This coming Saturday, May 30, the Coastside Farmer’s Market in Half Moon Bay is hosting a Blood Drive right next to the Farmer’s Market  in Shoreline Station. There will be lots of sweet summer berries and fruits to refresh those who are able donate!  Please click on the link below to make an appointment, and please feel free to forward this notice to friends, colleagues and community members.

There is no substitute for blood. It has to come from one person in order to give to another. A critical number of voluntary donations are required every day to meet the need for blood.

Walk-ins will be welcome, but making an appointments will help us plan better.

Click Here to make an appointment. Once you get to the website, enter your email address and date of birth. If you have used the online appointment system before your information will display for your approval. If you have not used our online system before, you can fill out the form with some basic information the blood center will need.

If you have any questions about the blood drive, contact Erin Tormey at [email protected].

Coastside Farmers’ Market
May 30, 9am to 1pm
225 S. Cabrillo Highway
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019

Erin Tormey

"Tip a Cop" night benefiting Special Olympics, sponsored by the Half Moon Bay Police Dept, returns to Cameron’s on Wednesday June 3. The proceeds from this fundraiser will be used to enhance and expand the year round sports training and competition programs that Special Olympics offers at no cost to the developmentally disabled children and adults of the coastside community.

The event will run from 5 to 9pm. There will be great food, balloons, family fun, handouts for the kids, police displays and a fantastic silent auction.

Special Olympics athletes are never charged to participate in any sports training or competition programs. Special Olympics receives no federal or government funding. All the money needed to provide Special Olympics to our athletes, is generated by fundraisers, such as "Tip A Cop", and the generosity of people and organizations in our community.

Your support will help us continue to provide our Special Olympics programs to the over 100 developmentally disabled children and adults in our community.

For further information, to make a donation or to purchase a special Law Enforcement Torch Run T-Shirt feel free to contact Sergeant Sanchez at 650 726-8288 or drop donations at the station at 537 Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay.

I hope we can count on your support.

Members of the Pacifica Shorebird Alliance have started conducting observation of shorebirds along our local beaches. In doing so, we have settled on the recording model used by CA State Parks HMB for recording of Western Snowy Plovers. Since we will be submitting our recordings at Pacifica State Beach to CA State Parks, we have been asked that observers be trained by the volunteer program from Half Moon Bay. This is also appropriate since we plan on recording the local population of the Western Snowy Plover.

The training is composed of an evening training program of about 2 hours and follow-up beach walks with docent trainers and mentors until an observer is signed off. If you have an eye for bird identification, this would probably only be two beach sessions. For experienced bird watchers the beach sessions would be optional.  Personnel from the Half Moon Bay program have agreed to come to Pacifica to do the first portion of the training and we are reaching out to members of the community who want to join our efforts.

With climate change and increasing pressure on our coastal birds, we are interested in getting a baseline for current populations and track what many are reporting as changes in bird distributions and migration patterns. You don’t even have to be a beginner bird watcher, you will get training and mentoring. Observations currently consist of making a sweep of a beach/location for about 30min when you have the time to do so, and recording wildlife, location usage, disturbances, predators etc…

This training session will start here in Pacifica with follow-up beach walks in Half Moon Bay. The beach component should be over the following three weeks and be completed by the first week of July. Those follow-up beach sessions can be scheduled at your convenience with the initial training session here in Pacifica. If you are interested, please send us an email at [email protected]

Training Session
Wednesday June 10th
7:00pm to 9:00pm, Pacifica Community Center
Directions will be posted on our web site: www.pacificashorebird.org

Dyer Crouch
Pacifica Shorebird Alliance

April Vargas will be covering the county’s proposed updates to its Local Coastal Program (LCP) at tonight’s Midcoast Community Council (MCC) meeting. The LCP is the county’s plan for the unincorporated Midcoast. It is required by the Coastal Act and must be approved by the Coastal Commission.

MCC will meet at 7:30 pm at the Seton Medical Center Coastside, Marine Boulevard & Etheldore, Moss Beach. Take Highway 1 to Marine Boulevard and follow hospital signs uphill. Attendees must park in upper parking lots per hospital policy (turn left just before the end of the main driveway).

The county will be holding a hearing on the update at Half Moon Bay High School on June 16 at 5pm.

Coastal Commission staff rasised a number of significant issues with the county’s proposal. Some that were identified by the county as significant are listed below, but I’m sure there’s more that other folks in the Midcoast are interested in seeing covered.

