Page 2: Teamwork is crap
At Bishop City Council on Monday, 91-year old architect Robert Miller, who’s practiced his craft for more than a half-century, complained bitterly about the current Warren Street Improvement project.
In short, he said, “You’ve taken the joy out of Warren Street to me … it is a miserable project.”
In particular, Miller was critical of the removal of ten shade trees. “I don’t buy destroying trees as being pedestrian friendly,” he said.
“The worst away to design is by committee,” he opined. “If you want to fail, get a committee.” Back in the day, said Miller, one guy was the guy, “not this teamwork crap.”
Bishop Public Works Director Dave Grah noted that the ten trees removed during the project will be replaced by 63 new trees.
While Miller spoke, the Bishop Council kindly and patiently received his comments.
Kind and patient was not what Miller was looking for.
“I wanted to make you angry. I wanted to make you do something. I blew it,” he said dejectedly before concluding his remarks.
Mono County’s Airport Land Use Commission met Monday to talk about the Commission’s purpose and authority as it relates to Mammoth’s plans for airport improvements and terminal expansion.
In a nutshell, Airport Manager Brian Picken said, yes, the airport has issues of non-compliance, but every airport has issues of non-compliance, the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) are the experts. If the FAA complains about something, we’ll fix it, but we shouldn’t be inventing our own problems to solve.
As Picken said in regards to Stephen Kalish’s complaint about airport layout. “Clearly, the FAA thinks we’re operating safely and doesn’t want to spend $150 million re-aligning a freeway [so that the airport can meet FAA requirements to the letter].”
District 2 Supervisor Fred Stump, however, said that he is concerned about the legal exposure the County might have in essentially turning a blind eye to a non-conforming airport.
Mono County Planner Gerry LeFrancois had this take. The County has jurisdiction of property immediately surrounding Mammoth Yosemite airport. Anything that falls within that boundary, “we have the opportunity to question … whether we’re trumped by the FAA is another matter.”
It did not appear that the full Commission, consisting of Stump, Supervisor Tim Fesko, Mammoth Councilman Colin Fernie, Mammoth Public works director Grady Dutton and Mono County Public Works Director Jeff Walters is keenly interested in interfering with Mammoth’s proposed plans.
This message was received on our website Thursday. Thought it was worth sharing:
“Well, is this what you call collaboration or just another careless self-interested act of rape. At the Andrea Lawrence annual dinner a few nights ago, the LADWP GM spoke about collaboration, working together and burying the hatchet; wish I would have recorded that.
The irony; remember (10 years ago or so) when the then-acting DWP General Manager and Mayor Hawn tried to create a conservation easement for all/most of the property they owned in Inyo/Mono. The goal was to put in writing preservation of agriculture uses and leave out agreed areas adjacent to communities for future growth. This would have saved the ag uses. However the deal fell apart mainly because the ranchers and locals in Inyo were opposed to it. There must be more to this story it’s just too strange as is. What irony.”
And from Evans desk…
On Monday, April 27, Mammoth Councilmembers John Wentworth and Colin Fernie spearheaded a Synergy Summit in Mammoth to discuss greater collaboration between agencies when it comes to non-snow recreation. The Summit is part of Council’s priority to implement a comprehensive community plan, as defined in their strategic plan.
By starting with a topic, such as non-snow recreation, “You start getting a sense of how this program actually functions,” Wentworth said. “Then you can refine it and identify where the synergies exists in order to do get more efficient and more effective delivery of programs.”
Representatives from the Mammoth Lakes Foundation, Mono County, Eastern Sierra Transit Authority, Mammoth Planning and Economic Development Commission, Town of Mammoth Lakes, Mammoth Lakes Recreation, Mammoth Lakes Tourism, and Mammoth Mountain Ski Area were involved in the discussion.
Noticeably missing: a representative of the U.S. Forest Service, which governs and maintains the majority of land non-snow recreation takes place on.
After defining current non-snow recreation acitivities, the group discussed gaps. “Typically you think of a gap as a lack of something, where no one is doing anything with,” Wentworth said. “We identified that a gap might be too many people trying to do the same thing from different organizations.”
Gaps included an integrated community calendar of events, better communication between agencies, a greater connection with Devil’s Postpile and Yosemite, shared marketing collateral, and the lack of a convention center. The group also emphasized the need for non-snow recreation year round.
John Urdi from MLT warned the group that, although a good idea given the current drought, “Once you start going off the winter message you’ve shot yourself in the foot … It’s economic suicide.”
So what exactly is going to come out of this synergy summit?
“I can tell you right now, I don’t know,” Wentworth said. “But these are the types of questions you want to have so we can figure it out and do it. Not knowing what comes next isn’t frightening or intimidating to me. That smells like opportunity.”
