mailbox / By North Coast Journal Readers

Pro-Titlow

(March 18, 2010)  Editor:

Imagine the surprise I had when I paged through your magazine and saw a picture of one of my gates in your “Titlow Hill Blues” article (Feb. 18). It really is a shame that Heidi Walters didn’t cross-check the information that she obtained for her article. Isn’t that a basic in journalism? To get a second or third reference or confirmation. This article seemed to be a monologue of one family’s opinions.

Your article states: “Jeff St. John says someone put a locked gate across a community-access road that leads to his water catchment on someone else’s property. Ken Bareilles alleges that St. John built the concrete dam on his property without a permit.”

The “community access road” being referred to here is someone’s driveway! This gate and road never touches onto or enters the St. Johns’ land! Other neighbors, who ask, go through it upon permission all the time. Like the article states, the water catchment is on someone else’s property and easement is by walking up the line or by arrangement with that neighbor.

Walters’ article is full of one-sided, misleading statements, none of which are confirmed by talking to anyone else that lives in the neighborhood. Her only other reference is a neighbor who mentions a problem 10 years ago and then clearly states that: “But we’re off to ourselves, so we’re not impacted by it.” Other statements paint a picture of a trash neighborhood, where in fact most of the folks there have children, work and pay taxes.

In fact, the St Johns have families with children all around them. All but one of the neighbors are good friends — many have been there longer than the St Johns, who moved into the community five years ago. The neighborhood has been to planning meetings and talked with our representatives about trying to get the permit mess settled. These are parceled pieces that have had property taxes paid on them for many years. Most of the parcels are well taken care of by families that see them as the opportunity to obtain the dream that we all aspire to in Humboldt County. They are settled by nice people who have formed a community that most would like.

The next time Heidi Walters comes out to do a piece on the neighborhood I would suggest she talk to more than one family to get the story right. Maybe she would have heard about the dozens if not hundreds of frivolous complaints that this family has made to Calfire, Fish and Game, the Sheriff’s Office, CHP … the list goes on. Talk to the neighborhood and the various departments about how all that waste of time, money and energy went. Then Ms. Walters may have concluded that she too was being used as a pawn in an individual’s vendetta.

A better name for this article would be: “The Journal: Being used as another Pawn in the Titlow Hills Blues game.”

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