Valley People

THAT WAS A LARGE TURNOUT Friday at the Apple Hall to mourn the passing of Harold Hulbert. But the good humor far outweighed the lamentations for this memorably solid and convivial man. If there was a person more committed to the welfare of young people in this community, he'll need to put in another fifty years to match Harold's life long devotion to youth sports especially. He was a good one, and we're all going to miss him.

THE HULBERT FAMILY asked that donations in Harold's memory be made to Anderson Valley Youth Football, Box 712, Boonville 95415.

JUST GOT OFF the phone with Tony Pardini who wanted me to pass along Youth Football's gratitude for the contributions they've received in Harold's memory. It's a wonderful program for little guys and has led to an encouraging revival of football at the high school level.

THE ANDERSON VALLEY LAND TRUST in cooperation with the National Park Service Rivers Trails and Conservation Assistance Program is evaluating the Navarro River as a potential non-motorized boating water trail.

“NON-MOTORIZED WATER TRAIL.” Must have taken a committee a couple of weeks to come up with that one, never mind that we all know that in the wet months you can kayak the Rancheria darn near from Yorkville to the Pacific as the adventurous do and have done for years.

SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE. Joe Dresch is retiring as postmaster at the Philo Post Office, which is a darned shame because Joe, in the great tradition of Valley postmasters, has been a truly excellent one, always friendly, always helpful. A likely successor would be Joe's assistant, Shiela Hibbs, but we understand Shiela would rather not, but I'm betting on her to run the place when Joe's gone.

AMONG THE LOCALS recruited for appearances in “Goodbye World,” the film presently being assembled in The Valley, we find Rod and Judy Basehore and Olivia Allen and Stella Day, a talented foursome for sure.

THE OLD MASONITE Corp, and even the justly vilified L-P, used to issue firewood cutting permits to local people, and I believe Howard Forest still does. So I'm wondering why Mendocino Redwood wouldn't consider this approach to the removal of non-commercial trees rather than hack and squirt poisons?

I HASTEN TO ADD that Mendo Redwood, in every other respect has been a major step forward in forest management practices for Mendocino County.

JESSICA JOHNSON WRITES for Youth Football: “I would personally like to say a BIG thank you to Tom Towey at the Buckhorn. Tom was so generous in letting us host our Ice Cream Social on the patio of the Buckhorn last Tuesday evening. Opening his doors for our guests to use the bathrooms and even having staff on hand for anything we needed. Thank you Tom!” A.V. Market also gets a big 'Thank You' for allowing us to store our ice cream in their freezer. 15 gallons of ice cream sure does take up quite a bit of room. Thank you again A.V. Market! Also, I would like to thank the community of Anderson Valley for your generous donations and support. We couldn't have had such a successful event without you! We appreciate your continued support.”

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? 2005 Anderson Valley High School graduate Leah Guerrero is in her first year teaching the First Grade Language Immersion Program at Grace Hudson School in Ukiah. Leah's justly proud mom, Esther Soto, was recently honored in a story posted on the web by the California Teacher Corps. Leah is married to Martin Tevaseu, a professional football player with the New York Jets. Martin is also a graduate of Anderson Valley High School.

AMANDA HIATT-HOWER, 37, of Boonville, and Jamie Silva, 33, also of Boonville, have taken out a license to be married.

GIVE US OUR MONEY BACK. The likelihood that Mendocino County's state parks would be closed because the State of California was too broke too keep them open, mobilized a huge local fundraising effort to keep the parks open. And then the state said, “Oops, we found millions we didn't know we had.”

TO THE SOUTH of us, the people who went all out to raise private money to keep open Henry W. Coe State Park, Northern California's largest, have threatened to tear up their deal with the state and are demanding their money back if the state does not spend at least $20 million of re-discovered cash to keep parks open.

