MANY LOCALS felt the earth shudder late Monday morning. According to the USGS, a quake measuring 3.5 was centered a few miles south of Point Arena but felt as far east as Signal Ridge, Philo. Say, isn't a few miles south of Point Arena the San Andreas Fault?
THE PLOWRIGHTS of lower Nash Mill have at last been fined by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. Among the more exciting couples in the Nash Mill neighborhood, the Plowrights will pay a $25,000 fine for violating a Cleanup and Abatement Order they earned when Mr. P fouled Mill Creek and its tributaries as he reconfigured his property with a bulldozer. Ordered to clean up and make right the damage he'd done, Plowright failed to meet the mandated rehab standard.
MILL CREEK, painstakingly restored over many volunteer hours, feeds into the Navarro River and provides habitat for the occasional Steelhead and Coho who make their improbably way home to spawn.
THE PLOWRIGHT SAGA began in the spring of 2010 with a multi-agency raid on the Plowright property led by the Drug Task Force. It’s taken more than five years for the creek damage part of the case to make its way through the system. Plowright also did some time for drug violations and possession of at least one tractor that turned out to have been stolen from South Bay construction projects. One of Plowright's bulldozers was abandoned in the Mill Creek streambed.
THE COMMUNITY ACTION COALITION, led lately by Philo stalwart Bev Dutra, has asked Sheriff Tom Allman to make a public presentation at the upcoming County Fair about the status of our resident deputies. No confirmation as yet, but the Sheriff, easily the most accessible in many years, isn't likely to say no.
THE NEXT SIGNIFICANT STEP in the planning for a possible water and sewer system for downtown Boonville will be a presentation from Mendo's Chief Planner Andrew Gustavson. Gustavson is working with CSD Directors Valerie Hanelt and Kathleen McKenna to prepare a detailed parcel map of downtown Boonville to see if there's enough density to make such a system cost-effective enough to be worth pursuing. There are also plans in the works to conduct a survey of downtown parcels to determine the present functioning of water and septic systems. Mr. Gustavson's availability for a trip to the Valley is limited so his presentation has been postponed to the fall. Details as they become available.
MRS. HANELT reported last week that she'd been trying to contact Glen Ricard of Little River to ask him directly about his abandoned, fire hazard of a property in that same downtown area of Boonville to see if he intended to participate in the water/sewer survey. On the off chance Mrs. H. reaches the haughty old coot, the answer will most likely be the resounding No! Ricard delivers to all inquiries about his eyesore Boonville holdings, including cash offers to buy him out. Apparently the aging Ricard has a new wife half his age, having dumped his previous wife who was also half his age. The thinking is the new babe might be more amenable to responsible property management. It's simply amazing what money can do for male attractiveness.
THE MAJOR says he enjoyed a catch-up chat with Laurel Paget-Seekins at last Thursday night's General Knowledge and Trivia quiz at Lauren's Restaurant in Boonville. The younger daughter of Bill Seekins of Philo and the late Diane Paget, Laurel is now working as a senior civil engineer for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation with the impressive title of "Director of Research and Analysis at the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority." A serious advocate of public transportation as a "vehicle" for social justice, Laurel is a graduate of Oberlin College and Georgia Tech where she got her PhD in Transportation/Civil Engineering. We’re not surprised, given her considerable academic abilities and her upbringing in Philo.
THERE ARE THREE SEATS UP in the November election for the AV School Board for three seats currently occupied by Marti Bradford, Dick Browning and Patti Wilson. Trustees Erica Lemons and Stacy Sobeleski are not up for election. The filing period began on July 13 and will stay open until August 12. Non-incumbents have an extra five days after August 12 to decide if they want to file. Local speculation has it that the three incumbents will not stand for re-election, which would mean a new school board after some thirty years of Politburo-like yes votes for all manner of nepotistic shenanigans.
THEN there's the man, complete with the Mendo-mandatory groovy guy pigtail, who ordered shrimp in a local restaurant but sent it back to the kitchen to have the tails removed. Staff did not to kick groovy guy's tail out onto the street, but were sorely tempted.
IN OTHER NEWS from the local food biz, there are dopers who leave joints in the tip jar, which annoys tokers and non-tokers alike who of course prefer cash.
HERE'S A USEFUL class for all of us who live outside the incorporated areas of the County: Rainwater Catchment: Assessment, Design, Installation. Offered By Mendocino College and Mendocino County Resource Conservation District, Saturday, August 1, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Room 6340 in the Ag building, Mendocino College Ukiah Campus. RSVP: Classroom space is limited. Cost: Free. Info at 462-3664 ext 104
DAVE SEVERN WRITES: Yesterday as I came and went from the Not So Simple Fair, I did so through water running down the sidewalks in front of our Fairgrounds. Small potatoes maybe but still emblematic of an accepted "inevitable" "End Times" scenario. Not so short sighted would be those that operate outback vineyards and not quite so in our face but still quite blatant in the vibrant green color of the vines they feed. On Anderson Creek, Indian Creek, Rancheria Creek and Navarro River there are 98 points of water diversion. Some of these are domestic and of minimal impact. Some inactive altogether. But many are still in use. While someone small like Balo Winery might have used about 1 1/2 acre-feet of water this past month (489,000 gallons), others use more and even one that I know who not only doesn't have wine grapes but also doesn't even live here. That would be Jeffery Skoll who owns Shenoa. It appears he has pumped approximately 5 acre-feet of water (1,629,255 gals) this past month which surpasses his neighbor the Wentzel Vineyard whose encroachment upon the riparian environment amounted to close to 4 acre-feet (1,283,404 gals.) over the same period. It's not just the fish that suffer. It is all of the myriad small, even microscopic, lifeforms that make up a healthy riparian ecology. And it is the drought combined with groundwater pumping also used by vineyards that lowers the various underground water tables in our Valley. Stress to the bushes and trees is evident all around especially to anyone that walks in the woods. Fruits and wild berries are all mixed up in their ripening routines. Many evergreen trees such as tanoak, madrone and bay laurel are thickly carpeting the forest floor with dry leaves much earlier than is usual for them to do so. An easy prediction could be for an early winter from all the signs. Let us all who care pray or maybe even dance for it to be a wet one.
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