WILMA FERNANDEZ, 55, died at Rancho Navarro on Friday, February 1st. An official cause of death has not been issued but is believed to be from natural causes.

A DOWNED POWER LINE about six miles east of Boonville closed 253 for about an hour last week. Otherwise and elsewhere in Mendocino County, the creeks rose, the crows cawed, trees fell, wind blew, power went out for whole neighborhoods, and the rain came down so hard and fast 128 was closed for a few hours. 

WANT TO PROMOTE YOUR LOCAL BUSINESS and support members of the Anderson Valley Village? 

We are looking for a wide variety of service providers – including but not limited to: gardeners, housekeepers, handy persons, electricians, plumbers, tech support, home nursing care, etc. We will provide this list of paid service providers to our members – if you are interested in being on that list, all you have to do is fill out a one page form and mail or email it back to us. 

Pick up a form at Rossi's in Boonville or to have it sent to you please contact us at: (707) 684-9829 or andersonvalleyvillage@gmail.com

AV Village is a non-profit organization providing Anderson Valley Village members with the confidence and practical means to live safely and comfortably in their homes and community as they age.

LYFT? IN BOONVILLE? “Drivers Wanted. I am the valley Lyft driver and am getting swamped...during the rainy season no less. How will I get through the summer when the tourists arrive in droves? I need some friendly competition. Contact Lyft for requirements or call me at 707-272-1040 for info.” — Paul (Soderman) 

SOMEONE spray painted this at the foot of Flynn Creek Road where it intersects with HWY 128...

"Our (un)tax(able) base is a perpetual problem in outlaw Mendocino County."

THIS FACEBOOK AD has rightly stirred much anger in the Anderson Valley where rents, if you can even find a rental, are far beyond the means of working people: “2B/1B Home - Live, work and play in downtown Boonville. Recently renovated 2B/1B home with basement laundry and detached garage. Wood Stove & Wall heater. Propane cooktop and electric in wall oven. Wood and Tile Floors, new bathroom, great lighting. The 2-car garage is on a slab. The location is perfect for those that enjoy the convenience of being in town and/or are interested in working from home. NSNP.”

THE ANNUAL ANDERSON VALLEY BEER FESTIVAL convenes on Saturday, April 27 this year. 

UH, sorry to bring it up. Again. But that feral cat feeding station on Anderson Valley Way at the abandoned June home is wayyyyyy outta control. There must be fifty starving cats there every morning milling around all over the property and out onto the road. Does it even have to be said that feeding stray cats as they endlessly reproduce amounts to animal cruelty? A Big Cats Only spay and neuter day is coming up on Sunday March 24—all cats, pets or feral, will be spayed or neutered and get a Rabies vaccination. Maybe the spay and neuter team can make a house visit. 

THE ANDERSON VALLEY GRANGE’S 28th annual Variety Show is on Friday March 8th and Saturday March 9th, and we will make room for you! That means YOU, or your funny/weird/talented friend or ANIMAL. We have had dogs, cats, horses, sheep, alpacas, cattle, iguanas, goats, pythons, doves, turtles, but never parrots, llamas, wombats...what kind of animal do YOU have, and what can it do? We want to see it!! Please contact Captain Rainbow at 895-3807, or Robyn at 272-2127 (you can text her, too) if you have a talent, skill, animal, joke, or anything else you'd like to put onstage for all of us to enjoy. We have rehearsals the weekend before the show, and we can illuminate and amplify anything. The best part is the A.V. audience, we're the most enthusiastic folk found anywhere. You won't find a better place to strut your stuff!

A PAIR of Boonville High School grads, cousins Robert and Zack Anderson, are heavily involved in a film called Windows on the World, which debuts at the Sedona Film Festival on Feb 24 and 26... Based on the events of 9/11, the film stars Anderson Valley’s very own Rene Auberjonois, Ryan Guzman and Edward James Olmos.

DEBRA KEIPP writes: “Do you have nagging pain that you haven't found a way to relieve? Come see me. My office is in downtown Boonville next to Boont Berry Market. Boonville's Boxcar Boardwalk is centrally located and easy to find. We're the train station across from the drive-in. Using lotion and balms produced locally by Joanne Horn from Afterglow Cosmetics. $85.” I had a nagging pain in my shoulder that Abracadebra erased in one session in my office. She hauled in all her gear, threw me on the table, worked her magic and abracadebra! pain gone!

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 layoffs at the dawn of their careers, which will reduce the red ink flow but not stanch it entirely. Interim school superintendent Michael Warych recently called a meeting of all staff to break the bad budget news, a combination of decreasing enrollment and over-staffing. The school board is also running at a deficit, suffering yet another two resignations, 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, Saiorse Byrne and Elizabeth Jensen. (Superintendent Wayrch said last week the district awaits the formal resignations of both Ms. H and deputy Walker but presumes they have left the board.) 

