SHORTY ADAMS is feelin' it! The legendary school bus driver's Boonville home is the first in the Valley to turn on Christmas lights, and what a nice sight Shorty's house is, an array of bright colors lifting the night time spirits of everyone who passes by.
SECOND THINGS SECOND. The Redwood Classic basketball tournament kicks off Wednesday in the Boonville gym, and I can tell you right now which teams will be in the championship game Saturday night — Branson and Pinewood. Branson is a private school for a couple of hundred very rich kids located in Ross, Marin County. It's a former girl's school from the days the super-wealthy sequestered their daughters from, ah, unpromising liaisons with the lower orders. Julia Child is the school's most famous graduate. Back three decades or so, Branson, tired of being a basketball doormat, began offering scholarships to academically qualified athletes, and the school has been a basketball power, girls and boys, ever since. The small schools of outback Mendocino County are no competition for schools like Branson and Pinewood, another posh private school heavy on talented high school basketball players located in the gated precincts of Los Altos. The Boonville boys have a strong team this year, and might be able to give the faves a run for it by playing a tenacious man-to-man defense (we've got the athletic ability to do that) but the two same olds, Pinewood and Branson will again be too much for the locals.
TWO MIDDLEAGE ab divers made their last dives this week. You see these obviously out-of-shape guys waddling down to the unforgiving sea in their wet suits, and you know that sudden exertion among the sedentary can be fatal and, sure enough, it is. Two mollusk hunters drowned off the Mendocino Coast in five days. Then there was the woman on the beach at Goat Rock in Sonoma County she said she just want to put her toes in the ocean and is swept out to sea by a sleeper wave. Lucky for her two lifeguards just happened to be looking her way and saw her taken. By the time they got into their gear and got to her she was fifty yards off shore and sinking fast.
WEDNESDAY NIGHT, 7pm, the Boonville boys play Tomales. We crushed Calistoga last week in a home game. A reader says, "Calistoga was the worst basketball team I've ever seen at the high school level." Hey, so what? A win's a win.
AIGNER OUT. The controversial KZYX program director announced last week that she is resigning effective the end of January.
WE'LL NEVER KNOW why The Aig will depart, assuming she hasn't resigned one position to take the station manager job, neither of them what you would call demanding as now performed. But it’s highly unlikely she resigned of her own accord. It seems, though, the station’s self-selected board of directors have gradually been replaced by smarter, more ethical people, people committed to a true community radio station. I think the latter additions to the board know that the problems with the place go deeper than Aigner, but to solve them, as a beginning, Aigner had to go.
THE NEEDED CHANGES are more structural, and to seriously begin them the station should move to Ukiah where it could do a total re-tool, getting rid of the entrenched group of programmers who vote as a bloc for whatever incompetent or nutpie is running the show so long as they're on the air. There should be a limit on how long programmers remain on-air before their slots are opened up to new blood. And there's an ongoing need for unfettered talk on purely local matters. To bring that off you need a smart, articulate host, but every time there's been one Aig has offed him or her.
IN THE LONG, sad history of KZYX there's only been one smart, confident manager capable of not only keeping the nuts at bay — this is Mendocino County after all — but knew how to make radio lively and intelligent. That was Nicole Sawaya. Of course she was also competitive in the great world outside and soon moved on to a better media job among more amenable and appreciative people.
INTERIM KZYX station manager Stuart Campbell wafted Aigner out the door with a blast of pure, untethered blather so far beyond the looking glass it would need the big telescope at Asilomar to make it out. I love Campbell's first sentence. "Everyone who has come through the door at KZYX in living memory (sic) knows what Mary Aigner looks like."
TRUE. But you hear the low growl first, then a pair of claws shoot up from somewhere deep within the cluttered grime and, as the unwitting visitor beats back an impulse to run for the door, a menacing female figure screeches in a coyote kill shriek, "What do youuuuuuuu want…"
I DO TEND to bring out the worst in certain people, but even us untouchables should be able to expect at least a reasonable facsimile of professional decorum from tax-funded entities. But the grungy Philo hippie shack has always been famously unwelcoming.
THE AIG is formidable in her unhinged way, and I can certainly see how she intimidates the caponized fat boys at the station, but I pity anybody new that the Stalinist-like cadre of screwballs dominant at the station brings on board. Of course the new person or persons will be a composite of what we have now because a truly capable person would be immediately sabbed. This really is a situation of Fire Everyone and Start Over.
HERE'S THE INEFFABLE CAMPBELL'S lunatic send-off for ol' Mares: "Everyone who has come through the door at KZYX in living memory knows what Mary Aigner looks like. Just about anyone who has ever listened to the station knows what she sounds like. That voice asks questions, tells stories, sells pumpkin-flavored stucco, and reels off Mendocino musical lore like it belongs to a living encyclopedia. There is just a little bit of a slide into a diphthong when its owner says, “You’re listening to kayee-zee-wye-ex;” at which point, you know you’re in good hands, because even if the earth cracks open and the station falls in, the voice at the mic will continue informing you what you are hearing and why it’s so good.
