Plan should move forward
An unusually complete opportunity has arisen for the community to participate in the review of a development project. The Planning Commission has announced its intention of conducting a series of four meetings on the proposed Wild Diamond vineyard, winery, tasting room, and visitor center, with the first to be held at the Courthouse in Lakeport (255 N. Forbes St) at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday August 11.
Several individuals have expressed concerns that this project, to be constructed just off Spruce Grove Road on the northeastern edge of Hidden Valley Lake, will have untenable impacts on the environment and on the quality of life of nearby residents. Although the Community Development Department was apparently willing to base project approvals on a mitigated negative declaration, the applicants very commendably decided to engage in the more rigorous evaluation and broader public process provided by an Environmental Impact Report (EIR), and by doing so have possibly set a precedent that will apply to projects of a similar complexity in the future.
After careful review of the EIR, the Sierra Club Lake Group has concluded that few if any of the sometimes dramatically-expressed concerns are warranted, and that all potentially negative impacts can be mitigated to a level that will allow this fundamentally beneficial project to move forward. On the other hand we also identified several ways to reduce environmental damage and possible negative effects on near by residents. Suggestions for improvement are included in the detailed comments we submitted in July.
Lake Group intends to participate in the Planning Commission discussion to make the case for our recommendations, and urges all concerned members of the community to do so as well. These hearings provide a priceless opportunity to find out the truth about what Wild Diamond really is and how it will (and will not) affect its neighbors, and also to simultaneously improve the outcome, learn about sustainable viticultural practices and relieve rumor-fed anxieties.
Victoria Brandon, Conservation Chair, Sierra Club Lake Group
Time for a truce
I think it is time for Mssrs Bracken and McKay to declare a truce! I suspect that neither will ever convince the other, and the rest of us have probably long-since made our minds up!
Our country has made a lot a lot of moves in the last decades that can now best be characterized by the old truism “Well it seemed like a good idea at the time!” Seems like time now to fast forward to the platforms, the budgets, and the political processes that may be with us after next January 20th. Maybe even time to explore what we the people think our country should be like in the future.
Another thought! Perhaps the Record-Bee could promote a cage fight between Kevin and Mac! Procedes to be used to partially offset the Main Street disaster.
Guff Worth, Lakeport
Fact check
Kevin, I would like to know the chapter, verse and page number where in “Killing Reagan” Bill O’Reilly wrote “that Reagan was mentally incompetent for most of his presidency.” Fact Check says it doesn’t exist. All I can find is a rumored memo to the above that also does not exist.
And, if he was mentally incompetent, he pulled off a pretty miraculous eight years, quite unlike President Obama.
Mac McKay, Lakeport
Who really made the sacrifice?
Merriam Webster
Simple Definition of sacrifice: the act of giving up something that you want to keep especially in order to get or do something else or to help someone.
We have a 100 percent volunteer military force serving this Country.
Army Capt. Humayun Khan, was killed by a suicide car bomb fitted with an improvised explosive device 12 years ago in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Capt Khan made this sacrifice not his parents. He voluntarily put himself on the path that led to his death, no one else did that. Yes his parents suffered a tragic loss but only their son made the ultimate sacrifice.
During this war, IEDs were used extensively against US-led invasion forces and by the end of 2007 they had become responsible for approximately 63 percent of coalition deaths in Iraq, one being Capt. Khan.
“U.S. Major General Rick Lynch thinks that members of the Iranian Quds Force and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard trained members of the Qazali terror network in explosives technology and also provided the network with arms, munitions, and military advisors. Many explosive devices, including improvised explosives (IEDs) and explosively-formed projectiles (EFPs), used by insurgents are claimed by Lynch to be Iranian-made or designed.” (Wikipedia)
We just paid 1.7 billion dollars to the country that more likely than not played a big part in the death of Capt. Khan. I wonder if Mr. Khan now questions what his son sacrificed his life for at all considering under the Clinton, Obama foreign policy years we have lost or given back everything we gained including the reason for Capt Khan’s sacrifice?
Bill Wink, Hidden Valley Lake
Words, matter
Here is what I don’t get. The Republicans chiding Obama for not saying, “Radical Extremist Muslims.” If Obama did say it would the terrorists stop beheading people? And, I expect, if Obama did start saying the term Republicans would find something else to complain about.
Hostage negotiators are taught how to phrase things in order to reduce tensions in the situation, not exacerbate them. Let’s change the tone and discuss things that are more important than how we name terrorists.
Kevin Bracken, Kelseyville
