Bids 4 Kids is a an auction and wine tasting to benefit Coastside Infant Toddler Center. I have a soft spot for this event because my daughter attended CITC for the first three years of her life.  I can’t tell you how lucky we are to have this resource for our youngest Coastsiders.

Bids 4 Kids will feature many varieties of wines to sample from California wineries, a delicious assortment of food created by Cetrella’s chef, good company, and a silent and live auction.  Donations have already been received for portraits done by some of the Coastside’s best photographers, services for improving your home, indulgences for pampering yourself and destinations for a luxury retreat.  It promises to top last year’s event.

The event will be at Cetrella, Saturday May 7, 2005 from 12:30 to 3:30 pm.  Tickets for the event are $50 per person, and include all food and wine tasting.  They can be ordered by calling 650.726.7416 or emailing [email protected]

The commercial salmon season opens Sunday at midnight, and fishermen are facing a season a little over half as long as last year’s. Meanwhile fishermen are facing much higher gas prices and longer distances from Pillar Point Harbor to open fishing areas. The short season has been blamed by the California Department of Fish and Game on the Bush administrations decision to give water normally reserved for rivers to Klamath Reclamation Project farmers, according to the Oakland Tribune.

Caltrans will break ground for the Devil’s Slide Tunnel on Friday, May 6 at 2pm.  It’s going to be a big event, rating visits from California senators Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, congressman Tom Lantos, state senator Jackie Speier, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, and others. Following the groundbreaking, there will be a celebration at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company at 3pm.

The tunnel is expected to take about six years to complete at a cost of $270 million.

On Thursday night, the Half Moon Bay Planning Commission granted a 28 day temporary permit to the Ritz for its event tent. This will give the resort permission to put up the tent while it’s waiting for longer-term approval of its application from the Planning Commission.

Wednesday night 200 people from the town of La Honda and surrounding community gathered at La Honda Elementary School to voice their concerns over the water in La Honda at a Winery Scoping Hearing.

La Honda Elementary School is just two weeks away from having potable water for the first time in 7 years.  And now it is being threatened.

Several years ago semiconductor millionairre TJ Rodgers and his domestic partner Voleta Massey began planting grapes on the hills above Cuesta La Honda’s water supply.  They originally informed the residents that this would be a small, quiet, hobby endeavor, and that they would use all organic farming techniques to produce the finest Pinot Noir in the world.

Unfortunately, that has all changed!  A year ago the town became concerned when the sounds of dynamite blasting echoed through the hills of La Honda as Rodgers & Massey’s Clos de la Tech Winery began excavating three caves in the side of the hill high above the town’s water supply Tunnel Springs and Woodhams creek, and directly visible from the parking lot at La Honda Elemetary School.

The townspeople learned that the blasting was to prepare for building 3 huge caves for bottling and production of 13,000 cases of wine per year.  There had been no blasting permit issued by the county, and no notification to the residents that such an unpleasant, noisy and disconcerting effort was in the works.  At this time in San Mateo County the production limit is 2500 cases,  and Rodgers & Massey hope to change the law to accommodate their dream.

Meanwhile, the diverse and educated people of La Honda took it upon themselves to present very well researched information, concerns, and issues that may be impacted by this "vertical winery" which hosts plantings on slopes as steep as 60-70%.

La Honda residents took turns speaking of their concerns about contamination of the water supply for the whole town as well as for the wildlife in the watershed between here and the coast.  They spoke of traffic concerns, increased traffic driving on these narrow, windy roads with perhaps a few glasses of fine Pinot Noir in their tummies as well as all of the large trucks and equipment needed to operate a large scale winery, creating more deadly accidents on the highway.  Local experts with PhD’s in biological and geological sciences geological and watershed spoke of surrounding watershed data which clearly demonstrate the dangers to the environment and wildlife if such an operation were to continue without extreme restrictions.

Children of La Honda Elementary School spoke about their concerns about the winery contaminating the clean water that has been long in coming to the school.  Others discussed their concern for the animals, both wild and domestic, that might be injured, misplaced, or lost forever due to a large, noisy operation draining chemicals down the hill into the water and soil.

In general, people were very focused on their particular issues of concern and were very respectful of each other.

We just want to drink clean water, is that too much to ask?

EDITOR’S NOTE: The Chronicle has a long article about the Winery controversy.

