Opinion

  When a county supervisor, an environmental attorney and a professional forester came together 20 years ago, they couldn’t have foreseen what lay ahead.

  They had a mission: Treat the forests to keep them healthy and fire resistant, harvest timber to fund the county’s roads and schools, and do it all in a manner that would satisfy environmental concerns and stave off lawsuits.

  It is one thing to have a vision; it’s another to implement it. It took an act of Congress — literally. During a recent trip to Quincy, Congressman Wally Herger said that the phrase “an act of Congress” refers to something that is nearly impossible to accomplish, but that’s exactly what the QLG did. It took hundreds of meetings, dozens of trips to the nation’s Capitol and five years, but the Herger-Feinstein Quincy Library Group Recovery Act was passed and implemented.

  Mud slinging and politics go together like apples and apple pie. Politicians of all persuasions, parties and ideologies have been throwing the dirty stuff at each other and trying to make it stick as long as there have been candidates for office. That’s not unusual, and negative campaigning has become a hallmark of many national, state and local races this election season. And it seems to be getting worse.

  Last week’s announcement that the sheriff was withdrawing his plan to lay off and demote deputies was great news.

  Recent disturbing events —including a home invasion, burglary and officer-involved shooting — have many citizens on edge. The prospect of personnel cuts at the sheriff’s office have been met with shock, fear and anger.

  Some residents — including the sheriff himself — directed their frustration at the Board of Supervisors for cutting the sheriff’s budget by $760,000.

On my first day as interim superintendent/president at Feather River College, the Chips Fire was burning along the side of the road as I drove up Highway 70 on my way to work. This setting is the perfect metaphor for the current economic situation in Plumas County and the state of California.

  The Chips Fire was contained through the effort and determination of several firefighting agencies and an adequate investment in resources, even though we are currently mired in a poor economy. Right now California is at a similar crossroads — we must decide whether to fund an economic turnaround fueled by a trained and educated workforce or watch our state burn away like the initial stages of the Chips Fire.