"By the end of January, that voice will be replaced by another. As of January 30th, Mary Aigner will resign her position as Program Director at KZYX.
“If the radio’s on, I’m working,” Aigner said, before describing just how much work it was to get a program on the air in 1993, when she started working “very part-time” as underwriting manager. Programmers then had to physically cut recordings that existed in material space, using tools they held in their hands. They had to time things so they happened in real time. According to programmer Jerry Karp, who drifted in while Aigner was being interviewed, the station had “one Mac Plus, but every room had an abacus.”
"This led to a detailed discussion of DACS machines, with their tractor feed printers. Karp remembered seeing them in certain chain stores when he was young. “Fascinating!” Aigner exclaimed. Karp looked puzzled. “Are you saying the topic of DACS machines at grocery stores in the 70’s is fascinating?” he verified.
"She was. Aigner is interested in everything and everyone. According to former General Manager John Coate, she has an “uncanny ability” to reel in good programmers. She is always recruiting, always keeping an eardrum peeled for a voice that “can do radio that people actually want to listen to.”
"She should know. Aigner herself is a professional listener, taking in the nuances of tales about drag queens, acid kings, and “the archetypes within” at every community radio station. She claims “you never know who’s hiding in the hills;” but she knows Captain Clearlight, Mama Bear Scott, and what ‘Lilly-Jack’ means in Boont. If you say the words, “Native American women’s chorus,” Aigner says, “Ulali,” and comes up with a recording.
"This expert listener is keeping her plans quiet for now, but she divulged that “I do intend to keep doing my music show and have a project in mind that I’d like to pursue, so I do intend to stay involved.”
"We at KZYX are grateful that she has been involved for as long as she has. That voice has guided our chorus for so long, and trained so many of the voices that remain. Thank you for your decades, Mary Aigner. Tune in any time. We hope you’ll keep listening. Stuart Campbell, Interim Executive Director & General Manager"
FROM CALFIRE'S WILLITS BUNKER: "Recent rains and cooler temperatures across the region have lowered the threat of wildfires allowing CAL FIRE’s Mendocino Unit to transition to the winter burning season effective Monday, November 23, 2015 at 8:00 am in Mendocino County." Details at your local firehouse.
NAVARRO RIVER. Dave Severn walks to the Navarro River every day. He watches it as closely as anyone in our area of the County. He writes: "If the Navarro gauge can be trusted (and for some reason I'm believing it) the current flow rate of 5.5 cubic feet per second is a full cu ft/sec lower than the previous recorded low of 6.5 cu ft/sec set in 1991. Last year's record lows were relieved by rainfall starting toward the end of October that bumped the flow rate way up to 150 cu ft/sec by November 23rd. Not only is the Navarro low, low, low, there are no baby fish in it."
THE PERCENTAGE of young adults, age 18 to 34, living with their parents is higher now that it was during the recession, The Wall Street Journal reports. As many as 31.5 percent of young adults were living with their parents in March 2015, up slightly from the previous year and from 27 percent in 2005. Some economists suggest this trend is due to people marrying and having children later in life. People who live in today's economy understand that it's almost impossible for a young person, even an employed one, to set up on his own.
THE BEGGING BOWL OLYMPICS. The envelopes please....
SHELLEY ENGLERT, COMMUNITY PARK: Amount requested: $9500.
“I am speaking on behalf of Sueno Latino and the Anderson Valley Community Park. Anderson Valley has a population of about 3500 people and this park is for our community — Navarro, Philo, Boonville and Yorkville. The Anderson Valley Community Park is the only gathering spot for families and people, the only playground in the entire Anderson Valley. It's a very vital gathering spot for our community. It's very important. And it's located centrally in Boonville next to the high school and the health center. So it's important that we retain this park. My proposal is to continue the maintenance of the park. I would like to see an ADA wheelchair accessible portable toilet, the maintenance and rental for the toilet for a year. We are in partnership with the Anderson Valley Vintners Association to get them to continue to fund the toilet after the first year. I would like to see some park benches put in. Right now there is one bench so I would like to see two or four more benches put in. There are two picnic areas with structures. I would like some shade over those structures. I would like fabric cloth and some recycled rubber under the picnic tables. We really need to maintain this park. It's a beautiful place and families come and there's a soccer field right next to the park where people from outside the community, and bring their kids and play at the park. I would like to see the maintenance of this park continued. Thank you.”
JOY ANDREWS: AV COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT: Amount requested: $9,830.
