A ghost town?
EDITOR: I just completed reading the commentary by Rollie Atkinson in the April 12 Cloverdale Reveille recommending that Cloverdale needs an additional 415 homes built. I didn’t read anything in the article relating to our limited water resources. Just because we have land, does that mean we just move ahead with building?
It was just over two years ago that we were all requested to restrict our water use and take out our lawns. Since that time we have had significant non-stop building projects, projects based on the assumption that we will receive adequate rainfall each year and we will have no problems with our water system. Cloverdale relies on wells for its water source.
If we hadn’t had extra rain this spring, we would probably be back on restricted water use. What about next year’s rainfall?
Without an adequate water supply for two or more years, what would Cloverdale be?
Matthew Glavach
Cloverdale
Addison and Connor unfairly targeted
EDITOR: This is an appeal to the Cloverdale community to separate fact from fiction with regard to recent developments on the cannabis front. I am affiliated with California Wellness, one of three groups who applied to the City of Cloverdale for a license to operate a local cannabis dispensary.
Because the issues surrounding cannabis can be complicated, I asked Preston Addison and Wendy Conner — best friends of mine for 30 years, and Cloverdale residents for 20 years — to serve as personal references for me. My hope was that they would be able to attest to my good character, and by extension to the solid intentions of California Wellness. Unfortunately, the inclusion of Mr. Addison and Ms. Conner as references for me has caused them significant and undeserved, trouble.
To (again) set the record straight: Mr. Addison and Ms. Conner have no financial interest in California Wellness. They are personal references for me. The further statements that have been made about their supposed deeper involvement with California Wellness are outright fabrications.
Mr. Addison and Ms. Conner are the best types of pillars that any community can have. They are hardworking, honest, smart, trustworthy, good people. It is very unfortunate that others from their own community would, in an effort to silence them, spread false information about them.
The recent goings-on in Cloverdale hardly roll out the welcome mat for out-of-towners hoping to join the local business community. However, California Wellness sees the solid, hard work that the city council and others have dedicated to the cannabis issue. The actions of one group of people do not change that fact.
We believe that decisions regarding cannabis and its complexities should be made from a community-first perspective.
Frankly, it was quite difficult to absorb the fact that our application was not approved (1) for the simple fact that we are not Cloverdale locals, and (2) despite the fact that we were objectively ranked by city staff as the clear frontrunner. But we absolutely respect that the city council is best situated to balance all of the competing interests.
We request, however, that the surrounding discussion remain civil, well-intentioned, and above all honest.
David Parnall
Berkeley
