THANK YOU, ANDERSON VALLEY
I want to express my deepest gratitude to the many people in the Valley who have eased my loss with your unique and particular gifts of help and concern. Olie Erickson for being such a good friend and fishing partner of Rob’s who could also speedily arrive at our house to see if his ambulance training could be of assistance during those first minutes when Rob was unresponsive. Dr. Mark Apfel, for facilitating with the necessary governmental aspects of death; Deanna Apfel for informing friends of what had transpired, and the rest of you for your help, love, and care while I was in a state of shock.
Your input was invaluable.
Lee Serrie
SAMUEL BAKER: Reading Lee Serrie’s Thank You about Rob Giuliani, I was thinking that it should be us, who know Lee and Rob, who should be thanking them. As a part-time resident, and full-time friend of Rob Guiliani, I can say this is a man to be admired. Interesting, and interested, well read, a lover of good food, wine, and fishing, opinionated, but in a way that invited discussion rather than confrontation; he was a special person. As part of a close knit group who reside on “Vinegar Ridge” above Philo, we got used to his sudden departures during sit down dinners of salmon/cod/rockfish (that he caught and cooked), due to his fire radio blaring. After a full career in the SF newspaper business, he continued to immerse himself in daily print papers, and was a resource for current news and the political winds that howl through our country.. Lee, thank you for all the time you and Rob gave us to enjoy your company and friendship.
SAFFRON BLUE FRASER: Medical Update, Scott Fraser.
In the ongoing effort to let friends and family know what's going on around here with Scott. Chemo today. PET scan results. No real surprise, just confirmation. His cancer is metastatic and likely will pop up at will. They found a spot on his liver too. And near his stomach. Dr. Wang said he has some treatment ideas. But really, the fact of the matter is that he will have cancer for the rest of his life. So, that's all I really have. We have a permanent roommate. Today was difficult. Not because we are surprised, like I said, but really realizing that it is so unknown. And that this is our life. And it's not temporary. It is life.
GOOD PEOPLE RESPOND: I'm not bragging, but Karen Ottoboni put it out here on the Facebook that they needed help filling bags at the food bank. I had some time so I threw on my shoes and headed down there. D'Ann too. Karen asked, did you come together? Nope, just saw the call for help. We hustled and filled bags. There were a bunch of elders, and folks all working to fill bags, receive deliveries, break down boxes… There were some jokes and some laughter. I didn't get numbers, but I think I heard about 150 people come and get some food. We packed bags and left before distribution. That's a different team. I'm just telling this story because I feel proud of the people who take care to care. And to let you all know that I left feeling good that I had the ability to jump in and help a little. It was fun. I'm glad I did it. (Saffron Fraser)
A 3.0 QUAKE hit east of Boonville at 12:17 p.m. early Sunday afternoon according to the USGS. This is the second registered earthquake in Mendocino County in two days. A 2.6 quake struck east of Willits on Dec. 30.
NEW YEAR’S EVE came and went in Boonville with some premature gunshots at 8:30pm, and later there was a minor racket from fireworks, but the big night seems to have been the most sedate in years in all parts of Mendocino County because, perhaps, people are more apprehensive than optimistic.
ANDERSON VALLEY’S BEST PANCAKE BREAKFAST
Sunday, January 14, 8:30 - 11:00am
Philo Grange
9800 Hwy 128, Philo
It’s the best deal around! Orange juice, coffee or tea, scrambled eggs, bacon, and of course, our secret Grange flapjack recipe (gluten free upon request). All the fixings and then some, including Dr. Derek's special warm fruit topping. Some people come for the company, visiting with old and new friends. Some people come for the music by Los Panqueleros. Most people come for all of the above. Held the 2nd Sunday of every month, with an exception every once in a while.
