A LOCAL HERO
Dear Editor,
Too often our local heroes are obscured in the smoke, whilst the cheaters and cowards emerge reimagined from the ashes of the destruction they have wrought. Such is the case here in Humboldt County where our current DA, Paul Gallegos, is retiring after 12 years. During his tenure, he sued the biggest employer in the county, Maxxam’s Pacfic Lumber, and then went after the Eureka police chief and his lieutenant. The details are worth recounting and the lessons worth learning.
Mr. Gallegos’ courageous lawsuit vs. Maxxam/Pacific Lumber stood out in stark contrast to the conciliatory stance adopted by every other political and regulatory agency official, who acted mostly as enablers, beneficiaries, or appeasers, while the venerable PL was looted, and our watersheds and forests liquidated with catastrophic consequences for residents, fish, and the future of our forest products industry.
Despite accumulating a record number of forestry violations, despite causing ongoing flooding and loss of domestic water supplies in Elk River, despite despoiling Freshwater, Jordan, Stitz, the Mattole, and Bear Creeks and other watersheds, our regulators and policymakers stood by while protestors were castigated and arrested. When the California Regional Water Board entered the fray with its independent authority, local ranchers and foresters rose up to defend Maxxam/PL, and opposed appropriate regulations to restore water quality.
It was in this context that Gallegos showed his independence and integrity. He challenged only one of Maxxam/PL’s deceitful practices, when PL cheated on the environmental documents submitted in support of the Headwaters Deal. (He did not know of the “stocking” fraud, in which Scotia Pacific foresters lied in their THPs regarding the use of hardwoods, instead of conifers, for re-planting logged lands).
Maxxam prevailed only because of legal technicalities that in part may be summed up as “The Right to Lie.” But Humboldt County Superior Court Judge Christopher Wilson, before his unfortunate removal from the case, ruled that if PL/Maxxam’s actions prevented fruition of the process, it could be guilty of “extrinsic fraud,” thereby bypassing that so‐called right to lie.
And prevent it would have: Another Wilson, Richard, former head of CDF, proclaimed that had he been aware of the evidence, he would not have approved the Deal. Disapproval would have caused the state environmental review to be “recirculated,” scotching the Deal since Wilson’s approval came at the 11th hour. It was a big win for Hurwitz, and a Big Lie, and it cost us Bigtime.
It should be recalled that Gallegos was forced to go it alone against Hurwitz’s legal team when our Supervisors declined to accept the offer of pro bono legal assistance from the powerful law firm of Cotchett et al in the Bay Area. That’s right: they declined free legal help from one of the state’s finest law firms, which pretty much sums up the county’s near total capitulation to, and conflicts of interest with, Maxxam during the firm’s two decades of rapacious and often illegal liquidation in Humboldt County. Former Supervisor Roger Rodoni rented hundreds of acres from Maxxam/PL for a pittance, and former Supervisor Bonnie Neely was married to Gallegos’ opponent, Terry Farmer, who lost the 2000 election.
It’s no wonder that Maxxam financed the failed recall of Mr. Gallegos.
Unsurprisingly, Gallegos lost in court against the high-°©‐priced team of lawyers for Maxxam/PL, but we are the big losers, as even today Maxxam/PL’s supporters continue to benefit. The late John Campbell, the chief henchman for Hurwitz, was honored by the Supervisors, and Fortuna has plans to name a trail after him. Campbell ran away to Australia rather than face the federal court that found he had violated the Endangered Species Act in Owl Creek. He left that role to PL’s lawyer Frank Bacik, Scotia’s current mayor, exposed by the court as the ghost writer of PL/Maxxam’s scientists’ testimony, and to Tom Herman, the local forester-°©‐lawyer at the time in charge of Maxxam’s murrelet surveys (which the court found were forged and altered), who hosted a party after the Owl Creek ancient redwood massacre at which celebrants threw darts at a target adorned with an image of the endangered marbled murrelet.
