Mendocino County Today: Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021

Scattered Showers | 16 New Cases | Covid Boosters | Shirley Missing | Navarro Q&A | Estuary | Mudhole McCowen | Open Studio | Restrictions Rescinded | John Missing | Trent Q&A | Faulkner Update | Supes Briefs | Bunting Ukiah | Orr Springs | Pumpkins | Ed Notes | Marmon Shorn | Wildlife Intern | Hippie Highrise | Ganja Portal | Yesterday's Catch | Mort Sahl | Greenwood Waterfront | Skateboard Festival | Landscape 77 | Jewish Series | Ukiah Livery | Musk Tax | Garage | Wildfire Documentary | Neefus Gulch | Glass Beach

SCATTERED SHOWERS will linger this morning, with improving weather this afternoon. Warmer and drier conditions are expected on Thursday. Scattered showers will return on Friday north of Cape Mendocino with a thunderstorm or two possible over the interior. (NWS)

16 NEW COVID CASES reported in Mendocino County yesterday afternoon.

COVID BOOSTERS TODAY at Anderson Valley High School

AVHC would like to announce Moderna drive thru booster vaccine clinic on Wednesday the 27th at 3:00 at the High School. Those who are eligible and received their second dose vaccines from February-April, please bring your vaccine card. Covid booster shots will also be available at doctor's visits in clinic if you can't make it. 

La clinica tendrá un evento de vacunacion de refuerzo Moderna sin bajarse del vehiculo el miercoles 27 a las 3:00 de la tarde en la escuela secundaria. Los que son elegibles y recibieron su segunda dosis de vacuna desde febrero-abril, por favor traiga su tarjeta de la vacunacion. La vacuna estara disponible en la clinica si no puede asistir el 27 de Octubre.

WHERE’S SHIRLEY?

On 10/25/21, at approximately 3:06 am, Shirley Schield left the Northport Trailer Park on foot. The Northport Trailer Park is located at 5020 Lakeshore Boulevard in Lakeport. Shirley is a 75 year-old Caucasian woman, approximately 5’ 6” and 130 Lbs. She has blue eyes and short white hair. Shirley was last seen wearing a light blue / pink sweater with light blue pants. She was carrying a dog leash and headed on foot toward the Lakeport area on Lakeshore Boulevard. Family states that Shirley may suffer from dementia and may respond to an AKA of “Carol” or “Shirley”.

If anyone has seen Shirley Schield or anyone matching her description, please contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Office non-emergency line: 707-263-2690.

NAVARRO RIVER MOUTH REPORT (from Tom Wodetzki, Albion)

Is the Navarro flowing into the Pacific yet? 

I had a stunning walk on Navarro Beach Friday, Oct 22nd, at high tide (noon) and with 10-foot swells. 80% of the beach had been swept clean during the previous full-moon high tides, leaving pristine, untouched sand and big wads of twisted and glistening kelp scattered all over that vast beach. 

The big ocean waves were flowing here and there across the big sand berm and into the river estuary, but the river hadn’t really cut thru the dam and so was not really flowing out into the sea yet. I thought it probably would after Saturday night’s storm, with 2 more inches of rain predicted. 

So I drove out again Sunday at high tide (1:15pm) but couldn’t get to the beach because the road was blocked just off Hwy 1, presumably because it was flooded around the Inn just before the beach. I had expected that the previous nights 4.3 inches (!) of rain would have caused the beach berm to have finally been breached by the flooding river, but from looking down on it from Hwy 1 up the north grade, it looked like the berm held and still no river water was flowing out to sea (nor salmon swimming in). 

We’ve now had over a foot of rain this season, which is half of what we got all last season. And it’s still only October! I have hopes that the on-going drought will end this winter, but I read meteorologists' warnings that mid- and late-winter will be dryer than usual because of a return of La Nina, and so it may not happen. We’ll see… 

These trips to the beautiful, wild Navarro Beach prompted me to ask my friend Jim Martin some questions. He lives near there and is the main person responsible for establishing the Navarro-by-the-Sea Center, which is a small all-volunteer nonprofit working with State Parks to save the two remaining historic structures of the original town of Navarro at the mouth of the Navarro River — Captain Fletcher’s Inn (ca 1865) and the Mill Superintendent’s House (ca 1864) — and to reopen them for public education, interpretation, and research. Below are five questions I asked Jim and his answers. 

1. Lately the Navarro estuary looks like that awful algae gunk that had dominated there this summer has disappeared. What made it do so? 

Jim: Combination of factors, including cooling temps and reduced sunlight. But the algal blooms eventually died and rotted away, blown to the shoreline or sinking to the river bottom. 

2. There’s lots of green and brown foam on the river now, seemingly agitated into a froth by the crashing waves and blown inland. Is it caused just from decaying organic sea plants, like kelp, or artificial chemicals, too? 

Jim: Doubt it's from any artificial chemicals. Likely it’s just what's remaining in the algal blooms getting churned up with the wind. I do remember duckweed having a separate bloom at times, but would be surprised if it would happen this late in the year. 

