All comments are edited for length and content. Due to content some comments may not be published. Please limit your calls to two minutes or less. Repeat messages on the same subject adding to the length will not be published. Some weeks, due to the number of comments and space, some may not be published.

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A visitor to the Red Line online, “born & raised in Madera,” responded to a woman unimpressed with the restaurants and downtown of the city. She writes, “I don’t understand why you are seeking advice from the Red Line for someone to convince you what this town has to offer. I’m sorry, but who do you think you are? If you haven’t realized yet, this site is full of Madera citizens who, most likely, have been here for years. … This town is so great.”

An Internet guest, “Ralph,” writes, “I would like to read more about Support Kids Safety First and how they work. It’s about the kids.”

Another virtual visitor, “Misty,” commented on a Chuck Doud essay praising Madera’s tap water: “You’re so right, most municipal water sources are cleaner than bottled water, not to mention a whole lot cheaper.”

“Floydy,” who frequents the Red Line, responded to a letter to the editor by Katherine Atilano, who asserted that the “New Thought movement is self-centered, not God-centered” and that it is not the “right choice” to satisfy “spiritual hunger.”

Floydy writes, “What makes one person’s way ‘more right’ than another person’s? If food analogies are a good way of proving points about how one should live spiritually to you, the point must also be made that one can eat whatever they choose, but more importantly, they must combine it with the right amount of regular positive activity to remain healthy.”

A regular Web site visitor, “JP,” lamented at length about what he sees as the decline of Madera since his birth in 1969. He concluded, “Trust me when I say that Madera used to be a nicer place, a safer place, generally a better place. Maybe it was the blind innocence of the child growing up that causes me to think that about the place I grew up (in).”

He also, in a different comment, praised Madera graffiti efforts: “Now that’s what I’m talking about. Neighbors getting involved, and instead of leaning on the city to deal with the grafitti, going out and taking back the neighborhood. Kudos all, you rock.”

Another Internet reader, “D.W.,” was inspired by Red Line comments about handling graffiti as a community, including the one published Tuesday about a Neighborhood Watch whose members painted over graffiti themselves.

She also exclaimed “this past week I can say someone listened” and writes that her “end of town … looks a whole lot better.”

An online visitor, “Arthur,” writes to the late Krista-Rae Pike, who died Jan. 14th, “Just wanna tell you that I miss you and I love you. You always were a good friend. Just know that I will never forget you. I hope you heard what I said about you at the vigil …

“I still have our pics dat we took at school and at da rink. Well hope you’re doing good in Heaven.”

Internet guest, “John Doe,” writes, “I have a question for anyone that can answer…. how come it seems like the mayor of Madera changes every year or in less time while the mayors of other cities stay the same for a while without any elections going on? Also, could it be many elections that cause this to happen or do Madera mayors just tire easily of their job?”

An equally anonymous Web reader, “Jane Doe,” writes, “I enjoy the reading the Red Line — it is very informative. I have been a longtime resident of Madera and I must say I’m very disappointed in the progress it has made. City officials need to wise up to Madera’s inability to stay current. We need more name brand retailers — restaurants and clothes… Also, the train needs to stop running through Madera. That’s simply insane.”

A “holistic psychotherapist” named “Luna Frank” writes, “I would like to get in touch with the blue man, Paul Karason. I believe that he continues to take the colloidal silver because he is addicted to it. He was misinformed regarding the use of it. As an antibiotic it can only be used internally for 10 days. His metal toxicity can be flushed with an herb.”

An online visitor, “Leana,” claimed to be a student at California State University, Fresno, and writes, “I am currently doing some community service hours at Millview Elementary for my Comm 1 and Comm 101 class. I am working in the resource center and have noticed that help is needed. Just on the days that I am there I have noticed that there is a lot of work that needs to be done. If there is anyone that has some extra time to volunteer that would be great. ,=) Thank you for your time.”

An Web visitor, “Justin,” also wished to talk to Pike. He writes, “I’m just sitting here remembering all the good times we had on the computer, and don’t worry about the cookies and Skittles. I will get them soon, even from you. Yeah, I remember that joke like it was yesterday. I still can’t believe this happened.”

