Organized Event: Johnson Valley Meeting TONITE: Lucerne Valley 6PM

[sarah]

Hey High Desert...
This will be your LAST CHANCE before the comment period ends to address your concerns to the Marines.

They seem to be sneaking in this meeting at the end - so please PASS THE WORD AROUND QUICKLY!

6PM at the Lucerne Valley Community Center
(about 1/4 mile from the 4-way stop on Hwy247)

You're welcome to join Roger, Mitch and I at 5PM for dinner at Abuelita's across from the Valero gas station in Lucerne Valley. Please call us or respond here so we know to look for you.

[GP4Play]

Thank you Sarah,DUH on me
Dennis

[sarah]

Thank you Sarah,DUH on me
Dennis

No worries, I just posted it this morning. Looking forward to seeing you there!

[Desert Jewel]

See you at Abuelita's as close to 5:00 as I can.

[Mitch]

Adelita's Restaurant
32666 Hwy 18
Lucerne Valley
760 248-2886

[USMC 0369]

I'm on the 3pm to midnight shift today....sorry again.

[RAT]

I'm on the 3pm to midnight shift today....sorry again.

I'm on the East Coast shift. Me srry too!

[dirtman13]

How did the meeting go? Wish I could have been there.

[Ol Man]

Here is what one of the guys from District 37 posted. Others' comments who attended?:

Thanks to all you guys that got there on such short notice. Here's the highlights:

1. They say they have received 5000 comments to this point.
2. They are all ready redrawing lines because of the comments received.
3. The people of LV were well represented. Many spoke about the impact the off road community has on the local economy.
4. Comments received by the 31st are sent to congress directly.
5. My thought is to start a letter writing campaign to congress ASAP.
6. The place was pretty well packed.
7. Brought up the issue with them doing their own EIS without any foreseeable secondary review.

I'm sure I didn't get all but chime in as needed to help fill the gaps!!

[Mitch]

That pretty much sums up the meeting. There was about 60 people attending, and most all of the people that spoke were professional and spoke from the heart. The common theme was the fact if Johnson Valley was lost and the off-roaders went somewhere else, the town would die. Almost all spoke of the dollars spent by those who travel to and through the area for recreation. There always is the wacko, and there was a couple in attendance. One guy told the Colonel that he had submitted in the past, designs for weapons the would have stopped the war, rambled about "Desert Fever".... The scary one was a local woman who wheeled a cart up to the front and removed a sheet that was covering an old rusted 3 foot long inert rocket that she claimed that found in the desert near her home and asked about the truth regarding cleanup efforts. Yikes!!!!

In general the meeting was conducted well and in my mind, the only concern that continues to bother me is where will everyone go if this area is closed down. The thousands of people will overrun the rest of the BLM desert areas and the forests (SBNF).

One last point from me. The amazing part of this land grab is that the marines plan to do 2, YES THAT IS 2 maneuvers though this area a year. Colonel Wes Weston said that was the main reason for this land acquistion. It is amazing that taking peoples homes and land, basically killing off Lucerne Valley, running the off-road community away, is all for 2 maneuvers a year! That is scary.

We all need to write our elected officials voice our concerns.

Mitch

[GP4Play]

I agree,OlMan coverd just about everything.Great88 you brought up the part that bothered me the most,and thats about them only needing it for 2 times a year!!Someone asked if they were going to put a gate at this end of the base to help the Community they are killing with this plan.I don't think it even crossed thier minds for this.No one brought up what happened to Adelanto after the Gov. shut down GAFB.Shows you how much the Gov. cares about little guy.I agreed With the Col.about one thing,those people with the bomb or missile case were stupid not ignorant(sp),raised the hair on my neck at first sight.If you point a gun at yourself,is it ignorant or stupid?I hope evryone on this site knows not to touch anything that looks like a bomb out there.Ok I'm done and I'm sorry to preach.Good job to the folks in Lucerne Valley they were great!

[Roger]

So GP4Play, You were at the meeting last night?? I hope you are going to the upcoming Meet & Greet in apple Valley. I would have liked to meet you last night. That means we had seven folks from MJR in attendenance last night!

BTW - I also agreed with the Colonel when he told the lady she was stupid. What a retard to bring an old bomb to a meeting. He didn't need to apologize. I noticed the Sheriff deputy followed her out the door. I wonder what he told her??

[JeepGal]

Thank you all for representing us last night.

I had a conference call at work at 4pm ,and there was no way of getting out of it.

Thanks for reading and passing around the petition. I spoke to Joe Ross today, and I will be emailing him a final one at the end of the day on Sunday, and Fedexing him one on Friday...he said as long as he knew it was coming, that that would be fine.

Tam

[Desert Jewel]

I also spoke with Joe Ross last night. They had mentioned in their speech that they had talked to 7 out of the 8 tribes about the land involved. This triggered a bell since I am Native and have tribal rights. After the meeting I asked Joe about this. He said the tribes just look at is a way to get a study done on their plant life, etc and just want to make sure their history like petrogliffs (sp?) and stuff are preserved. This erked me because what good is it to preserve the stuff in the middle of the Marine base if no one can ever enjoy it? I let him know too, and also let him know it does not make sense to preserve these kinds of things and the so called "Wilderness" when myself and my own living children can not enjoy them while we are alive. Anyways, he is going to email a list of the tribes and hopefully their contact information. I firmly believe we need to get these tribes more involved in not wanting to give up their lands so freely. Apparently, according to Joe, the tribes aren't putting up a fight.

The Colonel had also mentioned something about existing petrogliffs (sp) on the 29 Palms base that are off limits to everyone. Someone did question the reasoning behind preserving something that no one has access to enjoy. There really wasn't an answer.

[Mitch]

Julie,

Great points to be made. I hate hearing that Fort Irwin has preserved sites like Goldstone that we can't explore, China Lake protecting the most awesome petroglyph sites on the west coast that we need a background check, vehicle search, locked up cameras, and a reservation with a military guide to even see. Now the admission of Colonel Wes Weston that there are more sites that are on MCAGCC property that are protected but we can't have access to. If this land acquistion happens we will lose more of the historical and tribal sites that we all should have access to. Another tactic of protecting things from the public cause we can't handle it! Blah Blah......

The saga continues!

Mitch