WE WERE SHOCKED and saddened to learn that Jim Shields had died. The long-time publisher and editor of the Laytonville-based Mendocino County Observer, Jim was a good friend and colleague whose first-rate reporting on County affairs for almost fifty years never got the high praise it deserved. We will have a full memorial account of this gifted man’s life in editions to come.
THERE HAS BEEN NO LOCAL JOURNALIST I’ve held in higher regard than Jim Shields, perhaps because we shared the impossible task of producing a weekly newspaper week after week, month after month, year after year for more than forty years. And agreed, mostly, all that time in our mutual assessments of County functioning.
But there’s no ‘perhaps’ about how much I valued Jim’s friendship and how I admired his solid journalism all those years. Jim had no peer in his dogged coverage of county politics, a coverage that didn’t win him many friends in Ukiah but vital coverage that kept the rest of us unfailingly informed.
I don’t know how he did it. Production of a weekly newspaper seemed to me almost more than I could manage, but Jim made it look easy, all the while working full time at a second under-appreciated and, in its way, more difficult task — manager and guarantor of a steady supply of potable water for the ever-growing community of Laytonville.
A weekly newspaper and go-to guy for his community’s water!
I will always remember first meeting Jim, his wife Susan and his elderly mother at Observer headquarters in central Laytonville. It was quite an impressive operation, with grandma answering the phone, Susan busy at the paste-up boards and Jim writing and editing at a pre-internet time that editing was nearly a full-time task in itself as letters and articles had to be made presentable (and often decoded) prior to publication.
We both supported Johnny Pinches for supervisor, won over by his cowboy candor and honest devotion to an efficient, thrifty functioning of “Mennacina County,” as the old rancher pronounced it. Jim knew how the county worked. Or didn’t work. As did Pinches, who carried a thoroughly annotated County budget with him wherever he went, unnecessary spending underlined in vivid red.
Dominated by the illiberal liberals who dominate local affairs in all of NorCal, Jim Shields, unfailingly gentlemanly in person and print, deftly cultivated both sides of most issues, all the while holding weekly print tutorials on how local government functioned.
Jim was an omni-capable man, and a truly fine journalist in an area that gets little serious attention from outside media. I was always proud to call him my friend, and I will always miss him.
BERNA WALKER HAS DIED:
On Wednesday around 5pm as I sat on the back porch watching the hummingbirds buzz around there came a quiet stillness. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a white as snow hummingbird a couple feet away from me just checking me out. I have never seen or heard of a white hummingbird. It hovered, hit the feeder closest to me and perched there for a moment. I went to grab my phone to snap a pic of the rare sight and it was gone In a flash.
Then at around 7pm I got the news the Grandma Walker had passed away. I don’t know how long it would take a hummingbird to fly from Humboldt to Boonville but I am pretty sure it was Grandpa Walker telling me he was on his way to pick up grandma.
I am sure Frank and JoAnn are happy to have their partners all together. They had a lot of fun trips the 4 of them. All four of them were huge influences and never turned family away. They helped me during the most difficult time in my life without hesitation.
Thank you grandma and grandpa! I love you and miss you!
Goodnight!
— Stacey Rose
JOHNNY SCHMITT:
Keep meaning to ask, does anyone know what they're actually doing at the new athletic field behind the high school/health center? Hopefully it's not gonna be Astroturf, but some serious ground prep there… Are we losing the grass soccer field?! I didn't realize we even had a track & field team, but I do know that was a very popular soccer field.
Former AV Superintendent Louise Simson:
That is the construction for the $5 million grant that I wrote and received. It will be natural turf and then a synthetic six lane track and all of the required improvements that DSA requires for access. Caltrans is paying for it. It’s a good thing. It needs to absolutely be done by May 31, 2026.
THE BAILEY BRIDGE on Lambert Lane in Boonville that was installed over Robinson Creek back in 2017 after the heavy rains washed out the old 1930s bridge is gone. It took the bridge replacement contractor, West Coast Contractors (WCC) out of Coos Bay, Oregon, and their small crew less than three days to remove it.
The tricky assembly and installation of the large, rented temporary bridge which will be in place through the fall was completed and opened to traffic last week, in time for the County Fair. It took several weeks for the County crew to install the old WWII surplus Bailey Bridge back in 2017, but it only took the WCC crew about three days to disassemble, remove, and returned the Bailey Bridge to the County yard in Ukiah (in sections) by Thursday afternoon, ready to be re-used for the next bridge wash-out (assuming we ever get another big rain).