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 call Sheri Hansen at Rancheria Realty.

COMPTCHE COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION is sponsoring a Book & Bake Sale Saturday, Feb 23, 10 to 3 at the Hall a quarter mile east of the Comptche Store. Now’s the time to drive out to Comptche and score new-to-you reading materials and munchies. Bargain prices. Huge Selection. Don’t miss it. Call 937-5854 for more info.

THE BOONVILLE QUIZ returns tomorrow, Oct. 11, the Second Thursday of the month: Guest quizmasters. Meanwhile I urge you to keep calm and carry on. — Cheers, Steve Sparks, The Quiz Master.

OKTOBERFEST, Saturday, Oct. 20, 5pm. Live Oak Building, Boonville. Be there! 

SUSSING out the truth of prevalent rumors is seldom easy, but the one that says boys’ soccer at the high school has folded is untrue. High school principal Jim Snyder put it this way: “I can't comment on any personnel issues, but I can tell you that Adrian Maldonado is still our soccer coach, and no soccer player has approached me about throwing in the towel for the season. If anything changes I will let you know.”

MR. MALDONADO apparently hasn’t pursued a full teaching credential per his agreement upon hiring on with AV Unified, but this alleged oversight, or whatever it is, doesn’t affect his coaching position.

WE WISH it weren’t true that Luis Espinoza has stepped down as high school basketball coach. A detective with the Mendo Sheriff’s Department, Espinoza said, when I saw him last week, that he couldn’t give the coaching position the time it needed, what with full time work chasing down scofflaws and raising a family of his own. A truly gifted coach, Espinoza always managed to put a competitive team on the floor, often without a single consistent scorer. He’s going to be very hard to replace. 

WHILE WE’RE visiting the local schools, the just released state test scores reveal that 49.88 percent of California students met or exceeded English-language standards, while only 38.65 percent met or exceeded math standards. Anderson Valley’s scores were close to the statewide average in English, but math scores were lower than the state’s failed average.

THE MISSOURI HOUSE in central Boonville is among our oldest structures, which makes it doubly gratifying that Jeff Burroughs and Company have just applied fresh paint and a general tune-up of its ancient bones.

ESSENCE of skunk weed prevalent throughout downtown Boonville, prices down to around $400 a pound.

MOST PLACES in the Anderson Valley got at least an inch of rain last week. A year ago this time we’d received no rain, and the winds came up one night and….you know the rest. That inch has dampened fire danger but not extinguished it. Our one big fire this season, the Octopus Mountain blaze, was brilliantly fought to a halt mostly by local firefighters before it could get into the inhabited areas of Peachland and Deer Meadows. Its cause? Man made out of carelessness, but nobody seems eager to tag the popular person responsible with a big reimbursement bill, leaving that person unnamed but, we can be sure, apprehensive and, presumably, fire-wiser.

ANGUS FRASER, Class of 2018 AV High Grad, has taken off in an old Ford Station wagon with his older brother Otto for a cross-country trek to Nashville where Angus hopes to enter the sound engineering field in the burgeoning music industry. Quite a bold move, we’d say, but not surprising to anyone who knows Angus. Brother Otto, who graduated a few years earlier, has enlisted in the Coast Guard and will enter basic training in New Jersey in a few months with intentions to get into helicopter maintenance.

IN THE BEGINNING there was Sam, Sam Prather. For many years four parcels of land drew water from springs on Sam Prather's Indian Creek Road ranch property. Sam watered his sheep from the modest stream diversion, it was Lynn Archambault's sole source for her one acre; and it provided water for the Edwards family’s two acres, supplementing the Edwards’ productive well. And Sam’s water provided John and Linda Hulbert with their water, Linda being a cousin of Sam’s.

EVERYONE was fine with this arrangement all the way back to the early days of the twentieth century. Then the Edwards place sold to a San Jose pot farmer and talented iron worker named Brian Wade Padilla who proceeded to build a class K 2600 square-foot "storage/ag" building with an attached greenhouse right up against Sam Prather's property line.

THE NEWCOMER from San Jose soon found himself in a dispute with Lynn Archambault, a highly regarded, long-time Valley musician and teacher and not at all a disputatious personality. Ms. Archambault lost the dispute, causing her to spend many thousands of dollars to dig her own well. 

BY HELPING HIMSELF to the water from a point "outside of the easement," damming the stream to do so and leaving Sam, Ms. Archambault and the Hulberts to catch as catch can, Padilla was subsequently found by Fish and Wildlife to be in violation of a variety of state laws.