BUT AT OUR very own Hendy Woods State Park in Anderson Valley, there’s already a noticeable drop in summer camping reservations which local park activists attribute to the previous closure announcement and the State Parks Department’s decision to remove Hendy from the nationwide computerized camping reservation system. Hendy was put back on the national system last month when locals came up with volunteers and $40,000 to keep the park open. If anyone has any ideas on how to get the word out about Hendy being open for camping please post any ideas on our website or on theirs at hendywoods.org. Or just make your camping reservations (also linked via the hendywoods.org website). You can’t go wrong with a campout at Hendy Woods, one of the most accessible, hikable and gorgeous little parks in the entire state parks system.

BETTER HURRY. Saturday, August 4th and Tuesday, August 7th are your last chances to pick up books at the Lending Library at the Fairgrounds. The Library closes for two months while the Boonville Fair gears up for the annual extravaganza third weekend in September. A book borrowed now will not be due until October 9th when the Library reopens. There are also hundreds of books for sale at a special rate of $3 a bag. The ladies of the Unity Club continue to appreciate the community's support for the Library.

AS A REGULAR at the Boonville Chocolate Shop, I always enjoy a visit with the shop's charming proprietor, Jeni Benville, daughter of Pete Benville, a long-time resident of the Anderson Valley. The chocolate? Perfect. Wonderful. Habit-forming, but what the heck.

FIRST REPO at Rancho Navarro in a very long time is a particularly sad one, as a whole family faces life without predictable shelter, not to mention having been robbed of the thousands of dollars they'd invested in their home. If Obama had put the bailout money towards keeping people in their homes rather than in the pockets of the high finance criminals who caused the so-called crisis, this country would be a lot healthier by now, economically considered.

THERE ARE NOW 27 tasting rooms the length of the Anderson Valley with 4 more scheduled to open soon.

THE MOVIE PEOPLE in town to make a film called “Goodbye World” were certainly a big hit Saturday night at the Boonville Saloon where a very good time was had by all. From all accounts, proprietors Marcia Martinez and Shelly Scaramella are doing a bang-up job in a very tough business. Shelly, incidentally, is somehow related to Major Mark Scaramella of this newspaper, but no one, least of all The Major, knows exactly how, and poor Shelly probably hopes it stays that way. Of course there's no way someone named Scaramella in Mendocino County can't be related, so...

I HADN'T KNOWN my friend Kay Clark of Nash Mill had moved to The Lodge at Little River until someone at The Lodge called to make an address change for Kay's subscription. Cards, letters and visits are in order here: Tylicki Clark, The Lodge, Room 524, 43300 Little River Airport, Little River, Ca 95456.

FOR YEARS Boonville High School's playing fields were an unwelcoming expanse of summer time hard dirt and weeds, but anymore, and all credit to JR Collins, superintendent, on any given day, especially Wednesdays, the playing fields are green and covered with soccer players, women's softballers, men's hardballers, with plenty of room for everyone.

SPEAKING OF SPORTS, the big Boonville bike race three weekends ago was USA Cycling-sanctioned meaning, it seems, the competitors of all age groups added points to their national rankings. The race was called “Bite Hard Boonville Road Race.” The exhaustive race results contained everything but the winning time, but it took most of the entrants about three hours to cycle out to Manchester and back to Boonville via Elk.

KIRK WILDER REMINDS US: Just a reminder that the Boonville Airport Open House is just around the corner, August 10, 11 and 12, 2012. Hope to see you here! Expect the Coast Guard C-130 Hercules to be making a fly-by between noon and 12:30. The CalStar Medical helicopter will be here and available for inspection, and we also have confirmation that Coast Guard helicopter from San Francisco will be here if other duties don’t interfere. Should be fun for all! So fly, drive, run or crawl to the 13th annual Boonville Aviation Knowledge And Folklore Convention, aka Airport Day and Potluck Dinner Saturday August 11. Festivities begin at Noon. Dinner at 5pm. Please bring your favorite potluck dish. Drinks provided. Pre-Party Party For Early Arrivals on Friday Evening, August 10. Pizza And Goodies In The Hangar. Corner of Estate Drive & Airport Road At the Boonville Airport. There will be a camping area for aircraft and car arrivals (car parking enter from Estate Drive). No RSVP necessary For additional info contact Cindy or Kirk at (707) 895-2949. Join us for a fun day at the Airport.