half moon bay review page 1

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Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Volume ı ı2 Number 3 | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com

Editorial a 4A | Weather & Tides a 5A | Police Log a 5A | A&E a 2B | Sports a 5B | Real Estate a 1C | Classifi eds a 3C

By Mark Noack[ [email protected] ]

The Amgen Tour of California revisits Half Moon Bay, Montara, Kings Mountain, Pescadero and a tourist’s spree of other lo-cal sights on Tuesday as some of the world’s top cyclists make their light-speed rush down the Pacifi c Coast.

The highly publicized and intensely competitive race has drawn 127 rid-ers including Olympic medalists, Tour de France winners, and champion riders from Belgium, Finland, Spain, Germany, New Zealand and Sweden — and that means Lance Armstong too.

The U.S. cycling titan and seven-time Tour de France winner joins three-time Amgen winner Levi Leipheimer on Team RadioShack, the team many expect to win.

Sixteen teams will be competing in the eight-day hopscotch down the state, which begins near Sacramento and continues south to fi nish near Los Angeles.

The Coastside is included in Stage 3 of the tour route, The day’s ac-tion starts in San Francisco, goes down Highway 1 through the greater Half Moon Bay area, and then winds east through the coastal hills before heading back west to Pescadero and then south to con-clude at Santa Cruz.

For Coastside cyclists, having the Amgen race tour popular local routes is a big deal, said cycling enthusiast and Midcoast resident Chris “Cannon-ball” Johnson.

“I watch these guys on TV, and now they’re rid-ing the same trails I ride,” Johnson said. “It’s a Peninsula cyclist’s wish list of routes.”

Johnson encouraged spectators to choose spots to watch a cycling sprint or “king of the mountain” — small minicontests within the larger race that one rid-er from each team will seek to win. One such sprint is located right at Surfer’s Beach.

Amgen organizers pushed back the race un-til May this time to avoid the rainy, cold weather that made watching the event diffi cult in February of 2009. For the Coastside, the route remains mostly the same except for a detour into Woodside before veering back to the coast.

Drivers be warned: The California Highway Patrol will be temporarily closing roads in advance of the cy-clist pack. Long stretches with no easy detours, such as Devil’s Slide, could be closed for as much as an hour in advance of the cy-clist pack, which is expected to arrive at Montara around 11:45 a.m.

In previous years, CHP offi cials have re-opened roads within 15 min-utes after the cycling pack passed. r

Bike race cycles down the Coastside

TOUR OF CALIFORNIA WINDS THROUGH COAST ON TUESDAY

11:45 a.m.

12:04 p.m.

Route of race

Estimatedarrival

Sprint

Sprint

King of Mountain

[ c y c l i n g ]

12:31 p.m.

1:58 p.m.

1:37 p.m.

Stage 3 of the race starts in

San Francisco and ends in Santa Cruz

Cycling Race Glossary:Bridge. A rider or riders who sprint away from the main group of riders, or peloton, and catch the breakaway.Broom Wagon. The vehicle that follows the race, picking up racers who have to aban-don the race.Domestique. A rider whose main job is to help the team leader win the day’s stage, or the entire race. Echelon. A staggered, long line of riders, each downwind of the rider ahead, allowing them to move considerably faster than a solo rider.Gruppetto. A group of rid-ers that forms at the back of the fi eld on mountain stages and ride at a pace that allows them to fi nish just inside the time limit. King of the Mountains.The KOM is the fastest climb-er in the overall standings. Peloton. The main group of racers. Also called the pack.Squirrel. An erratic rider.Wheelsucker. Someone who, while riding in a pace-line, doesn’t take a turn at the front of the line.

By the numbers

8 number of days of event

16 number of host cities

127number of riders

800 total miles of race

Estimated spectators at last year’s event

Review fi le photo

The Amgen Tour of California streamed southward through the Coastside for the fi rst time last year, bringing some of pro cycling’s biggest names and scores of fans to the area.

CITY LOOSENS RULES FOR

FLOWER FARMSFARMLAND TO BE OPEN FOR MOST

AGRICULTUREBy Mark Noack

[ [email protected] ]

To quote Pete Seeger: Where have all the fl owers gone?

Answer: They’ve been re-placed by food, fi bers and fuel.

Last week, Half Moon Bay leaders eased the city’s agri-culture zoning code to allow local fl ower growers fl exibility to use their farmland for grow-ing produce, medicinal crops or other purposes.

Once a linchpin of the Coastside economy, large-scale fl ower growing has been dwindling for years due to in-creasing international com-petition. That has led fl ower companies to lower produc-tion and close acres of green-houses once teeming with blossoms.

The local fl ower industry

has scouted out ways to sell off some of the 207 acres of land in Half Moon Bay designated for fl oraculture, but industry leaders have been hamstrung by the city code. Under the city’s previous zoning code, “A-1” designated farmland could be used for growing fl owers but not fruit, vegetables or oth-er crops.

“We only allowed people to

[ z o n i n g ]

[ e d u c a t i o n ]

Teen pressure focus of movie,

movement

By Lily Bixler[ [email protected] ]

This fall was the worst it’s been for Half Moon Bay High School senior Kathleen Aba-die. She took Advanced Place-ment Spanish, calculus, Eng-lish and government, ran on the cross-country team, orga-nized student government ac-tivities as class co-president and played the fl ute in the marching band. And then she also applied for college.

“I’m interested in all the things I do, so it’s not like I’m doing all these things just to get into a good college,” Abadie said. Ultimately turning down

Duke University, the 18-year-old has decided to attend Rice University, where she wants to study engineering.

Abadie piles a lot on her own plate. Parents Kathy and Vic-tor Abadie are amazed by their

“Race to Nowhere”What: Film focusing on “the dark side of America’s achievement culture.”

When: 7 p.m. Friday

Where: Community United Method-ist Church, 777 Miramontes St., Half Moon Bay

Cost: $15, available online at www.rtnhalfmoonbay.eventbrite.com or at the door.

Lars Howlett / Review

Kathleen Abadie considers the nature of light and mirrors during her physics class at Half Moon Bay High School on Friday. Abadie has spent some time refl ecting on four rigorous years at the high school.

LOCAL TEEN TALKS ABOUT SUCCEEDING IN AN

ACHIEVEMENT-OBSESSED CULTURE

See FILM a 8A

“This could be an area where Silicon Valley companies come to take advantage of this zone to research.”

— Steve Flint, Half Moon Bay

planning director

See ZONE a 8A

HELP BEHIND BARS ONE FINAL ACTLocal yoga instructors bring their skills to incarcerated girls on the Peninsula > Page 7A

Coastside dancers take the stage for fi nal time before college > B

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Elevation profi le of Tour of California from San Francisco to Santa Cruz

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Volume ı ı2 Number 2 | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com


a n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l e

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MARK RESTANI

TASTES

FOR ALL

TASTES

FIND W

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PROFILE OF

COOKING

UP MORE

THAN

MEALSP.12

THE ANNUAL FOOD AND DRINK ISSUE

RICHARD PONCINI

THE COASTSIDE TEEMS WITH

RESTAURANT CHOICES

DINING

DELIGHTS: P.28

+COOKING FOR

(LOTS OF) FRIENDS

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JUMPING TO VICTORYCougars should be league contenders this season. > 5B

TRACK AND FIELD

Tastes for all tastes! Restaurants, wine bars, cooking for crowds > FREE INSIDE

PROFILE OF

RICHARD PONCINI


RESTAURANT

RESTAURANT

+COOKING FOR

(LOTS OF) FRIENDS

Tastes for all tastes! Restaurants, wine bars, Tastes for all tastes! Restaurants, wine bars, Tastes for all tastes! Restaurants, wine bars, Tastes for all tastes! Restaurants, wine bars, Tastes for all tastes! Restaurants, wine bars, Tastes for all tastes! Restaurants, wine bars, Tastes for all tastes! Restaurants, wine bars, Tastes for all tastes! Restaurants, wine bars, Tastes for all tastes! Restaurants, wine bars, Tastes for all tastes! Restaurants, wine bars, Tastes for all tastes! Restaurants, wine bars,

HMB MAGAZINE

a n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l e

JUMPING TO VICTORYJUMPING TO VICTORYCougars should be league contenders

TRACK AND FIELD

Coastside college saved, but classes remain undefi nedNO DETAILS ON FUTURE OF CAMPUS


The College of San Mateo has published its schedule of class-es for the fall semester, but don’t expect to see information on what’s available on the Coastside.

Community college administrators say they aren’t sure what, when, where or exactly how classes will be offered on the Coast-

side — but they promise new courses will be here for the next school year.

“We defi nitely want to maintain the community college on the Coastside,” said Susan Estes, CSM vice president of instruction. “We just don’t know how. We haven’t specifi cally defi ned it yet.”

The Coastside branch of the community college could be homeless after the spring semester. To save money, the college branch plans to leave its rented facility at Half Moon Bay’s Shore-line Station, which costs about $130,000 a year.

Instead, college offi cials are in the process of negotiating for

temporary classrooms with the Cabrillo Unifi ed School District. That arrangement could mean college courses would be taught in classrooms at Half Moon Bay High School.

College of San Mateo administrators say the number of class-es available on the Coastside depends primarily on how many people enroll. But, so far, the community college has no way for residents to sign up for local courses. The College of San Mateo schedule of classes doesn’t list any Coastside courses, and it in-stead refers locals to the campus Web page. To date, the Web site

See COLLEGE a 8A

By Lily Bixler{ [email protected] ]

A couple walks into Dee Har-ley’s goat farm in Pescadero. Wan-dering through the cheese tasting room and gift shop, they ask Harley about her famous fi ve-course farm dinners. She gives them a card and refers them to the farm’s Web site. Then it’s back to the farm. Back to work.

“If we didn’t have the social me-dia, I’d be in the offi ce all the time

talking to people about the same things … Spinning, spinning, spin-ning, all the time,” Harley said after the couple left.

About a year ago, Harley propelled her farm of 80 milking goats into the world of social media with a snazzy Web site, a blog and pages on Yelp

and Facebook. Just last month har-leyfarms.com totaled 6,185 visitors who stayed on the site for an average of nine minutes and 55 seconds. Site analytics allow Harley to track how, when and where users are coming to the Web page so her business can market to them virtually.

