Page 3 - Sanger Herald 4-11-19 E-edition

SANGER HERALD 3A THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2019 EDITORIAL & OPINION
Random thoughts Sanger is being ordered to comply with another state project ...
By Dick Sheppard
Dear weird Sanger driv- ers, unless you are driving a really big truck you don't need to swing wide across the center line before pull- ing into a diagonal parking place on 7th Street.
I will try really hard not
to run into you while you
are unnecessarily trespassing on my side of the street. However, you may receive an automatic, reflexive and expressive disap- proving hand signal.
•••
A few of the zinnias I planted in the mas-
sive cracks in N Street in front of the Herald are beginning to emerge.
It looks like we'll soon have a colorful flower garden in the street in front of the Herald.
I can see a downtown beautification award in our future.
So far I've resisted the urge to plant a tree in the big pothole in the middle of the street. But, after all, there has been a tree in the middle of N Street precedent.
So, maybe I'll plant a little pine tree, hang a few ornaments on it and let drivers try to figure out the best way to get around it.
After all, this is The Nation's Christmas Tree City and we put trees in the middle of the road.
•••
Of all the rutted, lumpy, cracked streets in
Sanger, I doubt that any are as annoying as that tire and front end alignment destroying railroad crossing on 7th Street just east of Academy Avenue.
The City isn't allowed to do the work that's necessary to fix it. The tracks and the cross- ing belong to the railroad.
The City has spent years complaining to the railroad and the California Public Utilities Commission.
That's all it can do.
So, you can imagine my joy on Tuesday morning when I saw a crew from the railroad working on the crossing.
When the crew had finished doing what- ever it was doing, loaded up its heavy equip-
ment and gone back to wherever it came from, I expectantly drove east on 7th Street toward the community center - over the asphalt covered tracks - and was I ever sur- prised.
I don't know how they did what I thought was impossible - they made the crossing even worse than it was. When my eyes stopped bouncing in my head I stopped the car, inspected my tires, made a note to have the front end alignment checked and took anoth- er route back to the Herald. I suspect that exercise was for the sole purpose of being able to tell the public utilities commission the railroad had finally responded to all the com- plaints. It certainly wasn't for the purpose of improving that crossing.
••• Alisen
Fujisawa, left, and Jacqueline DiBello are volunteers at Sanger's no kill animal shelter.
They do
everything
from helping clean kennels to walking dogs waiting for a forever home.
Kim Reed, the volunteer coordinator at the shelter, could use a few more Alisens and Jacquelines.
Please call Kim at (559) 250-5270 if you'd like to know more about volunteering or maybe fostering or adopting one or more dogs.
Kim and animal control officer Mario Irazoqui are doing a fantastic job of getting dogs fostered, adopted and rescued, even older dogs like 8 year old "Bear" who recently left the shelter.
Sad to say, most of the dogs at the shelter on the city yard on North Avenue just east of Newmark Avenue appear to have been aban- doned, sometimes mother dogs with their entire litter of puppies.
Kim and volunteers like Jacqueline and Alisen do a great job caring for the dogs until they can find them a home where they won't be abandoned again.
•••
If you thought the state ordered rezoning
for affordable housing stirred up Sanger resi- dents, just wait until Sanger residents find out how much the most recent state ordered project is going to cost them.
It's called the "Sustainable Groundwater Management Act" (SGMA) and it's probably going to raise the amount you pay for water by more than 40 percent within the first five years of the project.
Once again, the city has no choice.
It's just like the state's housing element law that is making the city rezone almost 63 acres for affordable housing. The city has to do what the state tells it to do with afford- able housing rezoning and with "sustainable groundwater management."
Whether the city likes it likes it or not. Whether Sanger residents like it or not.
I agree with Sanger resident Kevin Carter
who told the city council at its April 4 meet- ing, during a discussion about SGMA, that
California cities need to stand up and say they're going to take the state back from leg- islators who keep ordering cities to do proj- ects that cost the cities and therefore the tax- payers more and more money. It has to stop somewhere before overburdened taxpayers find somewhere else to live and California's legislators wind up running out of other peo- ples' money for their pet projects.
•••
Waytogo to: WAMS for receiving a Fresno
State Bonner Center Virtues and Character Recognition Award; Kings River High School for its Model Continuation School recognition; Fairmont Elementary, Sanger Academy Charter School and Quail Lake Environmental Charter School for their redesignations as "Schools to Watch"; and Quail Lake for its Green Ribbon Schools Award.
Please direct your questions or comments to sangerherald@gmail.com.
Dick Sheppard
In my OPINION
Among politicians "Common sense is not so
common," according to the philosopher Voltaire
A distinguished teacher ...
