State Senator Leland Yee has announced that he plans to introduce a bill, SB 650, to allocate $10 million in Proposition 84 Park Bond funds to Half Moon Bay so the city can acquire Beachwood for a public park.

Under the bill, there would be no houses built on the the property.  According to Half Moon Bay mayor John Muller, with the addition of the $5 million in settlement money set aside from the Association of Bay Area Governments settlement, "the city would only have to raise at most $4 to $5 million".  Muller told me that it might be possible to borrow that much without issuing a bond.

The city must pay Beachwood owner Chop Keenan $18 million by August 29 under the settlement, according to Muller.

The bill will be presented at the city council meeting on Tuesday, April 7.

SB 650 will be considered by a Senate policy committee in the coming weeks.  Assemblyman Jerry Hill will amend an identical bill (AB 650) in the Assembly.

Because SB 650 is an "urgency" measure, it must receive a 2/3 vote in order to pass. Muller noted that all segments of the community must support the bill if it is to receive the necessary votes in both houses.

While the city will receive an option to buy the adjacent Glencree property as part of the settlement, Muller declined to say what would be done with it, saying that he was focused on resolving the Beachwood issue right now.

Supervisor Rich Gordon has confirmed that patient records belong to the Coastside Family Medical Center and not to the patients, after consulting with county counsel.

There was some confusion at the meeting after one member of the audience said the state had told Gordon that the records belong to the patient, not the center. Gordon says that after a bankruptcy trustee is appointed by the court, the trustee will be responsible for the records.

You can download the memo from County Counsel Michael P. Murphy [pdf] from Coastsider.

The county has also released an updated version of their Information for Patients [pdf] handout from Monday’s meeting.

Three-time Grammy-nominated Cuban composer and pianist Omar Sosa brings Africa, Cuba, Brazil & France influences to celebrate African music in Jazz. This performance is in association with his new recording on Half Note: "Across The Divide: A Tale of Rhythm & Ancestry."

This new Afreecanos ensemble features noted percussionist and educator, John Santos, Mozambican electric bassist and vocalist, Childo Tomas, and New York-based saxophonist and flute player, Peter Apfelbaum
 
Sunday from 4:30 to 7:00 with intermission.
Doors open at 3 pm for buying tickets and claiming seats. 
Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
Douglas Beach House on Miramar Beach
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA  94019
650 726-4143, www.bachddsoc.org

Montara photographer Robert Buelteman will hold his first exhibition in over a year at the new Kelly Street Gallery in Half Moon Bay.  This small neighborhood gallery is a cooperative venture among some of the Coastside artists.

The opening reception will also mark the release of Buelteman’s new book, entitled Signs of Life, Selected works from three portfolios of cameraless, lensless, computer-free photographs.

Kelly Street Gallery
Corner of Johnston and Kelly St, one block east of Main
March 29 to April 26

Opening reception
March 29, noon to 5pm

Gallery Talk
April 19, 1:30 to 2:30pm

Friday was the opening night of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Half Moon Bay High School.  It was an evening of absolute entertainment!  The glitzy and colorful costumes, the clever and beautifully crafted sets, and catchy, upbeat music make this my all time favorite High School musical.  Thank you to Jim Ward, all the producers, parents, and students who put this together. 

This show will continue to play on Friday 3/27 8pm, Saturday 3/28 at 8pm, and will close Sunday 3/29 at 2pm.

Please come and be wildly entertained, as well as support the high school.

Tonya Lemberg

The Coastside Land Trust announced Monday the appointment of Terri Reece to the Board of Directors. 
 
Terri Reece spent her formative years on the Coastside, moving here officially in 1987.  She currently resides in El Granada. In her very early years she bonded with the Coastside. Her dedication to the preservation and stewardship of Coastside open space makes her an ideal member of the Coastside Land Trust Board of Directors.
 
