If a Ridgecrest area real estate agent tells you that it’s a “great time to buy” in the City of Ridgecrest, we have one question (or maybe a few) to ask the real estate agents: WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE SMOKING? (All CAPS is for emphasis)

They don’t need us to tell them what’s at stake after we’ve drained our groundwater basins in support of the Navy’s existence over the last 75 years. It’s gone and it’s too late to turn back the clock. We need more water or else.

We know that it’s difficult for the Ridgecrest Area Association of Realtors (RAAR) to come out and say it, they did make an attempt by warning the City Council during the June 17 council meeting, but it may be too little too late. At that meeting, the President of RAAR read a statement from the Board about the City’s failure to represent all the water users in the IWV, pointing out that City residents are IWVWD customers too.

Who is supplying the water to the City of Ridgecrest Mr. Strand? Who is paying for the treatment facility Mayor Breeden? Both the Mayor and City Manager seem to think they’re looking out for the City and it’s residents. What happens when your residents flee Ridgecrest because of water, as if branding Ridgecrest as “the earthquake capital of the world” isn’t enough? You are in what’s called a predicament. What will you do?

The City’s leadership apparently doesn’t understand that their residents are all members of the Indian Wells Valley Water District? It’s not a high priority for the Mayor and Council. They’ve all sat silently on the sidelines while negotiating in secret with the Navy on the Wastewater Treatment Facility. Enough is enough. Full stop. Your secret deal isn’t going to make it.

Mayor Peggy Breeden and City Manager Ron Strand hatched their new plan for Annexation out to US 395 and South China Lake Blvd during a budget meeting. Mr. Strand thinks it’s feasible and the Mayor knows that someone wants the property. She won’t tell us who it is but we’ll find out sooner than later. Maybe Coldwell Banker knows. In the meantime, does anyone believe that the City can handle anything like an annexation when it takes almost 2 years to install a stop sign on Downs? Now we hear the signs are insufficient after Mr. Strand told us they were unnecessary? Stop lights will take how long and cost what?

Good luck with annexation and no water. Any real estate advice Mr. Strand offers isn’t worth a wood nickle. He doesn’t understand the term “highest and best use” or he wouldn’t be playing games along with a Mayor who knows nothing about real estate. He’s a former cop and bureaucrat and she runs a stale advertising paper. Anyone can claim to be a real estate expert and their opinions are meaningless, that’s why they want $60k for a consultant to tell them what they want to hear and to give their agenda some validity. It’s a waste of money just like their Parks Tax scheme.

Has anyone ever considered that the City of Ridgecrest is effectively bankrupt? They have a balanced budget, but debt up the wazoo and declining sales tax revenues. You don’t need us to tell you it’s bad.

PS Mayor, we want the ANNEXATION MAP.

PPS Mr. Strand, how much did the stop signs at Downs cost?

The opinions expressed herein are those of the Publisher.