The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) is holding four public meetings in November and December 2005 to provide the public with extensive opportunities to advise how the District can best build relationships with its neighbors and amend its “Good Neighbor Policy”.

The meetings will be held on the coastside, on Skyline Boulevard, and in Los Gatos at the following dates and locations:

November 1: Pescadero
(7:30 p.m.- 9:30 p.m.)
La Honda-Pescadero Elementary School (620 North Street)

November 3: Skyline
(7:30 p.m.- 9:30 p.m.)
MROSD Skyline Field Office (21150 Skyline Blvd.)

November 17: Half Moon Bay
(7:30 p.m.- 9:30 p.m.)
Ted Adcock Community Center (535 Kelly Ave.)

December 1: Los Gatos
(7:30 p.m.- 9:30 p.m.)
Neighborhood Center (208  East Main Street)

More than 350 Coastsiders came together on Friday night to learn about the help that the Coastside Opporutnity Center.

The turnout exceeded all expectations and everyone had a great time. Click on the photo to see the album. The first five pages of our album show the setup and pages 6 to 12 show the event itself.

The sheriff is called in when two large political endorsements signs on the are torn down, and sheriff’s deputies make whole bunch of drug arrests this week. Two cars that are pulled over smell of marijuana, a cyclist turns out to be carrying meth, two DUI’s, a traffic stop leads to a meth warrant arrest, and a man with a fake AK-47 was found to be carrying meth.

Click “read more” to see the press release.

The Coastside Opportunity Center threw a big party with a serious purpose on Friday night. The fundraising event, at I.D.E.S. Hall in Half Moon Bay, also marked the public introduction of the Center’s new executive director, Cheri Parr.

The identity of the executive director was kept a secret until her Friday night debut.

Cheri, the wife of Coastsider publisher Barry Parr, is known to Coastsider readers for several stories, and literally thousands of photographs, that she has contributed to the site.  We met lots of people at the event who told us they knew Cheri from when she took their pictures at one of the many Coastside events we covered this year.

Before joining the COC, Cheri was a publishing executive with technology magazines such as MacUser, CIO and Information Week. She’s a volunteer (and photographer) for the AIDS charity Academy of Friends, as well as a board member and treasurer in her church.

The event, titled “The Other Coastside” brought out a lot more people than anyone expected. Nearly fifty more people than the 300 confirmed reservations showed up. Casey Sample, COC VP and owner of Casey’s Cafe in Half Moon Bay, catered the party. The COC’s first formal fundraiser was created and executed by Tricia Dell, a professional fundraiser from El Granada.

After her announcement, Cheri introduced Farmer John Muller, who ended the event with good humor and a little arm-twisting.

Interim Executive Director Eileen Hansen said, “We hoped to bring together the diversity of the Coastside community—those who are comfortable and those who are struggling; the various political factions; representatives of community-based organizations and small businesses; clients, staff, volunteers and Board Members of the COC; and those who wanted to learn about and support our work.”

Cheri’s hiring marks the end of Hansen’s tenure as Interim Director. She stepped in to manage the transition after Graydon Simser, who had been Executive Director and CFO for 20 years, retired in May, 2004.

The final tally of donations will be released Tuesday. Anyone who would like to make a contribution to the Coastside Opportunity Center should call Cheri Parr at 650.726.9071 or send an email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

COC is actively looking for donations and volunteers for its Christmas Adopt-a-Family program, which last year provided gifts and assistance to over 300 seniors and families. For more information, call Judy O’Leary at 563-9910.

MCTV (Channel 6) will broadcast the two city council and CCWD candidates’ debates.

The Chamber of Commerce/League of Women Voters debate from Tuesday, October 25 will be broadcast on Thursday, November 3 at 7pm

The AAUW (Monday, October 24) and Chamber debates will be re-broadcast back-to-back on Monday before the election, November 7, with the AAUW debate at 7pm and the Chamber debate at about 8:35pm.

Hikers, dogwalkers, and neighbors in Montara have been watching a mysterious construction site take shape in the open space near Highway 1 on the northern edge of town. This week in particular, the activity has increased with a gravel road and chain-link fencing.

