Keep Montecito Green?

Dear Wicks and Plough:

For heaven’s sake, what are you thinking? It is truly wacky to see your water board campaign signs in Summerland urging Summerlanders to vote for you to “Keep Montecito Green.” Have you no idea the unease folks here feel since our little Summerland water department and modest consumption were taken over by the Montecito Water District? In spite of the confusion caused by Pat Nesbitt’s blatant corruption of our community’s boundaries and lifestyle with his Montecito Ranch Estates in Summerland on the Carpinteria side of town, and the occasional indiscreet, local entrepreneur naming a business Montecito Something, Summerland is not Montecito.

If your aim is for our water to be used to “Keep Montecito Green,” I demand an equal, middle-class-priced portion to “Keep Summerland Clean,” and I wish for this community the guilt-free right to use it equally as zealously. For instance, I may choose to hose down the dirty street out front, wash my car, deck, patio, and roof, or find other ways to spray water as if I were growing grass — historic drought and overpopulation be damned.

On this cramped end of the district (with a few exceptions such as Pat, the sod farmer), we have been struggling to consume water responsibly. As I recall, the average residential use in Summerland is an order of magnitude less than the average Montecito residential use — yet we still endure extraordinary rates, ominous prospects, and mind-boggling, nature-challenging sourcing.

Since our districts merged, it seems that over here, Summerland has been dragged along by the acquisitive oversized over there who want and want, and who now might elect two guys who intend to Keep Montecito (and Summerland?) Green — a downright astonishing goal.