EVERYONE'S pleased that the DA took one look at the police report on the alleged after-hours hijinks at the Boonville Saloon and tossed it. No charges, no nothing, as was evident at the time. Two deputies had been dispatched from Ukiah to look for a prowler, a local tweeker so tweeked he barely understands where he is. The tweeker had stumbled off into invisibility by the time the cops got over here, but they were all dressed up, nothing else was happening, and they were pulling an all-nighter anyway so...at the sight and sound of after-hours merriment in central Boonville, they arrested two people who'd stepped outside for a smoke for being drunk-in-public and wrote the bar up for an expired license. The license wasn't expired — the cops had looked at the wrong license — and stepping outside for a smoke is not drunk in public by any reasonable standard.
AT PRESS TIME Tuesday we still hadn't received a callback from Boonville Fire Chief Colin Wilson on Monday night's fire on Indian Creek Road. All we know is that a house trailer was consumed, and no one was injured. Reports of the blaze crackled out over our scanner at 6:45pm.
MIKE KOEPF of Greenwood Road fought in Vietnam as a Green Beret in the first years of the war. He's back in Asia now for a less hazardous trip through Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. On New Year's Eve, Mike enjoyed a Boont Amber bottle of beer in a little town outside Bangkok. Whoever's in charge of distribution for Boonville Beer knows his stuff.
FOR MANY YEARS now the Boonville schools have violated fair hiring practices by wiring jobs for relatives and friends, a dreary fact of local life most recently on exhibit in a positively bizarre appointment that passed over better qualified people for a person who wouldn't seem to have any qualifications at all other than a personal relationship with Elementary School principal, Donna Pierson-Pugh. I'll never forget the guy from Berkeley who drove all the way to Boonville for a job interview, unaware that the "hiring committee," always a panel of insiders, had already promised a crony the position.
SPEAKING OF LARCENY, the County Office of Education is looking for a new rubber stamp for its District 5 seat. The current occupant seems to be out of ink. The awesome responsibility of pretending that the annual multi-millions down this rathole serve a useful educational purpose comes with a monthly stipend and an attractive array of medical benefits paid out of the taxes theoretically aimed at children.
GUNTHER RUSSLER, former proprietor of Beeman’s Blooms at the foot of Nash Mill Road, is holding a community meeting/open garden on Saturday, January 12 from 1-5pm for anyone interested in developing his now under-utilized greenhouse and garden. “I want to share ideas and concepts to see if we can develop a community nursery/garden project. I’d like to see it turned into a great community asset,” said Gunther last week. All the infrastructure is in place: water, building with office, some tools, etc. Signs will be up at the foot of Nash Mill Road in Philo for anyone not familiar with the location.
THE NEW BOOK by Stephen Sparks and Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, mentioned in last week's AVA and reviewed this week — “Out there in the Woods,” an account of the double-murder and ensuing manhunt for suspect Aaron Bassler in the fall of 2011, will be available in paperback and e-book form starting Thursday, Jan 10 on Amazon.com. The paperback will be available at local stores over the upcoming weekend, Jan 11-13. A series of book signings and Q&A sessions with the Sheriff and Sparks will take place at local bookstores in new few weeks:
• Friday, Jan 18, at the Skunk Train depot in Fort Bragg, 5–7pm
• Saturday, Jan 26, Mendocino Books* in Ukiah (time tba).
• Friday, Feb 1, Book Juggler*, Willits (time tba)
• Saturday, Feb 9 Gallery Books*, Mendocino (time tba)
• Saturday, Feb 16, Laughing Dog Books, Boonville. 5-7pm.
(* - to be confirmed)
HOSPICE VOLUNTEER TRAINING commences for eight sessions beginning Thursday, January 17th through March 7th, from 2:30p, to 5pm. This 8-week course is designed to prepare Hospice volunteers in providing support to the terminally and chronically ill and their caregivers. Areas for focus include a history of Hospice, exploring feelings and fears about dying, defining palliative & terminal care, grief, mourning and spiritual issues, bedside care, care for the caregivers, medical aspects including pain and symptom management, communication skills, bereavement, funerals- both home and standard, and the business of dying, legal issues, and community resources. Volunteering is a meaningful way to give to others and your community as we are funded 100% by community donations. You will genuinely enjoy being a Hospice Family Volunteer. Hospice of Ukiah has been serving as a volunteer Hospice in our community since 1980. We are your local, end-of-life, health care provider. Course Facilitator is Leah Middleton RN, CHPN. Class is held at 620 So. Dora St., Ste. 101. To register call: 462-4038.
