In Bridgeport today, Judge Stan Eller planned to deliver the oath of office to new Supervisors Fred Stump, Tim Alpers and Tim Fesko. They all planned to head to Memorial Hall for a reception and then back to business and selection of a chair and vice-chair.
Although it’s not on the agenda, County Administrator Jim Arkens may confirm to the Board his plans to take a job in Sutter County. The Agenda does include an employment contract with Robert Weber, the Mono Sheriff’s Lieutenant who was expected to take the position of Undersheriff. The cost for a full fiscal year for his job is $212,485 – that’s a $130,000 salary and the rest retirement and other benefits.
The Mono Board will also consider moving the location of their third regular monthly meeting from Bridgeport to Mammoth Lakes.
In Independence, the new Inyo Supervisors were sworn in on Monday. At their regular meeting, they planned to pick a new chair and vice-chair. New officials are Supervisors Jeff Griffiths, Matt Kingsley and Mark Tillemans.
Their agenda includes some zoning changes to accommodate home occupations under the new California Home Foods Act that allows sales of food right from home kitchens to consumers and stores.
County Counsel Randy Keller will provide training about the Board of Equalization, which is also the Board of Supervisors, and Keller will conduct a workshop on the Brown Act which governs open, public meetings.
The County Administrator, County Counsel and Planning Director will review renewable energy issues, including the BrightSource solar project and its impacts on Inyo County government.
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PS –
The fact that so many in Bridgeport and points north working for the government (country seat) belong to a union (a liberal concept) on wonders how Right-wing leaning people reconcile this fact.
Angelle…You live in a BEAUTIFUL town….and my favorite vacation spot. I’ve been going there since 1971,back then on deer hunting trips,as well as fishing and camping….now just fishing and camping.Great memories of time spent in Bridgeport…and some not so great..In the year 2000,when I was relocating from Oregon, I got stranded in the little campground 5 miles north of town,the one with the old chimney,out of $$$ and food, no gas,sleeping in my truck,in March (VERY cold) for 10 days.When some townspeople found out about it,they came by to help me out,the Baptist Church got me food, the lady that ran the little gift shop in town bought some collector plates I had,and someone got me some $$ for gas,and helped me on my way….I’ll ALWAYS remember that,and see your town as a Godsend for me through a really hard time.
That is a beautiful story. Thank you, Wayne.
Benett
Wanye-I’ve been eighty-sixed out of worse places.
Trouble….I don’t think it was getting “86’ed” out of anywhere…No one told me I had to leave…The campground at Swauger Creek was a free campground,with no limit of stay…If I wanted to stay there with the supplies I was so kindly given to me I could have….but the first week of March in Bridgeport staying in the back of a truck overnite is kind of a tough thing to be doing. No doubt,a few of the nights were well below zero…Another nice part of the story,when I did get to Lone Pine,I stayed at a little spot called “Red Dog Bridge”,along Lone Pine Creek for 4 1/2 months,which was an illegal place to stay in the eyes of DWP,untill I was able to get a job working at a local Trailer Park that included a mobile home to live in. The first day I was settled at Red Dog,an Inyo County Sheriff stopped by to tell me it that wasn’t a legal place to stay,but he was nice enough to tell me I could untill I got a DWP notice to vacate…which came 4 months later.Now,13 years later,I’m settled into a nice Lone Pine home with a good job and a great employer.
You can always tell who lives in Mammoth and who does not. Mammoth people tend to focus on things positive (they know all that the town has to offer). Those who do not get angry at Mammoth and demean its occupants every chance they get.
These poor souls don’t realize they are the source of their own misery.
Misery doesn’t love company – it DEMANDS is.
Try looking on the bright side of life
If you change your mind Benett, start with my mother-in-law.
LOL Trouble!
You’re right Benett .. I can see both sides of this issue, it really bugs me sometimes how some just don’t seem to have anything good to say, and harp on the same old crap, and apply it to any conversation.
I don’t see this issue resolving anytime soon, but if energy towards a move of the county seat is directed positively, instead of such negative vibes coming through like they are now, something just might give.
