the
only extant 20-gauge cable in Quincy, re-
lieved to have avoided a trip to the big city.
After another few hours' work, the circuit
was complete.
We introduced Jack and George to their
new and improved field the next day. Lo
and behold, it worked and all is right with
the world.
FOR SALE: lightly used invisible fencing
system.
WANTED: Livestock electrical fence in-
staller. Work to include concertina wire,
watchtowers and minefield suitable to con-
tain escaping dogs.