Valley People (April 24, 2019)

NO WORD YET on the identity of the persons injured Sunday afternoon when their vehicle containing five persons plunged over the side and into a creek near 3210 Holmes Ranch Road. The Anderson Valley Fire Department ambulance rendezvoused with the Ukiah ALS (Advanced Life Support) ambulance at the Boonville Fairgrounds. At last report (5:20 pm) five patients were transported to the Ukiah Valley Medical Center "Code 2" - no lights/siren, meaning none of the five suffered life-threatening injuries.

CHIEF AVILA fleshes out the unhappy episode: “A Redwood City family was driving through the area when they left the roadway and hit the embankment; they then lost control and crossed the highway and rolled down the hill. During their descent down the vehicle was said to have rolled more than three times and came to a rest in the seasonal creek. When units arrived at scene, the family had self-extricated out of the vehicle and climbed up the 100 foot embankment and was sitting under a tree near the road. The two adults, three children (two under ten and an infant) were transported by AV Ambulance, with our local medic Theresa Gowan on board, to an incoming ambulance out of Ukiah and ultimately to Ukiah Valley Med Center. AVFD units reported that the five were transported with minor injuries to UVMC for care and precaution due to the potential for injury. AVFD remained on scene for an hour and a half to assist with the vehicle recovery after the patients were transported.”  

REMINDER! The Boonville Farmers’ Market is back and will open with festivities on Friday, May 3rd from 4:00-7:00 p.m. in the parking lot at Aquarelle (14025 Highway 128). Come for local food, dinner, music and other local products! Cal Fresh’s EBT Market Match program will be available. More info? Call Lama at 489-5034 or check for updates at www.avfoodshed.com.

INTRODUCING WENDY LAMER, who will open this very Thursday a wine store and bar in the former Aquarelle restaurant space in central Boonville with, eventually, food to go. Ms. Lamer is stocking both local wines and an excellent selection of wines from around the world.  Her sparkling carousel is amazing - Champagne, Cave, Prosecco and so forth.  She is the sister of Greg Lamer who works for Roederer in the position previously occupied by the late Sharon Sullivan.  As described by an acquaintance, Ms. Lamer “is super personable and fun and a great addition to the community.”

THE ANDERSON VALLEY FIRE DEPARTMENT will host a three-part fire prevention series called “Living with Wildfire (in the Navarro River watershed)” on three successive Tuesdays — April 30, May 7, and May 14, from 6-8pm at the Boonville Firehouse. The first Tuesday will cover Fire Behavior And Home Hardening, the second Fire Behavior And Best Management Practices, and the third Organizing And Communicating At The Neighborhood Level. "Learn how factors like topography, wind and fuel might affect fire behavior in your neighborhood and what you can do to be prepared.” Group size is limited. RSVP by calling 895-2020 or email admin@AndersonValleyFire.org. Sponsored by the Anderson Valley Fire Department and the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council.

THE ANDERSON VALLEY COMMUNITY SERVICES administration, fire and emergency services staff received 5.8% performance and cost of living pay raises from the CSD Board this month based on good performance reviews and budget affordability. Fire Chief Andres Avila will now make $78k/year plus health and retirement benefits (for comparison, a Ukiah Valley Fire Department captain gets $80k-$85k/year plus full benefits); Part-time Fire Department admin assistant Angela Dewitt gets $24k/year with minimal benefits; EMS Officer (aka Ambulance Manager and lead first-responder) Clay Eubanks gets $58k/year plus modest benefits; Part time CSD manager Joy Andrews gets $29k/year plus modest benefits; part-time CSD Secretary Patty Liddy gets $23k/year plus modest benefits. The five CSD board members get no salary or benefits for their significant time contributions: Valerie Hanelt, Kathleen McKenna, Paul Soderman, Larry Mailliard and Francois Christen.

OLD TIMERS and not-so-old timers will remember when Homer Mannix took care of the Valley’s business almost singlehandedly, and the fire department was strictly volunteers. Please excuse me if I say out loud that I have noticed no difference in quality of emergency services between then and now, not that the paid apparatus we now have doesn’t do a good job.

