Rasch for councilmember

It is rare in an election year when an individual whose experience, interests and devotion to service has prepared them to step forward and run for Monterey City Council. District 3 is fortunate that Jean Rasch has decided to take this step. Jean comes to this position with the skillsets needed for this important community seat. As a nurse and certified midwife, Jean managed a private practice in midwifery and founded Midwifery Service at Stanford. Jean brings this experience working with families navigating the complexities of our health care system. On the Peninsula, Jean’s private practice in law served vulnerable citizens with legal issues related to disabilities and aging. As a steadfast steward of her neighborhood community, Jean has taken leadership roles on over 10 different community measures and associations. She listens well, is an independent thinker, studies the issues, asks relevant questions and seeks solutions to city problems. As a candidate for the District 3 city council seat, Jean’s professional work experience, personal interests, and long-standing devotion to community service demonstrate her commitment to serving and contributing to the well-being of our city.

— Elizabeth Jannasch, Monterey

Water common sense

Where are the missing critical thinking and sound logic skills needed to ascertain the insanity of building a desalination plant in northern Marina so far from Monterey Peninsula’s water service area? Especially when Marina has its own public water agency? If Cal Am claims its source water is the ocean, why is it insisting on constructing buildings, wells, and miles of disruptive conveyance pipelines at great cost to the people of the Monterey Peninsula? Why not build the desalination plant in Carmel, or Monterey or another nearby city? Why Marina so far away? Cal Am intends to use slant wells to induce seawater intrusion and decimate Marina’s aquifers in order to justify its desalination plant. This will leave Marina high and dry in violation of the will of Marina citizens. The Monterey Peninsula has the benefit of its own public water agencies’ miracle water invention, Pure Water Monterey. Marina Coast Water District partnered with M1W and MPWMD to develop a prize-winning recycled water project for the Monterey Peninsula to provide an ample water supply for at least 30 more years. Common sense tells us to support MCWD and the Monterey Peninsula public water agencies, M1W and MPWMD; support Monterey Peninsula citizens and Measure J.

— Margaret-Anne Coppernoll, Marina

Point Lobos rescue

My husband and I went for our usual hike at Point Lobos today and parked in Whalers Cove when a Cal Fire truck with lights and siren going pulled into the parking area. In about a minute they were out of their truck, had the boat out of the shed and in the water, and were shoving off to go rescue someone! It was amazing to watch. I do not plan on ever needing rescuing BUT if I do, I feel quite confident that these fireman would save me. Good job and thank you for watching over us.

— Julie Stryker, Carmel

Handcar Tours

According to their website, TAMC specifically is granted authority through the state to preserve, acquire, construct, or improve railroad services in our county. Perversely, facilitating plans to construct a dedicated bus road over the tracks and removing portions of the historic Del Monte Express line along Highway 1, is no one’s idea of preservation.

The bus project, which is not rail, now has been tasked with shoehorning itself down from a two-lane road into the footprint of one train track which extends the time necessary for redesign and approvals.

In the meantime, the successful Handcar Tours, a small family business in Marina who for the last few years has leased a portion of the tracks for their rail-dependent activity, has been handed a notice by TAMC to cease operation and vacate immediately after investing much money into track improvements.

This seems greatly unfair and a further perversion of TAMC’s original goal of stewardship of rail resources. I hope they will reconsider extending the lease to the Handcar Tours.

— Tina Walsh, Marina

Prince of Pebble

Congratulations to James Raia for the fine and comprehensive piece that he wrote about Mark O’Meara, who has won so many golf tournaments at Pebble Beach that he is aptly named the “The Prince of Pebble.”

Year after year, Raia does a consistently great job in covering golf events on the Monterey Peninsula as well as the races at Laguna Seca. The story on O’Meara, who announced his retirement from competitive golf, is just the latest example. Here’s hoping that Mr. Raia continues to grace The Herald’s pages and inform its readers for a long time to come.

— Lewis Leader, Carmel Valley