Help celebrate 150 years of work by local folks to save us from devastation

There’s a birthday celebration Friday, but don’t expect candles – it would be quite a fire. Levee District 1 will celebrate 150 years of service to local residents.

The district is responsible for operations and maintenance of 16 miles of levee from Pease Road to Marcuse Road in Sutter County. It’s California’s first and oldest continuallyoperated, tax-supported agency.

“It’s a testament to the public in general and the support they give to make sure we are still around after 150 years,” said general manager Andrew Stresser in a Sunday feature story by Jake Abbott.

Stresser said he hopes they continue garnering support for another 150 years, and that’s not at all unlikely. We live in an area criss-crossed with waterways, and we’re prone to flooding. We count on a system of lakes, weirs, levees and more to protect our lives and our property. We don’t think that’s ever going to cease to be a reality, despite climate change.

If LD1 is the oldest continually-operating agency, its president and board chairman must be one of the longest serving: Francis Silva has been a member of the board of directors since 1964.

As pointed out in the feature story, Sylva’s experience predates his membership to the board. He helped fight his first flood while still in high school in 1937. He’s noted a number of high-water events since then – 1942, 1955, 1964, 1986, 1997 and last year; roughly every decade or so.

He particularly remembers the 1955 flood when 37 people died.

“That flood reinforced why we do this every day,” he said in the story. “That’s why we protected the levees, because it saves lives.”

Continual work on the levees, utilization of hundreds of thousands of sandbags, spotting and fixing under-seepage areas ... he can talk about all that. And he can relate the work well as someone who’s suffered personal loss – his home was inundated in the 1942 flood.

And he can explain how today’s levees, with deep slurry walls to prevent under-seepage, are so radically different than years ago.

The sesquicentennial celebration will be Friday and the public is invited to the LD1 office at 243 Second St., from 10 a.m.11:30 a.m. There will be dignitaries present, but if you go, shake hands with the board members and employees – they’ve dedicated a lot of their time saving us from floods.

And in addition to celebrating the people, acknowledge how well this works: having a local board with local residents running an agency that makes a difference in their lives, as much as in the lives of constituents.