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December 04, 2007
GPAC's First Project Deemed A Success
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| Photo: Community Christmas Tree decorated by
the GPAC. GPAC's First Project Deemed A Success By Laura Kleinlittle - Commission Impossible Staff Writer Article Launched: 12/04/2007 8:15:00 AM PST Lilly Daffoblaffer is the consultant working with the General Plan Advisory Committee. In a recent interview she described their first success. " We wanted to start the committee with a project that could garner ample community support. So we shot for a high profile endeavor that didn't require a lot of research to complete" stated Daffoblaffer. Daffoblaffer works for This Old Plan, LLC a consultant group that spun off of Public Broadcasting's award winning "This Old House". In discussing the spin-off Daffoblaffer said "We realized when working with PBS that the real money was in updating old plans for public agencies. Many of our "Old House" projects were delayed until the community they were slated for could update their Master Plans. It soon became necessary for Norm, our carpenter, to move projects along by completing EIRs. Eventually we became so good we started charging for the worK." The first project that Daffoblaffer worked on with the GPAC was determining how to decorate the Community Christmas Tree. "At first there was some confusion. We thought they were "Generals" and so we brought a militaristic design to the table." Daffoblaffer explained. "Then there was some confusion as to how many people were on the committee. We were told 7, 9, 35, 498, 4, and then 13. " But once everyone was on the same page the GPAC got right to work. GPAC member Donald Groglerfly explained, "We made sure to accommodate the vast majority of Chicoans who are having a sustainable Christmas. These are the people that won't put up lights on their homes or trees, and won't use wrapping paper. Since they're intent on flogging their backs, we figured we'd flog our own. We're replacing the standard Christmas tree lights with low energy fluorescent bulbs. And to save money we have a city staff member making double use of the bulbs. Every evening he unscrews the bulbs from sockets at City Hall, carries them over to the plaza, and installs them on the tree. In the morning he does the reverse. This will save us a lot of energy." He also explained how the tree was representative of the work the committee will be doing. "We thought the tree should represent the highest level of planning the city could achieve. So at the pinnacle of the tree, we placed the pinnacle of planning.Way up at the top is the $600,000 Bidwell Park Master Management Plan. At about a $1,000 per page we figured it had to be good, nobody's actually read it though. What's best is that since it is only paper we can recycle it when the celebration is over." Said Groglerfly. The previously mentioned city staffer was available for comments, but didn't want us to use his real name. So we'll call him John Dough. John appeared frustrated and pained when he said "Those guys are such dillwads. I tried telling them that replacing the christmas lights with fluorescent bulbs would use 10 times the energy. They kept saying that I didn't understand, and that these were "low power bulbs". And then sticking that wad of paper on the top of the tree. How stupid is that? And now I've got to leave my heated office twice a day to unscrew and screw-in dozens of light bulbs. All that for a measly $117,000 a year plus $39,000 in benefits. This is bull, I'm contacting my union." On walking away the staffer mumbled something about the tree needing a woman's touch, and then drove his Lexus from the plaza to the city parking lot to return to work. Apparently not everybody is happy with the project. |
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CI Challenge: Can you guess what it is? Winner: Anthony Watts, see comments below for the answer. |
Posted by Lon at December 4, 2007 08:13 AM
Comments
what a strange name... daffoblaffer.
I'm actually thinking of doing that with my tree this year. Using the energy bulbs instead of those annoying little lightbulbs that explode if you look at them funny.
Is that a bug chewing it's way through some wood? The CI Challenge...
Posted by: TrevHastings at December 4, 2007 08:31 AM
Looks like a bark beetle butt.
Posted by: Gregg Payne at December 4, 2007 08:46 AM
Gregg,
Looks like a bark beetle butt what?
Lon
Posted by: Lon at December 4, 2007 09:12 AM
what butt?
Posted by: TrevHastings at December 4, 2007 09:16 AM
Trev writes: "...what a strange name... daffoblaffer."
Borrowing from the post, "Those guys are such dillwads. " then "daffodillwad" makes more sense.
It's a pine beetle, seen here:
Posted by: Anthony at December 4, 2007 09:33 AM
daffoblaffwad, dillowadblaff, daffowaddill, daffodillerblaffwad...
Posted by: TrevHastings at December 4, 2007 10:03 AM
Anthony,
Yes that is the western pine beetle. I had a beautiful Christmas Tree-like pine removed from my yard yesterday. It died back in the Spring because of a beetle infestation. Now I'm concerned my other two redwoods are infested. They can't be sprayed because of environmental regulations. The arborist gave me a couple of ideas, but not terribly good ones (in my opinion).
If anyone knows how to stop a pine beetle infestation in an 80 foot tree please let me know.
Lon
So if anyone knows how I can save my
Posted by: Lon at December 5, 2007 06:17 AM
Lon,
Get Alan Gair to help you. He has the solution to everything tree related.
Posted by: Anthony at December 5, 2007 10:18 AM