This comment from one person “So why the non-stop sour grapes from them?” was stated by someone wanting more respect from someone else, but opened this thread this remark “Those in the north have become so paranoid that their elected officials have become lost.” This statement after some pretty objective comments. And this person wonders why sour grapes get squirted back?
Ask any person who lives in Bridgeport what they think of those who live in Mammoth and then post the facts on this site.
Go for it.
BK
As a journalist, Benett, you contact bureaucrats and politicians on are regular basis.
Since this appears to be a discussion of a political nature – Why not contact some people living in Bridgeport to find out from the horse’s mouth exactly the way they feel (and why) about people in Mammoth?
That’s not a story that has hit my radar, nor likely will unless there is an uprising of some sort. Perhaps you might want to focus on something
more positive instead of trying to foment division. And, sadly, people hating each other based on geography is not news.
Benett Kessler
While you’re at it Benett do the same in Mammoth just to be fair for Journalism 101. Thank you.
I live in Bridgeport, have for 18 years, before that I went to school in Mammoth. I have a lot of friends in Mammoth. I know a lot of good people in Mammoth. How I feel about Mammoth is just this. I like the people I like, and the ones I don’t know, I have no opinion. I read these posts all of the time and if ANYTHING at all happens here in Bridgeport, someone from there starts a tirade about how we hate south county people. Rarely if ever is there a rebuttal from someone here in Town. it seems to me that the problem is yours and yours alone. It is wrong to make a blanket statement about anything or anyone, because not everything is the same. Plus I never see anyone mention the fact that there is so much more to Mono County then just Bridgeport or Mammoth. How come you ever mention the folks out in Chalfant or Benton? just curious. You wanted to know how someone from Bridgeport felt, well there ya go.
When I think of Bridgeport, I think of a dying town that’s clinging to the edge of existence by the skin of its teeth and has developed a very unkind attitude towards Mammoth Lakes that has much, much more to offer than a ghost town and an old court building.
But there are those who are deleriously happy staring at paint drying.
What’s with all the town bashing??!!
BK
The Mammoth-bashers (what else is new?) started the nonsense.
They must be members of the NRA, the Rush Limbaugh Show must be over, or Fox News must be off the air.
It is interesting how the north county views the south county. It is always in a nasty, negative light. Forgetting that they need the money generated from Mammoth Lakes more than the other way around, the north county continues to try to demean and insult everyone who lives in Mammoth.
This is how a welfare system works.
Awwe Dr. Facts .. I miss your smugness and bashing … now I can dish some up for you. Have you not been feeling good, or on vacation?
It seems to me bashing is at the core of this blog, Benett. “Bureaucrat Beat” can quite easily be construed as beating up on anybody involved in the public service sector. There is one editor of a local paper that puts everyone into the category of a “tax-eater” as the last word on all things in the public arena.
There is a widespread belief that this country is just as divided philosophically and politically as it was in pre-Civil War era. Confrontational “dialogue” has made talk-radio pundits like Rush Limbaugh filthy rich while dividing the country. Tune in to any of them and it won’t be long before you hear a tirade against the demon “liberals” aka Democrats.
Seeking to grind their axe, some view formats such as this as not an exchange of information respectful ideas for change and facts – but a vehicle for confrontational therapy.
It’s okay to criticize. Our great nation institutionalized the freedom to challenge, but that doesn’t equal unfounded, mean-spirited remarks.
Go ahead and advocate a switch in the county-seat, but how about offering a well-founded factual basis along with constructive ideas for the
ailing small towns. Benett
I’ve come to view the rhetoric at this — and most blogs — like the rhetoric a bunch of old drunks in a local bar are shouting at each other around 1:00 am when everybody’s got a snoot full and are responding to imaginary insults from the rest of the old drunks just before they stagger out the door in a snit. Sort of like a field trip from the Foster Brooks School of Rational Dialog.
Then tomorrow, they all come back and sit in their usual places and start all over again.
Well put Ken.
And likewise to the sad,angst-ridden bunch of old drunk boomers who saturate today’s Tea Party movement.
