MCT: Thursday, February 14, 2019

• Rain & Snow
• River Flooding
• 175 Closed
• 253 Closed
• School Deficit
• Nursing
• Justice Plot
• RP Settles
• Extra Yearbooks
• Aliens Invade
• Love Quiz
• Playground
• Moores Appeal
• Eureka Productions
• Beachscape
• Old Slogan
• Yesterday's Catch
• Good Reasons
• Film Fest
• Healdsburg Tourism
• Criticizing AIPAC
• GOP Desperation
• AIPAC Candidates
• Reconfiguration
• Darwin Birthday
• Meth Comeback
• Django Casket
• Mass Transit
• Sad
• Leaving

PERIODS OF MODERATE TO HEAVY RAIN will continue across the area through today. A colder airmass is expected to move over the region late today, which will lower temperatures and snow levels. Rain and snow showers are forecast to continue through the weekend. (National Weather Service)

WINTER STORM WARNING: Colder air will spread across the region Thursday afternoon through the weekend. As that occurs, numerous showers will develop over northwest California, favoring heavy snowfall for elevations above 2500 feet in Trinity, northeast Mendocino, and interior Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.

FLOOD WATCH: Widespread rain will return tonight which will result in continued rises on main stem rivers. Some rivers are currently forecast to reach monitor or flood stage or more. If you have interests near these rivers, now is the time to complete preparations for the potential for river flooding. River forecasts will continue to be updated overnight at http://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov

HIGHWAY 128 FLOOD PREDICTION

Highway 128 and 1 predicted to flood Wednesday thru Friday Update as of 3 PM Wednesday

The NWS Navarro gauge chart shows the river level peaked at 12:30 PM at 19.03 feet Wednesday afternoon and was receding. That crest came about six hours earlier than yesterday's prediction, and reached a 4 ft. lower level.

The updated forecast chart later in the afternoon showed the river level passing the 23.0 foot flood crest point at 3 AM Thursday morning (Feb. 14) instead of 6 PM Wednesday night, and reaching a peak crest of 32.8 ft. at noon Thursday, then receding below the 23 foot mark at about 11 PM Thursday night.

The upshot is that Highway 128 will be closed sometime Wednesday night/Thursday morning before it reaches 23.0 ft., and probably will stay closed until the middle of the day Friday.

However, given that Tuesday's forecast was too high and too early, it's very possible that the next peak will not be as high as predicted, and may come earlier. In that case it's possible that Highway 128 could be cleared up sooner than predicted, maybe allowing the highway to reopen late Thursday night. But I wouldn't bet on it.

It's also a sure bet that Highway 1 will be closed at the Garcia River some time Wednesday night until Friday. Local residents can choose to take alternate routes through Comptche and Flynn Creek Road or via the Greenwood Philo Road from south of the Navarro. Hwy. 20 is also an option to reach Hwy. 101, provided it isn't closed by downed trees or slides.

High winds forecast overnight Wednesday into Thursday combined with saturated soils suggest that power outages are likely on the coast.

You can check the Caltrans website for highway conditions at dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/display.php?page=sr128

However the website often lags several hours behind real-time conditions.

You can view the NWS forecast web page for the Navarro River Gauge at water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?gage=nvrc1&wfo=eka

(Nick Wilson)

---

ED NOTE: As of about 11pm Wednesday night, the peak level is predicted to be higher (33 feet!/“major” flooding) but delayed by a few hours from previous forecasts to early afternoon on Thursday, then dropping back to below flood stage almost as quickly as it went up.

CHP NOTICE HIGHWAY 175, Feb. 13, 2019, 3pm: Highway 175 between Milemarker 0 and milemarker 1 in Hopland is closed due to flooding.

A DOWNED POWER LINE about six miles east of Boonville closed 253 this morning for about an hour. Otherwise and elsewhere, the creeks rose, the crows cawed, trees fell, wind blew, power went out for whole neighborhoods, and the rain came down much of the day Tuesday and came down harder Wednesday night.

