Valley People

CAMP MASONITE-NAVARRO has been sold for $1.9 million, the Redwood Empire Boy Scout Council announced Thursday. The 80-acre property off the old Masonite Road near Navarro has existed as a Scout camp for 57 years. NorthWest Stewards, a Seattle-based real estate investment company, will be the new owner when escrow closes in a few months. The new owners will allow the Scouts to stay on but also intend to rent the property for retreats and corporate camp-outs. The camp had been for sale for more than a year at $2 million. Founded in 1955 on land on the North Fork of the Navarro River donated by Masonite, it fell into only occasional use 14 years ago when the Scouts were prohibited from damming the river in the summer. The Scouts said they’d gone into debt maintaining the property at $45,000 a year. Without the old swimming hole created by the summer dam, which was considered the camp’s chief attraction, few Scout groups rented the place.

CALTRANS wants to increase the speed limit through Philo, and after all the trouble we went to get it lowered to 30mph. Big Orange has developed a cockamamie formula that sets speed limits by how fast most of the traffic is moving, and most traffic, unfortunately, moves through Philo much faster than the posted speed limit.

IT WAS IN August of 2010 that some 60 badged pot raiders from eight agencies descended upon a 2,406 plant grow near Branscomb, one of several large grows in the area. During the raid, Mariano Lopez-Fernandez of Boonville was shot and killed when he “took a position of cover and pointed a loaded semi-automatic rifle” at deputies. Mendocino County, reluctantly responding to a public records act request by The Willits News nearly two years after the event, has finally released the names of the shooters in what had already been found to be a justified shooting by previous Mendo DA Meredith Lintott. Sgt. Joseph Comer and deputies Dustin Lorenzo and Richard Van Buren were the officers who shot Lopez-Hernandez. The deceased's autopsy revealed that he not only died “of multiple gunshot wounds, he had alcohol, methamphetamine and marijuana present in his blood.” During the same raid, officers were fired upon by a different group of armed men, but no one was injured in that exchange of gunfire. Lopez-Fernandez was the sole supporter of a wife and child. His family still lives in Airport Estates, Boonville.

SAVVY TIMING by the Youth Football folks has them scheduling their Fish 'n Chips benefit on  Friday, May 11th, the night before the Beerfest just as thousands of dudes and dudettes arrive for Saturday's mass guzzle at the Fairgrounds. From 6-9 pm at the Senior Center/Vets Building for a mere $15 Youth Football plate, you not only get the fish and the chips, you get one free Boonville Beer or coffee, soda, water, lemonade for minors or non-drinkers, and coleslaw and dessert with the Fish 'n Chips.

THE ANDERSON VALLEY Community Services District Board voted 5-0 last Wednesday night to send this letter to slum meister Glen Ricard of Little River: “Dear Mr. Ricard, This community and this Board believe that your abandoned and rundown building is a blight on the town of Boonville and a threat to the health and safety of the neighbors and neighboring properties. It also gives an initial bad impression of the town of Boonville to visitors approaching from the south which can affect local commerce. It is clear that your structure presents a fire danger because of the decrepit condition of the building, siding and internal collapse, and because transients can easily, and apparently have, broken in and entered the building in the past. Transients are known to occasionally start cooking fires which could easily get out of control. They are likely to conduct illegal drug activity in the building. We ask that you either: 1. Simply demolish the building because it appears that it has no economic value and the property would probably be worth more if the building were removed. 2. Refurbish and remodel the building for beneficial occupancy (as apparently preliminarily applied for several years ago). Or 3. Sell the property to a willing buyer at a reasonable price. Are you and/or your insurance carrier aware of the liabilities the building presents? We may be able to advise or assist you in arranging for the safe demolition or destruction of the building and removal of debris. We encourage you to work with the local community to arrange for beneficial local occupancies that would become the basis for the construction of a new or remodeled building that would then provide income to you, while providing additional residential or commercial space in Boonville. We would like the courtesy of a reply to these concerns and requests with an indication of what your plans are for the property.”

GARRETT MEZZANATTO, injured at Point Arena last fall in the final play of his final high school football game, is still hobbled by the knee injury he suffered that day of the championship game, narrowly lost in a driving rain by Anderson Valley. But Garrett's mom, Renee Lee, says Garrett, especially given the severity of his injury, is doing very well in his “12th week post-op!!”  Mom says Garrett “still has months of physical therapy to look forward to but he is sporting a custom brace so he has finally said good bye to the crutches and the shower chair. He will probably have to wear it for about another 6 months for normal walking and probably for life with sports. He has been conducting a quarterback and wide receiver's camp for little guys these past two days as his senior project. “

THE AV GRANGE will host a Grange Groove dance on Friday, April 20th from 8-10pm. DJ Jeanine will provide the music. Family-friendly, drug-and alcohol-free event. The Grange is on Highway 128 in Philo. Information at 895-3589.

THE MATTER of Mr. Plowright of Mill Creek fame, has again been put over. Plowright, as some of us will recall, is facing multi-agency charges arising when a tractor he owned at his Nash Mill property was discovered in the streambed, a streambed huge effort has gone into to rehab. Plowright's attorney, Duncan James, said he needed more time to prepare. Certain of our judges, as some of us are aware, are way too lax on scheduling. Certain lawyers are allowed to bluster into court with a lot of transparently improbable excuses about why they need more time. The judge instantly re-schedules for old Palsy-Walsy, and the people present for the thing shuffle out onto the splendors of State Street with a fresh lesson that the system's first allegiance is to itself. This Plowright thing has dragged on for several years now. But come on back, saps, on Friday, May 11th when Plowright is scheduled to be sentenced. For real. Count on it. Fer sure. Not!

