LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Thank you Forestville
Editor: It is Father’s Day and I am writing to you with tears in
my eyes. Ten years ago this year someone in your community
recognized my children’s faces from a missing children’s poster
posted by the Polly Klaas Foundation and called the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children. I want to thank the person who
made that phone call as it ended a very difficult fourteen month
search for my children. It took some time for us to heal from the
trauma of that period and this Father’s Day I celebrated with both
of my loving children. I have often thought of the anonymous person
from Forestville and their kind and compassionate gesture on behalf
of my children and myself.
David Rostykus
Sedro Woolley, WA
Anti-smoking nuisance
Editor: I detest smoking and support smoke-free environments,
the prevention of smoke-related impacts, and aggressive efforts to
educate the public regarding smoke-related health hazards.
However, I register disapproval of Sebastopol’s proposed Smoking
Control Ordinance which will ban smoking in 100 percent of
multi-unit rentals. It is an invasion-of-privacy, allows for
unpredictable litigation, contains potential draconian penalties,
obligates landlords to regulate and monitor behind-closed-doors
activities, and creates additional duties for Sebastopol’s Police
Department.
Smoking is a legal activity. When done within the confines of a
person’s home-apartment it does not inevitably affect neighbors. If
it does, landlords and neighbors already have means and remedies,
under existing Nuisance Laws, to resolve legitimate tobacco
smoke-related problems. We have been renting properties in
Sebastopol since 1972. During that time, we have only had two
instances of smoker nuisance. Both were successfully resolved.
Is second-hand smoke a big enough issue in Sebastopol to call
for a 100 percent ban? If smoking is banned in all multi-unit
properties in Sebastopol, this will create an immediate hardship on
every renter that smokes. Every smoker living in multi-units will
be forced to move outside the City limits (or to more expensive
single-family rentals). It is not clear whether landlords will have
the authority to evict smokers solely on the basis of Sebastopol’s
Smoking Control Ordinance.
I support implementation of the “education” portion of the
ordinance, but not the sections on “penalties” and
“enforcement.”
Greg Dabel
Graton
Steamy, not smokey
Editor: Thank you for your informative article in the June 24 –
June 30 edition of Sonoma West on Sturgeon’s Mill, a historic
operating steam-powered sawmill non-profit museum. I would like to
clarify several items.
Today the mill operates using a modern oil-fired boiler that
burns very cleanly with no smoke. The original 100-year-old mill
boiler was fired on scrap wood, which was smoky. When the mill is
operated a few days a year now, the Mill Board, is very conscious
of the ecology. For instance, all of the logs sawn, are from
salvage trees that have been removed because they are hazardous to
homes, etc. or from construction projects, such as highway
widening.
For further information about the mill go to www.SturgeonsMill.org.
John Allan
Bloomfield