The Lake at Barney Schwartz Park in Paso Robles

Yesterday I pictured some children enjoying the  various levels of Barney Schwartz Park they could use for riding their scooters. I also discovered there is a small lake (one million gallons) where children can fish without a license. (Adults do have to get licenses.) I was surprised to see a lake here considering how short Paso Robles is of water. (They are rationing when and for how long we can water our landscaping, and the Board of Supervisors is imposing new ordinances that prevent some farmers and vineyards from planting new crops.)

The lake is attractive, and the many turtles make it even more so. Most of the rock tops are occupied by the turtles.  I'm guessing that they help keep the mosquito population down by eating the larvae in the lake before they hatch into adult mosquitoes. Here is a closer look at the turtles on a rock.



One of the most attractive features of the lake is the small waterfall that seems to fill it or recirculate the water from the other side of the bridge.

Do you have lakes, creeks, rivers, or oceans near you?

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Meeting Place for San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors

By the time you see this, I will be preparing to leave for an important meeting of the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors at this County Government Center in San Luis Obipso, our county seat. Like most citizens, I would rather not be involved in politics, but sometimes you have to make your voice heard to try to protect your rights. Dirty politics goes on at all levels of government from the city on up to the national level.

I have learned that the local level is where one can have the most influence and get to actually know the people who make the decisions. If they are corrupt you can sometimes stop them at the local level before they can move to higher offices.

Our country is engaged in a battle as old as California -- water and property rights. One small area at one end of our county has had a few wells go dry. So some county supervisors declared a crisis and tried to use it to make new ordinances that give them control over areas that have no shortage. These are some of the issues that will send me to the meeting February 24. The action will start about 1:30 on these issues. You can read more about them in this article.

If you own acreage in San Luis Obipso County, please consider attending the meeting if you can. Try to get there about 1:15 PM.