Opinion

  My first summer working at the stables in Graeagle was full of adventures and moments of growth. None so prominent as the ordeal I went through when I decided I really liked being in Graeagle.

  It was the middle of July and I had finally gotten in the groove of my new job. I knew every horse’s name, I was starting to enjoy spending time in the little town, and I finally could lead trails without getting lost. Or so I thought.

  I just learned that an old friend of mine passed away. Her name was Cheryl and her family had a cottage on the same road as mine in Bradford, N.H.

  I was closer in age to her two older sisters, but the three of them, my brother Mike and I, and our next-door neighbors John and Mike, were quite the gang of teenagers on Howlett Road in the early ’70s.

  Two of our county’s cornerstone institutions are facing a crisis. And we urge our elected representatives locally and in the state Legislature to do everything in their power to help.

  Seneca Healthcare District and Eastern Plumas Health Care are facing cuts to their respective skilled nursing facilities due to a bill passed in the California Legislature in 2011.

  I enjoyed reading the editorial comments published in the Jan. 30 edition of the local newspapers. They begged the question “Where were the present critiques of the general plan during the last seven years?” which apparently represents the timeframe editors identify under which this document has been in development. I would respectfully correct that timeframe, as it appears the process actually started in 2002.

  Regardless, the question posed is really quite easy to answer: Citizens did participate in the “Your town 20/20 meetings” held in various communities in 2002. Note that these “visioning sessions” were conducted by out-of-county facilitators paid for with grant monies. It was never crystal clear to participants in these “townhall style meetings” that the input collected at these visioning sessions was actually laying the foundation for a county general plan update.