Valley People 7/18/2024

LOCAL FIREFIGHTERS backed up by Calfire ground and air crews surrounded and then extinguished a grass/timber litter fire in sweltering conditions at the top of Deer Meadows Road (Quail Ridge Road, specifically) Thursday afternoon. The fire was reported just after 2pm and was declared contained by 4pm. According to AV Fire Chief Andres Avila the fire — cause as yet undetermined — started at the top of a knoll which meant it didn’t have an uphill path to spread into, despite the hot, breezy conditions. A Calfire chopper quickly and strategically dumped retardant on the perimeter of the fire as ground engines started to arrive. By 4 pm the fire was declared controlled and units began to be released. Avila had praise for all the responders, both local volunteers and Calfire, who jumped on the blaze and kept it out of nearby timber.

EARLIER LAST WEEK, another, smaller, grass fire was reported in a Jackson Family Wines vineyard outside Yorkville. By the time firefighters arrived just a few minutes after the reported start of the fire at about 3:30pm Monday, quick-thinking vineyard workers had already extinguished the fire with private fire extinguishers and their large drinking water bottles at less than a tenth of an acre. Chief Avila said the fire might have been electrical in origin, but that the cause remains undetermined officially.

THURSDAY’S FIRE is the seventh wildland fire this season in Anderson Valley. The first three on Mountain House Road in June were of suspicious origin and are still under investigation. The other four were relatively small and were contained and extinguished early thanks to quick responses. “But seven is more than we usually have this early in the season,” worried Avila. “There are still months of hazardous conditions to get through. We urge everyone to be extremely cautious and call 911 as early as possible if they see any signs of fires.”

(Mark Scaramella)

THE ANDERSON VALLEY COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT is reorganizing. With the resignation of General Manager Cora Richard in March, combined with the difficulty the District has had in finding a suitable, experienced replacement, the CSD Board has decided to promote Fire Chief Andres Avila to a comination position of Fire Chief and Executive Director, with an accompanying pay raise, and eliminate the position of General Manager. Avila’s new position puts him in charge of the District’s Recreation Department (recently more active with the acquisition of the Community Park and the grant activity associated with the Boonville Skatepark). If the water and sewer district which are currently still in their planning phase, are approved and implemented, Avila would presumably be response for those sections of the District as well. They will also promote Battalion Chief/Training Officer Angela Dewitt to Financial Officer (Dewitt has a background in bookkeeping for a number of local organizations). Further, with the recent resignation of popular District Secretary Patty Liddy, the District has hired Caleigh Bennett as new District Secretary. Chief Avila’s promotion, contract and pay raise is on the District Board’s Wednesday agenda. The Wednesday meeting to consider the formalization of Avila’s contract and associated changes is set for 3pm at the Boonville Firehouse.

IN OTHER CSD NEWS, three at large Board seats/incumbents are up for election in November: Director Francois Christien, Director Steve Snyder (appointed), and Director/Board Chair Valerie Hanelt. All three Board seats are four year terms. We have not heard formal declarations as to whether all three will be running for re-election. We have heard that at leats two locals are considering running. The filing deadline is August 9, unless one or more incumbent decides not to run (i.e., doesn’t file by the deadline or declares that they are not running), in which case the deadline is extended by one week.

(Mark Scaramella)

COTTAGE FOR RENT, YORKVILLE

Beautiful views, privacy and peace and quiet from this studio cottage in the hills of Yorkville.

New tile floors in the kitchen, hall and bath. Hardwood floors in the great room.

New vanity, mirrored medicine cabinet and toilet in bathroom. New deer fencing to keep dogs in and deer out.

Fruit trees and garden for your veggies.

Washer and dryer.

Off the grid.

$1200 a month.

Available Aug 5th

For more information, email Barbara Lamb at blamb@pacific.net.

MENDOCINO COUNTY FAIR & APPLE SHOW

Come Celebrate "100 YEARS of the Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show"

Entries are open.

If you're still old school paper entry those are due August 12th - If you need entry forms Call the Office we can help you out.

Online Entries Close Midnight August 30th

All Livestock entries Close September 2nd

Please check the exhibitor guide book for exact dates.

mendocountyfair.com

A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE

TIAJUANITA is located on the west side of Anderson Valley Way near Evergreen Cemetery, Its dreary premises once served as a motel before the Boonville stretch of Highway 128 between Boonville and Philo Highway 128 bypassed AV Way. The bypass was constructed in '67-68.

DURING the frenzied early years of wine grape planting in the Anderson Valley, which of course needed labor to do the hard work industry padrones required, there occurred an influx of single Mexican workers, and the old motel, abandoned in the middle 1950s, became a dormitory, and a cash cow for the owners, the Wasson family of Boonville.

THE NORTHCOAST wine industry is not required by either state or local authorities to erect housing proportionate to its labor requirements.

