Red Line (March 2)
Music Video: “This Too Shall Pass” by OK Go
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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 Because of content or space limitations, some comments may not be published. More than one comment from the same person during the same week will normally not be published.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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A woman who “just picked her children up from school out at Dixieland,” said she “just then found out the school board meeting planned for the next night would be considering shutting the school down. No notices, no phone calls to the parents. I pay my taxes I want a school in my own area. You give that superintendent that raise? Stop picking on the kids. This is absolutely shameful. And to not tell the parents before you take the vote, that is criminal, and you should all be recalled.”
Due to her crying, a woman’s message was hard to understand. She pleaded that a teacher not lose her job. “All I want is for you to be with my kids.” She also said she is “more than willing to take a pay cut to save my job.” She mentioned the many school district “higher ups, they don’t live in Madera and do not have the best interests of our kids at heart.”
A woman “made an observation about the Madera Unified board meeting last week. I think it was shameful for them not to have a facility large enough to keep people out of the rain. I think they did it on purpose so they would turn away people. The people in this community should have the right to say what they want to.”
“This concerns the school superintendent,” said a gentleman. He then paraphrased President Ronald Reagan. “Mister superintendent of schools, turn down that raise.”
A woman “just attended the Town Hall meeting on the proposed prison here in Madera. I am livid that the supervisors are supporting it. I am livid that (supervisor) Tom Wheeler told me it’s no different than our county jail. It houses the same type of criminals. Build it somewhere else. Build it next to the Chowchilla prisons.”
A man attended the same meeting and said, “I am very disappointed with some of the comments made at that meeting. They were more concerned about what they wanted and they have their mind made up about where they want the location.”
Another woman said this about the prison subject: “Where are the people that want to revitalize Madera? Where is the revitalization department? Mr. Taubert, where were you? (Note: Jim Taubert is director of the Redevelopment Agency). How is this going to revitalize Madera? Right in the middle of schools too.”
A man saw “the biggest waste of taxpayers’ dollars. Road 36 between Avenue 15 and Avenue 12, the county just had that section of road repaved in the last couple of months. Today, there’s county crews out there repairing a bad section in it. This one section there was one person operating piece of equipment and six people standing around.”
The caller “thought this was done by a contractor. Why is the county repairing it and not the contractor?”
A man read a “letter from a reader, Veronica (Pleitez, who told of becoming a citizen and college graduate after originally being an illegal alien). My hat’s off to you,” he said. “What a wonderful story.”
A man who said he “served in the Merchant Marine,” said, “your writer, (Leon) Emo and his Meanderings, Saturday described the dockside atmosphere of San Francisco perfectly. His story brought back a lot of memories.”
A woman said this about the same story. “It was shameful you printed Emo’s (Meanderings) in Saturday’s paper. He talked about panhandling, that’s just stealing, and drinking, and even prostitutes in San Francisco. Mr. Emo, you need to clean up your act.”
“I have a complaint,” said a woman. “Our code enforcement department, do they work? Or do they just take the complaints and set them aside? I reported a house with a swimming pool and a fence down giving access to the backyard. The pool is totally green, there’s mosquitoes, and it stinks. I’ve reported it to code enforcement twice already. Obviously it doesn’t do any good. Maybe I’ll call mosquito abatement.”
A lady said she “went to the high school alumni softball game, but I do have a comment. I was wondering why there was a coach out on the field that was not a high school softball coach, but yet, in the stands, there was one coach that was a very good softball coach.” She wondered who made the decision.
A woman “walked out to get her Madera Tribune and sit down to read it.” She was disappointed “it was half wet even though it was in a plastic bag. It was very annoying. I sure do miss the days when the paper person would throw it on the porch on rainy days. Problem solved.”
A man read a “Saturday, Feb. 27, newspaper about the three doctors who opened up their new office building. It is quite interesting that the contractor is not from Madera and, of all the sub-contractors, not one of them are from Madera. It is all outside people. What happened to the old adage that we would try to keep at least some of the work here in Madera to help our own people out?”
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After reading the recent article about the proposed A-2 route for the High Speed Rail, I was surprised and proud of our City Coucil for standing against the route. Stand tall council members, tell the big boys we don’t want the rail line or there money.
The proposed route would just add another black eye to our community. Madera has suffered enough punches to the gut. Tearing down many residences and some of the few businesses that are actually sticking around to allow an ear numbing monster to come through is not what Madera needs. And the long high wall that would have to be constructed running through town would give the graffiti vandals a new canvas for thier craft. We have enough of that blight in our town now. Better start stocking up on cover paint now.
And who is going to ride that high speed rail, I am sure it will come with a high speed ticket price. Nobody here will ride it, they’re all broke. And who is going to want to stop here and get off, what’s here for them?
Let them use the alternate route and chew up some of that dusty dry farmland that they won’t give us the water to farm. Hate to see that go too, but let the State pay for thier own mistake if they wnat to create another one.
Good start council, I’m proud of you, now keep standing tall. Madera doesn’t need it, use the money elsewhere, cut the fat, and get our community back to it’s beauty and prosperity so we can all be proud!
Stand your ground Madera! …I too am happy that the city council rejected it!
How vain and stupid of the “High Speed Rail people”! WHAT are they smoking? The train won’t even stop here and to run it right downtown through on/over an already problemtic rail system is STUPID! We may not be a rich high powered community, but we are an empowered one! Send the message! Be the squeaky wheel!
It would be nice if everyone would quit picking on everyone and everything in this great town of Madera. If your that unhappy ? Stop complaining and do something about it. Or just move if you think it’s better someplace else. But i bet you will be back !!!! Impala 63