LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Where’s the rubber?
Editor: “Straight Talk About Where the Rubber Meets the Road”
was the opener in a full page ad in the Sonoma West Times and News
trumpeting Dutra’s proposal to build an asphalt plant at the
southern gateway to Sonoma County.
How ironic for them to mention rubber when Caltrans demands a 50
percent rubber content in asphalt, both of which will be heated to
375 degrees during production. A noxious smell will greet visitors
and we citizens when we enter our scenic Sonoma County from the
South.
Supervisor Carrillo should note that the ad admits that asphalt
plants have serious environmental impacts and suggest a plant
should be located in Petaluma to spread the impacts
around. Supervisors should not support the spread of asphalt
carcinogens around but instead launch a campaign to contain the air
contamination in the more than ample plants already in
existence.
A reputation for the admitted practice of spreading
contamination around is not acceptable, and is a political hot
potato.
Richard and Brenda Nichols
Sebastopol
Help with hit and run
EDITOR: On Sunday evening, Nov. 29, our white Toyota was parked
on West Street, just around the corner of the intersection with
Wilton. At about 6:30 in the evening, a large truck hit it and
pushed it up onto the sidewalk, knocking down a small tree.
From the sound of the engine and the extent of the damage, we
know it was a big truck, possibly a rental. By the time we got
outside, the truck was gone.
Someone phoned the police, who arrived shortly afterward, but
apparently they didn’t get back to the police with details about
the truck or its license plate.
If anyone has any information about the hit-and-run, we’d
appreciate it if they would contact the Sebastopol police.
Kevin Dwan
Sebastopol
Daylight and Barlow
Editor: To the main speaker (and others), requesting that
Zimpher Creek be daylighted through the center of the Barlow
project, who appeared before the Design Review Board (Dec. 2 at the
Sebastopol Veteran’s Hall).
I appreciate most of the causes that you take on in behalf of
our community. You have put words to the feelings of many in
Sebastopol. However, your current goal of daylighting Zimpher Creek
is inappropriate. Please listen to the following for it comes from
a creek lover with credentials as good as any in Sebastopol.
If citizens believe in a goal, they need to come forward with
more than just an idea. They need to get together and flesh it out.
Our town does not have a staff at the ready with the time to
explore every good idea that is suggested. There are lots of good
ideas. Making them happen is work, and you have to be willing to do
some of that work, not just expecting others to do it.
If daylighting Zimpher Creek is a goal many in our town believe
in, put some work into it. You should have gotten together and
tried to draw out a plan of how this would work with this project
and surrounding area. Your plan should have been passed around for
others to consider. Show the community pictures of the other towns
you talk about. Thoughtfully suggest how this land would be
purchased and the engineering, construction, landscaping, and
maintenance would be paid for.
You are too late. You are presenting a verbal vision at the
eleventh hour, after someone has submitted an extensively prepared
set of plans based on current guidelines. Your work should have
been completed years ago.
Also consider the following: Zimpher Creek is a winter creek. It
is dry today, in December. It is a small culvert for almost its
entire length through Sebastopol. Where it is daylighted, one could
not call it a creek.
A thousand acres of wetlands starts 100 yards away. Why do we
need this “creek” daylighted in the middle of this project?
The City Council was setting the guidelines for this area last
September. You were not there. At significant cost, this project
adhered to the Council guidelines.
Those children you wish to teach about creek restoration can go
to Ives Park. The creek through there has been long neglected. For
years no one has shown interest in restoring this potentially
beautiful area.
You have idealism. Please appreciate it in others. The developer
of the Barlow project is an idealist as well.
Lynn Deedler
Sebastopol Design Review Board
Blowers away recipe
Editor: Peaceful and healthy garden culture.
Preparation:
Consider what a plant sheds before planting
it near or over paved areas.
Plant perennials and shrubs such that their
debris stays off paved areas
Eliminate, reduce lawns or convert them to
plants that need only occasional mowing.
Shaggy lawns look cool.
Increase tolerance for plant debris in the
landscape. It is a resource for compost mak-
ing.
Paved areas with some dust and leaves can
still be safe.
Ingredients:
Nearby compost site
Comfortable, breathable clothes
Gloves, rakes, brooms, scoop shovel, tarps,
pitchfork
Dropped flowers, fruits, seeds, leaves, twigs.
Water.
Procedure:
Do stretching exercise and drink water.
Rake, sweep, and gather debris form paved
areas
Mulch with debris in plant areas or
Pile in compost area alternating layers of
green and brown material.
Keep moist
Turn with pitch fork
When cooked by decomposers spread the
compost on the soil around plants
Continue this energy cycle forever
You are welcome to share recipe with fami
ly and friends.
Jay Pedersen
Sebastopol
Gardening Specialist, SSU
Dismayed by Council
Editor: It was with dismay that I read last week that the
Sebastopol City Council departed from the established practice of
rotating the position of mayor. The way the voting unfolded seems
to reveal a three to two split. Is this a signal that we can expect
factional political approaches to build up again? Very few of us
want to see the difficulties we remember from 2007 and 2008.
If a split is emerging, we should remember some of the reasons
why rotation is a positive precedent, one of which directly applies
here. Rotating the positions of mayor and vice mayor helps to
minimize the infighting, at least in the area of transition and
control. The idea is for some predictability and trade off.
With this vote it is incumbent upon the council to be honest
with the public and explain the reasons underlying the politics of
the apparent split.
Deborah Dobish
Sebastopol
Keep the rotation
Editor: I am very disappointed in the action of the Sebastopol
City Council to keep Sarah Gurney as Mayor. The rotation of the
position of Mayor is a tradition that should not be arbitrarily
changed.
Ralph Harmon
Sebastopol