ALL THAT GOOD STUFF, in a Herculean weekend move, is now ensconced down the street in the spiffy new street-front structure erected by Aaron Weintraub, complete with an old-timey sign that says "Tindall's Market." Proprietor Leslie Hummel of All That Good Stuff, and proprietor to be Claudia Jimenez, and I defy you to name two more charming ladies, will certainly prosper in their new quarters. And a big community hats off to Mr. W for reviving the site of the old Mannix Building, now home to several small businesses.
IF ONLY MR. WEINTRAUB would take over the Ricard Monster a short block south of "Tindall's Market and rehab it, he'd be mayor by acclamation. (Note to the CSD Board: It's at least decade past time to abate Ricard. His eyesore of a kindling pile is an obvious fire hazard and all-round health menace, not to mention its deleterious effect on surrounding properties.)
BTW, YOU'RE a bona fide old timer if you remember Maurice and Alice Tindall, and you're an old timer emeritus if you remember when Judge Tindall presided over the Anderson Valley Justice Court.
THE NOT-SO-SIMPLE LIVING FAIR 2013 will be at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville July 26,27,28. Check in with our website notsosimple.info to see a video from last year. Check back periodically to see our progress with planning for this year. If you would like to volunteer, let us know.
THE DAFFODILS are up. From Reilly Heights to the Anderson Valley Health Center, and points in between, the annual harbingers of spring have appeared in all their golden glory.
POP-WARNER FOOTBALL SIGN-UPS: March 23, 2013. 1:00pm – 3:00pm. At The Fairgrounds by The Football Field. Bring: Copy Of Birth Certificate. (Do Not Bring Original. We Will Have No Way To Copy It At Sign Ups.); and Medical Insurance; $50 Per Player; and Proof Of Last Physical
JODIE MARTINEZ'S always fascinating historical notes in Sunday's Ukiah Daily Journal, recently noted the existence in 1940 Mendocino County a sole individual registered to vote as a member of the Communist Party. Unfortunately the registrant wasn't identified by name of community, but I would guess he lived in Fort Bragg where there were a few residual reds descended from immigrant Finns and Italians. Maybe an old, old timer would know more about who this stalwart person was.
MYLEA LOGIN of Anderson Valley High School is organizing a blood drive in the high school gym on Friday, March 22nd, 12pm to 4pm. Come on, come on. We know you got it, and Mylea needs you to give it up, and what could be more useful to the greater good than the very stuff of life itself.
WAS THERE ENOUGH rain last week to get spawning steelhead upstream? "Yes," reports river watcher Dave Severn. "It seems many of the fish larger groups of steelhead have moved on. Although two days ago right at the Shenoa bridge there were nine hanging out. This morning they were down to five. What we want them to do is have enough water to get upstream to spawn and then enough water to get back down to zee ocean. I don't know how long that process takes - the water is going down rapidly." So, now we need another inch or so to get the steelhead downstream.
BEYOND AWFUL, Local Branch: First, a two-year-old boy is an unhelmeted passenger on dad's off road vehicle as dad zooms around the parking lot at the Navarro Store. Dad dumps the bike, child goes flying. Miraculously child is uninjured save a couple of scrapes. Dad gets back on his toy and resumes zoom. Second, another two-year-old somehow ingests an adult-quantity (and then some) quantity of methamphetamine, apparently washing the crank down with enough booze to qualify the baby as not only legally drunk but so drunk his life is endangered. Parents are arrested, child is hospitalized and is now dependent for care and feeding on the state. Meanwhile, out in Fort Bragg, a three-year-old, twice in one day is found wandering down a country road unattended. Second time mom, 23, is arrested and child is confiscated by the state.
AND WES SMOOT, 80, is disturbed by a drunk pounding on Wes' front door. The drunk is so extremely loaded he thinks he's being denied entrance to his own house. "Lemme in. I live here." Wes drives the guy down the road to his true home where Señor Boracho is arrested and found to be possession of a crack pipe.
SCOTT PRATT CHECKS in on the subject of the movie about to be filmed partly in the Anderson Valley: "I really hope that the general feeling of AV is that this is a good thing. I deal with locations ALL THE TIME in my work. I am a huge advocate of protecting the greatest asset (and least environmentally impactful) California has. We are so lucky to have this industry. You may think, of course, “I am not in the film industry so it won’t help me at all” but, in fact, the whole state benefits. Keeping the film industry in California and making them feel welcome in our or any town, is essential. Yes, there may be a longer wait time at times on 128 or 253. Yes, there will be more people in town. Yes, it may not always be the perfect scenario FOR YOU but, in the end, I really hope everyone can be selfless enough to recognize the small inconveniences that may come, will NOT out weight the benefits for everyone. I hope that the community will pull together to WELCOME this great opportunity and not, instead, whine and complain and scare them out of town. Let’s be part of the team and not the enemy. I promise, it will work to our benefit. Once we can establish ourselves as a community onboard with California’s best interest, we will become a respected resource and will enjoy the benefits for years to come. Please feel welcome to write me back… I hope that if you have specific concerns, I can use my 30 years of experience to offer up solutions that we have come up with in the past. We can be very creative in our approach both as a citizen of AV and on the production side. Realistic solutions are easy to be had."
THE FILM SCHEDULE appears below in its entirely. Doesn't seem all that disruptive to me, although I should mention I hope to land work as an extra if they happen to need a down scale version of Gene Hackman.
WARREN GALLETTI, Point Arena’s popular high school principal and basketball coach, has submitted his resignation effective the end of this school year in June. Unofficial word has it that Galletti was increasingly frustrated in his dealings with his new boss, Point Arena Unified School Superintendent Colleen Cross. It’s probably a coincidence that Galletti is quitting the same time that Anderson Valley Principal Jim Tomlin’s unrenewed contract runs out in June.
