Letters for May 24, 2001

Also, because of a misunderstanding, the Newslines article, “Trail blazers,” in the same issue misidentified Senior City Planner Steve Zalusky as Steve Hogue, of the city Parks Department. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.

Premature bridge
Measure A supporters want you to believe that spending almost $3 million on a bridge and road extension will create new jobs for Chico. In truth even they admit that the industrial park will grow to capacity with or without Measure A’s road project.

Measure A supporters must believe that this project is the most necessary road project in Chico. Why else would the extension of Otterson Drive rise from being a 20-year city priority to an immediate expenditure?

If you could choose where to spend almost $3 million on roads in Chico, where would you start? First Avenue, East Avenue, Bruce Road, the highways, the avenues? When was the last time you were in a traffic jam on Otterson Drive? Measure A will spend almost 3 million Chico dollars on fixing a problem that doesn’t exist!

As Chico grows, it is imperative that we examine traffic circulation. Southwest Chico eventually will be impacted by growth, and major roadway construction will be considered. But the studies are not done, and the need is not immediate to warrant Measure A’s costly road project. Every year another proposal for Diamond Match development is announced. Eventually one will be serious. Before that happens, neighbors and leaders must come together to find traffic options that have the least impact on everyone.

Please join me in voting No on Measure A on June 5. We must say no to those who put development before neighborhoods and business before safety.

Coleen Jarvis
Chico

Bridge of trust
The “Coalition for Parks and Jobs” is an interesting outfit. Planning Commissioner Kurt Montfort asked at a public meeting, “Where are the jobs?” He was told the bridge over Comanche Creek would “create an atmosphere conducive” to new jobs. So, we’re being asked to spend $2.9 million and to trust the development industry that the jobs will eventually come.

What about the new parks? This project will not build parks. This project will build a road along a creek. What parent in their right mind would take their kids to play along a road? The supporters of Measure A estimate 8,000 to 10,000 car and truck trips a day on this road within 100 feet of the creek. No swings or slides or soccer fields or baseball diamonds are possible. The Park and Playground Commission voted against it.

And yet, $900,000 of the money earmarked for the Otterson extension could justifiably used for DeGarmo Park on the north side of town. DeGarmo is a proposed park, similar to 20th Street Park, which was at the top of the CARD priority list. Now, park fund money is being tapped for the Otterson extension project, and DeGarmo has been eliminated from the five-year plan.

It is clear the “Coalition for Parks and Jobs” is not being straight with us about parks. Why should we trust them about jobs? Vote No on Measure A.

Sally Long
Chico

Energy plan option
As I watched the Fox News network with the Sunday pundits voicing their opposition to Bush’s energy plan that would include exploring our own domestic resources and going after the oil we know is available, a thought occurred to me.

Since liberals value trees, plant and animal life over humans and seem to care less if we continue our dependence on foreign oil, we should consider the following option to Bush’s domestic energy plan.

Have on hand a list of all members from every wacko-environmentalist movement, including the names of every liberal Democrat who opposed Bush’s energy plan, then give it to the military for drafting purposes the next time a Middle East conflict arises, resulting in our military’s deployment. Our front-line special forces would have the distinct honor of including such capable leadership as the likes of California’s Gov. Gray Davis and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

I believe it would only take a few months of Saddam Hussein and the desert heat to thoroughly clear the heads of these confused liberals. Any who would be unable to serve in the military would simply have their power shut off until all conflicts were resolved and our domestic energy resources restored.

Dan Bovee
Magalia

Defense of the pot doc
This is in regard to the letter that Robin Stackhouse sent in about Dr. Bannister ["Leave the pot doc alone,” Letters, May 10.].

I wanted you [Robin Stackhouse] to know how sorry I am for the death of your son and to tell you that this is something that everyone is going to have to get together for to stand against the federal government and share with everyone what a good doctor Dr. Bannister is, that what he is doing is not only legal but helps the severe pain and weight loss of patients under his care. It is too bad that there are not more doctors like him who care more about their patients than politics. I applaud you for standing up and saying something.

I am 38 years old. I have a chronic disease and my prescription also. I am not a harm to anyone in society and don’t appreciate being looked at that way by our legal system. I am as upstanding a citizen as the next person! We will pray for your loss and for Dr. Bannister to be left alone.

Jennifer Russell
Chico

Anatomically correct
Laura Smith’s article about the bust of the First Amendment Club ["The night they busted the nudie club,” May 17] refers to “what the investigators saw at the club.” Reference was made to dancers who would “grind their naked, exposed vaginas,” but this activity portrayal is anatomically incorrect. The vagina is the female birth canal; the external female genitalia are called the vulva. But the club has just been re-named Centerfolds and offers only a once-an-hour peek at a woman’s pee-pee.

Now that the club has changed hands, will Butte County law enforcement be forced to launch a new months-long investigation?

Timothy John Muir
Chico

Did Annie want cars in the park?
In response to S. Keeler’s letter about “A Car-less Upper Park” [Letters, May 17]: Yes, I can name one positive addition cars make to Upper Bidwell Park—accessibility.

Your kind has already managed to close the Upper Park road two days a week plus every night, prohibit cars on one side of Lower Park and limit it to one-way on the other side, deny car access to most picnic areas, prohibit alcohol, require bike helmets and implement a score of other laws. Closing the park to cars is not a solution. Enforcing the speed limit is.

Annie Bidwell gave the park to the people of Chico, not to a chosen few who tell all others when and how to use it.

Mike Cagle
Chico