Letters (August 19, 2020)

• Ashley Says Goodbye
• A Fan’s Note
• Water & Wastewater Treatment Update #2
• Mr. Happy Clears The Air
• Why Just One Shift?
• Will America Be Alive?
• Jet-Powered Pyramids
• Snow Crocus
• It'll Get Worse

ASHLEY SAYS GOODBYE

Editor —

It is with a heavy heart that I write this goodbye letter to Boonville and the Anderson Valley going back almost 50 years now.

I journeyed up there last week as I have done so often only to realize when I returned to Alameda that that was my swan song. As I ease into my 90s I think it's about time to bid farewell to a happy part of my life.

Thanks to all of you for making it happy.

Yours,

Ashley Jones

Alameda

A FAN’S NOTE

Dear Brad Wiley,

I thoroughly enjoy your history of Navarro and its people. 

I was little, but I remember all those people. It took me back to my past. Thank you. I have saved the articles.

My Uncle Leith Johnson’s best friend was Bill Witherell. Uncle Leith and his brother-in-law Ronald Bennett owned and ran the Navarro Garage for a time. Leith Johnson was raised at North Fork, with his siblings Clifton, Verna, Henry and Mary Jane Best who was my mother. They were raised by Oscar and Hazel Johnson. They went to Zenoni’s Store and shopped. My folks were Pete and Mary Jane Best. We lived near Floodgate Store, run by Margarite and Sam Avery and their children Bernard and Anna.

My grandmother Hazel’s best friend was Violet Salmela, the Navarro postmistress.

I was in the Valley and met two wonderful people at the Boonville Store, Jerry and Kim Bloyd. They were related to people in my past. They went above and beyond helping me. Thank you to both of them.

Thanks also to Mark and Bruce for all the wonderful help and customer service. 

Hurrah for small town newspapers!

Sincerely,

Louis (Weasie) Alliston

Red Bluff

WATER & WASTEWATER TREATMENT UPDATE #2

Letter to locals with property within the boundaries of the proposed drinking water service area.  The general area is from Hutsell Road to the elementary school.

There is a clean drinking water and fire suppression issue in Boonville.

Going all the way back to the 1970’s, contamination was detected near water wells in Boonville. In 2015 water testing detected coliform bacteria and high levels of nitrates in 21 of 23 residential wells tested in central Boonville.   In 2019, a fire devastated downtown Boonville, burning Pic N’ Pay and Lizzby’s Restaurant to the ground as well as several dwellings behind the building.  Many were displaced and some also lost both their businesses AND their homes!  The Anderson Valley Fire Department did not have sufficient water during the incident.  The Fire Chief also reports that the hydrants at the elementary school are out of service due to a lack of water supply and the volume at the high school is inadequate for fire suppression.  The safety of our community’s children is at risk!

There is a solution to the problem.

The State of California has made providing clean drinking water to all its residents a top priority.  In never before seen available grant funding, the Anderson Valley Community Services District (AVCSD) has been working with the Water Board (State Water Resources Control Board) to develop a drinking water system for central Boonville. It is estimated to cost approximately 16 million dollars and the construction and installation would be completely paid for by these grants and, in addition, now they will even pay for the residential lateral hook-ups.  Engineers have been working to identify a cost-effective approach to solve the problem, and it involves siting several clusters of wells around Boonville.  As most of these are existing wells the water table would not be affected as usage would not necessarily increase.  Growth will continue to be limited by current County of Mendocino zoning requirements and the state will only fund a system with an “overcapacity” of 10%, also requiring fire hydrants be installed every 500 feet under the grants.   Current private wells could be kept for irrigation, provided a backflow preventer is installed.  The water in Boonville would finally be brought up to safe drinking water and fire suppression standards.

How can you help?

Please become informed about the Boonville Drinking Water project by:

• Reading our FAQs at avcsd.org/watersewer.php

• Attending a Water Projects Committee meeting held online at 10:30 AM on the first Thursday of every month via Zoom; sign up for announcements by emailing your request to water.avcsd@gmail.com to be added to the email list;

• Attending an informational water/wastewater community meeting to discuss:  the status of the project, the health consequences of NO water treatment in the Anderson Valley, the hydrology of Boonville, and the impacts of a municipal system (these will be announced on the AVCSD website or the AV Advertiser);

• Contacting an AVCSD Board member to discuss the project 

The State funds will no longer be available if the AVCSD doesn’t act soon.  

The Anderson Valley 

Community Services District Board

Val Hanelt Chair (valhanelt@me.com)

François Christen (fogrover@gmail.com)

Kathleen McKenna (kmckenna@pacific.net)

Larry Mailliard (mmmyard@pacific.net)

Paul Soderman (psoderman@gmail.com)

MR. HAPPY CLEARS THE AIR

Dear Mr. Editor!

Casey Hardison here, aka Mr. International Drug Guy, the International Bigwig: though I prefer “drug wizard” or simply “OB1.”

