SWAMP TALK TONIGHT - 7PM
The Claremont Courier informs us that we can hear a presentation at 7pm tonight at the Claremont Public Library on the proposed $7.6 million marsh at the Thompson Creek Dam that is being championed by the Claremont League of Women Voters (LWV).
LWV representatives Marilee Scaff and C. Freeman Allen are will give a talk to Active Claremont this evening. Marilee's Marsh is full of unanticipated surprises (to the tune of upwards of $24.4 million - to be passed on to water customers here and elsewhere). So, come on out to the dog-and-pony show at the library tonight.
(Click on Image to Enlarge)
If you're going, try asking why Scaff and Allen didn't try harder to save the natural cienega at Chicken Creek where the 125 Stone Canyon Preserve homes now sit, or why they don't just try to recreate a marsh in one of the spots where they used to occur, either at the old Seyfarth Nursery along Mt. Baldy Rd., or in College Park near the old Courier Building.
Putting a cienega in one of those other spots would be far less costly than the massive project that Scaff and Allen propose for the simple reason that the underlying geologies support cienegas in those places. At the location proposed by Scaff and Allen, the cienega would have to be created artificially, giving lie to the words "nature" and "natural" being bandied about by the proponents.
Putting the cienega in an alternate spot would also allow Scaff and Allen to be more forthright in their grant applications to the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (RMC) than they have been to date.
See our post from last month for a more detailed discussion of these issues.
Active Claremont Monthly Meeting
Thursday, July 17th, 7pm
Claremont Public Library Community Room
208 Harvard Ave.
Claremont
Marilee Scaff and C. Freeman Allen
"Thompson Creek Spreading Grounds: Acquire, Restore, Develop"
TRUTH IN GRANT APPLICATIONS
Speaking truth in grants, we were wondering if there's an agency that investigates grant application claims. Does the State Attorney General examine these? We'll have more on this subject in a few days, with a bit of news from the city of Indio, where 32 forged signatures ended up on a $34.5 million state grant application.
Claremont has had its own problems with questionable grant claims. For instance, a few years ago, the city applied for a $2 million state grant for the Padua Ave. Sports Park in which the city claimed that the park was needed partly because after the 2003 Padua Fire that burned through Palmer Canyon the Claremont Wilderness Park would be closed for years. That grant application said, "The City has closed the wilderness park indefinitely. The park will be closed for up to 3 years." This was completely untrue, as anyone who hiked in the wilderness park in 2004, 2005, and 2006 can testify to.
That Padua Park grant application was rejected, of course. But how many of these things get through? Is there anyone who really checks these? And what keeps someone in a potential position of influence like former Claremont Traffic and Transportation Commissioner Tim Worley, who is now the director of water policy for San Gabriel RMC, from lobbying behind the scenes for his friends in Claremont, even if they make some exaggerated or even untrue claims?
Is there a state grant ombudsman? Do you have his or her number?
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