While searching Facebook under 'Newberry Springs' last week I stumbled upon an interesting site.  Not that the Facebook page has any redeeming quality but because I found myself attacked as the topic of a June 30th posting by Mona Doles.

    It humorously reflects how some of my Newberry neighbors are so... well, so dang unusual and hard to love.

    Mona Doles owns the property across the street from the solar facility on Mountain View.  Her property has been devastated by blowing sand.

    The Facebook website that is hosting Mona's post belongs to the Newberry Springs Economic Development Association, known as NSEDA (Nãh see dah).  This is a small organization that is operated by Paul and Paula Deel.  Their go-to sidekick, Vickie Paulsen, fills-in as the Secretary and writes for their organization.  Their flank is covered by a handful of Newberry friendlies.

    I do not participate in this group as I find the logic behind their activities too bizarre.  Most of their organization's efforts have been to sink many thousands of dollars into an isolated land parcel for an experimental farm that will never generate the money they are pouring into it.

    Nor will their "experimental farm" lead to any new desert agricultural discoveries that haven't already been studied by universities around the world.

    The NSEDA farming fiasco has however taught me one thing.  I will be polite and I won't say what.  Just that none of the people involved with NSEDA will ever be involved with handling my investment portfolio.

    Regarding Mona's post, a few months back Mona was lamenting about how no one has come to her aid in defense against the solar facility across her street.  Her exaggerations are however exaggerations, she does have supporters.

    I know.  I am one of her supporters.  I wrote an article in 2013 regarding her situation that was picked-up by a High Desert newspaper that was picked-up by a couple of L.A. TV stations.  One T.V. station highlighted Supervisor Lovingood's office which apparently helped to jump-start a countywide Solar Moratorium that lasted nearly a year.  From that Moratorium, the county has been developing a solar policy, including Policy 4.10.

    Correcting Mona is a no-win.  What she wrote is probably just a lashing-out in frustration and she has my sympathy.  But the muddle of misinformation being promoted for months by NSEDA's official Facebook site, and given support by a 'Like' from Newberry CSD director Vickie Paulsen, needs to be corrected.

    In my last communication with Mona in June 2019, I commented that I felt that she was foolish for not recognizing that she does have supporters.  Well, like a spark in a fireworks factory, the word "foolish" apparently ignited her wrath.  I am now being publicly ridiculed by her that I called her a "fool."   I have not.

    There are other misrepresentations.  This is sad because (although not recognized by her) I do support her solar dispute.  I see her solar misfortune as being a prelude of what may befall all of Newberry.

    Mona claims in her post that I believe that silica isn't dangerous.  This is personally wrong.  I have always crusaded that silica dust is very hazardous.  My mother was asthmatic and she died from second-hand smoke.  I inherited her sensitivity and I am a "sensitive receptor" to anything that impacts the lungs, so I understand the very real health hazard of fugitive silica dust.

    I have worked on article after article (many in fact) on Sand Transport Paths which have been educating Newberrians on the hazards of crystalline silica dust and the dangers of the Daggett solar project.  I have also spoken of the hazards numerous times at Land Use Services meetings and before the Planning Commissioners and county Supervisors.

    Contrary to Mona's published statement, her husband never helped to originate nor was he ever a leader of the Newberry Springs Community Alliance.  Mona is confusing the Community Alliance with the former HELPNewberry.org, a spin-off idea from Hinkley's Norman Diaz's earlier HELPHinkley.org, an organization that was fighting Nursery Products at the time.

    Mona Doles needed a monitoring device to collect data to document the Particulate Matter 10 and 2.5 coming onto her property.  Last December, Newberry's CEQA-Now acquired a Purple Air monitoring device and generously donated it to Mona.  To have it installed, I made a donation to the Newberry Springs Community Alliance to pay for the electrical supplies and all costs to cover an electrician to install the device for Mona.  (My donation was without Mona's knowledge.)

    In her retirement, Mona has been dealt a terrible blow by the county which should have been protecting her state and federal Rights.  The county's placement of an upwind solar facility within a Sand Transport Path (STP) represents an ipso facto seizure of Mona's property value without compensation.  Siting industrial solar within the desert isn't necessary.

    Mona does have friends and supporters in her fight against industrial solar.  She just doesn't see them as she doesn't attend public meetings.

    A question to ask is: What is NSEDA's purpose in publishing for months such an erroneous and scurrilous post that isn't even remotely related to NSEDA's Mission Statement?  NSEDA knew that aspects of Mona's post were inaccurate.

    Well, the insiders understand it.  They have seen the polarizing NSEDA folks having long-term indigestion and crankiness when it comes to Ted.

    What might help NSEDA?

(A)  Perhaps they need a stool softener.
(B)  Time-out and a long nap.
(C)  Play-Doh for anger therapy.