The contractor is now preparing to assemble and install the new, permanent bridge where the Bailey Bridge was which, weather permitting, is expected to be finished this fall.
(Mark Scaramella)
BILL KIMBERLIN: THE BAILEY BRIDGE
My correction to local reports of why our Boonville bridge is being replaced.
Let us try to get the story straight here. The bridge did not exactly fail, “after the heavy rains washed out the old 1930s bridge”.
Caltrans insisted on running a culvert from the storm drain near the ice cream shop on Hwy 128 down Lambert Lane dumping near the foundation of the original bridge.
Bill Holcomb, who was in charge of our roads at that time, wrote an official letter to Caltrans that informed them that this error in official plumbing would eventually wash out the bridge. Bill’s official letter was ignored.
SOCIETY NOTE: Long-time Philo resident, Kevin Burke, has quietly relocated to Tennessee. His neighbor/friend Kim Baxter said Wednesday that she had spoken to him on the phone recently and he laughingly said he couldn’t understand much of what people in Tennessee say. Apparently Kevin sold his house to his tenants who have since rented out the second structure they had been living in. Kevin’s wife Robin has been in Tennessee where she’s from for the last couple of years while Kevin arranged to move.
BOB ABELES (Boonville): commenting on the latest AV Travel article from Forbes in the Monday edition of Mendocino County Today:
The article reads to me like it’s AI generated, at least in part. For example, this paragraph: “Greenwood State Beach unfolds below the bluff, a crescent of sand often empty but for driftwood piles and the occasional bonfire ring. Some visitors come just to walk the bluff trails, scan the water for whales, or sit on the beach with a thermos and a dog.” While syntactically correct, the “occasional bonfire ring” and the “thermos and a dog” make no sense.
Bruce Anderson replies:
These travel pieces pre-date AI by many years. Anderson Valley has been discovered at least a dozen times annually since 1950 when the first article on Boontling appeared, carefully edited to exclude the sexual innuendo and ethnic slurs comprising about a third of the lingo. The best story, at least in terms of pure delusion, was published by the NY Times back in the early 80s when the Rollins’ New Boonville Hotel was discovered by agog gastro-maniacs several times a week. The writer described how the food came straight from the hotel’s backyard, fresher than fresh! But if she’d looked closer, or hadn’t been bribed by a free meal, she would have seen a kind of backyard petting zoo, where a bedraggled collection of fowl, a goat, a starving pig, and an ancient sheep posed for the yard-to-table fantasy, all the while Chef Charlene was across the street at AV Market frantically buying pork chops for the visiting gourmets.
AV GRANGE:
We are building our Fair Booth on Wednesday 9/10 starting at 4PM till complete, est. 8PM
It's our annual fundraiser for our scholarship fund and we need many hands to complete the project.
The major parts are ready to be hung, Wednesday is about placing items and all the fill in around the booth.
The Fair theme this year is "“Mendocino County Coastal Adventures” so beside the veggies we are looking for some coastal items.
- Sea shells
- smaller size driftwood
- rounded stones from the beach (or river-on the way to the coast)
- Lots of cucumbers for a specific area.
Remember if you want your items returned, please put your name on them
JENNIFER SMALLWOOD (Point Arena) re: Jim Lutticken’s recomendation to the Community Services District board that they abandon the Boonville sewer system project:
The Point Arena city council used that reasoning – the project is too far along – when legitimate opposition to building a wall to “save” the parking lot at the cove were raised. Turns out the legitimate concerns were legitimate.
Maybe Boonville could invest in low or no interest loans to retrofit failing septic systems. Your community needs to think outside of the box or you could end up with a sewer system like the one in Point Arena – smelly, outdated and in disrepair because the city can’t afford to keep it running properly.
Just curious, how will Boonville determine the cost per household for being connected to the sewer system? People probably have wells so the typical way of connecting water usage to sewer costs won’t be practical.
I wish you luck.
MARK SCARAMELLA notes: The project engineers are nearly finished preparing their “rate letter” where all questions about cost per hook-up will be addressed. Property owners in the proposed sewer system district will then have an opportunity to evaluate that cost analysis to determine if they support the project or not.
I’m very sorry to hear about the passing of Jim Shields. I enjoyed his reporting especially on our board of supervisors. Condolences to all his friends and family.