The county’s Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCo) will meet Wednesday, April 25 at 7pm, at the Half Moon Bay Fire District Station to discuss the merger of the Half Moon Bay and Point Montara Fire Districts. LAFCo has jurisdiction over changes in the organization and boundaries of special districts.

The Coastside Mothers’ Club is holding its 13th annual preschool open house hosting eight Coastside preschools from Half Moon Bay to Montara.  The preschools will be open for tours on Saturday, April 21, 2007 from 9:00 am – 1:00 pm. 

This preschool open house is a great opportunity for interested families to meet directors and teachers, discuss curriculum, daily schedules, and other program information, pick up enrollment forms and inquire about waiting lists. 

The event is open to the public, free of charge, as a community service to all Coastside residents.  Children are welcome, no RSVP is required. 

CLICK for a list of open houses.

Saturday there will be an special item recycling day for Seacoast Disposal residential customers in Clipper Ridge, El Granada, Miramar & Princeton [pdf of flyer].

Residents can drop off for free: appliances, furniture, mattresses, box springs, car parts, fluorescent bulbs, metal, tires. Also, electronic waste including; computer & stereo components, batteries, cell phones, printers & cartridges, small copy machines, TV’s & other electronic devices with a cord. Only one large appliance per household, please. You many NOT drop off motor oil, paint, or hazardous waste.

The next Special Item Recycling Day will be held on July 28, 2007. This event is sponsored by Granada Sanitary District, Strawflower Electronics, and Seacoast Disposal. For questions, please call (650) 726-7093.

Saturday, April 21, 2007  
8:00 am to 12:00 noon
Obispo Road in El Granada
Across the street from the Fire Station

Researchers have created a map of Mavericks as part of a project to map the sea floor off the central California coast.

The newly collected data shows that the wave-making setup at Mavericks involves a portion of a rocky reef that protrudes above its surroundings while remaining under water. As a wave approaches the shore and enters shallower water, it compresses and grows taller. A ridge promontory also focuses wave energy and the wave rapidly increases in height, creating a monster.

At the highest point of the protrusion, the wave becomes unstable and breaks. Data collection was impossible in that location because the rough sea presented too much danger to the scientists.

UPDATE: The mapping project’s site has a lot more maps and charts.

Short: Half Moon Bay Concerto  (8 mins)

Lou Solitske’s beautiful photographs of Half Moon Bay are put to a musical score by jazz legend, George Roumanis.

Both have retired to an active life in Half Moon Bay. Come meet them, and see if their vision of our little town matches your own. 

Feature: Touch the Sound(113 mins)

"At the heart of every life form there is rhythm. Movement, flow, change, renewal and repetition are all based on rhythm." Evelyn Glennnie

Evelyn Glennnie lives in our universe in a way that almost no one else does.  She is a top classical percussionist. She is also profoundly deaf using her body as a "resounding chamber" through which she experiences her work.

"Touch the Sound" is a documentary by Thomas Riedelsheimer that follows Glennie on a musical journey around the world. We get to see her play the snare drum in New York’s Grand Central Station, a guitar case in the Cologne airport, pigeon coops on row house roof tops and the china of her favorite Japanese restaurant.

The movie really breaks out when we get to follow her and avant-garde musical legend Fred Frith as they improvise work for a new album while roaming through a vast, decaying, industrial warehouse. The space they are working is sunlit and visually stunning. The two musicians take inspiration from their surroundings to create a sound scape that is just as vast, sunlit and stunning.

For more information and a preview of these films see: www.hmbfilm.org

When:    Friday, April 20, 8 p.m.
Where:    Community Methodist Sanctuary
            777 Miramontes, Half Moon Bay 8 p.m
          Corner of Johnston & Miramontes.
Donation:  $6.00

Even grade-schoolers know Ken Menasco’s name, now.

After she learned I was going to film the Design Review Committee meeting last Thursday, which would be considering the building of two new large houses on Birch Street in Montara, my daughter (a student at Farallone View) asked me whether the builder was the same "bad man" who wanted to build the seven houses immediately adjacent to the elementary school.

"That’s him," I said. "I hope they stop him," she said, "He doesn’t care about anyone but himself."

The adult citizens of Montara felt the same way. About fifty neighbors showed up at the Moss Beach Sheriff’s substation where the meeting was held, cramming the small room. More chairs were brought in but still many had to stand.

My kid and the neighbors all got their wish—both structures were rejected. (Mr. Menasco, who lives now in the East bay, has the right to appeal.)

This video—which is a long one, just over an hour and a half—can be enjoyed on many different levels. At its most basic level, it is a video about a builder who, though he insists he plans to live in one of the houses, has met with little success in making friends with his future neighbors (many of whom called off work to attend this afternoon meeting and who came armed with bar charts, maps, photographs with which to attack the proposed buildings). The neighbors were, almost universally, intensely hostile to the proposal.

But it is also interesting to watch this as an example of a community choosing its own destiny. The Coastsiders made it clear in their public comments that they have grown tired of seeing the limits of the building code treated as a standard rather than a maximum and have grown angry over builders doing everything possible to enlarge the size of their structures without concern for the character of the community or the well-being of the neighbors.

The College of San Mateo will open its first full satellite campus at Shoreline Station in Half Moon Bay, reports the County Times.

The new facility will be geared toward a wide variety of groups, from high school students getting a head start on college to adult learners looking for some vocational training or simply an interesting class to take, according to Galatolo. The college will also expand the English and computer-literacy classes it currently offers to Spanish-speaking residents at the Moonridge housing complex in town.

The Half Moon Bay Beautification Committee today announced $104,000 in grants and donations to Coastside non-profit groups, educational organizations and municipal agencies. Funding comes from proceeds from the Art & Pumpkin Festival, which has been operated and managed by the Beautification Committee since 1971.

The largest single contribution ($25,000) went to the on-going maintenance and beautification of the Main Street downtown core. Among the efforts are seasonal planting of flowers, installation and repair of old-fashioned wooden benches, litter removal, cleaning, and year-round maintenance of Main Street. In its 36-year history, the Beautification Committee has directly contributed more than $2.3 million dollars to coastside non-profit organizations and civic causes.

CLICK below for a list of recipients.

Despite a day that began with a drenching downpour, Step It Up managed to get good turnout Saturday for a picnic and an organized shoot from the air of participants lined up at what might be the new shoreline if global warming continues.

Kevin Stokes

Kevin Stokes

Kevin Stokes