Valley People

THERE HAVE BEEN a few too many mortality reminders lately, and now Bobbie Hiatt has gone just after the loss of Harold Hulbert. Like Harold, Bobbie was always central to the Anderson Valley, a fixture at all our events, a part of all our lives. We'll all miss her.

EFREN MENDOZA of Philo is hospitalized in Guadalajara with a fast moving cancer. Efren's many friends in The Valley are encouraged to write at:

Efren Mendoza
Calle 68
Colonia Talpica
Sector S.L.
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico 44710

FIRE CHIEF COLIN WILSON REPORTS: “Anderson Valley Engine 7471 was committed to the Reading Fire in Shasta County Wednesday afternoon at about 4pm. The engine was staffed with a combined crew from Anderson Valley and Comptche Fire Departments. They will be join up in Williams with four additional engines from Elk, Willits, Hopland and Ukiah Valley and their Strike Team Leader who is coming from Scotts Valley in Santa Cruz County. The Reading Fire has been burning in Lassen Volcanic National Park Northeast of Lassen Peak since July 23rd. It was started by lightning and was slightly over 25,000 acres and at about 25% containment at the time the crew left. 26 hand fire crews, 69 engines and five helicopters were assigned to it. As of departure, no structures had been lost.”

CHIEF WILSON ADDS: “On a local note, the smoke reported in the vicinity of Fish Rock Road and Highway 128 early Wednesday afternoon turned out to be dust from a logging operation.”

SPEAKING OF FIRE, I wonder if local hill dwellers have begun to receive bills from CalFire for “fire suppression.” On the one hand says Nambo, the fee of up to $150 per parcel, seems reasonable since here in Mendocino County people could not live deep in the hills without CalFire's aerial firefighting presence. On the other hand says Pambo, there's the well-founded suspicion that the fire tax is simply another scheme by the state to fund agencies that are already adequately funded.

OF COURSE Anderson Valley's hill muffins already pay a firefighting benefit assessment that helps fund our volunteer fire department. A CalFire tax on top of that benefit assessment is likely to put the muffs up in arms. Chief Wilson told the CSD Board last week that none of the “Calfire fee” will end up actually helping Calfire because their budget and staffing is staying the same. The new money will go into Calfire coffers, but a like amount will be taken away for the State's general fund. “So it's just a shell game?” asked Director Hanelt. “Yes,” said Wilson.

SUNDAY MASS at Saint Elizabeth Seton, Philo, is now said at 12:30 not at 4pm as it has been.

A UKIAH READER reports: “Candy contraband holders beware. I have now had my bag searched twice by the employees of the Ukiah Theater. The first time, the ticket taker came out of the booth and met me in the theater, announcing that she had to search my purse. The second time, the well-dressed usher (in a suit, and I like that) took our tickets and almost apologetically announced that for safety reasons he had to take a look inside my bag.”

THE WEE BOONT FOUNDATION has donated $96,000 of Boonville Beer Fest Proceeds to local non-profits. The 16th annual Beer Fest at the Boonville Fairgrounds has, altogether over the years, raised $746,000 for Anderson Valley's do-good groups. Trey White, the personable president and owner of Anderson Valley Brewing Company, successor to former owner the prickly Ken Allen who founded the Beer Fest, remarked, “We are quite proud that the folks from the Anderson Valley community, our fellow craft breweries and the thousands of beer fans from across the West Coast and beyond continue to work together to share good times, great beers and provide funds for worthwhile community causes.”

AMONG THE VALLEY Beer Fest beneficiaries we find the Anderson Valley Animal Rescue; Parent Teachers Association; Elderhome; Senior Center; Education Foundation; Sports Boosters; Historical Society; AV Fire Department; Volunteer Firefighters Association; AV Ambulance; Kimmies; AV Lions Club; Navarro River Resource; AV Land trust; AV Health Center; AV Housing Authority; Emerald Earth Sanctuary; Mendocino County Fairgrounds and KZYX Public Radio.

THE NOW FAMOUS beer event was begun by Allen in 1997. The inaugural event was such a success that the following year Boonville Beer decided to invite other breweries and charge admission to raise money for community groups. And it's been all systems go ever since.

LAST YEAR'S Beer Fest featured more than 70 breweries whose brews were sampled by more than 5,000 people. Mark your calendars for next year – the 17th Annual Legendary Boonville Beer Festival will be held Saturday, May 4th, 2013! For more information or volunteer/participating opportunities, please contact: Debi Paslay Administrative Assistant / Event Coordinator Anderson Valley Brewing Company 707-895-2337 x10

ALICIA'S RESTAURANT is central Boonville is best known locally as the site of the former Horn of Zeese, Boontling for 'cup of coffee.' Alicia is now focused on her second restaurant at Floodgate, Navarro.

CHRISTINA JONES, who grew up on the Holmes Ranch and went out into the world to become a highly skilled chef, is taking over Alicia's premises where Christina will soon open her brand new restaurant.

CLASSES AT SALAD UNIVERSITY begin Sunday, September 9th at Lion's Park in Redwood Valley. Class materials include the ingredients used in Floodgate Farm’s Salad Mix, known to folks at the Boonville or Redwood Valley Farmers’ Markets. Call or email: Bill Taylor at 707-272-1688 or edibleland@earthlink.net for info.

ENJOYED a recent visit from Phaedra Savage of Rancho Navarro who told me she's been working so furiously on her start-up farm she has only now begun to venture back into the community. Until a year ago, the ebullient long-time resident of Navarro had been living in Mexico where she'd begun a successful export business.

AIR FORCE AIRMAN Brennen C. Snodgrass has graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas where he completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills. Airmen who complete basic training earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force. Airman Snodgrass is the son of Charlie Snodgrass of Clearlake, and the grandson of Connie Diamond of Ukiah. He is a 2009 graduate of Anderson Valley High School, Boonville.

BOONVILLE kids who gets outta here via the military has done a lot better than a lot of the kids who didn't get outta here via the military. Yes, you can get killed in the military, but you can also get yourself killed via drugs and drink and joblessness and despair if you don't get up and outta here. Youngsters who don't enjoy the career and college options that come with class privilege can do a lot worse than the military. I wouldn't trade my time in the Marines, not that I recommend that particular branch of the service for everyone.

LOCAL GUY LUIS MENDOZA, now a Mendocino County Sheriff's deputy, and from all reports a very good one, has lately been assigned to the Anderson Valley where, the other day, he had to arrest an old classmate who immediately went into full shrew mode, loudly berating Luis on the apparent assumption that as old classmates at Boonville High School she was exempted from the rules, and that Luis shouldn't be slapping the cuffs on her. Luis silently absorbed the torrent of verbal abuse and hauled his old classmate over the hill to the County clink.

RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Searching For Sugar Man, a fascinating and deeply affecting documentary film about a gifted and charismatic singer and songwriter named Sixto Rodriguez, so painfully shy that when he was starting out in Detroit dive bars he played out of the shadows in the corner of the stage. A lot of powerful music industry people thought for sure that Rodriguez, in the early 1960's, would be the next big thing. But his first couple of albums went nowhere, and Rodriguez disappeared back into his work as a day laborer in Detroit where he still lives in a bombed out neighborhood. He did, however, and unbeknownst to him, become very big in apartheid South Africa, of all places, and especially big among idealistic young white people who were emboldened by Rodriguez's music to resistance. It's all an amazing story, and you'll never forget this guy.