February 11, 1965 (20 pages)

00 G96L ‘LL Areniqeg***1088nN AaunoD epeAon’ © . Nevada County Nugget. . February 11, 1965. CALIFORNIA DO IT YOURSELF FREEWAY LOCATION BILL IS PROPOSED A harmless-looking little piece of legislation, Senate Bill 281, recently introduced by Senator Tom Rees of Los Angeles, with Senators Gollier and Lagomarsino as coauthors, could all but destroy a number of efforts now being made in the legislature and elsewhere to improve the state's methods of determining freeway location and design. The bill would allow cities or counties to form improvement districts to pay for making changes in the location, design or construction of freeways, if the cities or counties wanted changes of which the Department of Public Works did not approve, It all sounds so reasonable: if your city wants and needs a freeway route costing a million dollars more than the one chosen by the highway engineers, you can have your route if you come up with the extra money. Allyouneed todoto get the money is get a two-thirds vote of your city council, hold a hearing or two, and obtain approval for new property taxes of 60 percent of the voters in the proposed “freeway improvement district. " Of course, if you have a five man city council, you will need four votes to begin with. And to get the approval of 60 percent of the local voters to increase their property tax burden to pay for something which is a statewide responsibility, you will need a good case of mass insanity. Other than that, anda few other things, the bill seems inspired--by the Division of Highways. If this bill passes, it will place in the hands of the highway bureaucracy, which already possesses enough guns to destroy most of its local opposition, a weapon of tremendous additional power. It will allow the engineers to say to a complaining city or county, “The cheapest route for us to build will take the new freeway through your community park. If you think your park is something of community value, and you want the freeway to avoid the park, then you must pay the extra $3 million dollars to re-route the freeway. Wecan't pay for that. It's too much to ask of the people ofthe state, But Senate Bill 281 says you can pay for it. So put up or shut up. “ Actually, under existing law, the State Highway Commission and the Department of Public Works are required to evaluate in dollar terms the effects on "community values” of alternate freéway routes, if requested to do so by local authorities, But the highway authorities have consistently misconstrued this law (Sec. 75.5 of the Streets and Highways Code), claiming that it is up to the cities and counties to produce the relevant information. Often this is prohibitively expensive or technically impossible for. the local agencies to do. And even if they should provide information on community values, this information often carries little weight with the state, for it has not been put together according to any formula found acceptable by the state. Why? Because there is no such formula, and the state has made no effort to proSMALL TOWN : SMALL WORLD Bel evesl adele BAY eee! eA Reel Sek oe! Ae leo el Ss adh duce one, in the way that it has produced its “user benefit" formula. If this "freeway improvement district” bill passes, . while present inadequate methods of measuring the costs of alternate routes are in effect, you can say goodbye to any hope that the state will assume responsibility for measuring--and protecting--community values, in its freeway location procedure. The attitude ofthe public and the legislature has been turning tosupport more, not less, state responsibility for community values, Upuntilnow a few tired voices, such as that of columnist Henry MacArthur, a consistent Division of Highways apologist, or that of Clem Whitaker, Jr., the high-powered public relations expert, have not been convincing enough to stem the tide. Therefore it is a little surprising that Sen, Rees would sponsor sucha bill, for he has led in the battle to broaden the considerations of the Division of Highways in freeway location and design matters. WASHINGTON CALLING BAYH=CELLER AMENDMENT SHOULD BE QUICKLY RATIFIED WASHINGTON --More than ever with the executive flu raging through the government, irrespective of rank, the words of Woodrow Wilson apply: “Men of ordinary physique aad description cannot be Presidents and live if the strain be not somewhat relieved, We shall be obliged always to be picking our chief magistrates from among wise and prudent athletes -a small class," Wilson wrote that while still in the academic quiet of Princeton University. As President he learned, after his collapse and the death of his dream of American leadership in the League of Nations, the full measure of the tragedy of the strain of the executive office. And the nation learned -orshould have learned -what it means to have a President incapable of exercising the powers of the-office.and.at the.same time unable or unwilling to delegate those powers. That men can work 12 or 14 or 16 hours a day six or seven days a week and-not pay the penalty is an illusion. President Johnson, his Secretary of State and his Secretary of Defense have all been laid low. Whilethis may not be directly related to the grinding pressure they work under, nevertheless flesh and blood and mind cannot forever endure such punishment. