I moved here from Pasadena 15 years ago because I loved the mountains and the people were so nice up here. Six years ago, the dirt road I use to take my kids to school, was impassable, even in my 4-wheel drive truck. I was getting ping-ponged around by 8 different county workers who couldn’t figure out how to fix my road. The roads district blamed the county transportation group, who blamed the roads district. Nobody would take responsibility.
Well, I didn’t know Tom Wheeler from Adam, but his card was in the local newspaper with his cell phone, so I called. He answered and said he would meet me within the week at the Hitching Post or the Buckhorn Lounge. I live in Ahwahnee, so he said he’d bring the heads of the roads districts and the transportation division with him and make them battle it out or Char, the owner of the Hitching Post, wouldn’t let them leave.
When we met, Tom told them this “just wasn’t right and was gonna stop today.” Two weeks later my road was graded and all the neighbors were so thankful because we had been complaining for 2 years and no one in Madera cared.
I’m not a Democrat or Republican. I just want people in office who get things done, not posture themselves so far to the left or right that they are paralyzed, unable to help the people they are sworn to serve. Supervisor Wheeler is more conservative than I, and I don’t know what Tom thinks about issues such as abortion, gay rights or immigration, because, as a local Supervisor, he can’t do anything about them, but I vote for Mr. Wheeler because he gets things done and he answers his cell phone that he publishes in the paper and fixes peoples roads and makes those clowns in Madera do the job they are paid to do.
He cut the county budget when it had to be done and is making sure that as the money rolls back in, Cal Fire and the Sheriffs get most of the money.
Tom didn’t become a public figure because he wanted his face in the paper every week. He did so because his disabled daughter wasn’t getting the services she needed, so he joined the school board to make it right.
I tried to call my Fresno County Supervisor, where I work at a gas station, and you only get a minion of the Supervisor’s main minion to call you back, and only after you leave 3 messages. They shuffle you off and want you to go away nicely.
Tom’s tough as hell but has a great heart and a strong work ethic. That’s why I’m voting for him. I don’t know Tom’s opponent who’s making all these grandiose promises with no details, but I do know Sheriff Jay Varney and Cal Fire Madera have endorsed Supervisor Wheeler because he answers our calls and theirs!!!
Bill Bunnell
Ahwahnee