PADILLA, no dummy, hired connected Willits attorney Chris Neary and counter-sued both Fish and Wildlife and Sam Prather. It should be emphasized that Sam’s dismantling of Padilla’s diversion occurred with both Fish and Wildlife’s sanction and the physical presence and assistance of Fish and Wildlife’s Warden White. In other words, Sam, standing on his own property, had the full approval of state government to destroy Padilla’s illegal diversion. But DA David Eyster, claiming "insufficient evidence” in the face of game warden White’s meticulously and irrefutable assessment of Padilla’s violations, dropped the charges against Padilla. (Padilla's attorney Chris Neary was Eyster's campaign manager, which is meant by “connected” in the context of Neary-Padilla.)

FAST FORWARD, Padilla managed to get $50,001 in cash from Sam’s insurance carrier and a fantastic “Boundary Line Adjustment” that Sam was told would be about three acres of his land in merely a minor theft of Sam’s ranch. But when the property was finally surveyed it turned out to be that 7.6 acres of Sam’s land now belonged to Padilla, that 7.6 acres being a big chunk of Sam’s best lower pasture. Sam, paying mightily for legal representation that steadily screwed him, challenged this swindle in court, rightly claiming there was no meeting of minds over the acreage amount. And lost.

UPSHOT: Padilla installs an illegal creek diversion, Fish and Wildlife charge him with four violations, but he takes all of the water for Sam's sheep and his neighbors and gets a half million dollars worth of property and $50,000 cash into the bargain! And now Padilla and Neary are suing deep pockets Fish and Wildlife for citing Padilla in the first place! If their jive case is heard in Mendocino County the San Jose pot magnate and his Willits attorney will certainly win another big chunk of cash, this time taxpayer cash.

LIKE A LOT OF LOCALS I wonder at the unsafe speeds of so many log trucks barreling through Boonville, not that they are the only people careening through Mendocino County’s most happening community at unsafe speeds. I spotted this comment on-line that coincided with my suspicions: "With the price of redwood lumber at an all time high, there is a noticeable increase in the logging truck traffic on the roads — it's relentless. Unfortunately, based on the speed at which they are driving, and how many dangerous situations my children and I have encountered while driving as a result, I'm being forced to contemplate this question: are some logging companies still paying their drivers by the load rather than hourly? If so, the rules on this should be changed." 

GENTLEMAN GEORGE HOLLISTER of Comptche, a logger familiar with all aspects of the business, clarifies our recent speculation about speeding log trucks. "The driver is paid by the hour. The truck owner is paid by the load. If the driver is also the owner of the truck, then he is getting paid by the load as owner and driver. If trucks are going over the speed limit, call the truck company, or the CHP."

CAUGHT the first few minutes of Jerry and Jim Young's inaugural sports talk show on KZYX last Wednesday, but just as I picked up the phone to call in a couple of provocative opinions the office got busy so, perforce, I'll throw them out here: Volleyball. Of no interest locally except to the loved ones of the participants, and I say this as a guy who thinks Title 9 was the best thing to happen for young women ever. Beach volleyball is only interesting to men because the girls wear bikinis, but even the high level men's volleyball is about as stirring to this sports fan as, say, cricket. I'm sorry to see small high school football ended in Mendocino County, and with it 75 years of tradition in a society everywhere more transient and tradition-free. The bigger picture, it seems to me, is that against the ever rising tide of candyass-ism young males have fewer venues in which to safely exercise and celebrate their maleness, hence the drop-fall drinking and other unsupervised activities far more dangerous to young men than football. The concussion problem is pretty much confined to the pros where the collisions are much more fearsome than they are ever likely to be at the high school level. I'd like to see boxing restored to high schools, too.

"AS A MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING," the letter from KZYX begins as it meanders through dubious assumptions and concludes with the most dubious assumption of all that bi-annual elections will save the station $2500 per election. Narrowly considered that's probably a true assumption. Broadly considered it's not true. Much more money could be saved by combining the general manager's job with the program director's job, neither position appearing to be full-time jobs of real work. And exactly how many people at the Philo bunker are on the payroll remains murky. How many people are getting paid as reporters? How much does the techno guy make for how many hours of work over what period of time? Is that gray ghost descended from the EST cult still on the KZYX dole?

ANOTHER SHAKY ASSUMPTION is "The board itself will function better if it does not lose experienced members every year." How much experience does it take to say Yes? The present board, like all the station's boards before it, simply ratifies whatever management comes up with, which is also the practice at most boards of directors in the county. You could simply grab ten paid-up station members at random and plunk them down as the oversight board, much as a group of Ukiah Rotarians would be instantly acceptable to Guam's Rotary. There's no need here to go to the trouble of an election. The same people will be elected however often an anointment is held.

