Obi-Won Kenobi vs. the Obstructionists Wielding Cocktail "Swords"

WHEREAS, Paavo has advanced the work of the Department and has demonstrated high level of wisdom among staff earning the nickname “Obi-Won Kenobi” of Public Works...*

Soon-to-retire Director of Public Works Paavo Ogren, was honored at the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, June 17, 2014 for his 23 years of service to the County of San Luis Obispo. You can view the meeting off this link (the part you want is after 1:30 PM, skip past the sewer teeth-gnashers at Public Comment):

http://slocounty.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=1789

Staff was not the only beneficiary of the Obi-Won Kenobi effect. There was no contest really, between Master Kenobi and the people who pretended to want a sewer but didn't really, who did everything they could think of to block one—and—Los Osos is actually getting a sewer. It is due to arrive in 2016, the hard part of pipes in the street already having been completed. Paavo was always three steps ahead, giving the appearance of being four steps behind, a tactic that worked phenomenally well.

Here is my take:

You get the drift. So do the sewer opponents. In recognition of this fact, they symbolically bash their chests, tear out their their hair and issue high-pitched knells of sewer grief weekly at the Board of Supervisors. None of which will change one little bit the fact that Los Osos is getting the sewer it picked out among the choices presented by the County and finessed into fruition by Paavo Ogren, SLO County's Obi-Won Kenobi. Paavo will long be remembered at various levels of government, by contractors of sewer projects across the nation and especially by the majority of the citizens of Los Osos who are happy at long last to be getting 21st century sanitation.

Thanks Paavo! We will never forget you and wish you the best in Oceano.

• See the complete Resolution off this link:

http://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/agenda/sanluisobispo/3478/UGFhdm8gUmVzb2x1dGlvbiBKdW5lIDIwMTQucGRm/12/n/29581.doc