Novermber 15, 2005

From: Oscar Braun [mailto:oscar@oscarknows.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 15, 2005 10:14 PM
To: 'napaopinion@napanews.com'
Subject: Reply to Letter to the Editor: Don't let trailers destroy Berryessa's future...By CAROL A. KUNZE

Letter to the Editor Reply: “Revenge of the Trailers”
By Oscar A. Braun, San Mateo County, 650-726-3307
Tuesday, November 15, 2005

I have got to admit that nobody can even come close to spewing out totally unintelligible environmental babble and vintage BORever propaganda like Napa Sierra Club President and attorney Carol Kunze.  Carol appears to be completely captivated with her new and very politically corrupt bed fellows’ BOR Commissioner John Keyes and Forever Resort billionaire Rex Maughan’s vision for Lake Berryessa.  This intellectually bankrupt trio would have the uninformed public believe that “TRAILERS” can destroy Lake Berryessa’s future.  So here is my response as a good neighbor: “Trailers won’t destroy Berryessa’s future”. It’s the greedy billionaire, corrupt BOR bureaucrats/commissioner and whacko Sierra Club members like Kunze that will destroy Berryessa future!

Poor Ms. Kunze Op/Ed letter laments, “Unfortunately, the private site tenants (the Braun family) are doing everything they can to harass the new concessionaire (BORever Resorts) into leaving -- filing multiple complaints based on conditions that existed before they arrived, refusing to sign the site permit agreement, withholding rent, and now suing to avoid having to leave at the end of this year as they are required.”  My God, she sees right though us!  This crazed loose cannon named Oscar Braun and his California Watershed Posse are mounted up and leading the charge against the poor helpless BORever Mob.  They’re on their way to Winters Town Hall Meeting, and then on to Federal Court, Federal Court, Federal Court.  These evil Trailer’s say the FEIS is Dead On Arrival (DOA) and they will destroy the BORever FEIS Record of Decision (ROD).

Come see “Revenge of the Berryessa Trailers” this Saturday Nov. 19th at the Winters High School Gym Town Hall meeting at 1pm located at 101 Grant Avenue.  Be there! 

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Don't let trailers destroy Berryessa's future
By CAROL A. KUNZE
Monday, November 14, 2005 11:46 AM PST

I write in response to the article Nov. 6 about Lake Berryessa. First, I would like to correct the misstatements made by one of the resort owners at the lake.

The Bureau of Reclamation has no plans to reduce the number of boats on the lake from 3,000 to 700, as claimed. In fact, there are no numerical goals for the number of boats in the Bureau's plans, as the recently released report confirms in the first paragraph on the first page.

Nor is there a plan to reduce boat storage by two-thirds. The numbers relied on for this misstatement represent only an estimate of a first phase of redevelopment. What the actual first phase will include, and what final redevelopment will include in terms of boat storage, is not known.

Nor, by the way, in case anyone still believes it, is the lake going to be closed for two years, causing the few businesses we have at the lake to fail. There is no proposal to close the lake at all.

The current concessionaires, who rely on the above disinformation to argue their case, are in denial about the fact that their concessions are not attractive to the public. As the resort owner confessed in the article, the resorts don't get enough people throughout the year to eliminate the mobile homes. Of course they don't. The market for vacationing in a trailer park is probably quite small.

And even if it were large, with 92 percent of the non-camping accommodations being privately owned trailers and mobile homes, where is the public supposed to stay?

The much-touted "resort owners plan" for the lake is a proposal for failure. They want to add accommodations for the public to the trailer parks. If they can't get people to come stay in their concession areas now, why would the future be any different? And what demented banker would provide financing for such a business model?

We now have a representative of the professional hospitality industry operating the Pleasure Cove resort. They have made no secret of the fact that they are interested in being the concessionaire at the lake under the new plan that would focus on accommodations for the public. They have world-wide experience in running resorts and the financial resources to invest in new facilities at Lake Berryessa. Under the management of a professional resort operator, the lake could generate revenue for Napa County and residents would have a place to hike, bike, swim, camp, kayak, fish and water ski.

Unfortunately, the private site tenants are doing everything they can to harass the new concessionaire into leaving -- filing multiple complaints based on conditions that existed before they arrived, refusing to sign the site permit agreement, withholding rent, and now suing to avoid having to leave at the end of this year as they are required. This is the welcome this experienced resort company has received in coming to Napa County.

Twenty-five years ago, when the original contracts were expiring, the trailer owners and concessionaires complained to Congress that they had not been allowed enough time to make a fair profit from their investments. They pleaded for an additional 30 years. Part of the deal was a final date after which these concession arrangements would come to an end. They got their 30 years, but now they are trying to renege on the deal by refusing to comply with the termination date.

The status quo interests' hired lobbyist will continue to hound the Bureau, high-level Department of Interior officials, and Congress, in an attempt to deny Napa County the last chance to convert this drain on our budget into a revenue-generating asset for the county and a recreational area for our residents. We should not let them destroy the lake's future.

(Carol Kunze is Napa County Sierra Club President & Executive Director of Berryessa Trails and Conservation.)