Whilst all publicity is good publicity in Marshall McLuhan's eyes, your article about me paints a pejorative, possibly even slanderous portrait of myself.

Yes! I do have an “indefatigable good mood,” an unfailing jolly joker live demeanor, I got the cosmic giggle decades ago one starry restless night on LSD. Hamilton already made the documentary. Now, maybe the movie.

I take issue with a few of your mistruthier representations. First, I do not have a long history of drug convictions. I have a possession of cannabis conviction in Idaho for a few grams and similar here in California from the 1990s. And I beat charges for cannabis in Idaho for a few pounds on constitutional grounds and 2017.

Yes, I am recognized internationally by the usual alphabet agencies and beyond for operating in England the “most sophisticated” clandestine psychedelic drug lab in history, although I'd give that title to Nick Sand, the legendary Orange Sunshine Acid Chemist. Nick inspired my meticulous attention to alchemist detail, purity and cleanliness.

As for your line about my lady being a possible victim of “the grinning perp” — absurd nonsense. She's a victim of her own sacred tantrum. This time a multi-day traipse in the fields of Lodi sponsored by ketamine and Balleto Brut rose 2014 champagne. Tralala. Ketamine is quite possibly the finest powdered sleep and antidepressant known since the aimless blade of science slashed the pearly gates. And the Balleto? Well, for those who know… Mr. Advertiser.

So, what was I doing in on Elkhorn Road? Aside from fishing my lady out of her “K-hole” I was consulting on a project bringing a custom proprietary blend of cannabinoids to market as “Covid(re)Leaf” tincture and aerosolized inhaler and/or suppository. Thus, a totally lawful adventure in “healing the nation” with “the leaves of the tree” sustaining the Mendocino economy and beyond.

In June “I fucking love science” reported that 45 mice given the severe respiratory syndrome associated with Covid (AROS) were 100% cured from the inflammatory cytokine storm by inhaled Delta-9 THC, that “assassin of youth.” Cannabinoids are involved in all pathophysiology in mammals.

So please Mr. Advertiser spare me your pejorative drug abuseologies, and drug warrior rhetoric. For a “war on some people who use some drugs” is a war on people and a war on the people is a war none of us can win.

I now sit awaiting extradition/deportation to Wyoming for the conveyance of cannabis. Who’d have thunk that one could be arrested for cannabis the days? I could have drove with that with much weed on my dashboard here in California without consequences.

When I drove off in Wyoming that fateful day two years ago, I believed I is was being robbed by pirates, unidentified on the high seas. But their Admiralty Jurisdiction is of no force and will be the undoing of the war on some people who prefer some drugs. This is not the high seas, this be Wyoming, one of the last bastions of true liberty in these United States.

So take me there O Lord for I look forward to this quest for the Holy Grail, my quest to end the “war on cognitive liberty,” the right to alter my mental functioning as I see fit, provided no harm to others results. With this and other rights retained by the people, I will end the war.

No one was harmed on Elkhorn Road although some laughs were had. Does anybody remember laughter? Our folly is that 2500 years after Plato we have still not fully integrated the Pharmakon: Those remedies, those poisons, those magical substances we know and love.

We had a psychedelic hootenanny on Elkhorn. We saw infinity in one hour. After the ecstasy, the laundry.

I am charged with selling a few pounds of Mendo Outdoor to that Wyoming undercover and scooting off with their money to their chagrin, to their embarrassment. It's time for us all to strip down, get naked in the garden and do the laundry.

So I thank you Mr. Advertiser for this opportunity to state my case! May it please this Court, let there be light, let there be justice, though the heavens may fall.

Sincerely,

Casey William Hardison, POW

Mendocino County Jail, 501 Low Gap Road, Ukiah CA 95482

WHY JUST ONE SHIFT?

Editor,

My name is Anthony Eugene Blakesley and unfortunately I'm stuck in the Lake County Hill Road correctional facility. However, I was blessed with an opportunity to read your Anderson Valley Advertiser July 29 edition with the report concerning the Measure B Committee stumbling on a good idea.

That article talked about a pilot crisis/mobile van program which is meant for 5150 individuals who are a danger to themselves or others which would operate on only one 40 hour shift a week.

It is a complete blunder that this project has not become operational. Why does this project have to be just a mobile van for only one shift for only one county? 

I live in Lake County where there are numerous calls per day for mentally ill individuals. I personally know quite a few of them. In all honesty, my mother Candise May Henderson is one of those people who is homeless and 5150. I haven't been the best son to my mother because of my alcohol and drug addiction. I have neglected my responsibilities as a man and son to my mother. I have tried with determination to help my mother get back on her feet and off the street where she is homeless. SSI and the community here in Lake County don't seem to care about this battered, drug addicted and severely mentally ill individual on the street. It turns my stomach and causes my blood to boil red hot. Fortunately, some of the other homeless people here in Lake County actually have a heart and mean to look after my mother to some extent. I express my gratitude to those individuals. My heart goes out to all of them. But I wish the system wasn't so coldhearted and could have better judgment, and better understanding and more consideration for the mentally ill and for the homeless here in Lake County. I can't express how much weight is on my shoulders and how much remorse and resentment I feel for allowing my everyday convictions to sway me away from my responsibilities as a man, a son, a and father with my off the record qualms with myself and my family and my community.