BETWEEN 20 and 40 farmworkers, depending on the season, have been jammed into 8 or so cabins on a site whose septic system failed long ago, and they've been jammed in there since the middle 1970s. Each resident pays a rent for a bunk in a cabin which bears no relation to the quality of his shelter.

A SECOND WASSON property to the north of the old motel is a single-family dwelling once inhabited by drug dealers, several of whom, togged out in the full “gangsta” look as mobile laundry bags, were often seen in the street in front of the place doing business on their cell phones. The front yard of this second Wasson rental presented a vista of wrecked cars, uncollected trash, burst garbage bags out of which ancient pampers and fast food leftovers spilled, the whole of it frequently accompanied by the cries of unattended infants. Lately, more respectable tenants have inhabited the rundown structure, such is the desperation for housing in the Anderson Valley.

DESPITE YEARS of complaints to the county to drag WassonLandia in the direction of First World health and safety standards, all complaints have been ignored by Mendocino County officialdom because, as we know, local elected people all the way up to Congressman Huffman, and before him, Congressman Thompson, are deep in the pocket of a deep pockets wine industry. (The wine mob just elected another supervisor, Ms. Cline a very young woman installed by an industry confident she'll “vote the right way” when it comes to them and theirs.

WITHOUT un-housing the 30-40 men who live there now, a re-do would not be possible even if the Wassons approved. And there's the rub. Without slum housing single farmworkers would have no housing in the Anderson Valley.

SOME OF US will remember the DEA raid on the big shed that used to rest at the junction of Mountain View Road and 128, a property unrecognizable these days beneath an array of shipping containers and attractive landscaping. Throw a palimpsest over the Anderson Valley and we only faintly make out the valley that existed a hundred years ago, or even fifty years ago. We seem to be hurtling at warp speeds to…

THE DOPE OP at that site in the early 2000s was beyond bold. Everyone in town knew it was there, squatting malignantly near the center of town. The raid recovered materials used for methamphetamine production. One arrestee had five guns with their serial numbers filed off. A perky young blonde was on site when the cops busted through the makeshift door of the barn. She said she'd just broken up with her boyfriend and, apparently not mourning the break-up, was spending the night with one of the men discovered in the shed. The young woman implied she was a “green card missionary” who was going to marry her new Mexican man “so he can get his green papers.” When a cop asked her what she was getting out of the deal, she said, “Nothing. I'm just doing it as a favor.”

THAT WAS RIGHT AROUND the time somebody, on New Year's Eve, drove by the high school and shot out several big windows with an AK-47, a weapon apparently converted to fully automatic, according to people who heard the shots. When Superintendent J.R. Collins reported the damage to Deputy Squires, the deputy soon discovered ten spent shells on Mountain View Road. Some of the bullets went through the front set of windows, through the windows at the rear of the room, and then through another window across the hall. “We were very fortunate that the shots hit nothing but windows and walls,” said Collins. “They didn't hit any equipment or computers or do any other damage. Whatever kind of gun it was,” Collins remarked, “it certainly was a powerful gun.”

THE DAMAGED WINDOWS were and are made of safety glass. Some were cracked by the fusillade, others sustained neat holes. A Ukiah glass outfit estimated the damage at $2100. The school district carried a deductible insurance policy that didn't quite cover the damage.

DEPUTY SQUIRES said he got quite a few reports of either fireworks or gunshots on New Year’s eve. “We’ve never found guns at the high-school as long as I’ve been here, and we’ve never been shot at before. It’s crazy. Fortunately, this one happened during vacation when nobody was around. When school is in session, we have people working evenings around the buildings and people cleaning. If it’d been a regular school night someone certainly could have been hit."

SQUIRES quickly figured out who did the shooting. Two young men, one of whom was fresh out of the Youth Authority, were the culprits although there was not enough evidence for an arrest. Squires speculated that the AK was stolen from the Navarro home of Kary Mullis, Anderson Valley's Nobel Prize winner. Mullis, who hosted legendary parties at his Gschwend Road home complete with imported professional female entertainers, amused his guests by shooting watermelons with his AK as friends and relatives rolled them down a nearby hill where Mullis could pot shot the melons on their way down. The guy was certainly one of the livelier Nobel laureates, and another chapter in the remarkable history of the Anderson Valley all by himself.

RECENT INFIRMITIES have kept me close to hearth, home and medical supplies. But when I was able and still lived in Boonville, I'd head south on the hunt for culture, usually stopping in at the MOMA in the City to see what was new in artistic fraud before heading a block over to the California Historical Society headquarters on Mission, members free and I'm a member. Some of the best exhibits and most interesting lectures this un-arrived arriviste has experienced.

NEXT DOOR to the Historical Society which, incidentally, is housed in a restored private home from circa 1880 but dwarfed by the high rises that now surround it, there's a very good delicatessen called Cotto Affumicato, Italian for “No Bums Allowed,” I believe. Whatever, as the young people say, I ordered a salami sandwich, the only edible I recognized of the posted fare. As I stood in line to pay, an emblematic urban event occurred.