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Thank you for your comments. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24-hours a day by calling 674-4478 or visiting www.MaderaTribuneRedLine.com.

By John Rieping
MaderaTribuneRedLine.com

How’s this for a little video flashback? Courtesy of “j3nnyeatworld” at YouTube.com, below is Flight 409 performing the 1980s song “Don’t Stop Believin’,” originally by the band Journey, at Madera South High School on Saturday, January 12.

A few comments on your March 31 editorial about our air quality.

In 2004 I purchased a Toyota Prius for the sole purpose of having a cleaner operating automobile. Now that gas prices are going sky high I have a real savings. I average 48 miles to a gallon.

It would be nice to have a law to close all drive through windows but not necessary if everyone would just stop using them. Whenever I am at an establishment that has a drive through I park and go inside. I note the place I would be in the line of cars for drive through and 90 percent of the time I have been served and am on my way by the time my car would have gotten to the window for pick up.

Before purchasing the Prius I would always turn my car engine off while waiting at railroad crossings if I could not see the end of the train. With so many trains going through this valley there is a lot of idling and spewing of pollutants in the air while waiting for those long trains. With the Prius my engine automatically changes to electric power while idling.

Instead of using your air conditioner, use an oscillating fan to cool your immediate area. You will use much less energy and keep your cost down.

As far as sprinkling your lawn, it should be done at night or early morning when there is less evaporation. Also, look into drought tolerant plants for landscaping.

Do not use leaf blowers. If possible spend a little time and use a rake on your lawn and a broom on your sidewalks. The small engines on the blower are real polluters and they just stir up the dust and dirt to another area.

Cal Crane,
Madera

Mrs. Mayor, would it be too much to ask to have a Sweet Tomatoes restaurant, a Target, a Costco or a Kohl’s built in Madera?

Believe me I have no objections to having an establishment coming to Madera to provide jobs for the residents, but the casino simply can’t meet my basic and domestic needs.

I don’t like getting into my car and driving in Fresno and giving them my Madera dollars when I could drive a few minutes here and get what I needed. With the cost of gas it would only make sense to shop here in Madera.

Unfortunately, because of our population certain businesses don’t think we can support them. But the casinos do?

I go to the above places to provide food, clothes, furniture and other basic needs for our household. A casino would not provide this for me. Granted, the only reason we drive to Chukchansi is to eat in the buffet there.

Gambling is a sickness and a disease. A personal example comes from my … (relation) being filmed on a casino video tape borrowing thousands of dollars against her own mother’s credit card while the mother was dying in a Fresno hospital. Is this the kind of sickness we wish to promote in our families?

It’s a fact that gambling breaks up the family unit. Can Madera Christians afford that?

… We could build many businesses and restaurants here in Madera to provide jobs for many people. It would fulfill many more needs than gambling — not to mention keeping Madera dollars in Madera.

Margaret McGuire,
Madera

By Duane Furman
RIVER CROSSINGS
The Madera Tribune

How fortunate we are this spring to have the Parkway wildflower varieties spread out over hundreds of thousands of acres of foothills and often the valley floor in our area.

The early bloomers are great to see. These include fiddleneck, that blooms along the roadside and was named because the top of the plant with the orange blooms looks like the neck on a fiddle; wild mustard, which covers whole fields in yellow (my dad used to cook for us, “mustard greens” which one prepares like spinach, but didn’t taste as good to me); wild radish; popcorn flower, which often covers the hillsides like snow patches and is beginning to fade; bush lupine, which was so colorful around Hensley Lake; and numerous smaller flowers, as beautiful but only obvious when one is walking near them, or if they grow in abundant clusters.

The California poppies are still in abundance, and I’ve seen them blooming in a number of yards here in Madera. The goldfields, with small flowers that like to grow and bloom together, define the old railroad on road 602 as you approach Daulton, and they provide us with beautiful patches of gold that refuse to be ignored.

The ground lupine around Hensley Lake are showing foot-high blooms of lavender. The baby blue eyes have been showing up for about 10 days, and are mainly found on slopes that receive afternoon sun.

