(a) May 15th, 2017 LDPCSD Board Meeting – Getting a late start on this meeting report. Good day for it though. Hot outside and quite windy – so much for spraying insecticide today (Saturday) – maybe later in the evening if the wind subsides. Usually when the first ants make their presence known in the house the weather has changed enough to encourage their mass migration to a more comfortable environment. “Lew’s Place”.
It’s a regular cycle and clear notice it is time to take action before their new summer quarters are occupied, however, this recent “notice” is a bit different as I know for certain many were accidentally brought in yesterday evening by yours truly.
I was outside adjusting a digital irrigation timer at dusk, which is never a quick process, and did not notice I was standing in the middle of a huge colony of ants. Heck, I didn’t notice them until later in the recliner watching television when the first explorers discovered a nostril and ear canal. Don’t you just hate that? The feel of them scurrying around in your scalp? Oh well, there’s always a bright side – at least they weren’t FIRE ANTS or those regular RED ANTS whose bite can be a bit painful and irritating. These were just the regular good ‘ol smaller black ants that “Smell like urine” – thus the nickname – PISS ANTS! lol [Middle English pissemyre : pisse, urine from the smell of the formic acid that they secrete]
Guess I was just too fixated on setting the darn irrigation timer correctly during the “first contact” because when I went out later to inspect the area I had no difficultly what-so-ever in smelling their delightful aroma before visually seeing the little buggers scrambling around the ground and on an Oak tree. Of course the odor and resulting “scrambling” were likely the result of my prior boot placement right on top of their community.
Great, should I add another unpleasant task to the growing list of chores? Like unnecessarily destroying the thriving community of another species with an unprovoked preemptive atomized chemical attack? (Or as we humans prefer, “Spraying bugs”?) Check out some of the research online as to the question: “Do insects feel pain?”
Guess it’s all in the eye of the particular entomologist eh? Or the insect under the boot?
My best to you and yours, Lew
PS Oh yeah the meeting…. public comment and Board President Danny Johnson’s comment explaining the “misunderstanding” regarding KAMPA’s proposed +$10,000 Map Project having already been approved by the Board of Directors. (The project is just more BM from the GM to delay presenting the truth!)
I have been requesting 3 existing maps: 1) 1980 LAFCo LDPCSD Formation Map, 2) The Merced Irrigation District Place of Use Map per WL11395, and 3) the official State Water Resources Control Board LDPCSD District Map on file. All three should be CLEARLY POSTED ON THE LDPCSD WEBSITE for the public.
Why on earth would PETE KAMPA & THE LDPCSD BOARD OF DIRECTORS, refuse to disclose legitimate maps for public understanding of the LDPCSD GROUNDWATER SUBSTITUTION PROGRAM for OUTSIDE PLACE OF USE transfer of MERCED RIVER WATER?
GOSH. Something sure seems wrong. What constitutes a SPECIAL DISTRICT like our CSD?
Four primary characteristics:
- It is a layer of government
- A Board of Directors governs
- It provides services and facilities
- It has defined boundaries
Ladies and Gentleman of the viewing audience, may I please direct your attention to #4 in the above list of district characteristics.
DEFINED BOUNDARIES
Why is GM PETE KAMPA and his BOARD OF DIRECTORS determined not to publicly acknowledge the legal service boundaries of the LAKE DON PEDRO COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT?
How can a PUBLIC AGENCY refuse to provide legitimate evidence as to their official service area?
The LAKE DON PEDRO CSD is an INDEPENDENT DISTRICT because we have our own Board of Directors.
We are currently a SINGLE FUNCTION DISTRICT (water service), however, at formation it was intended that the LDPCSD would eventually assume responsibility for a waste water treatment plant specifically serving properties around the golf course. That’s another whole bag of problems – a different sewer system than existed at time of the LPDCSD creation; not enough financial support from the homes currently hooked to the system; used as a leachate processing/disposing facility for Mariposa County Landfill (tanked in by trucks); early replacement of waste water system components; facility planned and constructed outside the Merced Irrigation District Place of Use per Water License 11395; things like that….but I digress) Some districts can provide more than 15 different services.
We are an ENTERPRISE DISTRICT which means we are primarily funded through USER CHARGES (Non-enterprise districts generally use property taxes.) Essentially this means customers only pay for what they want and receive.
Special Districts, because they are smaller than say, a county, were supposed to be more responsive to their constituents and what they desired in the form of services, but like so many other things that get screwed up between the “good intention” design stage and “the special interest corrupted” real world functioning, here at the LAKE DON PEDRO CSD it is JUST THE OPPOSITE.
The over-whelming majority of customers of the LAKE DON PEDRO RESIDENTIAL SUBDIVISION (entitled users of MERCED RIVER WATER under WL11395) have had their interests ignored in favor of property owners OUTSIDE THE LEGAL MIDPOU WHICH OUR DISTRICT HAS NO LEGAL DUTY TO PROVIDE WATER.
This District has for decades had its primary operations as a surface water treatment plant for the subdivision derailed and misguided by extremely influential real estate and speculative land development interests set on obtaining water. (Remember these folks think in terms of decades and quarter centuries whereas most of us are more than occupied with our own life span endeavors.) In addition to the substantial waste of time, energy, and money the MANDATORY CUSTOMERS OF THE SUBDIVISION have had to fund for decades, our surface water treatment plant infrastructure has also suffered from neglect.
(When management is too busy surreptitiously planning the who, what, when, where, why and how of further water service expansion OUTSIDE THE THE LEGAL PLACE OF USE, other things will naturally suffer – like responsible maintenance, repair and replacement of vital equipment. This is not to say responsible maintenance has never been attempted or completed through the years by conscientious employees who recognized those priorities, but rather, there was a lack of consistency or continuity in “sticking with” those priorities due to continuing external pressure by influential land development interests demanding our water on their property.)
And if that isn’t bad enough, apparently there is ABSOLUTELY NO ACCOUNTABILITY for intentional diversion from their respective positions of public trust and responsibility. Heck, customers can not even get the BOD and their SPECIAL INTEREST GM to acknowledge some of the founding principles of what constitutes the District they SUPPOSEDLY SERVE! (Known service boundaries and only paying for what “the legal customers” want and receive.) Accept responsibility for their sneaky GROUNDWATER SUBSTITUTION PROGRAM WITH THE NEW EMERGENCY DROUGHT WELLS? Oh please.
I can see why the Little Hoover Commission had recently discussed the proposition of eliminating all special districts within 10 years. If the majority of other districts are anything like the LDPCSD, they are only decades TOO LATE!
Here’s the video:
BELOW are a few of the “stills”. I try to allow sufficient
time to read the blah, blah, blah, but sometimes cut
them too short for space.
My best to you and yours, Lew