THE FACT IS KZYX membership is stagnant, and it's stagnant because media are much more competitive than they have been, and younger people especially — the average KZYXer is probably a chronological 60, a psychological 95 — aren't tuning in. Ditto for potential listeners of all ages. Why? Not enough local stuff, and not enough life in what local stuff there is. I don't know if I'm a typical listener, paid or unpaid, but there are only a couple of programs I try to remember to tune in, Takes on the World and Sports Talk, the former requiring a professorial level of foreknowledge to decode, not that I pretend to have that kind of knowledge but I do try to keep up with events in the Middle East so I am able to understand what I'm hearing. Otherwise, I only hear Mendo semi-Public Radio when I'm on the road and temporarily out of books on tape. The national NPR programing dominant at the station is of zero interest to me, but if KZYX tuned in the only real local radio news there is via Joe Regelski out in Fort Bragg, that alone would bring in new people. 

I ALSO THINK if our local audio club moved their open lines show to five mornings a week with a focus on local matters — Norm deVall prior to his mysterious banishment was quite good at moving the talk along — lots of Mendo people would begin tuning in. But KZYX has always been timid, unimaginative, too much dominated by the tiresome conservative liberals who dominate the politics of the Northcoast to even contemplate doing much of local interest. I'm going to return my ballot with a write-in suggestion: Life time board appointments with an hereditary option.

SEEMS LIKE ONLY yesterday, as us nostalgics say, that marijuana was a furtive, often harrowing way to earn one's way, what with law enforcement's Campaign Against Marijuana Production, home invaders and old fashioned thieves always on the lookout for the farmer’s secret work product. But here in Boonville, near the junction of 128 and 253, if you cast your eyes to the northeast you will see an industrial pot gro under construction, so large it clearly enjoys lush capitalization. So long, mom and pop. The big boys are here, big and bold in plain view. Of course they've been here for a while now but hidden away in the traditional style. Water for this project? We understand that the owner, or owners, plan to store rainwater in a series of tanks perched on the side of the hill above Anderson Creek.

IF YOU THOUGHT you saw a familiar-looking celebrity in The Valley over the weekend, you probably did. A whole bunch of famous people gathered at Camp Navarro to celebrate Todd Rundgren, the rock and roller. A caller said Stevie Nicks was also in town, and maybe she was.

AFTER LABOR DAY, things commercial slow down, and business hours are cut back, among them the Boonville General Store, site of America’s best scones among other delights, where, beginning October 24th “we will be closing on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  We will be open Friday through Tuesday from 8 until 3 as usual.”

UKIAH SHOPPERS are not the only ones who have noticed that the anticipated traffic jams and backups which were expected with the opening of the big new Costco in Airport Park have not materialized. Traffic hasn’t so far been a problem on the newly resurfaced and streamlined Big Box Drive; the Costco parking lot has easily accommodated shoppers. Costco watchers are telling us that the consumer rush Costco expected, including shoppers from Willits, Fort Bragg and points north and east, have not materialized; that sales at the Rohnert Park store have declined somewhat in partial proportion to the Ukiah store’s sales; that Costco has laid off a significant number of the initially hired staff, and the City of Ukiah’s and/or County’s sales tax bump is not likely to materialize to any noticeable degree. Other than that, reports of the actual store and staff are positive — the lack of crowds especially — and the place has received good reviews by the people who paid their $60 bucks to sign up.

AV HEALTH CENTER: Come join us as we celebrate the end of harvest! Free flu shots, tacos, and fun activities for the children! Thursday October 18th 3-6pm.

IT TAKES A VALLEY. Looking to start a monthly or seasonal clean-up/improvement day at our local community park. We had such a successful event this past June with dozens of volunteers from Philo to Yorkville chipping in to weed, shovel, rake, and haul to bring new gravel and wood chips to our picnic and play areas. We still need seasonal weeding and mowing and have more projects ahead of us to replace our fence lines and gates and so much more. For those out there interested in helping out or being involved, please feel free to email us at avparkday@gmail.com. (Elizabeth Jensen)

OUR LITTLE PARK tucked away between the high school soccer pitch and our health center looks pretty tidy these days, complete with new porta-potty, and thanks to the people who volunteer to keep it that way.

