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.
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