THE BOONVILLE SCHOOLS are running at a big deficit approaching $700,000. Three senior teachers have gallantly agreed to take early retirements to spare younger colleagues, which will barely reduce the red ink flow. The school board is also running at a deficit, suffering yet another resignation, this one from Kristy Hotchkiss who was recently hospitalized with heart problems. Ms. H is under doctor's orders to take it easy. Craig Walker, formerly Anderson Valley's resident deputy, has also resigned because he moved permanently to the Bay Area to take a job with the Moraga Police Department. The school board now consists of Dick Browning and Saiorse Byrne, meaning a body short of a legal quorum. Interim school superintendent Michael Warych recently called meeting of all staff to break the bad budget news, a combination of decreasing enrollment and over-staffing.

JUST IN: Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, recounted a Justice Department plot to remove Donald Trump from office in a television interview that will air Sunday. Previewing the next episode of '60 Minutes,' Scott Pelley, a correspondent for CBS, said Thursday that McCabe told him about a plan to approach the Vice President of the United States and ask him to invoke the 25th Amendment. 'There were meetings at the Justice Department in which it was discussed whether the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet could be brought together to remove the president of the United States under the 25th Amendment,' Pelley reported on CBS 'This Morning' on Thursday. 

ROHNERT PARK TO PAY $1.2 mil in illegal search case

The city of Rohnert Park agreed Tuesday to pay $1.2 million to cover legal fees and money a jury awarded to a Rohnert Park family in a case in which it concluded three officers violated the family’s rights during a 2014 warrantless home search, according to documents filed in a San Francisco federal court. The bulk of the money will go to pay the family’s attorney fees.

pressdemocrat.com/news/9278120-181/rohnert-park-to-pay-12

ATTENTION NOSTALGICS!

The Anderson Valley Museum (in the Little Red Schoolhouse just north of Boonville) has several extra yearbooks from the 1920's-1950's.

If you would like to have a yearbook from those years, PM me (Sherry Hansen). Great memories abound!

VALENTINE’S DAY LOVE QUIZ in Boonville tonight (Thursday): Yes, Valentine’s Day, February 14, is also the second Thursday of the month. So this week we’ll have a special 'Love, General Knowledge, and Trivia' Quiz at Lauren’s Restaurant in Boonville. The questions, hugs, and kisses begin at 7pm prompt.

Hope to see you there. — Steve Sparks, Quizmaster

‘DIVERSIONS FOR ALL AGES AT THE PARK’

(Photo by Harvey Reading)

THE APPEAL OF BILL MOORES (see below), the unpopular Irish Beach Developer who wants a bunch of planning and zoning changes to several properties in Irish Beach where he owns most of the undeveloped parcels, is on the Supervisors agenda on March 19. The Planning Department/Commission has recommended denial of most of his application (except for his proposed re-zone of some forestland on the perimeter of Irish Beach which, Planning Staff said, could be logged without the rezone anyway). It should be interesting to see how our two new Supervisors, Ted Williams (whose Fifth District Moores’ development is in) and John Haschak, deal with the Moores appeal. It will also be interesting to see of Moores implies or directly threatens to file suit if his application is denied, as expected.

---

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING AND NOTICE OF INTENT TO ADOPT A MITIGATED NEGATIVE DECLARATION

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors at their regular meeting on Tuesday, March 19, 2019, at 9:00 a.m., to be held in the Board of Supervisors Chambers, 501 Low Gap Road, Ukiah, California, will conduct a public hearing on the following projects that include proposed General Plan amendments and the Draft Mitigated Negative Declaration for Case No. GP_2014-0002/R_2014-0003 at the time listed or as soon thereafter as the item(s) may be heard:

1. CASE#: GP_2014-0002/R_2014-0003

DATE FILED: 9/19/2014

OWNER: BRIAN ADKINSON

APPLICANT: BRIAN ADKINSON & JIM ROBERTS

REQUEST: General Plan Amendment to change 8.33± acres (portion of APNs: 046-070-26, -27, -28) from Rural Residential * 5 acre minimum with a Flood Plain combining district (RR-5:FP) to Rural Community with a Flood Plain combining district (RC:FP) and Rezone 12.01± acres (APNs: 046-070-26, -27, -28) from Rural Residential * 5 acre minimum with a Flood Plain combining district (RR-5:FP) and Rural Community with a Flood Plain combining district (RC:FP) to General Commercial * with Contract Rezone and Flood Plain combining districts (C-2:CR[FP]).