“I'm general manager of the Anderson Valley CSD. The CSD is currently exploring development of water and sewer projects for Boonville. This is in response to long-standing drinking water quality issues in Boonville as well as with funding through Proposition 1. The CSD is currently investigating what it would take to develop these systems. At this time applications for planning grants have been submitted to the state water board for both drinking water and clean water which is known as sewer. The LAFCo process to activate water and sewer powers has been started and two very well attended community meetings have been held in both May and October. The first meeting introduced the project and explained what they could look like. The second meeting last month discussed the effects it might have on future parcel development. The Mendocino Planning department and Health department are aware of the plans and have participated in the community meetings as both presenters and panelists. Engineers with experience developing these systems in both Sonoma and Mendocino County are working on the plans of study. On December 3 the first meeting of an ad hoc citizens advisory group called the Boonville Planners will take place as community members begin to consider options. This group will advise the CSD and inform the community as we go forward. The CSD is asking the county to provide startup funds to support this process. We expect to do some water testing in certain areas for around $2500 and there is an application fee for LAFCo to allow the activation of the water and sewer powers for the CSD for $5000. So if we got partial funding on this I specifically think the $5000 would be a very helpful amount to cover the LAFCo activation fee and the rest of the $9800 that we have requested would be for office staff to put time into the project and incidental expenses such as the fairgrounds room rental for community events.”
STEWART CAMPBELL, KZYX. Amount requested: $19,445.
“I am the Interim Executive Director and general manager of KZYX. I'm here with my operations manager Rich Culbertson. We are here to make the case for asking for the county's support to upgrade some of our infrastructure with the latest digital technology. We think we deserve county support. We've been working for many years to upgrade our infrastructure to provide better service to our listeners. We also recently within the last year improved the quality of our news coverage. The request for funds before you will upgrade our broadcast tower systems with some of the latest digital technology. I'm going to turn it over to Rich who is in a better position to talk about what this opportunity would be.”
Rich Culbertson: “What this will do will basically be a game changer adding IP technology to our transmitter sites which will allow full remote control capability to analyze and make repairs remotely in the event of a community crisis if we go down. It also allows us to switch a redundant backup system back on and has the potential of working with the Sheriff and the fire departments to give them access to be able to cut in, to be able to access our transmission signal so they could be broadcasting directly to the community in the event of an emergency. Again, that's down the road, but this is the first thing that you need to be able to do. You would have the access to the equipment and the IP to the Internet to be able to make this happen. This has all changed recently because of access by the CDF to the towers for Internet access. So now we can purchase equipment which will allow us to take a step forward. Partial payment would be more than helpful.”
KAREN OTTOBONI, AV ELDERHOME. Amount requested: $9,000.
“I've passed out a plot plan of what we have been doing. Actually, we wouldn't be this far if not that many years ago the Board of Supervisors had not given us a large grant to move this project forward. Now we are up and running with seniors. We were approached several months ago by the North Coast Opportunities group about them having a request from Anderson Valley residents about getting a community garden going. There are no community garden places for renters to have gardens in Anderson Valley. We have a large parcel that's right next to the senior center. We talked to the senior senator seniors, there's not enough infrastructure at that property for a garden. As you can see a large part of our parcels are leach fields where we have our regular leach field and are reserve leach field. These can be used, we found out, for gardens. We have the water, we have the infrastructure part of it lined out. And we have a lot of community support to put in these community gardens. Since we're next to the Senior Center, part of that goal would be to provide food, nice locally grown food, for our senior dinners and lunches that they put on over there now. And across the street from us is the Anderson Valley Housing Association where they have rentals but they don't have anywhere for those people to garden. So there is a big collaborative effort now going on in Anderson Valley to get these community gardens going. We have commitments from North Coast Opportunities. Our organization, our nonprofit has stepped up to help supervise and identify property to do it. We've also committed money for the project and we have local volunteers to help make it happen. So it's this kind of seed money that would allow these incredible projects to happen in our community. I know you all know that because you see it in each one of your districts. So any amount of seed money that you could provide to help with this project; we'd be up and running in the spring of this coming year to have food available and plots available for community members and have extra food possibly go to the food bank which is another process we are looking at and working with. And supplying fresh foods to the seniors. It's quite a collaborative effort. Any money available, any money you can provide to help us get this project going would produce some great results. Thank you.”
ANGELA DEWITT. AV HOUSING ASSOCIATION. Amount requested: $9,300.
