I always had mixed feelings about BEC, mostly cause the people who run it have always been a little weird.

Except Barbara. She has been great, I mean on a personal level. She's just a nice lady, no matter what you think of her politics.

Before Barbara took over, when I was a new mom with my first little bee-bop in the Burley trailer, we participated in some BEC kid activity and they sent us a note saying the boy won a prize and he should come down to their office and get it. A prize! For a mom looking for ways, everyday, to entertain a 4 year old, that sounded HOO-RAY! So we went downtown to their scruffy little office, and they treated us like something the cat dragged in. I showed them the letter, they acted as thought they didn't really expect anybody to take that seriously, looked around the office for something, and finally pointed us over to a dusty bin full of used nature posters, the kind you get in the mail with the magazine gimmees. And they treated my kid like, "well, don't let him touch anything." They didn't even acknowledge us when we left.

The first time I met Barbara was at a park clean-up. She was so friendly, she shook hands with my kid like he was a regular person. I instantly liked her, and I have liked her eversince.

Almost 10 years ago, we got a new neighbor who was doing all this stuff on his property without permits. We and all the other neighbors had clouds of his fugitive dust coming onto our properties, some people had two inches of top soil on their window sills and house siding. He was stripping every living thing from his property with a bulldozer. He was taking down huge trees right along our fences with a chainsaw and a bulldozer - he'd already destroyed fences and structures and trees on other neighbor's properties when he came around to our property line.

I had to stop him. He intended to drop the huge 80 year old oak trees along our line right on top of our 50 year old oleander hedge - oleanders don't grow 15 feet tall over night. He said he'd be glad to replace our hedge - with $3 oleanders from Home Club. Then he was going to replace the old fence with a 9 foot cinder block wall. He had done that to the other neighbors and they hated it, said it blocked out their sun and made their yards look like prison yards. They hadn't gotten any notice - one day he was just there with his crew and a week later they were staring at cinderblocks.

I didn't know what to do, so I called BEC. Barbara gave me all the ammo I needed, she just informed me that he needed permits to do the stuff he was doing, and told me to call the code enforcement officers and the building inspector. End of story.

This guy did illegal stuff, some really mean stuff, to every other neighbor on his property line. They all stood by, watching, those chickens, while me and Andy went to the boards with the guy, screamed obscenities, stood in front of a bulldozer, under a tree loaded with workers, got lawyers and everything. When it was all over, they came to us in turn and admitted, "if only I'd known, I would have fought." He had gone into their backyards and cut or destroyed stuff on their properties, and they didn't think they could do anything about it. One call to Barbara Vlamis and I saved every green thing along my property line. They couldn't believe it. They all have cinderblock walls staring back at them, I have a lush green backyard that looks like an extension of the park.

Thanks Barbara.

I have no real experience with Barbara Vlamis. I met her once, and she seemed nice.

BEC's attempts to delay/thwart the 149 interchange seemed pointless and expensive to me. And while I understand and appreciate the desire to keep water in Northern California, I don't quite understand the need to prevent test wells from being drilled (even if those test wells are production ready structures).

When you hear environmental advocates demanding that something NOT be studied the question marks start floating around.

But what this probably comes down to is that environmental advocates don't need to be running back-to-back-to-back legal threats and lawsuits. At some point you need the good cop to offset the bad cop. That's probably what BEC's board was trying to accomplish.

Lon

This town is full of talent, so there is no worry about who can step into the leadership role at BEC.
JO, for example, is very qualified. So are others. BEC has had many General Managers over its 30+ years. It will survive this transition a well.

BEC Lives!

"BEC's attempts to delay/thwart the 149 interchange seemed pointless and expensive to me. And while I understand and appreciate the desire to keep water in Northern California, I don't quite understand the need to prevent test wells from being drilled (even if those test wells are production ready structures)."

Well, I completely disagree, as usual.

you didn't understand the whole Tovey Geizentanner thing either, which was really frustrating to me. That election was given away on a silver platter. Have you noticed that the Chico Greenline website has not been updated since the 2006 election, nor did any representative of CGC show up for several discussions about moving the Green Line. And, as of 2007, Tovey the G was back at work in Yolo County for Conaway Ranch (a bunch of developers bought a huge ranch in Davis to transfer the water to SoCal subdivisions, and Tovey is their lackey). But everybody thought he was a nice guy cause he showed up one day to help Susan Mason clean up privets in the park, and then floated a check to help pay for the disc course at 5 Mile. Boy, talk about playing both sides of the ticket! Probably out of the same account he came up with $12,000 to run Mo's campaign, his kid's college fund. Boy, that kid will be lucky to make it to Butte College, the way daddy is spending his college fund.

And then Mo Kirk appointed him to the Butte County gen plan citizen's oversight committee. Ooooooo-eeee, I smell spoils!

The 149 widening was not for safety, and just wait, the bloody accidents will start happening again within the next 5 or so years. The 149 widening was done so that corridor could be developed. My family drives that corridor every week, at morning and afternoon rush, for the last 15 years, and the traffic problem was impatient jerks who were driving as fast as 90 mph and passing on a double line when you wouldn't get out of their way. They're still there, and as that corridor is developed, they will increase in number and the accidents will pile up again.

