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Valley People (Apr 22, 2015)

ROSE ENGLISH passed April 19, 2015 at age 90 years. Born in Jericho, Missouri, she moved to California at age 16. She lived and worked in Ukiah for 40 years. Rose is survived by her daughter Barbra Adams of Ukiah. Funeral services will be held on Friday, April 24, 2015 at 1 p.m. at Eversole Mortuary.

THE STATE OF THE NAVARRO: After a slight rise in flow rate the Navarro River has settled back down to 23 cfs as of Sunday the 19th. The previous recorded low for the same date was in 1977 at 37 cfs. It is still cool and beautiful but showing the first signs of stringy green algae. Fry are in evidence but no fingerlings yet. Turtles can be spotted here and there and this past week I've seen a couple 12 inch steelhead/trout (?) nervously working up and down a stretch of river probably soon to be too low for their comfort. — David Severn

AS THE DROUGHT DEEPENS, and the rivers and streams of the Anderson Valley are at their lowest ebb ever for this time of year, state rules regarding who can take how much, are these: “The right to divert surface water in California is based on the type of right being claimed and the priority date. Water right permits specify the season of use, purpose of use and place of use for the quantity of water authorized under the permit or license. In times of drought and limited supply, the most recent ('junior') right holder must be the first to discontinue use. Even more senior water right holders, such as some riparian and pre-1914 water right holders may also receive a notice to stop diverting water if their diversions are downstream of reservoirs releasing stored water and there is no natural flow available for diversion. In the coming weeks and months, if dry weather conditions persist, the State Water Board will notify certain water right holders in critically dry watersheds of the requirement to stop diverting water under their water right, based on their priority. These notices will be posted.”

THE CALLER ASKED, “Who is prune belly?” Who is who? “Prune Belly. The name is carved into the Greenwood Bridge.” I know Prune Face. We all know Prune Face, but Prune Belly?

THEN there's the modified sign looming over the endlessly vacant former Boonville Lodge which, if vacant much longer, is in danger of becoming a second Ricard complex. The edited sign reads, “Oonville Loon.”

WILDFLOWER SHOW 2015! The Anderson Valley Wildflower Show celebrates its 80th year from 10 to 4 on Saturday April 25 and Sunday April 26 at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville. It is produced by the Garden Section of the Anderson Valley Unity Club. Hundreds of wildflowers, grasses and other plants will be gathered, identified, arranged by family on tables throughout the hall and labeled with the botanical and common names. The warm winter caused many flowers to bloom early, taking advantage of what groundwater was available in our drought. We are very interested to see what our gathering crews will find currently blooming.

THE FIRST SHOW was created in the spring of 1926 by the late Blanche Brown, a much admire local teacher and gifted, self-taught botanist. The Unity Club was first involved in the show in 1928 and took full responsibility for it in the late 1950s.

IF YOU HAVE plants you would like to have identified, you are welcome to bring them in. Garden Section members and members of the California Native Plant Society will be on hand to help identify them.

THERE will be plants for sale, potted and grown locally, many of them native flora. We will also have botanicals from Herbal Energetics, seaweed harvest by local people, and a table with books from the California Native Plant Society. Also new this year will be a table with a few wild edibles. Our tea room will provide tasty lunches and snacks. A raffle of garden-related items will be held which helps to provide scholarships for local students. Please join us for this delightful and educational exhibit. (Robyn Harper)

YOU CAN TAKE in the annually wonderful Wildflower Show (our fave Fairgrounds event of the year), then wander a few steps west for the first annual Goat Show, goat raising having become the latest addition to the County's thriving small farm movement. Grow and eat where you live, as they say, and goats are among the most versatile of God's creatures and tasty, too.

TEEN CENTER COORDINATOR DAN ANGULO WRITES: “The Teen Center UCLA Trip was a total success! Students were able to explore Venice Beach, the Santa Monica Pier, Universal Studios, UCLA, as well as experience the LA public transportation. Our accommodation was at the Hostelling International Hostel in Santa Monica in which students engaged with other international students (a high school study abroad from England). With the tremendous help of the chaperons, students were responsible and proactive in following the rules and cooking meals for the entire group. In UCLA, former AV student Irving Jimenez led a 3 hour campus tour, and shared his college experience. Students were motivated, engaged and certainly informed about pursuing a higher education. Furthermore, the Mendocino Community Foundation has also given the Teen Center a $5,000 grant in order to continue and organize educational trips for AV students. The Teen Center thanks everyone involved for their partnership and support in the fundraisers; which also teaches invaluable skills to high school students. Here’s a link to a 15 minute YouTube video of the trip, produced by Julia Broke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0O9dYt68c4

AV 13th ANNUAL GUILD ARTISTS' OPEN STUDIO TOUR. In the musical “Camelot” the chorus sings “ It’s May, it’s May, the Merry Month of May!” and we here in Anderson Valley are also celebrating the return of spring and the month of May The Anderson Valley Artists’ Guild is presenting the 13th Annual Open Studio Tour on May 23,24, 25, 2015 - Memorial Day weekend, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 14 artists will welcome visitors on this self-guided free tour. There will be signs on Hwy 128, as well. A map/brochure is available at All That Good Stuff and Rookie-To Gallery in Boonville and the Tour map can be downloaded at www.andersonvalley-artguild.org. Visitors will discover painters, sculptors, jewelers, ceramic artists, fiber artists, glass blowers and more, on this colorful Anderson Valley Artists Tour. Enjoy seeing artists in their elements; their studios, their gardens, and if you are looking for a special piece to grace your home, there’s no better place to buy than directly from the artist! There will be some new member additions to the Guild Tour this year, among them is potter, Kathryn Porter, who makes functional porcelain and stoneware. Louise Kreisfels, will be showing her cotton and wool hand-quilted Amish-style quilts and Japanese sashiko embroidered wall hangings. Ferdinand Thieriot, formerly of Anderson Valley, will be back, showing new mixed-media artwork in blown glass, wood, and metal. Several artists have beautiful gardens, and potter, Doug Johnson’s is not to be missed. The Anderson Valley Artists Guild merrily invites one and all to this free event Memorial Day Weekend in the beautiful Anderson Valley. (— Jan Wax)

A RECENT PUFFEROO in the Wall Street Journal declared, “Uncorking the Perfect Long Weekend in California’s Anderson Valley.” Long, short or lost, weekends in the Anderson Valley are always a Can't Miss proposition.

BEVERLY DUTRA, representing the Community Action Coalition appeared at the Community Services District board meeting last week to ask the board for assistance in improving law enforcement coverage for Anderson Valley. Her letter to the CSD Board said, “We believe that the reassignment of Craig Walker, our resident deputy, to Ukiah has created a significant public safety issue. The Community Action Coalition requests that the Community Services District hold some form of public discussion on the very real consequences of this problem. Without the presence of a resident deputy the quality of our lives and our safety are both greatly impaired. We hope that you can schedule something appropriate soon. Thank you. — Yours Truly, Beverly Dutra, For the Anderson Valley Community Action Coalition”

MRS. DUTRA said that patrol deputies had been had taken a 10% pay cut several years ago before other County employees and as a result more and more County cops are leaving for city jobs or other counties where salaries and bennies are better. Dutra said that comparable positions in Ukiah Police Department, for example, paid $10 an hour more than County deputies get. Mendocino County pays upwards of $60,000 to train recruits only to watch them leave for higher paying jobs other places.