3. We saw more recently deposited kelp on the beach than ever before. Does that mean kelp has returned to Navarro Bay in healthy numbers, soon to be followed by abalone? 

Jim: I've noticed the kelp accumulations too, which is certainly an improvement over years past when none made it to the beach and there were no signs of it out in the ocean either. I'm still concerned that the burgeoning purple sea urchin population is grazing on the bull kelp and contributing to the volume ending up on the beach now. That's part of a normal process, but we know things are out of balance still in big ways. I sure hope we can get closer to a healthy ocean condition and the poor abalone will do better. 

4. How is it possible that the beach berm dam held up after ten inches of rain this past week and no river water was flowing out to sea. I don’t understand unless that much water percolates thru the beach dam. Does it? 

Jim: Yes, there was a lot of water percolating through the sand dam, and it is enormous this year. Almost covering Pinacle Rock at this point. I hope the Mill House caretaker didn't get flooded out and that the sand dam will breach before we lose all of this flow from last week’s rain. A breach would lower the sand dam for a while to get us through fall, create a lower 'Navarro Lake' elevation and relieve the beach road from more flooding and closures. 

5. Lastly, what’s the latest progress report on the Inn and Mill House restoration projects? 

Jim: We're still in the final stages of transferring responsibilities back to State Parks and over to MendoParks [“which provides exhibits in the park visitor centers, educational programs, trail improvements, renovation & restoration projects, special events, and a commitment to keeping parks open, thriving and accessible”] on the Inn down at Navarro-by-the-Sea. Just a few more tasks left to go. Parks now has a staff person living in the Mill House with his family, which we've been pushing to have happen for years now. Jared is his name and he's going to be focusing on stabilizing the building. But just having someone with expertise (he's a licensed electrician and does maintenance work for Parks) living in the building will help push for some meaningful progress. Finally! And we'll see where things go in the coming year as we hopefully push past the Covid challenges, and MendoParks will hopefully get the Inn open on a regular basis, if we can corral enough docent volunteers. With our lease agreement ending back in July, it seems like this is the right time to hand things over to the organizational capacities of both State Parks and MendoParks. Long overdue, but it’s all encouraging that they both seem to be stepping up to improve the visitor experience at Navarro-by-the-Sea. 

FORMER SUPERVISOR JOHN MCCOWEN posted the following online thank you to a couple for pulling him out of a mudhole during the pouring rain last Saturday:

“Among my many talents is an uncanny ability to get a vehicle stuck in the smallest possible mudhole within miles. I pulled this off again on Saturday. Within a few minutes David and April Simmons of Simmons Trucking happened by, pulled over, and without a word began working to get me hooked up and pulled out. The rain was pouring down, David had to wade out to my truck to attach the tow line but he and April were cheerful through it all. And absolutely refused to accept anything for their trouble, only asking that I pass the favor along. Will do! Thank you David and April!"

Despite reports to the contrary (and our own experience) the former Supe may have a sense of humor after all, including the ability to poke fun at himself. 

OPEN STUDIO

Dear friends, art connoisseurs and seekers of beauty and culture,

On November 6 and 7, Saturday and Sunday from 11 am - 5 pm, I will open my studio doors to the public. Seven other artists in Anderson Valley are also opening their studios. We welcome you to join us and celebrate art in the making.

Whether you visit virtually or tangibly I am honored to share my work with you.

Hope to see you.

Rebecca Johnson <rebecca@rebeccajohnsonart.com>

FORT BRAGG CITY COUNCIL LIFTS ALL WATER CONSERVATION RESTRICTIONS 

On Monday night, the City Council passed a Resolution rescinding the Stage 2 Water Warning and lifting all mandatory water conservation restrictions within the Fort Bragg water service area. The recent rainfall plus the success of the City’s Desalination-Reverse Osmosis Treatment System eliminated the current need for water conservation measures. 

City Council and City staff want to acknowledge and applaud the conservation efforts of our community through this last summer and early fall. Water usage this summer was lower than any year on record. Despite the increased visitation, water usage in August was down 33% from August 2019 and usage in September was down 32% from 2019 (the most recent year without any water restrictions in place). 

While current conditions do not require conservation efforts, City staff continue to prepare for the possibility of a third year of drought conditions next summer and encourage our community to do the same. The Desalination-Reverse Osmosis Treatment System will continue to provide treatment for brackish water pumped from the Noyo River during periods of high tide and low river flows. Over the winter, City staff will continue with plans to drill a well on the C.V. Starr property so that water can be treated onsite and injected back into the water system. Work on expanding the City’s existing water storage, increasing the resiliency of the City’s water system, and construction of additional reservoirs will also continue. 

It is important to remember that now is the time to start planning for ways to reduce water use next spring and summer. 

MISSING NEAR COVELO

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and Mendocino County Search & Rescue Team are currently conducting a missing person search in the area of Highway 162 at the 8-mile bridge near Covelo, California.

The missing person was last seen yesterday (10-24-21) in the early morning hours while camping/hunting with family.

Today searchers located the missing person’s dog and are asking the public to contact the Sheriff’s Office by calling 707-463-4086 regarding any potential sighting or known whereabouts.

