FROM AV SCHOOLS chief, Louise Simson:
I hope this message finds you well. It has been great to see girls’ softball and boys’ baseball out on the field. We could definitely use some help with the field preparation for games. If anyone can volunteer a couple of hours, please text my cell number at 707-684-1017. It's also wonderful to see family and parent support out there for the games. I feel like life is returning a little bit to normal!
As you may have heard, the masking restrictions at school will be modified effective Monday, March 14. Masks are encouraged, but not required. Masking is a personal family decision, and we leave it to our parents and guardians to guide your mask choice. We also know that some staff members prefer to continue to mask, and we honor that choice as well. Free masks will be available upon request.
The pooled testing will remain as scheduled on Wednesday. Those results come in on Friday generally. If we have any uptick in infection rates, I will contact Public Health and determine next steps based on the data. If we feel we need to be more restrictive, we will do so.
Measure M will be appearing on the June ballot. There are petitions and ballot support cards throughout the community. If you support the measure for the 13 million dollar Improvement school improvement bond, we invite you to please sign your name. We will be holding tours of the schools in May to highlight the various projects that are needed on the 70-year old buildings. The dates for the walkthroughs are May 12 at 4:30 p.m. at the high school with our district architect and May 19 at 4:30 at the elementary school with me. This is a chance to walk the facilities, and we can share what was done with the past Bond money and describe additional work that needs to occur. Fact sheets will also be available. The Citizen’s Bond Committee is seeking members to help and is meeting on Tuesday, March 22 at 4:30 p.m. at the high school.
We also have another community meeting on March 16th at the high school library at 3:30 p.m. regarding our school LCAP plan. The LCAP is an interesting process of setting goals for our district and allocating funding to achieve those goals. We invite our community members to attend and share your thoughts.
We look forward to having our families on site for conferences this week. It is so impressive how our families are committed to working with our staff members on their child's progress. At the elementary school, I want to give a big shout-out to our cadre of retired teachers that have stepped in to do some short-term intervention in reading for some of our students that have been identified as needing additional support. It takes a village, and Anderson Valley has a dedicated one! News on summer school will also be forthcoming!
I am looking forward to spending a few days at the high school this week. Lunch activities have been expanded to include ping pong, foosball, outdoor basketball, guitar, and supervised field play. It is great to see students enjoying social opportunities and some engaging break activities. I enjoy being on site for the full days at both school sites to see the oven flow of the day, see our amazing staff interact and engage, and get to know your students better.
TOM WODETSKI: Hello Navarro Point Preserve volunteers. The Mendocino Land Trust and I invite you to join us as we remove the ever-dwindling population of bull thistles at Navarro Point this Thursday, March 10th, from 10am til noon. The Preserve is located about 2 miles south of Albion on the ocean side of Hwy 1. Sunny weather is predicted and the ocean views are jaw-dropping. We hope to see you there! Navarro Point Preserve is owned and managed by Mendocino Land Trust, which relies on volunteer stewardship workdays to maintain our network of public access trails. Volunteers spend two hours a month pulling invasive plant species, picking up garbage, maintaining the trails and taking in the beautiful scenery. Stewardship workdays are scheduled for the 2nd Thursday of each month, 10am to 12 noon, and are open to all ages and experience levels.
COUNTY ROADS, a reader complains: Something needs to be done about our roads in Mendocino. The weekly patching is just making them so bumpy and unpleasant to drive on. Same with the little county roads. It’s embarrassing a tourist destination like ours can’t even have smooth roads. They are caving in in multiple areas around town. Why doesn’t the town of Mendocino get to have our roads paved correctly. The chip sealing every 20 years, isn’t cutting it!
PG&E’S latest: Monthly bills would jump about $30 a month under a new proposal by the utility behemoth to bury thousands of lines underground as a way to ward off the risk of catastrophic wildfires. The power utility is seeking state approval for a revenue increase of $10.5 billion to bury 3,600 electricity lines, according to a new PG&E proposal that was sketched out Monday in a federal regulatory filing. Electric bills could rise by $31.41 a month for average residential non-care customers whose bills aren’t subsidiary and $20.73 a month for care customers who have low incomes, PG&E estimated Monday. (Ukiah Daily Journal)
HERE IT IS the first week of March and the Navarro is closed at its mouth. Toted up, the rolling catastrophes we face seem Biblical in their multitudes. (cf Pat Robertson for the specifics.)
SEEKING HOUSING. “Greetings everyone. Early April, I relocate to Boonville to begin as the new Dental Hygienist at AVHC. My elderly gentle shepherd Jack and myself seek a home (room, cottage, apartment and the like). A few bits: I'm a quiet neatnik with a healthy lifestyle & kind spirit; Jack is a Single-Animal Household dog (but IS great with babies/kiddos). Any leads are welcome. Thank You in advance, and maybe I'll be cleaning your teeth. Amy Pittelkau.” Contact the AV Health Center at 895-3477 if you can help this most deserving person with shelter.)
IF YOU WONDER why your property taxes keep going up and up, Tuesday's meeting of the Supervisors is instructive. All five supervisors, without comment, granted their County Counsel an entirely undeserved raise from about $165k to about $197,000-plus, bringing this marginally competent County lawyer to around $330k per year when his total compensation is added up.
