Letters to the Editor

Postcard from Saalbach

Dear Editor:

This is a Mountain Town News special …

For geographical reference regarding Saalbach, Austria, see Google Earth at 47°23’27.50”N, 12°38’12.92”E.

We visited here this summer for three days. The slopes in August are covered with grass and cows with cowbells. Two gondolas, to Spielberg (1,330 meters) at the north and to Schattberg (2,020 meters) at the south are both a relatively easy walk from all hotels. Schattberg gondola in summer is popular with mountain bikers and sightseers. It costs about $24 US to ride up and $10 US to ride down.

In winter, some 16 lifts and gondolas serve cooperating resorts along the valley. Saalbach itself is a village of hotels and entertainment, parking provided by a 9-level underground garage for the central hotels situated along a pedestrian way. Most interesting is that all quoted prices for rooms, meals, drinks, clothing, rentals, etc include all fees and taxes. When you go to buy something, you are not blindsided by Transient Occupancy (room) Tax, sales tax, value added tax, or whatever. If the money in your pocket meets the stated price, you’re home free. A pleasure Mammoth might adopt.

Marlene and Everett Emerson
Mammoth Lakes

Mono County’s Finest: Your tax dollars at work

Dear Editor:

I thought I’d share this with all the hard working taxpayers of Mono County, just to let you know how some of your tax dollars are spent.

Two weeks ago, on a Friday night, I went over to Toms Place for a couple of beers. Around 10 p.m., an older Hispanic gentleman looking quite disheveled came into the bar. He asked one of the employees in Spanish if he could help him as his car had broken down on U.S. 395. The employee, being a good sort, got his truck and went to help tow the gentleman’s car over to Toms Place.

The gentleman then got a room for the night and went out to his car and with the help of the employee carried a box and some other belongings into his room.

One of the local yahoos,  upon observing this “suspicious behavior,” decided to call 911. Within minutes, two Sheriff’s Dept. SUVs arrived and proceeded to park diagonally, blocking in any potential customers who were parked outside the bar.

Now instead of actually getting out of their SUVs and walking the twenty odd feet into the bar and asking the bartender if there was a problem, the deputies just sat and talked to each other.

This continued for 40 minutes, until the bartender decided to go out and ask them if there was a problem. One of the officers arrogantly asked her, “You tell me. Is there a problem?”

Her response was, “No, except you two are scaring away any potential customers that might want to stop here tonight.”

Apparently the officers just laughed and carried on talking. These two officers, never once got out of their cars, or enquired if there was a problem at Toms Place. They just sat there from around 10:10 p.m. until 11:52 p.m., then left. I’m assuming their shifts finished at midnight.

Now is this the sort of behavior you should expect from your “law enforcement” officers?

As various hard working, tax paying citizens of Mono County have commented to me since I have been here visiting, their general consensus is that per capita, the police presence in this area is bordering on overkill.

Perhaps they are wrong and there is a huge crime problem in the Eastern Sierra, especially amongst Hispanic people lifting boxes out of broken-down cars.

Personally, if I were a taxpaying resident of Mono County, I’d be wanting to know why is it two deputies have so little to do on a Friday night that they can sit for almost an hour and 45 minutes outside Toms Place chatting.

Perhaps someone from the Sheriffs Department can enlighten us, and confirm that there is a massive crime wave especially amongst Hispanic box lifters.

Oh and finally to Deputies Holmes and Watson, the suspicious box, well it contained bibles written in Spanish, the gentleman was a preacher heading South. But if you could have been bothered to get out of your cars and ask, I’m sure someone would have told you that!

Roy Dickinson
Sunny Slopes