You can outspokenly hate black people, mexicans, arabs, liberals (especially liberals) etc. just so long as you own an AK-47, listen to Rush Limbaugh 3 hours a day, and wave the flag while doing so.
But the good news is they can’t live forever and a group of young people are prepared to make ours a better and happier world.
I love it Ken … I think you got something there.
Of course Dr. Facts is right in the lime light bagging with the best of them and then says .. the younger crowd will make it better as soon as all of the old people die off .. nice. I can see him as an old stuck in his way .. old geezer not wanting to change because lief is just right the way it is.
Oh wait, am I bagging on him … crap … I’m Sorry Dr. Facts … peace baby!
People who think that they are all that Benett, kind of hard to see past there nose in the wind.
Every generation is more open-minded and change-oriented (liberal) than the last one, Big Al … thank God.
I think they all start out open minded, but somewhere along the years they too get set in their ways, I think it is just what life does, wears some down, or makes them used to how they know it.
The next generation starts out to change the world, when it does, it is satisfied with it, then the next generations makes it mark, and so on and so on ….
Let’s also move Sacramento (State Capitol) to Los Angeles where the real action is! How about Carson City moving to Reno — as reasonable as moving our established Brigeport operations to Mammoth
Methinks you’re unrealistically stretching it there Cass.
What is real is that in America everybody pulls their own weight.
Try to go it alone (without assistance from the Mammoth Lakes tax base) and see what happens.
There is also the reality that we are all in this together and if some need help, we can give it.
BK
The economic engine that is Mammoth Lakes has been giving aid to Bridgeport and all points north ever since the ski industry took hold.
So why the non-stop sour grapes from them? There are tons of talented and highly educated people in Mammoth Lakes that would love to work for the county but the commute makes it unfeasible.
Not sure about your source. Certainly, the north-south divide exists in both Mono and Inyo counties, but not all people have negative
feelings about the other polarity.
BK
I think of great fishing in the summer and staying away in the winter. I heard it’s the second coldest city in the lower 48.
You sure don’t wanna pull into Bridgeport with an empty gas tank and a full-size truck.
Bridgeport is not dying, it will need to adapt some, as long as people want to come and camp and enjoy the outdoors, hunt and fish, hike and bike, Bridgeport will be OK. There is smugness in Bridegeport just as there is smugness in Mammoth, and anywhere else, we see it in some of the posts here. Again you can have your smugness “Be happy”
When I think of Mammoth Lakes,I think of a bunch of giggling pot-heads with tight polyester pants, knit-hats on their heads and carrying snowboards…certainly not a town with a County seat….I could just see the selected Grand Jury now…..
Wayne- what about us old skiers?
Trouble…From what I have witnessed when I’ve had to go up to Mammoth on a job in the winter,I truly feel sorry for the “old-time” residents and skiers…and what they got to deal with now on the slopes,and when they drive through town.
Wayne,
“Old-timers” are old because they choose to be old. It’s all between the ears.
Stuck in their ways, some are content to do the same things over and over, clinging to a by-gone era refusing to entertain an open mind. The world is changing much too fast for them and they seek comfort in the use-to-be.
Mammoth Lakes is rapidly becoming an art and cultural mecca of the Sierra
offering many new and stimulating opportunities: Theatre, concerts, music festivals, art shows, chamber music … the list is growing each day. This, for some bizarre reason is unacceptable to some never-wanna-change individuals.
The question then becomes (say you are a retiree who is 65 years old) would you want to truly live for 65 years … or live the same year over and over again 65 times?
Don’t Worry- you may be part right, but we were a whole lot better off back then. And they’ll still be playing our music in a 100 years. Take Vietnam out of the picture and we really had it good :)–
I think the arts and cultural mecca is also between the ears as well. Pretty smug talk there “Be Happy” .. I sure am glad not everyone thinks like you do either.
I’m glad to see change, and while some change is occuring, I doubt it is as prevalent as you are seeming to believe, or push on Wayne.
I kinda agree with you in what you’re saying Wayne, I understand how some people are, but not everyone is like that.
Very Intelligent there Wayne.
