Readers comments 10.18.13

Using water wisely

Dear Editor:

Golden State Water Company is committed to helping Claremont customers preserve nature’s most precious resource. I’ve worked for the company for more than two decades and have witnessed firsthand the tremendous partnership between our professionals and Claremont customers to use water wisely.

It was disappointing to read a recent letter to the editor (“Water-wise plant sale,” Friday, October 11) suggesting we weren’t doing our part because we were not involved in a water-wise plant sale in Upland. That event was sponsored by the Inland Empire Utilities Agency for providers outside our service area and we were not invited to participate. That doesn’t mean we aren’t actively engaged in an ongoing effort to promote sustainability.

Quite the contrary.

Golden State Water works closely with residents and community groups to manage water usage. We conducted landscape audits for city parks that resulted in system improvements saving water. Our team worked with the Claremont Unified School District to audit their usage, and is providing more than 4,000 efficient sprinkler nozzles free of charge.

We provide surveys to residential, commercial and landscape customers. Turf removal rebates helped replace more than 150,000 square feet of water-thirsty turf with efficient landscaping. Golden State Water also hosts tours of our nearby San Dimas demonstration garden for everyone who wants to learn more about water-wise practices.

The Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden is also a great water education and landscaping resource and our company is proud to help support its great work in a variety of ways.   

Water use efficiency is not a competition among providers. It’s a partnership with the customers we serve. Working together, we’re all making a positive contribution. Claremont residents can learn more at www.gswater.com/water-use-efficiency.

Edwin deLeon

Water-Use Efficiency Manager

Golden State Water Company

 

Thank you from the Girl Scouts

Dear Editor:

The Girl Scouts of Sycamore Troop 1094 would like to thank all who came out to experience and participate in our Village Ghost Walk this past weekend. Your support gave us the opportunity to show our leadership skills and creative talents and remind us that we are capable of doing so many things. But the Village Ghost Walk would not have been possible without the help of many people. Thank you for letting us thank them publicly, here in the COURIER:

Barbara Cheatley, Kurt Beardsley,  Nancy Treser Osgood, Diana Miller, Ray and Terri Rojas, Scott Feemster, Frank Bedoya and Jack and Beth Garvin, who generously shared their haunted experiences and gave us stories to tell.

Chuck Ketter, Brandon Pugno, Vicky and Peter Raus, Lizzie Aguirre, David Cumpston and Sean Key-Ketter, who volunteered to share the storytelling duties.

Beth Hartnett and Jenelle Rensch, who wrote and photographed a very cool ghost walk article for the COURIER.

The members of the Claremont Chamber Village Marketing Group for promoting and underwriting portions of the event.

And, most of all, thank you to Joan Bunte at Stamp Your Heart Out for her excitement, encouragement and hard work in making this event possible to the general public and for trusting a band of Junior Scouts to provide a new, family-friendly experience for the Claremont community  With sincere appreciation,

The Scouts of Troop 1094

Lucy, Ruby, Mae, Edyn, Lilly,

Sophie, Fiona, Jenna,

Cece, Merry, Holly and Leah

Claremont

 

Support for Joe Salas

Dear Editor:

I am writing in support of Joe Salas for the Claremont School Board. I have known Joe for almost eight years. He taught my son Noah for two years at Wilson Middle School in Pasadena and created an award-winning Model United Nations team that traveled several times to the East Coast.

Joe has the right combination of practical and personal experience to serve the families of Claremont, La Verne and Pomona. Joe is a person of outstanding integrity in whom I have great trust.

 Please join me in supporting Joe Salas for school board on November 5th.

Chris Holden

California State Assembly

41st District

 

Quality school education

Dear Editor:

The reader comment submitted by Marc Merritt (October 4) caught my eye.   He referred to a school board candidate statement about the boundaries determining which students attend which elementary schools. 

Mr. Merritt wrote, “The fact is that certain schools are considered more desirable than others.” This is important. I write this commentary not to debate the boundary issue but to ask a set of questions.

Some Claremont elementary schools are, in fact, considered more desirable than others. It has been that way for the 40 years I have lived in Claremont. My question is, why? Shouldn’t this be a major, and maybe the most important, school board issue? We have elementary schools in the Claremont school district that are substandard. Everybody knows it. Who is going to step up and do something about it? If inter-district transfers are the problem, then why are they allowed? If they are going to be allowed, then why not an equal share to each Claremont elementary school?

Do the children of Claremont residents who live in one area of Claremont deserve a better education than others?  If inter-district transfers are affecting the quality of education for the child of any Claremont resident, why are they allowed?

I think that Claremont voters need to hear from each school board candidate.  What will they do to ensure that every student attending every Claremont school has the opportunity to get a first-class education? 

When it comes to electing school board members, most voters don’t have a clue who to vote for so very few people bother to vote. COURIER reporter Sarah Torribio wrote an article in the October 4 issue featuring one of the candidates—3/4 page, no substance. If Sarah were to interview each candidate and ask some real questions, like where they stand on this most important set of questions, she might  turn this into a contest where the candidates debate real issues and earn our vote.

Jack Sultze

Claremont

 

The EPA and carbon pollution

Dear Editor:

I was pleased when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a carbon pollution standard for new power plants. These new standards are an important step in the fight against climate change that President Obama foreshadowed in a critical speech just a few months ago.

Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge of our lifetime. As the VP for Advocacy of the League of Women Voters of the Claremont Area, I am proud to stand in support of the President’s plan to cut carbon pollution from new power plants and fulfill his commitment to people, not polluters.

Power plants are the largest emitter of life-threatening carbon pollution in our country and the leading cause of climate change. Carbon pollution has deadly effects on the health of our children,         seniors and our environment. Climate change comes at a high cost to all of us, contributing to more frequent storms and deadly weather that results in billions of dollars of recovery costs for local communities every year.

Reducing the amount of carbon pollution from power plants is a life-saving measure that will protect our children, our nation and the world from the devastating effects of climate change.

The League of Women Voters of the Claremont Area looks forward to working with the EPA to implement life-saving measures to protect our children, our nation and our world from the damaging effects of climate change.

Ellen Taylor

VP for Advocacy, LWV

 

Forums offered by think tank

Dear Editor:

On October 13, I attended a public forum, “The Affordable Care Act [Obamacare]: How Will it Affect You?” The forum consisted of a principal speaker, Dr. Gerald Komnski, director of UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research, and a group of seven expert discussants representing various institutions whose members will be affected.  A Q and A session followed.

It was altogether excellent: clear, quite comprehensive, very informative and timely. I only wish more of us had been there. The Affordable Care Act has many parts and implications for all of us. People are struggling with decisions about their health care right now. Health care is important. There is a great deal of misinformation about the ACA being presented to the public by those on the right.  So, this forum filled a great public need.  

A little research has revealed that the forum was one of an ongoing series sponsored by The American Institute for Progressive Democracy (TAIPD), a Claremont-based “think tank” concerned with issues of public policy. Although founded seven years ago by members of the Democratic Club of Claremont, it is in no way affiliated with that club or the Democratic party. TAIPD is broadly progressive, however vehemently non-partisan. You can learn more about TAIPD by visiting its website: www.taipd.org.   

So, I want to thank the TAIPD for organizing the event. Its next forum, March 1, 2014, concerns water issues here and worldwide. I will certainly be there and hope you will as well. Such forums and public discussions are among the things that make living in Claremont extraordinary.

Stephen Simon

Claremont

 

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