IF IT RAINS hard for eight solid hours, as it did a week ago Tuesday, 128 at Navarro will be closed at Flynn Creek. Sure ‘nuff. The gates were drawn across the highway Tuesday afternoon and opened Wednesday about noon. The Navarro River rises fast even if the ground isn’t saturated, which it wasn’t before this week’s deluge, but it began raining shortly after midnight on Tuesday morning and was still raining hard late afternoon 12 hours later. When the big rains close the road, locals get to and from the Mendocino Coast through Comptche or Elk. The Garcia between Manchester and Point Arena spilled over Highway One near Point Arena, which it also always does, and only Jan the Mail Lady is bold enough to traverse it both ways. Nothing stops Jan, nothing! Everyone between Cloverdale and the Point Arena Air Force Station get their Netflicks even if Noah himself has sung out, “All aboard! Last call!”
AT LAST, daycare for the Anderson Valley, under the experienced, comfortable and safe auspices of Heather Wallace, aka Mama Bear's Daycare. Info at 895 — 3414 or 363-3511.
MICHAEL HARRIS is a bigwig in the State Parks bureaucracy. He said Tuesday that only a few of the 70 California parks scheduled for closing this summer will actually really truly close. Harris said 11 of the parks have already been rescued by state, federal and community entities while some 40 more parks on the hit list are also likely to be similarly spared. He estimated about 15 parks remain as likely victims of the state budget cuts that threw State Parks into crisis mode. Harris said he expects most parks will be run by for-profit concessionaires and nonprofit organizations. The Legislative Analyst's Office has recommended a variety of ways to keep the parks open, which include transferring park ownership to cities and counties, allowing private and nonprofit companies to operate parks, increasing entrance fees and expanding concession contracts. There is no definitive word yet on Hendy Woods’ (Philo) prospects.
LEGENDARY singer/songwriter Kris Kristofferson (Country Music Hall of Fame, Songwriter Hall of Fame) will be joined by multiple Grammy winning, songwriter/producer/performer Bill Bottrell for a performance benefit for Hendy Woods State Park on Wednesday evening, July 11, 2012 at 8 PM, “In-The-Tent”, Mendocino Headlands during the Mendocino Music Festival. Tickets will be $45.00 and all proceeds will go to helping keep Hendy Woods open. For ticket locations contact HendyWoods.org.
WE'RE STILL TRYING to assemble a complete AVA archive, and will have one if we can find these three papers: February 1st of 1984; February 8th of 1984; and December 26th of 1984. If you have them, please let us know and we'll haggle from there.
STEVE SPARKS is back from his native England, and no sooner does he smell the sweet winds of liberty sweeping the tarmac at SF International, he reminds us, “the first Thursday of the month is approaching and you know what that means — NO Quiz! That's right Quiz fans, we are on a schedule of 2nd and 4th Thursdays for the Quiz nights and so the next night of 'fun and brain exercising' is next week — April 12th. And then the 26th. Hope to see you then...”
THE THIRTIETH (yes, 30!) Annual Boontling Classic 5K footrace (and walk) will take place Sunday, May 6th at 10am at the Anderson Valley Elementary School. Ribbons are awarded to the winners in each age group, but the real draw is the drawing for prizes donated by local businesses — all entrants are eligible to win wine, gift certificates, etc. Entry forms can be picked up at the Boont Berry Farm Store and All That Good Stuff in Boonville. If you or your business would like to donate one more great prize, please call Bruce Hering at 707-895-3589 or email him at brucehering@pacific.net
JEFF BURROUGHS WRITES: “The old town at the Junction of 128 and 253 was called the “Corners,” not the Crossroads. Also, The building that Rancheria Reality occupies today was moved from the Corners, and the Boonville Hotel fire only burned the upstairs portion of the old structure.”
AV YOUTH FOOTBALL will be holding a Fish n' Chips dinner on Friday, May 11th (night before BeerFest) from 6-9 p.m. at the AV Senior Center. Dinner will include Fish, chips, coleslaw and one free Boonville Beer or other beverage with purchase of dinner. Additional beer $2-$3 donation requested. Dinner is $15. Proceeds will go towards new uniforms and equipment. More news to follow.
TICKETS are still available for the April 22 Earthday BBQ at Navarro Vineyards to benefit Hendy Woods and our community's ongoing efforts to keep it open. 12-3pm at Navarro Vineyards with local food, music, a fabulous silent auction and many of your friends and neighbors serving food and pouring wine. Ticket information at HendyWoods.org.
FRANKLIN GRAHAM writes from Seville: “One thing that has impressed me is that Spain, with 20% unemployment and a 17% budget cut, has no plans to close parks. We are enjoying leisurely walks through Maria Luisa Park, close to the Alfanso Xiii Hotel (the old hang out for Orson Welles, Sinatra, and Audrey Hepburn. Let's not go into the royals who have stayed there. The big difference, in a way, is that in Europe parks tend to be in or at close hand to the urban zones. Nature preserves are plentiful. It makes sense in that the land here has been inhabited for 1000s of years, so there simply was not a lot of emptied out space to set aside for parks. America really is somewhat unique in this respect. I plan to talk with some Sevillanos about their parks.”
YOU'VE GOT BAD management and then you have KZYX management. When Sheila Dawn Tracy asked for public documents from the tax-supported public radio station, she was told to make a formal request for them. When she made the formal request she was told she'd made it on the wrong form, and told it was on the wrong form in the most pompous manner, as in “therefore we need not reply.” The present management of the station, led by the dim and clearly incompetent John Coate, is going to sink the ship if they keep this kind of thing up. What's the point? Is it now station policy to be pointlessly rude and obstinate to everyone who asks an inconvenient question? Public institutions are supposed to be transparent. If Coate's management fears transparency, what is he hiding?
SPEAKING OF RUDE and obstinate, what's with the manager at Shenoa? Dave Severn, the only local I know who regularly accesses the Navarro River in the vicinity of the gate to Shenoa, noted recently that the Shenoa gate was covered in a thick coat of grease. When Dave asked que pasa, a harridan-voiced shriek echoed through the gate's intercom, “To keep you from trespassing!” But Severn has permission from the adjoining property owners, the Van Zandt's, to walk to the river via the area of the Shenoa gate, and he wondered how grease would effectively bar him, at the same time wondering at the mental health of the person who'd gone to the trouble of applying it. Severn soon received a phone call from Lt. Greg VanPatten of the Sheriff's Department. VanPatten said he'd received a trespassing complaint… and and and.
AND JUST DOWN the road from Grease Gate, the descendants of the Farrer family are threatening to entirely close off the Grease Gate end of Ray's Road. It seems the sight of an occasional person or family contentedly ambling past the old Farrer homestead enflames the descendent Farrer. Hispanic amblers especially seem to enflame the old boy, who seldom visits anyway. It's not as if Ray's Road is the Embarcadero Promenade. You can go days, weeks even, before you'll encounter a pedestrian at the Grease Gate end of Ray's Road. All this grease gating and complaining about an occasional family out for a stroll on a remote country road is downright unneighborly.
AND PLEASE don't forget Sunday morning's Easter Egg hunt and Lion's Club Breakfast at the Boonville Fairgrounds.
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