Water rip-off

Dear Editor:

The city of Claremont has already spent $2.2 million on issues related to the acquisition of the water system and, last week, another $1 million was appropriated. Yet, we still don’t know: (1) whether the city will ever acquire the water system, (2) how much it will ultimately cost the city to acquire it, (3) who will operate the water system after it is acquired, or (4) how the acquisition will impact our water bills.

In effect, this has cost each water customer in Claremont about $275 (and counting) with absolutely nothing to show for it, not even a plausible vision of what we can expect to gain (or lose) from this expensive endeavor. Who really is ripping us off, Golden State Water or the city?

Dan Dell’Osa

Claremont

Pomona museum location

Dear Editor:

I am adding my voice to those who would like to see the new Pomona College Museum of Art sited near the northeast corner of College Avenue and First Street.

The residential-style buildings on the west side of College Avenue form a transition between the institution and the Village, which will be lost if Renwick House and the cottages are no longer there. The cottages have no great merit as architecture, but they do have cultural value as part of the city’s past.

I hope Pomona College will see the value of continuing to blend into the rest of the city along this border rather than creating an abrupt change. Altering the location of the proposed museum is not likely to affect the museum’s success, but it would help to preserve the character of the city and it would make many Claremont citizens grateful.

Susan Schenk

Claremont

Gas solutions

Dear Editor:

Gasoline is going through the roof. It’s hard on the pocketbook for many of us who drive large, fuel-inefficient autos. Perhaps it is time to start thinking about some kind of solution.

Would Claremont consider buying an oil company of its own and staff it with less well paid CEOs? Although oil companies do not qualify for eminent domain, it could be worth a try.

Citizens with driver’s licenses could drive to the city yards and fill up for a pittance. Socialism? Perhaps, but what to do when things go down hill in a hand basket.

John Schwartz

Claremont

Tsk

Dear Editor:

While I have been enjoying my reading of the July 17 issue of the COURIER, and particularly liked the overviews of Memorial Park which demonstrate that we are indeed a City of Trees, I was nonetheless disappointed and distracted by yet another typo. This one was on page 8, in the very interesting article about the recent demise of Dr. Gerald Juergens.

In the third paragraph of the article, it is related that “As a teenager, he sold Harold Express newspapers on the corner of…” Coming from a long line of newspaper people, my favorite uncle, Bill Pigue, would have been deeply saddened to note the misspelling of the name of the old Herald Express of which he was the city editor for many years.

As such misspellings and other grammatical errors seem to be increasingly common in the COURIER (though not as bad as the Bulletin!), it would help maintain the esteem of the COURIER if additional proofreading were instituted.

Hoping that my own obituary is grammatically (and factually) correct as well as not soon…

Don Fisher

Claremont