The Emergency That Wasn't

Beavers, beavers, everywhere and too many dollars to think; I suppose that is the hope of our City Council and Director of Public Works.

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it” ~ Joseph Goebbels

The beavers have cost the City of Martinez how much Mr. Parker, Ms. Kennedy? Funny how the darned sheet piles wouldn’t cooperate and angle in to form a nice tight fit against the retaining wall, as you were overheard describing to one television reporter, Mr. Scola.

However, if Cooper Crane and Hess had been given a copy of Images of America, Martinez (available at the Martinez Historical Museum) Jon and Larry might have figured out for themselves that driving pile through footings, the same footings you can see on page 122, wouldn’t work all that well. But then getting the contractors copies of the wonderful pictures of the de-watered creek, as captured by the Martinez Historic Society, would have been awfully helpful too. There were those pesky non-existent footings in plain view.

Now don’t get me wrong I understand why it would be a prickly situation to have those pictures out in the public domain – people might start asking questions, like; where was the cottage cheese retaining bank in danger of eminent collapse which was so visibly absent back in 1999? This vital piece of support Cal Engineering described as pulling away from the wall in the report to the city, is nowhere to be seen in these photos. Why, when there was no soil (silt) caught in the wall’s footings, didn’t our city react with such urgent determination back then to correct an obvious risk of collapse?

What was it Mr. Menisini described; an emergent situation that could cause flooding and subsequent loss of property and possible life if the situation wasn’t immediately abated?

But Cooper Crane and Hess weren’t the only contractors kept out of the loop. It’s a shame our city attorney didn’t get Cal Engineering to snap to, like she did in court, to ensure he was up to speed prior to the October 1st meeting. Now there was someone lacking a whole lot of information.

Now I know there are some fine citizens of Martinez who will continue to argue that the property owners were promised something during the original flood mitigation project and good on them for finally getting theirs (even at our expense). Well I feel the very same way about the money ExxonMobil would have gotten – according to Joe Biden’s Vice Presidential debate – under a McCain/Palin tax plan. I would have said good on ExxonMobil for getting 400 million in tax credits; after all ExxonMobil develops resources the world needs and in the process creates jobs and wealth for many.

When the dust settles and the concrete dries can the same be said about our 400 thousand dollar government giveaway? In the meantime – Messer’s Parker, Scola and Ms. Kennedy, put those expenses where they rightfully belong; just one of the many perks to owning a whole lot of property in Downtown Martinez.