The great battle date is March 4th! at Nordoff High

DougH · Post by **DougH** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 9:58 am

The battle date has been set.

On March 4, the Casitas Municipal Water District will hold a hearing on whether to close Lake Casitas to outside boats in order to protect it from invasive mussels.

In anticipation of a large crowd, the meeting will be in the Nordhoff High School cafeteria, which holds 400 people. It will start at 5:30 p.m., when experts on the issue are expected to speak followed by comments from the public.

The issue of closing the popular fishing lake has been a contentious one since the board started addressing the problem in the last few months.

Some members of the board fear that the mussels could be transported to the lake on boats and could do severe damage to the district's ability to delivery water.

One proposal to protect the lake is to close it to outside day-use boats.

The school is at 1401 Maricopa Highway, Ojai.

Let's make this newsworthy boys, and please, let's be calm and collected. The cafateria only holds 400 people, lets fill it up!

Huah!

drew · Post by **drew** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 10:23 am

They need to prove this is a solution before they make a decision. A irrational or emotional reason to close the lake is not acceptable.

We need to know who will be held responsible if this is not a solution or if this is done for unscrupulous reasons.

If they are wrong someone needs to be held accountable and be penalized.

Let them know this is very serious and should not be taken lightly.

Brian D. · Post by **Brian D.** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:01 pm

.

someone needs to be held accountable and be penalized

Unfortunately doesn't happen in local/state/government jobs

tunaman · Post by **tunaman** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:29 pm

Aside from angler's voices, this needs publicity in my humble opinion... they're operating in a vacuum at this point. Hopefully Ron, JB, Rae El, Scott, etc. are trying to engage as much media as possible to publicize these incidents, and that some angler-friendly media outlets will also be invited and present?

I will try to be present to show my support, and hopefully so will many of you. Even if this doesn't directly affect you (at this time) because you don't frequent Casitas, it certainly will have peripheral affect if left unchallenged... please do what you can to support this! Hell... talk to your buddies and set up car pools to get up there and show up in force.

Roger
"CLEAN and DRY"

drew · Post by **drew** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:38 pm

Only because most are pessimistic and don't try to force issues. I'm sure there is a way that they can be punished. Even the president can be impeached.

Brian D. wrote:.
someone needs to be held accountable and be penalized
Unfortunately doesn't happen in local/state/government jobs

Lance · Post by **Lance** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:45 pm

I'm sure there is a way that they can be punished

There is, its called being "voted out"

DougH · Post by **DougH** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:54 pm

Actually Brian, as a supervisor that works in the water industry, the poop can hit the fan with any gov't employee if they are proven to be doing something wrong, and in a situation like this with Board members, it would actually be really big. The higher the position, the bigger the mess. It would be quite interesting.
But, keep in mind, the Board members here are in a very tough spot. This isn't an easy decision for them as they have to protect their water. I wouldn't want to be on that board right now, and I doubt that they are sending in boats that are "rigged", in an attempt to fire their employees if they miss something.
But getting back to this issue at hand, it's obvious that cooler heads are not prevailing right now. I think Ray made a wise decision by cancelling the Reg 7 due to the heat that's on right now. Hopefully there aren't any tourneys scheduled for a bit while we get this figured out.
I think that the answer will eventually be a well defined "Clean and Dry" inspection policy, that also takes into consideration campers that have already passed inspection, who haven't left the lake.
The amount of money that would be lost is too big for an agency of that size. No small gov't agency can survive a 20-25% hit on their income without serious ramifications, and they know that. Costs across the board including staffing/ benefits/ insurance/ maintenance/operations/ etc. just continue to go up.
A strong boat inspection program is the smartest way for them to go, it protects their lake, and allows them to keep it open.
This is eventually going to need to get to state and federal levels, and probably a big lawsuit right now will be the spring board to the national attention this topic deserves.

Lance · Post by **Lance** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 2:39 pm

DougH
A strong boat inspection program is the smartest way for them to go, it protects their lake, and allows them to keep it open.
This is eventually going to need to get to state and federal levels, and probably a big lawsuit right now will be the spring board to the national attention this topic deserves

This is what I'm thinking they might do, not closing it but make it hard to get into. Your boat will have to be spotless to make it in. I have no problem with that, and if thats what it takes to keep it open then so be it. Remember we have alot at stake here that many people arnt talking about. If we loose Casitas, we loose Piru and Cachuma too.