Visiting editors address water, the homeless in Turlock, college cuts

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Editors' note: Once a month, we invite The Bee's visiting editors to share their thoughts on a subject of their choice.

Robert Farrace

When I was kid, I lived in Rep. George Miller's East Bay district. The concerns were the delta and the environment, and no peripheral canal. We had bricks in our toilet tanks to conserve water, while our lawns burned in the summer.

I spent my college years in the Los Angeles area. People there like to water their sidewalks and driveways while complaining that farmers used too much water and that valley residents should be on meters.

Here in the valley, our farmers fed the ungrateful, both northern and southern, providing high quality, reasonably priced food in partial exchange for that essential commodity: Water.

Everyone in the valley, whether east side or west side, knows that "water is for fighting." It is no accident that Modesto's arch lists "water" first, before wealth, contentment or health. Rep. Dennis Cardoza is well versed in the current fight, as shown during his visit, along with a few farmer friends, to The Bee's editorial board.

The plight of our farmers was well framed by our congressman: While providing background, Cardoza allowed farmers, ag experts and water district personnel to describe which farming operations on the West Side and the rest of the valley are suffering. Completely insufficient water allocations are ruining those folks who make up the backbone of our agricultural economy. As the sober story unfolded, the unavoidable themes were lost jobs and decreased farm production without sufficient water.

Cardoza came to say this: Save our farmers, our chief industry and our jobs by passing and implementing Sen. Dianne Feinstein's jobs bill rider that provides needed water. He did not say that environmental or urban water concerns of Miller were unimportant. He simply stated that we must provide the water necessary, a mere 40 percent allocation, to give our farmers a fighting chance.

Cardoza is right on this one, and Miller is dead wrong.

Farrace is a Modesto attorney.

Steve Madison

Turlock is making an effort to develop a permanent solution to sheltering the homeless. Currently there is a limited and temporary arrangement to house some individuals during inclement weather, but a more permanent solution has been difficult to reach. A group of community leaders including nonprofits, churches, the chamber, city staff and elected officials is studying how to best provide services through a community partnership.

Previous attempts to house the homeless in the heart of the downtown were met with objections from the business community. This discord resulted in a retreat by city officials in constructing a shelter in a building purchased with Department of Housing and Urban Development funds.

Stanislaus State previously staffed a homeless services center that provided limited counseling, referrals to services and medical care and educational assistance to the homeless community. The center lost grant funding and closed. Meanwhile, the homeless remain outside in the cold and rain. Some choose this lifestyle, but for those that do not, this doesn't provide much hope. To their credit, some city and community leaders recognize that the issue is not going to go away. They are making an earnest effort to find consensus on this difficult issue.

It is obvious that the lack of a shelter facility has not caused the homeless population in Turlock to recede. Nobody celebrates homelessness, but that shouldn't detract from helping the less fortunate.

Madison is executive vice persident of the Building Industry Association of Central California.

Rob Rogers

On the first day of the spring semester at Stan State I asked more than 130 students in three classes a question: What would you tell the readers of The Bee if you could? Their response can be summed up in one word: frustration. They can't get the classes they need to graduate on time, and they're concerned about courses, instructors and possibly their degree programs being eliminated.

They are getting less for more -- fewer classes, fewer instructors and a 30 percent increase in the cost of those classes. One student mentioned as an "asterisk" stigma, graduates during furlough-shorted semesters possibly facing questions about their education. These students are your family, your friends and neighbors and your future employees.

A week later I spoke with Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico about AB 656, a bill that places a 12.5 percent fee on the sale of a barrel of oil produced in California. The revenue, about $2 billion, would go to the University of California, the CSU and community colleges.

This revenue will increase as the price of oil on the world market increases. In Texas, a similar fee funds higher education, including geology programs that provide graduates to the oil industry. California is the only state without an oil excise fee. Why?

The cost of education will increase. The issue is: Will this cost continue to fall on our students and their families?

Rogers is an assistant professor of geology at California State University, Stanislaus.