Sincerely,

Anthony Blakesley

Lake County Jail, Lakeport

WILL AMERICA BE ALIVE?

Editor,

Unsolicited media report -- Morning TV. Channels 2, 4, 5, 7. In order to get 10 minutes of news you are required to watch and listen to 50 minutes of bullshit. MSNBC and CNN are better but not much. Liberal bias. NPR radio gives you the most news for the amount of time you listen. Very cautious. No outspoken voices allowed. Afternoon and evening news. PBS channel 9 best TV news of the day, 3pm and repeats at 6pm. NPR radio at 5pm to 6pm is most news coverage.

PD: Seems like best letters to the Editor come from Sebastopol. Columnists: Reading Pete Golis is a waste of time. Jonah Goldberg is interesting and is worth reading. New ideas. Trudy Rubin boring. Best thing about Press Democrat is reprinted news stories and columnists from the Times and Post. Too expensive. Three month subscription costs $180.

The Electoral College problem! As one of the few who voted for Henry Wallace in 1948 (I didn't know he was a communist) I thought he was Secretary of Agriculture and vice president during the Roosevelt administration. What I learned during that election was that the Electoral College had to be eliminated. It's hopeless to expect the government to do anything about it. Have to go around the government. Requires bold action. There are anti-electoral college groups in every state except Wyoming. Will take some time. Maybe 2026-2028. Will any AVA print readers still be alive? How about a boycott? Chevrolet, Ford and Plymouth? Peanut butter, tuna fish, and macaroni and cheese? Where is Eugene Debs when we needed him?

Ralph Bostrom

Willits

JET-POWERED PYRAMIDS

Editor,

What's the exact opposite of an airplane? A barnacle, I think. Equally, the Pyramid of Cheops. Designers should get to work combining the best attributes of a jet plane — rapid transit across great expanses — with the outstanding qualities of the Pyramid of Cheops — nearly impregnable and massive tomb of putative God King — to produce a massive stone monument carrying one passenger rapidly through the air. Imagine if you will a Formula One racecar capable of reaching speeds of 200 mph improved by incorporating into it the tenacious gripping power of the barnacle so that the race car would remain utterly inert no matter how long and hard you raced the engine. The technology probably already exists! There may even be a way of engineering a concrete that when cured would be as perfectly limp as linguine so that skyscrapers might finally be unbound from old-fashioned limitations of rigidity and stability. Et cetera.

Sub jugo,

Volt Voort

San Francisco

SNOW CROCUS

To the Editor:

Enough is enough! Hang on all you old flag-waving white lives matter too patriots. We will have our day. It may not be in court but it is coming. As Al said, "Something's moving!" That would be Albert Einstein for you uninformed retarded beauties.

Violence can be met with violence if that is what they want. In the old days they would have been dispatched with little fanfare and no wasted court time. You may say, Well we cannot do that. I say it will not solve the ongoing problems but it sure in hell would reduce the count and occurrences. Endless babble and talking has not worked and is not working. Bring on Plan B.

Some people may say, Oh my, not nice. I say take another of those pills and go to bed.

I'm like thousands of other fair-minded Americans black and white. We have had it up to here with the lopsided black injustice we all know is being forced down our throats day in and day out!

For god sakes let go. Enough is enough! I think even Randolph Hearst would have changed the needle. We get it, okay?

And for all you flaming lefties who just cannot or will not let go, get out! Leave my flawed country behind. You and your utopian ideals should relocate to an area like the Falkland Islands. Don't go to Russia. The gulags there are overflowing with utopian, freedom-minded activists such as yourselves. Good news: If you luck out your diet will be rats and mice with a small portion of snow crocus. Take a warm coat and gloves.

God bless America, the Donald, Jerry Philbrick

Getting Older & Angrier.

Boonville

IT'LL GET WORSE

Editor,

Riots. Looting. Shooting. Anarchy. Attacking police. Throwing balls of urine at the police and bottles of feces. Nasty as you can get. But it's happening in Democratic led cities. The more they do, the more it will help the people of the United States say to the Democrats: Who are you people? How can you be so disgusting? They are the only ones having any trouble. I hope it gets worse in the Democratic led cities. A lot of people think like me. It proves what a rotten bunch of scum the Democratic party really is.

Kamala, Camel?, Harris? Who is she? She couldn't even lead a Girl Scout team in San Francisco. The only reason she’s a senator is because she had money. Come on, give me a break. She and Biden couldn't be president of a Boy Scout team.

God bless Donald Trump.

Jerry Philbrick

Comptche