ROW MASTER… Squid gets awfully proud of Squidself for taking out the trash. Squid pats Squidself on the back – with each tentacle – after doing a dish. Squid grows emotional when Squid cleans out Squid’s email inbox.
So Squid can’t fathom the feat teams of seafaring folk will attempt when they row from Monterey to Hawaii next month. That’s more than 2,334 miles.
But Squid can definitely comprehend the importance of rewarding hard work. City of Monterey plans examiner-inspector Joe Headley, who also plays commodore at the funky Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club, loved his job, and led the charge to bring the Great Pacific Race to Monterey. But when he was denied unpaid leave to accompany the ocean rowers on his sailboat, he was given pause.
Now rumor has it he has decided to jump ship after a dozen years of helping the department earn top efficiency ratings in the nation and supervise the foundation of the Intercontinental going in at low tide in the middle of the night. If he passes some final checks, he’ll be the new building official in Carmel, replacing the departed John Hanson. Ironically, Hanson’s braving his own rough waters as he prepares to sue Carmel for wrongful termination after working there a quarter century.
Squid’s going to go celebrate finishing this paragraph with a modest awards ceremony and a shrimp po’ boy.
WATER WARS… Every time one of those anti-Measure O commercials comes on the TV, Squid can’t help but feel a tingly in the tentacles. Scenes of the beach, with the sea breeze blowing through Monterey Mayor Chuck Della Sala’s hair almost makes the Cal Am-funded opposition campaign look like a day at the beach.
While the Peninsula’s desal drama plays out, Squid’s been watching another water battle that has the Salinas Valley and the Monterey Peninsula scrapping. Part of the Peninsula’s plan to curtail doomsday includes using recycled poo water from the Marina treatment plant.
A couple of obstacles: not enough water, and agricultural water rights. But that didn’t stop everyone from eying the unclaimed soup flowing into Tembladero Slough. The Monterey Peninsula Water Management District was considering applying to the state for rights to those waters, when the Monterey County Water Resources Agency cut first in line. On April 8, the county supes approved an application for up to 25,000 acre-feet per year. The next day, MCWRA filed its application.
“California water rights are first in time, first in line,” MCWRA Assistant GM Rob Johnson tells Squid. “The first complete application wins.” But the state recycled the county’s application because they hadn’t paid the $326,000 application fee. Oopsies.
(1) comment
Pebble Beach Company should be commended for building a gray-water reclamation infrastructure. However, the golf courses still use potable water to mix with gray water because of the salt content. Building 90 new homes, adding 100 new rooms to their existing hotels and possibly building another hotel at Spyglass Hill seems insane when we are being told not to flush our toilets. Over 6000 trees have already been destroyed for this development, with more to come. Dave Potter and Jane Parker need to stop pushing the wants of the PBC ahead of the needs of their constituents.
www.delmonteneighborhood.org
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