HAVING READ THROUGH the formal description of the water and sewage systems proposed for Boonville the only question I have is….Will there be enough of a buy-in from potential customers without rates being oppressively high? We understand that sewer hookups will be mandatory, water optional, with the whole show impossible without major grants. And we all get to vote on it. If I owned a home or property on Haehl Street where septic systems are way too close to water wells I’d definitely want a First World water and sewage system. And even though my sparse acre is down the street and enjoys pristine well water and an industrial-capacity septic system, I think a modern water and sewage system would be a good thing for the town. (With proposed hook-ups limited to current properties plus a small additional percentage to discourage willy nilly development.) The entire project is still in the EIR stage, and I urge locals to give the proposal, which you’ve by now received in the mail, a thorough read. A lot of work has gone into getting it this far.

AS PREDICTED:

Final Audit Report of KZYX

My office has issued our final report.  You can access it at https://www.cpb.org/files/oig/reports/KZYX_Report.pdf.

Sincerely,

Helen Mollick
Counsel to the Inspector General
Assistant Inspector General for Investigations
Office of Inspector General
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
hmollick@cpb.org

Summary:

Based on our audit we found that KZYX:

overstated NFFS of $23,311 for FY 2016 resulting in excess CSG payments of $1,234 in FY 2018; and was not in full compliance with Act requirements for open Board and committee meetings, as well as discrete accounting requirements for CPB expenditures (restricted and unrestricted).

In response to our draft report, station officials agreed with our findings and initiated corrective actions to comply with grant requirement. In September the station submitted a revised FY 2017 AFR correcting overstated NFFS for FY 2017, which CPB approved. Further, station officials indicated they will be developing a corrective action plan for CPB to ensure complete and full compliance with all grant requirements. CPB management will make the final determination on our findings and recommendations.

IN SHORT: Mendocino County Public Broadcasting Corporation used bureaucratic chicanery to lie and keep secrets in order to steal public money, then they stole the money, and when an extremely limited investigation pointed this out, they offered to give the price of a single used car back in order to keep like $150,000 dollars of public money coming every year, not to mention the priceless grant of control of three broadcast frequencies, and this sort of thing has happened before, I hope you remember, and they got away with it then, and they're getting away with it again, because they present themselves as the sweet New Age Good Guys, so only the rules they like apply to them, and thanks so much for the several million dollars over the years, a pleasure doing business with you, ciao. Something like that.   — Marco McClean

THE AUDIT is mostly boilerplate compiled by a couple of NPR officials who junketed out from DC for a week’s stay in Philo. Six months later they have issued a blah-blah report that could have been reduced to a paragraph saying something like, “KZYX gets a big federal grant every year, most of which it sends back in return for NPR programming. There’s been a lot of penny ante chiseling by station insiders over the years but the books are buried somewhere deep in a Philo patchouli patch so, like, good luck finding them. We found a symbolic smidgen of monkey business to make it appear that we actually did some investigating in between wine tastings. We recommend that KZYX cease secret meetings and insider hiring, but we also understand that the Mendo demographic, being so heavy on magical thinkers and shuffling old stoners, that Mendo Public Radio is probably about as good as it’s going to get, not that we care so long as you suckers keep on buying National Government Radio.”

ON A POSITIVE NOTE, KZYX seems a little more public lately. Management seems more open — they’re at least superficially civil, a radical departure for the Philo bunker — and there are some open lines hours where any old chronophage can call in and talk about any old thing, a practice deemed unthinkable for many years.

ELDERLY GENTLEMAN urgently seeks a ride to Ukiah this Sunday morning (October 28th).  Must arrive in Ukiah by 10am to catch the southbound bus. Please call Dr. Gregory Sims at 684-0043.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW: The annual Grange Christmas Dinner, this year co-sponsored by the Anderson Valley Foodshed, is on for Sunday, December 9th, 4-7, at the Philo Grange.

LOCAL ARTIST and entrepreneur, Laura Diamondstone appeared at last Wednesday's Community Services District meeting at the behest of Board Chair Valerie Hanelt (who was unable to attend to pursue the possible installation of a "full-service ATM" in Anderson Valley. Along with Boonville Hotel proprietor Johnny Schmitt, Hanelt and Diamondstone met with the president of Community First Credit Union (formerly Mendo-Lake Credit Union) a few months ago to discuss what it would take to get an ATM installed at Aaron Weintraub’s Tindall Market building next door to the Boonville firehouse. The Credit Union president reportedly said that it would cost around $100,000 to set it up and then service it. That cost seemed a little high to everyone so Ms. Diamondstone was seeking input and ideas about pursuing the matter. Anderson Valley is widely thought to have considerably more financial wherewithal than, say, Point Arena which has a Redwood Credit Union office downtown serving fewer people. Apparently, a full-service ATM is also being talked about in Albion. The CSD Board decided to put the subject on their November agenda and invite representatives from the two local credit unions, and any commercial banks that express interest, to discuss what it might take for one of them to install a full-service ATM.

