By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

Good news for those who fly: The Obama administration has issued a rule limiting to three hours the amount of time airlines may keep passengers cooped up on the ground.

This past year, the horror stories abounded of airlines which kept people locked inside of planes on taxiways for up to six hours and even more.
Under the new rule, airlines can be charged as much as $27,500 per passenger for refusing to let passengers deplane after three hours.

You would think that the airlines, once they determined a plane could not take off for whatever reason, would taxi the plane into a safe area and let the passengers off who wanted to get off.

What about the baggage? Well, it would go on to the destination, as would the passengers, eventually.

That just seems like normal good business.

Apparently not to airlines, which purposefully schedule too many flights, knowing they can get away with inconveniencing passengers — for a while, at any rate.

I’ve never been stranded like that. The most I’ve had to sit in a plane after it rolled away from the terminal was 30 minutes or so. As long as the air conditioning is on, that’s all right. You can always look out the window, read a book or a magazine or even snooze.

But in at least one case, the passengers were kept locked up 11 hours. When you read about service like that, it makes you not want to fly again.

Some of these strandings are unavoidable. Weather, mechanical problems and other unexpected difficulties can delay a flight. But the new rules will require the airlines to let people off their planes and go back into the terminals while those problems are solved or waited out.

That only makes sense.

For some people it is just their nature to give. What a world this will be when we all realize this is the way to live.

For us, the Hinds Hospice Thrift Shop in Madera, we are fortunate to have 30 such people who have found their niche, volunteering here at the shop. Many have been with the shop since it first opened 12 years ago. They all have a very special place in our store, and it would be difficult to lose any one of them. At this time I would like to recognize three exceptional women who have spent countless hours helping at the shop.

There are two women who come in five days a week to accept and process the donations that come to the back door. I cannot say they work tirelessly, because they do tire, but, they do it because they truly want to. Their names are Dee Oaxaca and Jennie Childers.

Then there is Dorothy Simpson who has made literally thousands of hand made rugs and quilts which we have sold at the store. Again, we cannot even imagine the hours.

These individuals and others like them are who make our shop a setting that inspires us all to be our best. Hinds Hospice could not have a better group of people backing them up. Thank you all for being you.

Carol Breit,
Hinds Hospice Thrift Shop,
Madera

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

When 2010 rolls around in just a few more days, we’ll be in a new decade. It seems like the start of the old one was just yesterday — well, maybe the day before yesterday.

Here are some of the things that happened as the year 2,000 opened:

+ The advent of 2000 coincided with the biggest story being about what didn’t happen. The Y2K horror — when planes were to fall out of the sky, elevators stop and the stock market crash — didn’t happen. We’ll probably always wonder whether all those billions that were spent on Y2K mitigation had anything to do with anything other than keeping a bunch of computer wizards gainfully employed.

Funny how it seems like that big story was a lot like another one — the ongoing debate over whether we can control the weather by sending money to poor countries who have no intention of reducing their carbon footprints.

+ Terrorism by Islamic fundamentalists was rampant, just as it had been in the previous decade. In retrospect, it was clear we were going to be attacked again. They told us we would be. And in less than two years, we were attacked.

+ Israel and its neighbors were still trying to come to peace terms. President Clinton was brokering talks, with Syria.

+ Republican Congressman George Radanovich in 2000 pledged that the GOP-controlled Congress would propose a budget that would eliminate the public debt. The opposite happened, even after George W. Bush was elected to the presidency, and Republicans controlled the entire government.

+ “Peanuts” cartoonist Char-les Schultz announced his retirement, and a few weeks after that announcement, he died. His creations live on, though, as popular as ever.

+ Mars was being explored by a robot, just as it is now.

+ Water was the most-argued-about political and environmental issue in California. Some things don’t change.

Thrown under the train. That best describes what the California High Speed Rail (CHSR) system’s proposed A-3 route does to Madera County agriculture and the public water agencies delivering water to County farms. Nowhere else anywhere along any part of the CHSR route, from San Diego to Sacramento and across the valley going into the Bay area, are agricultural lands and the water agencies that serve them impacted anywhere near as severely or as extensively as they are in Madera County.

Moreover, reviewing the proposed CHSR route presented to voters as Proposition 1A in November 2008, it’s clear Madera County voters, if not Madera County’s elected officials, were sold a “bill of goods” by rail proponents. Maps of the then-proposed route show the CHSR traversing the County north to south adjacent to the existing railroad right-of-way, the A-2 Route, which would have minimal, not entirely unreasonable, impacts to county farms and water delivery systems.