I’d love to see our council push to move the seat into Mammoth. I honestly believe Bridgeport’s hatred for us resulted in the judgement against us. I heard, could be a rumor, that the jury went out to celebrate when they ruled against us years ago.
With the vast majority of population residing in the south county, and the money generated each year from tourism: skiing, hiking, biking, summer concerts, theatre, art festivals, real estate tax benefits … etc. etc. it should be a no-brainer that the north county enjoys the features and benefits of the entire county and contributes little to the tax base. I don’t think Bridgeport hates Mammoth per se, they just can’t figure out how to justify them using what Mammoth generates for them (tax dollars) when all they really have is the jail. Bridgeport is a dying community and everyone knows it but our elected officials continue to allow the north county get away with tax-eating murder because “its always been that way.”
Let them keep their jail and save the county gazillions in the long term buy relocating the county seat to Mammoth. Don’t get me started as to how difficult it is for the majority of Mono County citizens to drive to middle-of-nowhere Bridgeport to have their issues heard and discussed. I’m surprised the elected officials okay’d an extra meeting day in Mammoth to accomodate the obvious. “Because the meetings have always been in Bridgeport.”
You have got to be joking SkiJohn.
That and they are moving his office to Ken’s Sporting Goods!
130K salary for a back-country undersheriff? unbelievable.
Mama’s – don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
Make ’em be doctors and undersheriffs and such.
Those in the south county think that They have a right to re-draw county seats and districts, when They can’t even stay out of Debt, and keep from being sued by their own devepopers
Those in the north county think they can contribute nothing in a capitalistic system whatsoever (I thought EVERYBODY knew Mammoth Lakes is the economic engine)
yet whine and carry on wanting all the perks and benefits available (similar to Welfare).
Perhaps the state of Nevada should annex the north county rendering some means of contribution (gambling).
Future politicians should make Mammoth Lakes the county seat for obvious economic reasons.
One word about Bridgeport — Development Potential — well two words.
Bridgeport has thousands of acres of flat, developable land in a beautiful setting with a huge lake, rivers with great fly fishing and mountains with lots of snow just waiting for chair lifts. LOTS of room for equestrian activities AND — they have an airport that is almost within walking distance.
If and when the property under the ranches gets too valuable for ranching — look out — if they do it right they actually have a chance to make a better resort than the Vail complex. And they have Mammoth to supply a great model of how not to do it.
Ken,
Bodie also once had a terrific idea.
And like Bodie, I’m afraid developers are more interested in established amenities. The people who still have money today and can afford the property don’t necessarily put “remote” at the top of their want list.
Get used to it. The wealthy are inheriting the earth. That’s what capitalism is all about.
Ken….Talk to the residents in Bridgeport and see if they want to turn their little town into another Vail,Colorado….or Mammoth Lakes,California…. I’m thinking they like it just the way it is.
If a community isn’t generating dollars yet demand the benefits the rest of the dollar-generating communities area are contributing, they are in the same category as welfare cheats.
Since when did what the local people want have any impact on developers plans.
And as for developers only going for pre-existing amenities — I can show you miles of homes and condos and appartment complexes and whole communities that were built on the tomato fields behind the Del Mar area in San Diego. Developers love to buy private land — big hunks of private land and then build communities with plans they’ve use all over the country.
If I had money, I would be buying property along 395 like it was $1 an oz. gold.
Ken most of that is in a land trust.
ever hear of a little thing called a conservation easement? Most of the land of which you speak is locked up by conservation easements in perpetuity….of course those easements, for which the landowners are paid millions of dollars, do allow some development, but nothing to the magnitude you describe.
Most people do not realize that sieragrl, I know the Dressler ranch is part of the land trust, not sure about the Point Ranch.
The Indian Colony just acquired some land that doubles their land, with a land trust form the Govt.
There is a Ranch for sale Ken, across the road form the point ranch .. 187 acres … $1.95 Million. Really nice house back in the pinyon, with pasture to run some cows. Make an offer.
I hope someday some elected officials become future-oriented and understand the bulk of the people in Mono County live in the south county – not the north, and should direct all future decisions towards the majority.
Those in the north have become so paranoid that their elected officials have become lost.