OUR CROWD COUNTER said 120 people attended Monday night's school board meeting in the high school cafeteria. As you probably know by now the school board voted 3-2 not to renew Jim Tomlin's contract as high school principal. One of the three votes not to renew was Ben Anderson's.
TOMLIN'S FIRST MOVE Tuesday morning, with an assist from athletic director Robert Pinoli, was to fire Anderson as the high school's baseball coach, thus confirming the wisdom of the three trustees who voted the previous night to fire Tomlin. If this guy can presume to retaliate for his own dismissal in such crude fashion, what chance would some isolated kid have for fair play with him?
I CALLED school board president Martha Bradford. She said Tomlin had acted outside his authority to fire Anderson. She said it was “bad for the kids involved, bad for the school,” which, of course, it was. Superintendent Collins agreed. By 1pm Anderson had been reinstated as baseball coach, but Tomlin and Pinoli had already called off Tuesday's opening day game.
THE GOOD NEWS. This year for the first time ever our girl's basketball team went into the second round of the playoffs. They played El Sobrante, a team that only had 5 players, one of whom was injured mid-game. Coach Wyant gallantly chose to hold out one of our girls to make up for El Sobrante's loss, a gesture that was much appreciated by the parents of the El Sobrante team. Triumphing over El Sobrante, we moved on to Ferndale where, game as we were, we went down to defeat. The boy’s, also a surprise playoff participant, was defeated by St. Bernard’s last Wednesday in the first round of the playoffs.
REMEMBER CHRISTOPHER SKAGGS? He piled into a redwood at Navarro last November after a high speed chase that resulted in an officer being flown to an out of the area hospital for the injuries he suffered in pursuit of Skaggs. In that one Skaggs, piloting a BMW, was chased from 101 north of Ukiah out Orr Springs Road, through Comptche and on into Navarro where he hit the tree.
LAST NIGHT (MONDAY), shortly before 10pm, a Mendocino County Sheriff’s Deputy conducted a traffic stop on South State Street, Ukiah of a sedan displaying an expired registration. As the Deputy approached the driver’s window, the vehicle took off southbound on South State Street, and the chase was on at speeds estimated at between 80-90 miles an hour. The suspect vehicle soon careened west onto the Ukiah-Boonville Road where it several times swerved into the opposite traffic lane on blind curves. Still westbound on the Ukiah side of the hill, the front passenger, wielding a handgun, suddenly leaned out of the car window and cranked off several rounds at the pursuing Deputy’s patrol vehicle, one of the bullets striking the radiator and rendering it inoperable.
POLICE from the California Highway Patrol, Ukiah Police Department, Cloverdale Police Department, and Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office were soon in the hunt and the suspect sedan was found abandoned in a driveway leading to a residence located in the 6000 block of Highway 253, which is 11 miles from Ukiah, still on the Ukiah side of the hill. A reverse 911 call was initiated to residents in the surrounding area to hunker down.
SEVERAL ITEMS from a residential burglary on Van Arsdale Road, Potter Valley, were found in the abandoned car, but several handguns, a rifle and a shotgun, also taken in that burglary were presumed to be with the fleeing burglars. The two suspects had disappeared into the woods.
CHRISTOPHER SKAGGS, 30, of Redwood Valley have since been taken into custody on numerous charges, including attempted murder. Walter Kristopher Miller, 33, of Ukiah, remains at large.
CAPTAIN RAINBOW WRITES: “Alright folks, time to get your priorities straight. Daytona 500 is over and so are the Oscars. Coming up is something really big, the 22nd annual Anderson Valley Solar Grange Variety Show. Two nights of different shows Friday, March 8th and Saturday, March 9th. Shows start at 7:00, doors open at some mysterious time before, depending on weather, but usually around 6:30. There are presale tickets at Lemons Market Philo and All That Good Stuff, Boonville, (just before moving to their new location!) These tickets don't guarantee admission. So get there early and you will be able to enter more speedily, (i.e., you might get a seat!). HOWEVER, do not fear if presale tickets are sold out or unavailable it does not mean the show is sold out. Come on down to the Grange and get in line, we hear it's pretty fun even before the show. And get your Via Keller Variety Show T shirts before the show at ALL THAT GOOD STUFF, you know the cool ones with the frogs, cheap at any price. Come in style wearing your valley colors!”
SNOW ON THE HILLS two Tuesday afternoons ago broke up the blandly balmy previous two weeks of summer-like days. At the higher elevations to the east, Hull Mountain and the Yolly Bollys, snow was measured by the foot rather than the flurry, but then the summer-like days resumed and still no rain almost into March, the rain months of January and February having been pretty much dry.