The missing person is identified as being: John Davis, 48 year-old male from Humboldt County (see photo), standing 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighing 220 lbs with brown hair and blue eyes.

Last seen wearing: Camouflage Rain Jacket, Neon Green pants with reflective stripe.

RE: NEW TRENT JAMES Q&A VIDEO

He said he would entertain running for Sheriff.

SUPERVISOR WILLIAMS

County met with PG&E last week onsite at Faulkner Park to review their vegetation management plan. The plan spans 30 miles, with our public park representing a fraction of a mile. County staff requested written supporting documents, a scope of work, and a commitment to not cut our forest before negotiation with county. Allison Talbot (Government Relations, PG&E) plans to coordinate a presentation to the Board of Supervisors regarding the proposed work, perhaps a good opportunity for your public comment. PG&E indicated that once their evaluation work is completed, they will perform a cost analysis to determine what approach they will take to mitigate their identified hazard(s). PG&E assured County representatives that no work will be scheduled in the park without collaboration, however, they advised that there is planned work near or around the park. I’ll continue to advocate for undergrounding. — feeling optimistic.

SUPES BRIEFS

by Mark Scaramella

THE SUPERVISORS had to endure about ten minutes of very nutty, angry anti-vaxxers during public expression on Tuesday morning. About four of them ranted in sequence insulting the Supervisors and demanding that they all resign, etc. because of mask and vaccine mandates. The Board invoked their ten-minutes-on-one subject rule and cut the nuts off after ten minutes. We’re generally not inclined to sympathize with the Supervisors, after all they are well-paid to sit through these meetings, but they should not have listen to such crazy wastes of time.

* * *

SPEAKING OF WASTING TIME on nutty stuff, this week’s CEO Report spends about half-a-page on the subject of the… “COUNTY-WIDE EMPLOYEE HALLOWEEN COSTUME CONTEST — As the weather turns cooler and the promise of rain sneaks into the forecast, our attention once again turns to everyone’s favorite sugary costume-fest, Halloween! This year, the Mendocino County Employee Engagement Team is sponsoring a Halloween costume contest to help everyone get into the spooky spirit, and we want you to join in! Show us your best costume; store-bought or bespoke, classic or modern, pop-culture or literary. Whatever piques your interest (as long as it’s work appropriate). Since Halloween is on a Sunday this year, we’ll wear our costumes to work on October 28th or 29th. Take a photo of yourself with the costume on at work (wherever that may be), and email it to employee_engagement@mendocinocounty.org by the end of the day on Friday, October 29th. All submissions will be posted on the contest webpage, and voted on by the viewers. Voting will take place Monday November 1st and Tuesday the 2nd and will stay open until 5pm on Tuesday the 2nd. Log in and vote for all your favorites! Prizes will be awarded to the top 10 best costumes on Wednesday, the 3rd. So bring on those monsters and Mandalorians, and let’s get spooky!”

* * *

CEO CARMEL ANGELO went to great lengths toward the end of Tuesday’s board meeting to extol the virtues of her newly expanded CEO report which now includes more filler pages than it used to. She told the Supervisors that members of the public or new supervisors can now see what’s going on at the County at a glance, adding, pointlessly, that “it’s hard to believe this is the last meeting in October,” and that her staff is working really really hard to finish up this year’s activities so that they can start with “new business” next year.

Unfortunatley, this rosy, info-free and self-serving description of the CEO report is undermined by its actual contents. 

For example, in July the CEO Report reported that “One Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialist has been hired, trained, and has been responding to crises in partnership with Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. We are recruiting for two additional Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialists.” That “news” was only three months after the first hire. 

Then in August CEO Report reported that “One Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialist has been hired, trained, and has been responding to crises in partnership with Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. We are recruiting for two additional Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialists and are exploring ways to maximize utilization of the existing employee until these Rehabilitation Specialists are hired.” This particular priority recruitment remained at one. Remember, the Board and Measure B committee funded three of these rehab specialist positions back in July of 2020, about 16 months ago, and all we hear is that one person has been hired and they’re trying hard to recruit a couple more.

The September CEO Report reported that “One Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialist has been hired, trained, and responds to crises in partnership with Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. One new Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialist is being transferred to the team, and the Sheriff's Office and BHRS are working together on innovative ways to recruit additional staff.”

And this month’s CEO report reported that “One Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialist has been hired, trained, and responds to crises in partnership with Mendocino County Sheriff's Office. One new Mental Health Rehabilitation Specialist is being transferred to the team, and the Sheriff's Office and BHRS are working together on innovative ways to recruit additional staff.” The transfer process apparently takes as long as a new recruitment.

Seeing as how these positions are part of an urgent attempt to backfill the Sheriff’s recently stated position that staff shortages have resulted in no responses to non-emergency mental health calls, the lack of attention to these positions should be a matter of priority for the CEO and the Board. But no, nobody seems to care that after well over a year all they’ve been able to do on this important services is hire and train one person. 

THE BOARD expressed exactly zero interest in the CEO report.

