The Pajaronian welcomes letters. Letters and columns may be dropped off or mailed to the Pajaronian, 21 Brennan St., Suite 18, Watsonville, CA 95076.
Letters and columns may also be sent via email to [email protected].
Letters should be less than 400 words, and columns are no more than 800 words.
All letters and columns must be signed and have an address and phone number for confirmation purposes. We reserve the right to edit and condense all submissions.
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Watsonville’s cherry trees
To the Editor,
Yes, the city would look beautiful if covered with flowering cherry trees (Pajaronian, About Town, March 1-7). They do not grow too large and are generally not a threat to power lines.
There are some interesting cherry trees at Watsonville High School. One tree was vandalized twice and may not make it this spring. We’re waiting to see. It’s a double pink blossom tree we named “Neko” (“cat” in Japanese) for the Watsonville Wildcatz.
There are beautiful double blossom pink cherry trees (Kwanza) in front of (the original) Van’s Shoe Repair and Goodwill. They blossom later and stay longer than the white/pink single blossoms.
Mas Hashimoto
Watsonville
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MME competed in open process for trail project
To the Editor,
This letter is our response to the Letter to the Editor titled “Conflict of interest?”, published March 1 by Bob Landry of Santa Cruz.
MME Civil + Structural Engineering entered an open, public and competitive process to provide design services for the Lee Road Trail Project. MME competed against a field of top local and regional engineering companies who all submitted Statements of Qualifications packets with detailed approaches, staff resumes, past project experience and client references. MME was selected as the most highly qualified team to design the Lee Road project based on our talented staff engineers’ qualifications and our track record of designing successful trail and bridge projects such as the Stevens Creek Trail and Bridge in Cupertino, the Promontory Walkway at CSUMB, Shugart Park Trail and Bridges in Scotts Valley, and the Bear Creek Redwoods Trail Bridge in Los Gatos.
Long-time employees Rodney Cahill P.E. and Dale Hendsbee S.E. bought the firm in 2015 and promptly started doing business as MME Civil + Structural Engineering. There are no financial relationships between MME and the firm’s retired founder Mark Mesiti-Miller. Mark has not worked for the firm for over four years and there are no ongoing payments or consulting contracts. The 13 hard-working people at MME are excited to start planning this important trail and bridge connection that will allow students a safe route to walk and bike from Watsonville to Pajaro Valley High School and to experience the vibrant wildlife of the Watsonville Slough area along the way. We are thrilled to put our engineering skills to work to build a more accessible and beautiful community.
Rodney Cahill, Principal
Dale Hendsbee, Principal
MME Civil + Structural Engineering
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Affordable housing for whom?
To the Editor,
We have all read about the need for affordable housing; the question is for whom? Have the planning departments broken down the demographics of the different groups who need affordable housing?
There are renters, multiple families living in one structure, those who can not afford their rent and live out of their vehicles, and finally the homeless. Unless you know how many are in each of these groups, then you can not propose what kind of affordable housing is needed. Then we have the state and federal governments pushing and even mandating that affordable housing must be created.
Do we need homes, or small structures (400-600 square feet), or mobile homes, or RV parks, or an area for tents? We probably need some of each. Without data, how can we move forward?
Bill Beecher
Aptos
