Caltrans Project Manager Keyhan Moghbel will make a presentation about Devil’s Slide repair work at the Half Moon Bay City Council Meeting tonight, Tuesday, starting at 7:30pm.

Ted Adcock Community Center
535 Kelly Avenue
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 

Last week Montara’s Farallone View Elementary held their annual Oceans Week, a 5-day long series science-oriented activities and presentations. Each day offers a new set of events and interactive exhibits—this year’s theme was "Waves".

The program began thirteen years ago and has grown in scope and ambition since. The activities draw heavily upon the parents, many of whom are in ocean-related occupations.

On Friday, the last day of this year’s program, I stopped by to visit and to see what Oceans Week was all about.

Highway 1 at Devil’s Slide will be repaired in four months, toward the end of September, according to Caltrans.

At a press conference in Redwood City, Caltrans announced their plan for the repairs and their estimate for completion. Describing this year’s slide as more extensive than the one in 1995, Caltrans District 4 Director Bijan Sartipi said that over 100 horizontal tiebacks would be sunk under the roadbed twice as deep (150 feet) as those used last time, plus another 60 tiebacks will be sunk 100 feet into the cliff face above the road, in order to anchor the slide to a much larger slide below it.

The repair is "not permanent", Sartipi cautioned, but is designed to last until the tunnel is operational in 2011. "We hope Mother Nature will cooperate until we can finish the tunnel," he said.

In order to complete the repair this quickly, contractors have committed to working around the clock.  Installing the horizontal ties below the roadbed will require drilling crews to be suspended in cages over the cliff from cranes.

Half Moon Bay State Beach volunteers are teaming with the Sequoia Audubon Society to mark International Migratory Bird Day this weekend, May 13-14, 10am to 4pm, with exhibits and educational activities for all ages at the Visitor Center at Francis Beach, 95 Kelly Ave.

International Migratory Bird Day celebrates the incredible journeys of migratory birds between their breeding grounds in North America and their wintering grounds in Mexico, Central, and South America.  The event, which takes place on the second Saturday in May each year, encourages bird conservation and increases awareness of birds through hikes, bird watching, information about birds and migration, public events, and a variety of other educational programs.

Tom Ferenz, a teacher at Farallone View Elementary, sent us a letter about his great aunt, a San Francisco Earthquake survivor who died recently:

My great Aunt Helene [Critler] was 104 when she died.  She was alive and remembered the great earthquake and fire and had the moxie to be able to talk about it. She was cool as a cucumber, even up to the last breath. I loved her dearly and will miss her. She opened up to me about her life in SF during and after the earthquake.

Tom pointed us to an excellent obituary on the Chronicle:

As it turned out, though, Mrs. Critler remembered clearly how the April 18 quake knocked the plaster off the walls of the South of Market flat where the family lived. Her father, Theodore Ferenz, an immigrant from Poland, thought the house was about to collapse—and that the fierce fires that ravaged the city would soon destroy the neighborhood and everything in it.

This year, Silicon Valley Open Studios focuses on San Mateo County and the Coastside on May 20-21, from 11am to 5pm both days.  Some studios on the Coastside will be open this weekend as well.

Several members of Jennifer Almadova’s watercolor painting classes, which are held at the Train Depot (below the Johnston house) through the HMB Park and Rec dept, are participating in Open Studios. 

Jennifer Almodova is a remarkable teacher. Although she lives in San Rafael, she has a devoted following of students in HMB and other areas, and also teaches online classes in graphic design for the Academy of Art in San Francisco. She was represented by the Erikson Gallery in HMB before it closed. Jennifer will be demonstrating on Saturday, May 22 at the Bell Building on Kelly Avenue in Half Moon Bay, which has been rented by a large group of her students to show their recent work.

Two advanced students, Susie Farber and Margaret Radford, will be showing their watercolors at the Train Depot on May 20-21. 

Marina Salume will show art quilts and watercolors in her home at 419 Correas Avenue in Half Moon Bay on all three weekends (May 6-7, 13-14, and 20-2). Free refreshments will be served at all three locations.

At 11 AM on Saturday, May 13, KNTV 11 (Cable channel 3) has a 1 hour special on the February 2006 Maverick’s Surf Contest.  From the clips showing up on my TiVo, I’d say the photography is very good, probably a better view than from being there.  Too bad the KNTV signal on Comcast isn’t as good as these clips which were downloaded via broadband.