A CHIC-LOOKING blonde woman of 30, I supposed, seemed to be paying her bill to the matronly cashier, a woman of 50 or so. The blonde had a uniquely flat boxer's nose, which I would recognize if I saw it again. I was kind of studying her nose, frankly, because it didn't fit with the rest of the up-market package. It was the kind of nose that chic blonde women who can afford expensive clothes and fancy haircuts would certainly spend a lot of money getting a plastic surgeon to elongate, to un-Jake Lamotta the disfiguring schnozz, you might say.

SUDDENLY, the matronly cashier waved her arms in front of her face and said, calmly, “I can't see.” She didn't seem particularly upset but she was squinting and violently flailing her arms as if fending off something unseen. I thought maybe tiny flying city bugs had attacked her. The cause of the poor woman's distress was not visible as she called a kid from another counter to replace her at the register, and another kid led the cashier off to the rear of the deli.

THE CHIC BLONDE turned to me and the other guy standing there, both of us clueless, and said, “My pepper spray accidentally went off.” Good thing it wasn't a gun, I said. She stared back at me like she wanted to give me a spray. Then, looking towards the rear of the store where her victim was last seen, the blonde said to no one in particular, “I hope she'll be alright,” and with that she walked rapidly out onto Mission Street.

IT FINALLY OCCURRED to me that I ought to do something. I stuck my head out the door and called out after the pug-nosed sociopath, now moving so fast she was almost running, “Hey! You should at least stick around,” immediately denouncing myself to myself as an ineffectual lunk head. For all I knew, though, the blonde spent her days walking around the city pepper spraying cashiers to evade paying for her food — weirdos come in all kinds of deceptive packages these days. But I could hardly run her down on the sidewalk because I, a scruffy rural beatnik seen grappling with a respectable woman of means, would certainly be pummeled to my knees by passersby as a street perv. Well, I'd tried to be a responsible citizen, I consoled myself.

BACK INSIDE, the young deli guys were still debating if they should have detained the blonde. A city emergency services crew had appeared and were helping the cashier wash her eyes out. The cashier had said she was going to be okay, and didn't seem angry about getting a face full of pepper spray or angry that the unfeeling mini-monster who'd done it hadn't bothered to stick around to make sure she was going to be okay.

I LEFT MY NAME and address in case there was police follow-up, and trudged up to Market, turned west, and made my way to my daughter's house where a sink hole had materialized in the street at her front door. A policeman had just lit several flares to warn drivers around it, and a street person had paused to sing him an ironic happy birthday.

DEEPENDERS say they haven't heard gopher bombs lately. These unregulated explosives used to be used in local vineyards to exterminate the relentless little pests.

THE GOPHER BOMBS are called Rodex 4000. They're an unregulated, unlicensed mixture of propane and oxygen pumped into the ground from nearby tanks of propane and oxygen via a wand-like applicator. Once the propane and oxygen are tucked beneath the topsoil, the guy with the wand presses a button on the wand, thus igniting a subterranean spark which explodes the propane and oxygen mix. The guy with the magic wand pulls the tanks of oxygen and propane about three feet behind him as he moves through the grapevines, blowing up the persistent tenants and their underground homes. Anybody can buy these things; nobody regulates them. And it would seem to be only a matter of time before a moon-suited applicator becomes Anderson Valley's first manned space vehicle.

CALTRANS TO THE RESCUE

Caltrans District 1 employees assisted a stranded motorist on Route 253 in Mendocino County, enduring triple-digit temperatures.

A Fort Bragg man was driving home from Ukiah when his car broke down on Wednesday afternoon. Boonville Maintenance Supervisor Derek Wyant noticed the man and pulled off the roadway to help, giving him water and taking him to his work vehicle to cool off. Along with the California Highway Patrol, Maintenance worker Rhett Pardini also assisted and made sure the vehicle was towed and the man got home safe.

The man contacted Caltrans and wanted Wyant and Pardini to know how much he appreciated their help and said he doesn’t know what he would have done in the warm temperatures had they not stopped to help him.

Caltrans reminds motorists when traveling, carry water, snacks, a first aid kit, and a charged cell phone.

(CalTrans Presser)

JOHNNY SCHMITT (Boonville Hotel)

Just a friendly plug for my new favorite nosh in Ukiah… O'HARU has new owners and they're doing an awesome job. The place is spotless, serene and friendly and food is some of the best Japanese food I've had in a while. Unfortunately with the street construction and whatever else, is pretty quiet when I go in there and want to see them succeed, so check it out. Also a beautiful Harley out front for sale… Lol. (570 No. State Street, Ukiah. 707 391-8178. And 462-4762. Open for Dinner starting at 4pm.)