“A farmer out in the fi eld with their iPhone can stop for a minute and take pictures of their crops, and then boom, their social media marketing is done for the day.”

Irma Mitton, social media marketer

Facebook on the farm

[ b u d g e t ]

SOCIAL MEDIA IS TRANSFORMING

COASTSIDE FARMS

[ a g r i c u l t u r e ]


Pescadero farmer Dee Harley is one of many local farmers who have embraced social media as part of their marketing ef-forts. She regularly updates her blog and company Web site.

See FARM a 8A

CITY FINDS BRIGHT SPOT

IN BLEAK BUDGET

CITY NOTES MODEST REVENUE

INCREASEBy Mark Noack[ mark@hmbreview ]

Half Moon Bay offi cials are preparing a greatly reduced budget for next year that none-theless contains a thin thread of optimism: The city ex-pects the economy to improve slightly.

City leaders are curbing their optimism and projecting a modest 1 percent revenue in-crease for the coming year.

Some good news was need-ed as city leaders on Tuesday reviewed a drastically cut back budget for the 2010-2011 fi s-

cal year. The document in-cludes cuts to all local services and some capital projects and draws heavily from the city’s reserve fund.

City Administrator Lau-ra Snideman said there were some big variables in the com-ing months, but city offi cials were confi dent of the slight fi -nancial boost in the future.

“We’ve done absolutely ev-erything we can to come up with the best possible projec-tions,” she said. “We took the best possible numbers here.”

City offi cials are walking a delicate political path. On the one hand, they are stressing that public safety and servic-es will remain suffi cient, al-though reduced by new cuts.

Teen leaders gather at Moonridge


A sheepish teen wearing a San Francisco Giants hoodie and towing a skateboard un-der his arm, Carlos Camare-ña has had problems keeping his grades up and staying out of trouble. But unlike many teenagers who fall behind, Ca-mareña is also considered a model community member.

Earlier this year, the 14-year-old helped organize a movie screening to raise relief funds for Haitian earthquake vic-tims, and he is a regular partic-ipant in local meetings, sports and other youth activities.

He attends the youth coun-cil at Moonridge Housing Complex, the largely Hispanic, affordable-living community south of Half Moon Bay. With some initial reluctance, he was convined to describe his desire to help his community.

“Since I’ve lived here, there’s been a lot of drugs and gang-banging. And I want to change that,” he said. “If I have a fam-ily here, I want it to be a bet-ter place.”

On Saturday, Camareña and about 70 adolescents from across the Bay Area from similar disadvantaged back-grounds came to Moonridge


Teenagers take part in a team-building exercise during a youth conference at Moonridge in Half Moon Bay on Saturday.

YOUTH CONFERENCE AIMED AT INSPIRING COMMUNITIES

[ m o o n r i d g e ]

Sea slugs get defensiveNUDIBRANCH SPECIES FIGHTS WITH ITS FOOD


On a nice day with an extra-low tide, beach walkers and tide-pool hoppers might keep their eyes on the surf grass. Nestled in an intertidal rocky reef among sea anemones, sea urchins, starfi sh and algae, lies a species of colorful mollusks that uses its food to defend itself from predators.

These mollusks, which are often called “sea slugs,” eat sea anemones and oth-er species from a phylum of creatures called cnidarians that have little stinging harpoons. The slugs then turn around and use the stingers for their own pro-tection.

How do the slugs pass the stinging cells through their system unharmed? Scientists don’t really know. But for what-ever reason, when a sea slug eats a sea anemone, something happens chemical-ly that blocks most of the stinging cells from fi ring and allows the slugs to store them as ammunition for the unlucky at-

tacking crab or fi sh.It turns out, some of the stinging

cells actually do fi re when the slug con-sumes the anemones. It digests and stores most of the undeveloped sting-ing cells, according to Rebecca John-son, an invertebrate zoologist and ge-ologist from California Academy of Sci-ences. Johnson told Coastsiders about the phenomenon during a discussion Monday at the Train Depot in Half Moon Bay. The gathering was spon-sored by the Gulf of the Farallones Na-tional Marine Sanctuary.

See MOONRIDGE a 8ASee SLUGS a 8A

See BUDGET a 8A

[ m a r i n e l i f e ]

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Volume ı ı2 Number ı | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com



| 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com


Volume ı ı2 Number ı | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com


DREAM MACHINES DELIVERCALLED TO ACTION

COASTSIDE STATE PARKS

REOPENSCATTERED PARKS

RESTORED FOR PEAK CAMPING

SEASONBy Mark Noack


Coastside state parks will go all out for camping season on Saturday.

Stymied for months by bud-get cutbacks, California State Parks is reopening all camp-grounds, hiking trails and oth-er services to visitors for the peak outdoor season. Parks of-fi cials promise “99.9 percent” of state parks will be open for summer, when about three

times as many visitors are ex-pected to head out camping and hiking.

Locally, that means popu-lar state parks such as Butano, Cowell Ranch and Burleigh H. Murray that experienced clo-sures or partial reductions are set to be fully reopened by the end of this week.

State Parks District Super-intendent Paul Keel said there weren’t many problems associ-ated with the closure, especial-ly given that many Coastside parks had never been shut-tered before.

“We weren’t sure what was going to happen … with parks these large, how exactly do you close it?” he said. “We thought

[ h i g h s c h o o l ]

Half Moon Bay High School spirit undergoes renaissance

AWARDS PROGRAM TAKES ROOT AT HIGH SCHOOL

By Mark Naock[ [email protected] ]

On Friday, the entire student body of Half Moon Bay High School crowded onto the bleachers of the school gymnasium to watch an awards show.

The roar of the hundreds of students was overwhelming, and teachers pleaded with the mass of teenagers to stay quiet. The stu-dents, more than a little excited about not being in fourth period class, reluctantly agreed.

The assembly wasn’t about recognizing students with the top grades or batting averages, but rather the friendliest, the most help-ful, the most energetic, those that try the hardest. The “Outstanding Cougar” awards were part of a new program that school offi cials and student leaders hope will revolutionize the school, and doing that required a high-school renaissance.

School leaders are promoting the new school “Renaissance” pro-gram to rejuvenate school spirit and give more students a stake in the school.

“The whole purpose is to recognize students and faculty who nor-


During an assembly on Friday, Half Moon Bay High School students recognized teachers for going beyond the call of duty.


California State Parks is opening many facilities in time for the busy summer season – including Butano State Park on the South Coast.

Butano State Park is set to reopen

County may toss eco-unfriendly food containers


Squeezed next to oversized cans of tomatoes in the stock room at Mercado & Taqueria de Amigos are two stacks of foam to-go containers. Once the restaurant uses up the re-maining inventory in about two weeks, owner Norman Contreras will replace the plas-tic with compostable contain-ers.

“We aren’t all the way there yet, but we’re trying to slowly make the change,” Contreras said, adding that the switch will cost his Pescadero restau-rant $300 per month, or 20 percent more than it spends

now on the containers.About two months ago, San

Mateo County sent Contreras a letter that mentioned a poten-tial ban on polystyrene — the non-degradable petroleum-based material commonly known as Styrofoam — and suggested that his business make the switch.

The county is attempting to roll out an ordinance to ban more than 200 businesses in the unincorporated county from using nonrecyclable food ware by Jan. 1, 2011. Straws and lids wouldn’t be included in the ban.

At an Environmental Qual-ity Committee meeting on

[ e n v i r o n m e n t ][ p r i n c e t o n ]

200 BUSINESSES IN UNINCORPORATED AREAS COULD BE AFFECTED

See POLYSTYRENE a 7A

American Legion Post 474 puts ‘very unusual’ house up for sale

CLUBHOUSE PLANS STALL, HOUSE

ON MARKETBy Mark Noack


Not every real estate listing describes a home for sale as “very unusual.”

But those might be the best words to illustrate a particularly interesting house in Princeton.

The building looks fairly normal from the outside — a two-story house on Cal-ifornia Avenue covered in drab wooden shingles.

But the design of the home is pret-ty odd. The residence has only one bed-room — but four bathrooms. Also, un-like the other homes on the block, this house has a three-story tower that no one can fully explain. Some believe the red-wood water tower was used to store whis-key barrels during the Prohibition era. But now, the top fl oors of the tower are packed with boxes.


This building in Princeton was once to be the new home of American Legion Post 474. Now it is being sold.See LEGION a 7A

See PARKS a 7A

Students reach for STAR this weekTeachers, students and administrators all groan

when the annual time for STAR exams rolls around. STAR, the Standardized Testing and Reporting

exam, is a series of lengthy multiple choice tests on math, language, social studies and some science for students in grades 2 through 11. As part of the fed-eral education mandates, school funding is partially tied to how well they do on the rigid testing system.

So this week, school faculty is trying to get their students revved up to do the best they can.

Just to get students ready for the test, Half Moon Bay High School offered students free breakfast on Tuesday. If students do well, they can receive a boost in their grades or other perks, such as an ice cream party.

“If they’re meeting the standards, we want to congratulate them,” said Assistant Principal Alli-son Silvestri. “It’s giving them a buy-in to do well on this test.”

— Mark NoackSee HIGH SCHOOL a 7A

HMB woman signs on with Peace Corps in Peru > 6A

Beautiful day greets huge crowd at airport > 8A

Volume ı ı ı Number 52 | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com




CITY GOES BACK TO

CHOPPING BLOCKPOLICE CHIEF,

OTHERS MAY LOSE PAYBy Mark Noack


Half Moon Bay elected offi cials were set to consider $900,000 in work reductions, salary cuts and layoffs to the city workforce at their public meeting Tuesday night. They warn that even more cuts are coming when

the next budget is unveiled on May 4.

The new cuts will impact every city department and have already been negotiat-ed with the city’s four em-ployee unions. The list of cost savings comes as the city is grappling with a $2.1 million shortfall, which it needs to balance before the

next fi scal year.The proposed cutbacks would lay off As-

sociate Planner Sean Gallegos and one un-identifi ed administration position and po-lice offi cer. Various city offi cials will now be working only three days a week, including Police Chief Don O’Keefe, Recreation Su-pervisor Dirk Alvarado and one unidentifi ed clerical employee.

Most City Hall employees will be taking two furlough days off each month, which amounts to a salary reduction of more than 9 percent.

