There is a grand old lady in Madera standing on the corner of North C and 3rd streets. She is more than 100 years old, and looks as fresh and lovely as any young lady, thanks in part to the Madera Redevelopment Agency and James Taubert’s direction.
This once-stately Victorian home has recently undergone refurbishing, washing away a century of wear. The owners have even retrieved and restored her fancy window shutters that had been taken down and put in storage back in the mid-1950s.
Today, one of the oldest homes in town, the folks at the Madera Historical Society refer to her as the Welton House.
So, should you be a passer-by, slow down and take a look at one of the Grand Old Ladies of Madera.
Recent polls show a majority of Americans believes that nuclear power is a safe, affordable and effective way to generate more electricity without adding to the planet’s greenhouse gas load.
Nuclear power isn’t exactly a stranger to America. Nuclear plants churn out about a fifth of the nation’s power supply, with hardly any output of greenhouse gases. Only coal and natural gas fueled plants generate more of the nation’s power than nuclear plants produce — but they do it by throwing off more carbon dioxide than any other electricity source.
The next generation of nuclear plants, according to a Wall Street Journal report, will be cleaner and cheaper to operate, and also may produce little or no nuclear waste, disposal of which has been considered a problem over the past 30 years by environmentalists who believe in the catastrophe theory of nuclear waste.
Modern plant designs make better use of the nuclear fuel, either in initial use or in the processing and re-use of “spent fuel.”
These new designs would use almost all the energy in a fuel pellet, instead of just part of it, the result being relatively little waste.
The new reactor designs also are likely to cut cost. While nuclear plants may not pollute, and may generate a lot of electricity, they aren’t cheap. The current generation of nuclear plants, however, was built and designed plant-by-plant. The new generations will be built according to central design using interchangeable parts to make them more efficient to build and safer.
Speaking of safety, the nuclear industry has learned much from the Three Mile Island incident and from the tragic meltdown at Chernobyl. New plants will have practically all-automatic shutdown defaults, making plant opertion much safer.
I have never seen a council member in our community who has done so much for this community as Gary Svanda. He is a true leader.
He is trying to do what many of us are working for, a casino that will bring job and tax revenue for our city; not to mention a beautiful facility for all to enjoy. I believe more than 60 percent of our citizens in Madera are for the casino.
Mr. Gary Svanda is involved with the anti-graffiti organization and many other community projects to better Madera.
This community is lucky to have citizens like Mr. Gary Svanda who are not afraid to voice their support and are not concerned with the negative criticism over trivial details, because he is too busy trying to better our city’s quality of life.
All comments are edited for length and content. Due to content or space limitations some comments may not be published. More than one comment from the same person during the same week will normally not be published. Please limit calls to two minutes or less.
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In a hard-to-understand message, a woman said she “would like to see a story by the Tribune about battered women and the (financial) cuts to the battered women’s shelter.” (Editor’s note: The Tribune published two front page articles, Aug. 11 and 15, on the serious cuts to the domestic violence shelter and the impact of that on its clients.) (Webmaster’s note: The Tribune also published one Sept. 9 on Page A1.)
She would also “like to see something printed in the Tribune about available help for the homeless,” other than the Madera Rescue Mission shelter.
“Another thing that bothers me is the traffic light at Millview Elementary School,” she said. “The teachers don’t get any respect” at the signal helping kids cross. She would like to see, “during the early morning and afternoon hours, a little bit of police protection over there.”
A lady who “just read the online edition of the Tribune for Aug. 31, the story about the cows in the ravine near Coarsegold. I really, really, don’t think it was necessary for you to publish the photos of the rotting carcasses. It was such unbelievable poor taste.”
A woman wanted “to chastise the paper for putting out a special edition of all the things in Madera County and not once mentioning our oldest building, which is a museum and home to all the history of Madera. Many people work very hard to keep it up, yet there was no mention whatsoever in the paper about it.” She thought “the paper should put out a special edition just about the museum.”
A man called and said, “Why, if they are so concerned about keeping jobs, why the city of Madera laid off eight people at the golf course?”
A man said, “every time I see a car wash (a fund-raiser for a youth’s burial) I think, what the heck, I take out a $15,000 life insurance policy for my son. He is now 27 and I still have the policy. I pay seven dollars a month for the policy. Someone needs to let people know how inexpensive life insurance can be for a child. Oh, maybe I just did. Take responsibility for your children.”
A woman called “about the column written by Chuck Doud, Thursday, Sept. 3, about the crying babies and the incident with the man who slapped the baby. I’m repulsed. No one should be making light of that situation. And people who empathize with child abuse are disgusting. And this is the editor of the paper? It is so irresponsible.”
