Napa County is holding a public meeting on the question, "How much new housing should be built in Napa County," and then the really important question, "Where should it be built?"

Save Rural Angwin(SRA) believes these are critical questions as they relate to Angwin where residents have repeatedly demanded that the village remain strictly controlled in terms of growth.

County officials will present the responsibility of the County to provide a certain amount of new housing. But it will also permit residents to express their concerns. SRA leaders will raise appropriate questions, and they are asking others to come forward, also.

Contemporary planners believe that new housing in the County be built in urban areas where there is a well-established infrastructure. That means roads, water systems, waste treatment facilities, schools, and other public amenities.

Angwin does not fit that mold. We have roads and streets, but the road down the hill is not safe enough for much new population in Angwin. We have a street system, but no curbs and gutters and no sidewalks. That doesn't sound very much like a city.

Angwin homes get water from the Howell Mountain Water Company, but the company will not be allowed to add new users, and the water utilities serving small subdivisions probably would not welcome new users. Almost everyone else get its water from a well in the back yard.

The college waste treatment plant serves its campus and its housing units, but everyone else, the majority of households, depends on private septic systems. That may be Mother Nature's solution, but it is certainly not typical of an urban area.

So it is our incomplete infrastructure that has lead Napa County to define Angwin as "a rural community." SRA is urging residents to attend this meeting to learn how County policies affect Angwin, and to speak up against any plans that would significantly increase population here.

Watching the 4th of July parade unfold in Calistoga, you eventually notice that the gals have taken over. There were a few old geezers driving old cars. But then we see teen-age girls riding beautiful horses, young mothers putting an American flag in the hand of their four-year olds, and then, some much older ladies in outrageous costumes dancing the chorus line down the street. And, of course, our lady County supervisor "playing politician."

These people know how to have fun. And all the rest of us enjoy watching them have fun.