The only worthwhile part of that project was the new intersection, there was no need for the widening. And frankly, most of the problem with the intersection was the same bad driving.

Dig out the reports - every single accident, major driver error. Like the old lady who decided to make a turn from the inside lane and almost killed a friend of ours. Like the gal who was coming home drunk from a casino at 4 am, on the wrong side of the road, no headlights! In one accident, a woman saw and pulled out in front of an oncoming truck, and her child was killed. People, including Kim Yamaguchi, publicly blamed Barbara for that child's death. No, and I'd say this to the mother: heinous driver error. My family went through that intersection at rush hour, twice a day, and it was just a matter of obeying the law and having two functioning eyes on the front of your head.

As for the water issue, my cousins are all farmers, and they are being told that growing food is a poor use of water, that water is better used for the morning ritual of ****/shower/shave. Here in Chico, we are being placed on a tiered billing for water, Tier 1 being hardly enough for one person's s/s/s ritual, much less a little garden patch or a cherry tree.

"I don't quite understand the need to prevent test wells from being drilled (even if those test wells are production ready structures)." Do you hear what you're saying? They ARE production wells! And whatever "tests" they do will be screwed around to support transfers. You admit you don't really understand - that's what they're counting on, they don't want you to understand.

What Barbara was doing was preventing the sale of our water to poorly planned subdivisions in Southern California. Meanwhile, Tovey the G is working himself like a hooker all over the state to facilitate those very water transfers. How many other campaigns you think he's run? Mo's was not the first, he's run campaigns in Woodland, Lincoln, anywhere his employers are looking at a water deal.

Now, please don't accuse me of attacking anybody. Really, I'm in a good mood and everything. You're soooo sensitive sometimes, yet other times soooo cold, ya know that?

Juanita,

Throwing up a massive wall of text is not a reasonable alternative to making good points.

The 149 interchange may or may not have been needed for safety, but it did not need to be opposed to prevent growth. Or save beavers. It should be obvious that it's just a road. That's all it ever was.

"The aquifer is draining, don't test the aquifer to see if it's draining". Is that the battle cry? Why not just be honest and say "it's our water, don't give it to those stinking southern Californians and their evil food growers". All your cousin farmers should quit using water. That way we can all be really clean and well shaven when we die of starvation.

I was person who pointed out that the Greenline Coalition was an extension of Maureen Kirk's campaign, so to suggest I didn't understand that it was politicking is a fanciful creation on your part.

http://www.norcalblogs.com/commission/archives/2006/05/who_are_the_chi.html

Politicking doesn't bother me. And I very much appreciate Tovey, and his family's, donation to the Sherwood Forest disc golf course. I wish more people would support recreation in our community like they did.

If anyone wants to get on my favorable side please make more donations. The larger the donation the more favorable the light I'll see you in. You scratch my back, I'll lovingly rub suntan lotion on yours and say you have pretty eyes. In support of recreation I am completely for sale. I can take Visa and Mastercard, and the bribe will be tax exempt.

Lon

Okay, let me get out my rubber check book.

We thought about the dues - that would be, $150 for my family. Gee, just another $350 and we can sponsor a hole!!!! That's my new goal, and I will be systematically hitting up all my friends until I get $500. Save me a hole, would ya?

You guys don't want me in your club anyway. I read the newsletter - you guys have too many rules. No cussing, no shouting, wear a shirt? Get outta here!

But that doesn't mean I don't like you. Anytime you need some back-up, you just shout out, we'll be hanging around the woodwork.

Have I told you you have pretty eyes lately?

Lon

As far as local environmental groups go, I like Barbara and the BEC folks better than any of them. A lot of them are my friends and my wife Jen worked for BEC when I met her. The Endangered Species Fair is super cool. Barbara works really hard, she's a vegetarian and she walks the talk with her personal life. Some former BOD members were in favor or wrote letters in support of disc golf and Barbara decided to make the "statement" of not taking a position on the issue one way or the other. She realized that it wasn't an important environmental issue despite the pressure she got from the Friends to jump on their political bandwagon. As far as "test wells" go, I'm suspicious too. I went to one of the NCWA meetings and it was pretty hard to believe.

I've done work for BEC over the years and appreciate what their board is trying to do. There is more work for them to do, now more than ever, and they need the support to expand and take the lead with positive outreach to balance the advocacy. There has been a lot of support for the idea to separate the advocacy efforts from the business and education efforts for years. This has been an ongoing struggle for some staff and BOD members. A couple years ago the entire board resigned, and it wasn't the first time this had happened. Jen had no choice but to resign too, but not until she stayed on for weeks to finish an important project. She's definitely not a quitter.

I think Barbara may come around once she gives it some more thought, and decide to stay with BEC so she can focus on what she's best at. The board can hire a co-director that is equally qualified with management, PR and people skills. I hear they offered her a sweet deal to stay on so maybe she'll reconsider. BEC is really an important part of a balanced eco group ecosystem in our area, especially when you consider who would take over if there was no BEC.

I recently renewed my BEC membership and I'm in support of the BOD's decision to reorganize.

Flattery!! You wicked boy! I'm meeeelllllting! Meeelllting!