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara customarily begins his day in the Pentagon at 7:30 a.m, and he rarely leaves his office before 8 or 8:30 p.m, Secretary of State Dean Rusk follows an equally demanding schedule. Emergencies often require them to be at the White House or in their respective offices on Sunday. And both secretaries hop around the world from time to time at a gruelling pace. The President sets the tone for those who work with him, In September andOctober of last year he cast himself in the role of Superman. So successful was the performance that he seemed to be immune from the ordinary rules of health, It was, therefore, all the more surprising to have him say during his recent illness that he has had pneumonia six or seven times. In wise administrative practice the burden on the individual is shared out bya proper delegation of authority. But this is considered impossible under the American system as it has developed in an ever-expanding central government. RichardE, Neustadt in his impressive study ---Alfred Heller ODD BODKINS . I RECENTLY MOVED. AND THEY TOOK HEIR SWEET AIME ABOUT REINSTALLING Ane SILLY w AS B RESULT, HY CREDITORS HAD A VERY DIFFICULT AIME TRYING TO REACH ME. of “Presidential power” reaches the sobering conclusion that there is no relief in sight even though the strain is vastly greater than it was in Wilson's time, What becomes supremely important, therefore, is the adoption at the earliest possible moment of the BayhCeller amendment to the Constitution. This does two things. First, it provides for the selection of a VicePresident if the office is vacant, With the amendment adopted the country would never again have to go through scary months like those between November 22, 1963, andJanuary of this year when we had no Vice-President, and a frail, elderly man with no administrative experience whatsoever, the Speaker of the House, was first in line of succession, Second, the amendment provides a formula for determining Presidential incapacity and what to do about it. Another Wilson tragedy -an ailing President unable to lead at one of the most critical moments in history -would be impossible, With approval by the full Judiciary Committee action in the Senate should come quickly. Two weeks of hearings are in prospect in the House, The target date for final passage is April 1. Then the amendment must be ratified by 38 of the state legislatures. Up to 47 will be in session into the spring. Hopefully, close to the necessary three-fourths, as prescribed by the Constitution, will ratify. The prohat gn be completed next year. After long neglect, base@ on a bland indifference and the Micawberish assumption that somehow we will be lucky, a major gap in the American system will have been filled in. (Copyright 1965) ---Marquis Childs LETTER 10 THE EDITOR THEY WERE REAL MEN To the Editor: i I got a kick reading about Lyman Gilmore. You did not mention anything about his brother George. He was a genius himself. He had a cabin on the Yuba grade on the Bloomfield side. His line was trying to sell claims to anybody that was simple enough to buy one. ; But what I want to say is something else, It is the the column that Bob Paine writes--I mean Fool's Gold. Why not write about the old stage drivers that used to drive out of Nevada City and the chances they took every day. Just to mention a few of them I remember are Lackller Hill, Pike Solari, John Trauner and Lon Paine and alsothe gerk line teamsters who drove 8 or ‘10 miles over the Yuba grade, They were real men, I can hear the bells on the four lead mules now as they came around those short turns on the Yuba grade, The leaders would swing out and the wheels would swing close to the bank to keep the two big wagons loaded with freight from going over the grade, Believe me then ‘men had to know their business. There is a lot of history in that little old camp if you look for it. I seen quite a little of it when I lived there. There was one little instance, when Sheriff Douglass couldn 't get a posse to go with him after two robbers that were opposite Sugar Loaf in the hills hiding. He went alone and got one of them but the other one shot him in the back, Well I better stop now for a while. P.S, I still think that the freeway will wreck my old stomping grounds. Jack Bassett Oakland HELLO , PHONE COMPANY. COME AND “TAKE ws

