Letters to the Editor
Dr. Sansom bids farewell
Dear all my wonderful patients:
I have received great personal reward from dentistry over the years, but the time has come for me to retire from private practice. Although I won’t be seeing you in my office, you and your family will remain in my thoughts. I appreciate the confidence you have placed in me by allowing me to serve your dental needs. I am recommending that my patients receive their future dental treatment from my replacement, Dr. Chris Comfort.
A 1986 graduate of State University of New York at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine, Dr. Comfort has been practicing dentistry for 26 years, and hails from a family which has served the dental profession for more than 102 years.
His credentials are impressive:
Fellow Academy of General Dentistry
Accredited member of American
Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry
Fellow, Academy of Dental Facial Aesthetics
Member, American Orthodontic Society
Member, Tulane Association of Business School Alumni
Member ADA, NVDA, CDA, AZDA
Licensed to practice: California, Nevada and Arizona.
I searched long and hard for a dentist who would provide my patients with excellent clinical treatment and caring, personal service. Dr. Chris Comfort lives up to these high standards. Dr. Comfort assumed my practice as of Dec. 31, 2012.
He is looking forward to meeting you and your family. I have every confidence that your relationship with Dr. Comfort will be equally successful.
Thank you for entrusting us with your dental care needs. And thanks again for making my years of practicing dentistry so memorable and special!
Byron P. Sansom, DDS
Idaho
A Bishop situation …
Dear Editor:
With the new year bringing new members to the City Council it seems like a good time to give thanks for the Council’s 2012 decision to to keep Sunrise Senior Mobile Park and remember that Bishop was the site of the founding of public transit by Charles Broten and the Inyo Mono Area on Aging.
IMAAA Transit evolved into ESTA (Eastern Sierra Transit Authority) in 1998, when Greyhound abandoned service on U.S. 395. (The Bank of America closed its branch in Bridgeport at the same time and for the same reason— poor bottom line.) The new board imported an Executive Director with impressive background in mass transit in Orange and Los Angeles counties. One of his first acts was to discourage the para-transit leftovers from helping elderly and disabled off with their packages. That had previously been one of their services. A complicated and legalistic set of rules was imposed and the shock to the community subsided. Other services to the elderly were eliminated with little explanation in the impersonal, new, like-it-or-lump- it atmosphere.
Most recently is my own experience of being unloaded at the bus stop rather than the entrance to the Rural Health clinic for an appointment about my injured knee and shoulder on the morning of the very cold Christmas Eve. I have since found out that it was not the driver’s decision, but the Executive Director’s because the drivers had to back up when the parking lot is full. The parking lot was almost empty at the time and the driver had to turn into the old hospital’s parking lot that was full at the time and then exit to the bus stop. The driver, a later hire, can be excused from not weighing the impact of his orders on an 88 year old and politically impotent member of the public.
At the ESTA meetings [the local transit director] had been presenting the Operations Report that allowed for interaction with the public. What has been substituted is a long and detailed power point presentation of statistics embedded in the Executive Director’s detailed, printed, four color reports and graphs.It is my hope that the Bishop members of the new ESTA Board will suggest restoring a report by the operations manager at meetings, weigh backing up in a parking lot against the mobility needs of the elderly and disabled and apply the entrepreneurial part of their mission to a solution.
One solution would be a short loop of Check Points with a van or mini bus for the Rural Health Clinic, the old and new Northern Hospital, the Care Center, and the cluster on Line Street of the Mall (Salvation Army and other offices,) the Post office and Duane’s Friendly Pharmacy that offers many more services than simply filling prescriptions.
Selma Calnan
Bishop
Town needs to act on safety
Dear Editor:
Two Mountain employees walking home from work almost died tonight. I know because I almost hit them.
I try to be very careful driving on Manzanita but I still almost hit them. Snow was falling heavily and another car was coming at me and I was watching his lights and almost missed the two young people on my side of the road right in front of Mountain Housing.
Again, I try to be careful. What about all the locals, contractors and tourists in a hurry. Let alone people texting and talking on their phones.
The Town has ignored the nightmare pedestrian situation on Manzanita for too long. It is bad in the summer and gets worse in the winter once the snow banks build up like they are now.
I was wrong for the past 10+ years taking the approach of trying to have the speed limit lowered. Something structurally needs to be done on Manzanita, and the other streets in Midtown, or someone is going to die or be maimed for sure.
This Spring I plan on presenting The Town with an idea I have to make the streets in Sierra Valley safer for pedestrians – our kids, tourists, and the Mountain’s employees.
Gary Small
Mammoth Lakes