PETIT TETON FARM
Petit Teton Farm is open daily 9am-4:30pm, except Sunday 12 noon-4:30pm. Along with the large inventory of jams, pickles, soups and sauces made from everything we grow, we sell USDA beef and pork from our perfectly raised pigs and cows. Right now we also have stewing hens, squab, and a few rabbits for sale. We'd love to see you. Nikki and Steve
BOONVILLE VETERANS BUILDING UPDATE: Kirk Wilder notified the AV Community Services District Board that American Legion Post #385 received the confirmation from the Secretary of State that the Legion’s request to amend their articles of incorporation had been approved. This action was required by the California State Board of Equalization in order to apply for the certificate of occupancy necessary in the process of obtaining the Veterans’ exemption from property taxes on the Veterans Building and parcel that the County wants to sell to the Legion. He will now resubmit this request to the Board of Equalization. He will let the Board know the response from the Board of Equalization. Hanelt thanked Wilder for his hard work. (AV Community Services District Board minutes)
IT IS THAT TIME AGAIN where CalFire’s Boonville station gets down-staffed until next May. This is always a hard transition because it requires our local volunteers to adjust their normal response areas to backfill CalFire’s vacancy. At times, especially in the first month, we normally experience limited response to night calls and low acuity calls because of the adjustment. CalFire’s presence is very beneficial, especially to Boonville at night time, because they are out the door in three minutes with three firefighters. Our volunteers, like all volunteer Fire Department, respond from home and are intermittent because of life obligations and work schedules. (AV Fire Chief Andres Avila)
GLEN RICARD’S rambling wreckage at 128 and Haehl Street in South Boonville, is in its 50th year of active, in-yer-face neglect. Although spruced up with nice irony by our local Banksys whose found art decorates Ricard’s abandoned walls, the structure represents Mendocino County’s longest running combination fire hazard and eyesore.
RICARD’S PROPERTY serves as a metaphor for the civic paralysis suffered in many areas of contemporary government. (cf, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors) while the man himself lives in savage splendor on the Mendocino bluffs where the kindling pile aesthetic is definitely forbidden, although persons of higher aesthetic sensibility, such as, ahem, your host, given the choice between the Mendo Bluffs and a woodpile, would go for the woodpile.
RICARD couldn’t get away with maintaining a major community hazard any place on the Mendocino Coast like the one he has maintained here in Boonville all these years. Ricard won’t sell, he won’t rent, he won’t fix the ramshackle complex, and he won’t even let people apply cosmetic enhancers at no cost to him, as one guy offered to do because he wanted to use the structures as a backdrop for a movie.
YOU’RE OUTTA HERE in ‘24, Glen. Got that? Gone, Glen, gone. You and your dilapidated pile of festering boards are over. You have no right to do this to us and we’re not taking it anymore! (Right there we have what is called an “idle threat.”)
THE COUNTY OF MENDO, of course, doesn’t have nuisance abatement laws, and Boonville’s local government has said, variously over the years, “We don’t have the authority” and, incredibly, “It isn’t yet deteriorated to where it’s flammable.” (Neither was the Hindenburg.)
BUT THERE ARE LAWS against fire hazards, and Ricard’s buildings constitute just about the grandest ongoing fire hazard in all of Mendocino County. If his great big pile of fire starter goes up, all of the Haehl Street neighborhood could go with it, not to mention Pearl and Tommy Thomasson’s well-maintained building which abuts Ricard’s boarded-up time bomb.
IT’S A MINOR MIRACLE that Ricard’s unmaintained fire pile hasn’t already combusted considering that transients often spend the night in it and feral children run in and out of its warren-like interior at all hours of the day and night.
THE COUNTY’S Department of Planning and Building is the agency Boonville might get to remediate the rambling eyesore and fire hazard represented by the abandoned row of shops. Years ago, Dale Hawley of Planning & Building said Boonville’s oldest non-human nuisance might be abated one of three ways: by applying the uniform building code to it; or the dangerous buildings abatement code to it; or by holding it up to the standards of the uniform building code. “It depends on the conditions that we’re talking about,” he said. “We don’t have a public nuisance ordinance that might get into areas such as appearance, but the dangerous buildings abatement code might apply from what you’ve told me.” Hawley went on to say that P&B is not required to make annual inspections of abandoned structures, but if someone filed a complaint explaining their concerns about a specific structure, “we would go out and have a look to verify those conditions. We could issue a notice to repair,” Hawley said. Or, he added, “We could issue a notice to repair or vacate and secure the structure from further damage. If somebody files a complaint we could contact the property owner and have him take care of it.”
