Monte Rio Musings by Chuck Ramsey - June 2018
June already! Time to chill with friends and enjoy our beautiful outdoors. Maybe pick up a homemade Meyer Lemon ice cream at Rio Café. We all need time to decompress.
This year been a time of change for me, and for others I know. My husband Patrick is retiring this month as a Vision Specialist with the Sacramento County Office of Education. Several of my friends are selling their homes in the River and moving on during their retirement years. Other friends are having health issues. It’s time to start enjoying life while we can, with the ones that mean the most to us. Community service is where you will meet civic minded people, and where you can continue to make a difference. We are always looking for people that have a vision for the future, and the desire to help their community.
In these challenging times, it is more important than ever to be engaged in your community and be part of the change you would like to see happen.
This June unfortunately will be the first one in recent memory when the River will not celebrate Pride. Meanwhile, we are dealing with a person taking down Rainbow flags and threatening to use pipe bombs against our community and against our local law enforcement. While dealing with this, we also must deal with folks who question why we have a Rainbow flag flying.
We have a Rainbow flag flying because of our local history, because of our large LGBT and allied populations, and because we are an LGBT resort destination. We compete with other LGBT destinations such as Palm Springs andKey West. Our economy depends on and benefits from this. When I see Pride moving out of the area as attendance was down last year, or due to the perceived need to have higher attendance to satisfy corporate sponsors or to fill more hotel rooms, leadership is lacking. We are fortunate to still have SF Pride close by, and to have Rodger Jensen with r3 continuing the efforts to support our community and our businesses. Please support his efforts to have a Russian River Pride later this summer, August 26th.
Radio on the River!
On a positive front, we now have three local radio stations! Wonderland Radio broadcasting from the Rio Theater with community inspired programs. Visit WonderlandRadioHour.com.
Roger Coryell has started Russian River Community Radio, a new streaming station for the river communities. Listen at RussianRiverRadio.org. And of course, KGGV at 95.1 FM or streaming at kggv.fm.
Community VOICE with MAC
The second MAC (Municipal Advisory Committee) workshop was held Wednesday May 9th. The boundaries will stretch from Forestville to Cazadero and there will be 9 districts. This will give us (and our Supervisor Lynda Hopkins) a stronger voice with our County Board of Supervisors when it comes to addressing local River needs and services. It is anticipated that the MAC will be up and running by January 1st 2019.
I’m sold on clean energy and technology. I have a ductless mini-split heat pump system in my cabin. It provides heat and A/C. I just installed a two-zone unit in my rental in Sacramento. It replaced a large GE Thinline window A/C unit that still pumps out cold air like crazy and was originally installed in 1957, a year another good thing was brought to life, but as Steve Baxman would say, enough about me. Well, not just yet Steve.
I was adopted at birth in NYC. My birthmother has a very common last name that could be Irish or Italian. Thanks to advances in technology and low costs, I just sent in my Ancestry DNA kit. Figured since I’m not a serial killer or rapist, I have no privacy issues to worry about. Looking forward to getting the results and possibly family matches.
OK, remaining on topic, the new heatpumps are highly energy efficient and use about ¼ the electricity of baseboard electric heat and use less energy for air-conditioning too. For local contractors and financing I suggest contacting Sonoma County Energy Independence Program at sonomacountyenergy.org
My friend, Joe Godwin, just bought an electric bike. I thought electric bikes would just provide some assistance when riding up hills. No, this thing is so fast it is scary, and it’s silent. I felt like a kid in an amusement park. Alexa, put this on my shopping list.
On the EV front, my car was scheduled for its first service maintenance and I learned in an email that it passed. It was diagnosed electronically without me even bringing the car into the dealer. EV cars are expected to last 500,000 miles and Teslas 1,000,000 miles. That’s the equivalent of owning an EV for 50 years or a Tesla for 100 years for average drivers. Battery storage capabilities are changing the way we will use energy. For EVs, the car can be charged at low overnight rates and the energy will be able to be sold back to the grid at high peak hour rates. Some analysts are predicting that within 5 or so years, we will no longer have car dealerships or parking lots. Why? Because you won’t even need a car. You will use an app and an automated car will pick you up and then drop you off at your destination for only pennies a trip. Traffic will also be automated, so less accidents, less traffic jams, no drunk drivers, and there will be mobility for younger kids and older seniors. The future we’ve dreamed of is almost here.
