Letter: Lompico deserves chance to keep water rights

EDITOR,
There’s an old saying, “Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting over.” In July 2010, Lompico Water District board members announced to residents that they had voted unanimously to pursue a merger with San Lorenzo Valley Water District and presented a proposal that called for adding, with interest and fees, over $6 million to our tax bills.
My first reaction was, Why is nobody fighting for our water rights? Have they not read what has been going on regarding water in the county, the state, the country and the world? You just don’t give up your water rights without a fight.
My comment to the assembly was that they underestimated the ability of Lompico to rise to the occasion in a crisis. I know this because, as homeowner in Lompico for 38 years, I’ve seen it. During the mudslides of 1982 and 1983, the 1989 earthquake that took out 50 percent of the water district storage tanks, or when the park property was sold for taxes, I watched Lompicans step up and get it done.
There was one person who stepped up in that meeting and said, We can fix our district ourselves if we pull together. That person was Sherwin Gott, who, along with Shannar Abraham, was voted to the board in fall 2010. However, over the past two years, the incumbent candidates have used their three-vote majority to stifle any attempt at a non-merger solution and to strip Gott and Abraham of their committee positions. It’s time Lompico has the option to explore keeping the precious right to its water. That will only happen by replacing the “merge at all cost” incumbents. That’s why I encourage all of my fellow Lompicans to vote for Duane Davis, Gail Jones and Cherl Trapp for the water board.
John Cunliffe, civil engineer, Lompico