The Coastside Community Orchestra, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, with a concert Saturday May 3rd at 8 p.m. at the Community United Methodist Church in Half Moon Bay.  The orchestra will open with Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slav.  Then Montara Virtuoso Charles Calvert will play Boccherini’s cello concerto in Bb major.  After intermission the concert closes with Schubert’s symphony No. 8 the "Unfinished." As part of the 25th anniversary celebration orchestra alumni are invited to attend the concert free of charge.

After intermission the orchestra will present three scholarships to local music students to encourage their continued musical education.  Marya Dzmitrak (age 16) of Pacifica earned a scholarship this year to continue her piano training with Lisa Spector.  Quinn Sommer (age 12) won a scholarship to help him buy a new bow for his violin.  Christian Arella ( age 15) who plays alto horn and trumpet and has been teaching himself to play the guitar, earned a scholarship to take private music lessons.

The Coastside Community Orchestra began in the spring of 1983 when a small group of musicians got together to found a nonprofessional community orchestra.  What began with ten people has grown over the years to roughly 40 musicians.  Mr. Kay Raney conducted the orchestra for 17 of those 25 years and did a lot to build its membership and repertoire.  Recuperating from surgery, he will attend the May concert and Guest Conductor Bill Coye will lead the group.

Saturday, May 3rd, 8:00 p.m.
Community United Methodist Church Sanctuary

777 Miramontes Ave, Half Moon Bay
May
Tickets Available at the door
$10 general, $7 seniors, students and children free
For more information visit www.coastsideorchestra.com or call 415/290-4074.

On Saturday May 3rd at 6:00PM Lucia Gonzalez, award winning author of BOSSY GALLITO, SENOR CAT’S ROMANCE, and STORYTELLER’S CANDLE, will delight families with stories, poems, and puppetry.

On Friday May 2nd at 7:00Pm join children’s book author Pam Mayer for an interactive workshop that will expose the "7 Myths About Writing a Children’s Book".

Correction: an earlier version of this story said it was headed to the Assembly floor.

By a vote of 4-to-2 the Assembly Local Government committee has voted to pass AB 1991 out of committee.  It now heads to the appropriations Committee, according to the Assembly member Gene Mullin’s office.

Correction: an earlier version of this story said the hearing was Thursday. It is, of course, today.

You can watch the Assembly’s Local Government Committee hearing on AB1991 live on the web at 1:30pm Wednesday. There’s no direct address, but you can go to
http://www.calchannel.com
...and click on "Webcasts" on the top menu bar. You will see a matrix of time blocks with hearings that have webcasts. Scroll down to 1:30 and click on the link to the hearing.  The link will launch in Windows Media Player. If you are using a Mac, you will need to install Flip4Mac [download page] to watch the stream in Quicktime.

Under the improbable headline "Special Rescue Bill AB 1991 Takes Center Stage at Key Assembly Committee Hearing Tomorrow in Sacramento; Half Moon Bay Citizens To Rally in Support of Bill California State Police and Firefighters’ Associations and Endorse AB 1991" we find the following press release:

City of Half Moon Bay leaders will testify tomorrow before the Local Government Committee of the State Assembly, while dozens of Half Moon Bay citizens will head to Sacramento to rally for passage of AB 1991, the special rescue bill that would help the City avoid an $18 million settlement of a $41.1 million court-imposed liability.

Click to read on

Coastal Commission legislative director Sarah Christie has taken on what she calls "misinformation and inaccuracies" in Half Moon Bay’s response to her initial letter on the deficiencies in AB1991. In a sharply-worded letter to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and Senate President Protempore Don Perata [pdf], Christie rather contemptuously takes apart the city’s counterattack, making the following points:

• The city "ignores the obvious fact" that the process of AB1991 creates a precedent for future legislation.

 

• The city makes the "insinuation ... that it is somehow the Commission’s fault that the City finds itself in its current predicament",  because it consulted the Commission before it denied the 85-parcel subdivision of Beachwood and the denial was upheld by the state appeals court.

 

• The city’s assertion that the Commission’s approval of 19 parcels on Beachwood was illegal because the Commission lacked juridiction is "incomplete and therefore misleading".

 

• The city "derisively dismissed" the Commission’s offer of assistance, because the Commission didn’t offer to pay its bond or legal fees—which it does not have the authority to do. However, says Christie, the Commission offered an amicus brief represented by the Attorney General’s office.

 

• The city said that the inclusion of Glencree in the settlement was not arbitrary, "because… most importantly, the plaintiff, ‘Chop’ Keenan, demanded it. We think the City’s response speaks for itself and makes our original point quite well."

 

• The city’s claim that the property would be built out by now, but for the city’s sewer moratorium, is not only "unlikely, it is irrelevant. The City might as well point to all the development that would already be built out today if the Coastal Act had never been passed, or CEQA, the Endangered Species Act, or any General Plan law".

The Commission’s legislative director concludes by saying that the legislature should "let the bill die, so that the City can pursue the escape clause it agreed to in the settlement…and…work with the community and interested stakeholders".

Click below to see the letter embedded in the page, or click here for the pdf.

The entire Coastside community is invited to lace up their skates and join us on Saturday afternoon, May 3, for a gala "Rock the Rink" grand opening celebration of the new roller hockey rink at Half Moon Bay High School.

Hosted by the Boys & Girls Club of the Coastside and the North Coast Hockey League, the event will feature live music (with local band "Flagged Down"), food, raffles, prizes for all kids, skills competitions, a Squirt exhibition game, and more! (And, since it’s the first Saturday in May, we’ll have a special Kentucky Roller Derby race!) It promises to be a totally fun afternoon for the entire community.

And if you enjoy Rock the Rink, kids 5-18 can always sign up for the 2008 NCHL roller hockey season, which begins Sunday, June 1 and runs through Aug. 3. You can sign up  ONLINE at www.coastsiderollerhockey.com http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?EVENT_ID=1553360&CHECKSSO=0 or you can click on this link for the 2008 Registration Form. http://www.coastsiderollerhockey.com/2008_NCHL_RegForm4.pdf (Or signup in person on Saturday, April 19 & 26 at Cameron’s, from 11am-2pm.)