March 31, 2022 – Rosemarie Smallcombe and her husband, Steve, came to Mariposa County to retire. She could have rested on her laurels and written a bestselling memoir about her extraordinary life and accomplishments in the interface of international business and government, but instead she chose to use those skills to help the people of our county. Lucky for us, Rosemarie ran for office and has been our District 1 county supervisor for the last seven years.

Several years ago, during the worst of California’s drought, our well ran dry and my husband and I regularly had to haul water from a friend’s house in our ancient little Toyota truck. We would fill two 55-gallon tanks and transfer the water to a 300-gallon tank in our backyard. That, along with about 30 one-gallon jugs and several five gallon camping containers, kept us going. One thing we learned is that our swamp cooler used about 15 gallons of water a day!

The same deep-well friend came across a little window style AC unit and we hooked it up. We decided we would be willing to pay a bit more for electricity, and have that extra 15 gallons to drink and clean up. This went on for several months.

Once on social media, I shared our water-hauling escapades. A harried and overworked official might be excused for scrolling past, because there are more important responsibilities to deal with than a constituent’s trivial water issues. But, instead of moving on, Rosemarie Smallcombe contacted us to let us know about a government drought relief program. With her help, we were able to get a 2,500 gallon tank and regular water deliveries, saving us time, fuel costs and wear and tear on our truck and our bodies.

Rosemarie is experienced, brilliant, dogged, honest and compassionate. If you haven’t, you should go to her website, rosemariesmallcombe.com to take a look at all she has done and continues to do for her constituents and Mariposa County. Let’s reelect Rosemarie Smallcombe for the next four years. We need her.

Ruth Ketvirtis
Midpines, CA