* * *

THE SOCIAL SERVICES SECTION of the CEO reports that Social Services staff “have continued to maintain public assistance benefits for 39,657 Mendocino County residents, and “Mendocino County’s Medi-Cal caseload has grown by 11% since February 1, 2020, from 20,071 cases to 22,475 cases (39,245 persons).” Nearly half of Mendocino qualifies for public benefits of one kind or another, mostly welfare (or whatever it’s called these days) and Medi-Cal. And we’re pretty sure that there are more who simply don’t apply or don’t know they’re eligible.

* * *

AT THE INITIATION of Supervisor Ted Williams, the Board pulled the $3.5 million contract extension with Naphcare, the jail’s medical service contractor, off the consent calendar where the huge value contract (now totalling about $19 million with the latest extension) was oddly placed. Williams and the rest of the Board asked for a presentation in an upcoming meeting addressing Naphcare’s performance and cost, including input from Mental Health staff.

AT ABOUT 10:20 Tuesday morning, Chair Gjerde announced that the Board would be going into “a very short closed session.” At around 1:30, some three hours later, they emerged to announce that “no reportable actions were taken.”

BOARD CHAIR DAN GJERDE made a point of asking County Counsel about the status of consolidating the Treasurer and Auditor’s office and changing those positions from independently elected officers to hired tools of the CEO and the Board. County Counsel Christian Curtis said he had drafted a memo — which of course will report that it’s not only legal but a great idea — and it is nearly ready to be submitted and will be available at the November 9 meeting. The quaint old idea that the Auditor should be reasonably independent and somewhat distant from the people he/she is supposed to “audit” is now just one small step away from coming to an end.

ORR SPRINGS HISTORY MYSTERIES

by Katy Tahja

Researching a book on the Orr Hot Springs area I amass more information than I could ever possibly use in what I plan to be a small publication. While the who, what, when, where, why and how facts get arranged into chronological order it’s the odd poorly documented tidbits of information that keep distracting me.

Like Orr Springs and methane gas production. Somewhere, some time long ago in my mental inventory I heard or read the resort collected the gases bubbling up with spring water. In a 1915 photo I recently found is a 6’ high and round cement dome attached to the side of the outdoor “plunge” pool. Another comment I have buried in my research materials said the resort collected enough methane to run a mangle, a commercial ironing machine.

Who taught the owners of the springs how to capture natural gas and use it to run machinery? These were not highly educated folks, though Samuel Orr did serve as Mendocino County Treasurer from 1865-1867. They were 14 miles outside of Ukiah over Low Gap Road. Did a guest tell them about the possibilities of natural gas use? Did they create their own equipment? Did they ever use the gas for gas lighting areas of the resort? 

With methane there is perhaps a link to another history mystery. Under a current structure is a cast iron relic stamped Cyclops Iron Works San Francisco. It was in the 1938 hotel that burned down and it probably fell through the floor. Cyclops Iron Works produced commercial refrigeration equipment units that possibly had their own generators. What was this unit using to propel itself? Could it have been the collected methane gas? While old photos of the resort show the hotels, guests and amenities the nuts and bolts side of resort operation was seldom photographed.

And then there’s the 1901 Ukiah newspaper display advertisement proclaiming “Oil!-A New Enterprise In Mendocino County.” Gas was issuing from rock crevices and if you put a match to it a steady flame burned. There was oily scum on rocks and UC Berkeley Professor Le Conte said these were all high grade oil indicators. The owners of the springs were looking for $200,000 in investments at $1.00 a share to begin drilling an oil well. “This investment opportunity could not be surpassed!”

The offering must have been a total flop as nary a word was ever seen in print again about this scheme.

Then there was a proposed railroading the Orr Springs section (area). In a 1935 Ukiah newspaper the headline said “Narrow Gauge Railroad Will Run Mile And A Half In The Hills.” The tracks would run from the Whipple Mill, west of the resort area, south to then county road. It was impossible to haul lumber downhill from the mill during bad weather. The railroad would traverse the side of the canyon. To see this proposal in the midst of the Great Depression was unusual, but the mill claimed a payroll of $5,000 a month being paid out and wanted to keep everyone fully employed in winter. Again, nothing was ever seen again in print about this proposal.

Another wonderment to me was the three story hotel, and a smaller two story unit, that burnt down in 1867, probably no more than five years after the hot springs resort opened. In old photos I counted five windows on each side of the building, 10 windows per floor, times three floors for 30 double hung glass windows. The smaller hotel unit had littler rooms but all had windows, so there were close to 40 in that structure. That’s about 70 windows that all had to be hauled by wagon over bumpy Low Gap Road. The was a lot of money invested in a resort like this, and then rebuilt as fast as they could after fires. The resort would burn again in 1894, and again in 1904, and again in 1938.

One history mystery I came closer to solving was a photo of a Chinese man dressed like a cook holding a white child at the resort. Orr Hot Springs used Chinese cooks into the mid-20th century. It took delving into census records for the Orr and Weger families who managed the resort to find listings for who was in a “household.” Yes, the owner and wife and kids were listed but also everyone who boarded there. These included cooks, hostlers, carpenters, housekeepers, laborers and others. In the 1910 census Lim Chin, age 45, a cook, is listed living there. In the 1940 census Jim Sook was a cook along with a man named Dea, listed as Chinese.

