Valley People (Nov. 22, 2017)

THOSE SIRENS resounding through Boonville early Saturday a little before 6am, were deputies racing to the scene of a shooting Saturday night on the Manchester reservation.

FROM THE SHERIFF:

On November 19, 2017 around 5:43 AM the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office started receiving 911 calls from the 500 block of Rancheria Road, in Manchester CA, regarding a shooting that occurred at a residence.  The callers indicated there were two females, a 32 year old adult and a 15 year old juvenile, who had been struck by gunfire.

Patrol deputies responded from Point Arena, Fort Bragg and Ukiah.  Upon their arrival they discovered the 32 year old female unresponsive and the 15 year old female wounded but alert.  Medical personnel were summoned but the 32 year old was pronounced deceased at the scene.  The female juvenile was transported to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital where she was treated for a gunshot wound and was later released from the hospital.

The Mendocino County Detective Unit responded to assume the investigation, assisted by Investigators of the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office, as well as Criminalists from the California Department of Justice Criminal Laboratory in Eureka.  Witnesses indicated that an unknown assailant came to the house while the occupants were sleeping and fired numerous shots from the outside, striking both females who were inside the residence.  There were numerous other parties inside the residence at the time but no one else was injured.

A vehicle was heard leaving the area in a rapid manner.  The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office is asking that anyone who may have information related to this incident to please contact the Sheriff's Communications Center at 707-463-4086 or to contact the Sheriff's Office Tip Line at 707-234-2100.

BOONVILLE RECEIVED almost an inch of rain last week. The Navarro River flow depth rose almost three feet late with water beginning to back up onto 128 early Sunday near the junction of 128 and One. And by Sunday afternoon, the Navarro River sand bar was still in place, meaning the River could not run free into the Pacific, backing up and spilling over on to the roadway.

AV SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT MICHELLE HUTCHINS EXPLAINS: The water shortage at the Elementary School was caused by equipment failure. Two of the pressure tanks failed; one has two back-up pressure tanks, but the other feeds a pump that pushes water from the first storage tank to the filter system and then to the large storage tanks. This pressure tank failure overworked the pump, overwhelming the starter to the pump and causing it to fail. Initially, the repair was scheduled for 8:30 am on Monday. The company that designed the system sent a technician who forgot his 8-foot ladder and needed to return to his office on the coast to get it, causing the technician to be late. The technician did not arrive until almost 10:00 am. This is what forced us to cancel school.

LOOKS FROM HERE that old fashioned sirens are still the best area warning system, much more likely to reach the imperiled than reverse 911 calls to people who may not be reachable via the new technologies. I’ve never heard the Redwood Valley-Potter Valley sirens but I’m told they can raise the dead, reaching every area of those two regions. And in red flag weather, PG&E should simply cut power to the danger zones. Better (much better) to lose television reception for a few hours than your life or your house, most of us surely agree. BTW, Santa Rosa’s emergency services office, about five people, was in Yosemite for a conference the night of the big fires. Many victims of the disaster down there seem to agree that old fashioned sirens are the best possible alarm system.

ANDERSON VALLEY could use a siren or two. If a wind-driven fire got going in our narrow-roaded hill areas, well, Sonoma County serves as the eternal example of what can happen.

MIKE KALANTARIAN WRITES: Regarding that dry Boonville rain gauge that Marshall Newman mentions: I believe it resides up behind Stalag Calfire (at the shallow end of Anderson Valley). I also think Calfire may be responsible for maintaining it (they are listed as “operator” on the webpage below). So it might be more expeditious to contact the Stalag Commandant to see if someone can unstuck it. Also, regarding turning the power off when fire conditions exist: I don’t think that’s a realistic solution. There were a few weeks of Red Flag Warnings (off and on) before the fires eventually broke out. People simply will not tolerate going without power during such lengthy stretches of time. Weather is difficult to prognosticate precisely, so it would be extremely difficult to anticipate exactly when the power would need to be flipped off.  It would be better to just start undergrounding the lines, especially in the more disaster-prone areas.  Things cost money, especially good things. This is the reality Reaganites choose to ignore. No taxes, no money – it’s as simple as that. This is why we have no money for public improvements, while a very small minority selfishly hoard more than they will ever spend. All the plutocrats have to do is pump a very small percentage of their wealth into our political system to keep it this way, and put another small bit into the media to brainwash the rest of us. Until enough of us wake up, it’s going to stay this way.

SOME YEARS I get a flu shot, some years I don’t. This year I happened to be in my doctor’s office so I got one from the Mad Filipino, his nurse. Her method of injection is just short of assault off my prior experiences with her. I guess she was trained to be emphatic, but two running steps and wham! Not that it hurt. In fact, it made me laugh, and when she said, “Not so bad, huh?” I laughed harder.

I’VE NEVER been able to tell the diff between a bad cold and the flu, wherever the flu was said to be from, although the Chinese usually seem to get the blame. Either affliction comes with the same tubercular cough, same malarial sweats, same general energy depletion. I find the only thing that knocks down the worst coughing is water, gallons of it. Water, water, water seems to abbreviate the affliction by a day or so. I’m reconciled to one very bad health week annually, and last week was it, as you could probably tell from all the typos and other gaffes.

CHARLES MANSON has died. As Valley old timers will tell you, often illustrating their confirmations with their experiences with the maniac and his “family,” Manson and several of his depraved harem lived on Gschwend Road, Navarro, circa 1966.