Letters to the Editor Aug. 15

Editor:

Last Friday morning a friend and I were swimming at the Minden swim center early in the morning.

There were a dozen or so men and women in the indoor pools " the large pool had some water walkers and others swimming laps or just exercising, and there were a few in the warm pool. Outside many people were getting organized for a swim meet. At about 9 o'clock as the swim meet was about to start the announcer said they would now play "The Star-Spangled Banner."

I don't know what was happening outside but as the band music rang out loud and sweet over the public address system, every single person in those indoor pools stopped what they were doing, stood up where they were, put their hands over their hearts and sang the lyrics to our national anthem.

Made me proud.

Nancy Thornburg

Markleeville

Editor:

The election is over and Michael Olson has won the primary for Douglas County commissioner, District 5.

I called him Tuesday evening and congratulated him on his victory.

I now ask him to abide by his campaign statements to acknowledge and enforce our adopted master plan in all of his decisions.

To those who voted for me, I thank you for your effort and support.

To those who worked so hard to support my election by walking precincts, telephoning and posting signs, I offer my sincere and grateful appreciation.

To those who failed to vote " shame on you. The minority has ruled.

Many of our brave men and women died to defend your right to cast a ballot.

You did a disservice to their ultimate sacrifice.

To all, I will continue to be active in protecting our county to maintain our quality of life.

I ask that you do the same by being vigilant, writing letters to the editor and going to planning commission and board of commissioners meetings to express your opinion.

Without your input, the system fails.

Stuart Posselt

Johnson Lane

Editor:

I would like to thank Gim Hollister, Cindy Trigg, and Chris Lunn for encouraging me to run for county commissioner. Thank you Nancy Cannon Downey for your steadfast support, guidance, and fundraising. A big thank you to Karen Cornett for calling all of Douglas County on my behalf. I would like to thank Christie Aldinger for her organizing and campaign ideas. Thanks to Paul Belt for his motivation. Also, the Douglas County Democratic Central Committee and Douglas County Democratic Women for their support and assistance. Thank you to Kurt Hildebrand and everyone at The Record-Courier for covering my campaign in fair and unbiased manner.

A special thanks goes to my husband Kim, who hangs the straightest campaign sign in Douglas County, and all of my family for their love, support, and patience. Finally, I want to thank everyone who voted, donated, and volunteered for my campaign. I look forward to meeting more Douglas County residents in the upcoming general election campaign.

Nancy Epstein

Saratoga Springs

Editor:

Drilling in Alaska National Wildlife Refuge and expanding off-shore drilling will not solve our energy crisis and make us independent from foreign oil. United States oil reserves reached their peak oil plateau in 1972. We do not have any major oil reserves left that compare to the size of the pre-1972 era oil reserves. Per the E.I.A. (Energy Information Administration, official energy statistics for the U.S. government) if we met our daily consumption rate of 2007 without imports, U.S. oil reserves would be depleted in three years. We do not have enough oil reserves to impact the global supply and lower the price of a barrel of oil. Despite what the oil companies are saying and what their friends in Congress are saying, drilling in ANWR and expanding our off shore drilling will have little impact on the global supply of oil and the price of a barrel of oil.

The premise that threatening to open up more areas for drilling has caused the price of oil to drop is false. Expanded off shore drilling will only increase the supply of oil by 200,000 barrels a day by 2030 per data released by the White House. That is 1 percent of our 2007 daily consumption rate (per the E.I.A.) There is not enough oil in ANWR to impact the global oil supply and thus the price of a barrel of oil (per the Department of Energy Study). Speculators are not concerned about additional U.S. oil reserves coming on line that will not be large enough to impact the global supply and will take seven to ten years to become available. Additionally, oil companies are not required to sell oil from ANWR or from off shore drilling domestically, they can sell the oil to who ever they want.

Analysts believe the recent decline in the price of oil is due to a lower demand and a stronger dollar. Demand in the United States and China was lower in July and the value of the dollar has strengthened due to economic woes in Europe.

As I wrote in an earlier letter to the editor, uncontrolled speculation of oil futures allowed under the Enron loophole has been a leading factor in the spike in oil prices. With the demand of oil going down and the value of the dollar getting stronger, oil speculators do not want to be caught holding oil futures at a higher price than the going price of oil. Speculators are selling off their futures because of the lower demand not because the U.S. is threatening to open up more of its oil reserves.

To further the point that expanded drilling will not help the American consumer is the report this week that U.S. refineries have cut back on their production because of the recent drop in demand. This move is believed by analysts to have stopped the recent decline in oil prices as oil prices went up $3.00 a barrel on the report of lower supplies. So what do you think oil companies will do with the oil from any expanded drilling? I believe they will hold it back to keep the supply tight and their profits up as their recent move of cutting production at their refineries illustrates.

The oil companies and their friends in Congress are doing a great selling job to the American public. The only people who will benefit from expanding oil drilling are the 1) oil companies and their segregates and 2) candidates who use this issue successfully to get elected or re-elected in November. We the consumer will not reap any benefits from expanded oil drilling as we have seen this week. Oil companies will just cut back their production to keep supply tight and prices up. We need to move toward alternative energy and renewable energy to address our oil crisis and close the Enron loophole.

