MR WEC

PLEASE NOTE: Current MARIPOSA COUNTY employees are OBVIOUSLY NOT RESPONSIBLE for what may have occurred decades ago regarding the FORMATION, MONITORING, and MODIFICATION OF OPERATIONS and PERMITTED SERVICE AREAS of the LAKE DON PEDRO COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT.  

Of course there is the unwritten obligation to “defend the county…no matter what”.  lol

They are therefore likely precluded from voluntarily offering ANYTHING not specifically requested or required by law that could conceivably reflect poorly on past county activities.  I have found current employees to be very polite, helpful and tolerant of my “snooping around” while trying to discover the answers to questions like:

What precipitated this very peculiar district formation which supported great district expansion through contradictory and illogical property annexations detrimental to the interests of the customers it (the LDPCSD) was ostensibly created to serve?   

How could such annexations be approved without even a simple recognition of the most important operational regulation of that surface water treatment plant:

  WHERE MERCED RIVER WATER COULD LEGALLY BE SERVED? 

Questions now orbit around – What were the actual motives and goals of that 1980 LAFCO that formed the LDPCSD?

Had it quietly been working behind the scene with, or at minimum receptive to, the massive district expansion philosophy of the influential SIERRA HIGHLANDS WATER COMPANY President and minor shareholder, Thaddeus C Binkley?

What about the major influence of Sierra Highland’s “like-thinking” ORIGINAL GENERAL MANAGER EXPANSIONIST, Wes Snyder, who was also the first LDPCSD GM as well?

Minutes clearly document his “do it now, worry later” perspective of outside water service.  Then later, he was also a Deerwood Land Development Corporation employee while also serving on the LDPCSD Board?  Too cozy for a public agency and private for profit land development corporation in my eyes.   Please.  No offense intended.  Wes believed in district water expansion as far as possible and I admired him for his dedication but disapproved of methods used.  OK, done and over, but one must say, Wes got things done, so sincerely, RIP Wes.

Everyone has their own perspective and beliefs as to what is important in life and they presumably conduct themselves and live their lives the best they can in order to achieve those goals.  Kudos.  Hope it works for you.   Naturally there’s that little issue of TIME which (hopefully) incrementally matures our perspective of life with the new information acquired and experience of “reality” behind us.  I thought the other day…..if I were to somehow meet myself “as the teenager I was many moons ago” in my present life now at this age, I’d bet money, marbles or chalk I would have seriously disliked some aspects of the “younger me” and probably attempted to avoid further interaction.  But that harsh judgement would have likely resulted from witnessing one of my many “mistakes” growing up, which again, hopefully, we survive, learn a lesson and move on without punishing ourselves too much!  lol

People can live as they please but that does not equate to my being obliged to approve or condone methods of operation that obviously harm others.  Nor must I accept with a smile and dismiss with a frown, the collateral damage to those less powerful victims of ‘development schemes” for the sake of “development profit”.  OK – other perspectives, our differences make us great, no biggie, let’s move on shall we?

LIKE IT OR NOT

Lake Don Pedro subdivision property owners have been exploited time and time again.  By outsiders, insiders, strangers and neighbors.  And it is so very, very sad because much of it is “the road to hell paved with good intentions”, but then there are some others (I pray the minority) that are more contemplative, intentional and cognizant of the injury caused to others with their activities based in pure greed.  Enough.  I still hold out that there is more good than bad, but the faith gets stretched at times.

Time heals all wounds.

All heels are wounded by time.

GOD-DOG

LIVE-EVIL

Whatever……..

PUPPY  MONKEY  BABY!    PUPPY MONKEY BABY!   PUPPY MONKEY BABY!     ah, much better.

now back to the regularly scheduled blah, blah, blah

MAKE THE FUTURE NOW

SO – did Thad Binkley,  in his “nonlinear style” of planning and execution (saw a book advertised with a story about his process), successfully begin LDPCSD SERVICE AREA EXPANSION in 1968, (Sturtevant meter deal- despite the established legal service area) long before the district was even FORMED in August of 1980 by LAFCO?