LOCAL BOY ZACK ANDERSON'S movie, Will, starring Bob Hoskins, screened at the Kabuki Cinemas in San Francisco on Sunday to an enthusiastic full house.

COULD IT HAPPEN HERE? “A Washington County teacher accused of firing a blank gun in a welding class is facing criminal charges. Police tell media outlets that 60-year-old Manuael Ernest Dillow is charged with 12 felony counts of brandishing a weapon. Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman says the incident occurred April 4 at the William N. Neff Center in Abingdon. Dillow is accused of lining up a dozen students near a garage door and firing the blank gun multiple times in their direction. No students were injured. A motive hasn’t been released. Washington County Schools Superintendent Jim Sullivan says Dillow isn’t working now but he couldn’t comment further because it’s a personnel matter.

HAVEN'T SEEN Olie Erickson since he got back from a long and, from all accounts, action-packed boat trip around Latin America. An experienced sailor, Olie was hired to sail a boat from one remote place to another remoter place far, far away. He got there, but it wasn't simple.

MISSING THEIR ACE second baseman and all-round go-to guy, Oren Klein, who endured monthly sessions on a dialysis machine, the Boonville Panther baseball team dropped both ends of a doubleheader to Potter Valley last week in Potter Valley, 15-5, 8-5. The boys take on Mendocino today (Tuesday) in Mendocino, some of them grumbling that Mendocino starts two girls on its boy's varsity. Our girls softball team, not so incidentally, is much improved under their new coach, Amber Mesa, a former college-level player. Ms. Mesa, and another new teacher at the high school, Jacob Bagnel, have also breathed much needed new life into the academic life of the school.

WHICH WAS THE GOOD NEWS. The not so good school news comes from Kerri Sanchez, who said Monday that although she couldn't talk about what went on in the closed session disciplinary meeting with the school board last week, she is filing a formal complaint with outside authority about the ham fisted handling by principal Jim Tomlin of a matter involving her son. Mrs. Sanchez is optimistic that the school board, except for Martha Bradford, finally understands that Tomlin creates many more problems than he solves.

TRISH BEVERLY REMINDS US: To report roadside dumping call 468-9710. The recording will ask for the location and a description of the trash. Then, presumably, clean it up. Trish, incidentally, is one of several locals who voluntarily tidies up The Valley's smaller roadside messes.

ANNE FASHAUER WRITES: “So, first I got my first sinus infection, then my first bout with poison oak and yesterday I think I cracked my first rib. I think I've had enough firsts for a while, no?” Yes.

AND HE didn't even stop by the high school for goodbye huggsies? It seemed clearer than clear that for about a decade Jack Graves of LifeWorks Group Home, Boonville, had his way with Anderson Valley High School whose craven administration, terrified that Graves would denounce them as racists, which he did anyway when it was to his advantage, gave the guy whatever he wanted, imperiling its own student body in the process. Graves refused, for instance, to reveal to the school the legal histories of his residents, many of whom had been convicted of repeat violent felonies, and most of whom had been kicked out of San Francisco schools and never should have been enrolled in local schools without strict supervision, which Graves would not pay to provide. Graves has gone without so much as an adios. And his Fitch Lane property is in foreclosure to the tune of $420,752.04. He's rumored to have built a retirement home in Ghana. Was the guy siphoning funds that should have gone into staffing and services for his delinquents? I thought so, and licensing said they thought so too, but none of it was ever pursued.

THE QUIZ resumes at 7pm Thursday evening (April 26th) at Lauren's Restaurant in Boonville, Quiz Master Steve Sparks reminds us. “And not only will we have the usual fun and frivolities but there will also be an all-new 'game' at some point during the evening that will provide one lucky Quizzlie with a significant cash prize!!!  Hope to see you there.”

DAVE SEVERN REPORTS: “YES Camp 2012 commences the week of June 10-16. Due to equal parts geriatrics and miscommunication here in Anderson Valley we are getting another late start on signing up interested high school boys and girls 14 to 19 year olds for the Youth Emergency Services or YES Camp this year. But here we go. YES Camp is a specialized summer camp designed for youth interested in the field of emergency services. Activities include introduction to Law Enforcement, Fire Services, Emergency Medical Services, Search and Rescue, team building and many other related skills. Participants will become familiar with activities in each field through hands-on experience. The campers will use actual equipment throughout the program. They will be certified in Standard and Wilderness First Aid, CPR, and CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) by the end of camp. Some of the courses are: Auto Extrication - Jaws of Life & Hand Tools, Building Searches (both Law and Fire), Crises Intervention, Drug Awareness Training, Fire Extinguisher Operation, Land Navigation — Maps/Compass/GPS, Search and Rescue, Radio Operations/Communications, Low Angle Rescue, Rock Climbing/High Angle Rescue, Patient Packaging/Ground and Air Transport, Teamwork and leadership Training, First Aid, Wildland Hose Lay, and more. Those not already familiar with the program or who live outside of Anderson Valley can go to www.yescamp.org for more information, pictures and to request application forms The director Rick Paige can be reached at 707-897-5092 or rcpaige@yescamp,org. Locals, who can do major good by helping fund the course for kids who can't afford it, can call David Severn at 895-2011. The posted deadline is/was April 15 but has been extended to  May 15. 15 boys and girls from AV had a blast at camp last year and we found sponsorships for most of them. With fingers crossed we are working to do the same again this year but if you can afford it the cost is only $325 for the full week including meals. Community members help your neighborhood friends. The application process is a little cumbersome including waivers and medical clearance forms so if you are interested don't lollygag.”