The city police force will take an equiva-lent reduction by suspending holiday pay and taking a 4 percent pay cut.

City offi cials admit the new cuts will hurt local services and require further reorgani-zation of the city.

Along with personnel reductions, the city will use $1.2 million from its reserves to balance the budget. City offi cials are plan-ning to advance a new sales tax measure for the November ballot as one way to bring in more revenues.

The City Council was to consider the pro-posed cuts Tuesday night after Review dead-lines. The newspaper will report out of that meeting on its Web site, hmbreview.com.

The city has been in the midst of a pro-longed period of fi nancial distress. For years, the city battled over land-use issues on mul-tiple legal fronts in court cases that cost mil-lions to defend. Those efforts reached a head in 2008, when a federal court judge ruled the city effectively took property belonging to Peninsula developer Charles Keenan. Ul-timately, the city agreed to pay Keenan and fl oated bonds to cover the $18 million settle-ment price.

The city’s current fi scal morass extends

[ d r e a m m a c h i n e s ]

Before you started Dream Ma-chines, were you a gearhead? I had two older brothers, and if something had wheels, we raced it.

How many vehicles, whether planes, trains or automobiles, would you say you’ve owned in your life? Probably 40. My favorite was a Jaguar ’76 XJS — my son and I raced it in Mexico. Good, good car. It went like hell.

So it’s been 20 years since Dream Machines started. What was the original thought behind starting this event?Three people came up and asked me to start this. I was known then as the village nut as far as getting involved. They wanted to know whether I’d get involved in a fundraiser for the Coastside Adult Day Health Center. I had a lady working for me for many

‘We had a hell of a good time’

DREAM MACHINES FOUNDER DISCUSSES EVENT’S PAST AND FUTURE

The Pacifi c Coast Dream Machines comes to the Half Moon Bay Airport this Sunday, and for all of its 20 years, the guiding force behind the event has been now-77-year-old Coast-sider Bob Senz. A full-blooded motor lover, Senz has been racing cars since his youth grow-ing up on a small Oregon farm. Review reporter Mark Noack spoke with Senz about Dream Machines and how the event has changed over the years.

‘Birdemic’ splatters Half Moon Bay


Half Moon Bay is home to many beloved things: pump-kins, beaches, farmland, fi ne hotels and restaurants. Now, fi nally, one fi lm captures all of that … and throws in a bunch of mutant eagles that urinate acid.

That fi lm is “Birdemic: Shock and Terror.” It’s a low-budget schlock horror pro-

duction that has found un-fathomable success as a cult favorite. For weeks the mov-ie has packed theaters across the country. Fans have been watching computer-generat-ed birds swooping, squawk-ing, puking and defecating all around Half Moon Bay sites — in what could be the most unexpected, and perhaps un-wanted, publicity in the histo-ry of the Coastside.

“The main character of this

fi lm is Half Moon Bay itself,” Director James Nguyen pro-claimed between sips of a Bud-weiser at Cameron’s Restau-rant and Inn, which serves as the backdrop for several scenes in the fi lm. “The syn-opsis of the movie is a platoon of eagles and vultures attack a small beautiful California town called Half Moon Bay … Who will survive?”

Nguyen, a jovial and very animated 44-year-old Vietnam-ese immigrant, got into fi lm directing through love, luck

CULT SENSATION FILMED ON COASTSIDE


Movie director James Nguyen holds a coat hanger – like those used to ward off mutant birds in his fi lm, “Birdemic: Shock and Terror.” The fi lm is set in Half Moon Bay and has some familiar scenes in the background.See BIRDEMIC a 7A

[ m o v i e s ]

Lars Howlett/ Review

Dream Machines founder Bob Senz refl ects on 20 years of hosting one of the Coastside’s biggest parties. The benefi t for Coastside Adult Day Health Center is set for Sunday.

Dream bigWhat: The 20th annual Pacifi c Coast Dream Machines

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday

Where: Half Moon Bay Airport

Cost: Adults, $20; Seniors and kids ages 11 to 17, $10; younger children free.

Inside: Schedule of events and fea-tured machines included in your pro-gram, which is inserted free inside to-day’s Review

See DREAM a 7A

Police Chief Don O’Keefe

See CUTS a 7A

Organic farms face

scrutinySMALL

SOUTH COAST ENTERPRISES FINED


Small organic farms are cur-rently enjoying a Bay Area re-naissance, but the practice is more diffi cult than simply throwing seeds in the ground. The labor-intensive nature of the work has left some local farms on the wrong side of state law.

Organic agriculture requires more weeding, planting and back-breaking labor than con-ventional farming, and that means the popular new farms need lots of workers willing to do tough manual chores. And a crop of struggling new farm-ers have been learning expen-sive lessons about what the state considers fair employ-ment practices. Under a surge of new oversight from state regulators, Coastside farms have been hit with numerous violations for their labor prac-tices.

Fifth Crow Farm, a Pescade-ro farm that started up last year, was hit with $5,000 in fi nes during a routine work in-spection in October for failing to keep adequate tax records and provide workers compen-sation.

One year earlier, Blue House Organic Farm, a neighboring community-supported agricul-tural concern, faced $5,500 in fi nes for not keeping adequate paperwork for the farm’s three interns.

“We were new business owners, and we got an expen-sive lesson,” said John Vars, co-owner of Fifth Crow Farm. “It was our fi rst year. It’s been a tremendous effort with fi nan-cial sacrifi ce, and none of us were taking in income.”

The two South Coast farms were both started by groups of young farmers who say they are committed to sustainable practices and education. Small farms nationwide frequently offer educational internships

See FARMS a 7A

GUNG HOJensen honored by fellow Marines > 3B

A FRIENDLY GAMELittle Leaguers share skills with special friends

Sports 8B



Volume ı ı ı Number 5ı | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.comVolume Number | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com


FIRING UP THE AUCTION MAKE IT SOThe recently formed Califuegos plan to Rock the Casbah > 1B

Cunha counselor engages students with her love

of all things Star Trek > 12A

CITY DISCOVERS $14 MILLION MIRAGEBy Mark Noack


In a way, the city of Half Moon Bay has just lost $14 million. Actually, the money wasn’t lost or mishandled, city offi cials say, but rather mis-reported.

Last week City Manager Michael Dolder in-formed elected offi cials that the city Public Works Department had incorrectly reported last month that Half Moon Bay had $14.6 mil-lion in its sewer reserve fund, the cash account

the city would draw from to perform sewer construction or repairs.

But that amount was wildly overstated. In actuality, the sewer reserve balance is about 4 percent of what was earlier reported and is more like $607,000.

The problem stemmed from misreading the city budget. City offi cials now say they wrongly reported net assets for the city sewer system as

cash held in reserve. Those assets may not be liquid and include the value of the city’s net-work of sewage pipes and gutters along with other calculations.

“It’s net assets. It’s not cash. It never was cash, and this is not a loss of cash,” Dolder said on Thursday, explaining the correction. “We were reviewing this and felt this didn’t look right, and we wanted to make sure everyone

understands what this budget means.” Nevertheless, Half Moon Bay’s report that it

had millions more in reserve than it really did has created some problems. For example, the city’s Midcoast partners in the Sewer Authority Mid-coastside had been pointing to the $14.6 million reserve fund as evidence that the city had been withholding funding from Coastside sewer projects.

Just last month city leaders were preparing a series of sewer rate increases they said were

OFFICIALS MISREAD SEWER BUDGET, INFLATING RESERVES

See SEWER a 7A

City hungry for larger tax sliceHIGH-VALUE

HMB PROPERTY PRODUCES POOR

REVENUESBy Mark Noack


As Half Moon Bay offi cials scrounge for more revenues, they often grumble about their take of local property taxes.

It’s not that they’re too high or too low — it’s just that the

city doesn’t get enough of the pie.

In the trickle-down govern-ment tax system, Half Moon Bay is getting relative crumbs off the table in comparison to other local agencies. The city receives only about 6.5 percent of the property taxes paid by lo-cal homeowners — among the smallest percentages of any city in San Mateo County.

In the state-mandated sys-tem of property tax allocations that was cemented in place

[ t a x e s ][ r i d g e t r a i l ]

Landowner wins judgment over

Coastal Commission

By Clay Lambert[ [email protected] ]

Dan Sterling is one big step closer to building his dream home on a hilltop overlook-ing Pillar Point. On Friday, a San Mateo County Superior Court judge ruled the Califor-nia Coastal Commission over-stepped its bounds when it re-quired Sterling turn over most of his property as an agricul-tural easement if he wanted to build on the land.

“I’d like to think that it’s over,” Sterling said.

Sterling has been locked in a decade-long battle to get

a permit to build a home on land he purchased in 1997. He said it took seven years to get a county permit to construct a 6,456-square-foot home on the land. Then the Coastal Commission took his plan un-der review and ultimately re-quired he agree to turn over all but 10,000 square feet of the property for an agricultural easement, meaning use of the property surrounding his new home would be limited.

The Sterlings fi led suit against the Coastal Commis-sion in 2009. On Friday, San Mateo County Superior Court

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JUDGE RULES EASEMENT WAS ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL TAKING’

See LANDOWNER a 7A

See TAXES a 7A

Half Moon Bay is stuck with one of the smallest returns on its prop-erty taxes in San Mateo County. Cities throughout California have al-most no ability to increase their share of property taxes.

Sweeney RidgeSweeney RidgeSweeney RidgeSweeney RidgeSweeney RidgeSweeney RidgeSweeney RidgeSweeney Ridge


The Coastal Trail has the visitors, but the Ridge Trail has the vistas.

Champions of the Bay Area Ridge Trail, the lesser-known hiking, biking and equestrian trail that will go along the crest of coastal hills, are making steady progress toward completing a continuous stretch along the Penin-sula.

Trail supporters say a new two-mile extension will be opened later this year north of Highway 92, which will provide the Coastside with a new ac-cess point for a continuous 20 miles of trail up to Pacifi ca.

Like its coastal counterpart, the in-land Ridge Trail is a large-scale plan to install hundreds of miles of pub-lic recreation pathways. But where the Coastal Trail would hug the Pa-cifi c shore from Oregon to Mexico, the Ridge Trail would loop around the hilly inland of the nine Bay Area counties to form a 550-mile circle.