Part of my writing a SHORT history of a place is focusing on the people and eliminating tidbits…so methane gas and Cyclops engines and a railroad a few miles away won’t make it into the book, but the Chinese cooks will. If any readers have personal knowledge of Orr Hot Springs before 1970, or photographs, and wish to share information contact me at ktahja@mcn.org. Expect a small book of Orr Hot Springs history next year.

ED NOTES

EVER SINCE the CIF put itself in charge of the state's high school sports playoff system, they've slowly but surely tightened their processes to funnel a larger cut of playoff ticket revenues to their comfortable NorCal offices in San Ramon. They've now decreed sports fans must buy their tickets on-line! $12.50 each for a two-adult Boonville family, plus five per kid and another five for gramps, who more than likely doesn't need the discount, would mean, if strictly enforced, an empty gym to watch our volleyball team take on Emeryville tomorrow night (Wednesday) in the Boonville gym. Like a lot of geezers, I don't buy anything on-line, sooooo… Fortunately for Anderson Valley our athletic directors have been reasonable and we'll see a full gym of volleyball partisans. (As an historical aside here, Emeryville used to be, and may still be, a lavishly funded school district because Emeryville has a huge tax base, what with Ikea et al, and a very small school population. I remember Emeryville's football team arriving at the Boonville Fairgrounds on a hot late summer day in the school's air conditioned, custom bus. Us rustics were agog.)

ANDERSON VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL’S VOLLEYBALL TEAM has once again made it to the postseason. We will be hosting the first postseason game here on Wednesday, October 27 against Emery High School. This will be a 7:00 start time, and will require that tickets are purchased through Go Fan. 

CIF is not allowing paper tickets or cash this year, so in order to pay for the tickets, you must go to the Go Fan website to purchase tickets. You can do this in advance, or you can do this at the door with your cell phone. 

To purchase tickets, go to the following website: https://gofan.co/app/school/CIFNCS

Scroll down to the ”Anderson Valley vs. Emery Division 6” and select “get tickets.” You will be able to purchase adult and student tickets in advance.

Adult tickets are $12.00

Student and senior tickets are $5.00

Sorry for the inconvenience this may pose, but it is being enforced by CIF and we have to follow their guidelines.

Thank you for understanding, and we hope to see you at the game!

MIKE GENIELLA has retired from his most recent job as spokesman for the DA. The former long-time reporter on Northcoast affairs for the Press Democrat at a particularly turbulent time in local history, Geniella somehow managed to honestly report on the volatile timber wars raging at the time, creating a true record of those events as he went. Imagine a job that required you deal with the ruthless Harry “I want it all now” Merlo of L-P and the relentless Judi Bari and her Earth First! mob in a day's work. Geniella was so good at his job that Merlo pressured editors at the PD to remove him from timber stories (which the spine-free editors did), and no matter how many hours he spent with the eco-demonstrators, patiently listening to their complaints, they then whined about him not giving them enough coverage. The guy did an impossible job with an integrity rare in today's journalism. And working for the, ahem, exacting DA Mr. Eyster had to have had its many trying moments. If ever a guy deserved a peaceful retirement it's Mike Geniella.

WHO is this beast of Upper Lake football whose fearsome athleticism has small school football coaches warning colleagues not to play Upper Lake because this one kid is way too much for the average high school athlete. From what is rumored, the UL kid has hospitalized more than one opponent. I'm reminded of Theron Miller when he played for Mendocino, a man among boys who went on to play at San Jose State and nearly caught on with the 49ers. And then there was Logo Teveseu right here at AVHS in Boonville, unstoppable as a high school kid who was a special teams star at TCU. Every once in a while out here in the boons a kid comes along who's so fast and strong…

NEW OLD LOOK, JAMES MARMON

TRAIN AS A WILDLIFE RESCUER

Ronnie James writes:

Wildlife Internships in Sonoma

I was just notified that Wildlife Rescue of Sonoma County is advertising for their internship program, the deadline being October 31. Here is the link they gave me. It would involve living near the facility for 3 months or more.

https://scwildliferescue.org/internship

PORTAL RESUBMISSION EXTENSION

Greetings, 

As announced during public expression at today's Board of Supervisors meeting, the Cannabis Program has decided to extend the original Portal deadline from October 30, 2021 to November 2, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. PST. 

This decision was made due to:

The initial Portal opening on August 2, 2021 being delayed by 8 hours.

The recent storm that occurred over the weekend that resulted in widespread outages and internet access issues. 

To hear more about what was discussed in today's Board of Supervisors meeting please listen to the public expression portion of the meeting related to items not on the agenda at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVXtgqYiqi8&list=PLraKTU7AyZLRbpqfG0oj_8FE5Jb8Vl3mS&index=26. 

* * *

EQUITY GRANT PUBLIC MEETING AGENDA

The County of Mendocino Cannabis Program in partnership with Elevate Impact Mendocino will host an Equity Grant Public Meeting today, Wednesday, October 27, 2021 from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. (PST). Registration is required and must be submitted prior to the start of the meeting. 

