Valley People (February 10, 2021)

SPOIL YOUR LOVED ONES! The AV High School Ag Department Valentine’s Day fundraiser at AV Market on Friday, February 12 will offer a dozen roses with filler in assorted arrangements as well as single roses with filler. Proceeds benefit the high school’s Ag program.

ESTHER MOBELY, Chron wine writer, touches down in Yorkville:

My Wine of the Week costs $13,000. Just kidding! It’s $32, and in my opinion it’s a very good value considering how well made and delicious it is. The Halcón Syrah comes from a high, extreme, windy vineyard in Mendocino County’s Yorkville Highlands. I visited the place a couple of years ago and was struck by its sloping hills and rocky soils — no small feat for its owners, Paul and Jackie Gordon, to farm. The site is perfect for Syrah, a grape that thrives on steep aspects. Their 2018 Las Alturas bottling has all of the bacon, black pepper and olive intensity that French Syrah lovers crave.”

MENDO PUBLIC HEALTH announced 7500 or so Mendo residents had been vaccinated as of last Friday. The Adventists say about 5,000 of those vaxxes they did themselves. Some number of Mendo nursing home residents (numbers unreported as far as we know) have been vaccinated via pharmacies. According to the census about 85% of Mendolanders are over 18. And 22% of Mendolanders are 65 or older.

So: 

7500 + 5000 + a few hundred = around 13,000

85% of 90,000 = about 76,000

13,000 / 76,000 = about 17% vaccination rate so far. 

We don’t know what percentage of the approximate 13,000 vaccinatees are over 65. Nor do we know what percentage of the over-18 will refuse to be vaccinated. The over-under bet here is 40%. Any takers? (Mark Scaramella)

FROM SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS: “As of a couple of weeks ago, aiming to reach 1 million COVID vaccinations, California sent us an extra ~2400 first doses with commitment to follow through with supply for second doses. The second doses became a problem. County CEO Carmel Angelo has been in continuous discussions with the state and we now have confirmation that they’re able to make good on the commitment. It wouldn’t have happened without her perseverance to ensure rural counties are not left behind.”

READING THE SAD STORY about crooks ripping off memorabilia displayed for years at the now-closed Cliff House, I wonder what happened to the oil painting of a valley vista that hung for years in the office at Anderson Valley High School. It was very nicely done by some unsung local artist? Last time I looked, it was gone. While I'm wondering about the present whereabouts of important Valley artifacts, remind me to ask Eddie Carsey about the old bar at the Boonville Hotel, the bar with all the old coins and bills under its glass top. The old bar was a treasure trove of cool old stuff, from animal heads to ancient guns.

THAT ALLEGED “ATMOSPHERIC RIVER” sweeping California last week soaked the County with much-needed rain but we're still woefully, worrisomely short of water, as water trucks continue to trundle up and down the back roads where green rush hoop houses demand to drink copious amounts of water year-round. 

LARRY LIVERMORE (Sunday, 4pm) “Watching the Super Bowl opening ceremonies is a deeply bittersweet experience: great strides toward a multicultural and racially integrated society set against the backdrop of a Potemkin stadium and the squalid trappings of an empire no longer just decaying, but collapsing.”

PARK PLANNING COMMUNITY INQUIRY

Our AV Community Services District is looking to officially lease the park land by the Health Center so that we can move forward with our grant proposal for park improvements. If you have any creative inspiration for how to improve this recreational space or know of current needs you wish could be met or if you or someone you know has experience in implementing park improvements (contractors, landscapers, gardeners, artists, etc), please don’t hesitate to reach out to me (elizabeth.martha.jensen@gmail.com, 415-713-3833) or attend our next AV CSD Recreation Committee meeting, Tuesday, February 16th, @1pm via Zoom (contact me for the link).

BEV DUTRA sends along copies of photos of large-scale Ku Klux Klan gatherings in Berkeley's Tilden Park, the Oakland Auditorium, and Richmond, all of them from 1924. The Klan also convened rallies here in Mendocino County about the same time, one of them in an open field between Boonville and Philo.

LUSH beds of daffodils springing forth everywhere in the Anderson Valley, none more lush than the one on the west side of Anderson Valley Way just down the street from Sam Prather’s place.