A lady expressed “her disgust after enjoying a Labor Day weekend at Town and Country Park. There were people drinking, and I don’t mind that, but they were leaving their trash all over. When they left, they didn’t even bother to pick up any wrappers or cans. This was not just one particular group, but also several. These are our parks and the least we could do is help keep them clean.”
A visitor to the Red Line Web site, self-identified as “Luis Rosario,” writes, “I just want to tell Sgt. Enrique ‘Henry’ Rosario how proud we are that he came home safe Sunday night from his second tour of duty in Iraq. His family in Madera, Fresno, and Chicago are very happy he came home safe. We are very proud. Please tell the public about his courage. Thank you.”
Another Internet guest, “Jen Valdes,” writes, “Our prayers are with the families of those three mothers, wives, friends that were killed on their way to work (in mid-August) … Come on, Madera, let’s become a family and help these families just like the Dinuba community helped the families of the Salazar children.”
An anonymous online reader writes, “Can anyone tell me why the City of Madera is leaving the graffiti all over town without removal? I realize there is a huge increase and you are all very busy.
“Up and down Road 26, there is graffiti that has been in the same spot on the same houses, on the same walls, on the same windows, on the same fences for the last several months …
“I have personally taken it upon myself to carry a spray bottle of Krud Kutter around town and jump out of my car and erase what I can but it is a losing battle. Please help me! Please volunteer your time and do the same.” (Editor’s note: The city is providing free graffiti-removal kits as part of its ongoing war on graffiti. We’ll publish details of where the kits can be picked up in a future issue.)
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Thank you for your comments. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24 hours a day by calling 674-4478, or by visiting maderatribuneredline.com.
I would like to recommend the City of Madera put up some free walls so kids may have a place to write; so kids won’t go write on people’s private property.
I’m from Fresno, a city where graffiti was a big issue. Now that the city has free walls, kids don’t think of getting in trouble with the authorities because they now have somewhere to write.
All you would have to do is go back and paint over what you do. Of course, take a couple of flix (photographs or pictures) before you buff it (remove it). That’s what I think would make graffiti less destructive in Madera.
Martin Murillo,
11th Grade (junior)
Mountain Vista High School
It is clear the California Parole Board has no fiscal responsibility when they decide parole issues. In the recent case of inmate Sharon Atkins, the Parole Board had an opportunity to cut thousands of dollars in costs to an already broken correctional budget. Instead, the parole board chose to forge ahead.
Susan Atkins appeared before the parole board Wednesday for a Compassionate Release Hearing. The hearing took about seven hours, according to news reporters. Susan was incarcerated around 40 years ago for brutally stabbing an actress after breaking into her home. A horrible crime that deserves a life, if not a death, sentence. Now, years later, inmate Atkins is unable to walk and can hardly speak. She has terminal brain cancer and, by news reports, can not move 85 percent of her body. Custody officers wheeled inmate Atkins into the Parole Hearing on a gurney; she can not sit in a wheelchair.
During the hearing, the family of the slain actress stressed that society would not be safe if this inmate was paroled and that inmate Atkins deserved to die in prison. I understand the family’s statements.
However, it is the duty of the Parole Board to put the whole picture together and do what is best for society and the correctional system. Realistically, this inmate is not going to terrorize society if paroled. She can’t move. Pictures of inmate Atkins at the hearing showed her appearing to doze off during the hearing. She certainly appeared terminal.
So what is the risk if inmate Atkins is paroled? As I see it, none to society. She has a husband. He could provide end-of- life care — but I doubt he would commit crimes because she was paroled.
What does the state gain or lose by paroling inmate Atkins? Mainly, they lose additional medical costs. Her medications, nursing, hospital trips, special custody costs and special correctional housing in the skilled nursing facility add many thousands of dollars per week to the correctional budget. Since the governor is trying to squeeze financial savings for the state budget, this is an area that needs to be re-evaluated.
In, but over-booked and behind schedule. Appointments are booked at 15-minute intervals, which leaves the doctor very little time for a concise and accurate diagnosis. The doctor also uses that time to go over your record of what occurred at your last meeting.
In, but is on the phone setting up a golf date and tee time with his buddies for next week and has therefore gotten behind schedule.
In, not in his Madera office, but in his Fresno office and won’t see you at all today. I have been going to this one office for about four years and have yet to see the guy whose name is on the front door.