All that earth-moving equipment is actually building wetlands.  As mitigation for taking about an acre of wetlands in the building of the Devil’s Slide Tunnel, Caltrans is replacing and restoring four acres of wetlands in Montara on the Rancho Corral de Tierra land owned owned by the Peninsula Open Space Trust [Google satellite picture].

Much of the area nearby is already wetlands, covered with wetlands vegetation. The project will create seasonal wetlands that will flood in the rainy season, mimicking a natural cycle, except that it will be drained by a culvert under the highway.

According to Jeff Weiss with Caltrans, “We’re removing all the existing vegetation and replacing it with native wetlands vegetation.”

Weiss said that the $1.3 million wetlands project has been passed by the San Mateo County Mosquito Abatement District.

The eagerly anticipated November 3 meeting of the Cabrillo Unified School District (CUSD) board has been pushed back until November 9. At this meeting, the board will take up the decision, delayed from the board’s last meeting, whether to choose Cunha as the site for the district’s middle school.

The rescheduling is significant because this means that the decision will take place after the November 8 election, in which the site of the new middle school is an important issue. Although the city council has no control over the decision, many people opposed to the current city council majority have blamed it for the delays in building of the school.  At the last school board meeting, at least one member of the public accused the board of delaying its vote in order to deny incumbents Grady and Ferreira some good news before the election.

CUSD president Dwight Wilson tried to get the board to vote for the Cunha site at the last meeting, but Jolanda Schreurs and Charles Gardner wanted more time to consider the decision. Roy Salume joined them in asking for a delay so that the purchase of adjoining lots could be explored.

Wilson said that he and superintendent John Bayless decided to delay the meeting,  “We’ve had logistical problems.  Support staff and two principals have been out or sick. Normally, we don’t have our meetings so close together, but this one was originally scheduled to avoid the Veteran’s Day holiday.” 

The County Times has endorsed Ferreira, Grady, and McClung; and the Review has endorsed Grady, Patridge, and Skinner.

Read their endorsements. Each is surprising in its own way. Click on the comments link below the headline and let us know what you think about their choices and reasoning.

Here are a couple of photos of road signs that were sent to me by readers.  I’ll be glad when the election is over and I don’t have to write about politics any more. 

Darin Boville

You’ve probably seen this sign, unless you never go north of downtown. We thought it was a particularly calm and clever response to a problem that is no doubt infuriating some members of the LCP.

From Coastsider’s endorsement of Ferreira, Grady, and Skinner: “In the last couple of weeks, signs supporting Patridge, McClung, and Muteff have sprung up on nearly every vacant lot and farm field on the Coastside. I keep asking myself, What do the owners of those undeveloped lots know about those candidates that I don’t?”

Heal the Bay has released its 2005 California Summer Beach Report Card [PDF]. Overall, Coastside beaches did well, with 18 beaches in San Mateo County receiving A’s.  However, Pillar Point Harbor at Capistrano Avenue Beach [Google map], which received the County’s only F grade. Also, both Fitzgerald Marine Reserve at San Vicente Creek and Venice Beach at Frenchman’s Creek received grades of C.

However, for the most recent 4-week period, Pillar Point Harbor received a C and Venice Beach a D, with all other County beaches getting an A or A+. [Report card at Heal the Bay]

The problem at Pillar Point Harbor is long-standing. The site suffers from lack of circulation because of the breakwater, plenty of birds, and other sources of pollution from its use as a harbor.

San Francisco County received 11 A’s and 2 B’s, and Santa Cruz received 11 A’s but two of its beaches were closed this summer.

According to Heal the Bay, the overall water quality at California beaches this past summer was very good. Of the approximately 450 monitoring locations throughout California, 407 locations (91%) received very good-to-excellent water quality marks (365 A’s and 42 B’s). There were 41 locations (9%)  that received fair-to-poor water quality marks (20 C’s, 6 D’s and 15 F’s). Overall, California’s summer beach water quality grades were slightly better than the summers of 2004 and 2003.

The grades are based on dry weather water quality data provided collected between Memorial Day and September 30, 2005. 

Heal the Bay

This month, Pillar Point Harbor received a C and Venice Beach a D.