Editor:

I read the the article by Heidi Walters about the election for the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District Board of Directors (“Water Boarding,” Oct. 26). Walters seemed to have a rather flip attitude towards the importance of this board.

As I read about the Division Two candidates, I was rather amazed to read that Ben Shepherd had run for MCSD five times and lost. Interesting -- I served with Ben four of those five terms as elected members of the MCSD board, which would have been impossible had he lost. Ben Shepherd was elected to the MCSD board five consecutive times.

Ben was a very effective boardmember. He was an instrumental member of the McKinleyville Recreation Advisory Committee, The Redwood Economic Development Commission, the McKinleyville Library Advisory Committee, the McKinleyville Citizens Advisory Committee for the McKinleyville Community Plan, The McKinleyville Area Fund, Hiller Park, Pierson Park, the Hammond Trail and numerous other committees and commission.

Ben is a dedicated, hardworking, effective worker who would be an excellent board member on the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District Board.

— Joe Walund, McKinleyville

Editor:

I read with shock your article on the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, Division 2, where Ben Shepherd’s past experience is wrongly reported. Ben was elected to five consecutive terms to the MCSD Board, where your article says that he lost five elections.

Anyone who can be elected to five terms certainly had the support of our community. I am a member of the board of the MCSD and I endorse Ben because I know of his outstanding record as a past member of the MCSD Board. He led the development of recreation and building the library and has extensive experience with state water issues. Five other Directors from McKinleyville and Fieldbrook have endorsed Ben because of his record. He is running to protect our river and to keep local control of our water. He is the best qualified candidate!

— Helen L. Edwards, McKinleyville

Editor:

I sure do miss the editorial supervision of Howard Seeman at the North Coast Journal! He kept you guys on a straight and accurate path of professional journalism that seems to have slipped a lot in recent times.

Case in point: “Water Boarding,” by Heidi Walters (Oct. 16). Yes, the Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee did endorse a candidate in Division 3, but we did not endorse candidates in Divisions 1 and 2. Howard would have known the difference between a “nomination,” which the committee did not do either officially or unofficially (as Heidi reported inaccurately), and an “endorsement,” which the Committee does in a variety of local races, both partisan and non-partisan.

So let’s try to get it right: The Committee neither endorsed nor nominated a candidate for the Water Board in Division 1. Howard would have wanted you to get it right!

— Milt Boyd, Chair, Humboldt County Democratic Central Committee

Ed. note: Please see correction.

Editor:

Tera Prucha is a water quality scientist, and the only Division 2 candidate with a demonstrated commitment to our local water quality issues. Prucha’s science background enables her to separate political from biological science, and make sound decisions rather than politically pressured ones.

For example, instead of using our water supply to deliver fluoride, a medication which is both relatively ineffective and potentially toxic when ingested, Prucha advocates for improved access to dental screening, referral and topical fluoride application, which are responsible, sensible solutions to the dental health crisis. The ubiquitous presence of fluoride in processed foods makes our daily intake precarious enough without adding it to our water.

Webb and Shepherd are staunch advocates of fluoridating our water, exposing all of us to fluoride irrespective of safe dosing or vulnerable medical conditions. Tera understands why this is bad dentistry and bad economics, so she will not be swayed by the waste fluoride industry or their political supporters.

Prucha combines the essential qualities of scientific discernment, collaborative skills and 21st century judgment to protect our water quality and us ratepayers.

— Ken Miller, McKinleyville

Sweet Spot: Milt Boyd wins a Bon Boniere sundae for sending our favorite letter of the week.