Letters to the Editor 1-14-16

Burbank’s old bridge
EDITOR: What would the Old Bridge say? 100 years ago Luther Burbank drove his horse carriage over a wooden bridge at the Laguna on his way to Sebastopol.
Amazingly, the wood posts for that bridge are still visible underneath the new bridge at least until they get demolished this next building season. The new Caltrans Bridge replaces the one built in 1921. The new bridge is planned to last yet another 100 years, until 2116.
Bridges don’t last forever. But the old bridge held up pretty well carrying 8 million cars per year. In that time, Sebastopol went from a self-sufficient town to a suburb serving the larger North Bay area.
Caltrans will use 4,200 tons of concrete for the new bridge. That will generate 6,000 tons of CO2. We can hope that the bridge in 2116 will be built with solar power.
Our oil and gas resources probably won’t last that long. Maybe it will be a wooden bridge made for horse carriages.
Peter Schurch
Sebastopol
Healthcare fire brigade
EDITOR: There is no way to put a positive spin on the fire that ravaged our beloved Russian River Health Center the day after Christmas. But I want to share something I experienced that morning that is amazing and even uplifting.
When I arrived at the Health Center shortly after the fire was extinguished, staff were already combing through the wreckage, removing damaged servers and sensitive information. Down the block at the administrative offices, West County Health Centers’˙ management team and many RRHC staff, receptionists, medical assistants, nurses and doctors were already assembled.
Poster paper covered the walls with headings like “Patient/Clinical (Next Two Weeks)”and “Communication.”
 Dr. Jason Cunningham, WCHC Medical Director, in jeans and a baseball cap, was scribbling ideas as staff developed plans to continue providing uninterrupted care for our patients. Nearby, Executive Director Mary Szecsey huddled with the IT team working to reroute the computer systems to get them up and running. Even on this awful morning, the characteristic WCHC teamwork was on display, with everyone engaged, focused, animated, and, yes, even sometimes laughing.
Other than the occasional tears at the devastation, it could almost have been just another day of the cutting-edge, out-of-the-box thinking that makes WCHC the best it can be for our patients.
I’ve never been prouder to be part of this remarkable organization than I was that morning.
John Kornfeld
President, WCHC Board of Directors
Floods and the homeless
EDITOR: I’ve dealt with major flooding and homeless people when I owned Coffee Bazaar for 10 years. We were a Presidential declared disaster area. The river flooded the town and our only lifeline was Sweetwater Springs Road and I was lucky to have 4-wheel drive. If you push to have a homeless shelter two miles from town at George’s Hideaway those people — ˆ hear estimates of 50 or so — would be on the current side of the river, where a building has collapsed. This is a terrible non-sewer site for anything other than its current use. I am sending petitions where we’ve gathered signatures against this site. The county’s Community Development Commission has no right to declare the lower Russian River “home” for the homeless. The CDC report is an overboard description with cherry-picked public hearings and sewer connections.
A home is appreciated and lived in; these people for whatever reason are not giving back into the community. And this community doesn’t have the resources during emergencies to handle mentally ill patients, dependent people and high risk. In a flood they are the first that need to get out but wait until the last minute requiring first responders to work in sometimes life-threatening situations.
In my view a homeless shelter should be built, if it has to be, in the county seat of Santa Rosa or in the hospital district of Sebastopol where these at-risk people can use existing services. There are two major hospitals within two miles of River Road at Highway 101. Or there is the Sonoma West Medical Center which is paid for by taxes from the River area. Neither of these sites would flood and both would provide more services than anything in Guerneville.
If you’re talking about shuttling homeless people around, they could be shuttled once a day in the evening out to the River area. Guerneville just lost its only health center. And you propose to put people in a shelter there?
I am in complete opposition. Does the CDC currently operate any shelters? What is their track record? This week I read that the state is gearing up to spend $4 billion — a huge amount — on the homeless. Why is there no state representation at this week’s meeting?
I started to oppose the CDC when I was walking my dog Tanner down at the beach across from George’s Hideaway. I accidentally rousted an encampment and we were chased. I stood my ground. These were vagrants, trash everywhere, sleeping bags and open tuna cans. And looking at this scene was the blue heron and ducks who naturally live there. This isn’t the homeless’ home. The CDC has no right to give it away.
I stand opposed to any full time homeless shelter in Guerneville or elsewhere in the Russian River. The watershed  is too precious to our tourism and ecosystem, I, for one, didn’t work so hard to save this town in the last flood just to have it turned over to the homeless. It’s time for the Board of Supervisors and the sheriff to take some action.
Bob Young
Health Center support
EDITOR: The Russian River Health Center was formally organized more than 40 years ago by River citizens in response to community needs and remains a stable, progressive free standing community health center. It has expanded by merging with the Occidental Health Center and adding services in Forestville and Sebastopol.
All services are available to all clients regardless of their ability to pay. It has taken on all community health care issues such as the HIV epidemic and was a pariah within the industry at that time. As Mary Szecsey said “We are the future of health care in our country. We listen to our patients. We know our communities.”
The recent destructive catastrophe is a major unexpected bump in the road for this resilient River community. It seems to me that this public Health Care District has a duty to provide major assistance to the Health Center in the recovery process.
If there was ever an opportunity for the District to redeem itself to the River community. It seems to me that this public Health Care District has a duty to provide major assistance to the Health Center in the recovery process.
If there was ever an opportunity for the District to redeem itself to the River Corridor citizens and taxpayers, this is it.
Jeanette Dillman, RN, FNP
GuernevilleGuerneville