Progress is slow, and advocates have to work continuously, segment by segment, with dozens of landown-ers and government agencies to se-cure the corridor. So far, the project has opened about 310 miles of trail around the bay, but supporters say that was the easy part.

Last week Trail Director Bern Smith turned his sedan off Highway 92 and drove through Skylawn Me-morial Park, the 40,000-grave cem-

etery situated in the hills above Half Moon Bay. The new trail segment would go right along the acres of graveyard lawns, and head north until it joined up to the start of an old service road managed by the San Francisco Public Utility Commission.

The Bay Area wa-ter utility manages the Crystal Springs Reser-voir and has miles of barely used roads through the sur-roundings forest and hills. SFPUC occasionally offers guided tours, but, for the most part, the trails are closed to the general public.

The Ridge Trail plan would open that service road and build public parking so that people can easily set out for a day hike or bike ride from the cemetery.

“We’re doing this one step at a time,” Smith said “It’s going to be as nice a trail as you can have.”

At the top of the coastal hills, the Ridge Trail gives an unsurpassed view of both the Coastside and the Bay Area to the east. On the clear day Smith was leading the tour, Oakland and the East Bay were easily visible, and some have even claimed they can see the Sierra Nevada Mountains from there, he said.

Driv-ing back south, Smith pulled his sedan onto Skyline Boulevard, where another long stretch of trail would run parallel about 100 feet off the road. Advocates say they already have secured $200,000 for planning for a new fi ve-mile stretch south of Highway 92. Planners hope that trail construction could begin in

Supporters make slow strides toward Ridge Trail

550-MILE PLAN MAKES HEADWAY ON COASTSIDE

Two sections of the trail in San Mateo County are currently planned.


Bay Area Ridge Council trail director Bern Smith walks along a stretch of road near Skylawn Memorial Park. He hopes the trail will be open to the public within the next year.

See TRAIL a 7A





$500,[email protected]% = $5,340 property tax

CABRILLO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT

$1,917

CLASSIFIED SCHOOL

EMPLOYEES$276

TEACHERS$875

OTHER$36

SERVICES AND OTHER

EXPENDITURES$151

BOOKS AND SUPPLIES

$178

SCHOOL EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

$402

HALF MOON BAY FIRE DISTRICT

$998

SAN MATEO COUNTY $1,183

HALF MOON BAY GENERAL FUND

$355

OTHER AGENCIES$879

POLICE$142

ADMIN.$117

PUBLIC WORKS$39

RECREATION $21

PLANNING$32

TRANSFERS$4

COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT AND COURTS

$208

HEALTH PROGRAMS

$420

WELFARE & CHILD SUPPORT

$147

PLANNING, BUILDING AND OTHER OFFICES

$33

PUBLIC WORKS & TRANSPORTATION

$115

PARKS MGT.$15

COUNTY GOVT. AND

OTHER OFFICES

$246

FIREFIGHTER SALARIES

$711

BENEFITS$51

OPERATING EXPENSES

$89

VEHICLE REPAIRS

$18

TRAINING & EDUCATION

$14

OTHER$115

SAN MATEO COUNTY EDUCATION TAX

$176

SAN MATEO COUNTY LIBRARIES

$172

COASTSIDE COUNTY WATER DISTRICT

$169

OTHER$23

SAN MATEO COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGES

$339

Where does my tax go?FOLLOW THE MONEY FROM YOUR HOUSE TO THE GOVERNMENT

This graphic charts the property taxes from an average $500,000 Half Moon Bay parcel, but the exact tax amount will vary greatly throughout the Coastside. Even within the city’s boundaries, there are nine different property-tax regions for various special assessments for sewers, fi re protec-tion and weed abatement programs.


Judgment day is here. The second in-stallment of last year’s property taxes must be paid by Saturday, April 10.

Property owners in San Mateo County face a 10 percent penalty and a $40 fine if they pay after that. That means Half Moon Bay residents will be coughing up thousands of dollars to the government this week.

But the government isn’t clois-tered in Washington, D.C., or even Sacramento in this case. It is really a hodgepodge of local agencies that pro-vide everything from schools to sher-iff’s patrols to fire protection in your neighborhood.

Unlike many other states, Califor-nia property taxes cannot exceed 1

percent of the full cash value of the property after voters approved Prop-osition 13 in 1978. In addition, taxes can’t go up by more than 2 percent from year to year.

As a result, property taxes have re-mained relatively low in California, especially compared to areas such as the New England states where the tax can be upward of 6 percent.

Those rules made property a sec-ondary revenue source for govern-ment agencies, but it still offers a use-ful perspective for taxpayers wonder-ing how their money trickles down through public agencies.

Though limited, property taxes are significant. Unlike income tax, prop-erty taxes stay local. The largest recip-ient of local property taxes is the Ca-brillo Unified School District, which

gets more than 35 percent, almost half of which goes to paying salaries.

Like many cities, Half Moon Bay gets a far smaller slice of the pie, only about 6 percent. That leaves the city far more reliant on sales and lodging taxes for its revenues. But when prop-erty values drop precipitously, all gov-ernment agencies take a big hit.

Earlier this year, city officials were hoping for a modest recovery in prop-erty taxes after the 2008 recession lowered home values across the state. That recovery didn’t happen. In fact, property tax revenues decreased a fur-ther 10 percent, which contributed to the city’s current budget crisis.

In case you are wondering, 53 Half Moon Bay taxpayers are delinquent after the deadline for the first install-ment of 2009 taxes. r

[ f i s h i n g ]

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HMB MAGAZINE

Taxes trickle down, a dollar at a time

Bill M

urray / R

eview

Salmon season off to rough, slow start

By Greg Thomas[ [email protected] ]

The 20 or so sport fi sher-men aboard the Huli Cat who returned empty-handed from a day chasing salmon on a rough season opener were in reasonably good spirits as the boat backed into its berth Sat-urday afternoon. Even with-out a tasty, glimmering prize

to validate their efforts during a 10-hour roller coaster ride on the open ocean, the pas-sengers remained somewhat cheerful.

To these hard-core anglers, fi shing is fun — regardless of the catch.

“If you’re out here to catch a fi sh every time, you’re in it for the wrong reason, ’cause there are no guarantees,” said

Matt Plut, an East Bay engi-neer donning a windbreaker emblazoned with the nick-

name “Fish Killer” over his heart.

COASTSIDE ANGLERS RETURN NEARLY EMPTY-HANDED


Huli Cat charter boat Capt. Tom Mattusch, far right, instructs clients on the basics of salmon fi shing before dawn on Saturday. Salmon fi sh-ermen have been unable to fi sh local waters during a two-year ban that ended Saturday.

See SALMON a 6A

HMB debates medical marijuana

Interest in opening a Half Moon Bay medical marijuana dispensary has prompted the City Council to study whether pot pur-veyors should be welcome in town.

Under state law, marijua-na is legal for people with a medical prescription, but cities can choose to ban pot dispensaries from opening within city boundaries.

One pot dispensary has already opened north of the city, in Moss Beach, and Half Moon Bay offi -cials said that they need to investigate whether per-mitting more marijuana shops would concentrate too many such businesses on the Coastside. City staff also plans to study the zon-ing, planning, health and security issues regarding pot clubs.

For now, city leaders are planning to stall any pot dispensaries. Late Tues-day night, Half Moon Bay leaders were expected to approve a 45-day tempo-rary ban for any marijuana shops opening locally as they study whether to revise the city’s guidelines.

— Mark Noack

HALF MOON BAY CONSIDERS

FURLOUGH DAYSCITY HALL

COULD CLOSE TWO FRIDAYS A

MONTHBy Mark Noack


Half Moon Bay could be shutting down for two days each month under terms of a proposal reportedly offered to city employees this week.

The offer for City Hall work-ers to take two unpaid fur-lough days each month comes as Half Moon Bay offi cials are looking for about $2.1 million in cuts to balance out drastic shortfalls in the revenues they projected last year.

The furlough days would re-portedly occur on the fi rst and third Fridays of each month, and would affect all city de-partments except the police.

But just taking two dozen unpaid days off will not solve the city’s budget problems by itself. The furlough days would likely amount to ap-proximately a 10 percent sal-ary cut for employees.

At least two full-time city employees are reportedly fac-ing further reductions and will be working only three days a week. City employees are ex-pecting further cuts, which could include layoffs.

Some of the city’s four em-ployee unions could vote on the proposed plan this week, but it is unclear when the full scope of the cuts will be an-nounced to the public.

City Manager Michael Dolder said furlough days were one among many pro-posals being considered as the city negotiates with its work-

See FURLOUGH a 6A

[ p i l l a r p o i n t h a r b o r ]

BOATING INCIDENT UNDER INVESTIGATION


A tragic boating incident Fri-day afternoon, about 10 miles outside Pillar Point Harbor, left the Coastside with one few-er fi sherman, family member and friend.

Gary Christensen, a life-long Coastsider and well-re-

spected deckhand at the har-bor, drowned in rough seas on a fellow fi sherman’s sink-ing crab boat, the Betty K. He was 47.

Authorities attempting a wa-ter rescue managed to save skipper Bob Longstreth, the only other person aboard the vessel. Longstreth refused medical treatment and walked away with minor bruises, au-thorities said.

When asked what went wrong, Longstreth was vague,

Photo courtesy U.S. Coast Guard

U.S. Coast Guard crews attempt to rescue the crew of the Betty K Friday afternoon.

Lifelong Coastside fi sherman drowns

See ACCIDENT a 6A

a n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ecoastsideGUIDEEVENT CALENDAR. P10 TRAILS. P43 BEACHES. P13 DINING. P27

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UPDATED MAPSNEW SECTIONS!

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SPRING/SUMMER 2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010



Authorities to hear from Mavericks audiencePUBLIC HEARING COMES TO COAST

TUESDAYBy Greg Thomas


Coastsiders are invited to share their views on public safety at the Mavericks Surf Contest at a meeting coming up Monday.

The meeting offers a plat-form for anyone seeking im-proved public safety for an in-ternationally famous surf con-test that has become infamous for injuries to surfi ng fans.

Spectators who swarm Princeton during contest day number in the tens of thou-sands and perch on precari-ous positions — in high surf zones, on unstable cliffs and

out near the wave break — for a glimpse of the contest.

