<b>Harvest Fair's demise</b>
EDITOR: We have been going to the Sonoma County Fair since our girls were 4 years old. We love entering hobby crafts, paintings, flowers, baked goods and other fun items in the fair's competitions and going to the horse races.
It is always a joy to get the free passes for entering things. This year, at first, we only got one ticket per person for the things we entered. This meant that we would only get to go once and maybe pay for a second visit. Happily, the fair started giving more free passes to each person who entered items. So we will go more often.
On the other hand, the fair board has combined the Harvest Fair with the county fair. Our pears and apples aren't ripe, we enjoy making a scarecrow; now, no more. We won't be stomping grapes as usual, either. Won't be the same.
I wish they would make the harvest what it is supposed to be — harvest time! Please bring back the Harvest Fair.
SUSAN DALY
Penngrove
<b>Airplane noise</b>
EDITOR: I worked at the Healdsburg airport from 1976-79, when there were two flight schools and three aircraft-related businesses. Besides our own budding pilots, students from outlying airports would practice landing at the Healdsburg airport.
On one busy Saturday afternoon, an angry gentleman drove up and informed me that the noise of planes taking off over his property was disturbing his guest's naps. He went on that no one had told him about the planes when he had recently bought his house, and, as an attorney, he would have the airport closed down if I didn't send the offending Cessnas and Pipers away. As luck would have it, the wind sock was starting its regular summer afternoon droop, indicating that the wind was switching direction.
(page 2 of 3)
I explained that aircraft landed (the quiet part) and took off noisily into the wind, and while I couldn't change that, I'd just have the wind switch direction, so they would be landing over his property. By then, the wind sock obliged me, and I radioed the planes to reverse the pattern.
Satisfied, the guy drove off, and as the story got around, we all had a good laugh.
I guess some things never change ("Flight school taking flak," July 18).
KIM CRUMB
Forestville
<b>Public deserves better</b>
EDITOR: Supervisor Efren Carrillo was given a get-out-of-jail card in San Diego. Clearly, there are those who would have us believe he deserves yet another. Don't we, as taxpaying citizens, deserve better than this?
First, most of us would agree that if we were suspected of creeping around our neighborhood in our underwear attempting to gain access to a young lady's bedroom through the window, it is likely that we would be given a sobriety test.
Given the level of judgment that Carrillo displays after hours, it is clear that he is unfit to be in a position of making decisions on the direction of our county.
Equally troubling is the fact that we have heard nothing from his contemporaries. Do they think that this is acceptable behavior? Any of his fellow politicians who would have this situation swept under the carpet is no more trustworthy than he.
(page 3 of 3)
If Carrillo indeed has a problem with substance abuse, I hope he will get the help that he needs but not at the expense of $150,000 a year of the taxpayers' money.
DEBI and GARY MUMM
Windsor
<b>Investing in health</b>
EDITOR: I would like to respond to Dana Milbank's July 12 column ("GOP tests the meaning of insanity"). I find it reprehensible that Republicans are so insulted by the Affordable Care Act that they have voted to repeal it so many times.
When President George W. Bush initiated No Child Left Behind, we moved forward as a country. Why does the GOP need to be so oppositional?
Republicans seek repeal of the health care law because they say it is a slide toward socialism, but they fail to understand that it will help all U.S. citizens. Available treatment means there will fewer persons in emergency rooms, in courts and jails, and there will certainly be fewer people aimlessly wandering the streets.
Obamacare provides a path toward health intervention that the wealthy of this nation already have but that the lower classes desperately need. Doesn't the GOP realize that we are already paying for this care in so many ways, and that the Affordable Care Act merely organizes a strategy to better make this investment?
I encourage Californians to really consider the benefits that this will shower upon so many of our citizens.
NOEL J. O'NEILL
Willits
<b>Harvest Fair's demise</b>
EDITOR: We have been going to the Sonoma County Fair since our girls were 4 years old. We love entering hobby crafts, paintings, flowers, baked goods and other fun items in the fair's competitions and going to the horse races.
It is always a joy to get the free passes for entering things. This year, at first, we only got one ticket per person for the things we entered. This meant that we would only get to go once and maybe pay for a second visit. Happily, the fair started giving more free passes to each person who entered items. So we will go more often.
On the other hand, the fair board has combined the Harvest Fair with the county fair. Our pears and apples aren't ripe, we enjoy making a scarecrow; now, no more. We won't be stomping grapes as usual, either. Won't be the same.
I wish they would make the harvest what it is supposed to be — harvest time! Please bring back the Harvest Fair.
SUSAN DALY
Penngrove
<b>Airplane noise</b>
EDITOR: I worked at the Healdsburg airport from 1976-79, when there were two flight schools and three aircraft-related businesses. Besides our own budding pilots, students from outlying airports would practice landing at the Healdsburg airport.
On one busy Saturday afternoon, an angry gentleman drove up and informed me that the noise of planes taking off over his property was disturbing his guest's naps. He went on that no one had told him about the planes when he had recently bought his house, and, as an attorney, he would have the airport closed down if I didn't send the offending Cessnas and Pipers away. As luck would have it, the wind sock was starting its regular summer afternoon droop, indicating that the wind was switching direction.
I explained that aircraft landed (the quiet part) and took off noisily into the wind, and while I couldn't change that, I'd just have the wind switch direction, so they would be landing over his property. By then, the wind sock obliged me, and I radioed the planes to reverse the pattern.
Satisfied, the guy drove off, and as the story got around, we all had a good laugh.
I guess some things never change ("Flight school taking flak," July 18).
KIM CRUMB
Forestville
<b>Public deserves better</b>
EDITOR: Supervisor Efren Carrillo was given a get-out-of-jail card in San Diego. Clearly, there are those who would have us believe he deserves yet another. Don't we, as taxpaying citizens, deserve better than this?
First, most of us would agree that if we were suspected of creeping around our neighborhood in our underwear attempting to gain access to a young lady's bedroom through the window, it is likely that we would be given a sobriety test.
Given the level of judgment that Carrillo displays after hours, it is clear that he is unfit to be in a position of making decisions on the direction of our county.
Equally troubling is the fact that we have heard nothing from his contemporaries. Do they think that this is acceptable behavior? Any of his fellow politicians who would have this situation swept under the carpet is no more trustworthy than he.
If Carrillo indeed has a problem with substance abuse, I hope he will get the help that he needs but not at the expense of $150,000 a year of the taxpayers' money.
DEBI and GARY MUMM
Windsor
<b>Investing in health</b>
EDITOR: I would like to respond to Dana Milbank's July 12 column ("GOP tests the meaning of insanity"). I find it reprehensible that Republicans are so insulted by the Affordable Care Act that they have voted to repeal it so many times.
When President George W. Bush initiated No Child Left Behind, we moved forward as a country. Why does the GOP need to be so oppositional?
Republicans seek repeal of the health care law because they say it is a slide toward socialism, but they fail to understand that it will help all U.S. citizens. Available treatment means there will fewer persons in emergency rooms, in courts and jails, and there will certainly be fewer people aimlessly wandering the streets.
Obamacare provides a path toward health intervention that the wealthy of this nation already have but that the lower classes desperately need. Doesn't the GOP realize that we are already paying for this care in so many ways, and that the Affordable Care Act merely organizes a strategy to better make this investment?
I encourage Californians to really consider the benefits that this will shower upon so many of our citizens.
NOEL J. O'NEILL
Willits
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