Letters to the editor | Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020: Thoughts on local candidates

Zwahlen smoothes out contention

I support Sue Zwahlen for mayor of Modesto. Our family has known Sue and her family for over 60 years, and we know she has the integrity and honesty to lead Modesto for the benefit of all, not the special interests who dominate City Hall.

My children attended Modesto City Schools and I saw Sue work effectively with all members of a divided Modesto school board. She has the ability to bring our contentious factions on the City Council and city staff together to restore Modesto’s fiscal health during these difficult times. And as a Wood Colony farmer, I know Sue Zwahlen will respect our agricultural heritage due to her strong agricultural roots in West Modesto.

Suzanne Byrd, Modesto

Esquer has steady hand in Turlock

For months I’ve watched emotions flair at our Turlock City Council meetings. There’s usually one moderate voice on the council who calms things down. Over and over people have mentioned this to me.

Councilmember Gil Esquer is that calm voice that often leads the others back to the subject at hand to get decisions done. It’s also good to see him taking leadership for our own West Side. He co-authored the start of a plan to mitigate the awful homelessness issue. He kept the national guard armory on track to become a community center. He’s passionate about saving the Columbia pool. He helped with gaining a vital supply of drinking water for Turlock’s future. His work helped create and maintain a balanced budget for Turlock.

I remember the first vote on rebuilding West Main Street for around $6 million. His was the only vote not to postpone. Gil said these projects just don’t get cheaper, and you guessed it, a year later the council accepted a bid for around $7 million. Gil’s million-dollar savings would have been handy now.

Gil stands up for the West Side and calms down the council.

Dale Parkinson, Turlock

Dams aren’t fiction to Patterson

Re “Patterson candidates differ on reservoir, development” (Front Page, Sept. 21): Candidate Anderson says “My stance is to actively listen and communicate, not hypothesize, but conduct research that will help me provide facts, not fiction, to citizens regarding the reservoir.” Interesting use of the smear word “fiction;” it is not fiction that two huge dams overlooking the city pose genuine safety concerns to many people as evidenced by 2,000 residents signing a petition against it. It is not fiction that those highly visible dams will depress home values, that six years of construction will cause health problems, that suitable alternative locations for the reservoir were identified by the project team.

Nor is it fiction that the City Council has run a conspiracy of silence on this project, refusing to allow concerned citizens to make our presentation to the council even though the project team was able to do so, not even responding to formal requests to agendize it.

One might expect that someone running for Council would have already researched a major project that has been contentiously alive in the public eye since 2019. Where has she been?

Barry Boulton, Patterson

Howze should answer questions

As a retiree I was extremely disappointed that CD-10 congressional candidate Ted Howze refused to participate in The Modesto Bee candidates’ forum. I have questions about Ted’s plans to raise the Social Security retirement age to 70 and to essentially gut Medicare as we know it. As a factory worker who carefully planned out his retirement, I can assure Ted that many jobs, like my difficult factory job at Gallo Glass, did not allow me the luxury of working till I was 70.

Meanwhile Congressman Josh Harder is fighting to bring down the price of life-saving medications and cap out-of-pocket prescription costs for our seniors, like when he voted to pass H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act. Josh will fight to protect S.S. and Medicare, and he has my vote to return to Congress and continue to represent California’s 10th Congressional District.

Stephen Talbott, Waterford