To register for this event please click the following link: www.mendocinocounty.org/cannabiswebinar.

The agenda for this meeting is as follows: 

Update on Local Equity Entrepreneur Program (LEEP) Statistics

Update on program changes

Filing deadline for receiving funding in 2021

Question and Answer session (comments will be limited to 2 minutes per person)

Sincerely,

Mendocino County Cannabis Staff

CATCH OF THE DAY, October 26, 2021

RICHARD CAUCKWELL, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol. (Frequent flyer.)

ERIC COOPER, Fort Bragg. Hit&Run with property damage.

JULIO GONZALEZ-CARBAJAL, Fort Bragg. Domestic battery, false imprisonment.

NATHANIAL JAMIESON, Sebastopol/Ukiah. DUI.

CRYSTAL LOCKHART, Ukiah. Trespassing-refusing to leave.

CHERYL MATTSON, Ukiah. Domestic battery, protective order violation.

DANIELLE PERDUE, Antioch/Ukiah. Battery with serious bodily injury, criminal threats, resisting, failure to appear.

MORT SAHL, WHOSE BITING COMMENTARY REDEFINED STAND-UP, DIES AT 94

A self-appointed warrior against hypocrisy, he revolutionized comedy in the 1950s by addressing political and social issues.

Mort Sahl, who confronted Eisenhower-era cultural complacency with acid stage monologues, delivering biting social commentary in the guise of a stand-up comedian and thus changing the nature of both stand-up comedy and social commentary, died on Tuesday at his home in Mill Valley, Calif., near San Francisco. He was 94.

The death was confirmed by Lucy Mercer, a friend helping to oversee his affairs.

Gregarious and contentious — he was once described as “a very likable guy who makes ex-friends easily” — Mr. Sahl had a long, up-and-down career. He faded out of popularity in the mid-1960s, when he devoted his time to ridiculing the Warren Commission report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; then, over the following decades, he occasionally faded back in. But before that he was a star and a cult hero of the intelligentsia.

nytimes.com/2021/10/26/arts/television/mort-sahl-dead.html

RIPPIN' THE RIO: Skateboard Festival For The Whole Family

by Jonah Raskin

Does Oaky Joe Munson care about anything besides his crop? You bet he does. He cares like crazy about his daughter, Millie, and his son, Milo, and about Norcal skateboarders who compete for prizes and for glory. Hundreds of skateboarders aged 12 to 18 descended on sleepy Monte Rio on the Russian River to take part in the "Rippin' the Rio 2021 Festival" on a hot Saturday afternoon in October. The skateboarders came from Willits, Ukiah, Healdsburg, Windsor, Forestville, Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and the State of Maine. A few were professionals and had corporate sponsors. Most were amateurs who love the action sport that was included in the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo. It was the first time that skateboarding was an official part of the games, for both men and women. 

Not long ago the sport migrated from surfing. The original skateboarders caught wild waves in the Pacific Ocean and mastered them. 

Moms and dads, family members and friends watched the competition in Monte Rio, cheered, applauded and marveled at the feats that seemed to defy the laws of gravity. Skateboarders flew through the air and landed safely, mostly. Jessica Thornton from Guerneville is the mother of four boys, though only her ten-year-old, Ryker, accompanied her to the festival. "Skateboarding is fun," he told me. "I started two years ago. I've learned that when you fall you get up and keep going unless it's serious." James Mammele who came with his son, Jonas, said, "Once I lived to skate. Then after my son was born I stopped and became a dad. When my son took up skating I went back to it. He put fuel in my tank."

Millie Munson, who is almost 18 and the daughter of Joe Munson, a fierce advocate for the sport, didn't begin to skate until the pandemic arrived, mostly in "Seb Town" as she and her friends call Sebastopol. Skating brought Millie and her pals outdoors, into the open air and away from the Zoom Gloom of computer screens. It acted as a kind of antidepressant. 

At the Monte Rio festival, Millie won first place in her age group. Her brother, Milo, took third place and is already dreaming of first place next year. Millie told me, "It's important to practice skateboard manners: don't cut in front of someone when they're skating; take turns; and if you're older look out for those younger than you." 

Good manners ruled the day, due in large part to the kids themselves, though adults aided them. 

Kenny Reed, the director of the festival, boasts an impressive international reputation. Now 45, he started to skate at age 10. He has taken his boards on the road all across the U.S. and to Eastern Europe, South Asia and the Middle and the Far East. In the process, he has made the phenomenon globally respected, though in some places skateboarders are regarded as troublemakers and so the sport is illegal and prohibited. 

Still, there isn't a corner of the world where skating isn't a vital part of teen and pre-teen culture. Reed himself lives by the slogan, "Have Skateboard Will Travel." He raises money for a non-profit foundation called "Salad Days of Skateboarding" that serves underserved communities. He has sent dozens of boards to places like Bhutan and Pakistan. 