WILDFLOWER SHOW coming right up on May 4th and 5th, more than 300 flowers, grasses, and tree branches will be identified and on display at the Boonville Fairgrounds (June Building). The plants most beneficial to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds will be the focus of plants-on-sale this year. Lots of information will be provided, including which plants and trees host caterpillars that help songbirds feed their young. Plant talks will be given by naturalists; attendees are welcome to bring in plants for experts to identify. Some of Susan Gross’s striking botanical art pieces will be on site, and for sale -- two pieces will be offered on raffle! 

THE AV Library will be closed Saturday, April 27, during the Beerfest. On Saturday, May 4, during the Wildflower Show, the library will be open 12:30-2:30 and will have a $5 a bag book sale. Please bring your own bag.

ED NOTE: Book people won’t want to miss the Library’s sale, always a great deal and better by the year for book dinos as our distracted population goes from the peace, quiet and contemplation offered by books to the frazzling, fragmented blips of handheld gizmos. Make a day of it by taking in the Wildflower Show then shuffling a few feet west to the Library for the big sale.

HENDY WOODS recently refurbished Day Use Area has picnic tables, barbecues, shade structures, and bathrooms that comply with the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It's an easy walk along several miles of the Navarro River.

There are miles of moderately easy hiking trails. 92 camping sites can be reserved in the high season, and are available without reservation at other times of the year, including several ADA-compliant sites. 4 small camping cabins can be reserved year round, including one ADA-compliant cabin.

Hendy Woods State Park is open every day of the year for both Camping and Day Use. We are always looking for Volunteers. Can you Staff our Visitor Center, Lead Interpretive Walks, or Control Invasive Species? Come talk to us about volunteering at our Volunteer Appreciation Event?

Our mailing address is: 

Hendy Woods Community

PO Box 443

Philo, CA 95466-0443

HendyWoodsCommunity@gmail.com

ANOTHER Do Not Miss event is Customer Appreciation Day at AV Farm Supply where, among many other attractions we’re promised, “Once again, Libby’s will be cooking tacos for our annual Customer Appreciation Day! May 10th from 12:00pm - 5:00 pm.”

THE BIG BOONVILLE QUIZ is this Thursday, April 25 at Lauren’s Restaurant in Boonville. Interrogations start at 7pm.

CAN'T HELP but be irritated by the new verbal tics. Along with high nasal deliveries, uptalk and the constant error even among the national news Chuckle Buddies of 'incidences' for 'incidents,’ we now endure 'sort of' and 'kind of' prefacing simple declarative statements. Bad grammar and rhetorical incoherence seem to be infectious and, ultimately, crippled communications.

THE ANNUAL BOONTLING CLASSIC 5K FOOTRACE is Sunday, May 5 (Cinco de Mayo) at 10pm starting and ending at AV Elementary School. $10 entry fee, $10 per commemorative t-shirt. Plaques to top man and woman, ribbons for top three in each age/gender division, and a prize drawing. More info: Mike McDonald: 621-2701 (flick@mcn.org).

WHILE BOONVILLE enjoyed a pleasant and unhurried Easter at the Assembly of God Church, up in Willits an unhappy Mom writes: “I’m going to make this post public in hopes that it reaches whomever put together the eggstravaganza egg hunt at the high school. It was one of the most amazing events I have attended in the small town of Willits in a while. My kids were totally excited; they had a blast because it was beautifully put together. However, I wanted to let the church know that I apologize profusely for a woman who stood next to me at the event. Yes there was a sermon and yes the kids got anxious, but because it was all free and beautifully done and such a great event with a good message I had no problem encouraging my kids to wait and be patient, respectful of the message. I'm not a very religious person; however I can notice and give thanks when something is so positively put together. To the woman who stood next to me and yelled GO right at the start line while the pastor was mid-sermon caused utter chaos and caused many children to cry and be upset. I hope you read this and I hope it resonates somewhere in your heart how truly disrespectful and immature you were. Next time if you don’t have the maturity to allow people who put this on to spread their word and love by all means stay home. And I hope that for the church people who put this together you read this and know that we apologize for her actions, and there were plenty of people who were thrilled and were so happy to be there. I'm just going to sit back and assume that she was one of the people who needed to hear those things most. I also hope that her children have someone in their lives that can teach them patience and respect and how to be grateful when things are given to us free of cost or free of worry. I hope that this will be shared so that way they know that we were very grateful and it was a great time and I hope one bad apple didn't ruin it for the rest of us. On an end note you don’t have to agree with a specific belief but if you attend and enjoy their event the least you can do is stand by respectfully while they share their beliefs. The kids who didn’t wait had their baskets filled while the kids who waited for the start had very little.”