00 G96L ‘LL Areniqeg***1088nN AaunoD epeAon’ © . Nevada County Nugget. . February 11, 1965. CALIFORNIA DO IT YOURSELF FREEWAY LOCATION BILL IS PROPOSED A harmless-looking little piece of legislation, Senate Bill 281, recently introduced by Senator Tom Rees of Los Angeles, with Senators Gollier and Lagomarsino as coauthors, could all but destroy a number of efforts now being made in the legislature and elsewhere to improve the state's methods of determining freeway location and design. The bill would allow cities or counties to form improvement districts to pay for making changes in the location, design or construction of freeways, if the cities or counties wanted changes of which the Department of Public Works did not approve, It all sounds so reasonable: if your city wants and needs a freeway route costing a million dollars more than the one chosen by the highway engineers, you can have your route if you come up with the extra money. Allyouneed todoto get the money is get a two-thirds vote of your city council, hold a hearing or two, and obtain approval for new property taxes of 60 percent of the voters in the proposed “freeway improvement district. " Of course, if you have a five man city council, you will need four votes to begin with. And to get the approval of 60 percent of the local voters to increase their property tax burden to pay for something which is a statewide responsibility, you will need a good case of mass insanity. Other than that, anda few other things, the bill seems inspired--by the Division of Highways. If this bill passes, it will place in the hands of the highway bureaucracy, which already possesses enough guns to destroy most of its local opposition, a weapon of tremendous additional power. It will allow the engineers to say to a complaining city or county, “The cheapest route for us to build will take the new freeway through your community park. If you think your park is something of community value, and you want the freeway to avoid the park, then you must pay the extra $3 million dollars to re-route the freeway. Wecan't pay for that. It's too much to ask of the people ofthe state, But Senate Bill 281 says you can pay for it. So put up or shut up. “ Actually, under existing law, the State Highway Commission and the Department of Public Works are required to evaluate in dollar terms the effects on "community values” of alternate freéway routes, if requested to do so by local authorities, But the highway authorities have consistently misconstrued this law (Sec. 75.5 of the Streets and Highways Code), claiming that it is up to the cities and counties to produce the relevant information. Often this is prohibitively expensive or technically impossible for. the local agencies to do. And even if they should provide information on community values, this information often carries little weight with the state, for it has not been put together according to any formula found acceptable by the state. Why? Because there is no such formula, and the state has made no effort to proSMALL TOWN : SMALL WORLD Bel evesl adele BAY eee! eA Reel Sek oe! Ae leo el Ss adh duce one, in the way that it has produced its “user benefit" formula. If this "freeway improvement district” bill passes, . while present inadequate methods of measuring the costs of alternate routes are in effect, you can say goodbye to any hope that the state will assume responsibility for measuring--and protecting--community values, in its freeway location procedure. The attitude ofthe public and the legislature has been turning tosupport more, not less, state responsibility for community values, Upuntilnow a few tired voices, such as that of columnist Henry MacArthur, a consistent Division of Highways apologist, or that of Clem Whitaker, Jr., the high-powered public relations expert, have not been convincing enough to stem the tide. Therefore it is a little surprising that Sen, Rees would sponsor sucha bill, for he has led in the battle to broaden the considerations of the Division of Highways in freeway location and design matters. WASHINGTON CALLING BAYH=CELLER AMENDMENT SHOULD BE QUICKLY RATIFIED WASHINGTON --More than ever with the executive flu raging through the government, irrespective of rank, the words of Woodrow Wilson apply: “Men of ordinary physique aad description cannot be Presidents and live if the strain be not somewhat relieved, We shall be obliged always to be picking our chief magistrates from among wise and prudent athletes -a small class," Wilson wrote that while still in the academic quiet of Princeton University. As President he learned, after his collapse and the death of his dream of American leadership in the League of Nations, the full measure of the tragedy of the strain of the executive office. And the nation learned -orshould have learned -what it means to have a President incapable of exercising the powers of the-office.and.at the.same time unable or unwilling to delegate those powers. That men can work 12 or 14 or 16 hours a day six or seven days a week and-not pay the penalty is an illusion.