HAWLEY said that back in 2000. I formally complained soon after, and here we are.
RICARD, PICK A NUMBER: What we need is a concerted effort to have Ricard’s monstrosity remediated, a kind word for eliminated. The CSD and the Chamber of Commerce — do we still have one? — should petition CDF to have Ricard’s property declared an official hazard to the health, welfare, prosperity, and up-market vibe of neo-Boonville, which it obviously, defiantly, is, and torch it in a training burn.
JOAN BURROUGHS: Great article re the Ricard property. Years ago I asked a member of AVCSD why eminent domain on the dangerous Ricard property is not being considered by the AVCSD. Bottom line answer: leaving Ricard out of any legal activity is because Ricard has two parcel votes on the sewer/water issue, they needed every vote they could get.
The Ricard property likely is contaminated from unresolved water and sewer issues — it is monitored by the state Water System CA2300733 official name: Haehl Street Water. The report from the state indicates the main well is inactive and raw. It would appear the property might not ever be sold under present conditions. It probably has no value as it now sits, unless the municipal sewer/water system is approved that is.
In 2016 AVCSD gathered water samples on Haehl Street re this municipal monster; they stated they knew where the contamination was located within walking distance of homes in the area. As a result this entire sewer/water fiasco could have been avoided if Mendocino County Public Health had bothered to step up and do its job by alleviating overcrowding and demanding sewer oversight with a board of local directors willing to listen to parcel owners.
Millions of dollars already spent might have been alleviated by working with parcel owners to assure them they will get grant assistance they need through AVCSD. To this day, AVCSD is still determined to go ahead with this monumental undertaking that is simply not approved by most Boonville parcel owners. Until there is a proven substantial need we should not be discussing millions of dollars more to be spent on engineers, planners, map producers, on and on; we should be working toward getting the community of Boonville back on its feet by helping those who truly need assistance.
(BTW Karen Alturas was one of the original owners at some point in time.)
VALERIE HANELT, Chair, Anderson Valley Community Services District Board:
The Ricard building has been a continual concern of the CSD. The building itself is not inherently a fire hazard as Ricard has removed all sources of ignition. He has also responded to broken windows and break-in access points by applying plywood. He has only received one or two legitimate inquiries into purchasing the building in all these decades. While there is a good well for water, there is not enough space to install a septic system. The lack of a functioning septic system makes this a non-starter for a bank loan as the most recent inquiry discovered. Thus, we are left with an ugly building. We have pursued the urban blight approach and called it in ourselves with no response. We also explored an ordinance to require blighted buildings to be removed, but that would have to be a policy applied fairly and evenly throughout the Valley or we would be subjected to a lawsuit if a parcel owner felt unfairly singled out. We have devoted hours to this discussion over the years.
Truly, there are two reasons this building still stands; One: the unintended consequence of the building code which requires retaining an original wall to call it a “remodel.” To maintain the current set-back which is up to the sidewalk, it would have to retain that front wall. If it was torn down completely it would be “new” construction and would require a 30 foot set back (see the fire station’s set back to get an idea of how that would affect this parcel) and would lose a huge amount of the usable space.
Two: Lack of infrastructure: It has a good well but no septic/sewer. Without our new municipal infrastructure (which would supply both water and sewer) this lot cannot be developed. Once we get past the public approval of the systems (by end 2024), either Ricard or a new owner can be assured that hookups to water and sewer will be provided and the building can finally be developed. Any interested investors out there?
WATER, promiscuous use of by Anderson Valley’s agro-industrial wine mafia, an annual complaint. In techno-speak desertification is called “cumulative effects.” Yes, some grapes in The Valley are dry farmed. And, yep, summer water is pumped from our depleted year-round streams and sprayed on our two remaining apple orchards. But even more water from our dying streams is squandered on fattening grapes because vineyards are taking much more water these days than is being siphoned off by all other forms of agriculture combined, including what's left of The Valley’s pot plantations.