Eric Kirkwod wore a bright pink dress shirt that made him stand out in the Monte Rio crowd and visible from every direction. He signed up the competitors, kept accurate records, acted as the master of ceremonies and provided commentary on the moves and the tricks like "slashing" and "carving." At the start of the competition he told the crowd, "Thanks for coming" and with a twinkle in his eye and a lilt in his voice added, "Skate or die." 

Several D.J.s kept the records spinning. "I play what's fitting," Tony "the Tiger" Manfre said. "I play what gets the energy flowing." Over the course of several hours he played hip-hop, jazz, funk and rock 'n' roll that appealed to all ages and generations. The teens and preteens seemed to feed off the music and off one another's boundless energy. 

"Skate Park Danny," as he's known, made sure to return lost items to their owners. Nobody likes to lose a skateboard. Everyone smiles when a lost board is found and returned to the owner.

If any parent had doubts about the sport and about the health and wellbeing of their sons and daughters they seemed to be dispelled. Jessica Thornton was one happy mom. James Mammels was one happy dad. So was Joe Munson. "The kids...well..urr," he began. "The kids, well, they're all right." 

Oh, and in case you're wondering what "rippin'" means, as in "Rippin' the Rio," a 14-year-old-skateboarder explained to me, "it's when you're skating super gnarly and intense." 

Donations are always welcome and can be sent to Monte Rio Recreation and Parks District, 20488 CA-116, Monte Rio, CA 95462.

(Jonah Raskin is the author of Field Days: A Year of Farming, Eating and Drinking Wine in California.)

THE MOST JEWISH WORLD SERIES EVER

The immediate narrative surrounding the 2021 World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the Houston Astros is that it matches teams that no one outside their respective fan bases wants to root for. The Astros are one year removed from being exposed, although largely unpunished, in the largest sign-stealing scandal in baseball history (one’s anger about that may depend on views about sign-stealing and baseball’s other “unwritten rules”) that made the arrogant organization a universal villain.

Meanwhile, the Braves have a racist nickname and fans participate in a racist chant that the team has done nothing to discourage. The team recently manipulated political processes to secure a publicly-financed stadium in a suburban county without easy transportation access for the people who live in the city that gives the team its name.

One group is happy with this match-up, however — Jews. Baseball has gifted us the most Jewish Series in history....

forward.com/culture/477100/world-series-jewish-baseball-alex-bregman-garrett-stubbs-braves-astros-joc/

ELON MUSK RIPS DEMOCRATS' BILLIONAIRE-TAX PLAN

Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Monday evening criticized a Democratic tax proposal that would target American billionaires to fund a safety-net expansion, saying it represented the start of a new campaign from Democrats to redistribute wealth from the richest Americans.

"Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you," he wrote on Twitter.

In a separate tweet, Musk said any government-induced reallocation of wealth would be better managed by the private sector....

businessinsider.com/elon-musk-democrats-billionaire-tax-plan-annual-tax-bill-2021-10

MOVIE OF INTEREST

A Reader Writes: 

I watched a great documentary this past weekend. I would definitely recommend it as something that would be of interest to you and most AVA readers.

Bring Your Own Brigade: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/bring-your-own-brigade/

It uses the Camp fire in Paradise and the Woolsey fire in Malibu as a lens to focus on long term issues that have led to increasingly large and damaging wildfires, including logging, development and climate change. It also looks at the post-fire decisionmaking process at the local level, and how that plays into fires burning the same places down again and again. It even features an interview with one of my favorite California writers, Mike Davis. 

WATER ARRIVES AT NEEFUS GULCH, Rancho Navarro

(photos by Mike Kalantarian, October 25, 2021)

Neefus Gulch Fish Passage Improvement: bondaccountability.resources.ca.gov/Project.aspx?ProjectPK=16787&PropositionPK=48

'NOTHING WASHES AWAY': The curious anomaly that turned a seaside dump north of SF into a destination

by Ashley Harrell (courtesy sfgate.com)

Most stories about humans trashing the environment end with humans suffering the consequences. But not all of them.

Consider the case of Glass Beach, a one-time seaside dump in Fort Bragg, about 200 miles north of San Francisco. Starting in the early 1900s, and continuing for more than a half-century, residents tossed unthinkable amounts of detritus off a bluff and into the surf. They hoped their garbage would simply drift into the sea and out of their lives forever, but instead, something else happened. 

Their refuse was returned to them as treasure.

“It’s strange how an ugly old toxic dump turned into such a beautiful beach,” wrote Libby Lane, who authored a short book about the dump while a Mendocino Middle School student in 1996.

Not only did the sea transform Fort Bragg’s trash, but it put the otherwise ordinary logging town on the map. People traveled across the world to behold and plunder Glass Beach, and although much of the booty has been collected, the beach remains among the world’s most famous destinations for sea glass.

The origins of Glass Beach

It all began with the 1906 earthquake.

The same massive quake that famously decimated San Francisco also reduced many of Fort Bragg’s structures to rubble and ashes. Before the disaster, most people burned their trash or buried it in their own backyards. But the town opted to dispose of the earthquake’s debris by bulldozing it off the 30-foot-high headlands and onto the small beach below.