Paul took a lot of heat that should rightly have been directed at the biggest crooks to despoil our county in modern times.
In another act of political independence and bravery, Gallegos took the highly unusual, and politically and personally risky, step of prosecuting the architects of the negligent killing of Cheri Lynn Moore. Here you had a mentally distraught woman armed with a flare gun, holed up in her own apartment in downtown Eureka. She wanted help, so she called mental health services, and the cops went into action. After denying her friend access, claiming Ms. Moore posed an imminent risk of fire, they charged her locked door and killed her when she turned in surprise holding the flare gun, unfired. What some media described as a standoff is more accurately characterized as an ambush, incompetence, and murder.
Had the Eureka SWAT police evacuated her building, called in the fire department, consulted ballistic experts about flares, and waited while mental health professionals resolved the now safely secured standoff, Cheri Lynn Moore would be alive today. Entering the apartment with shields and fire extinguishers would have resulted in the same end.
Instead, led by Chief Douglas and Lt. Zanotti, they did the opposite. Despite claiming imminent fire hazard, police prevented residents from leaving, stationed their command and control center below the proclaimed fire threat instead of safely across the street with a view of her apartment, and charged into her apartment without shields or extinguishers.
To make matters worse, Eureka Mayor Jager, then coroner Jager, convened a coroner’s inquest at the insistence of National Alliance on the Mentally Ill (NAMI), and others. Unfortunately, our mayor’s handpicked presider made sure that the jury never heard some of these incriminating details, as intimidating police officers occupied the first rows of the small chamber.
Again, legal technicalities involving the Grand Jury scuttled Mr. Gallegos’ laudable effort to hold the perpetrators accountable, but his intent reminds us of why the DA must be independent from law enforcement.
Mr. Gallegos’ gutsy efforts will and should be long remembered, and recounted, not as unsuccessful, but as instances of courage and integrity in the face of fire, while the collaborators, cowards and liars should also be remembered as counter‐examples.
Ken Miller
McKinleyville
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EMERALD CUP 2013
Editor,
For the first time in its ten year history, the Emerald Cup is honoring two remarkable people with Lifetime Achievement Awards: Debby Goldsberry & Dennis Peron. Debby & Dennis have in common decades of experience dedicated to ending marijuana prohibition, as well as spearheading a new culture that welcomes people associated with cannabis as equals, neither criminalized nor marginalized. These two cultural icons have helped move the margins so significantly, that the message is now embraced by the “marijuana majority.” How can you marginalize the majority?
Debby founded CAN/Cannabis Action Network that toured the country in the '80s as an advocacy group, setting up literature tables on campuses and in cities, recruiting musicians and other activists, supplying people starved for information with what was needed to break down stereotypes & see a common cause. Debby has always had a cool coalescing capacity which was key in CAN before it was legal. She co-founded ASA/Americans for Safe Access in the '90s, followed by the Berkeley Patients Group which took it a step further, distributing cannabis under 215/420 guidelines. She also hosts a weekly radio show.
Dennis returned to the states after serving in Vietnam with enough weed to launch him on his dealing career, unlike most other “dealers” since he incorporated a vision of unity & equality. He did his share to unite the gay & marijuana communities in San Francisco which were coalescing around Harvey Milk, Mayor Moscone and Dennis Peron at Island Restaurant. Harvey & Moscone were killed in 1978 three weeks after passing Dennis's no penalties SF pot initiative by 58%. Dennis believes the decisive marijuana victory at the SF ballot was connected to the motivation for the assassination.
Instead of letting the AIDS epidemic immobilize them, the gay community with Dennis as a skilled spokesperson, mobilized themselves, opened the first dispensary in the early 90s with access to marijuana as their answer to AIDS & cancer. Brownie Mary was the cherished Mother Theresa who baked tens of thousands of hash brownies from donated leaf and trim for thousands of AIDS & cancer patients, who in turn helped the rest of the world understand the truth of cannabis as a life-giving vital medicine.