Several people were injured, and a few hospitalized, during the contest in February when a surging wave washed over a section of beach at the base of Pillar Point, wiping out spec-tators, sound equipment and contest infrastructure. The damage drew unwelcome at-tention from national media outlets and created a stir lo-cally among law enforcement offi cials. Spectators have been seriously injured at past con-tests as well.

In the aftermath of Febru-

Mavericks safety hearing:What: Opportunity for Coastsid-ers to speak publicly about safety improvements at the Mavericks Surf Contest

When: Monday, April 5

Where: The conference room at Comfort Inn, 2930 North Cabrillo Highway, in Half Moon Bay.

Mark Foyer / Review

A San Mateo County Sheriff ’s deputy keeps watch during the February Mavericks Surf Contest. Sev-eral spectators were injured when they ventured too close to the surf and were knocked down by waves. See MAVERICKS a 6A

[ p u b l i c s a f e t y ]

Father-and-son farmers reap top honorED, DAVID LEA WIN FARMER OF THE YEAR


Ed Lea couldn’t land a date when he worked as a young farmer on the Coastside in the 1940s. None of the local girls wanted to date a farmer, he said.

“So I went up to San Francisco!” Lea joked Friday as he stood next to his wife and son in front of a cheering crowd of friends — many of whom he had known for most of his life.

Today, two generations of Lea farmers, Ed and his son, David, are sharing the Half Moon Bay Farmer of the Year Award. They received the award as a surprise at the 41st annual Mel Mello

Farm Day Luncheon at the I.D.E.S. Hall in Half Moon Bay. The father-and-son Coastside agrarians received the award for

their longtime commitment to local agriculture and the commu-nity.

“We want to thank you for the love of the farm, the love of your family and the love of the community,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon, who was among a series of local, coun-ty and state political fi gures who delivered their own recognition honoring the Lea family farmers.

Ed Lea farmed various plots of land on the Coastside after re-turning from military service on a gunship that was bombed dur-ing World War II. In addition to farming the coast, he helped to grow its children. He served twice on the board of the Cabrillo


Ed Lea approaches the microphone Friday after receiving Farmer of the Year honors along with his son, David. The Lea family was honored during the annual Mel Mello Farm Day Luncheon at the I.D.E.S. Hall in Half Moon Bay.

[ w i l d l i f e ][ m c t v ]

SEABIRD POPULATION PLUMMETS ON COAST

BOATING RESTRICTION AT DEVIL’S SLIDE TAKES

EFFECT IN APRILBy Greg Thomas


Two recovering seabird colonies on Devil’s Slide Rock, also known as Egg Rock, faltered last year as populations dropped far more than their relatives anywhere else in the state. Biologists are calling the event a “total breeding failure.”

By and large, year-to-year variations in ma-rine life don’t faze biologists who keep track of long-term patterns of environmental fl uctu-ations. But when reproduction comes to a vir-tual halt, scientists worry.

“It could just be a one-year change, but it’s not something that we’ve seen out there before in over 40 years of working out there,” said Pete Worzybok, a marine ecologist studying seabird populations on the Farallon Islands and at Devil’s Slide. “We haven’t seen this kind of disconnect before.”

Supes discuss changes to MCTVFUNDING IS LIKELY TO BE BIGGEST HURDLE


Mid-Coast Television could be on its fi nal descent. Or it could endure, as it has for 25 years, as the Coastside’s sole source of local community televi-sion. Or it could settle into a routine of sharing community programming with other local stations.

The future of community television is uncertain in light of a county initia-tive kicked off last week, an effort to assess MCTV management and the needs of the community.

A subcommittee of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors recom-mended Friday that supervisors cut the renewable contract between the county and MCTV from the custom-ary three years to 18 months — to end in September 2011. The move follows recent advice from county staffers urg-ing supervisors to look beyond MCTV for alternative localized public broad-casting on the Coastside.

Comcast has channel space to sup-port four public dducational and gov-ernment, or PEG, stations, between Pescadero and Pacifi ca, according to speakers at the meeting. Pacifi ca Tele-vision and MCTV occupy two of the spots.

“As I understand it, the channel spots are available. You need someone to step forward and say I want one of those spots,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon.

Enter Half Moon Bay resident and onetime Cabrillo Unifi ed School Dis-trict board member Roy Salume. He claims a band of about 12 unnamed Coastsiders with a range of applica-ble experience, under the working title Improve MCTV Coalition, are stand-

Comcast and the Coastside:

Comcast is on track to vacate its headquarters in El Granada by the end of October.

“We’ve seen a re-duced amount of foot traffi c in that of-fi ce over the years,” explained Comcast Regional Vice Presi-dent of Commu-nications Andrew Johnson. Keeping the storefront open “doesn’t make any business sense,” he added.

But the cable pro-vider’s work here is unfi nished. Here’s what’s on tap:

t Comcast promises High Defi nition on the coast. Johnson once promised the service would be available in 2010; now he says it will be here by the end of this year.t MCTV is mov-ing on the dial, from Channel 6 to Chan-nel 27 in advance of the transition to HD.t The cable com-pany says it is ex-panding Comcast’s offi ce in Pacifi ca, the nearest offi ce to Half Moon Bay.


Wildlife biologists Lisa Eigner, left, and Sandy Rhoades use magnifying scopes to count common murre and their eggs near Devil’s Slide.

EVENT CALENDAR.UPDATED MAPS

UPDATED MAPS

UPDATED MAPS

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SAN MATEO COUNTY COASTSIDE

SPRING/SUMMER 2010

IT’S HERE!Look for the Spring Coastside Guide

FREE in this issue!


| 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com

ART UPSTAIRSRecent art school grads start workshops downtown > 2B

B U S I N E S S

“The whole system is getting less and less predictable.”

— Gerry McChesney, Common Murre

Restoration Project manager

See SEABIRDS a 6ASee MCTV a 6A

See FARMER a 6A




Serial bank robber eludes policeFIRST LOCAL

BANK ROBBERY IN 10 YEARS


Employees at the First Na-tional Bank on Main Street re-main on edge after an armed robber stole an undisclosed amount of money last week.

It was the fi rst bank rob-bery in about 10 years in Half Moon Bay, but bank offi cials believe this wasn’t the only

bank job this criminal has committed. Tony Clifford, chief operations offi cer for First National Bank, said the same man was involved in a similar robbery at a Redwood City branch three weeks ago. FBI offi cials reportedly are al-ready seeking the same man in connection with robberies at other banks.

“This gentleman has hit two of our sites,” Clifford said. “Our people feel threatened … we’re glad that he got what he wanted without hurting any-body.”

The Half Moon Bay crime occurred on Thursday after-noon, when the man in a beige beanie and white sports coat strolled into the branch. In ret-rospect, employees reportedly said they knew something was ominous about the unfamiliar man.

“The nice thing about a small town is we know 95 per-cent of the people who walk through the doors,” Clifford said. “They saw this guy and they were already on guard.”

Walking up to the teller, the man fl ashed a handgun and

told the employee he would kill her unless she gave him money. Employees at the bank complied, and the man left without harming anyone.

Half Moon Bay Police and other law enforcement agen-cies are now searching for the bank robber. The man report-edly fl ed east on foot through the parking lot of the I.D.E.S. Hall and down Johnston Street while the bank manager called for help.

Police Chief Don O’Keefe said his team immediately de-

Photo courtesy Half Moon Bay Police

Authorities released this photo, taken from security cameras, of the man accused of robbing the First National Bank in Half Moon Bay on Thursday. See BANK a 8A

[ c r i m e b e a t ]

Eerie movie divides

fi lm clubSOME SEE ‘HEAVENLY

CREATURES’ AS POOR CHOICE

FOR VENUE


The 1994 fi lm “Heaven-ly Creatures” is, by most ac-counts, a great work of cin-ema, but organizers for the Coastside Film Society were a little uneasy about showing it last week.

At the outset, the fi lm re-volves around two teenage girls in 1950s New Zealand who bond emphatically through a rich imaginary world. That plot would seem harmless, perhaps even G-rated.

But there’s a reason why this fi lm is rated R. The two girl-friends, Juliet and Pauline, be-

come obsessed with their fan-tasy kingdom, dressing up in costume, changing their names, writing out stories and inventing a new religion that worships Hollywood celebri-ties as saints. When their fam-ilies try to intervene, the girls try any way they can to save their fantasia. Eventually they take a cold-blooded measure — murdering Pauline’s moth-er.

The fi lm is disturbing, espe-cially because it’s based on the real-life Parker-Hulme murder, an infamous crime that was “like the O.J. Simpson case for New Zealand,” according to one fi lm society member.

Considering the plot of “Heavenly Creatures,” some

“We don’t pick fi lms because they’re controversial, we pick fi lms because they’re really good.”

— Joe Devlin, Coastside Film Society information director

COASTSIDE BUILDER PUTS

FUTURE IN CONDOS


As far as Jim Irizarry is con-cerned, single-family homes have run their course. That’s why the Coastside builder’s lat-est project, planned for a prime lot in El Granada, is a nine-unit complex of condominiums.

“In reality, the era of the sin-gle-family residence is over … because there’s not enough land,” says Irizarry, owner of Terrace Homes. “If you look at all the government’s plans, they tend to cluster housing,” he added. “You can see it in ev-ery single plan.”

Caltrans plans to close Devil’s Slide from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today so crews can stabilize the surround-ing hillside.

Caltrans offi cials are shutting down Highway 1 along the wending bypass for the four-hour window during work on the hillside near the Devil’s Slide Tun-nel bridges on the Pacifi ca side of the slide.

Traffi c in both directions will be stopped between 2nd Street in Montara and Linda Mar Boulevard in Pa-cifi ca.

Offi cials are taking action to alleviate “serious” rock-slide issues, said Caltrans spokesman Bob Haus.

“We thought we’d re-

move (the rocks) before they remove themselves,” Haus said.

Caltrans workers are tak-ing the opportunity to clear drains, push back weeds, clean litter and perform other tasks, according to a department press release.

Coastsiders know that rockslides at Devil’s Slide can prove vexing. Rocks on the roadway and set-tling of the road bed have shut the road for months in the past. In fact, repeat-ed slides led to the work on the tunnels in the fi rst place.

— Greg Thomas


Setting sailDan Temko is retiring as harbormaster at Pillar Point. He has seen a lot of changes over 25 years and regrets what he sees as the decline of the commercial fi shing fl eet there. He may be leaving the job, but he’s not leaving the water. See Q&A, Page 12A.

