CANDIDATE RECOMMENDATION
We in the San Lorenzo Valley deserve a leader like Monica Martinez. Monica has run complex, grant-funded nonprofits while developing extensive partnerships. She can navigate the complex bureaucracies of the County and Sacramento to deliver lasting value for our community.
She will leverage her decade + of managing large, complex nonprofits, where she dealt with similar challenges. Our water infrastructure is outdated and one disaster after another has damaged them further: drought, fire, windstorm, flood and landslides. Water outages mean kids miss school or businesses cannot serve customers.
We need to build partnerships and bring resources into our community. Monica knows how.
We are not ready for the next big fire: Most of our fire hydrants lack adequate pressure. We need to upgrade 25 miles of waterlines and several tanks to be fire-ready. We need to rebuild a major supply line to be ready for the next drought.
Large state and federal grants will be key to this work. Monica has done that for years. We must help our neighbors who still cannot rebuild after the 2020 CZU Fire. Customers of private companies like Big Basin Water and nonprofits like Forest Springs Mutual need our help. Without formally connecting to San Lorenzo Valley Water, families cannot demonstrate they have the water supply needed to rebuild.
Consolidating will require complex legal agreements and partnerships. Monica has done that, too. Bringing our infrastructure up to date and rebuilding our communities will require expertise navigating issues across the local, state and federal levels of government. Let’s elect Monica to get it done.
Bryan Largay | Director San Lorenzo Valley Water District
(Views are my own and not necessarily the District’s)
CUT NEW GROWTH TREES
I have been to National Parks across the entire state of California with my family. We have enjoyed the natural beauties of Yosemite, Pinnacles, and Redwood National Park, whose beauty is all due to the long-standing and ancient trees that reside in these parks. I would hate to see the places that I cherish so deeply be destroyed due to the logging of old growth trees.
These trees create the vibrant ecosystem of much of California and provide a home for a diverse array of wildlife. Not only will getting rid of old-growth trees be detrimental to the wildlife the trees support but they also have a great effect on the absorption of carbon waste. So how can the logging of these ancient plants be prevented? Instead of cutting down old trees, cut down the new ones. The Forest Service policy must apply to all old-growth and mature trees and forests on federal forest lands and completely end the sale of old-growth to timber mills. As a voice for CALPIRG, I urge the Biden administration to take action to preserve the beauty of California’s forests and slow the rise of carbon emissions.
Sebastian Fernandez y Garcia