There are many levels on which we owe Debby & Dennis a debt of gratitude on this day of giving thanks to people who've influenced the course of history and made a difference in our everyday lives. These are our elders. Let's cherish them & thank them personally at the Emerald Cup Dec 14-15, Santa Rosa Fairgrounds.
This is your time to come to the Cup & thank Dennis personally for putting his life on the line for four decades to make medical marijuana a reality in California & across the country. He dared to ask the voters, who said yes in 1996 — marijuana for medical purposes is a “right,” no longer a crime. All the national polls from Gallup to Pew record voter approval at 80%. Now, we can all agree — that is the accomplishment of a lifetime!
Viva Peron! Tony Serra has now offered to do the marriage honors. Tony has been friends with Dennis for 35 years, ever since he first came to the rescue of the Castro 44, who were busted at Peron's house in '74, four years before the assassination of Harvey Milk.
Pebbles Trippett
Elk
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STOP THE SONGBIRD SLAUGHTER
Dear AVA readers,
There is still time to sign the petition to stop the mass slaughter of tens of millions of songbirds in Egypt. The petition will be now remain open for the first week in December.
One hundred and forty million songbirds are killed during every Fall migration when they leave Europe and return to their wintering grounds in Africa. They are being trapped in Egypt by nearly 400 MILES of nets and sold to restaurants as a “delicacy.”
Each year, Europeans are seeing fewer of their beloved songbirds return in the Spring, such as European robins, turtle doves, and warblers. Many species are on the Red List and are at risk of extinction. This horror must be stopped! The nets must be taken down!
You can sign the petition from Change.org and share it with your FB Friends and everyone you know. This is the English version. (The German version is also on change.org) http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-massive-bird-slaughter-in-egypt
According to NABU, a conservation group in Germany,
“Dear friends of our birds, thanks again for your great support for our fight against the massive bird slaughter in Egypt! Since April our petition is running. Till now we have 98,000 signatures. Next week I’ll meet the Egyptian ambassador in Berlin. Therefore, there are some more days remaining to collect further signatures. Let’s make it 100,000! Please help us, spread this petition again
Thanks a lot to all of you – together we can stop the bird slaughter in Egypt!
Yours Lars Lachmann Bird Conservation Officer
NABU (BirdLife International partner in Germany.”
For the Songbirds,
Ed Oberweiser
Fort Bragg
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SPEED RACERS
Dear Editor,
Hey Bro, spare us all! Ganjacriticus Americannibus species to circle jerk at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, December 14 and 15th.
Cannabis competition? Really man, all this time I thought "herb" cured "competitive syndrome." Jeez, was I wrong. Oh yeah, it must be that friendly good timey country fair blue ribbon bullshit. Dude, that's something I still can't wrap my head around.
Contests for stoners? What's next? Contests for speedies?! That's it! The international crank competition. It will be held in Fort Bragg maybe. Or Eureka. No problem finding an expert judging panel around here. The only prerequisite will be neck tattoos. My prediction: Mexico: Bronze medal. Germany: Silver medal. And North Korea takes the Gold. That's right, Kim Jong Un has the good tweek.
Peace and love,
Pat Chuli
Scamsterdam, Egotopia USA (Southern Humboldt)
PS. Gandhi told us egoistic competition destroys community and cooperation.