For Madera Irrigation District and the growers we serve, the impacts of the A-3 route will be substantial and include:

+ Severing and requiring piece meal alteration and/or reconstruction of nearly every District canal and pipeline water delivery system and facilities rights-of-way west of Highway 99,

+ Higher water rates and land based charges due to:

1. Increased operating costs resulting from the inability of District staff and equipment to travel directly and efficiently (you can’t get there from here) between work sites and while operating water delivery systems,

2. A greater number of District staff and vehicles being required to complete time critical tasks due to travel problems noted above,

3. Lower revenues due to reduced land based assessments as lands are taken out of production for the HSRS route and/or become economically unviable after being carved into small disconnected parcels, and

4. Fewer acres being farmed to repay obligations for the construction of federal and district water delivery and storage facilities.

Obviously there are no “upsides” and far too many downsides to the Madera Irrigation District and the farmers we serve. And looking at the route maps, I can’t imagine the situation is any different in other areas of the county. Which raises the question: How did the A-3 route become the preferred alternative, especially given that purported problems and issues associated with the A-2 route through Madera County and City of Madera are, arguably at least, little or no different than those encountered traversing any other county or community in the valley?

CHSR officials and consultants at the Dec. 18 CHSR public workshop were long on hyperbole about how terrific HSR will be but short on explanations as to their rationale for proposing to decimate Madera County agriculture. In short all they and the presented materials admitted was that the impact to Madera County agriculture would be “high,” a profound understatement.

If there is anything positive to be said at this juncture it is that there is still, or at least should be, a lengthy open public process required before the final decision on routing is supposed to be made. During that process it is of paramount importance that farmers and landowners express their views in writing to the High Speed Rail Authority and to their elected representatives at both local and state levels.

This can begin by attending and expressing your views at the Madera County Board of Supervisors meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5, at which Supervisor Bigelow is reportedly going to introduce a declaration calling for any CHSR alignment to be within existing rail corridors.

Letting our concerns be known, we can at least hope to prevent Madera County agriculture from being thrown under the CHSR train.

Lance W. Johnson,
general manager of Madera Irrigation District

All comments are edited for length and content. Because of 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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“Reading Mr. Spencer’s letter in the paper,” said a woman, “Mr. Spencer is a pillar in his church. He believes what many Catholics believe and want, and that is separation of church and state.”

A male regular caller claimed “breaking news, first to be read in the Madera Red Line, there’s no quid-pro-quo on Guantanamo between our president and their president. The whole program is designed to get GITMO and the U.S. out of Cuba. After the GITMO transfer we will abandon Guantanamo and be free of Cuba.”

A lady “just wanted to call and say thank you for the student newspapers. It really helps the unemployed teachers and the county workers going on furlough, so we’re constantly looking in the want ads for jobs.” She went on to say she was “really disheartened that they are putting in another swimming complex at Madera High School in lieu of the fact that teachers have been laid off.” She ended wishing everyone a “Merry Christmas.”

“A parent of a child going to school in the Madera Unified District,” had this to say. “I just wanted to inform other parents what’s really going on. Our superintendent, John Stafford … is fixing to give himself an 8 percent pay raise that the (school) board has approved. It is not right.”

Another “parent” had a similar comment. “Let’s see, teachers getting laid off, other employees forced to take non-paid furloughs and the superintendent getting a large raise. What’s wrong with this picture? Between the school board and the county supervisors, is the City of Madera, who has not had any layoffs or furloughs, the only government entity doing it right?”

A lady said, “on Dec. 15 I received a ticket for not having my dog on a leash. That is okay. I don’t mind. What I do mind is having one of the animal control officers (name given) kick my 5-pound Chihuahua with her size 7 steel-toe boots. I did some investigating and found that physical violence (against animals) is a last resort. I called her boss (name given) who works for the City of Madera and complained. She thought it was not wrong for her officer to kick the dog in the mouth. She must have been really scared of a five-pound Chihuahua. She knocked out four of his teeth. I’m a dog lover and they are wrong. I hope the SPCA reads this.”

A man called about “the Cleveland and Gateway intersection. When are they going to do something about that? Get some officers out there. People coming off the freeway and on the freeway you can’t even get across.”