POSITIVELY HARROWING on 128 Sunday morning for this motorist as 20 or so motorized death wishers, at what appeared to be speeds of about 80 mph, upwards of 100 on the flat stretch approaching Boonville, passed me and each other on blind curves and generally risked their own apparently expendable lives and everyone else's in a mad dash for the Mendocino Coast. I was tooling along at Pomo Tierra (aka Haehl Grade) when I was startled out of my pastoral reveries by a Mustang-looking vehicle roaring past me on the blind curve at the foot of the Grade. And here came a whole posse of these nuts in what appeared to be a road race, passing and tailgating each other at heedless warp speeds beyond any I've seen on McDonald's to the Sea, as 128 was called in less hectic times. It was like me and my old Civic had been subliminally plunged into the middle of the Daytona 500. As I was tsk-tsking to myself at this suicide squad, which was instantly beyond me at warp speeds, damned if about ten of their laggards didn't appear in my rearview mirror, the lead laggard impatiently flashing his headlights for me to get the hell out of the way. But there was no place for me to get the hell out of the way when the guy whipped almost all the way around me into the oncoming lane suddenly occupied by a pick-up! I braked and swerved right just as the kamikazi swerved back into our lane as the oncoming pick-up also braked. Bing! bam! but not boom. In the instant I thought I'd be collateral damage to a head-on with someone dying, especially given the speed of the psycho trying to pass me on the curve. Nope. The fool's death had been reserved for another day, not that he even hesitated to thank the goddess he'd narrowly missed whatever comes next. He immediately accelerated and hurtled on as if nothing had happened. And soon the whole line of the second wave had disappeared, undoubtedly jubilant at the long stretch between the new Yorkville cemetery and the Lawson place.

A READER NOTES: "Your protege Freda Moon has one of those ("36 Hours in…”) full pagers in today’s [Sunday’s] NYTimes spreading news of tourist-friendly Mendocino County. It’s 97.3% focused on Highway 128, spas, wineries, coastal gourmet this-and-that and tall trees. Most of the remainder is about Grace Hudson’s Museum."

JUST NOTICED this comment from Freda on MSP: “I’m a Mendo native, but just reported a story about the county, which included a lot of food and drink, and I was pretty shocked at restaurant prices. Lunch for two adults and a three-year-old consistently came to $50-$75. The food was also consistently great, so that’s a big plus, but if I lived there, I’d only be able to afford to eat out occasionally. One of the restaurants I mentioned in the intro to my story was so expensive (and doesn’t allow kids) that I wasn’t actually able to eat there—even with a New York Times budget.”

MS. MOON, an accomplished writer, was already far beyond the protege stage when she was affiliated with us, and quickly went on to much grander venues. Or much less grand venues, depending on the intensity of your allegiance to America’s last newspaper. Our true proteges were routed to us via the local high school as a place where the aspiring young might firm up their prose, composition being one more casualty of modern curricula. And all of them — all but one ambitious young women, by the way — were outdoing us even when they were proteges. They all went on to college and are doing well, some of them spectacularly well; remember this name: Kalilah Ford. She's a colonel in the Marine Corps and not even forty. As civic disorder grows I look for Kalilah to be the general in charge of our inevitable military interim, firmly but humanely restoring order, and maybe even going on to become The Woman on the White Horse!