LOCATION: 1.0± mile southeast of Philo, lying on the southwest side of Highway 128, 1000± feet north of its intersection with Indian Creek Road (CR 129). Located at 8800 Highway 128, Philo (APNs: 046-070-26, -27, & -28).

ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: Mitigated Negative Declaration

STAFF PLANNER: Julia Acker

PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION: The Planning Commission, at their July 19, 2018 meeting, recommended approval of the Project to the Board of Supervisors and adoption of a Mitigated Negative Declaration.

---

1. CASE#: GP_2006-0008/R_2006-0012

DATE FILED: 1/1/2011

OWNER: WILLIAM& TONA MOORES

APPLICANT: WILLIAM MOORES

REQUEST: Amendment to the Coastal Land Use Map and Coastal and Inland Zoning Maps for the following General Plan Classifications and Zoning Districts: Coastal Zone General Plan Amendments: RL160 2C to RR5:PD [RR1:PD] and C:PD; RR5:PD [RR1:PD] to RR5:PD [RR2:PD]; RL160 to RL1602C/FL160; and changes to Urban/Rural Boundary. Coastal Rezone from: RL160:FP2C to RR5:PD:FP [RR1:PD:FP] and C:PD; RR5:PD [RR1:PD] to RR5:PD [RR2:PD]; FL160 to TP160; RL160 to TP160; RL160 to RL160:2C/TP. Inland: Rezone from RL160 to TP160.

LOCATION: Within the Coastal Zone, between 3 and 4± miles north of Manchester, consisting of property on either side of Hwy. 1, within the general region of the Irish Beach Subdivision; Multiple Addresses assigned (APNs: 131-110-04, -07, -16, -17, -36, 132-210-37, -38, -39, -40, -41, 132-320-06, -07, -24, -26, -27, -42, -43, & -45).

ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: Statutory Exemption

STAFF PLANNER: Julia Acker

PLANNING COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION: The Planning Commission, at their November 27, 2018, meeting, recommended approval of the rezoning of certain properties to Timberland Production Zone, and recommended denial of the rest of the request.

The staff reports, notices, and the Draft Mitigated Negative Declaration for Case No. GP_2014-0002/R_2014-0003 will be available for public review from February 26, 2019, to March 18, 2019 at 860 North Bush Street, Ukiah, California and on the Department of Planning and Building Services website at:

https://www.mendocinocounty.org/government/planning-building-services/public-notices

Your comments regarding the above project(s) and/or the Draft Mitigated Negative Declaration for Case No. GP_2014-0002/R_2014-0003 are invited. Written comments should be submitted to the Department of Planning and Building Services Commission Staff, at 860 North Bush Street, Ukiah, California, 95482, no later than Monday, March 18, 2019. Oral comments may be presented to the Board of Supervisors during the public hearing.

The Board of Supervisors action shall be final. If you challenge the project in court, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this notice, or in written correspondence delivered to the Department of Planning and Building Services/Board of Supervisors at, or prior to, the public hearing. All persons are invited to appear and present testimony in this matter.

Additional information regarding the above noted item(s) may be obtained by calling the Department of Planning and Building Services at 234-6650, Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m. Should you desire notification of the Board’s decision you may do so by requesting notification in writing and providing a self-addressed stamped envelope to the Department of Planning and Building Services.