Another caller had this to say on the same subject. “I was coming from the theater (on Gateway) heading back into town. I had to stop at the light at Cleveland. When it turned green the people who were turning (left) in front of me, despite now having a red light, just kept turning and stopping until they blocked the entire intersection. Are people in that much of a hurry to get to Cool Hand Luke’s or the new Panda Express? Get some cops out there and issue those red light runners some tickets.”

A gentleman titled his message “yacking and backing.” His call was “about a lady who was upset at the Save Mart parking lot handicapped spot. She was trying to back out while yacking on her cell phone and because someone was trying to get into that spot, honked at her. Well, everybody knows you don’t yack and back. It’s against the law. Okay, end of story.”

A man who “went to the meeting regarding the high speed rail. It seems the county Board of Supervisors and the Madera City Council have sold us growers on the west side of Highway 99 down the river so they can probably have a maintenance facility in the county so, of course, to help create jobs and taxes. Instead of having it (the rail) run down the Santa Fe or through town as it is now. I want to thank the supervisors and the council for doing all you’ve done to mess with us. I plan on making sure when you run for office none of you get re-elected.”

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Thank you for your calls. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24 hours a day by calling 674-4478, or by visiting www.maderatribuneredline.com.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

California seems to be losing its lustre.

If there was one thing California could always do, it was grow. New population numbers, however, show that more people have left the state over the last few years than have moved in. While the state did grow slightly in population, most of those numbers were babies born here.

While babies are lovable, cute and our hope for the future, they don’t arrive with money or job skills. They are definitely long-term investments, some of which, if they happen to wind up in jail, don’t pay off.

People who leave the state take their money and their skills with them. This out-migration is getting harder to mitigate.

Why would people want to leave paradise?

Yes, California is a paradise, but in many cases it has been ill-used.

Here are more new numbers: California’s roads and highways have been rated the worst in America except for those of one state: New Jersey. That means the roads in Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana, which usually come last in everything, are better than those in California. Yet the flow of dedicated cash from fuel taxes in California, at an average of 65.8 cents per gallon, is by far the largest of any state. Where does the money go? California every year falls behind on highway maintenance by more than $10 billion.

Approved but unsold California bond issues are stacked up like 737s over LAX. More are due to arrive if the voters give their okay.

Meanwhile, the number of actual jobs in California seems to be dropping. We know the unemployment rate is 12.3 percent — 0.2 percent lower than last month — but we seldom hear how many actual jobs there are. We do know thousands of jobs have been outsourced or moved out of state. Forever gone.

California is still paradise, but I hope it doesn’t become paradise lost.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

It was good to see former Mayor Sam Armentrout in attendance at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. He had missed the last few meetings because he has been fighting lymphoma, a type of cancer involving cells of the immune system.

Treatment, which he has been receiving at Stanford University Medical Center, involves many options, none of them fun. Treatment and recovery can take a lot out of a person, and can take months.

Armentrout was absent from the council meeting Dec. 2 where he would have turned the gavel over to the new mayor, Gary Svanda. At that time, he would have heard many words of praise about his year as mayor, and it would have been praise that he deserved.

When he began his term a year ago, he pledged to be the “green mayor,” to lead the city into a new era of sustainability, and he kept that promise.

To kick this drive off, he hosted a meeting at the Madera Municipal Golf Course, where he and his fellow council members, along with city staff members, wore green T-shirts as a reminder that they were there to talk about such concepts as energy conservation, lowering the city’s carbon footprint and encouraging the use of solar energy and alternative fuels, such as natural gas.

The city already had begun such initiatives to some extent, but Armentrout used his bully pulpit as mayor to sell the concept. As a result, sustainability now is an integral part of how the city serves its citizens. Madera will be a better place because of it.

He also can take a good part of the credit for the adoption of the districting map that occurred Wednesday during the City Council meeting. He was forthright, even before he became mayor, in moving the districting process forward, and he was insistent that the months-long process treat all the citizens of the city fairly.

Armentrout served us well as mayor. We wish him every success in his battle with lymphoma.

Music Video: “That Was the Worst Christmas Ever” by Sufjan Stevens

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By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

One of the things we, as taxpayers, have yet to realize is how the flow of taxes into local governments is down. Services we took for granted even a year ago are gradually being withdrawn.

