Pubdate: Sat, 05 Mar 2016 Source: Appeal-Democrat (Marysville, CA) Copyright: 2016 Appeal-Democrat Contact: https://appeal-democrat-dot-com.bloxcms-ny1.com/site/forms/online_services/letter/ Website: http://www.appeal-democrat.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1343 Author: Steve Miller MORE IMPORTANT: PUBLIC SAFETY LESS IMPORTANT: PUBLIC HEALTH Three months from now, we'll get to have our say here in California about who the nominees will be for U.S. president. It's pretty likely there won't be much of a choice left by then. Well, we still have local politics. And there should be a fair amount this year - for the primaries, we'll have several county supervisor positions on the ballot with some real choices to make. And here's hoping those local candidates really dig into the local issues. And that's where we all come in. We need to let candidates know what's most important to us. One way to do that is to take our online survey. It's meant to gather local opinion and comments on what issues are most important for supervisor candidates to talk about. (The survey will be running through the month of March; go to appealdemocrat.com, click on the headline near the top of the home page, "What should Yuba-Sutter supervisor candidates be talking about?" and you'll find a link to click on. The survey was printed in the Wednesday, March 2, issue for those of you without Internet access.) The survey to date: Age groups: We still have no one checking in from the 21-to-30 age group; so far, the largest groups of respondents are in the 31-to-50 and the 51-to-65 groups. We have at least a couple responses from every level of household income - the most, so far, from the group that has income of more than $100,000. And, so far, most respondents are from Sutter County's urban areas; second most are from Yuba County's urban areas. The issues involved in regulation of marijuana cultivation are ranked "highest priority" or "important" by close to 70 percent of those responding so far. A couple of the comments: "It needs to be fair to the medical marijuana patients. Set reasonable limits like 50 plants or less in rural areas. A ban on outdoor growing is not fair to the responsible people. I agree that large commercial grows need to be stopped." "Supervisors should be involved in the regulation of marijuana. Allowing marijuana to be cultivated without any regulations affects the safety of citizens. We have seen a rash of violent crimes caused by cultivation of marijuana." Homelessness is ranked as "important" by just over 60 percent of those responding. "They are no longer just in the river bottoms. They are living right along the side of the roads in Olivehurst and Linda. We have an empty mall. Put it to use to get the homeless off the streets. Make them drug test and take classes." Just over 50 percent of respondents rank economic development as the "highest priority" for supervisor candidates to discuss. And another 40 percent say it's "important." "Job creation should be our number one priority; this goes hand-in-hand with education opportunities that will draw jobs to our area. Far too many of our educated and employed adults are on the road out of our community every day to work in communities where there are more jobs." Just over 60 percent ranked "land development and/or farmland preservation" as "important." "Magnolia should be allowed to try and fail the same as Plumas Lake and the developments in and around Wheatland." "No need for Yuba County to plan for more development until Plumas Lake, N. Plumas Lake are near completion." Well over 90 percent of respondents ranked public safety as either "highest priority" or "important." "Our law enforcement needs the unquestionable support of this community and its leaders. Community policing, raising standards, give the citizens something to be proud of." Public health? Just over 50 percent rated it as important. Just over 30 percent said "not too important." "Bring Kaiser to YC to complete with horrid Blue Cross/Blue Shield and Sutter North. Infrastructure: Ratings were about evenly distributed for "highest priority," "important," and "not too important." "Our roads are failing and the funding methodology (gas/sales tax) is failing, too." And respondents are leaving a lot of general comments with suggestions for other issues. We'll delve into those later this month. * Oh, Dear: A woman goes to a wizard and asks if he can remove a curse she has been living with for 40 years. "I'm pretty good at lifting curses," the wizard says. "But for my incantation to be really effective, I have to have the exact wording that was used to place the curse on you." "That's no problem," the woman said, without a moment's hesitation. "The exact words for the curse were: 'I now pronounce you husband and wife.'" - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom