Letters to the Editor

Fact checker AWOL?

Dear Editor:

The Sheet’s fact checker must have been on vacation when you printed (01/11/14) on page 2: “Elizabeth Tenney on how to get a private project funded with public money.”  That statement is so off the mark.

Mammoth Gateway was not a “private project.” It was a successful public/private/volunteer partnership involving the entire community. Our town would benefit from more such collaborations.

A Gateway entrance was called out as an “Action Item” in the 2007 TOML General Plan Update, but no one thought it could happen.

Because of (1) the goodwill and foresight of six government agencies (USFS, MCWD, Mono Co., CA Superior Court, TOML and Caltrans) along with (2) in-kind help from major stakeholders (MMSA, Snowcreek Resort, M.L. Chamber of Commerce) and (3) thousands of dollars worth of donated professional services (design, architectural, engineering, fabrication, landscaping, etc.) plus (4) thousands of hours in volunteer time and (5) tens of thousands of dollars donated by local residents, businesses and second homeowners or raised by service clubs, the Mammoth Gateway finally became a reality.

With regard to “…with public money,” Town Council dedicated money from the Town’s Public Art Fund, a fund comprised of fees collected from commercial developers for public art and which can only be used for public art (as reported in the Sheet in 2011), toward the Gateway Project. Council saw the Gateway as a worthy artistic expression of the Mammoth Experience and an important contribution to Mammoth’s economic future.

Your inaccurate and misleading statement does great disservice to the cooperating agencies and hundreds of people who gave so much time, effort and money to the Mammoth Gateway Project partnership.

Elizabeth Tenney 

Mammoth Lakes

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Editor’s reply:

The Sheet’s fact checker was not on vacation as suggested, but rather, had been called out by Mono County Search and Rescue to help look for Ms. Tenney’s sense of humor. 

Like so many others in the community, Lunch was cajoled into helping fund the “Great Erection” – aka The Gateway Monument. 

Lunch did so because he has great respect for Ms. Tenney’s many years of public service, and if her last great wish was to create a Great Public Erection, he certainly did not wish to stand in the way. 

However, let the record reflect that in her quest to create the erection, Ms. Tenney petitioned Town Council to loot the Town’s Public Art fund of $250,000, leading to the resignation of the entire Public Arts Commission in February, 2012. 

They resigned because Tenney willfully raided the arts fund for a marketing project. As reported in a March, 2011 issue of The Sheet, “Tenney expects that it would be a tourist attraction that would also serve as a promotional marketing piece.” 

She envisioned families stopping to get their picture taken and posting the images on social media. “Thousands of Mammoth marketing moments and all free!” she exclaimed. 

She didn’t care about the artistic quality of the erection; she just wanted a big one suitable for home movies. 

So what began as an all-volunteer project with an estimated price tag of $75,000 (all to be raised privately) ended up as a project costing more than seven times that amount – with the bulk of the hard cash siphoned from taxpayers. 

It did have the support of the two biggest developers in town, and Ms. Tenney, a local Planning Commissioner, was more than happy to carry their water for them. 

In conclusion, Great Erections come at Great Cost.