Thank you from the Alturas Lions Club
The members of the Alturas Lions Club would like to thank everyone who made the Lions Easter Egg Hunt a success again this year!
Thank you to Cam and everyone at Holiday Market for the donation of eggs, to Ron Ketler for helping to cook and dye the eggs; to Becky and MJUSD for letting us use the school grounds and to Joe, Bill and Jodie for all the hard work they did. Also, to the Easter Bunny for joining us!
Pat Budmark
Alturas Lions Club
Thank you to our Subscribers
In the face of challenges ranging from fluctuating Wi-Fi connectivity to technical glitches, Modoc Record extends its sincerest gratitude to its loyal online and paper subscribers. Their unwavering support has been the cornerstone of the community’s resilience during the transition to an online platform.
Despite the hurdles encountered along the way, the solidarity and patience exhibited by subscribers and community members have been commendable. Their understanding and encouragement have served as a beacon of hope during uncertain times.
We are immensely grateful for the ongoing support of our subscribers and community members. Their dedication inspires us to overcome challenges and continue striving for excellence.
In light of these challenges, Modoc Record is excited to announce upcoming positive changes, including the launch of a new website. This development underscores the organization’s commitment to enhancing user experience and meeting the evolving needs of its audience.
The journey to digital transformation has not been without its obstacles, but it is a testament to the strength and resilience of the community. As Modoc Record looks toward the future with optimism, it remains grateful for the steadfast support of its subscribers and community members.
-Chelsea Bacon
Associate Publisher
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Thank you to everyone in the Modoc County Elections Office and the many Volunteers, I would like to say thank you to our community voters who came out to vote. This past election shows us all how even small numbers matter! I lost 3 votes and know the City Voters elected a great group of 3 new Councilmembers! I can only imagine how stressful the counting process must be, especially when elections are won by such small numbers. I have known and worked with our elected official, Stephanie Wellemeyer, for many years. Mrs. Wellemeyer has many job duties, such as that of the Registrar of Voters and performs them with the highest quality of standards. Our community is very fortunate to have her level of skills and knowledge. I want to acknowledge the integrity of the counting process that Mrs. Wellemeyer and her team had to this close race for City Council. These duties and responsibilities can be overwhelmingly stressful, and I appreciate her, the staff, and the volunteers for all their time and commitment to the efforts of assuring an accurate count.
Thank you again for your integrity, dedication to the process and extra time you all committed.
Kelly Crosby
Modoc Record Letters Editor:
We all constantly hear the anti-science propaganda regarding how abandoning fossil fuels and imposing the Green New Deal on Americans is feasible. In a single phrase, no it’s not!! It will never be feasible because every facet of the modern world runs on various versions of fossil fuels, including the myriad plastics that make our modern lives tolerable. Indeed, the steel our modern world needs for a veritable cornucopia of essential products (including our cars and trucks) cannot be made without coal, period, no debate! In addition, it requires a greater investment of fossil fuels to manufacture a Prius and a Tesla than is required to manufacture a Hummer, and this is scientific fact. But that investment doesn’t end there as the power grid infrastructure that recharges the batteries of EVs and hybrids requires 90%-plus of its electricity from the burning of fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.
In 2011 and 2012 I was the live-in caretaker of a large scientific facility in the middle of the wilderness. The head scientist is a long-time friend of mine going back to the early-1970s when as a civil engineering student I was on the survey crew that did the survey for the access road to that proposed scientific facility. My main function during that year was to make sure the 54 solar/wind storage batteries that weigh 150 pounds each and are 3 feet tall did not have their collective charge drop below 116V. There were 36 large solar panels on 6 passive solar trackers and a state-of-the-art wind turbine tower, all of which were integrated into the 54 batteries, and the batteries fed the DC current into a $22,000 sine wave inverter tower to flip the DC to AC. There were five (5) propane-powered backup generators interfaced with the system and controlled by a relay so that in the event of no sun and no wind (which was the case 50% of the time) one or more generators would fire up to keep the battery array from falling below the 116V threshold. Frequently the relay would fail and I would have to walk 300 feet during the night or during snow storms to get to the concrete generator shed and manually fire up a generator or two. The entire “off-grid” system cost $300,000. I put “off-grid” in quotation marks because without the propane-powered generators, 50% of the time the scientific facility would have had no power.
Propane is a fossil fuel. It’s one thing for some back-to-the-land posey-smelling greenies to be perfectly ok with living most of the time in the cold dark because they don’t want backup generators, but society cannot operate like that. Cities and towns and industries and grocery stores and hospitals and so on cannot function like that.
As a young idealistic college student in the early-1970s I owned a hefty personal library of books about “going back to the land” and living off-grid, but nothing changes a person’s youthful idealism like reality, and my year at that scientific facility proved beyond dispute that we can never abandon fossil fuels unless we all want to go back to living in caves. No thanks!!
Read my lips: The Green New Deal is unworkable fantasy being promulgated by science-ignorant Pollyanna butterfly chasers. These people are akin to those who believe the Earth is flat, the Moon is made of green cheese, and gold can be made from the mix of lead and sulfur. It’s amazing that in 2024 so many people can be so incredibly ignorant of real science. And by the way, I have degrees in geology and civil engineering so I know real science!
Jeff Middlebrook
Lookout, CA Modoc County
