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Good news for the membership
WATER COMPANY SOLVING PROBLEMS
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About 400 Angwin families depend on the Howell Mountain Mutual Water Company for their water. So good news is welcome news. The best is that the company has increased its cash and reserves by $300,000 over a year ago. Other good news includes the following:
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The company has been troubled with governance problems in recent years, but a new Board and a new willingness to listen to members has put the company in a more positive light. President Fjarli is quick to credit the Board for bringing good judgment and technical expertise to its operations, but his leadership has kept the team moving forward.
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The membership approved a new set of bylaws recently, and the Board is moving ahead with several additional improvements and will be asking the members to approve several more positive amendments.
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The company will be struggling for years with a system that needs major repairs and improvements, but the recent reports are very reassuring.
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In recent months, the Angwin community has raised questions about the company's ability or willingness to provide water to any new residential development in the village. "The Board has made it clear to the membership and to the County that it has no interest in that regard," Delmer Fjarli, president of the water company, asserted.
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Current members of the water company Board include:
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- Graham Baskerville: Retired. Was a Corporation VP for Design and VP for Business
- Donald Cain: Is a Corporation Vice President of Finance - Dick Crain: General Engineering Contractor - Delmer Fjarli: Retired Ophthalmologist - Larry Gardner: General Engineering Contractor - Shane Klingbeil: Plumbing and Well Contractor - Bill Mundy: Retired. Researcher and PUC Professor of Physics - Adrian Dice is General Manager of Operations. Monica George is Office Manager |
Recent picture of Lake Henne and Lake Orville. The wooded knoll at left is Sentinel Hill. Small reservoir just under it is Ladera Winery lake. The company's watershed embraces 600 acres. Nine of 12 reservoirs in the watershed are owned by the company. Photo taken from Summit Lake Drive by Duane Cronk. Looking almost due South to Napa Valley. |
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The view from Glacier Point
WHERE THE GRAND PLAN BEGINS
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We drove to Merced a few weeks ago to visit a son and pick cherries off his cherry tree.
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'Only another two hours farther to Yosemite, so why not?'
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This is a classic northern California trip a few miles through the Central Valley on an asphalt arrow straight to the horizon. Finally, one sees a rise in the road ahead and then another and then the road becomes a roller coaster ride. A few oak trees appear and they turn into oak and madrone woodlands. Finally, the road winds into the real moun-tains. Clinging to steep slopes and looking down into deep canyons. All rock and sky.
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At Yosemite Valley, the floor is a traffic jam already. No place to park, and one cannot imagine what it will be like in July when America arrives. But the Springtime waterfalls are awesome.
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At least once, visitors should drive to Glacier Point, the high point on the rim where they can share the eye of the eagle looking down into the valley.
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But it is in lifting one's eyes that the grand plan unfolds. There on the far horizon stretches a land of endless snow, where for long winter months, one blizzard follows another, the wind rises to 100 mph and the snow falls three feet deep at a time.
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Another world in which human creatures cannot survive. It is beyond us. Just cold, hard granite peaks and all that snow.
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Just now, the May sun over the far-away snow country is melting it into tiny drops, but so many that its creeks are becoming torrential streams, rushing to the rim of the Valley and plunging over to delight the onlookers. "Oh, my! " the lady from Boston murmurs.
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The river is tranquil as it wends through the Valley floor, a body of water moving swiftly but smoothly. Downstream, however, it becomes a different story. A rush of water turned into churning white by stubborn granite rocks, a river gone crazy.
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In the great Central Valley, the early settlers dipped into the Merced River and drew off enough water for vast orchards. Or on Brent's little parcel, for a little cherry tree, burdened with fruit.
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It only takes once just one view from Glacier Point of that awesome white horizon to realize that it is all connected harsh January blizzards in an unreachable world of deep snow. and bright red cherries in the Springtime sunshine, 200 miles away. Somebody's Grand Plan?
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Unanimous 5-0 vote
DICE APPOINTED TO COUNTY COMMISSION
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Napa County supervisors have appointed an Angwinite, Duane Dice, to the Watershed Information Center and Conservancy. The vote, over three other candidates, was 5-0.
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The job of the watershed commission is to study ways to protect the watersheds and streams of Napa County and advise the Board of Supervisors of potential problems. As development creates demands for water exceeding the supply, the problem becomes critical.
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Dice is a civil engineer whose M. A included courses in hydraulics, fluid flow, hydrology, geology, water treatment and sewage. He worked for the prestigious Bechtel Corporation for 35 years, specializing in industrial plant design and construction.
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He is best known in Angwin for contributing to the improved operation of the Howell Mountain Mutual Water Company in recent years. In that service, he developed a special concern for protection of the company watershed from development. He has contributed counsel to a number of County agencies on behalf of Angwin residents, and also serves on the Asset Management Task Force for Pacific Union College.
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Supervisor Diane Dillon led out for the Dice appointment and several Angwin residents backed her with contacts with other supervisors. A team effort for an exceptionally qualified commissioner. Congratulations, Duane!
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