Devil’s Slide closed for four hours

Landing gear mishap grounds pilotHMB PILOT SHRUGS OFF

INCIDENT AT AIRPORTBy Greg Thomas


It wasn’t the impact from touching down on the tarmac at Half Moon Bay Airport that brought Jim Williams’ sunny 20-minute fl ight to a jarring conclusion Monday after-noon. The left leg of his plane’s landing gear folded without warning while the Ocean Colony resident was coasting on the runway at freeway speed.

Sounding cavalier about the accident, the 74-year-old aviator said he’s fi ne, but his $500,000 plane won’t be in working shape for this year’s Pacifi c Coast Dream Ma-chines event in April.

“There’s nothing I can do about it, so why get disappointed?” Williams said, shortly af-ter the incident.

At about 2:30 p.m. Williams was barreling down the western runway when the mal-function occurred, sending him and his rep-lica World War II-era plane into a 60-mile-per-hour skid. After spinning 180 degrees, the plane veered off into a meadow on the shoulder of the runway and stopped — “luckily,” he says.

“The trouble with these World War II fi ghter types (is) if they fl ip upside down the canopy goes into the ground and you can’t get out,” Williams said.

Within a few minutes of the incident, air-port personnel were tending to the aircraft, a Yak 3 Russian fi ghter replica Williams start-ed fl ying last month.

[ h m b a i r p o r t ]

See FILM a 8A See PLANE a 8A

COMMISSION VOTES ON EL GRANADA PROJECT TODAY

Traffi c Alert

See CONDOS a 8A

Mark Foyer / Review

Jim Williams’ Yak 3 replica aircraft rests on the tarmac after the landing gear collapsed after the Half Moon Bay resident landed safely at the Half Moon Bay Airport on Monday.

VIKINGS CHALK UP THEIR THIRD WINPescadero fi nds early success > 5B

WILD ABOUT ARTM Coffee to exhibit 11-year-0ld’s drawings > 1B



M Coffee to exhibit 11-year-0ld’s drawings > 1B


————————————————————— Wednesday, March 17, 2010 // Half Moon Bay Review ———————————————————————————10A

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Six person minimum. Valid thru 4.30.10—Lunch or Dinner 48 hour notice required.

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on our outdoor patio.We’ll provide preferential

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Plan your special day with us – we look forward to seeing you!

Celebrate your birthday at the Moss Beach Distillery

and the birthday cake is on us!

Local land trust settles into new digs1,000-acre mark

within sight for up-and-

coming group


The Coastside Land Trust has come a long way since 1997, its first year of operation, when its foundation was root-ed in “the tubs.”

“Until 2007 we didn’t have an office, and didn’t have staff, and the board of directors kept all the records in plastic tubs,” explained Executive Director Jo Chamberlain. “When you took a position you were hand-ed a tub.”

That was the same year the nonprofit organization changed its name from Half Moon Bay Open Space Trust to Coastside Land Trust, an effort to illustrate the organization’s extension north to Montara.

Earlier this year, land trust staffers waved goodbye to crammed quarters resem-bling attics and storage space and moved into a more practi-cal office space on Main Street in Half Moon Bay, replete with street side windows and a bathroom.

It’s been a slow but steady evolution, Chamberlain says. In 2007 the sole land trust staffer occupied a tight space inside what is now The Bike Works on Kelly Street with a photocopier, file cabinet and desk.

In early 2008, the land trust, a nonprofit group, secured about 400 square feet of office space nearer to Main Street and took on an outreach co-ordinator, doubling the size of the operation.

In the past three months, the land trust moved to its new place at 788 Main St., and proudly snagged four parcels in the Wavecrest strip of Half Moon Bay. The additions bring the organization’s total land-mass to nearly 1,000 acres.

The land trust’s success is to the credit of about 50 ded-icated volunteers who take to heart the organization’s phi-losophy that protecting open space is a “quality of life issue” for Coastsiders, Chamberlain said.

“People come here and they see these wonderful open spaces and the blufftops, and that’s why they want to be here,” Chamberlain said. “What they don’t realize is that they’re kept under private pro-tections.” r


Coastside Land Trust Director Jo Chamberlain meets with the organization’s president, Patrick Ryan, in their new office on Main Street in downtown Half Moon Bay.

Old farms continue to bloom on Midcoast

LocaLs tight-Lipped on hidden patches


Decades ago, the Coastside was covered in flower farms, growing fields of vibrant dai-sies, yarrow, heather and other blossoming plants.

Today, growing flowers requires more than seed money. Commercial grow-ers are planting their crops overseas. Some local flower farms have closed shop, and the few big players that re-main mostly do factory-style greenhouse farming.

But the legacy of the abandoned small flower farms still buds every year in small hidden patches in the back hills of the Mid-coast, in places like the Ran-cho Corral de Tierra open space. Small clumps of daf-fodils, lilies of the Nile and other nonnative flowering plants still sprout up each year, and those wild blooms have become a cherished sight for local residents.

And many locals are com-mitted to keeping those hid-den flower patches a big se-cret from the prying eyes (and plucking hands) of outsiders.

“Those flowers are kind of a rite of passage for any-one in Moss Beach or Mon-tara,” said Zoe Kersteen-Tucker, a Midcoast resident. “You have to swear to secre-cy you’ll never tell.”

Most beloved among the wild flower patches is a field of daffodils that grows ev-ery February along the back canyons near McNee Ranch State Park.

Hikers who wish to make a sojourn to visit the flowers must first endure a gaunt-let of trials. First they must

find the right way through a labyrinth of old pathways. Then comes the poison oak, which surrounds the path on both sides and has harrowed many an adventurer. And most troubling is the mud — it’s wet, mushy, slippery and everywhere this time of year.

“You think you’re nev-er going to find them until you see these yellow specks in the shrubs, and sudden-ly there’s the daffodils,” Ker-steen-Tucker said. “They’re so beautiful. I look forward to it every year.”

Midcoast resident Joe Brennan believes the hid-den flowers are remnants of those small family farms. He knows that because he used to work as a farm hand there, back in the 1960s.

“There was a lot of acre-age there under cultivation … now it’s a vestigial sort of thing,” he said. “I really like that those things still

come up in neat little rows every year under all the weeds.”

Visiting the flower patch has become an annual tradi-tion for Brennan and a con-sortium of Midcoast resi-dents. Every year on Valen-tine’s Day, Brennan enjoys being able to pick daffodils for all his 50-some co-work-ers.

But how long that tradi-tion can be sustained is any-one’s guess.

Flower enthusiasts whis-per that they might have an-other problem on the hori-zon — exactly how the Gold-en Gate National Recreation Area will view the flowers when it takes control of the park later this year. Daffo-dils, lilies of the Nile, heath-er and other beloved flowers are all nonnative species in-troduced to the area by farm-ers, and that means the new park stewards could view

them as a threat to the indig-enous flora.

“The daffodils might be doomed,” Brennan said. “I don’t think they’re an in-vasive species. They’re not on the march to take things over. They’re not kudzu.”

GGNRA Ranger George Durgerian said he doesn’t expect a federal effort to eradicate the beautiful non-natives. Having recently ac-quired the Rancho Corral del Tierra property from the Peninsula Open Space Trust, Durgerian and his organiza-tion are currently studying the land’s natural resourc-es and compiling a plan for preservation.

“We’re not going to come in there and mow all the flowers down,” Durgerian said. “Our high priority is not exotic flowers, but inva-sive plants. Lilies of the Nile don’t kill other plants like pampas grass does.” r

Bill Murray / Review

June Murray enjoys the adventure of bringing home a bouquet of daffodils on a recent weekend hike.

————————————————————— Wednesday, March 10, 2010 // Half Moon Bay Review ——————————————————————————10A

MOSS BEACH DISTILLERY 650-728-5595

140 Beach Way · Moss Beach CA · www.mossbeachdistillery.com

Six person minimum. Valid thru 4.30.10—Lunch or Dinner 48 hour notice required.

Not valid with other discounts/promotions

Enjoy our spectacular ocean view and relax by the fi re pits

on our outdoor patio.We’ll provide preferential

seating, a free birthday cake and a complimentary photo of your party.

Plan your special day with us – we look forward to seeing you!

Celebrate your birthday at the Moss Beach Distillery

and the birthday cake is on us!

Amazing Peruvian appetizers, dinners, steak and seafood

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Join us: Reggae 3rd Fridays • Salsa, with lessons, 2nd & 4th Thursdays

8 Miles north of Half Moon Bay in the former Chart House

A HIDDEN PARADISE

Builders balk at outsourced reviewsContraCtors

say slow turnaround

hurts CityBy Mark Noack


The number of new con-struction projects has slowed in Half Moon Bay, but local contractors say the recession isn’t entirely to blame.

Half Moon Bay contrac-tors and City Hall employees are criticizing the city’s build-ing-inspection process, which they say has become slow, re-dundant and unfriendly. Lo-cal construction firms say the city’s punctilious building in-spectors are deterring new

construction projects both big and small.

“It feels like a separate agen-cy, like they’re working against you,” said Bryan Bodas, co-owner of Silva Bodas & Com-pany. “When the process is dif-ficult, homeowners don’t want to deal with it … That affects us. That means less work.”

Bodas is just one of sever-al local contractors who has criticized the city for having a cumbersome building pro-cess that takes longer than be-fore. Building inspectors now frequently request that appli-cants resubmit drawings for “minor” issues. That happens for about 25 percent of his lo-cal projects, he said.

Changes came to the city building-inspections process last year when the city laid off

its full-time building inspector to help manage $1.75 million in cuts. And like a homeowner getting a contractor to handle a house project, the city of Half Moon Bay hired a contractor firm to fill that role.

The building-inspection contractor, CSG Consultants, already fills a number of city positions, including the city engineer and public works di-rector. The firm has been re-ceived skeptically by some full-time city employees, who fear that the city will rely fur-ther on contracted help to bal-ance a new $2.5 million bud-get shortfall.

Several local builders have praised the city’s former build-ing department and its laid-off inspector, Mike Martins. Un-der the old system, city inspec-

tors reportedly would approve preliminary plans under the agreement that the contractor would update the project as it proceeded.