Recent bloom abundance is to be found in the brodiaea with their purple flowers on stems as tall as I’ve ever seen them, gilia with small pale violet masses of flowers in clusters perhaps 10 to 20 yards wide. One of my favorites, the monkeyflower, is just coming on. It likes wet places and is often found along the road where the culverts keep the area moist. These neat flowers look quite a lot like snapdragons and will be adding blooms for a while.

If you are a “Field Guide to North American Wildflowers” (from the Audubon Society) enthusiast you probably recognize all of the above and many more. It is satisfying to recognize and know the characteristics of the things we see.

Duane E. Furman, Ed.D., is a retired superintendent of Madera Unified School District who remains active in civic and environmental affairs. For more information on the River Parkway, visit www.riverparkway.org

What a surprise, we drive into Madera, and lo and behold I see a John Silva for supervisor sign.

We looked at homes in Hanford yesterday, but let me tell you Vern, I might be looking at Madera harder knowing John will become a supervisor again.

I remember calling about potholes, etc., when I lived by the Country Club (28 years) and John would see that “Git Her Done” would get done. No mealy-mouth politician making lame excuses as to why it could not get done.

John Silva is my guy for supervisor! And I approved this letter!

John Sanchez
Kingman, Ariz.

Mr. Emo’s musings of his “gal-pal’s” earrings and the walk down “our town” memory lane remind me of how lucky we are to live in such a friendly town. Like many who escaped from bigger and busier cities, we were welcomed as though we had grown up here in Madera.

I’ll never forget the day were checking out at the SaveMart on Howard when the young fellow bagging our groceries wished our even younger son good luck in his upcoming baseball all-star game.

“That’s the great thing about living in a small town,” Mike said as we made our way out of the store.

Thank you Mr. Emo.

Denesse Willey,
Madera

All comments are edited for length and content. Due to content some comments may not be published. Please limit your calls to two minutes or less. Repeat messages on the same subject adding to the length will not be published. Some weeks, due to the number of comments and space, some may not be published.

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A woman responded “to the man (last week) who called about having to listen to the Madera High School band practice, and the beating of the drums that bothered him.” She noted, “These kids are doing something constructive with their time. These kids are putting as much time and effort into their work as any sports team, and they don’t get any funding from the district for their travels.” She also mentioned the “10 o’clock curfew.”

A man was “curious as to why the Tribune does not have any write-up on the so-called shopping mall at the fairgrounds and the one at Yosemite and Tozer and let the public know what businesses are going in.” He said he had “heard all sorts of rumors. I thought that would be in the public interest.” (Note: The Madera Tribune has previously published articles concerning the aforementioned shopping centers and will continue to do so.)

A male caller said, “I heard that Chili’s (restaurant) backed out on building their restaurant here in Madera due to restrictions invoked by the city of Madera. Is this true? If it is, it is too bad.”

A man who “recently read in the paper that they found poison in Chinese toothpaste” said “he looked at American toothpaste, all I could find, and on each tube it said, ‘if swallowed, call poison control.’” He wondered, “What happened,” and “are they out-sourcing toothpaste to China?”

“If you’re dying for some lunch,” said a gentleman, who went to a new restaurant on Howard Road (name given). “They serve very good food, including shish kebab and all that good stuff, and the service is excellent.”

In response to the caller last week who said “businesses on E Street not paying taxes,” a lady said, “I do have a business on E Street and I do pay taxes. Just because everybody on E Street may not doesn’t mean that all of us don’t (pay taxes).”

A man called about “the restraining order against Mr. Pistoresi” and wondered “why the District Attorney hasn’t prosecuted Mr. Pistoresi? Where has be been for the last 8 or 9 months?” (Note: As reported by The Madera Tribune, the restraining order was dismissed April 7 by Superior Court Judge James Oakley.)

Another caller asked, apparently on the same topic, “isn’t there board members who sit on that board? Surely, four of them could have done something before it got out of hand, like this.”

