July 28, 2019 - A few years ago during the midsummer months (forgive me if I cannot remember exact dates), I returned home from a medical appointment in Oakhurst to find an uproar of fire trucks and personnel close to my home.  I live right in the town of Mariposa close to Fremont Hospital.

A privately owned acreage immediately below my neighbor's residence had caught fire. The source apparently an electrical discharge from a well house, but no other structure existed on the plot. Nor was the well in use, but the power source had not been disconnected.   Both my neighbor and I happened to be out of town at the time, the alarm was sounded by her visiting daughter who luckily for us was in the house.  A close call indeed.

But that is not all, by any means.  Mariposa township is loaded with privately owned empty lots some right in the center of the downtown district, others scattered among residential and commercial zones apparently under the ownership of land speculators who consider it unnecessary to maintain or to fire proof them. 

Although many residents have over time written to their supervisors, or contacted the authorities, invariably no action is taken despite the very obvious hazard of these untended lots. 

Now at long last some attention is being paid, although still a discouraging one.  A  discussion about untended empty lots is scheduled for late in August.

If the whole town has not burned down by then.  And I understand this subject has been discussed at regular meetings, but tabled due to one supervisor claiming “lack of privacy”

Tell me what kind of privacy is being violated in an unoccupied lot with no structure other than a well house?  All it takes is an ordinance requiring that all dangerous overgrown lots be cleared. 

Lucille Apcar
Mariposa, CA