BRENT SCHULTZ, Director of Planning and Building Services

Published 2/20/2019

ON THE MARIN COAST…

A FRIEND WRITES: "My dad was a cook in the Coast Guard in WWII. He spent a lot of time on the west coast, much of it in the greater Santa Cruz region. This, of course, meant the peninsula and all those lonely service wives were waiting just over the hill. My dad told me their motto was, "In the barrooms and the bedrooms, it's the Coast Guard two to one!" I have never found another old Coasty who knew of that slogan."

CATCH OF THE DAY, February 13, 2019

DAVID BROWN, Lakeport/Covelo. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

ANGELA CHILDRESS, Ukiah. Fugitive from justice.

MICHAEL MCGEE, Ukiah. Disobeying court order, failure to appear.

JOHN POCZA, Springfield, Oregon/Ukiah. Vandalism, failure to appear.

JORGE SANCHEZ, Fort Bragg. Witness intimidation.

MANUEL SILVA, Willits. Suspended license, paraphernalia, probation revocation.

ANNA STEMPLE, Willits. Failure to appear.

MIKAYLA THRILKILL, Willits. Suspended license, disobeying court order.

FRANCISCO ZAMORA, Ukiah. Probation revocation.

WILDLIFE FILM FEST--Opening films on Feb. 22

The first of five Friday evenings of live music and notable films from the International Wildlife Film Festival in Missoula, Montana will begin Friday, February 22, at the Ukiah Civic Center, 300 Seminary Avenue. Festivities will start at 6:15 p.m. with Bob Laughton’s lively Celtic folk music.Opening night screenings will begin at 7 p.m. featuring films portraying the importance of three iconic keystone species and citizen efforts to support them: "The Beaver Believers," "Canis Lupus Colorado," and "Drive Them Buffalo."

Tickets for the Wildlife Film Festival are available at Mendocino Book Co. or at the door. Series tickets are $45 and individual tickets are a suggested donation of $10 for adults and $5 for children. Films are appropriate for older children, but parental discretion is recommended.

For a full program of the film series and more information about Redwood Valley Outdoor Education Project (RVOEP), a special program of the Ukiah Unified School District that the film series supports, visit its website, _www.rvoep.org.

For further inquiries, contact Maureen Taylor, RVOEP Education Coordinator, at 489-0227.

GOING, GOING…

Editor:

Since moving to Healdsburg in 1998, I’ve heard people complain that the majority of our businesses cater to the tourist dollar and not to the needs of our residents. That issue has progressed to the point that downtown is now filled with elegant shops, hotels, tasting rooms and galleries, all offering numerous ways to drop a thousand dollars in an afternoon.

The city is currently debating a permit request for a 230-seat restaurant on the Plaza. Obviously a project this size will further impact parking, congestion, noise and the tempers of those trying to reach downtown. More is not always better. Are we going to love Healdsburg to death and lose what attracted us here in the first place?

Unfortunately, there is no turning back the clock. We are a huge tourist destination, with all the positive and negative aspects that go with it. It is time we paid attention to what is needed to keep Healdsburg healthy, vibrant and growing in a way that is inclusive.

Maggie Medeiros

Healdsburg

ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ DEBUNKS CONSERVATIVE CONSPIRACY THEORIES ABOUT HER

“This stuff is really sad,” she wrote on Twitter, “The GOP is so intellectually bankrupt that they no longer engage to debate issues in good faith”

rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/ocasio-cortez-financial-rumors-792454/

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

And, all the while, we have an choir of soi disant intellectuals bellowing about fascism resurging. But, lest we forget, this beastly thing had roots in the same squalor, and those tootling that particular tune are as much on the wrong song-sheet as those singing about socialism.

If what’s afoot out there in Deplorable-land is an expression of the dire necessity of re-localization, that being the re-shaping of community and economy on a more geographically constrained level, this one thing would be the opposite to what the fascists of a life-time ago were fighting for. Hitler was all about lebensraum – “empire” to you and me – and so was Mussolini and so was Hirohito.

But fascistic expansionism isn’t what we’ve got taking shape now, at least, in my humble opinion. The daily brawls in Washington are in part the reflection of a large contingent in the American polity that want to reclaim control over what happens to them, opposing the borderless world of free movement of money and people that suits the upper economic strata.

