Listening to the flow

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    I’m not sure what it means, but the aired City Council meetings are becoming at least as entertaining as anything on commercial TV (except for the Jonathan Winters ads, of course). Once council members grasp the distinction between speaking and mumbling, and that dime-store audio system they use is replaced with something produced after 1930, it may actually be possible to follow the proceedings.

    Last week’s discussion of the specter of a water shortage brought on by the recent main break at Las Tunas Beach was especially interesting, at least what one could her of it because of that crummy audio system, in that some of the council seemed to believe that a drought, natural or of the line-leak variety, is just around the corner, and if we are to avoid dying of thirst, we’d better start building storage tanks and reservoirs left and right. For those who are interested, the break in the main was due to movement of the Las Tunas Beach landslide. It could have been avoided, as similar breaks in the future could be avoided, either by putting an 800-foot section of the pipe on the surface or, if Caltrans management ever gets around to approaching planning with some degree of common sense, stabilizing the landslide by dewatering it.

    In the meantime, it would not be nearly so practical to renovate or enlarge the abandoned reservoir at Charmlee Park as our mayorette suggested, as to convert the tank farm enclosure at the end of Gayton Place to a reservoir. Charmlee Park is so far away, and think of the connecting line costs. Besides, I am much nearer Gayton Place and could use the extra pressure.

    And does anyone realize that there are five to eight million gallons of groundwater stored behind the Rindge Dam? Stick a spigot in it, and there would be a ready supply at least for fire fighting, and even drinking if thirsty enough and one’s medical premiums are paid up. I am fully aware of the argument that it would be environmentally really neat if the dam were removed so that the trout could swim upstream as they once did, if they once did. But would they? Couldn’t we hire an ichthomaven to cart a bunch of them up there to see who they like it now? Think of how silly we would feel if, after blowing the dam, the trout refused to cooperate. On the other hand, in support of trout lovers everywhere, couldn’t the core of opposition to dam demolition, Rindge family members, be eliminated by the simple procedure of rechristening the dam? Call it the Damn Dam, or the Cracked Dam, or the Cringe Dam. Or maybe the council did discuss this, and I just didn’t hear it because of that rotten collector’s item of an audio system.

    E. D. Michael