WHILE POLICE response times in incorporated areas of the County are reasonable, in the unincorporated vastness outside Mendo's urbanized areas, relatively minor, non-life-threatening emergencies may not get any response at all. Resident deputies have been withdrawn from almost all unincorporated areas of the County due to the staff shortage. In those areas the resident deputy is not on hand to keep an eye on things. “A potential crisis in law enforcement looms,” concluded Dutra. Dutra pointed the finger at the Board of Supervisors, saying they have been derelict in their duties and have not responded to letters and calls for fair pay for deputies. When Dutra requested that the board approach Fifth District Supervisor Dan Hamburg on the issue, Holmes Ranch resident and senior CSD watcher Gene Herr grumbled, “Lots of luck.”

(HAMBURG is the Major-Major of local public office. When he's in he's out, and when he's out he's in. The 5th District hasn't had a real supervisor since Norman deVall, and before deVall, Ted Galletti, and before Galletti, the late, great Joe Scaramella. Hamburg, like Colfax before him, just draws his pay and does nothing.)

THE CSD BOARD'S February letter to Sheriff Allman asking for action on the resident deputy dilemma received no response whatsoever from either the Sheriff or the Board of Supervisors. The board agreed to host a public meeting on the issue in the near future, and Mrs. Dutra agreed to coordinate the meeting.

GENERAL MANAGER JOY ANDREWS reminded the board that the filing period for the upcoming election of CSD board members is July 13 to August 7. Three seats are up for election — those currently held by Neil Darling, Valerie Hanelt, and Fred Martin. All three positions are four-year terms.

FIRE CHIEF ANDRES AVILA told the board that members of the Anderson Valley Ambulance board and its manager had approached him to discuss a possible merger with the fire department. Although there is no direct connection, the timing may indicate that our Ambulance Service is concerned about its future if the County implements its Exclusive Operating Agreement, plans which some suspect involve converting the volunteer ambulance service into a subcontractor to a to the winning Ukiah area bidder. Board members had no objection to Avila continuing to discuss the question and agreed to put the subject on the future board meeting agenda. (See Dave Severn's piece in this week's paper re the future of the County's volunteer ambulance services.)

AFTER COMPLETING THE PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS of the Community Service District's four employees -- Chief Avila, General Manager Andrews, Secretary Liddy, and Training Officer Clay Eubanks — the board decided to give them 5% raises starting in July. Avila, Andrews and Liddy will also receive a 1% cost-of-living adjustment.

SINCE BOARD CHAIR HANELT was unable to attend last week’s CSD Board meeting, nothing was reported concerning the status of the dilapidated Ricard building in South Boonville, although we've heard that the County continues to take the position that the building is not bad enough to be declared an official nuisance or health hazard. This is another issue where a real supervisor might be of some help getting the always lethargic County bureaucracy to condemn Ricard's rambling kindling pile.

NEXT MONTH'S BOARD meeting (May 20) will be held at the Fairgrounds and will focus on an informal discussion of the possibility of pursuing a water and/or sewer system for downtown Boonville. After a short discussion, the Board reviewed and approved the following press release about the meeting.

“THE COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT will host the first community meeting to explore the possibility of a Boonville water and/or sewage system. The meeting will be held at 7pm on May 20 in the Fairgrounds Dining Room. The panel will include attendees from Mendocino Public Health Department, Mendocino County Supervisors, North Coast regional Water Quality Control Board, Brelje & Race Engineering, and a consultant for community septic systems. The format will be a Round Table Question & Answers session emceed by the CSD Chair. Audience members will have an opportunity to comment or ask questions. The goal of the meeting will be to share information about what a water and/or septic system could look like, who could be served, how the systems could be financed and how they could impact the community.”