Some of the public is beginning to understand what that means to them personally. On Tuesday, a petition bearing the signatures of some 1,100 citizens of the Ahwahnee and Raymond areas was presented to the Board of Supervisors, protesting the imminent cutbacks in services from those stations for the winter months. People who live in those communities are afraid that if they need medical assistance, or if their properties catch fire, help will arrive too late. They have been appearing before the supervisors for months now to protest the cutbacks.

The cuts came last summer as a result of anticipated funding shortfalls. During budget hearings, the county clearly had to make up for a lack of millions of dollars. The fire service was ordered to take its share of the cuts. When county fire officials came back to the supervisors with recommendations for cuts, Ahwahnee and Raymond wound up on the block.

During the summer, those stations are staffed by CalFire specialists to meet the challenges of range and woodland fires in that hilly and wooded area. When the CalFire people went home, the county would make up the funding to keep the stations open during the winter.

Since then, even more cuts have been made, and as a result the likelihood of the funding for those stations being returned is slight.

There is a solution, of course. The people in that area could vote to tax themselves enough to keep the stations open. There’s still enough time to get it on next year’s ballot. The signatures that were on that petition probably would be enough to get such a tax up for a vote.

Unfortunately, we are in that kind of economy.

On Sunday, Nov. 1, my little dog, Pretty Penny, got sick. I didn’t know it yet, but this was the beginning of a week-long fight for Penny’s life. She wasn’t any better by Tuesday, so we were off to the vet’s office.

Between Tuesday and Friday she received fluid under the skin, an X-ray, an ultrasound and a plasma infusion, and her blood work showed high enzymes and low protein levels.

During the ultrasound, the vet saw a “bruise” on her upper chest. By Friday the “bruise” had changed colors and it was determined that the bruise was actually a wound caused by the bite of a venomous spider, a brown recluse. She was a very sick little dog.

Pretty Penny is a 4-pound Yorkie. I knew a brown recluse bite on a human could be very bad. On a 4-pound Yorkie, well, I wasn’t sure she would survive. She may not have if it hadn’t been for the excellent care she received at the Madera Veterinary Center.

The doctors there were great; the entire staff was so compassionate, kind and caring. They treated Penny with so much care and attention. I, of course, was a basket case and they were so supportive, giving hugs and words of comfort when I needed them.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to Dr. Erickson, an extra helping of thanks to Dr. Carr for her determination in finding out what was wrong with Penny and to Dr. Polci, who was able to surgically close the open wound on Penny. You and your staff are a real asset to this community. It has been a month and a half and Penny is right back to normal, maybe a bit more spoiled, if that’s possible!

I would also like to thank our “bug guy” Wilbur Dana (Dana’s Pest Control). As soon as we got word that she had been bitten by a brown recluse, we called Wilbur to ask that he spray the yard for this spider. He was here the next morning. Thank you for your quick attention.

Again, thanks to you all, you are all a credit to your professions.

Marty Noblett,
Madera

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By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

We have started running photos of holiday houses in The Madera Tribune again, but don’t look for my house to be among them. I haven’t plugged in the bugling angel yet. Maybe I’ll get to it before Christmas Eve.

I happened to buy the bugling angel a few years ago when it was on sale, and it has proven to be money well spent. It lights up the front of our house. It gives the impression that the angel is either blowing a bugle or smoking a large pipe. Either way, the image is very Christmasy. It certainly isn’t something you’d plug in for the 4th of July.

When our kids were still around the house, I used to spend days getting the yard all dolled up for Christmas. I would wrap strings of hundreds of lights around hedges and tree trunks. I would fasten lights to hooks I had installed under rain gutters. I would put lights along stair rails and around windows. When I threw the switches, the stockholders of the power companies would break out the champagne to toast another year of good dividends.

Things are much tamer now at the Doud house. The bugle-ing angel is pretty much it.

I have a lot of admiration for the Maderans who deck their houses with lights, créches, air-blown Santas, dancing elves and other outdoor Christmas decor. I know it is a lot of work. Untangling the lights, for example, reduces some men — and women, too — to saying things so bad they have to high-tail it to confession. It brings the urge to drink on some decorators, and they give in to that urge. They take vows never to do this again.

But then, when everything is in place, and the switch is thrown, they get that good old warm Christmas feeling. And so do the rest of us. Thanks so much, all of you, for giving the city such a wonderful holiday glow.

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Music Video: “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” by Sufjan Stevens