OLD TIMERS will remember when Boonville had a full-service bank, a drug store, a flight program at the high school, a marching band, a daily Greyhound running through the Anderson Valley between San Francisco and Fort Bragg, and homes for everyone who needed one. In terms of civic amenities we seem to be going backwards.

SEVERAL older locals, organized as "Anderson Valley Village," are looking at ways to help themselves and their neighbors as they age. "We'd like to retain our independence, stay and age in place and remain active in the community,” said Lauren Keating. "We are following a model that began in Boston in 2002 and has now spread across the country with 200 ‘villages’ in operation and another 150 in development." This "village movement" is based on a local locally organized, self-supporting membership model offering "comprehensive support and social engagement designed to maintain and improve our quality of life." The Anderson Valley village group is still working on how to set things up. They have applied for nonprofit status and have started working on the necessary details. They meet on the second Sunday of each month from 4 PM to 5:30 PM at Lauren’s Restaurant in downtown Boonville. Everyone is invited to attend. The Village people hope to be able to hire at least one coordinator soon and would be receptive to any qualified local who might be interested when more formal arrangements are completed. The Village Group is actively seeking applicants for the Coordinator position. They are looking for someone who is passionate about and skilled in building community, has strong interpersonal skills with all age groups, and can solve problems creatively. Applications can be picked up at Lauren’s restaurant or the AV Health Center. For more info call Donna Pierson-Pugh at 684-0325. Applications should be sent to AV Village, PO Box 576, Boonville CA 95415 by November 15.

FISH ROCK FARM GIRLS in Boonville is closing. Great prices! Next week is our final week! Open 11-5 Thursday -Monday. 707-684-9739. We may be open longer hours and other days, call first!

14111 Hwy 128, Boonville

• Furniture 50% off
• Vintage Clothes & Accessories 50% off
• Most all antiques and collectibles 30% off.

Take a drive to Boonville and score some great deals!

A READER WONDERS, “I have a question for Anderson Valley old-timers, which I am asking for no reason other than curiosity. Does anyone remember the name of the Department of Forestry (which became Cal Fire) supervisor in Boonville in the early 1960s who looked like Clark Gable? I remember him clearly – handsome, charming guy in his 40s or early 50s with a trimmed mustache. Neither I nor my siblings can come up with his name. Anyone?”

NOT BEING FACEBOOKERS, we do look in on local public pages where, at the AV Fire Department, we find that “JORGE MEDINA, AV High 2018 graduate, had never been interested in fire or emergency services but he was moved by the presentation that AV Fire Department and CalFire did at AV High School last year. He came to training and wasn't hooked right away — he stuck with it and got interested in engines, hazard mitigation, and teamwork. On his first call as a firefighter he realized that he enjoyed the rush of the urgency and the hard work. He likes serving the community and the adrenaline: "It's tiring but it feels good afterward."

ALSO from AV Fire: “TINA WALTER started helping out with the Yorkville Community Benefit Association (YCBA's) Ice Cream Social when she first began spending time in Anderson Valley. At some point Sarah Farber asked if she'd be interested in joining AVFD and Tina's reply was, "No, I'm 46!" She didn't think she'd fit in, since she only knew former fire chief Colin Wilson and Sarah and imagined the rest of the crew were "young, buff guys." She ended up joining the fire department in 2006. A year later she took the EMT class but with no intention of staffing the ambulance. These days, in addition to serving as Lieutenant at the Yorkville station, she spends regular 12 hour ambulance shifts at the crew quarters. "Initially, it made me a 'serious' member of the community, gave me an entrée to meet people and make friends, instead of just being someone who comes up from LA and just 'tries' to live here. And of course everyone is family now, so I'm hooked. I'd never felt community like I have before I moved here."

THE 35TH ANNUAL ZENI RANCH CHESTNUT FESTIVAL is set for this Saturday, October 27, 2018 from 10 AM to 5 PM. Potluck lunch at 1 PM. Free to the public! Come taste fire roasted chestnuts! Also available for purchase are T-shirts, unfiltered raw honey, apples, juice and other gifts. This year there will be Halloween activities including a costume contest and pumpkin carving. Costumes optional. Live music will be provided by Black Sugar Rose. Chestnuts can also be purchased: U-pick are $3.50 and pre-picked are $4.50. For information or directions check out the “Zeni Ranch” facebook page, or call Jane at 895-2309 or Linda 884-4208.

