It’s morally wrong, Stanislaus County, to continue hiding COVID outbreaks
Stanislaus County leaders should stop stalling and start telling us where COVID-19 outbreaks are, so we can avoid them.
It’s just common sense, and it’s not a novel idea. People to our south know about virus hotspots at the Merced Home Depot, Merced City Hall, three lock-ups, 10 schools, and dozens more — by name — because Merced County leaders provide that vital information for all to see online.
Knowing where the virus is active gives workers and customers options. It’s a no-brainer public health tool, one The Modesto Bee Editorial Board three weeks ago demanded that Stanislaus leaders provide.
County CEO Jody Hayes told me Thursday that his public health team is looking into it.
Meanwhile, our cases and deaths continue to mount, breaking records and hearts.
Do the right thing, Stanislaus County. Trust your people with the information they need to make informed decisions. Get it done.
State water grab sequel
A recent Bee story explained how Assemblyman Adam Gray was unjustly removed as chairman of a committee in retaliation for sticking up for people in his district, which includes much of Modesto. That’s despicable, but people in Stanislaus and Merced counties should be even more outraged at the subtext — that state water officials are employing more shenanigans in an effort to swipe some of the water we depend on for drinking and growing crops.
These unelected bureaucrats, heavily influenced by environmentalist interests, are trying another end-run around the voluntary agreements negotiated with our utilities on the Tuolumne and Merced rivers, but never finalized. If successful, the ploy could strip farmers depending on the Modesto, Turlock and Merced irrigation districts of nearly all their river water in some dry years.
Gov. Gavin Newsom needs to find the courage to tell these bureaucrats, and the environmental interests prodding them, that stealing our water is not acceptable, and neither is dragging this issue through courts for years on end.
COVID vaccines Q&A on tap
Bee editors and reporters knew we were lucky when Dr. ChrisAnna Mink joined our reporting staff time in mid-2019. The idea of a doctor turning to a second career in journalism intrigued everyone.
But we didn’t fully appreciate then how valuable it would be to have an infectious diseases expert on our staff when the pandemic took our planet by storm.
If you haven’t seen our previous question-answer sessions with ChrisAnna, don’t worry — by popular demand, she’s back. She’ll discuss COVID vaccines and answer questions at 10 a.m. Monday, livestreamed at modbee.com.
Who wants to party?
Among all the events canceled by COVID this year, which two or three hurt you most?
Modesto’s 150th anniversary celebration might not make my Top 10 list, but I genuinely did want to see what City Hall would come up with. Modesto needs a shot-in-the-arm morale booster as much as anyplace, and I looked forward to a postponed party in 2021.
But that may not happen. Such grand events require planning months in advance, and no one knows when mass gatherings will be allowed, city spokesman Thomas Reeves said.
If celebrating Modesto’s 150th birthday a year late (sometime in 2021) means a lot to you, feel free to drop him a line at treeves@modestogov.com.
It was Caltrans
Lastly, we have an answer to the tree-removal mystery raised in my column last Sunday. Siblings Ann and Bill Mussman were saddened and perplexed that someone cut down a row of their walnut trees at the northeast corner of McHenry Avenue and Claribel Road just north of Modesto, leaving stumps and cut-up trunks at the site.
Some readers suggested checking footage from security video cameras at nearby businesses. The Empire Sportsmen’s Association, which used to be the Oasis restaurant, is just across the street, for example — but is closed because of the virus, leaving no one to ask.
A couple of alert readers said they’d seen a Caltrans crew working there — McHenry doubles as Highway 108 there, and Claribel also is State Route 219. So I inquired, and the agency confirmed it.
Caltrans had received obscured-vision complaints from drivers, and the trees were “growing in the public right of way” and not on private land, spokesman Rick Estrada said in an email. (He said six “stressed” trees were removed; I counted seven stumps.)
Mystery solved.