“I'm the administrative manager. We have been in continuous operation since 1987. We currently own and operate two properties in Anderson Valley, one in Boonville and one in Philo. We house over 50 people, both families and individuals. This is low income housing, mostly for ag employees. The terms of the original rehab grant for the buildings was from the Housing and Community Development Commission, which kept us from having to raise rents to market value. This is totally in line with our mission, which is to provide affordable housing to the residents of Anderson Valley. But because our rents are very affordable, ongoing fundraising is required to pay for the repairs and maintenance of this property. At the Boonville Apartments in downtown Boonville which, if you've ever gone through town you've probably noticed them, are bright and cheerful with lots of plants. It's really attractive and lovely and we take a lot of pride in them and our tenants do as well. However, the hot water heaters there are reaching the end of their lifespan. They are all 20 years old. We have 12 apartments there. The water heaters need to be replaced. Obviously, hot water is crucial to providing safe and hygienic housing. So all 12 of them need to be replaced. We have a contractor who is willing to work with us at a discounted labor rate. Our tenants know they can rely on us for clean, safe and affordable housing that they need. So I am here today advocating for them from you. I appreciate your consideration. Any funding would be welcome.”
AV FIRE CHIEF ANDRES AVILA also requested $7800 for two emergency responder multi-gas detectors, but he was unable to attend the meeting to flesh out his request.
SUPERVISOR HAMBURG, who says he knows the needs of the Fifth District better than his fellow supervisors, is supposed to prepare his recommended short list. It will be combined with the short lists from the other four supervisors for final funding decisions at the Board's December 8th meeting. Theoretically Hamburg could recommend upwards of one-fifth of the $186k available ($37k), but if bigger projects from other districts are approved, there would be less available for Anderson Valley's proposals.
ANDERSON VALLEY'S scrappy girl's volleyball team fought their way into the State Girls Volleyball Championships only to lose to the Waldorfians of San Francisco. Anderson Valley had been seeded fifth in the state rankings.
THE SCAM (David Severn Writes):
It's just before 8:00 in the morning on Tuesday the 24th.
I'm sitting at my desk on the computer trying to figure out how we might save the world from the water sucking, poison spraying wine industry. The phone rings. "Hullo?"
"Hi Grandpa, it's Otto." I hear from a weak, affected voice.
"What's up?" I said, immediately worried.
"I drank too much with some friends and got in a wreck driving home."
My heart sinks further and I groan. "Are you all right? Where are you?"
"I'm a little bruised and scratched up from hitting the steering wheel but I'm OK. I'm in jail." It sounded more like Otto's brother Angus and the inflection was off for Otto but of course the guy's still drunk I think.
Rather stupidly and not expecting any other answer than the one I got, I did ask, "Is this really you, Otto?"
"Yeah, Grandpa, It's me." Sounding close to the way Otto would say it.
"OK, so what do you want me to do?" I asked.
"I just want to get out of this mess. I've got some money and I can pay you back and was hoping you would get together with my lawyer and put up bail."
Now those of you that know me, know that I have had some experience with fielding calls from jail concerning DUI arrests. But when I started questioning about how in the hell he got a lawyer so quickly he seemed too confused to answer properly. Again I'm thinking he's still drunk. He added, "I'll straighten it all out down the road but for now I'd like to keep it just between you and me." I took this to mean, "Don't tell my folks."
"Sure," I said, "But it will be in the booking log and I won't be able to keep it out of the paper." Still not understanding who his "lawyer" might be, I told Otto to hang tight and I'd look into what could be done.
Otto's last words were a soft, "I love you Grandpa." So sincere.
As soon as I hung up the phone I looked at the clock. It was 8:03 and the Public Defender's office should be open so I immediately dialed them and explained the situation. Otto had said he was going to be arraigned this morning but the PD receptionist said that with the Holidays he wouldn't be arraigned until Friday.
"So what do I do to bail him out?
"Call the jail."
I hung up and called the jail. "Otto Fraser? Nobody by that name here. Maybe he's still in booking."
"What about bailing him out?" I asked.
"If it's his first offense, we'll sober him up and kick him out later today."
"Thanks!" I said and no sooner had I hung up when the phone rang.
"Hello, Mr. Severn?" I heard from a stern male voice. "I'm Yoses Livingston a court appointed Public Defender representing Otto Fraser. Blah blah blah. $1169"
"Sounds like a scam to me" I said.
He didn't stop, "Blah blah blah, 347-778-7536 as soon as possible. Blah blah."
"OK," I said and hung up to call Otto's mom who lives right next door. "Hey Saffron, do you know where Otto is?"
"Sure," she replied. "He's in the bathroom taking a poop."
Thank god!
After telling her of the attempted scam, I called the Sheriff's office to report the crime and was told in so many words that there was nothing they could do. " We are aware of that scam. It's common, just don't fall for the trick." They weren't even interested in the phone number Yoses gave me to call to cough up the fictitious bail fees.
THE DECEMBER 3 initial planning meeting for the ad-hoc group concerning the possible Boonville Water-Sewer system has been postponed until after the holidays due to scheduling probs with many of the members. The CSD Board will announce the rescheduled date as soon as it is set.
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