PHILO BASED (partially) TIMBER FAMILY BUYS BIG SOUTH COAST STAND A family with long timber holdings in Sonoma and Mendocino counties and the Bay Area is set to buy nearly 30,000 acres of mixed redwood and Douglas fir in Northern California. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports Thursday that the Roger Burch family is expected to close escrow on the property at the mouth of the Gualala River in June. Their interests already include the Redwood Empire sawmills in Philo and Cloverdale, where logs from the sites have been processed for 30 years. Some have expressed disappointment that the land will remain in the hands of a commercial timber company rather than conservation interests that made an unsuccessful bid for the property. Others say having a family-owned company with a local presence is a good given the rise of timber investment funds and the high-yield pressures that could come into play. (Courtesy, AP)

Colfax
Colfax

LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD. Grant Colfax, home schooled in the hills west of Boonville, has served as head of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, and has now been appointed by the Marin supervisors as director of that county's Health and Human Services Department. A medical doctor, Colfax, 50, is a graduate of Harvard, both as an undergraduate and as a graduate of Harvard Medical School. He had been working with San Francisco's Health Department and makes his home in Sausalito. Three of the Colfax boys have graduated from Harvard, and the fourth from a non-Ivy. All four have done well in the world, and have put the lie for all time to the myth that home-schooled children miss out on all that presumed groovy “socialization” the young get in public schools.

ANDERSON VALLEY GOAT FESTIVAL SATURDAY, April 25th 10am-4pm. AV Foodshed sponsors the Inaugural AV Goat Festival at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville. Please help us to support this family fun event, we are asking for donations at the door! There will be demonstrations in goat milking, cheese making, soap making and fiber arts. Bring your goat for a best-dressed goat contest and parade. !!! There will be prizes!!! Enter the Birria Cook-off & Contest, contact Jim Devine @ 707.496.8725 to be a cook in the cook-off. Jim arranged for Birria contestants to purchase goat meat at Lemon's Market for a reduced price and each contestant will receive $$ back to cover groceries. Become a Birria judge for a fee and taste all of the entries! The AV Lion's Club is sponsoring a beer & wine bar throughout the day! From 6-7 the Grange will Sponsor a Dance & Texas 10 step Dance Lesson at Apple Hall. Dance to Dean Titus With Bootjack 5 & Susan Clark from 7 to 10 PM - Tickets for the dance are $10.00 at the door and includes the dance lesson 6-10pm. The AV Foodshed needs you to volunteer, become a vendor, enter the Birria cook-off, bring your goat in costume for the parade, help us with decorations, signs, and more. We need you! Please call Jim Devine 707.496.8725. Thank you Friends of the Anderson Valley Foodshed!

DENVER TUTTLE'S CRYSTALLINE POINT project is happening at Aquarelle on 4/29 from 5-10pm. It will include snacks and drinks by Aquarelle, a raffle and auction of art and other items and services, and it is both a celebration of the closing of the current show that Denver has had at Aquarelle for the past year and a promotion for his next project, which will require fundraising.  The Ukeholics with The Tiny Orchestra Of Boonville will be performing.

THE ANDERSON VALLEY is a great place for children. We still have a community here, a community which, despite its small size, has always managed to produce parents and random adult volunteers who made sure all of the children in the area had wholesome, after school things to do, Little League baseball and pee wee football primary among those activities. This year, a ton of local kids have their own Little League, thanks to a core group of parents led by Luis and Shauna Espinoza.

LAST TUESDAY AFTERNOON, the Anderson Valley Little League got its season going. Yours truly was honored to throw out the first ball after a recorded rendition of the National Anthem and introductory remarks by Mr. Espinoza, a Sheriff's Department detective when he isn't getting the nifty little ball field at the south end of the Boonville Fairgrounds ready for at least a hundred kids to enjoy a summer of baseball.

ANDERSON VALLEY'S Little League is truly a team effort, with a local board of directors who keep the kids in bats and balls, and a core group of committed parents who do everything else to make an afternoon of baseball enjoyable for everyone from t-ballers prone to run the wrong way on the bases to the surprisingly good snack shack for all the little ones and their friends and families. Young people get their sense of place from these early engagements, a sense of place and happy memories that stay with them always, even when real life catches up with them as it does all of us.

BA1stPitch2

2 Comments

  1. Dave Smith April 22, 2015

    A ball or a strike, Mr. Anderson?

  2. debrakeipp April 22, 2015

    Good arm, on ya!

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