Unscrupulous Developers
In Sierra Valley unscrupulous developers are selling flood plain property for housing sites. Plumas County has an ancient General Plan and efforts to update have become futile. Planning Commission members who have tried to keep politics out of the process are resigning. Meanwhile developers are working overtime to sell off land unsuitable for housing, for housing. I know of a set of parcels in Beckworth that are zoned Agricultural Preserve, and have a 15-bedroom home above a ground leach-field about a mile north, on an upslope. The land surrounding the parcels is being farmed. The farmed parcel is a favorite feeding ground for Sandhill Cranes.
Where are people in Truckee going to go to find open space and a slower pace? A place to unwind and get away from the Truckee gridlock? We meet many people from Truckee, birding at the wetlands in the middle of Sierra Valley and on Yuba Pass, cross-country skiing.
With the current water crisis, the consensus is that underground water storage is the most practical way to store water to avoid the evaporation factor. Building houses on the Sierra Valley floor isn’t compatible with water storage. There are just too many cumulative impacts to water quality. We have no updated General Plan that reflects our current situation.
I have sent a letter outlining my concerns to our Attorney General, Jerry Brown, Jr., the Nature Conservancy, the Sierra Club, and the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. I welcome your ideas as to who would also be interested in what is going on in this beautiful valley.
~ Patricia Wormington, Sierra Valley
Please Help Ugandan Children
Over the past 20 years, 30,000 innocent children in northern Uganda have been abducted by rebels of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) to fight for the group’s bloody guerilla campaign. These youths, sometimes no older than seven or eight, are forced into lives of violence, starvation, disease, sexual slavery, and mental abuse. One-fourth of the children in northern Uganda over the age of 10 have lost one or both parents due to disastrous conditions throughout internal displacement camps. In addition, thousands of children are forced to leave their families to become night commuters in order to flee the LRA. This must be stopped.
It is likely that many people in our community have never heard of these atrocities. The question is, now that you are aware of some of the horrors occurring in Uganda, what are you going to do? These people need us; they have been suffering for the past 20 years, and it’s about time that we noticed and attempted to do something to help.
Our sophomore English class at North Tahoe High School is doing just that. In order to aid those suffering in Uganda, we have decided to team up with Invisible Children’s Schools for Schools program, an organization designed to raise money in order to build schools for children in northern Uganda. However, we need your help – over the next few weeks, we hope to put up flyers and donation jars around the community and would greatly appreciate your contributions. You can also send your donations to: North Tahoe High School, Attn Katie Guthro P.O. Box 5099 Tahoe City, CA, 96145.
Thank you for caring.
~ A North Tahoe High School 10th grade honors English class
For information on Uganda or the Schools for Schools program, visit invisiblechildren.com or e-mail help_africa@live.com.