“If you did good work, they wouldn’t nitpick every item,” Bodas said. “With this differ-ent agency, they tend to slow the process upfront. They ask you to redo drawings.”

City Manager Michael Dolder defended the out-sourced building review pro-cess. Laying off the building inspector last year, he said, was one way for the city to re-vise what was essentially an in-efficient system.

“People were submitting incomplete plans and getting away without modifications,” he said. “Now, we have the depth of expertise of a con-

tracting company. They can send plans in and get them improved and reviewed by more capable people.”

The decrease in local con-struction has directly hit the city coffers. Half Moon Bay of-ficials recently announced that construction-service charges had dropped 50 percent be-low expectations projected last year, a decrease of $550,084.

Dolder has attributed the bulk of that amount to be from large-scale subdivision proj-ects such as the Carnoustie and Pacific Ridge develop-ments that were delayed for other reasons.

Contractor Jim Irizarry of Terrace Homes said the big-ger problem for Half Moon Bay is that it has built a rep-utation that it is unfriendly to

development. Most builders simply avoid building here, he said, but those that do brave City Hall have to run a review gauntlet that can take years.

“Anyone who wants to de-velop a private lot thinks twice before submitting plans be-cause of the inanity you have to go through,” he said. “The process is redundant, costly and could very well be simpli-fied.”

City Council members have acknowledged the process is difficult to understand, and they have voiced interest in someday streamlining the pro-cess. But amid tough budget decisions, limited staff and many other difficult priorities, the council has not requested any immediate action on the current process. r

[ s e n i o r s ]

Senior Campus hub clears first hurdleBy Mark Noack


Supporters for the Half Moon Bay Senior Campus re-ceived initial approval for the flagship segment of their pro-posed elder community, a long-planned community center that would house new facilities for the Adult Day Health Cen-ter and Senior Coastsiders.

The approval by the city’s Architectural Review Commit-tee cleared the first permit-ting hurdle for the three-sto-ry, 46,100-square-foot struc-ture at the corner of Main Street and Arnold Way.

This is not the first time the local nonprofits presented plans to the city’s architects. In fact, the city has already ap-proved full plans submitted in 2007 for a smaller, two-story facility at the same site.

The local nonprofits had

been planning the new mixed-use facility since 1998, when both acknowledged they need-ed more space and joined to-gether to scout for a new site. Progress toward that goal has been marked equally by streaks of serendipity and set-backs.

Senior Coastsiders and the Adult Day Health Center pur-chased the property at Arnold Way in 2001 for $300,000. Im-mediately after that land deal, the dot-com industry fell apart and the funding for the large project went with it.

“We completely set it aside for two years,” said Cara Schmaljohn, executive direc-tor at Senior Coastsiders. “We had already gone through the initial preparation and capital campaign.”

Those plans slowly picked up traction again with the broader economy, but Schmal-

john and other nonprofit of-ficials were surprised by an odd coincidence. In 2004, Les-ley Gardens, an affordable liv-ing community for seniors, opened up next door to their proposed site on Arnold Way. And one block north on Bloom Lane, the county-owned af-fordable senior development, Half Moon Bay Village, was being considered for a recon-struction project.

In 2007, as Senior Coastsid-ers and the adult health cen-ter began submitting plans for their new two-story facility to the city, they also investigated the possibility of a larger se-nior campus concept in coop-eration with Lesley Gardens and the county. By the end of the year, they essentially scut-tled their previous plans with the city.

Last week’s approval by the architecture commission was

the first formal city review of the first section of the new campus, which included first-floor space for the nonprof-its and a community center and 40 affordable-living apart-ments upstairs.

If built, the new structure would be one of the tallest build-ings in Half Moon Bay, approx-imately three feet higher than typically allowed under city guidelines. Architecture com-missioners indicated they were giving the project extra latitude because it was for affordable housing, which Half Moon Bay lacks.

Speaking before the city commission, architect Jeff

Zimmerman pointed out sev-eral gardens surrounding the property, solar panels on the roof and the general “Cape Cod / stucco Mediterranean” aesthetic of the building.

“This is an opportunity for the neighborhood to develop a func-tional, good-looking and non-speculative project,” Zimmer-man said in his presentation.

Landscape architect Thom-as Conroy talked about a spe-cial patio for residents suffer-ing from Alzheimer’s or de-mentia. The patio would be de-signed to have no barriers or ob-jects to trip over, and the nearby plants would be nontoxic — in case someone decided to nibble

on them. Commissioner Edward Love

asked few questions and gave laconic praise for the new plan.

“It’s acceptable looking,” he said, approving the project. “It’s definitely an improvement over the one two years ago.”

The approval is a first step for the Senior Campus planners, who now intend to submit their blueprints to the city Planning Commission sometime in the coming weeks.

Organizers are also planning two more sections of the Senior Campus, which will include more than 200 affordable-living apartments and will need simi-lar approvals by the city. r

Illustration courtesy Zimmerman and Associates

The three-story centerpiece of a planned senior campus in downtown Half Moon Bay gained the ap-proval of the city’s Architectural Review Committee last week.






HMB Magazine > Flowers, Garages, Termites and more ... FREE Inside a

Track team clears hurdlesGood results at PAL tournament > 5B

School offi cials outline

‘worst-case scenario’COUNSELING, OFFICE STAFF

FACE REDUCTIONS


School counselors, librar-ians and classifi ed staff at Ca-brillo Unifi ed schools will take the brunt of cuts if a Coastside parcel tax doesn’t win voter ap-proval in June.

Board members for the Ca-brillo Unifi ed School District approved the new list of tenta-tive cuts during a public meet-ing last week as the strongest warning shot yet to let the public know the impact local schools would face without new revenues.

The district would lose as many as 35 teachers and oth-er employees without new rev-enues. That number would be reduced to about six layoffs if two-thirds of district voters ap-proved the $150-per-parcel tax.

The Cabrillo district has been unsuccessful in fi ve pre-vious attempts to pass a parcel tax.

“We have to pass a parcel tax. Period,” said Board Presi-dent Dwight Wilson. “In the last parcel taxes no one saw the damage, that was done. We did such a good job hiding all that damage and the community felt that, gee, everything must be fi ne.”

Things would not be fi ne this time around, school board members argued. If a parcel tax does not pass, district cuts would eliminate all school counselors, the employees re-sponsible for giving students academic and emotional guid-ance for a savings of about $420,000.

Layoffs would also be made to the school custodians, groundskeepers, offi ce clerks and certifi ed librarian, forc-ing schools to further share employees across the district. The school district would cut its class-size reduction pro-gram, which has kept elemen-tary school classes at a mini-mal size. And the new cuts would end all athletic stipends for coaches at Cunha Interme-diate and Half Moon Bay High schools.

Even if the parcel tax passed, the district would still need to make about $1 million in cuts, which would include reduc-tions to special services, trans-portation and offi ce staff. The

“In a worst-case scenario, just what happens if the parcel tax doesn’t pass?”

— Jolanda Schreurs, CUSD board member

[ e d u c a t i o n ]

See SCHOOLS a 7A


Any fl uctuations in the waves generated by a magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile early Satur-day morning had a benign effect along the Coastside. Local author-ities reported no injuries, damage or alarming inundation — and it wasn’t for lack of looking. All eyes were on the water.

“It was quite a day. … As we sat and watched it, you could tell at about 1:30 (p.m.) there was some-thing going on,” said Half Moon Bay Mayor Marina Fraser, who pa-trolled city beaches Saturday af-ternoon with Police Chief Don O’Keefe. “The water was receding way out to sea.”

Beaches up and down the state were off limits for about six hours — from 1 to 7 p.m. — in light of a

tsunami advisory issued Saturday morning, when federal offi cials realized oceanic reverberations from the South American tem-blor could charge the West Coast. It was the fi rst live caution in the county since an advisory issued in September, and the alert attract-ed over-the-hill visitors hoping to glimpse the action as it manifest-ed in the surf break.

That was not exactly the reac-tion emergency managers were seeking.

“People were disappointed that they didn’t see a tidal wave,” said Pillar Point Harbor Interim Har-bormaster Robert Johnson.

Harbor offi cers barred an infl ux of visitors from setting foot on the pier in case water levels climbed to the point of pulling docks above their pilings and unhitch-

Bracing for the tsunami?

OFFICIALS HOPE THREAT CREATES PUBLIC AWARENESS

Mark Foyer / Review

Chained gates didn’t stop people from exploring at San Gregorio Beach Saturday. All San Mateo County beaches were closed Saturday after a tsunami advisory was issued.

Members of the Pillar Point Harbor Patrol, Coast Guard Auxiliary and CalFire keep a watchful eye on sea level during a tsunami advisory on Saturday afternoon. Coastsiders were wary after an 8.8-magni-tude earthquake struck Chile.


SMC AlertMany Coastside residents fi rst heard about Sat-urday’s tsunami advisory through SMC Alert. The software appli-cation is used by various agen-cies in San Ma-teo County to alert residents via text message or e-mail, to a vari-ety of emergen-cies. The free ser-vice is available by visiting www.smcalert.info

See TSUNAMI a 7A

Grants from Pumpkin Fest cut back again

Pescadero radio signal comes to life


Half Moon Bay’s celebrat-ed Art & Pumpkin Festival last year drew the crowds, but not so much cash — at least not for event organizers.

Festival organizers have scaled back their annual grant oppor-tunities for local non-profi ts this year af-ter receiving about 15 percent less mon-ey toward the event from large corporate donors.

The event organizer, the Half Moon Bay Beautifi ca-tion Committee, announced on Monday that it would still distribute $63,000 to its an-nual stable of nonprofi ts and

community groups, many of which assist with activi-ties at the Pumpkin Festival. Traditionally, organizers have opened up the grant process for any nonprofi t interested

in benefi ting from event proceeds, but they say they won’t be doing that this year in order to keep the fes-tival solvent into the future.

“We didn’t see enough revenues to open up the grant process to all groups,”

said Cameron Palmer, Pres-ident of the Beautifi cation Committee. “But we were still able to make signifi cant con-tributions.”

Palmer said the donations

PIRATE RADIO PIONEER PREPS SOUTH COAST FOR ARRIVAL


After 13 years managing radio stations and broadcasting live, 28-year-old Daniel “Monkey” Roberts is trying some-thing new. This time, he’s getting permission from the Fed-eral Communications Commission fi rst.

