DAVID FLAHERTY
Summer break is coming to an end. The City Council starts meeting again next week, and the kids are back in school right after the holiday weekend.
I’ve had a great summer and have had the opportunity to do a bit of travelling around the country.
In early July, I lead a scout group on a 7-day, 73+ mile, High Sierra backpacking trip that ended with a trip over the highest mountain in the Continental United States – Mount Whitney. We had a great time, and got to see some magnificent parts of this country. We flew in and out of San Francisco, spent some time along the California coast, went inland and backpacked in the Sierra’s for a week, and then spent time touring around the San Francisco peninsula. The coast of California, the Redwoods and Sequoia’s, and the Sierra mountains are more beautiful than the pictures you see in magazines, on TV, or on the Internet – and you can’t appreciate the massive size without seeing them in person.
Even with all this beauty, one of the most memorable things for me was the water situation in the San Joaquin Valley. We’ve all heard about the drought and fires that are affecting California, but I really had no idea how massive the problem was until I drove and backpacked through the region. The smaller coastal farms of California are doing great – they get the misty air and rain on a regular basis. The valley farms between the Coastal range and the Sierra’s are in really bad shape. We drove along major highways at highway speeds through the massive farms. I’d guess that only about 10-15 percent of the land was actually being used for farming. The other areas were barren. The pipes, and fences, and equipment are all there, but there is not enough water to farm it all, so the farmers have cut back their operations. The fields are as dry as a desert. Some of the former tree fruits, nuts, and vine products are just dead stumps baking in the sun. The scale of this was problem was astonishing. The farms out there are massive, and people around the country and the world depend on food from this region. Cutting back production to 15 percent affects food supplies and prices for hundreds of millions of people. As a business owner, I also think of all of the consequences: tens of thousands of jobs lost, billions of dollars of revenue lost, food shortages, hundreds of millions in investments sitting idle baking in the sun, and on and on. This is a major national problem with long-term consequences. The state, federal and local agencies need to get together and figure out a water sharing solution ASAP.
The drought is certainly affected by weather patterns (not a lot of snow or rain in the high mountains), but as I learned in Lone Pine, it’s also a matter of money and power. Lone Pine is a small town on the eastern side of Mount Whitney. It used to have a 100 square mile lake to the east, and the lake was fed by rivers and streams from the neighboring mountain ranges. There were towns and farms that depended on this water supply. In the early 1900s, the City of Los Angeles bought up the land and lake. They drained the lake and intercepted the mountain streams and sent all of the water through a massive aqueduct about 200 miles to LA. Now the big lake is dry and barren. Hundreds of years of mountain runoff (salts and mining residue) sits baking on the desert valley floor. Air quality is affected. The towns in the area are now ghost towns. The farms are barren deserts. The government needs to find solutions to this problem before San Joaquin Valley ends up the same way.
Since I’m on the topic of farms… the City Council is still discussing the city’s eminent domain taking of the Wielgus Farm on Main Street. The mayor has proposed taking over 30 acres and turning it into a recreation facility. Mrs. Wielgus and her family want to keep their farm. It’s been in their family for about 70 years. Mrs. Wielgus came to the July City Council meeting and made it very clear that she does not want to lose her farm, and doesn’t think the city should forcibly take it from her family. I think her presence made an impact, and I think there are now at least 7 councilors who will vote against the taking, but you never know. Please reach out to your councilors and let them know if you want your city, to spend your money, to take this land by force.
I’ve discussed this before, but I should probably discuss my position again. First, I believe the government’s power of eminent domain should be used very rarely and only in cases when there is substantial justification or benefit to the citizens (such as a roadway or railroad that will be used by masses of people). Alternatives should be explored, and the taking or private land should be the last resort. Second, I believe farms should be protected as much as possible – once that land is taken and used for something else, it’s impossible to recover. Third, before even considering a taking, I’d want to make sure that the final project is real and funded.
I have several issues with this plan. First, the city declared the Cross Street fields “surplus”. They claimed that they didn’t need the fields any more. Second, the city already owns rec fields that are underutilized and inadequately maintained, and they own chucks of land that could be used for new recreation facilities if they truly had a need and a funding source. Third, this is an active farm. As mentioned above, once we lose farmland, it’s impossible to recover. Fourth, this new facility is an unfunded dream. A nice dream, but still a dream. The mayor is dangling the carrot of this dream in order to encourage the City Council to approve the taking of the family farm. As I’ve mentioned many times, the city has major financial challenges, snowballing massive debts and obligations, and a long list of high-priority, expensive projects. There is no big pile of unallocated money laying around in city hall. If there was, I’m sure many of you would rather spend the money on fixing the roads, reducing long-term debts, reducing taxes, and/or improving the schools.
Speaking of roads, I want to give recognition to Councilor Crean. He’s spent a lot of time and energy on the Papermill Road repair project. We should see this road repaired and updated in the near future.
I’d also like to recognize some of Westfield’s baseball players. About a week ago I was in Cooperstown with my son’s Terminator Team, this week my nephew is in Florida representing the city in the Babe Ruth World Series, and in about a week my son and the Westfield Wizards will be heading to Cooperstown to take on 104 teams from around the country. Kudos to the Terminators, and good luck to the Babe Ruth All-Stars and the Wizards. Thank you coaches, sponsors, volunteers, and parents for all you do to support these kids.
I hope everyone has a great last couple of weeks of summer.
Dave Flaherty
City Councilor
[email protected]
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not the staff, editor, or publisher of this publication.