The La Honda Educational Foundation & Pescadero Education Foundation are joining together again to present the 3rd annual Gardens of the South Coast Garden Tour, Plant Sale, and Wine & Cheese Tasting on Saturday & Sunday, May 14 & 15. The Garden Tour will begin at 10 am and continue to 4 pm both days, with the Wine & Cheese Tasting on Saturday, from 4 - 6 pm at Harley Farms on North Street in Pescadero.

Click "read more" to see the rest of the press release.

Matt Kapko, news writer for the Half Moon Bay Review, is leaving after less than a year on the paper.  His last day is Friday.  Matt’s byline first appeared in the Review in June of last year.  Matt wrote seven of the fourteen bylined stories in the news section of Wednesday’s Review.

Matt’s going to work for Bay City News, a news service based in San Francisco.  BCN’s reports are often used by local television stations. "We’re really going to miss him," Review managing editor Clay Lambert told me.

Santa Cruz County supervisors, in a show of respect and support for the small unincorporated community of Felton (pop. 6000), took their board meeting on the road to Felton’s community hall last night.

The sole item on the agenda was whether to put a bond on the ballot to help Felton buy their water system from Cal-Am.

Two years ago, Montara bought its water system from Cal-Am, a subsidiary of international conglomerate RWE Aktiengesellschaft headquartered in Essen, Germany.  Montara Water & Sanitary directors Scott Boyd and Kathryn Slater-Carter attended and shared some experiences from Montara/Moss Beach’s water system purchase.

A community group known as Felton FLOW, inspired by Montara’s success, has been gathering facts and working to put together a feasible plan.  The meeting rewarded their efforts, and puts them on the path to a June election.

The supervisors heard from a standing-room-only crowd, speaker after speaker imploring them to put a bond on the ballot to give them a chance to own their own water.

The crowd with the 5-0 vote with applause and a standing ovation.

Montara Water & Sanitary District (MWSD) is hosting community workshop at the Farallone View Elementary School’s multipurpose room. The meeting will run from 7:30pm to 10pm.

At the last workshop, attendees requested information on rate structures. This year, attendees will get a history of how the district got where it is, rate structures, progress in improving the water system, the Alta Vista Well, and water treatment projects, among other items.  There will be time for Q&A.

The Ritz’s application to erect a 6,000 sq. ft. tent on its property will be considered by the Half Moon Bay Planning Commission for a third time on Thursday night.

The Ritz’s long-term goal is to get approval to put up the tent for events between May and October annually.  Tomorrow night, they’re seeking a 28-day temporary permit to put up the tent until the Planning Commission reviews its application for the period through October on May 12.

The Review reported last week that "The long-term plan calls for an indefinite permit that would allow the tent to be erected each year for 180 days." According to Ritz general manager Paul Ratchford, they would only put up the tent when an event was scheduled and take it down after each event is over. The confusion is understandable, as it’s not clear from the documentation what the resort’s plans are.  Ratchford also told me that he expects to have to re-apply for a permit annually. The Planning Commission could resolve both these questions tomorrow night.

The Ritz has already scheduled the tent space for eleven different events from May 7 to June 26, with clients that include Hewlett Packard, Allegis Capital, and Prudential. It expects the tent to increase its revenue by $1 million per year, which it says would result in $100,000 in tax revenue for the city of Half Moon Bay.

According to planning commissioner Jack McCarthy, "Many people from Ocean Colony testified that they had issues" at the original meeting to discuss the permit on April 11. Among the issues were applicability of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), parking, hours of operation, access to tennis courts, safety, and noise. The latest application from the Ritz includes a letter from the Ocean Colony Association saying that the Ritz has addressed the issues that Ocean Colony residents have with the tent. At the meeting on Thursday, April 21 the commission declined to rule on the application and put off a decision until Thursday, May 12. According to McCarthy, the decision was delayed to give the commission time to study the application and the community plenty of notice before voting on it.

The hotel was bought by Strategic Hotel Capital last July for $124 million. In its application to put up the tent the Ritz acknowledges that it doesn’t have enough conference rooms or parking, saying "the resort, when it opened, was incomplete on opening day in 2001. The new ownership is developing a master plan for the resort that addresses the shortage of meeting facilities and parking spaces, basically finishing the resort to accommodate demand."  You can download the backup documentation to the Ritz’s application from Coastsider.