We are pleased to hear that Mammoth Dog Teams owner Jim Ouimet finally got word this week that he will soon be able to move his dog sleds and gear into a covered indoor space instead of storing the irreplaceable and historical items in sheds and outdoors in the snows of winter and heat of summer.
They said it could not be done—that California’s fiscal problems were so immense, so mind-boggling, that no one in his right mind dare even take it on.
Then again, few people have ever said that Gov. Jerry Brown was ever in his right mind, and that goes for his supporters as well as his critics.
We went looking for the face of Mono County this week, but we didn’t find it.
We tried straining our ears for the voice of Mono County, but it was so quiet in Bridgeport that all we heard was the breeze fanning the fog over the Mono Basin and the occasional—and distant—roar of a snowmobile.
The curious vacuum in the county’s halls of politics has taken nearly everyone by surprise.
Now that the first round of High Holidays are on the ebb, we’re left on the edge of speechlessness.
In a word, “Wow” might do it. Given two words, we’d say “Holy Smokes!”
No one around here can remember Mammoth being so packed in a two-week period. Matthew Lehman, a lifelong Mammothite who just happens to be the mayor of our little burg, said the other day he can’t remember one like it.
Having digested the whole of 2012, we’re looking forward to the New Year. Honestly, there was no way we could have predicted the events of the year just past, but we think we’ve got a pretty good handle on what’s to come, that is, if the Good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise.
1. President Barack Obama will appoint Marianna Marysheva-Martinez to replace Timothy Geithner as the new Secretary of the Treasury. Americans will spend-spend-spend, all the while complaining she makes too much money.
There has been so much handwringing about our failures around here this past year that it’s been easy to overlook Mammoth’s successes.
Yet we’ve had them, and not just little ones, either.
Last month, the new running track opened south of town at the Whitmore sports complex. It is hard to overstate what a remarkable achievement that is. It took five years of work in the form of grant writing, fund drives, and political maneuvering to get it done.
The Mammoth town government has wasted a lot of time over the years, approving projects that don’t get built, adopting town plans that still reside on dusty bookshelves, and so on.
We’re not alone in this. Actually, we figure that instead of counting sheep as a sleeping strategy, we could starting counting inconsequential reports and proposals in, say, Sacramento, for the rest of our lives, but then we’d never wake up again.
The Mammoth Lakes Town Council approved its “Restructuring Plan” Wednesday evening, cutting police, public works, parks, salaries, and staff positions.
Everyone knew it was coming; there were no surprises.
Even so, that tap-tap-tap tapping sound you hear is the sound of nervous fingers.
The Mammoth Lakes Chamber of Commerce is about to lose its leader.
We know that this is not exactly Front Page news, but it ought to be.
In other towns and cities, the Chamber is a big-time player in a variety of ways, and not just for the promotion of big and small business interests.
Strong chambers of commerce provide leadership in areas that stretch across the political and economic landscapes. There is hardly a government entity in the United States that does not take into account “what the Chamber has to say.”
School Safety
February 1, 2013
We’re so busy being relaxed around here that we sometimes we forget that the so-called “real world” exists.