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| His Voice - Fast Talk |
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| Written by Ron Swift | |
| Saturday, 05 January 2008 | |
 Ron Swift A look back on 2007 Ah, the New Year. Time for reflections and resolves. First, let’s take a backward look at 2007 — a so-so year for many Pattersonites. We’ll start with the decision made early in ’07 by our county board of supervisors. By a slim 3-2 vote, the supes overrode their own advisory committee to give developer Gerry Kamilos a year to come up with plans for the Crows Landing Air Facility. Unfortunately, those plans call for enlarging the industrial development to three times the size of the former U.S. Navy base and for making a portion of it a train yard to serve as the second Port of Oakland. The West Side’s agricultural industry would suffer a major blow. The developer’s figures are staggering, causing many West Side residents to first shake their heads and finally turn angry. The project includes promises of 37,000 jobs and 141,000 vehicle trips per day, as well as plans to expand many rural roadways to four lanes to handle the increased traffic and more train runs that would impact Patterson’s emergency services. As a result, Patterson and Newman’s city councils and school boards, Del Puerto Health Care District and the West Stanislaus Fire Protection District have taken strong stands against expanding the now-county-owned property beyond its original 1,527 acres. Unfortunately, no one at the county level talks of industrial development within the cities of the county. Patterson has more than 600 acres of industrial property ready and waiting, Oakdale has plenty of acres and will soon have an empty Hershey building, and Turlock is talking of making more than 2,000 acres on its western border available for industrial development. (Take into consideration that the Hacienda Business Park in Pleasanton is only 875 acres and accommodates 475 businesses, which employ 16,000 people.) By comparison, the 4,800 acres being proposed just south of Patterson is monstrous. PCCP West Park’s above-mentioned proposal has created a battle that very likely will carry over to election time and beyond. Political nastiness has already raised its ugly head. It’s very likely Stanislaus County has never experienced so divisive an issue. Thank goodness we had the Patterson High football team to give us an upside in 2007. The Tigers finished second in the section with an 11-2 record and pleased their fans to no end with their exciting play. Both PHS boot teams, football and soccer, advanced to the section finals. This is not to mention the new playing surface at the community stadium and new seats on the home side. Much cooperation between the school district, the city, service clubs and the Cozart family helped pull off the monumental project. It was the real bright spot of community effort in the past 12 months. But a “downer” has been the housing market, a national problem being felt hard in our city. Foreclosures cut a wide swath, from homebuyers losing their investments to banks and local businesses all sharing in the loss. NOW TO THE RESOLVES I, for one, am a procrastinator. I put things off, believing that I will have more time and energy to tackle them tomorrow. But I should point out that a procrastinator lives a troubled life. He always has a long list of things that need doing. Those things mount, and he is always pressed for enough time to undertake them. Thus, a procrastinator is fatigued without actually accomplishing much. I’ve been fighting this battle for 70 long, hard years. I have projects out in the garage that were projects 40 years ago. Here’s an example: When I was 9 years old, I received a top-of-the-line electric train, a Lionel, for Christmas. It is carefully boxed and stored in our garage, ready to give to a 9-year-old grandson. That age came and went for our first grandson about 10 years ago. Our second is already 9. But the train set, probably the engine, has a short in it. It will move the cars only about half an inch, but no further. There’s a guy in Turlock who repairs electric trains. I was given his name about 15 years ago and have talked with him on the phone. Because I presently have an objection to trains (for proof, go back to the beginning of this column), I’m right ready to part with the Lionel. But that involves taking a step that I’ve avoided all these years. Procrastination. So my New Year’s resolution is this: First, I have made a long list of projects to tackle. I’ll undoubtedly add to it regularly in 2008. From the list, I will select one project a day to take on. Some are very small and can be completed in minutes. Others may require more than a day or even a week, but progress will be made daily to complete them. I resolve. Fast Talk will keep you posted on my success. ODDS AND ENDS Things could be much worse. We could be residents of Iowa with all those politicians churning around for weeks on end, grabbing the headlines and slamming each other to the frozen turf. Question of the week: If Patterson’s population has dropped because of the recent home foreclosures, will we likely see fewer unreturned shopping carts in 2008? There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order — “facetious” and “abstemious.” OK, I had to look up the definition of “abstemious,” which means abstaining in the use of food and drink. Must have something to do with dieting. A nasty word. A new study reports that drivers yakking away on cell phones actually slow down commute traffic some 2 mph. That adds up to about 20 extra hours a year behind the wheel. Thought you’d want to know. Now to the annual report of the Knights of the Square Table. The Knights survived a jump in the coffee price early in 2007, but it didn’t daunt their enthusiasm for gathering each weekday morning to sip, solve the problems of the day, gossip, share their aches and pains and roll the dice to see who pays for coffee. (No, it breaks no gambling laws.) The guys, and occasionally a gal or two, have been gathering since 1984 and have now paid $41,301 over the years for their daily brew. Dan Gray, illustrious owner of Mil’s, thought twice 11 years ago about hosting the daily gathering, as the three previous KOST hosts closed for business, went broke and burned down. This past year, KOST paid $1,305.50 for coffee, with congenial Ray Henson earning the title of president by paying $241.50. Allister Allen ($198) is the honorary first vice president for 2007, while John Ielmini ($192.50) is second vice. Not surprisingly, John A. Farinha, the flash with Crows Landing roots, didn’t pay much; he seldom does. By the way, if you have any problems needing to be solved in 2008, just stop by Mil’s at 10 o’clock. And bring your wallet. FOR THE SPORTS FAN Why is it that when I close my eyes at night, I can still see college bowl games? AND FINALLY … Remember that fond saying of Kermit the Frog: “Time’s fun when you’re having flies.” And may your new year be jovial. Ron Swift is editor/publisher emeritus of the Patterson Irrigator. His column appears weekly in this space.
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