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PRESIDENTIAL EVIL
Dear Mr. President,
A friend sent me this yesterday from the Anderson Valley Advertiser, a small irreverent left coast weekly, one of the few remaining voices of dissent: "Obama, looked at from the AVA's outback rook about as far from the power levers as it's possible to get, remains a mystery. We can't decide if he's simply weak, or the victim of ongoing betrayals by the people around him, or a victim of the prevailing incompetence, or just another hollow man along the lines of Bill Clinton, Gavin Newsom, or any number of the shiny-teeth ciphers presently occupying public office who wants to be President simply so he can ride around in limos and Air Force One and call up drone murders of Arab grandmothers. With Obama, it's one catastrophe after another, and he smiles on through all of it like a guy walking into a Christmas party." (November 20)
I have to admit I still have an occasional doubt myself, wondering who you are. Call it residual denial at falling for your con, but those moments don't last long and they're getting less frequent. After five years the evidence is overwhelming that you fall in the category of hollow men who lust for the trappings of power and privilege, who can murder a grandmother picking okra in her garden in the mountains of Waziristan and not even acknowledge that somebody fucked up when her son and grandchildren tell their tale of injustice to representatives of Congress. No acknowledgement either, for the murder of an imam in a small village in Yemen arguing with three men who wanted him to stop preaching against violence. No apologies, no regrets to the imam's brother who came to Washington asking why his brother was murdered. Or to the family of 16-year old Abdulrahman Awlaki, an American boy whose only crime seemed to be that he was the son of an anti-American cleric. That's the ultimate power trip, isn't it? To murder with impunity. It must be a rush to have the power of life and death. Like a god.
I think the AVA editorial missed that dimension of evil in you, Mr. President. You're not just a shiny-toothed empty suit who likes to ride around in limos and Air Force One; there's an element of cold-blooded evil, the kind it takes to remain silent in the face of gross injustice, to show no regret and offer no apology for the murders of a 67-year old grandmother in Pakistan or a 16-year old boy searching for his father in Yemen or an imam refusing to stop preaching against violence. That's a special kind of evil — Presidential Evil.
Robert L. Yoder
San Francisco
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THE COSTCO FANTASY
To The Ukiah City Council
Our City Manager fantasizes that a Big CostCo Box will bring in great sales tax receipts and that the city will be able to pay off its indebtedness from the RDA fiasco, as well as new loans to build $6.2 million worth of access roads to CostCo. This, they hope, will put the City on a sound financial footing. But there are a few problems with living in such a fantasy world:
There Is No Need For Costco: Ukiah people are not under-dressed nor poorly fed for lack of another big box discount store. We already have plenty of clothing stores, food emporiums, gasoline stations, and drug stores to meet our needs.
There Is No Money To Build The New Highway 101 Interchange: The State Finance Department has said that the City Council cannot use revenue from the 2011 RDA bond nor from the expected sale of 15 acres to CostCo to develop roads and interchanges needed to funnel shoppers into Big Box parking lots. Show us your money!
There Is No Adequate Plan For The Proposed Interchange: The traffic engineers from Smith Engineering consider the traffic impact study conjured up by the City with GHD Inc. to be merely a "cartoon", not a real design. CalTrans has not yet approved this undersized traffic circle.
Walmart Is Expected To Re-Apply For Their Superstore: This will make any interchange intended only for CostCo traffic to be a fraction the needed capacity for shoppers converging on two Big Boxes. Thus the Traffic Plan will have to be done all over again and another tooth fairy found to pay for it.
No Debt Repayment Plan: The City Council has not produced a Cash Flow analysis. It is highly unlikely that the revenues expected from sales taxes at CostCo will be enough to pay off the old RDA bonds and the new loans the City hopes to get from "I-Bank" or other sources. If City Staff already has the funds, why don't they tell us about their good fortune?
No New Jobs Will Be Forthcoming: Many studies of big box impacts have shown that every new job in a Big Box merely reduces employment in the existing smaller local enterprises. CostCo is notorious for having no sales help and no signs to direct you around their huge warehouse. In our local stores we do get personal attention.
Impact Upon Existing Businesses Will Be Devistating: The City Council's staff appear to have an irrational faith that more sale taxes can be sucked out of our local citizens at a time when the whole economy is slouching towards another major recession. After all, we have only so many shoppers in the area and they're not getting any richer.
James Houle
Redwood Valley
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KZYX-ERS FOR CHANGE
To Whom It May Concern:
For all those interested in local radio here in Mendocino County I would like to update you as to the current status of both my personal grievance with KZYX, the Open Lines program, as well as actions taken by members of our community advocating for the liberalization of current KZYX policies regarding membership control over the station's "programming and operational philosophy" as stipulated by its Mission Statement.
