Blight over Santee?
I thought the building of a new jail facility had already begun in Santee. Oh, wait, that's a housing development on Rattlesnake Mountain. If that's not a blight on the city of Santee, I can't figure out why Mayor Randy Voepel would think an expansion of Las Colinas would be.
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DEBBIE MITTON
Lakeside
Enrique Morones and Border Angels
How dare Water Station Inc. disparage Border Angel founder Enrique Morones! This philanthropic person is on a mission to promote the welfare of the undocumented, reducing their pain and suffering by providing them with that precious liquid everyone depends on for survival, water. Morones, once the Spanish voice of the San Diego Padres, is known throughout the 2000-mile border region for his unselfish charitable efforts, helping those in need. If another wants to label Enrique Morones, this label should read: “Altruistic.”
PEPE VILLARINO
La Mesa
The following will be the reasons why myself and my entire Sicilian, Mexican and Native American family not only support but assist with the Border Angels and its acts of humanity.
If I did not help those in need of water, a little food or a blanket, I feel that I would be one of the reasons they died. There was not one time in my entire life that I was taught by my immigrant Sicilian father, my family, the Catholic Church or anyone else to let people suffer.
I do know Enrique Morones, and I have had a chance to see the Minutemen at the border and at City College. I am an International Honor Roll student, a psychology major and a registered drug and alcohol counselor. I was speechless each time I heard the rhetoric that spews out of their mouths. This is the group that I would have investigated, this is the group that I would place in the same category as the KKK.
I will continue along with my family to help Morones save the lives of anyone in need. I have a code of honor and a heart that lead me to do the right thing.
LINDA A. FERRANDINI
La Mesa
Many college teachers are not full time
Regarding “College teachers' greed appalling in hard times” (Community Letters, Dialog, May 4):
While I agree with most of what Sandy Beasley described in her letter, there is still one important statistic missing. The Grossmont-Cuyamaca teachers she describes only account for 25 percent of all teachers in that college district.
Unfortunately, 75 percent of the instructors at Grossmont-Cuyamaca are part-time or adjunct instructors. Adjuncts earn about $25,000 to $30,000 a year and usually teach at several colleges in the county in order to assemble a full-time schedule.
Adjuncts have no benefits and are subject to layoffs when classes are cut in tough budgetary times. There are some 1,000 adjuncts in Grossmont-Cuyamaca and only 300 full-time teachers. So, when generalizing about teachers at Grossmont-Cuyamaca, it is better to speak about the vast majority and not the smaller number of the privileged few.
JACK ARMSTRONG
La Mesa
Mobile park owners have tenants trapped
Terrace View Mobile Home Park is just what Arnold Kleinschmidt said it was (“Trailer residents trapped by rents,” East County Letters, April 27). Terrace View raises rents by $80 a month per year.
My daughter started out there six years ago when she bought a new mobile. Her space rent then was about $600, so she had a mobile home payment and reasonable rent. Now, she has space rent of $1,120, and it is expected to go up by another $80 in July. That puts her space rent up to $1,200 per month, plus her mobile home payment of approximately $650.
Can you imagine that? A mobile home space rent of $1,200. Add in the mobile payment and she is paying $1,850 a month for a mobile. She is just about ready to walk away.
Nothing can explain the thinking of these people who are doing this. The lawyers who have control do not own the land, just the franchise, or whatever it is called.
If the people have to end up walking away from their mobiles, and do not pay rent, how can the lawyers make money? Why would these people want to force out renters, only to have vacant spaces? How do they make money if 25 percent of the spaces are empty? How do they live with themselves if people buy (as my daughter did) and seven years down the road are forced out?
No one looks to buy in this park because of the high space rents. The lease on the park land runs out around 2023.
One new mobile home went in about a year ago, sat there for about six months, and the manufacturer pulled it back out. No one will pay that kind of space rent and also a mobile home mortgage.
One family on my daughter's street bought their mobile about 15 months ago and is already making plans to relocate it. The move costs anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000, after you have either bought property or found another mobile home park to accept it. Depending on the age of the mobile, another park may not accept it.
An elderly couple farther down her street could not afford any more raises on space rent and just walked away. How can we have this stuff going on?
VICKI PEARSON
El Cajon
Lack of school nurse puts disabled at risk
I am the mother of two disabled children in the Cajon Valley Union School District. Currently, my children attend Chase Avenue Elementary.t
One child has pulmonary interstitial disease with multiple life-threatening food allergies and asthma. The other has pauciarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and takes low-dose chemotherapy.
At least one of my children will not be able to attend school next year. I would be negligent as a parent to knowingly send my child to school. My daughter's sudden signs of anaphylaxis are so unnoticeable that I fear the signs would not be caught in time by a busy school secretary.
Obviously, not having a health aide impacts my children's life. My greatest concern, however, is all the other children in the Cajon Valley Union School District.
Parents should know about Section 504, which allows certain accommodations to be made for a child with a hidden disability – physical or mental impairments that are not readily apparent to others. Allergic, asthmatic, diabetic and other children qualify for a section 504.
The 504 Plan lists and explains the formal accommodations and modifications that will be made to the public school environment to ensure the least restrictive learning environment. That environment must provide equal opportunities for children protected under Section 504 to the maximum extent possible.
Here are two examples of how a 504 plan will help keep children safe without a school health aide:
One: A child is severely allergic to peanuts, even by contact. After recess and lunch, all children coming into the classroom must wash their hands. A 504 can accommodate this.
Two: In the case of a child who has a severe bee string allergy, the school could be required to have a trained recess monitor, carrying epinephrine, on the playground at all times.
If a parent does not ask for a 504 plan, the district is not required to make the accommodations, and even if the school decides to provide the accommodations, it can withdraw them at any time. The 504 plans ensure that the accommodations are met at all times, and the district is federally accountable for ensuring the provisions are met.
TRICIA R. VALVERDE
El Cajon
The plants that take over the world
The member organizations of the Carlsbad Watershed Network, representing multiple watershed protection groups in northern San Diego County, commend the city of Oceanside for its recent action to restrict the use of three noxious weed plants within the city: Pampas grass, Arundo and tamarisk.
Encinitas is currently working on an even more comprehensive invasive plant control program.
We encourage the other cities of San Diego County to follow Oceanside's example. These plants cost taxpayers millions of dollars to remove and control, and create dangerous fire and flood hazards. This is a common sense, cost-effective way to reduce the spread of invasive plants, benefiting our local watersheds and everyone who pays taxes.
Tamarisk (salt cedar) is often planted as an ornamental. It uses sizable amounts of water, literally pumping it into the atmosphere, and creates salt deposits in the ground, making it difficult for other native plants to survive.
Pampas grass produces seed heads containing millions of seeds which drift easily in our coastal breezes, reproducing in large colonies that choke out native plants.
Arundo donax invades riparian areas, creating a significant fire hazard and flooding during high stream flows. It has rhizomes similar to Bermuda grass, but these root balls can be the size of a small car, easily extending four feet into the ground. Small pieces breaking off of healthy rhizomes greatly facilitate this plant's propagation downstream, again outcompeting beneficial plants that provide habitat for riparian and aquatic fauna.
BARRY LINDGREN,
Acting Chair
Carlsbad Watershed Network
carlsbadwatershednetwork.org
Online: For more information on invasive plants, go to cnpssd.org/invasives.html