I PAY a little over $5,000 a year on my austere acre in central Boonville, an amount I expect to be larger this year. I often see spiffy new County SUVs passing by on their lazy 9-5 errands on Highway 128, and I don't begrudge anybody a living wage, but it's a sad irony that many County line workers qualify for food stamps when management levels of local government are routinely granted big raises on top of their already big salaries for no objective reason at all.
THE GOOD NEWS: AV Farm Supply stocks goldfish, and thanks to the locals who tipped me off. I'm a frequent Farm Supply customer who somehow managed not to see the small aquarium among the most interesting array of goods anywhere, including rescue cats and, just in last week, baby chicks.
SEE THEM WHILE they're a' blooming, Doug Johnson's field of daffodils at Doug's Pepperwood Pottery, Navarro. As the proud owner of a Johnson original vase, I'm saving up to buy another one, and list Doug as one more talented individual in a valley chock full of gifted people.
HOSPITAL BED AVAILABLE IN BOONVILLE: Jennifer Mayne has a hospital bed available for free or purchase in Boonville - call her if you are interested - 707-684-6680
LIVE-IN CAREGIVING OPPORTUNITY IN YORKVILLE: An AV Village member in Yorkville is looking for a caregiver in exchange for 2 bedrooms and a bath shared kitchen (part of the member's house) hours to be determined - but caregiver would be able to work their regular job. The member is suffering from depression and anxiety and needs help with cooking and cleaning. She has dogs and cats - she will allow another dog but not more cats. Call Kristina if you are interested: (415) 342-1540.
TECH TIP: For anyone who may have broken their cell phone screen, like I did, might I suggest Mendo Tech Guru Alberto Aldaco of Fort Bragg. He saved me big bucks of having to replace my phone. He quickly, within 10-15 minutes, replaced my screen. He worked with my schedule to be able to come by for the repair and when the screen he put in ended up faulty, he instantly had me come in and replaced it. No charge of course. He warranties his work for 90 days. Very reasonable prices. Great guy. 707 357-3337.
ROD SHIPPEY: I am available for electrical work in the valley. Commercial, industrial, residential. 510-407-4587
AV VILLAGE WEEKLY WALKING GROUP, Every Tuesday, 9:30 AM — Meet at the Community Park (near the AV Health Center). Please let Donna Pierson-Pugh (text: (707) 684-0325) know the night or morning before if you plan on attending.
THE ANDERSON VALLEY WELLNESS COALITION offers: Techniques for Stress Relief
Tuesdays 11:45 — 12:45, dates below
Classes are on Zoom — link on our Events Calendar
3/1 Aurelia’s Breath Practice for Stress and Anxiety Relief Part 2
3/8 Kira’s Yoga for Anxiety
3/15 Facilitated discussion with participants: What has helped you minimize stress before it happens?
3/22 Mile’s Meditation for Stress Relief
Contact Donna: 707 684-0325
I GET GOVERNMENT books on tape, a program designed for the blind. I'm only half blind so I don't qualify, strictly speaking, but Doctor Apfel at the Boonville Clinic scrawled his testimonial that I could use the help so I'm in my tenth year as a satisfied customer.
IT'S A GREAT PROGRAM. You can get a sign-up form at any library, ask your doctor to sign it and you're in. If your doctor won't sign, get a new doctor. An indestructible tape player will arrive in the mail designed to play only the government tapes which, in my experience, are randomly selected by, it seems, a sight-impaired worker in Sacramento because I've never received a single book I ordered, although periodic catalogs arrive in the mail complete with order forms.
I LISTEN to government books on my weekly commute I'd otherwise be unaware of, and believe me the tape library has taped everything ever in print and then some. But you never know what will arrive. I daresay I'm the only person in all of Mendoland to have downed a biography of Miss Peggy Lee. I found it quite interesting, perhaps because I once saw Miss Lee in concert on a bizarre date with one of her fans who dragged me to it at the Masonic Auditorium, circa 1960 or so. “How did you like the show, Bruce?” Truth to tell, Gloria, it mystified me. I didn't get it, but as an experience it qualified as a one-off.
ANOTHER luminary I'd never heard of before I got his book on government audio is Tommy Tomlinson, a sports writer and author of ‘The Elephant in the Room.’ The elephant is him. I almost sent it back without giving it a chance, assuming it was 350 pages of weight loss strategies. I'm glad I didn't. It's a wonderful account of his painful life as a 500-pounder, but offers much more than a simple account of how he got that big and his struggles to get down to a mere extra-large. Tomlinson is a Southerner, national home of deep fry and sugar in everything. He was big as a child and just kept on getting bigger, popping in and out of fast food emporiums several times a day to load up on negative food value delicacies. But as he describes his enlarging processes Tomlinson also gives us touching portraits of his blue collar parents and his own impoverished but never food-short childhood. The man is positively heroic as he relates, in graphic detail, what it's like to live with piano-case bulk. Despite being so large, the guy makes an enviable writing career for himself as a regular at ESPN and Sports Illustrated and, miraculously, finds love with a woman loyal to him as he is. Fascinating book. A true page-turner and highly recommended.
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