I would like to thank Stuart Campbell, the programmer-elected representative to the Board of Directors of Mendocino County Public Broadcasting, for facilitating the Grievance Process and ensuring that all perspectives were respected during the meeting. General Manager John Coate expressed concern about the stations vulnerability to on-air obscenity but seemed satisfied that installation of the already purchased audio delay would solve the problem. From my perspective, I felt clarification of the FCC rules about how programmers are to deal with such situations on-air would be helpful, and Stuart Campbell has agreed to work with Program Director Mary Aigner on updating the Station Handbook in order to do just that, among other improvements. In the end, Open Lines will be back on the airwaves once the new equipment gets installed, which is great news for those who appreciate the type of community conversation and expression of our freedom of speech that the open lines format provides.
The new show will be revamped, featuring rotating hosts providing a greater diversity of perspectives in moderation. While I will get less air time personally, I think it will be beneficial to the program to provide a variety of hosting styles and points-of-view and am happy that station management has agreed to continue to include Open LInes in its programming as I believe it provides a valuable service to our community. There was talk about providing hosts with some education and updates about station politics so they could be more capable of reporting factually to our community about the current state of station policies. I hope this idea comes to fruition as I have always believed that Open Lines was a great venue for conversations and clarifications about station politics as well as a great way for the station to connect with its voting membership in an open and transparent fashion.
In the interest of sticking to the facts, I would like to retract some statements made in my last article. First, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant given to MCPB last year was split unevenly between the Fall and the Spring, but was included in its entirety by the end of the fiscal year ending June 31, 2013. Basically, the stations finances are better than I thought, which is good news. GM Coate did let me know that the CPB grant will be significantly less next year so pledge drive revenues continue to be important. Also, the board did vote to increase the membership fee to $50, no chicanery there. The $25 dollar Simple Living membership is still available upon request.
KZYX Members for Change, advocating for a radio station more responsive to the needs of our community, would like to remind everyone that the deadline for a voting membership ensuring full participation in this years election is December 31st so sign up if you want your voice heard. Also, we will be holding two organizational meetings, one on December 7th, at the MendocintoTV studios in Ft. Bragg (behind The Company Store) and in Ukaih upstairs at the Ukaih Brewing Company on December 8th, both between 4-6pm. Currently, the group is seeking people who may be interested in running for the board of MCPB who will advocate for membership control over the stations operational philosophy as well as facilitate some control over the programming that ensures access to all points of view. The FT. Bragg and Willits districts, as well as one at-large seat are available this election cycle. We will also be presenting some ideas for a petition regarding a by-law change requiring future Directors a greater level of accountability for their actions to the membership at large. Other topics for this brainstorming session include the possibility of calling a membership meeting to discuss these issues as well as developing a network of like minded KZYX members in order to communicate more effectively. Please attend if you are interested in the future of local radio in Mendocino County.
For more information please email me at mckentytheshift.com or see our Facebook page, KZYX Members for Change.
Thank You,
Doug McKenty
Mendocino
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FARM INHERITANCE
To the Editor:
Intergenerational Transfer of Farm and Ranch Lands—
Anderson Valley Land Trust would like to give sincere thanks to the nine presenters who kept an active audience of 66 in their chairs all day on November 22nd to share pivotal information on ranch and farm succession in a clear format: Reggie Knox, Executive Director of CA FarmLink on What is Succession Planning and Why Do It?; Olivia Boyce-Abel of Family Lands Consulting with Meet Your Peers and Successful Communication at Family Meetings; Rod Carter of Northern California Farm Credit Business Consulting on Transferring the Business; Steven Johnson of Mannon, King and Johnson on Estate Planning Nuts and Bolts; Michael Delbar from California Rangeland Trust on How a Conservation Easement Could Fit the Estate Plan, and the Magruder family sharing the challenge of holding on to their ranch for five generations.