With a precedent set for disposing of waste on the nearby beach, the sea birds rarely went hungry. After some years of depositing debris there, though, it became clear that the sea was returning it.

“Nothing washes away here,” says Captain Cass Forrington, sea glass jewelry maker, self-taught cosmologist and owner of the Sea Glass Museum in Fort Bragg. The reason, he says, is that the rock formations have created unique wave patterns that push everything back to the beach.

What that meant back in the 1940s was that Fort Bragg needed another dump. And then another one. The town created the new dumps just up the beach from the first one. The final site, which was active from 1949 to 1967, was filthy, rat-infested and perpetually on fire, says Buster Dyer, a glassblowing artist who co-owns a gallery with his wife Trish in Fort Bragg.

There was a ramp, Dyer says, and people just backed their vehicles up and dumped whatever they wanted: household trash, refrigerators, laundry machines. Sometimes they sent entire cars down the bluff.

It developed into a social scene, with lumber mill workers hanging around, teenagers learning to drive, and little kids coming to shoot rats with marbles. When the fire went out, people would toss in Molotov cocktails to get it started again.

In 1967, the North Coast Regional Water Quality Board closed the dump, which contained toxic materials. As the years passed, the biodegradable items degraded, and scavengers and artists grabbed up all the scrap metal and anything else of value. What was left behind was an astounding amount of multi-colored glass.

‘The world’s largest natural tumbler’

“There was so much of it at the start, and it was just as far as you could see,” says fisherman and artist Mitch White, who remembers visiting the dump as a young boy. “You’d dig, and you’d dig down far, and there was still glass.”

Forrington, who for 27 years traveled the world as a sea captain, moved to Fort Bragg in 1979. When he went to see Glass Beach for the first time, “I was totally unimpressed,” he says, and that’s because the glass pieces were a bit too rough for his liking.

For many years, the people of Fort Bragg had that early iteration of Glass Beach all to themselves. Children went on field trips there, and took away glass and pottery shards by the bucketful to make art. But soon news reports of the legendary glass beach circulated, and crowds followed.

When Forrington revisited the beach in 2005, as many as 1,000 people a day were descending on Glass Beach, and he understood why. The glass looked completely different by then. It had all smoothed out.

He declared Glass Beach “the world’s largest natural tumbler,” and began researching the origins of different colors. Jade sea glass likely came from Depression-era tableware and ornamental items like lampshades. Purple was rare, and came from art glass or apothecary jars. Orange came from turn signals on old cars, and red — the rarest color — came from tail lights.

Forrington was interested in some extra cash. So he started collecting the best pieces and turning them into jewelry. In 2008, he opened the Sea Glass Museum, and today, his sea glass collection is one of the most extensive in the world.

“I find it all; I make it all. I’m a one-man band,” the wizard-bearded Forrington says from behind a display case filled with sea glass jewelry.

Visiting the Sea Glass Museum

Located on North Main Street at the back of the Union Lumber Company Store, the museum exhaustively documents the history of Glass Beach, with books, articles and mounted TVs playing videos of old news stories on loop. Forrington’s own book, “Beaches of Glass: A History & Tour of the Glass Beaches of Fort Bragg, California,” features prominently. 

Display cases full of glass abound. Some pieces, containing trace amounts of uranium, glow neon in a blacklight room. There are also photographs of both the beach and local wildlife, including sea gulls, which Forrington adores. He has even given them names, such as Claude and Maude. 

Near the checkout area, a video and a stack of maps offer directions to the three former dump sites, which can be tricky to find. Dump one, the original site near, is reachable only by kayak or swimming — unless you go at a negative tide. Site two is a bit north, and can be accessed by parking at Noyo Headlands Park, then following the Coastal Trail south and eventually navigating down the bluff. Site three, the official Glass Beach, is located within MacKerricher State Park, and can be reached on a trail leading north from the parking lot. Much of the glass from that site is gone, says Nancy Fowler, co-owner of the Glass Beach Inn.

Glass Beach today

These days, taking glass from site three within the state park is forbidden. But people still travel from afar to stay at the inn and go treasure hunting at the other sites, Fowler says, which is legal. 

For those who are patient, there’s still a decent amount of sea glass to be found, particularly at site two after a storm. The smaller pieces that remain on the beach are of little value and are mostly common colors like green, amber and clear. But every now and then, someone stumbles on something special.

“There’s still some great spots,” Fowler says. “You just have to pick a spot, sit there and start digging.”

Oddly enough, it hasn’t just been humans who have benefited from decades of pollution at Glass Beach, says Forrington. Eventually, the glass also offered benefits to the marine environment.

As glass and pottery shards dissolve in salt water, they release minerals that become the basis of the food chain, he says. The glass pieces also have air pockets between them that become habitats for tiny shrimps, worms, eels and insects.

“These things nourish the food chain and the marine environment in Fort Bragg, making it a very unique place,” Forrington wrote in his book. “This has created a wonderful accidental garden under the sea.”

more photos: sfgate.com/travel/article/Glass-Beach-Fort-Bragg-dump-16548712.php