HIDDEN VALLEY >> Helen Owen had a busy weekend before meeting Sunday afternoon at her ranch to share her plans and priorities for the District 1 Supervisor race. Saturday there was a rodeo, and earlier Sunday there had been team roping on her ranch in Hidden Valley. It’s a busy place with children, grandchildren, horses, goats, sheep, chicken and peacocks in evidence.
“My family’s been here since the mid-1800s. I raised my family here and I absolutely love our community. I don’t think there’s a better place on earth to live. I absolutely love it here and I love the people …. We were raised from the time we were little, we were volun-told and then volunteered, and that’s just a way of life. When cows get on the road, it doesn’t matter whose cows (they) are you go put them in.” Owen said.
“I don’t want to lose this close-knit community, and I don’t like the hating on either side of the aisle. There’s just no reason for it. We want what’s best for the community. I believe we can do better than what we’ve been doing. In all honesty, for one thing, I believe we’re over-taxed and over-regulated. Most of it comes down from the state, but there are things right here in Lake County that we can do to make it easier. “
“I have helped primarily … our youth, of course, because that’s our next generation. So, I’ve always been all about the kids and the entire community, family-oriented things.”
“…I would be making different decisions than what some of the people that are in there now would be making. For instance, the Guenoc project. I am angry that they were willing with no thought to how that could affect people in Middletown (to) give away that water. …For instance, that’s one issue. “
Owen spoke of Lake County Director of Public Works Glen March presenting to a Middletown Area Town Hall (MATH) meeting. “He’s in in charge of roads, and I’d asked him about some of the road issues because lord knows we have the road issues around here. So, he … said it’s driven by complaints only. So right away, I get on and I fill out two complaints.”
“I felt the most important spot that needs to be fixed …is Lower Lake in front of the high school and the elementary. Back when that was put in, …. it was a small school. Now they’ve got over … 1,000 high school students and around 750 elementary students on that same campus, and it’s a fiasco …. … I talked to … the superintendent, and she said that she’d been trying and trying for three-and-a-half years and had gotten nowhere. So, I filled out a complaint for that one first. Mr. Glenn was amazing. He came and met with us at the school. … I’m trying … to help her. “
“I want to do what I can do to raise this community. With the permit process, some of the issues that they’re having is it takes a long time. I’m not saying that this is anybody’s fault, but there’s got to be a way to make it easier. Maybe streamlining the permits. I think the fees are too high.”
“… They’re trying to rebuild the apartment (building that burned in the Valley Fire) in Middletown. And because of something put in the Area Plan, which actually I was on the Area Plan for Middletown, and we wanted a scenic corridor. But there needs to be a way that the Board of Supervisors can overlook some of that when it makes sense. So, you can’t go over a certain height. Well, they had two-story buildings there and they had the peaked roofs. Well, they’ve put together a nice-looking building with peaked roofs and they said, ‘No, you need to lower it.‘ So they have the diagram of what it’ll look like if they do the flat roof …. and it looks ugly. So, they’re actually shooting themselves in the foot with the rule.”
“As far as maintaining the growth and how it happens, it needs to be done wisely and smartly, but that needs to be dictated by our area plans.”
“I know that people have their agendas, and …typically, what I have seen, is the people that are working and staying busy and doing their work… They’re so busy working, trying to make a living, raising their families, they don’t have time to monitor what’s going on politically. So they want to elect somebody that’s going do their bidding for them, and they hope that they’re trustworthy. And that’s why I’m jumping in.”