The Farm and Ranch Succession workshop was the third in a five-part series called A Legacy of Working Lands—Preserving Anderson Valley’s Heritage. We would also like to thank the Community Foundation of Mendocino County for granting us a Community Enrichment Grant to host these workshops at nominal cost to the participants. Additional assistance came from sponsorship from the East Bay Community Foundation, Savings Bank of Mendocino, California Rangeland Trust, Mendocino Land Trust, Navarro River Resource Center, Anderson Valley Solar Grange, The Toll House, and the Boonville General Store. Special thanks and appreciation go to Kendra Johnson, a board member and consultant to California FarmLink, who coached AVLT and Mendocino Land Trust board members, local professionals, and natural resource agency personnel to host the workshop and to Ariana Reguzzoni, California FarmLink’s Northern California Coordinator.
Glynnis Jones & Barbara Goodell
Boonville
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TOSS US A BIKE, PLEASE!
To the Editor:
I am a current employee of Mendocino County HHSA (Public Health) and I have ridden a bike to work since my first day of work in 1992. For years I was praised and supported by my employer for saving money in my program budgets and staying healthy (using very few sick days). My current bike, a Surly Truck Deluxe built just for me by Dave's Bike Shop, is my main modality of transportation to work, errands, and social activities. I own a car and believe in using it strategically, especially now since my wages were cut 10 percent permanently by the County a couple of years ago.
I choose to ride my bike to work-related meetings rather than take a county car to help save the county money, plus I'm getting some exercise along the way. I can often arrive at my destinations faster (or at the same time) as colleagues who travel by car.
A couple of weeks ago I was reminded of a new HHSA policy that prohibits employees from using bikes as transportation to work meetings. There are about four or five us in this office who ride to meetings regularly and now we are being told to either use our own cars and receive reimbursement (.55/mi) or use a county car. None of us want to do this. We believe we are doing our best to (1) work efficiently and practice fiscal responsibility w/government money and (2) stay as healthy as we can within the current work environment.
I'm not sure exactly why bikes are not allowed by this policy; strangely enough, motorcycles are prohibited, too. It's very confusing to those of us who are trying to navigate the "new reality" with less wages and longer work hours. How are we supposed to make this work? It just doesn't make any sense to me.
I am interested in working respectfully within the HHSA system to change this policy to reflect new work and social trends that support riding bikes at work. Prior to the creation of HHSA, when Public Health was its own separate department, we were praised for our good habits and money-saving strategies. I got an award once for riding my bike to work meetings. We actually had four or five department bikes that all employees were allowed to borrow to travel to local meetings. Times have changed, I guess, but we need to keep good business practices that make sense. With County employee morale so low, can't they just toss us a bone and let us get some fresh air once in a while when we spend 10 hours a day in our offices?
Valerie Lawe Cannon
Ukiah
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MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS
To the Editor
Since the County supervisors awarded the mental health services contract to the for-profit-corporation Ortner, things have gone from bad to worse. Ortner seems to do no early crisis intervention with recovery support, and minimal Psychiatric Emergency Services. People must go into full crisis: become gravely disabled or a danger to self or others before they are hospitalized (maybe). Hospitalization is another one of the cash-cows for Ortner’s North Valley Behavioral Health Center in Yuba City. Ortner then receives even more of the mental health patient money that Pinizzotto, Cryer, Angelo and the supervisors have held back for them.
Ortner is well into their fifth month of responsibility for providing mental health services and seem to be in breach of contract. The human suffering from this breach spreads out from patients with severe mental illness and their families, into our communities, with burden being placed upon law enforcement, and hospital ERs. Under Pinizzotto, Mental Health has transferred many patients to the rural health clinics and they find that Ortner provides few crisis services to help their patients in crisis.
Ortner is not always responding to ER calls to evaluate people in need of psychiatric emergency treatment. Ortner is known to drop off people just out of psychiatric hospital at Homeless Shelters, even when they are closed during the day.