NORTH CENTRAL LEAGUE III all-league football team, 2012
Offensive MVP
Reed Carter, Mendocino, junior
Defensive MVPS
Cody Lewis, Mendocino, senior
Brandon Sutherland, Laytonville, senior
First Team Offense
Dustin Woolley, Potter Valley, senior, QB
Reed Carter, Mendocino, junior, back/WR
Scott Johnston, Anderson Valley, senior, back/WR
Cody Lewis, Mendocino, senior, back/WR
Preston Salmons, Mendocino, sophomore, back/WR
Evan Steel, Laytonville, senior, back/WR
Brandon Sutherland, Laytonville, senior, back/WR
Andrew Espinoza, Anderson Valley, junior, OL
Max Hanna, Mendocino, senior, OL
River Jackson, Mendocino, senior, OL
Jaime Ochoa, Laytonville, senior, OL
Second Team Offense
Russel Kaser, Laytonville, senior, QB
Anthony Adkisson, Laytonville, senior, back/WR
Echo Courtney, Mendocino, senior, back/WR
Cavin Hawkins, Rincon Valley Christian, senior, back/WR
Daniel Maples, Rincon Valley Christian, sophomore, back/WR
Willie Kile, Potter Valley, junior, back/WR
Jake Morris, Potter Valley, senior, back/WR
Rhydon Call, Mendocino, senior, OL
Taylor Delbar, Potter Valley, senior, OL
Kyle Moore, Mendocino, sophomore, OL
Casey Pickering, Potter Valley, senior, OL
First Team Defense
Echo Courtney, Mendocino, senior, DL
Max Hanna, Mendocino, senior, DL
River Jackson, Mendocino, senior, DL
Jaime Ochoa, Laytonville, senior, DL
Reed Carter, Mendocino, junior, LB
Kyle Moore, Mendocino, sophomore, LB
Casey Pickering, Potter Valley, senior, LB
Dylan Rosenthal, Laytonville, senior, LB
Cody Lewis, Mendocino, senior, S
Brandon Sutherland, Laytonville, senior, S
Dustin Woolley, Potter Valley, senior, S
Second Team Defense
Rhydon Call, Mendocino, senior, DL
Taylor Delbar, Potter Valley, senior, DL
Andrew Espinoza, Anderson Valley, junior, DL
John McCosker, Potter Valley, senior, DL
Brandon Douglas, Rincon Valley Christian, senior, LB
Colton Hendricks, Mendocino, senior, LB
Jesus Hernandez, Anderson Valley, junior, LB
Jake Morris, Potter Valley, senior, LB
Anthony Adkisson, Laytonville, senior, S
Scott Johnston, Anderson Valley, senior, S
Preston Salmans, Mendocino, sophomore, S
TA-DA! A Local Farmers and Eaters Roundtable Discussion sponsored by the Anderson Valley Foodshed. Thursday January 17, 7 PM- 8:30 PM at the Veterans' Hall in Boonville. If you are a local farmer, home gardener, or just an eater, come and be a part of a facilitated conversation between Anderson Valley food producers and the local people that eat, prepare and distribute that food.
ANDERSON VALLEY produces lots of food: vegetables, fruit, nuts, meat, eggs, dairy, honey, seaweed, grains, olive oil, seeds and processed food products. Local farmers are barely making it in today’s economy considering rising fuel and input costs and a flooded global food market that is driving down wholesale prices. Governmental farming subsidies are designed to help the largest scale Midwest and central valley farms, further tilting the scales against small producers in the wholesale market.
MENDOCINO COUNTY food farmers are on average in the red financially ($1 million in revenue, $1.2 in expense), even though most of the food that is produced leaves the county to the “better” markets and our farmers are buying most of their inputs from producers out of the area. Meanwhile, all of us buy food that is trucked in from far away. In this market condition it is only a matter of time before all (not hobby or estate) farms have to close their barns and sell the tractors.
SO WHY SHOULD WE CARE if local farmers stay in business, or if local foods are available? We at the Anderson Valley Foodshed steering committee are inspired by the possibility of creating change that strengthens our local food economy. First we think we can increase our local food security in the event of financial meltdown or large-scale environmental disasters, like the next big earthquake. We also believe that we can create a market locally for local food that can be more affordable than the grocery store, because our farmers are not trucking our food out or having to sell it at wholesale prices.
WITH THIS EVENT we hope to begin a local discussion, seeking to find out if another outcome is possible. Together we hope to find ways to help our local food producers find the business they need, locally. A thriving local food economy also needs local suppliers of animal feed, garden amendments, and plant starts. Together we might just be able to imagine ways and create strategy to improve our local food economy and food security.
OUR FACILITATOR will guide the discussion to cover many topics including: impediments to growing and marketing food in AV, factors that can encourage marketing local products in AV, “slow food/money” aspects of AV-grown food, pricing and affordability of local produce, and successful farming/harvesting techniques.
THIS EVENT is only an hour and a half so we cannot promise to cover all possible topics or hear from everyone on everything. That said, we warmly invite you to come for all or any part of the evening! Earlier the Same Evening:
5:30 PM- Foodshed Group quarterly business meeting (open to the public)
5:50 PM- Short presentation on growing and preparing winter root crop dishes
6:00 PM- Another inspiring local food potluck. To participate please bring your own place settings and a local potluck contribution (Timothy Ward)
THERE'S AN ARMY of the unmoored and the unhinged out there, we all know that and most of us, except for our government, do what we can. We're not casting aspersions here, or gratuitously adding to woe's burden toted by Ms. Theresa of Navarro, but it's really time she moved on because Ms. Theresa has camped out now at the Navarro Store going on a full year. As kind and as generous as Dave Evans is, it really isn't fair to him or his business to stay forever, especially when you have family in Albion, an automobile to get to them in, a little dog named Lulu to keep you company on the journey.
AT THE BOONVILLE WINTER MARKET Saturdays in front of the Boonville General Store, rain or shine, 10am-12:30pm you will find: Turnips, beets with greens, pumpkins, chard, kale, lettuce, small sweet potatoes, a few dozen eggs, sauerkraut, kefir, persimmons, dried Asian pears, dried persimmons.
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