We”re off to a bad start in 2011 folks, as millions of homes are in foreclosure and unemployment is at an all time high.
A recent article in the Press Democrat stated that Sonoma Valley Bank was closed last August by bank regulators after suffering large loan losses and it continued by saying that the former bank executives are under federal investigation of financial mismanagement stemming from the housing bust in a second wave among affected cities that earlier escaped plunging prices.
In the city of Clearlake we have money problems too, what with declining property values and now there is talk of Rite Aid laying off employees and cutting hours.
The Lake County Board of Supervisors and the increase in Special Districts sewer rates put a big hardship on the elderly, poor and disabled citizens and small businesses of Clearlake right before Christmas.
I hope that our district supervisor is not losing any sleep over our hardship. Maybe our county supervisors had been sitting on their thumbs and thinking of themselves and not about what the citizens are already paying for services in the city of Clearlake. In my 77 years I have not known of a government that would put a hardship such as this on the elderly, poor and disabled and the businesses of our community.
As of now I”ve had no happy New Year”s card from our supervisors but keep looking.
Bill Shields
Clearlake