SPEAKING OF WHOM, Tomlin that is, he remains out on leave. The recent hullabaloo over the school board's 3-2 vote not to renew Tomlin's contract, a hullabaloo raised entirely by a cadre of entrenched high school teachers and semi-retired superintendent Collins, has come and gone. Tomlin, incidentally, is legally entitled to reclaim a teaching position. It's not as if we'll see him trudging up and down State Street with all his stuff in a shopping cart.
THE WHOLE unnecessary show is a sad comment on the high school faculty and bodes ill for the new principal whoever he or she might be. That person is sure to face an undermining of the long overdue effort to at last get an honest effort out of people unaccustomed to real work, people who wouldn't get over a minute in, say, a wealthy suburban school district where ambitious parents pay very close attention to their children's educations.
I DON'T MEAN that all our high school teachers are edu-sloths, but enough are to drag the entire enterprise down, and they've been in place forever and unsupervised, unevaluated, unled all that time. I also don't mean to say that immigrant parents aren't ambitious for their children. Of course they are. And that's what especially outrageous about the slovenly performance of our high school all these years. While the staff constantly praises its own non-effort and celebrates phony awards, the children of immigrant parents are schooled in lazy, undisciplined classrooms where they are unprepared for the ever more intense competition awaiting them beyond high school.
SPECIAL HUZZAHS to Debbie Sanchez for her courage in confirming what many of us have claimed, or at least suspected, for many years — that the high school staff has enjoyed full-time pay for half-time work, if that much work, for many years.
THE UNITY CLUB and the Anderson Valley Community Action Coalition working together have put together a dynamite list of organizations in Anderson Valley. Mary Darling pulled all the info. together and figured out how to make it happen with Terry Ryder assisting. There will be a flyer posted at all the post offices etc. The flyer says: New to Anderson Valley?, Want to get more involved ? Time on your hands?, Just retired?, Want to know more about AV Organizations? visit: www.avorganizations.wordpress.com another valuable Anderson Valley site is: www.andersonvalley.org
THE PRODUCERS of the 2014 movie “Need For Speed” have invited The Citizens of Boonville, Philo and Navarro to attend a Town Hall Meeting to discuss the filming on Wednesday, March 13th (tonight) from 4-5:30pm in the Dining Hall at the Mendocino County Fairgrounds. The producers will open with a brief outline of their filming and a question and answer session will follow.
THE TEXT of the permit request from the production company calls for “full closure” of Highway 253 on April 4 and 5 from 3am to 3pm. And “full closure” of the westernmost 14 miles of Highway 128 on Friday, April 12 from 5am to 9pm.
FROM THE COUNTY’S “Need for Speed” filming permit:
Cast & Crew: 150. Automobiles: 110. Trucks: 32. Generators: 5. Filming activity includes car chases, low flying helicopters and controlled stunts. Road closures will be required. No explosives will be used but small controlled sparks will be used to assist in mechanical effects.
FILMING LOCATIONS:
4/1-4/2 All Day Lighthouse Road at Hwy 1 to Lighthouse.
4/1-4/2 7am-8pm: Mountain View Road (1 mile up from Coast)
4/11: Flynn Creek Road (1 mile up from Coast)
Intermittent Traffic Control (ITC) on all County Roads intersecting Highway 128 from milemarkers 0.00 to 30.57. However, the main filming area is between milemarkers 16.91 at Handley Cellars to milemarker 20.15 at Philo-Greenwood Road, and from 29.74 at Highway 253 to 30.57. Intermittent traffic control is also requested on County Roads intersecting Highway 253 between milemarker 2.0 and 12.00.
Intermittent traffic control of all roads will be maintained by professional flagging teams and monitored by CHP. Individual periods of intermittent traffic control will not exceed 20 minutes.
FILMING WILL TAKE PLACE on Monday April 1 through Friday April 12. No filming or road closures on weekends. Filming will be from dawn to dusk, but support activities will be begin as early as 3am and last until 10pm. (Catering, advance crew, and set-up crew, vehicle positioning.)
TWO HELICOPTERS to be used on every day of filming including airspace directly above Lighthouse Road, Highway 128 and 253 as required. Landing zones [for the helicopter] will be established out of the public right of way. (No mention of Boonville Airport, but we assume it will be used.) Base of operations and staging: Boonville Fairgrounds.
THURSDAY April 4-Friday April 5: Full closure of Hwy 253 from 11.62mm to 5.90mm from 3am to 3pm. After 3pm ITC. All vehicles will be detoured to Highway 20 and Highway 128 during the closure period.
MONDAY April 8-Tuesday April 9: Intermittent traffic control on Highway 253 from 10mm to 1mm from 5am to 9pm.
THURSDAY April 11: Temporary closure of Flynn Creek Road from Hwy 128 to Coast from 5am to 9pm. (Local access permitted on Flynn Creek Road north of 1mm; Closure will be released as soon as filming is completed and will not require the entire length of time requested. Detour will be offered via Philo-Greenwood Road.
CLOSURE of Highway 128 from coast to 11.78mm from 5am to 9pm. Intermittent closure of Highway 128 from 11.78 to 13.97 from 5am to 9pm. Philo-Greenwood road is detour.
Friday: April 12. Closure of Highway 128 from coast to 11.78 from 5am to 9pm. (Semis will be escorted through closure via pilot car.) ITC on Highway 128 from 11.78mm to 13.97 from 5am to 9pm.
NO CAR RACING will occur through the towns of Elk, Manchester, Irish Beach, Point Arena, Navarro, Philo or Boonville. “We have spoken with local logging companies to discuss our filming activity and ensure them their trucks will continue to travel on Highway 128 during our filming period.”
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