Letters for February 20, 2003

Street dumping spills

Re “Speed Kills” by Jessica Wakefield (SN&R News, February 6):

I was relieved to see that some progress may be on the horizon regarding bicycle and pedestrian safety on Sacramento streets.

There is another archaic and costly practice that Sacramento should eliminate: allowing residents to throw their landscape debris in the streets for pickup. This practice is extremely dangerous and costly to taxpayers.

I have witnessed several cyclists crash as a result of catching something in their wheels that was part of the debris fields scattered throughout the city on collection days. I also had a friend that was running at night, crashed into a debris pile and sustained moderate injuries.

Then there is the financial issue. Collecting landscape debris from piles in the street is very costly. A truck, a loader and a crew of two or three people is required to labor at a slow pace down the street to load the debris into the truck.

Contrast this practice with the collection of landscape debris that is placed in a receptacle and quickly emptied by one operator in a truck that efficiently moves down the street at a fairly brisk pace.

Also, consider that if my injured friend had a litigious attitude, the city or county could have been facing a lawsuit.

Carl Bergemann
Sacramento

How to squeeze water

Re “Liquid Gold” by Susan Zakin ( SN&R Cover, January 30):

Kudos to Susan Zakin for daring to tackle the vital and complicated world of California’s water works.

You don’t have to go all the way to the Delta, however, to see how development interests are putting the water squeeze on farmers, wildlife and existing neighborhoods.

The Sacramento County Water Agency (CWA) just released a draft water plan for Zone 40, a stretch of mostly undeveloped land extending from Rancho Cordova southwest to Laguna. Despite the fact that the county instituted a policy in 1994 to eliminate groundwater overdraft, this plan would drill 75 massive wells (the North Vineyard Well Field) to subsidize new suburban development in the area.

The wells are projected to cost $214.5 million (part of a larger $726.5 million scheme) and will mostly be paid for by county taxpayers as interest and principal on around $400 million in municipal bonds. In the rosiest scenario, these wells will draw an average of 40,900 acre-feet (that’s 13.3 billion gallons) per year out of the ground, ranging up to 95,100 acre-feet (about 31 billion gallons) in dry years.

This by itself may cause agricultural and residential wells in the area to fail and to further depress the flow of the Cosumnes River. The worse news is that the wells and pumps actually have a capacity of 141,000 acre-feet per year, and if any of the surface water deals the CWA is counting on fall through (as happened in Imperial County) there will be heavy pressure to increase the pumping.

Add in the 20,000 acre-feet per year that the remediation wells for the Aerojet and Kiefer landfill contamination zones will probably be sucking from the same aquifer, and you have the real prospect of a suburban Sacramento region mortgaged to the hilt and devoid of thriving farms and nature preserves.

All of this can be avoided, of course, if our supervisors would ditch the wells and key our growth to the sustainable supply of water.

Mike Ziser
via e-mail

These birds need a new nest

Re “Birds of Freedom” by David A. Kulczyk (SN&R Arts&culture, January 30):

I am sure I speak on behalf of the entire board of directors of the McClellan Aviation Museum in expressing my sincere appreciation to SN&R for the excellent recent article. As Museum Director Al Brown pointed out, the McClellan Aviation Museum is far more than a collection of former military aircraft. Chief among our objectives has always been an active aerospace-education program that provides an exceptional educational resource to Sacramento-area students.

I am sure that we owe much of the enthusiastic public response to our February 1 Museum Day “open house” to this article.

This year is a particularly critical one for the continued survival of our museum, owing to a need to relocate and build a new complex to contain the museum’s exhibits and aircraft collection. This will require raising a very large sum of money—several millions of dollars—entirely without any governmental support. I hope that we may count on continued enthusiastic support from the community in reaching this crucial goal.

Christopher T. Carey
member, board of directors

McClellan Aviation Museum

“Insignificant” gesture, significant impact

Re “Vlade’s Three-finger Salute” by Cosmo Garvin (SN&R News, January 30):

I just wanted to thank you for publishing the article about Vlade Divac’s use of the three-finger salute.

I appreciated learning about the way his gestures impact other members of our community. Although I’m sure Divac views his salute as insignificant in terms of global issues, I know that the Bosnian community feels very threatened by his gestures.

Regardless, I felt a bit more enlightened after reading the article because it prompted me to think about the impact simple gestures that may seem “insignificant” can have on members of our community.

I know this topic is inherently controversial, so I have tremendous respect and admiration for those writers and editors who chose to write and print it.

Jennifer Cook
Sacramento

How about furloughs instead of cuts?

Re “The Budget Czar” by Jeff Kearns (SN&R Cover, January 23):

The SN&R’s Budget Czar, as well as other analysts, are suggesting cuts to state workers’ pay to help balance California’s budget. Let’s try a spin on that suggestion.

Give the state workers the 5-percent raises that were supposed to take effect on July 1, simultaneous with a work furlough. The 5-percent raise approximately equals one day of pay. Thus, if all the bargaining groups receive their scheduled raises anyway, along with a day off without pay, the raise won’t cost the state anything.

Then, when the state economy settles down, the various bargaining groups don’t have to go back and bargain for the raise that was taken away from them. Simply end the work furlough.

With respect to the proposed 5-percent pay cut, use another work furlough equal to a day of pay. This means that the bargaining groups that were scheduled to get their raises on July 1 would end up getting two days off a month without pay, but other bargaining groups that already got their raises (such as California Correctional Peace Officers Association) would only get one day a month off without pay.

People will obviously complain that you can’t provide services with workers out one or two days a month. So, let state workers come to work on furlough days anyway without pay in exchange for earning sick leave. When state workers retire, any accumulated unused sick leave is converted to service time, resulting in a higher retirement check. It’s like putting money in a 401(k) plan. It can’t be spent now, but it’s there for you later.

If the bargaining groups will agree, we can make sacrifices that help the state now, while protecting our future financial security.

Michael Norris
Carmichael