Irene Gutierrez

Gardnerville

Editor:

Mono County has been fortunate that we do not have any verifiable gangs within our county or the town of Mammoth Lakes. Those of us in law enforcement would like to believe we have had an impact on the prevention of the formation of gangs in our communities. However, we must be vigilant and not allow this to occur. Effective prevention strategies include personnel and resources that can target suspected gang affiliates and make Mono County an undesirable community to "set up shop."

As many people have seen, the communities within our county have been changing on a consistent basis and we are seeing law enforcement problems arise that were never an issue in the past. We have had shooting incidents, stabbings, assaults, and even graffiti that were unheard of 20 years ago.

Our financial resources which are directly related to the personnel on the street have been diminishing in recent times and as the sheriff, I am directly responsible and accountable for the safety of our communities. With the dwindling of resources that affects our front line law enforcement efforts we may have to reduce our level of service in the future unless our funding is restored.

Mono County is facing the potential loss of over $800,000 in grant funding which supplements our patrol force, boating enforcement, and equipment needs.

If proposition 6, the "safe neighborhood" act passes in the November election it will enhance funding for law enforcement and replace some of the grant funds currently on the chopping block. As your sheriff I encourage you to evaluate this bill and make an informed decision which will help enhance our law enforcement efforts. I along with the California State Sheriff's Association strongly supports this initiative. For more information visit: www.safeneighborhoodsact.com.

Sheriff Rick Scholl

Mono County

Editor:

As chairs of this year's Relay for Life event on July 26-27 at Lampe Park, we would like to extend a huge Relay for Life thank you to all of the people that made this a memorable and fun event. Relay for Life relies on the generous donations of time, money, supplies and services from our community. Once again, our community came through to help those that are fighting cancer. Our deepest gratitude goes out to our sponsors: Brian & Diane Edmonds, Carson-Tahoe Minden Medical Center (Physician Select Management/Carson Tahoe cancer Resource Center), The Corley Ranch (Jon & Paula Corley), GE Energy, Greater Nevada Credit Union, JCP Enterprises, Pilates Power, RO Anderson Engineering, Scolari's, Smith's, Teressa Tucker, The Record-Courier, Wal-Mart, Carson River Community Bank, Carson Valley Medical Center, Center for Advanced Eye Care - Matti Vazeen, M.D., Peter Costa, M.D., Raley's, Wells Fargo Bank, Brook-Shaw-Zumpft - Attorneys at Law, M. Scott Properties, Re/Max Realty Affiliates, and Warren Reed Insurance.

Our survivor dinner sponsors: DW's (David Walley's), Indigo, Mandarin Gourmet, Rancho Grande, Saletti's, Starbucks, The Wild Horse, and Wasabi's.

Our breakfast sponsors: St. Gall Knights of Columbus, Valley Golf Shop and the Louie Family.

Our iin-kind sponsors: Aladdin Flower & Gifts, A Wildflower, Aramark, Bing Materials, Cafe Girasol, Carson Valley Golf Club, Carson Valley Inn, Carson Valley Sertoma Club, Dopplegangers, Douglas Pop Warner, Douglas Disposal, Indigo, Jamba Juice, Jethro's Bar & Grill, Jim Valentine and Lisa Wetzell, J.T. Basque, J.T. Thomas, Papa Murphy's Pizza, United Rentals (Paul Isherwood), Pepsi, Pizza Factory, Sani-Hut, Sierra Canopies, Scolari's, Sierra View Equipment, Teressa Tucker, The Entertainer, The French Bar and Topaz Lodge.

With special thanks to: Alex Dolan, Ashley Campagna, Barry Simpson, Youth Pastor - High Sierra Youth Group, BonVivantLTD.com (Gourmet Gift Baskets), Brittney Kashuba, Brittney Lathrop, Cathy and Michael Keeney, Centerfield Bar & Grill, China Spring Youth Camp, Officer Chris Griffith and the Explorers Color Guard, Controlled Burn, Dan Kimm, Dana Dolan, Dick and Sandy Garren, Douglas County Parks & Recreation, Douglas High School Leadership Students (my "angels"), East Fork Fire and Paramedic, Farmers Insurance, GE Energy, Gio Gutierrez, Heather and Amanda Alvey, Indigo, J&S Digital Satellite, Jeff Ross, Jennifer Kashuba, Jim Baushke, Joel Hannel, Jon and Paula Corley, Kathy Wicker, Leslie Hobbs, Linda Fields, Lira's Supermarket, Lisa Thomas, Mark Edmiaston, Marjorie Henriksen, Maureen Lowe, Northwest Martial Arts, Pastor Rich Lammay, Pastor Roy Conover, Patrice Bava, Pete Fairley's MeadowRock Percussion (courtesy of Teressa Tucker), R&S Optimum Offset, Raley's, Sara Moffat, Scolari's, Silver Strike Lanes, Starbucks-Gardnerville, Tanner Thomas, Team "Z", The Biaggini family, The Record-Courier editorial staff, Thomas Rao, Tony and Jill DePasquale, Two Guys From Italy Restaurant and Wasabi's.

Victoria Grathwohl, Debbie McFadden

for the entire Relay For Life Committee