Instead I see a PA or an RN — not that they are not good, but once every few months I’d like to see the one whose name is on the diploma hanging on the wall. I would also think he would like to see the people who are paying the bills. Without the doctor in, the office is not much more than a referral service.
A brief scenario: You arrive 10 minutes or so early so as to not miss your appointment. You sign in to let them know you are there, grab one of the last year’s “Time” magazines or a copy of “Golf Digest” and sit down. You glance through the magazine and look around to see who is already there and watch to see how long it takes from one patient to the next.
You look at everyone that comes in after you. You watch the clock and it is already past your appointment time. Then they call someone in who arrived after you did. You look at the clock. Forty-five minutes past your appointment time they call your name and the first thing they do is check your blood pressure. After all that my blood pressure is through the roof and I’m more than a little upset.
Then they take you to another room, tell you the doctor will be right in, and disappear. So you stew for another few minutes. (It seems like an hour by this time.) I’m ready to get up and leave by now. My time is as valuable to me as his is to him. Then you only see him for five or eight minutes.
A lot of folks were thinking President Obama would use his speech to the nation’s students on Tuesday morning to try to convert them to socialism, but it was not to be. In fact, except for the reaction of the students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va., who must have been spellbound to have the president in front of them speaking live, the speech was a snoozer.
There was nothing wrong with it. The conservatives who were worried for their kids could have saved their concern. Rather, the message was just like what kids hear every year on the first day of school: Work hard, do your homework, show up on time, etc., etc. Their principals say the same thing, as do their teachers. And, they hear it throughout the year. It is a good message, filled with truth, but a familiar one all the same.
Obama did not tell the kids to become socialists, or for that matter, even Democrats. Instead, he told them in so many words to win one for the country, which is counting on its students to be leaders.
He was a little show-offish — he told the kids if they worked hard, they could be a success like he is. But, then, he has a right to show off. He was elected president of the United States, after all, fair and square.
Once he got about 10 minutes into the speech, though, a student might have been forgiven if she found herself thinking, “This would be a good time to wind it up, Mr. president.” But Obama kept going on. I suspect there were a lot of kids tweeting on Twitter about what they were going to have for lunch before the speech was over.
I don’t understand what the conservatives who objected to the speech were worried about. I always thought the idea of free speech was something true conservatives treasure. It seems to me like Ronald Reagan, who also spoke to students, was one.
So the president was requiring schools to drag the kids out of the classroom to watch a 20-minute propaganda broadcast over a school television screen. Why couldn’t conservatives demand equal time?
I recall, from our not too distant past when we still realized the threat that socialism and communism pose, that Chairman Mao’s regime similarly required schoolchildren to read and carry a booklet known as the “The Little Red Book.”
It was full of Mao’s inane philosophies, sayings, and political pufferies; a clever manipulation of young, impressionable minds who were required to follow the mandates of the state school regime; just like here.
What is the next step? Schools issuing “Chairman Barack’s Little Blue Book” for their “enlightenment?” Blue, you know = Democrats; Red = Republicans in the spectrum of things. One far-left news commentator stated that he “felt a chill run up his leg” when he was in the presence of the great Obama.
That’s interesting, because with this latest propaganda maneuver — children forced to listen to an undeniably controversial politician, while at school — I feel that same chill; but it’s running down my spine.
It is happening all over town, in grocery stores, drug stores and other places where computer-controlled cash registers create receipts. We are having to carry away much more receipt paper than we used to.
I bought some file folders the other day at an office supply store, and was astonished at the length of the receipt — it must have been a foot long. Not only was it a receipt for my purchase, which in the old days would have taken up about two inches of cash-register tape. It was also a communication of great length about how the store wanted to do more business with me. It was an invitation to contact the store’s main office and tell how I was treated in this transaction, and to also take a chance on getting something for free.
The same is true of other stores where I shop. The purchase of a pair of socks resulted in eight inches of receipt. The receipt for a bottle of hydrogen peroxide was so long the pharmacy clerk had to fold it to get it into the sack.
“Why does this receipt have to be so long?” I asked her.
“I don’t know,” she said.
The Wall Street Journal reports other jumbo-sized receipts: a pack of gum, foot-long receipt; a package of recording tape cassettes, a 19-inch receipt; a Hula Hoop, a 30-inch receipt.
While some consumers have complained, the Journal reported, the move toward longer receipts has been good for the receipt-printer business, and for the people who sell receipt tape. The receipt printers, having to work harder, wear out faster.
Apparently the companies are using the longer receipts to add coupons and other promotions to the transaction record so that customers will come back and spend more.
How effective is it? Ask somebody if he or she read any good receipts lately. Maybe that will tell you.