THE FOODSHED PEOPLE WRITE: As we're sure you are all aware, the Mendocino County Fair is in financial trouble, stemming from the loss of funding from the State of California. The Anderson Valley Foodshed Group has been in discussion for several months about how we could help support the Fair. In discussion with Fair manager Jim Brown, two areas were mentioned that would to reduce their Fair expenses. Right now the Foodshed Group does not have enough money in its account, though we are beginning to plan a fundraiser. The first area of need is sponsorship of produce displays. When people enter produce to be judged, the produce is put on display in the Ag building and is judged in several areas. The winners (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc) are awarded cash premiums. Unless that particular class of produce is sponsored, the award money has to come from the Fair budget. Currently there are many produce classes that are not sponsored. The Foodshed could agree to sponsor one (or more) of those classes. For instance, the grain class would cost $12 to sponsor. Others are more expensive. Another area of possible support is the rental of a space to put a booth. Since the inception of the Not-So-Simple Living Fair, the Foodshed Group has discussed having a booth at the Fair to present a “mini” NSSLF. We could have a variety of presentations, over the course of the weekend, along the lines of the classes at NSSLF. This, of course, would take a commitment from a variety of people to be available to present. It would cost $300 for the booth area. Hopefully we could get an area near the Apple Tasting Booth. So, we are putting this out to all of you. First, would you be interested in donating some money to go toward sponsorship? If we receive more than $12 for sponsorship, we can sponsor more than just the grain. If you are interested in supporting the Fair in this way, please respond with the amount that you would be willing to donate. Second, would you be interested in donating some money to help rent a booth space? (Again, any extra money can go toward more produce sponsorships or materials for the booth, if needed.) Third, would you be interested in presenting a topic such as fermentation, tying knots, drying produce, growing nuts, raising rabbits, making a BYO place setting bag, or making cheese, yoghurt or kefir, etc, etc.? Please respond ASAP because the Fair Premium Books are being finalized very soon and we would want to be listed as a sponsor in the book. — Thank you, AV Foodshed Steering Committee Barbara Goodell, Renee Ward, Cindy Wilder, Greg Krouse; Anderson Valley
INTERESTING study by the combined forces of Fish and Game and the Forest Service to try to explain the radical fall-off in the state's deer population. 96 fawns were radio-collared. Of the 96, only 38% survived. Disease and accident killed 11%; mountain lions took out 49%; coyotes 27%; and bobcats the rest. 96 fawns is not a large number to sample, but if it's representative it means that less than a third of the fawn population makes it to adulthood and that predators are largely responsible for the entire population's decreased numbers.
ON-LINE COMMENT regarding the Sonoma County girl who froze to death at Lake Tahoe when, under the influence of disorienting drugs, she tried to walk back to her hotel room after a party: “I used to be into the whole ‘rave’ scene. Kids would take any drug handed to them, many times they had no clue what it was or what it would do to them, they just wanted to get wasted. Kids would be trashed out of their minds on a half dozen different hallucinogens, dancing robotically with blank eyes and pacifiers to stop them from grinding their teeth. I loved the music but decided eventually that I didn't like the whole dope scene, and preferred to stay home and listen to the radio rather than brave that whole scene. Meth has always been everywhere in the rave scene, in fact the ravers were among the first to use it. These parties are simply not a good idea if you're 19 and impressionable. I had the presence of mind to refuse the drugs, most kids don't.”
FORMER 5TH DISTRICT Supervisor Norman de Vall writes: “Friends. More and more housing on the Mendocino Coast is being converted to Vacation Home Rentals, many without permits or collecting bed tax. The County is woefully deficient in locating these “residences” or wanting to collect the tax. Those who are homeless, or looking for rentals are paying the price. VHR's pull in more than monthly or long-term rentals and provide an excellent tax dodge for their owners. Being, now, business properties their expenses become tax deductible. In the end result being a VHR, licensed or not, the value of the property increases making it more unaffordable for those who live here. The Mendocino Town Plan is up for review and rewrite. If you need or want a place to live rather than a weekend visit oppose Vacation Home Rentals.”
LATE SUNDAY AFTERNOON I watched a cluster of tweekers assembled near Pic 'N Pay make a series of meth transactions, the female dealer conferring briefly with each of her customers. Although we have our share of drug users in the bucolic Anderson Valley, we don't have much, if any, drug-related crime, at least not lately. The reason we don't have much crime is that Deputy Walker, and before him Deputy Squires, know exactly who's doing what. Catching dealers in the act of dealing or in possession is the local tricky part, especially small fry dealers like the Boonville lady. But at the moment, there is almost no reported crime out of the Anderson Valley, and how many communities can say that?
JON KROLL WRITES: “I am truly honored that you chose to mention my graphic novel, 'Tales of a Hippy Kid,' in the AVA, and that you said such glowing things about it. Normally, one would be content to be spared your legendary wrath, so to receive your praise was extremely gratifying. I did, however, want to point out that Oz was founded by my father, Lawrence 'Redwood' Kroll, not me, as I was only nine when it all began. For the record, I have grown up to produce reality television shows, a profession that certainly deserves a place in the same circle of hell as lawyers and hippies....”
THE KROLL PATRIARCH, Redwood, eventually uprooted himself and became a professor of computer science at SF State. Panda Kroll is well-known attorney out of Oxnard, and her sister Zoey Kroll graduated from Yale magna cum laude is now, Panda tells me, “a zero waste guru in the City of San Francisco's Department of Environment.
“MY BROTHER AND I,” Panda Kroll writes, “both attended the four-room Manchester Elementary school in Manchester thirsting on what we could find in the crevices of the infrequent bookmobile.”
TO THIS DAY, whenever I encounter a young person raised off the grid, I'm struck by how non-neurotic they are and how much more academically advanced they are than their public school peers. I remember when the four Colfax boys were growing up in the hills west of Boonville, and you'd hear, “But what about the socialization they miss not going to public school?” Three of them went off to Harvard, all four easily graduated with honors. Hippies, annoying as they were, turned out some pretty impressive kids, didn't they?
TALES OF A HIPPY KID, Road Trippin' and Skinny Dippin' is highly recommended. You can buy it on-line, but better if you order it through your in-County bookstore. Great stuff, and easily the truest account we have of the Big Naked Pile days of the early 1970s.
OZ, as some of you recall from its mention last week, was the legendary commune on the Garcia at the Manchester end of Mountain View Road. Beautiful place. I visited there post-Oz to buy an apple tree from a subsequent owner of the site who sought out and grafted rare varieties of apple.
YOU'RE AN OLD HIPPY if you not only remember but attended the Albion People's Fair, and you're close to being an Anderson Valley old timer if you remember the Manson Family on Gschwend Road, Navarro, and you remember when Leonard Lake was recording secretary for our volunteer fire department. And you're a real, real old timer if you remember Joe Scaramella as 5th District Supervisor.
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