Bob Breshears grew up in Waterford, CA, milked cows and did other farm chores as a young man.
He graduated from high school in 1954 and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. He was stationed in Hawaii as a radioman. When he was discharged from the military Bob went to College of San Mateo in Milbrae. He mar- ried the love of his life Alyce Park.
See LETTERS TO THE EDITOR on page 6A An award winning
2019 member of the California Newspaper Publishers Association
The Sanger Herald is owned and published by Mid Valley Publishing, Inc, 740 N, Sanger, CA 93657 It is an Adjudicated Legal Newspaper
General Circulation in Fresno County, Order No 85500, Dec 1951 Sanger Herald subscriptions are taken by mail in advance
By Fred Hall
We often wonder what happens to those people who espouse such good ideas and plans when asking for our vote, once they are sworn into office either in Sacra- mento or Washington.
It's as if all the best laid plansareputontheshelfas FredHall
our representative assumes the herd mentality and it seems as if their only concern becomes mimicking the actions and thoughts of their fellow pretenders.
What the hell happened to the common sense they used in capturing our vote? If we wanted to send someone to Washington who was just going to do what was popular, why not send a pet dog with a note?
With the current Democrat-controlled House of Representatives in full throated roar, demanding up to 10 years of the Presi- dent's income taxes “because Presidents have always provided them” one can be excused for wondering what the real requirements are for being President. Truth is, the President is al- ready rich. Why not look at the tax records of the house members who have become wealthy since being elected?
Actually, there are only three mandated con- straints set forth in the Constitution as require- ments to become President. Those would be: one must be 35 years of age; a candidate must have lived in the United States for a period of 14 years; third of all, one must have been born in the United States or have at least one parent who is a United States citizen. Probably the most important one is to win the election via the constitutionally mandated Electoral Col- lege.
No one, not even the current much-maligned President, can be forced to release his personal or business income taxes. There is no way the Congressional Democrats can legally compel Donald Trump to release such records against his will. Perhaps I should hedge that a bit because California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaiian judges have been really squirrely in their interpretation of the law when it comes to the current administration. They employ pain- ful machinations to make the “law” fit their personal agendas.
We're not quite sure why the investigations continue in the House, especially since the “Mueller Probe,” which drug on for almost two years, announced it had found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians. Tens of millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted on the attempt to overturn an election which did not meet their expecta- tions. There are certainly issues, including border security, which are far more pressing than a unilateral attempt to remove a legiti-
mately elected President from office.
The most incredible thing about the whole mess is that Jerald Nadler and Adam Schiff claim to see and know things that were not discovered by Mueller's partisan, professional
investigative team!
It seems that, everyday, I find myself ex-
claiming in some conversation, what a strange world we live in today!
Our own politicians and the institutions which educate our children blame our own country for all the ills in the world; people who are experiencing the greatest economy en- joyed in decades are demanding a change from capitalism to the frequently failed governmen- tal form of socialism which is completely de- structive of a thriving economy. Where is the common sense in all of that?
Outside of the Governor of South Carolina, Mark Sanford who had an affair with a Brazil- ian women while he was in office, we didn't think it was within the purview of a Governor to conduct foreign affairs. Yet, Jerry Brown of California flew to Beijing and conducted ex- tensive talks and even signed agreements with Chinese officials. Not to be outdone, his suc- cessor Gavin Newsom is on his way to South America to conduct talks with future California citizens who are currently outstanding citizens in one of those countries.
Governors—particularly in California— have enough problems right here at home to keep them busy without having to set up a Cali- fornia “embassy” in locations where they have no business being!
Anyway, the money which Governor New- som is squandering might be better spent here in California for a whole laundry list of needs.
Although we make every effort to not do so, one of the worst sins one can make when writ- ing this sort of column is to make too many generalizations. There are, indeed, many hard- working, top-calibre people employed by local, county, state and federal governments. They are too often tainted by lazy, union-protected individuals who feel they have discovered a “nest on the ground.” We salute all those dedi- cated individuals who work for a bureaucracy where their individual initiative is neither rec- ognized nor encouraged.
A tip of the hat to a dedicated, life-long, bureaucrat from Manteca who brought this shortsightedness to our attention. You, sir, they deserve our recognition and gratitude.
But, as always, that's only one man's opinion.
In addition to the Sanger Herald, Publisher Fred Hall oversees two other Mid Valley Publishing newspapers - Reedley Exponent, and Dinuba Sentinel. He can be contacted by phone at (559) 638-2244 or by email at fred@ midvalleypublishing.com.
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