• The scope of the proposed changes, which revise the amendments approved by the Board, as well as policies of the LCP that were not proposed for change.
• New policies that require demonstration of adequate public service capacities and restrict the allowable capacity of public works projects.
• A recommended prohibition against individual private wells and septic systems within the Midcoast urban area.
• Replacement of the County proposed 75-unit annual limit with a population growth rate of 1%, and application of this limit to secondary dwellings units.
• New policies that replace Countywide stormwater pollution control requirements with detailed construction, erosion control, drainage, and treatment standards.
• Deletion of a policy that would enable the County to resolve conflicts between LCP policies in a manner that is on balance the most protective of coastal resources.
• A prohibition against the formation or expansion of special districts until public service capacity issues are resolved.
• New traffic mitigation, monitoring, and reporting requirements.
• New requirements for the provision of coastal access trails and related studies.
• Deletion of a proposed incentive to provide affordable housing units.
• Requirements to designate the Devil’s Slide bypass alignment as a Linear Park and Trail and rezone this area to Community Open Space.
• Changes to land use designations and allowable uses on the Burnham Strip.

The Cunha Intermediate School Band Boosters will host an E-Waste recycling collection event on Saturday, May 30th 2009 from 9:00am to 4:00pm at the Cabrillo School District office parking lot at 498 Kelly Avenue, Half Moon Bay (next to Hatch Elementary School). All proceeds from the event benefit the band program at Cunha Intermediate School.

E-waste items that can be recycled for free at the event include computer desktops, laptops, keyboards, monitors, televisions, cell phones, pagers, and many other items. "We can take almost anything with a plug," say organizers. "Just drive up and we’ll unload for you."

Items that cannot be accepted include fluorescent bulbs, furniture, large appliances, refrigerators, solvents, paints, or oil.

"Recycle your e-waste at this event and you’ll be doing two good things at the same time" say organizers, "Greening the community and filling it with music."

There’s unexpected wild food for the picking on the Coastside. The California Report (on KQED) has a story about an "urban food forager" who comes to Half Moon Bay to collect wild greens, these and other plants from other Bay Area places are sold in gourmet retailers in San Francisco and via community supported foraging organizations such as ForageSF. The story acknowledges that foraging is not legal in state parks.

The Coastside Land Trust announced today the appointment of Patrick Ryan to its Board of Directors.

Patrick brings an extensive background in community service, land transactions and real estate negotiations to the Coastside Land Trust Board of Directors.

Patrick currently serves on the San Mateo County Historical Association Board of Directors as the Captain of the Major Divisional Annual Support Campaign.

Patrick Ryan, a resident Half Moon Bay and of the coastside since 1973, has enjoyed years of horse ownership, is an avid hiker, and enjoys walks on the beach with his family. He was educated at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and the University of Nebraska.

The Coastside Land Trust is dedicated to the preservation, protection and enhancement of the open space environment including the natural, scenic, recreational, cultural, historical, and agricultural resources of Half Moon Bay and the nearby areas for present and future generations.

The Fun & Funny Fundraiser for the First Responders Support Network takes place Sunday, May 31 at the Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. in Pillar Point Harbor.

The First Responder Support Network (FRSN) mission is to provide treatment programs that promote recovery from stress and critical incidents for first responders and their families. The FRSN is a collaboration among emergency service peers (police, fire, corrections, dispatchers and emergency medical services), mental health clinicians, and chaplains who volunteer their time. We encourage you to contact us if you or someone you know is in need of some assistance.

There are two ticket levels: $60 for food and comedy, or $40 for just comedy. The doors open at 1:00 for the food buffet from 1:45 to 3pm. Seats open fpr the comedy at 3:00 and the show runs from 3:30 to 5:30.

Tickets: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/57307

Docents for the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District have scheduled free outdoor activities in May and June, all taking place on the District’s open space preserves throughout the South Bay, Peninsula and Coastside areas.

For further information, to make a reservation, or to obtain directions, please call 650-691-1200 or refer to the District’s Web site at www.openspace.org.

Friday, June 5, 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve, meet at El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve
"Unique Redwood Trees"
Join docents David Milburn and Susan Peterson for a six mile hike to visit unique redwood trees in the Lobitos Creek area. Along Bald Knob Trail with distant views, your stops will include the "Reiteration Tree" with a buttressed secondary trunk and the "Chimney Tree" with a large goose pen.  Some off-trail hiking required. You will carpool to the trailhead. Reservations are required on or after May 22.