Dec. 24, 2013 • Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Publisher’s note: This County Footnotes column by Lassen County District 2 Supervisor Jim Chapman originally appeared in the Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2013 edition of the Lassen County Times.

As we take a moment to reflect on 2013’s tumultuous events that have challenged the board of supervisors and those who positively serve the community through county government, I count the many blessings we enjoy living in Lassen County.

The biggest success story of 2013 is the formation of the Joint Powers Authority to restore a swimming pool to the Honey Lake Valley. This historic partnership between the county and city overcame many obstacles and strong opposition amongst the professional class and even some of the political class.

The will of the people was satisfied when the authority was approved and funded by the county and city. No time has been wasted by the county and city in appointing their representatives and they already have had two meetings. The new pool board will be appointing the fifth member from the general public at its first meeting in January.

The new pool board is considering all relevant information generated the past few years, reviewing potential sites and setting time frames for decision making to keep the momentum going. They will be meeting at 3 p.m. the first and third Tuesdays each month using the city council chambers. If you have some spare time, or a keen interest in seeing this project come to reality, I invite you to join us at those meetings.

2013 marks a positive re-direction in attitudes toward our community. There is a new interest in investing in improvements especially along Main Street. The new paint on the Veterans Memorial Building definitely has lifted spirits and it is exciting to see other establishments nearby make bold statements of renewed commitment. Look at the improvements at Wheels West, and the re-painting of the city fire hall. Wow! With the improvements at the old Lassen Shopping Center, where Ross and Big 5 are now open, signs of the economy beginning to rebound after the great recession are real. The building of new storefronts, by O’Reilly’s and Dollar General, reverses the trend of losing structures to fires without replacements in recent years.

2013 was also a negative one. Unable to affect the national or state elections, much negative energy has been focused on settling scores of elections past. Acute partisanship by some has focused their frustrations on county government.

In this day and age of social media and instant communications the chattering class makes it easy to focus on these frustrations.

What is at stake in the 2014 county elections will be whether we will maintain the non-partisan tradition of the past 100 years in California, or do we succumb to the blatant partisanship that has torn the national and state governments asunder?

It will be critically important you and everyone else take a keen interest in the upcoming elections. Don’t leave it to a small group in the chattering class to determine the future of our community.