I sent a letter to the HMB Review responding to their endorsement of Gardner and Moseley for the CUSD board.  They responded that it is their editorial policy “not to print partisan letters to the editor this campaign season”.  Since they ran an editorial stating their partisan opinion, a contrary opinion deserves a voice, too.  Accordingly, I’m posting my letter here on Coastsider.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ve moved Stephen’s letter to the “read more” link on this story and I’m inviting others who want to reply to the Review’s editorial endorsements for Cabrillo Unified School District, Pescadero Unified School District, and Harbor District, and to post comments on this story.

I will post my endorsements for CUSD soon, and will accept all comments from the community and the candidates.

The city of Half Moon Bay closed escrow on the 22-acre Nurserymen’s Exchange property Tuesday afternoon.  The site is now the property of the city, according to the city council at last night’s meeting.

Now that the deal is done, the city is preparing to move on to planning the new park.

The tentative plan, according to city manager Debra Ryan, is to hold an open house where people could walk the site and then go to a meeting to determine who would be assigned to the planning committee. “I just walked the park and it’s really different to be on the site,” says Ryan.

The meeting would include the Planning Commission and the Park Commission. The city’s goal would be include citizens from the immediate neighborhood, someone from each precinct in the city, and representatives of other stakeholders, such as the schools. 

“We’re trying confirm Saturday, November 6 as the date for the meeting,” says Ryan.

Last night’s City Council meeting will be shown on Midcoast Community TV, cable channel 6, tonight at 7pm.

The city of Half Moon Bay has denied the Review’s request for its “Due Diligence” report on the 22-acre park site, and is still reviewing documents to decide what it can tell them about its appraisal of the site.

The Half Moon Bay Review filed a formal California Public Records Request on October 4. The Review asked for “any appraisal or other information used to determine the value” of the 22-acre proposed park site and “the entire Property Due Diligence report date Sept. 3, 2004.”

Last Thursday, City Attorney Adam Lindgren wrote the Review a letter [PDF] telling them that the city is reviewing its records to see what it has that meets the Review’s request for appraisal information and will let them know what it finds and whether it can give it to them by Thursday, October 28.  However, it also said that it will not give the Review its “Property Due Diligence Report dated Sept. 3, 2004”, claiming “attorney/client privilege”.

Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) has bought a conservation easement on 1,312 acres of the Arata Ranch in San Gregorio for $4.7 million and title to the adjacent 151-acre Seaside School Ridge property. The easement will prohibit subdivision and development of the Arata Ranch and the Seaside School Ridge property.

The Ranch is located near the junction of Highways 1 and 84 in San Gregorio. POST says “It features picturesque rolling hills, pasture and farmland, and offers sweeping views of the entire coastal landscape.”

The Arata Ranch is owned by brothers John and Clarence Arata, both in their mid-80s, who have farmed the land for 65 years.  “We’ve spent 65 years farming our ranch and 30 years on Seaside School Ridge,” John Arata said. “We’ve had lots of offers for our land from people who wanted to build on it. Maybe we’d be billionaires if we sold the land, but it’s not our thing. We want it to stay just the way it is.”

This report was based on POST’s press release. Click “read more” to see the full press release.

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District is soliciting questions from constituents, to be asked of candidates for the new ombudsperson position. The interviews will be Wednesday, October 20, 2004, 5:00 pm at the MROSD Administrative Office, at 330 Distel Circle in Los Altos.

According to the District, “This position is being created to help resolve misunderstandings and conflicts that cannot initially be settled by MROSD staff.” I have been told that about half the candidates so far are not residents of the area to be added to the District.

Constituents are invited to submit questions for the applicants. by FAX at 691-0485, or by e-mail to Call MROSD 691-1200, or visit [url=http://www.openspace.org]http://www.openspace.org[/url] for additional information.

We got some great pictures at the Pumpkin Festival this year, including tons of photos of kids (and adults) in their costumes and people staging for the parade.

We packed the family into the Miata, tied our Coastsider banner to the side and joined the parade. So there is also a ton of pictures of the crowd taken from our car.  These are presented in a special album inside the main album of Pumpkin Festival pictures. Can you find yourself in the crowd?

Once again, we met a lot of our readers, including a source whose identity remains a mystery because they were in costume.

A jay found dead in Butano Canyon, near Pescadero, [map] on September 29 has been confirmed by the state to be infected with West Nile virus.

“This is the first infected bird found on the coast,” says Chindi Peavey, vector ecologist with the San Mateo County Mosquito Abatement District. “But we’ve been assuming that the virus has already spread throughout the coast.” Fourteen infected birds have been discovered in San Mateo County since the first was diagnosed on August 10, 2004.

I’ve been relatively sanguine about the virus until yesterday, when I read a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal that says West Nile is more harmful and affects a lot more people than we first thought [subscription required]:

Working its way inexorably across the country the past five years, West Nile has upended early assumptions that it was a mild disease that generally only posed a serious threat to the frail elderly.

U.S. scientists and public-health officials are now concluding that West Nile is a far more nimble and virulent foe than they had first thought. Since arriving in New York in 1999, an aggressive mutant form has hopscotched a step ahead of scientists and has exploited shortcomings in the public-health system. Along its way, West Nile has assailed a surprising number of healthy adults in their 30s, 40s and 50s, causing complications such as meningitis, encephalitis and paralysis, which can leave victims physically disabled, brain-damaged or dead.

If you find dead crows, ravens, or jays, you should call the California West Nile Hotline at 1.877.968.2473.

If you are being bitten by mosquitoes, call the county Mosquito Abatement District at 1.650.344.8592. Peavey says that although the District has generally identified sources of mosquitoes on the coastside, even a few bites might lead them to a previous unknown source. On September 20, the District sprayed larvacide by helicopter on the pond in the center of Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica.

More information can be found on the CDC’s West Nile Virus page.

Senior Coastsiders has created an award for “random acts of kindness” for a senior or disabled adult on the coastside.  The Dorothy Tigerman Random Acts of Kindness Award, was named for Senior Coastsiders volunteer and local activist.

Nomination forms available at Senior Coastsiders, 535 Kelly Ave., Half Moon Bay. The deadline for nominations is November 15, and the winner will be announced in December.