by Vicki Cormack, Coordinator of Volunteers and Home Rehabilitation for Senior Coastsiders.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Coastside community organizations always welcome to share their needs with Coastsider readers.

There’s so much to be thankful for and so many people wanting to help out in the community once the season of giving is underway. Amid the lights and decorations, the long lists and the anticipation, there are people in town who could use some holiday help.

Senior Coastsiders matches volunteers with seniors and adults with disabilities in the community all year long. But this is certainly a good time to get started.  This weekend the thrift store was decorated elegantly and there’s a lot of wonderful holiday fare to be purchased at an affordable price. But to keep the shelves stocked and the items displayed attractively, we need help during the week and on weekends.

At the holidays, many people feel moved to volunteer. But we need volunteers all year long. Each day of the week, Senior Coastsiders offers delicious and healthy hot meals at lunchtime to people in our dining room and also to homebound seniors through our meals on wheels program.  We could use help with delivering the meals and serving the food at our center.

At special events, including Seniors Night which will be happening later this winter, volunteers pour out of every corner. They hoist balloons, set out beautiful decorations, entertain guests and escort home bound seniors to a festive gala. If you like big parties or if you would enjoy spending time with our local seniors on one exceptional night, please let us know,

Do you like shopping? Many of our clients could use help going shopping or having someone shop for them. There is also a need for friendly visitors and for assistance with reading and also with getting to doctor’s appointments. There is a world of opportunities for anyone with an interest in being with older adults on the coastside. If you have some time in the New Year and would like to volunteer with us,  please call Senior Coastsiders at (650) 726-9056.

The Midcoast may have some remarkable parks and preserves, but there are few true recreational facilities. The county held a meeting in Moss Beach on Monday to discuss park plans for the Midcoast, reports Julia Scott at the County Times.

The last Midcoast parks assessment, completed in 2002, envisioned 62 acres of park land at an initial cost of $31.5 million. Holland said the amount of land needed for each designated use, and the cost of developing and maintaining the property, would likely change according to what the public decided its priorities would be at each site.

Many of those who spoke up at Monday’s meeting wanted to be certain that everyone’s input would be considered. "I find that there is a lot of disagreement among local residents as to their priorities — from trails to ball parks," said El Granada resident Gael Erickson.

Money is a bigger problem than land. The county is trying to identify state and local money to bring parks to the Midcoast. The county will form a committee beginning in February with two members from each community on the Coastside:  Half Moon Bay, Montara, Moss Beach, El Granada, Miramar and Princeton-by-the-Sea.

The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced today that it has completed the transfer of Driscoll Ranch to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) for inclusion in the District's open space preserve system. The 3,681-acre property, located along Highway 84 in La Honda, was purchased by POST in 2002 as part of its Saving the Endangered Coast campaign.

POST acquired Driscoll Ranch from Driscoll Ranches, LLC for $21 million paid over a three-year period. Now, four years later, POST is transferring the land to MROSD for $9 million. POST is able to transfer the land to the District at a reduced price thanks to public funding provided by the California Coastal Conservancy and the generosity of POST supporters.

"For three decades, Driscoll Ranch has been accessible only to the Driscoll family, guests, and hired ranch hands," said Walter Moore, POST Executive Vice President. "Now, with the transfer of the ranch to MROSD, the property is one step closer to opening to the public. POST's goal with Driscoll Ranch was to insure the continuation of well-managed grazing on the property while opening it for public enjoyment. To that end, the District and the Driscoll family are currently undertaking a master planning effort to integrate the grazing lease held by Driscoll Ranches and traditional uses with future hiking trails, staging areas and other facilities on the property."

Peninsula Open Space Trust

Driscoll Ranch. Click to download a pdf.

A mother and son injured by rocks falling from the bluffs while watching the Mavericks surf contest last February have sued the event’s promoters, reports the County Times. The woman and her ten-year-old son were struck by rocks, and she had to be airlifted to Stanford Hospital. The woman says that spectators should have been kept off the unstable cliffs.