But Washington is just show biz, the actors there at the beck and call of the donor class, that handful of people and businesses that coughed up a billion or so for the 2016 campaign to both Republican and Democrat.

And, as sure as we sit here, the agenda of the donor class ain’t the Deplorable agenda. The reconfiguration of life will either come with the founding of political parties not in the pockets of the Davos people, or it comes outside the political and institutional apparatus of the country altogether. The former might be preferable to the latter.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12: Charles Darwin’s Birthday

METH MAKES A COMEBACK

kqed.org/news/11724407/meths-comeback-a-new-speed-epidemic-takes-its-toll-on-san-francisco

REINHARDT'S BURIAL, 1953 (age 43)

SMART IS TAKING THE BUS

Editor:

If you are angered by, or deprecate, the SMART train, and mass transit in general, I think maybe you never tried using it.

The other day, when the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge was shut down, causing massive traffic headaches, my wife and I took Golden Gate Transit’s No. 101 bus from Petaluma to our son’s flat in San Francisco. We smiled as we zoomed past all the mired vehicles on our way home in comfort on Golden Gate Transit’s No. 54 and SMART. Time spent for each ride? Ninety minutes. Cost? Ten dollars for each round trip. And the whole thing was accomplished by tapping one universally accepted Clipper Card, which can be refilled automatically.

Drivers tend to get angry about their plight and blame it on everyone else — cyclists, walkers, runners, not enough roads. They get crazy with anxiety and perform dangerous maneuvers to get nowhere fast, when the actual problem is the cars they insist on driving.

There is no amount of gravel and concrete that solves this. It’s unsustainable. The obvious solution is mass transit. Before you knock it, try it. The Bay Area has you covered.

Bob Marketos

Petaluma

IT MAINLY SEEMED LIKE DIAMONDS

I am seventy-five years old. I have been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. Congestive heart failure is a terminal disease. It's what got my father and my mother. My younger brother died of heart disease, too. Unsymptomatic, until he took his last nap.

I am dying. And like most who do so, I am occupied with crowds and swirls of memory. Scenes from my life. And fragments, pieces of larger scenes now mostly forgotten. Feeding quarters that brought television to a tiny screen in a chair at a bus station somewhere; flying in a friend's Piper Cub out to Shelter Cove, having lunch; buying a shirt and arguing with my second wife over what color; catching a salmon at Wild River. This begins every day as soon as I'm conscious.

I expect that versions of this happen to each of us as we remember our past and go off to our doctors or the pharmacy, in my case with assistance from my caring kids or a cab when their schedules prevent it. If we have time. For some, there is that Chevy rounding the curb, its driver distracted by texting. Maybe a plane crash, a bit of steak caught in the throat. A stray gunshot. I am, in a way, lucky. Or maybe I'm not. I'm confused.

In my case, I remember the diamonds. Pitching a no-hitter. Seeing my child in the arms of a nurse right after her birth. A birthday cake. It is all a confusing swirl, the good and the bad. So I am confused.

A caring lover who has worked with hospice and who knows my condition has recommended that I get on their radar. Their doing this would doubtless aid my approaching . . . um . . . transition for both me and my family, who can make use of their help, as most can. I am trying to make this happen, and it has become it's own preview of hell. I spend hours each day talking to doctors, telling the same story again and again. I get even more confused than I already am.

Trying to get what's left of my mind off of all of this, I turn on the news. The Orange One again, filling our screens. As appalling as trying to get hospice involved with my dying. As absurd. Surprisingly, hospice seems as clumsy with doing this as the Orange One is doing that. Or maybe it's just me. And this is fitting, I suppose. But as the light slowly fades, as the cliche would have it, the largest diamond of all starts to sparkle: the lampposts, the ticking. And I must say, at last. I am doing my damndest to be prepared. And, looking at the news again, I remember the diamonds and say to the empty room, Let's do it.

(Bruce Brady)