President Johnson, his Secretary of State and his Secretary of Defense have all been laid low. Whilethis may not be directly related to the grinding pressure they work under, nevertheless flesh and blood and mind cannot forever endure such punishment. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara customarily begins his day in the Pentagon at 7:30 a.m, and he rarely leaves his office before 8 or 8:30 p.m, Secretary of State Dean Rusk follows an equally demanding schedule. Emergencies often require them to be at the White House or in their respective offices on Sunday. And both secretaries hop around the world from time to time at a gruelling pace. The President sets the tone for those who work with him, In September andOctober of last year he cast himself in the role of Superman. So successful was the performance that he seemed to be immune from the ordinary rules of health, It was, therefore, all the more surprising to have him say during his recent illness that he has had pneumonia six or seven times. In wise administrative practice the burden on the individual is shared out bya proper delegation of authority. But this is considered impossible under the American system as it has developed in an ever-expanding central government. RichardE, Neustadt in his impressive study ---Alfred Heller ODD BODKINS .. I RECENTLY MOVED.. AND THEY TOOK HEIR SWEET AIME ABOUT REINSTALLING Ane SILLY w AS B RESULT, HY CREDITORS HAD A VERY DIFFICULT AIME TRYING TO REACH ME.. of “Presidential power” reaches the sobering conclusion that there is no relief in sight even though the strain is vastly greater than it was in Wilson's time, What becomes supremely important, therefore, is the adoption at the earliest possible moment of the BayhCeller amendment to the Constitution. This does two things. First, it provides for the selection of a VicePresident if the office is vacant, With the amendment adopted the country would never again have to go through scary months like those between November 22, 1963, andJanuary of this year when we had no Vice-President, and a frail, elderly man with no administrative experience whatsoever, the Speaker of the House, was first in line of succession, Second, the amendment provides a formula for determining Presidential incapacity and what to do about it. Another Wilson tragedy -an ailing President unable to lead at one of the most critical moments in history -would be impossible, With approval by the full Judiciary Committee action in the Senate should come quickly. Two weeks of hearings are in prospect in the House, The target date for final passage is April 1. Then the amendment must be ratified by 38 of the state legislatures. Up to 47 will be in session into the spring. Hopefully, close to the necessary three-fourths, as prescribed by the Constitution, will ratify. The prohat gn be completed next year. After long neglect, base@ on a bland indifference and the Micawberish assumption that somehow we will be lucky, a major gap in the American system will have been filled in. (Copyright 1965) ---Marquis Childs LETTER 10 THE EDITOR THEY WERE REAL MEN To the Editor: i I got a kick reading about Lyman Gilmore. You did not mention anything about his brother George. He was a genius himself. He had a cabin on the Yuba grade on the Bloomfield side. His line was trying to sell claims to anybody that was simple enough to buy one. ; But what I want to say is something else, It is the the column that Bob Paine writes--I mean Fool's Gold. Why not write about the old stage drivers that used to drive out of Nevada City and the chances they took every day. Just to mention a few of them I remember are Lackller Hill, Pike Solari, John Trauner and Lon Paine and alsothe gerk line teamsters who drove 8 or ‘10 miles over the Yuba grade, They were real men, I can hear the bells on the four lead mules now as they came around those short turns on the Yuba grade, The leaders would swing out and the wheels would swing close to the bank to keep the two big wagons loaded with freight from going over the grade, Believe me then ‘men had to know their business. There is a lot of history in that little old camp if you look for it. I seen quite a little of it when I lived there. There was one little instance, when Sheriff Douglass couldn 't get a posse to go with him after two robbers that were opposite Sugar Loaf in the hills hiding. He went alone and got one of them but the other one shot him in the back, Well I better stop now for a while. P.S, I still think that the freeway will wreck my old stomping grounds. Jack Bassett Oakland HELLO , PHONE COMPANY.. COME AND “TAKE ws