Letters to the Editor 10-15-15

Heartfelt thanks
Editor: Thanks to the incredible support of our community on Saturday, Oct. 10, 980 pounds of tomatoes were transformed by 30 volunteers into 19.5 cases (or 235 quarts) of tomato sauce for the families served by the Healdsburg Food Pantry.
A very special thanks to the Soroptimists of Healdsburg who have sponsored “Let’s Preserve” since 2011; to Merrilee Olson of PRESERVE Sonoma who has shared her canning expertise for the last five years; to Adrianne Brounstein and her Healdsburg High School culinary students who welcomed us into the high school kitchen and kept the day moving smoothly; to our local farmers of Soda Rock Farm, Bernier Farm, Front Porch Farm, and Kendall-Jackson Winery who grew and then donated tomatoes; and lastly to the many Farm to Pantry volunteers who gleaned throughout the week. And a heartfelt thanks to the many individual community members who donated tomatoes, jars and their time and energy to the event, preserving tomatoes, tradition, and our community.
Melita Love
Farm to Pantry
Healdsburg
Roads should be a high priority
Editor: Measure A, which would have generated $20 million per year to improve our roads and streets, was soundly defeated in June. During the campaign, few if any of the 62 percent of voters who rejected the tax increase disputed the dire condition of Sonoma County’s roads or that delay would escalate the cost of fixing them.
In recent years the supervisors made a down payment toward solving our chronic county road problem by returning general fund spending, adjusted for inflation, to the levels of the late 1980s. County general funds, together with state and federal gas tax money, will have improved almost 200 miles of the county’s road system during the four year period from 2013 to 2016. While this work has slightly improved Sonoma County’s pavement condition index score to 47, about two-thirds of Sonoma County’s 1,380 mile road system remains in either poor or failed condition.
Local government is ultimately responsible for the maintenance of the basic infrastructure that is vital for day-to-day life for its citizens. This includes a viable transportation system, clean water, public safety and a reliable supply of electricity. When local government fails to deliver essential services used daily by each resident, people lose faith in it and become distrustful.
The voters who rejected a tax increase for roads exemplify the cynicism that flows from failed government. Many expressed concern that public funds are not being spent wisely. They were either unconvinced that the revenue would be spent on roads or believed that the county has sufficient funds to maintain our road system adequately but chooses instead to spend them on other programs. Until basic infrastructure issues are resolved many voters will have little interest in innovative approaches to solving social problems.
At the budget hearings in June each supervisor stated that fixing county roads remains a priority and that he or she will focus on finding additional revenue in the aftermath of Measure A’s defeat. The time is coming to deliver on those promises when the supervisors consider additional road funding during October.
Sonoma County’s road problems were caused by decades of neglect. No supervisor in the 1990s or 2000s publicly said “I don’t care if our road system deteriorates to dirt and gravel.” Instead they neglected roads by spending general funds on other initiatives while the road system slowly degraded to its current condition.
Supervisors are being pressured to increase funding to address such issues as housing for the homeless and boosting employee pay. These have expensive price tags. For example, a one percent payroll increase would cost $4.6 million. Over five years those funds could instead repair over 100 miles of county roads.
The long-term task of rehabilitating the county road system is an ongoing effort that has barely begun. Our leaders need to fill the Measure A pothole by adequately funding the restoration of our county roads without depending on a bailout from Sacramento or Washington, D.C.
Craig S. Harrison and Michael Troy
Save Our Sonoma Roads
Unfortunate power of the press
Editor: Really Rollie, a BS filter? (“Power of the press” editorial, Oct. 8, 2015) Putting Hillary’s server in Connecticut rather than in Colorado (your work sometime back) is an understandable mistake. After all the states are very close in the alphabet, also the high-speed left spin in your writing is quite acceptable, as your column is your opinion. It’s clearly up to the reader to agree or disagree, to fact check or take on blind faith.
But the Fourth Estate (fourth branch) is lost, no longer the “people’s watchdog.” Whether you lean left or right, follow Fox, CNN, CBS, NBC, read the Washington Post or any of the various Times publications, New York – LA, even the Wall Street Journal, an expectation of clear accurate reporting is only for the naive.
We unfortunately live in a media environment polluted by self interest. Spinning to the right or spinning to the left, not just in opinion pieces but in what should be hard-core news reporting. A media where, highly respected reporters manipulate facts to enhance their personal story or completely invent reporting to maliciously damage the reputation of politicians whose philosophies they may oppose.  
Yes the press has great power, but no longer can we the people rest comfortable in the expectation that the press will faithfully live up to its first amendment  responsibilities. We as the recipients of media information, mainstream or alternative, must carefully avoid stepping in the steaming pile.
Leonard Von Hoogenstyn
Cloverdale