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EDITORIAL: Roses and Raspberries
By Compiled by North County Times Opinion staff | ∞
The 'Rotarians-At-Work Day' award
A rose to Rancho Bernardo Rotary Club members who recently participated in Rotarians-At-Work Day where they: served breakfast to homeless veterans at Interfaith Community Services in Escondido; honored RB Fire Station No. 33, providing a week of food to the fire personnel before planting flowers around the firehouse; delivered an honorarium, pizzas and soft drinks to officers at San Diego Northeast Police Headquarters; and presented certificates of merit to members of Miramar's Key Volunteers, an organization that supports and assists Marine families.
The 'Chutzpah Parking Fee' award
A big, ripe raspberry for California Coastal Commissioners who approved last week a State Parks Department request to begin charging $8 a day to park at Tamarack State Beach in Carlsbad. First, a big slice of that raspberry for the parks officials requesting the fee where previously parking was free. Then, Brian Ketterer, superintendent of the state's parklands in northern coastal San Diego County, suggested that Carlsbad could pay an estimated $350,000 to $560,000 each year in lieu of asking Tamarack visitors to pay $8.
To add insult to injury, Coastal Commission Chairman Patrick Kruer said that because Carlsbad was "a great success story" in terms of fiscal management, it should pay the parking fee.
Carlsbad Mayor Bud Lewis captured the lunacy of that convoluted logic saying: "That's the first time I've been bashed for being economically sound." As spend-crazy state officials and legislators search for ways to meet a projected budget deficit that may grow to $20 billion, its easy to understand why they'd pick on Carlsbad. However, it's a state park. Charge the fee and see whether anyone pays it.
The 'Good Garden Festival' award
A rose to the organizing committee that recently presented the third annual Encinitas Garden Festival in Olivenhain, where more than 700 people turned out to view more than a dozen local gardens while shopping for gardening products, tools and food provided by vendors in the Gardeners Marketplace on the Olivenhain Meeting Hall grounds. When the final tally is taken, a large portion of the funds earned from this event will purchase gardening books that will be donated to the new Encinitas library.
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