Terri is the President of Reece Computer Systems. She formerly held executive positions with HP, Nestle and Oracle Corporation, and has an extensive background in international IT and consulting, global business management, and is an accomplished speaker. Terri also started one of the first computer training, documentation and computer support companies on the coast, Paperclip Enterprises, from 1987- 1994, and helped initiate Coastside school computer programs starting at Farallone View Elementary with parent, teacher and student training programs.

Terri has been a committed environmentalist since the early 70’s, and takes every step available to her to have a care for the world we live in and to understand the impact that thoughtful business practices have on our business and our community.  Because of that commitment, she and her husband have certified Reece Computer Systems as a B-Corporation (beneficial corporation) in 2008.  In 2009, Reece was awarded the 2009 Sustainability Award, because of its commitment to creating a sustainable community and a work environment that has a healthy connection to the natural world.  It was also awarded the 2008 Small Business of the Year award from Senator Leland Yee.  Terri is a member of the Advisory Board of Harley Farms Goat Dairy.
 
The Coastside Land Trust is dedicated to protecting the urban open space of the San Mateo County coast, for enjoyment now and for generations to come. Its primary focus is safeguarding scenic bluffs, open space, stream corridors and agricultural lands in and around the communities of Half Moon Bay, El Granada, Miramar, Moss Beach, Princeton-by-the-Sea, and Montara.

Hundreds of Coastsiders packed the Cunha Intermediate School multipurpose room for a town hall meeting on the closure of the Coastside Family Medical Center.

Even ten days after the closure of the Center, it is still impossible to get accurate information on medical records. One member of the audience contradicted Supervisor Rich Gordon, who called the meeting, on whether patients were entitled to receive their medical records without charge from the Center.

According to Gordon, the approximately 8,000 patients of the CFMC are divided in roughly into three groups:

• 2,000 were affiliated with Mills Peninsula Medical Group and will be assigned new physicians by the group.
• 2,000 were in county managed programs, such as MediCal, and are in the process of being assigned new physicians by the Health Plan of San Mateo.
• 4,000 were on private insurance or self-paying. They were told to contact their insurance company to get a new physician to receive their records.

It became clear during the Q&A that many members of the audience still expected that some accomodation could be found that would bring back the center. Supervisor Gordon offered no hope that the Center, which had declared bankruptcy, would ever reopen.

Gordon said the County had been paying the Center’s $25,000 monthly rent for the last six months, but had balked at a last-minute loan of $300,000. Gordon noted that the county already had $6 to $7 million in unfunded federal medical mandates.

About half the audience were Hispanic, and many of them did not speak English. The meeting was translated by a member of Gordon’s staff and later by a woman from the audience.

Many in the crowd were angry at the way the closure had been handled and called for CFMC board members Ev Ascher and Charise McHugh, who were at the meeting, to come to the stage.  Gordon said that although he though the handling of the closure was "unconscionable", he refused to call up the directors, saying: "We’d like someone to focus our anger on, but I’m not sure how productive that would be."

Cheryl Sinclair from Seton Coastside in Moss Beach was on hand to assure the community that rumors Seton Coastside would close are false and that it would continue its 35 years of service to the community.

I talked to Sinclair afterward and she said that so far the emergency room at Seton was not being overtaxed by spillover from CFMC, but that many patients did not yet know that CFMC had closed or that Seton was available.

Darin Boville was at the meeting taking video for Montara Fog. He has posted full, English, and Spanish versions of the meeting.

Click to download the information sheet distributed at the meeting. [updated Mar 26]

Volunteers across the nation are being recruited to get outdoors and help track the effects of climate on seasonal changes in plant and animal behavior. The USA-National Phenology Network (USA-NPN), a consortium of government, academic and citizen-scientists, is launching a new national program built on volunteer observations of flowering, fruiting and other seasonal events. Scientists and resource managers will use these observations to track effects of climate change on the Earth’s life-support systems.

Supervisor Rich Gordon will be holding his Coastside office hours on Wednesday, March 25th from 10am until noon at the Sheriff’s Substation in Moss Beach.  These are normally held on the fourth Thursday of the month, but had to be moved due to a scheduling conflict.