AS THE WINE BIZ steals and otherwise misappropriates water, and the County's noise ordinance is waived for the wine people's frost fans as the whole destructive show is classified as “agriculture,” there’s not a peep from the “good” grape growers, the dry farmers, the organic growers.
THERE ARE NOW hundreds of huge mini-lakes euphemistically called ponds throughout Anderson Valley, most of them either unpermitted or with permit applications filed long after the mini-lake is a fact of the local landscape.
ALL OF THE RECENT permit applications are for on-stream storage of Navarro tributaries. These are dams, unmonitored and unregulated dams, and there’s no evidence that their architects are limiting their draws from them to “winter runoff.” Even if there was some assurance that the new mini-lakes contained nothing but “winter runoff,” they obviously hold back water which would otherwise be flushing out the creekbeds, keeping them relatively free of debris, human and natural.
WITH a minimum of respect for the natural world on the part of people not known to respect much of anything beyond money and their names on bottles of overpriced booze, the fish might even come back. (Fish don’t tend to do well without water.) We will note here that none of the local “environmentalists,” whether or not they have previously expressed approval for Off-Stream storage ponds, have protested any of the huge new ponds installed by wine people who don’t live here. These enormous new draws on The Valley’s finite waters were frequently retroactively rushed through the CEQA process, emerging from that pro forma paper shuffle with the great big green light called “mitigated negative declarations.” The frogs are gone and the Navarro closes at its mouth earlier every summer.
WITH THE GOAL OF....
Notice of Water Right Application A033408 and Petition for Change for License 10324 (A023120)
Husch Vineyards Inc. has filed an application to appropriate water by permit and a petition for change of a license with the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board), Division of Water Rights. The project associated with the application and petition is located in Mendocino County and would divert from and dedicate water to the Navarro River stream system. The diversion proposed in the application will be used to replace a portion of the applicant’s existing licensed summertime diversion with the goal of increasing summer streamflow for the benefit of native salmon and trout, in conjunction with the Water Code section 1707 petition, which will allow some of the water previously diverted for irrigation under the license to remain instream for fish and wildlife instead.
Summary of Water Right Application A033408
Date of Filing: The application was filed with the State Water Board on December 18, 2023.
Source of Water: The source of water is the Navarro River, which is tributary to the Pacific Ocean.
Amount: The maximum amount of water requested for diversion is 12 acre-feet per year, which would be diverted at a rate not to exceed 0.26 cubic foot per second.
Season of Diversion: The season for diversion of water is from December 15 of each year through March 14 of the succeeding year.
Point of Diversion: The point where water will be diverted is located at North 2,165,996 feet and East 6,135,580 feet by California Coordinate System, Zone 2, North American Datum 1983, within the Northwest quarter of the Southeast quarter of Section 3, Township 14 North, Range 15 West, Mount Diablo Base and Meridian.
Purpose of Use: The purposes of use for water are irrigation, frost protection, and heat control.
Place of Use: The place of use for water is 40 acres of vineyard located in Section 3, Township 14 North, Range 15 West, Mount Diablo Base and Meridian.
FROM THE ARCHIVE: “OH, we’ve probably been robbed a dozen times over the years,” Bert Cohen at Boont Berry Farm casually remarked the other afternoon when I asked him about the latest late-night intruders to loot his store. “They came in to apologize,” Bert said of the most recent Boont Berry burglary, a resigned shrug in his voice, “and we got all the stuff they took back the next day.”
THE ROBBERS, ignoring the store’s edibles and drinkables, cleaned out a couple of shelves of scented soaps and body oils during their late night intrusion. They hauled their loot out of Boont Berry in garbage bags across the road to where Bruce Patterson and Tricia Beverly then lived where they appropriated Patterson’s car and drove off with their booty to Philo.
THE THIEVES seemed to have second thoughts about the resale value of scented soap so they casually dumped their booty in their driveway and called it a night.
DEPUTY SQUIRES was summoned to have a look at the bags the next day and, putting one and one together, walked up to the door of the only likely burglars in that particular neighborhood and asked them to come along with him for a ride over the hill to the County Jail.
THE CASE of the Scented Soap took Squires about 45 seconds to solve, which is about 15 seconds longer than it takes him to figure out most local crime.
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