"I think the crowds cannot be safely supported on those cliffs. It’s a very unstable area," [Half Moon Bay Fire Division Chief] Jolley said. "Whether the competition causes that or some other event causes that, there are areas where crowds are not meant to be."

"On the north coast you have to be aware of your surroundings. It’s not a parking lot," Jolley added.

The county has taken more steps to control the crowds at the next event, which will take place at a time to be announced 24 hours in advance.

A dinner at Puente de la Costa Sur honored founder Rev. Wendy Taylor on her retirement. Taylor founded Puente in 1998, reports the County Times.

About 100 guests — 20 of them field workers — enjoyed a hearty Mexican meal and paid tribute to Taylor in speeches, prayer and song, in Spanish and English. Two orchard ladders, one with a Mexican flag and one with an American flag, framed the kitchen entrance with a bridge of ropes between them.

Puente de la Costa Sur has come a long way from its initial mission of providing "bicycles, blankets and beans" to the field workers Taylor met as they passed by the local Protestant church where she ministered. Incorporated as a 501(c)3 charity with its own offices two years ago, Puente’s $190,000 budget covers a variety of services — English classes, welcome baskets and transportation for the men to pick up food boxes, go to the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco or visit the dentist.

The group pays for emergency surgery and utility bills for unemployed workers, and for the salaries of Puente’s one full-time and two part-time staff positions. The charity serves some 1,000 seasonal workers in the area.

Cisco Systems has acquired Tivella, a Half Moon Bay company that makes network-connected sign systems, reports InfoWorld.

Through Tivella’s technology, Cisco can bring that kind of content to monitors and TVs in stores and other public places, Wyatt said. The company’s Piccolo Media Players are small, lightweight devices with a wide range of display interfaces for use with different kinds of screens, including analog TVs. No PC is needed and they can be powered via Ethernet, without a local electrical socket. Linked via an IP (Internet Protocol) network, they could display constantly updated messages or video tailored to the place where each is located.

Tivella was founded in 2001 and has 10 employees, most of whom work in Milpitas, near Cisco’s headquarters.

Former Half Moon Bay city manager Debra Auker has been appointed to run the Hayward city finance department, three months after resigning her post Half Moon Bay in September.

Caltrans is moving six "portable changeable message signs" that they put on local highways during the Devil’s Slide outage. Beginning Monday December 18, the six signs will be relocated elsewhere.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has awarded the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) and other agencies in the San Mateo County Weed Management Area (WMA) a combined $100,000 grant to eradicate and control infestations of slender false brome, pampas grass, St. John’s wort, and other non-native, noxious weeds. The grant includes $19,800 to the Peninsula Open Space Trust to assist in eradicating new infestations of Canary Island St. John’s wort on POST lands along Highway 1 near Gazos Creek and $10,000 to POST to help remove and control pampas grass on its 119-acre Pillar Point Bluff property to restore native plant communities and reduce the source of pampas grass seed in the area.

Waves of sand, like dunes, are sweeping across the ocean floor, reports the County Times.  The sand winds up in Monterey Canyon.  And never heard from again.

The Monterey Canyon is the deepest underwater canyon in North America. Much of the sand that ends up in it washes from beaches in Santa Cruz, Capitola, Half Moon Bay and other parts of the Central Coast, said geologist Douglas Smith, an associate professor of science and environmental policy at California State University, Monterey Bay.

Smith and his colleagues have calculated that roughly 300,000 cubic meters of sand a year wash into the canyon — most of it coming from the north — never to be seen again. "That sand is gone forever in our time. It comes back to the surface in geologic time, but not in our time," he said.

To put that figure in perspective, it’s "enough to fill about 30,000 dump trucks a year," said marine geologist Gary Griggs, director of Long Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz. "That’s a lot of sand. That’s a dump truck full every 17 minutes."

Partly as a result, he said, the Monterey Bay shoreline erodes 6 to 12 inches a year on average.

The sand is naturally replenished from cliffs and rivers, but seawalls and dams have diminished these sources.