PETIT TETON SEPTEMBER 2018. “The past month and a half has been tough for us. The conjunction of the peak harvest season, which has stressed us to the max, and the daily news, which has engendered a deep and abiding anger, has not been a good combo. We're tired. We even took four days to visit the Sierra and relax, and we did...to the best of our ability :>) The first day out we climbed 13,050' Mt Dana which forced us to relax for the three days afterwards because we could hardly walk! Our last Mendocino market for the year is next Friday and we're ready. Ready for rain and wind and a slower pace. Bring it on. Hope all is well with you and yours. Take care, AND VOTE (we know you all do). Nikki Auschnitt/Steve Krieg, Petit Teton Farm, Yorkville”

IRENE SOTO, the unfailingly gracious cashier at Boonville's Pic 'N Pay, told me Sunday morning that the store has set an all-time record for lottery sales. "People have even called up to ask if they could get tickets here as they head to and from the Coast," she laughed. I wondered if I was the first sucker this morning to buy a Mega Mil? "Oh, no. I've been selling them all morning," Irene said.

CORRECTION: A Celebration Of Life for Bonni Davi will be held at River’s Bend (formerly Wellspring) in Philo on Sunday, October 28 (not Saturday, October 27 as one of the posters said), 2018 from 2-7pm. For more information call Seasha at 533-5094.

SPEAKING OF SERVICES for the late Ms. Davi, the following note was sent to a colleague of ours who sent it on to us: “This is Seasha Robb. I was notified that the AVA may have made a mistake and posted the date of my mother in law's memorial incorrectly. Please make sure it says Sunday the 28th of October. At Rivers Bend. 2-7pm. Thank you.”

MS ROBB “was notified” that the AVA “may have made a mistake," but doesn't tell us what the mistake was. We finally figured out that the “mistake” was the date in a poster widely distributed in The Valley which said that the memorial for Bonni Davi was Saturday, October 27, which we printed as a Valley People item last week on the assumption that the poster maker had the dates right.

DONNA PIERSON-PUGH WRITES of the local Fair Boosters writes: “Hi Folks, What a great fair we had this year with the participation and attendance up from the previous year in everything!! Thanks for being part of the fun. The Mendocino County Fair Annual Meeting is Monday, November 12 at 6:00pm. The fun is not over yet because the November Annual Fair Meeting is coming up next month on Monday 11/12 at 6:00 for the report about all things fair that happened this year, along with voting for the two board positions that are open. Come to one of the best potluck dinners that happens in the valley at 6:00. Hope to see you there!”

VETERANS DAY OF REMEMBRANCE. Presented by The American Legion, Kirk Wilder, and Steve Sparks, with help from friends. At The Evergreen Cemetery, Anderson Valley Way, Boonville, California. 10.30am, Sunday, 11th November, 2018. A Two-Minute Silence will be observed at 11am. “The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month.” Valley folks are encouraged to attend this important Service of Remembrance. This is not a political or religious event. It is simply an opportunity for the community of Anderson Valley to show its support and gratitude for both the men and women who gave their lives or were wounded in the service of their country, and also those who have served or continue to serve, so that we may have the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy today… We hope to see you there. Following the Service, there will be a gathering at The Buckhorn and also a complimentary BBQ at the Veterans Hall hosted by the AV Veterans. (Steve Sparks)

CT ROWE of Peachland Road, Boonville, will be in Judge Nadel’s Superior courtroom on Monday, November 5th, 9am. Young Mr. Rowe, a Boonville native and a graduate of Anderson Valley High School, is being sued by the Anderson Valley Land Trust, several of whose members he’s known all his life. The Trust alleges violations of Trust rules as applied to Rowe’s Peachland property.

WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER: Managing Rural Landscapes for Fire Resilience and Water Resources

Please join us for a free workshop at the Anderson Valley Grange #669, Thursday November 8^th, 7:00-8:30 pm. Information will be shared on fire preparedness and increased water security, including: Tools, resources and strategies for managing your land, and how to best respond if and when a fire occurs. Presentations will be given by the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District, Mendocino County Firesafe Council and Anderson Valley Fire Department. For more information call (707) 462-3664, ext. 103; or email linda.macelwee@mcrcd.org. This workshop is supported by funding from the North Coast Resource Partnership through a grant from the California Department of Water Resources.

DAY OF THE DEAD /DIA DE LOS MUERTOS AT LIZBBY'S in Boonville. All week through Friday, November 2. Set up an altar to remember a loved one, 3-8pm each day. This one is muy autentico, the real deal.