A man who said he had lived here for three years was reading “this morning’s (Friday, April 11) paper I couldn’t help but notice Leon Emo’s column ‘The Town and the City.’ I would call Madera neither. I would call it a joke. It is underdeveloped, culturally flawed, and the downtown area looks like downtown Tijuana.”

Another caller mentioned the same column by Emo and “though it brought back a lot of memories. It also provided hope for the future. Maybe the civic leaders should start listening to longtime residents, like your columnist and others, who know the past and can see what lies ahead if things are done correctly.”

A man had “a suggestion for the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. With all the grafitti, and the majority of it being done by Hispanic gangs, why doesn’t the Hispanic Chamber make an art contest out it?”

A woman said, “the religious group that took over the Women’s Improvement Hall is a very large group and take up all the parking places of residents. They have even come to the houses in the area asking for donation. They are well dressed and drive very nice cars. Certainly they can provide for themselves.”

A visitor to the Red Line online, “Alvina Harford,” wrote, “Why not put more pressure on our incumbent councilmen running for re-election? Our neighborhood watch program decided enough was enough and we took our back control of our street. We all purchased a gallon of paint, painted over the graffitti and then each neighbor kept the left over paint for future touch ups. Admitedly I found it quite satisfying knowing we all banded together to make a stand, also when the tagger struck again how fun it was to immediately remove the ugly mark and maybe annoy him for once!”

Another Internet visitor, “beachbee,” commented on the July 31 Red Line, “The Madera Aquatics Team has since received a better time slot 6:30 p.m.- 8:30 p.m. They have a new coach who swam with Madera High School. Things are looking better. The most eminent and recurring problem concerning the team is lack of parent volunteers. Parent volunteers are desperately needed to keep this ailing organization a float. …

“At this time the team has 12 swimmers and will quickly increase in size this summer to about 25 regular swimmers. Just two parent volunteers currently serve the team when at least five are needed.”

Online reader “Tiffiny” wrote, “Why do you have to make it so difficult to find the help wanted section of the newspaper on the Web site? Do you even post the help wanted section online?”

Editor’s note: I’m afraid that we do not publish that section on the Internet except as part of a paid online subscription. But you might consider signing up for free access to the California Job Service site (www.caljobs.ca.gov) at the Madera Employment Development Department office, down the street from the U.S. Post Office.

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Thank you for your calls. Remember, the Red Line is open for your messages 24-hours a day by calling 674-4478 or visiting www.MaderaTribuneRedLine.com.

By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune

The city council’s decision last night to award the contract for construction of the new youth center was a welcome one after years of planning and looking for money.

At its next meeting, the council will consider naming the facility after former council member John Wells, who was without doubt the most dogged proponent of the center, even when it had neither form nor financing.

“His passion for the youth center was relentless over the years,” said former city parks director Larry Hibdon, a member of the advisory committee that chose Wells for the honor.

Wells also found $635,490 of Housing and Urban Development money to go toward the project.

Wells’ name, should the council choose it, will be part of the building’s name, but others also deserve honor.

Present city council members’names will go on that wall of fame inside the front door, as they should. All have worked to make the youth center a reality. City Administrator Dave Tooley, Director of Administrative Services Michael McHatten, City Finance Director Mike Hartman and Parks and Community Services Director Mary Anne Seay all played roles in making the center a reality, and should have their names on the bronze plaque.

Another name that belongs on the building is that of Madera Redevelopment Agency Executive Director Jim Taubert, who stepped up with $4.2 million of agency funds.

Under McHatten and Seay, the parks department has been on a roll the past year, with completion of the skate park, improvements being made at Rotary Park, and improvements at the Millview athletic fields. Plans also are afoot to improve the swimming pool at Centennial Park.

The youth center will be an important achievement to add to this considerable work, one of which the city can be proud.

By John Rieping
MaderaTribuneRedLine.com

Below is a Double Edge Films video on YouTube.com entitled “Spin” that offers a humorous twist on time travel and the art of the “classic” turntable disc jockey. Definitely an unusual DJ!

(For any science fiction nerds like myself out there, this would be a definite case of the “butterfly effect.”)