Take a look at the chronological time line.  Heck,didn’t he successfully expand the service area BEFORE the district had even LEGALLY RECEIVED THE TRANSFER OF FACILITIES AND ASSETS on February 21, 1981?  (Transfer was effective 30 days after the January 21 1981 CPUC approval of the transfer to the LDPCSD.)

And please remember, that CPUC transfer was going to clearly document the SERVICE AREA and EXISTING CUSTOMER ACCOUNTS to be transferred and assumed by the new LDPCSD as well – in FEBRUARY OF 1981 -…… but…wait……. the LAFCO map was created in 1980 to initially establish the new district boundaries….but how could that….?……WHAT?  Seems backwards.  Shouldn’t one start with what facilities and assets were actually approved by the CPUC first? (Rather than determining the approval was unsatisfactory before the transfer was made legal by the CPUC’s approval?  Shouldn’t any modifications to a carefully detailed service area be made AFTER THE PROPERTY WAS LEGALLY TRANSFERRED TO THE LDPCSD?  Can you imagine being permitted to make engine or body modifications on a vehicle for sale on a new car lot BEFORE YOU HAD ACQUIRED TITLE to that vehicle?  THE CART WAS BEFORE THE HORSE!)

IMAGINE…. A  scheme to have LAFCO modify the service area of a district still yet to be created by that very LAFCO, and before the California Public Utilities Commission January 21st, 1981 approval for the transfer of facilities to that district?  An approval document which also would have clearly documented the service area and customers to be served?  It also included statements as to what was not being transferred….like the numerous expensive liabilities in agreements Sierra Highlands had proposed with others outside of the service area?   Line extensions…..increased loan amounts…..”sleeping annexations”…..district secrecy and customer deception……

Did LAFCO, with knowledge of what was to be approved by the CPUC anyway, simply “jump the gun” and expand the service area before receiving that transfer approval?

(Utilizing the Thad Binkley 10 meter agreement that sitting Director Ross in 1993 and several other outside MIDPOU property owners had earlier, and wrongfully, used to establish district water service outside the place of use.  Obviously such things can only happen in a pro-expansion office with like leadership and management.)

WAS DISTRICT “PREFORMED FOR EXPANSION” BY SPECIAL INTERESTS WORKING WITH LAFCO?

What about comparing the “due diligence” efforts between the

CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION and LAFCO?

(Sound familiar?  HOW “EXISTING CUSTOMER” somehow gets re-configured to include an untold number of “non entitled” others who represent a clear detriment to those legally entitled?  Get it?  Just like with KAMPA and his grant funds supposedly for existing customers in emergency drought but actually used to create his GROUNDWATER SUBSTITUTION for properties outside the service district area.  Yup, going to serve outside the “SERVICE DISTRICT AREA” BEFORE IT WAS EVEN A SERVICE DISTRICT!   What cunning plans of using the unaware subdivision owner-victim to unwittingly subsidize activities against their own best interests as MERCED RIVER WATER ENTITLED CUSTOMERS)

Wild huh?  The apparent founder of BINKLEY ASSOCIATES (the LDPCSD’s initial and continuing engineering firm for the last 40 years) was expanding the service area 12 years ahead of district formation, and 13 years ahead of the approved transfer by the California Public Utilities Commission!  Now that’s diabolical nonlinear “out of the box” future planning!

(Whether ethical or not to the MR WECs of the subdivision is another question.)

NICE MAP BUT

NOPE.  SORRY.  CANNOT ACCEPT THIS AS THE AUTHENTIC 1980 MAP CREATED FROM A DETAILED SURVEY – EVEN WITH MY RUDIMENTARY DRAFTING KNOWLEDGE & WANNA BE “BOY SCOUT TRUST”  CAN’T DO IT.