HOW CAN THIS STOP? The Grand Jury takes too long and the Behemoth Carmel Angelo ignores them anyway. She has her minions who say, “There is no money for mental health services” even though up to $25 million in state and federal money comes here annually. Is she putting patient money into funds called “Special” “Reserve” and “County”?
Now Angelo has distanced herself even further from us and what she has done — her two minions and now Ortner. She only tells the supervisors what she wants them to know to maintain her near total control over patient money. She bears major responsibility for the unnecessary suffering of thousands of people. WHERE DOES THIS END? It will take three supervisors to end it, to hold the perpetrators responsible and relieve them of their positions, then to start again with an experienced mental health services provider like the non-profit Turning Point in Sacramento, or perhaps Optum.
Sincerely.
Sonya Nesch, Author of
Advocating for Someone with a Mental Illness
Comptche
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GIMME SHELTER
Dear friends,
25 years ago farmworkers lived in chicken coops, cars and under bridges in Anderson Valley. The Anderson Valley Housing Association was founded to alleviate these conditions. Since 1987 our facilities have consistently provided affordable housing for up to 50 low income residents of Anderson Valley. This year we celebrate our 26th year of successful operations in the Valley!
Our Rays Road farm labor camp in Philo provides dormitory style housing for up to 10 unaccompanied male farmworkers and two farmworker families. The Boonville Apartments complex provides housing for 12 small families. Funded by grants and loans from various state and county entities, these facilities offer residents safe, clean, affordable places to live.
These facilities are old. They are in need of constant repairs and maintenance. This year we converted one of the buildings at the Rays Road facility from the dormitory style housing to a three-bedroom family house. This was done in response to changing demands for housing. This winter we hope to make improvements to the water systems at both properties. We still need to raise over $5,000 to complete these improvements. When completed, tenants will enjoy improved water quality and will like running out of water in the summer.
The lack of affordable housing is an issue that affects everyone in Anderson Valley. Housing for teachers, public service workers, farmworkers, working families, and young adults is in short supply. AVHA is exploring several possibilities for increasing housing stock. We seek land for small multifamily developments. We seek collaboration with wineries and vineyard owners to create additional farm worker housing.
We rely on your contributions to keep us going. Our affordable rents don't cover all of our costs. We offer our deepest thanks to those of you who helped us in the past. Our goal for this fund drive is $35,000. We hope that you will support the cause of safe and clean affordable housing for all who need it. Donations are tax-deductible. Please consider sending AVHA $50 or $100 or more commensurate with your own capacities.
Sincerely yours,
William Sterling, president, AVHA.
PO Box 341, Philo, CA 95466.
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YOGA FOR GEEZERS
Dear Editor -
Good article last week from Greg Ludwig on the merits of yoga and what it has done for him. Anderson Valley is fortunate to have a variety of yoga teachers who can accommodate everyone who is interested. I teach a yoga class for those folks who don't want to get up and down from the floor. I guess you'd call it yoga for geezers. The class is Easy Stretch Chair Yoga and is held at the AV Senior Center on Thursdays from 11am to noon. The best lunch deal in town is available at the Center after the class. For more information contact the AV Senior Center at 895-3609.
Kathy MacDonald
Elk
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BOOKS GALORE!
Editor,
The AV Unity Club Library will once again have one of your favorite booths at this Saturday's Holiday Bazaar.
We have a good selection of new and gently used books with choices ranging from children's to adult fiction & non-fiction. There will be a special feature for mystery readers who enjoy a sequence or serial by an author — we have some classic and "cosies" sets. With prices starting at less than a dollar and most hard-covers between $1-$2 each, everyone is sure to find some great values and all funds are used for library maintenance and to purchase new books!
You book lover's can fill your gift list and your own cache of winter reading. Recycling is good for the world and your pocketbook! Come early for the best selection.
Beverly Dutra
Philo
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