Well, well, well, where to begin? Let’s start with the beginning, which will be the June 19 Creston Advisory Body meeting held at the Creston Community Church.
Aside from the ridiculous water worries from people with limited county aquifer knowledge, and the county just wanting as much money per drop as possible, the other interesting topic was? You guessed it! Cannabis and hemp.
And yes, the self-proclaimed “gentleman farmer” was there. Mr. Small Town America himself, been here for five years and easily spotted. The one city slicker wearing his cowboy hat in church. Yes folks, all hat and no cattle, the self-avowed “corporate slave” himself. Mr. James Wortner.
Now a consultant, for who Jim? Big Grape? Big Pharma? Who owns you? You have been here less than five years. You have your 8-acre vineyard, approved with water, of course! Now you want to tell people who have been here 25, 30, 50 years—generations—what they should and should not be able to do?
Watching him and his righteous brethren clap and cheer, when they were told two cannabis applicants had withdrawn their applications. After they spent how much? Before being railroaded by some pious people living behind walls and cameras.
After that glorious show of democracy, and/or hypocrisy, Mr. Wortner’s wife (I assume) snapped a pic of two seedy looking gentlemen in the back row. She showed him and he said, “Oh, I know those guys. We’ll get ’em.”
See, Jimmy boy, I actually grew up here. In Templeton, to be anatomically correct. In the ’80s and ’90s, and I still would not tell anyone who has been here longer or shorter than I what to do. Unless, it is actually harmful. Drunk drivers leaving wineries after tastings or concerts. That’s kind of a negative impact, wouldn’t you say Mr. Pharma/Biotech?
Yes, myself and others have been here a long, long time. We ain’t “gentlemen farmers.” We’re locals. The ignorance surrounding this issue will ruin this issue unless the truly knowledgeable, respectfully silent majority stand up!
Matthew Greer
Templeton
This article appears in Jun 27 – Jul 7, 2019.
Please understand … Mr. Wortner, and the rest of Creston for that matter, isn’t trying to stop you from smoking Cannabis – please go right ahead and smoke all you want…. seriously !
To be perfectly clear – is all about “LOCATION” … i.e., choosing a sensible and considerate place to cultivate and process Cannabis … a location that will not have a adverse impact on the quality of life for those living nearby.
Again, Creston is not trying stop you and others from consuming all the marijuana you want – we are only trying to preserve the current quality of life in our small community.
Because … if you think for a second that the cultivation and processing of Cannabis does not have an adverse impact on its surrounding neighbors – you are absolutely dead wrong … don’t believe me … just “google” news articles on Cannabis related odor, crime, adverse impact on property values, adverse impact of other crops, e.g., grapes, etc.
Specifically, you might want to start with the NETFLIX series entitled “Murder Mountain” … an eye-opening series on Marijuana Cultivation in Humboldt County … then google – Cannabis Cultivation odor issues in Humboldt and Santa Barbara Counties … then google – Cannabis cultivation related armed criminal invasions in Oregon … then you might begin to understand …
A picture is trying to be painted that Creston is “being selfish” because we do not want live next door to a Cannabis grow operation … when in actuality, maybe the opposite could be argued … i.e., it is the consumers of Marijuana who apparently being selfish and do not care what the impact is on the surrounding community as long as they get their Marijuana ???
We did not buy a house near an airport … then complain about the plane noise … when we bought our homes in Creston – there were NO Cannabis grow operations next door … and we would like to keep it that way …
All we are asking is that the County choose sensible locations for the cultivation of Cannabis – far away from neighbors whose quality of life will be adversely impacted … no matter where that is … Creston, Templeton, or anywhere in SLO County … pick a location where no one else will be harmed …
Rabobank is run by thieves. They took $100 from me because the DMV made a mistake. When I pointed this out to my local Pismo Beach, CA. Rabobank manager, Marla Kraft, her response was, “Yes, you did nothing wrong, but our policy is not to give your money back.” Here are the details:
I was late with my car registration last year. When that happens in California, the DMV turns the matter over to the Franchise Tax Board. So, last year I got a collection letter from the FTB telling me I had to pay the back registration to the DMV within 30 days or they would start collection proceedings. I scraped together the registration and late fees ($188), and paid them off 4 days after receiving the letter. I got my registration sticker and frankly, I stopped worrying about it after that. Silly me. That was December of 2018.
May of 2019 and my registration became due again. I paid it on time and got my new sticker. July 2, 2019, without any notification that it was about to happen, the FTB raided my Rabobank checking account and took $188, the amount I had already paid over 6 months before. When the FTB did that, Rabobank charged me an additional $100 fee for, well, I’m not sure why. Maybe the CEO needed a new gold-plated toilet seat. I had written checks for the month-end bills a few days before, and now, with $288 missing from my account, I didn’t have enough to cover the checks being cashed, and before I knew what had happened, I had an additional $140 in overdraft (NSF) charges.
To their credit, someone from Rabobank called me to inform me of the overdraft charges being incurred ($140 a day). Had they not done so, I don’t know how long the charges would have stacked up before I found out. I immediately went online to check my bank account. It showed the $188 being taken, the $100 Rabobank fee, and the $140 in overdraft charges. It didn’t tell me who actually took the $188 though, and so much time had passed that the $188 figure didn’t mean anything to me.
I had to physically go to my local bank branch to find out it was the DMV/FTB that took the $188. Then it clicked for me – this was the fee I had already paid last December. I called the FTB and pointed this out. They checked their computer and said, “Hey, you’re right. The DMV must have failed to notify us that you had paid.” They said they’d return the $188 to my account within two days. They were good to their word and the $188 came back. I went down to my bank again and explained the situation. They rescinded the $140 in NSF charges, but said they could not return the $100 fee because it wasn’t company policy.
I went back and talked to the manager two days later. I asked her why I was being charged $100 when it was the DMV that made the mistake. I asked three different ways, and she did a little verbal dance each time, avoiding answering me directly, and just kept circling back to saying, “It’s not company policy to return such fees.”
Rabobank stole $100 from me. If I stole $100 from them, I’d be in jail, but because they pay lobbyists to buy politicians, to pass legislation making such behavior legal, they get away with it. They’re thieves is what they are. So if you are considering Rabobank, know beforehand that this is how they operate.