NORMAN CLOW stopped in last week, having flown in to the Bay Area from Texas to arrange care for his ailing sister. He and his wife Ruth spent Thursday in The Valley visiting old friends and relatives, of whom they have many. The Clows presently live in the greater Houston area where their two sons, Austin and Casey, and a pair of grandchildren, also live.  During an hour’s reminiscences, Norm produced the name of the “handsome man who looked like Clark Gable” who ran what is now the Cal Fire station south of Boonville, a question vexing some of the younger local old timers. “Van Bartlett,” Norm said. “That’s the handsome man.” But Charlie Hiatt, another young old timer, identified the handsome man as Gene Crawford. “Bartlett looked like me,” Charlie, a dead ringer for Richard Widmark, said modestly. A lady old timer remarked, “No, I do not remember the name of the guy at the Forestry Station.  If he looked like Clark Gable I really missed my opportunity by not setting something on fire. Oh well…miss a few now and then.” As a newer old timer who hopes he looks like Gene Hackman, I remember Bob Groves as the man at what was then called the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and many of us of course remember Mrs. Judy Groves, who worked for years as a secretary at Anderson Valley High School. The Groves were a handsome couple, certainly, and handsome individually, too. But everyone in these parts knows, that as a population, the people of Anderson Valley are better looking, and certainly more intelligent, than any comparably-sized population in these United States!

FUTURE FARMERS DRIVE-THRU DINNER, Thursday, Nov. 8 at the High School Parking Lot. 3:30-5:30pm. Single dinner, $15, includes: ribs, baked potato, cole slaw, roll, and cookie. Tickets available from AV Ag students or via email: bswehla@avpanthers.org

MEMO OF THE WEEK: “I’ve decided what I want to do as my spiritual job, to make a living out of my spirituality that best suited my skills, as a philosopher, healer and visionary. I've decided to start my own cult (lol) registered religion as a non profit cooperation. Temple of the Rainbow Warriors will host and celebrate all religious and spiritual holidays from all around the world under one roof. As a business entity, I want to channel donations by the donaters choice a percentage up to 10 percent to the upkeep of the temple, the rest goes to projects to install renewable energy generation into poor people's homes and community infrastructure and local foodforest planting projects. I'm in the early stages of officially founding this project and I have what I feel could be a really wonderful idea to initiate positive change.  I need help and support, I am not a great business man, I don't have any money right now, not even a bank account, but I do have a portable temple in the form of stones I can lay out in any place of any size perimeter.  If you feel like you would have time to guide me on this journey in regards to helpful business advice, legal protection and funding opportunities like grants or compassionate investors, then your comments and private messages are most welcome.  I will by the end of this week post more about the philosophy of my cult which at this time doesn't include any kind of ritual sacrifice or suicide pact, or promise of eternal life from Angliens but does offer the chance for at least a little peace here on earth.” — Aaron Joseph Olivier, Boonville  

AV SENIORS ON THE SKUNK TRAIN

Last week AV Seniors took a trip on the Skunk Train via Willits Depot. Special thanks to Chief Skunk, Robert Pinoli, for discounting the tickets to make it possible for so many of our seniors to participate. Also, thanks to Dolly Pacella for setting up the trip and Gina Pardini for driving the bus.

THIS FARGEY CHARACTER signed himself up, through Paypal, for an AVA online sub. Then a month later he claimed it was an "unauthorized purchase."

At that point we refunded his $25 and closed the account. A week later Paypal notified us of an additional $20 chargeback fee (ostensibly from Fargey's credit card company). We protested, but to no avail. So we got dinged for $20. We subsequently learned that this chargeback scheme was a scam running through Paypal at the time. (Courtesy of Know Your Neighbors, Boonville)

THE NOVEMBER 11 AV ELDERHOME FUNDRAISER at the Boonville Hotel starts at 2pm with an optional cottage tour, followed by a reception at 3 with wine, oyster bar, mushrooms, goat cheese, trout, cauliflower soup with chermoula, then dinner of pork loin, apples, escarole, horseradish and sage, root vegetable salad with gribiche, lemon and herbs, then dessert and coffee. (Vegetarian option available). $150 per person with funds going to complete the interior of cottage #1. Call Brian (510-388-9103) or Scarlet (895-2541) to reserve your table.

FACEBOOK was crackling last week with a rumor out of the Elementary School that a disturbed child had cut itself with a razor in a manner indicating the potential for suicide. Everyone who might for sure know the true facts went immediately silent, but we have it reliably that it was all a misunderstanding. You really can’t blame the deep pockets authorities, especially schools, for dummying up because they’re damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Whatever they say can, and probably will, be used against them in a court of law.

EXPLORE LITTLE HENDY GROVE with this self-guided treasure hunt (quest) for kids of all ages.

Anica Wiggle