Roberts is jump-starting KPDO 89.3 FM radio, an all-but-de-funct signal founded on the South Coast seven years ago. His experiment will take shape in Pescadero in April, if not sooner.

The event marks his fi rst licensed broadcast venture and is sure to test the poise of a staunch proponent of uninhibited speech.

“The only con I can think of is the inability to use proper colloquialisms on air. … That’s the one downfall,” he says. “As far as the upside is concerned, if you have a license from the FCC, their role is to protect you at all costs, which is far

Greg Thomas / Review

Daniel Roberts stands outside Pirate Cat Radio Café, a hybrid nonprofi t organization, bistro and community-driven pirate ra-dio station in San Francisco’s Mission District. Roberts is making moves to reinvigorate Pescadero’s dormant KPDO 89.3 FM ra-dio band.

See PESCADERO a 7A

See PUMPKIN a 7A

Cameron Palmer

ORGANIZERS TOUT $400,000 RAISED BY NONPROFITS

APPLE MOTH POPULATION EXPLODES POPULATION EXPLODES

Wednesday, February 24, 2010



Volume ı ı ı Number 44 | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.comVolume ı ı ı Number

WRESTLER HEADED TO STATE

[ m a v e r i c k s ] [ e d u c a t i o n ]

School libraries once again on

chopping blockLIBRARY STAFF AT RISK OF LAYOFFS


Marilyn Garrison worked 26 years as a library tech at Faral-lone View Elementary, a part-time job she loves even though it doesn’t pay much.

She had plenty of opportu-nities to take on higher-paying jobs. A former Peace Corps volunteer, Garrison earned her teaching credentials and taught for many years at public schools — qualifi cations above and beyond the job require-ments for a library technician.

But, she explains, Farallone View has a special place in her heart: It’s the school within walking distance of her house, and it’s where her children learned to read.

And for her, the school’s lit-tle library is the most special place of all. She knows the in-ventory of 11,000 books like the back of her hand.

Garrison plans to retire in June. She might not be alone — all the other librarians in the Cabrillo Unifi ed School

District might be forced to leave right along with her.

School libraries, at Farallone View and all other Cabrillo Unifi ed schools, are at risk of being cut as the district board begins its painful budget sea-son. School board members say they have to prepare for $2.5 million in cuts. They have indicated they intend to keep those cuts out of the class-room whenever possible. That means ancillary services and administrative staff — includ-ing athletics, offi ce personnel, custodians and library employ-ees — are at risk.

Garrison says she can’t en-vision what a campus library would be like without some type of librarian. Would that mean parent volunteers take over, she asked, or would teachers have to monitor and maintain the library them-selves?

“I don’t know what would happen to the library,” she said. “It’s hard to say ‘save my job’ when there’s so many school employees at risk … but having a library with a librari-an, that’s really important too.”


Farallone View Elementary School library tech Marilyn Garrison checks out books for students who have to stand on a step in order to better reach her desk.

See LIBRARIES a 6A

Public safety offi cials discuss Mavericks contest


Representatives from 13 public safety agencies and private organizations con-vened Monday morning in Moss Beach in the fi rst of many meetings, all aimed at making future Mavericks Surf Contests safer for those onshore.

The meeting, termed a “critical incident debriefi ng,” was closed to the public, and most participants declined to make substantive comments about the nature of the con-versation.

“(Monday) was about fact-fi nding and gathering in-formation, and that’s all there was to it,” said Kath-erine Clark, contest co-di-rector. Some key topics teed up include the placement and number of safety vehi-

cles and vessels, the num-ber of private boats out near the surf break, and whether enough safety resources had been deployed, said San Ma-teo County Supervisor Rich Gordon.

“I’d suspect we’d need more county park folks,” he said. “There were only a few rangers, and I don’t think that’s suffi cient.”

The meeting took place nine days after the 2010 Mav-ericks Surf Contest washed into Princeton. Offi cials say such debriefi ngs are typical-

“(Monday) was about fact-fi nding and gathering information, and that’s all there was to it.”

Katherine Clark, Mavericks co-director


An unidentifi ed man climbs around the fence surrounding Pillar Point Air Force Station in order to get a better view of the Mavericks Surf Contest on Feb. 13. Offi cials are hoping to cut down on dangerous behavior during future contests.


“Danger” signs were stacked and ready for deployment the night before this year’s Mavericks Surf Contest. Many ignored the warnings on Feb. 13.

SPECTATORS MIGHT SEE TIGHTER RESTRICTIONS, LESS SURFING

See MAVERICKS a 6A

Wave of moneySave the Waves has issued a full report explaining how it came to call Mavericks the $24 million break. See story, Page 6A.

CITY LEADERS GIRD FOR ONGOING BUDGET SLUMP


Short of staff and cash, Half Moon Bay is heading toward some tough fi nancial deci-sions in the coming weeks — decisions that could include tax increases, new fees and employee layoffs.

The City Council and execu-tive staff met Saturday morn-ing in a strategic planning ses-sion aimed at prioritizing the

city’s limited resources after announcing a $2.1 million rev-enue shortfall.

Council members meet an-nually for a strategic planning session to set their long-term goals. In past years, the City Council held the meeting at a local hotel and hired a private consultant to mediate the ses-sion. The meetings were bare-ly noticed by constituents.

In contrast, this year’s meet-ing at the Portuguese Cultur-

al Center on Kelly Avenue was well attended by City Hall em-ployees and taxpayers, who were drawn by concerns about the sober new reality.

Council members directed staff to focus their efforts on fi nding ways to balance the city’s budget and keep the city fi nancially stable in the future. But as Half Moon Bay leaders sought to fi nd ways to correct the budget imbalance, they faced criticism from city em-ployees and members of the public who didn’t want a re-


Coping with dwindling revenues, Half Moon Bay leaders have decided to withhold funding from long-term programs aimed at enhancing local education and environmen-tal sustainability.

Last week, City Council members unani-

mously voted against continuing participa-tion in the Community Schools Initiative, an extracurricular program at Cunha In-termediate School to help provide students with the out-of-class tools for academic suc-cess. Funded equally between the county, city and school district, the partnership costs each agency $40,000 annually. That’s an ex-

Short of funds, city halts special projectsEDUCATION, ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECTS SIDELINED

See FUNDS a 6ASee BUDGET a 6A

STAFF WARY OF STILL MORE CUTS

County no longer trapping invasive species > 8A

John Claitor earns trip to Bakersfi eld > Sports, 5B



MAVERICKS CONTEST BY THE NUMBERS

TOTAL PRIZE MONEY AWARDED TO WINNING CONTESTANTS

APPROXIMATE VALUE OF SOUND EQUIPMENT RUINED WHEN WAVE CRASHED INTO JETTY

ESTIMATED NUMBER OF SPECTATORS WHO ATTENDED THE EVENT

APPROXIMATE NUMBER OF MILES FLOWN BY WINNER CHRIS BERTISH TO ATTEND THE EVENT

APPROXIMATE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO WATCHED THE CONTEST FROM AT&T PARK IN SAN FRANCISCO

NUMBER OF MAVERICKS SURF CONTESTANTS

REPORTED NUMBER OF SPECTATORS INJURED ON THE BEACH

$150,000$60,00050,00011,4009002413

New model approved for

South Coast schools

Parcel tax vote set, but hard

times coming

Cautious city budget not

cautious enough


Plagued by a confl uence of budgetary setbacks, the La Honda-Pescadero Unifi ed School District has put in mo-tion a plan to rearrange South Coast students next school year to get the biggest bang for the smallest buck.

At a school board meeting last week, board members voted unanimously to recon-fi gure grade levels at Pescade-ro middle and high schools. The district is transitioning from the traditional sixth-to-eighth-grade middle school and ninth-to-12th-grade high school setups, replacing them with a seventh-to-12th-grade school at the high school cam-pus and a separate, self-con-tained sixth-grade class.

None of San Mateo County’s 24 school districts are employ-ing a similar system, said Pe-ter Burchyns, special adviser to the superintendent at the county Offi ce of Education. La Honda-Pescadero is by far the smallest K-12 school district in the county.

“It allows us to fi t the stu-dents we have into the facili-ties we have without spend-ing money that we don’t have,” said School Board President

Andy Wilson.District Interim Superinten-

dent Dennis Dobbs said the district stands to save more than $50,000 a year by consoli-dating the seventh and eighth grades at the high school.

The decision is a maneuver to avoid incurring rental costs for fi ve portables when the dis-trict’s lease on them runs out in June. The portables consti-tute most of the middle school now. However, board mem-bers and administrators say consolidating students in such a way has been part of the plan for years — since before bond project mistakes in 2007 and 2008 put the district on shaky fi nancial ground.

School board member


Cabrillo Unifi ed School District board members have scheduled a vote on a $150-per-parcel tax, but they know that even if voters approve a new tax in recessionary times, the infusion of cash won’t spare them from making some very unpleasant cuts.

The Cabrillo district is one of the largest employers on the Coastside, but the pay-roll will likely be trimmed — with or without the tax. School offi cials are considering cutting approximately 10 per-cent of Cabrillo’s bud-get. Those cuts will likely mean reductions to school athletic pro-grams and layoffs for school secretaries, cus-todians and librarians.

And fear of falling under the proverbial ax is sending vari-ous sectors of the school work-force to implore the board members to spare them.

Half Moon Bay High School counselor Mandi Robertson became teary-eyed Thursday as she pleaded with the school board to prevent cuts to her team.

“Cuts to counselors will re-sult in fewer students gradu-ating high school and going to college,” she said. “Our stu-dents can’t be academically

successful if they’re depressed, angry, hun-gry or scared.”

The school board heard similar entreat-ies from representa-tives from Pilarcitos High School, Kings Mountain Elementary and the district’s clas-

sifi ed employees union.The best-case scenario for

local schools would be to gain additional revenues from the parcel tax. Last week, board members approved a fi ve-year, $150-per-parcel tax mea-sure for the June ballot, which would provide approximately $1.5 million per year, for fi ve years, for the district. The vote

HMB REPORTS NEW REVENUE

SHORTFALLBy Mark Noack


The stock market may be healthier, but Half Moon Bay leaders say the reces-sion isn’t over.

Heavily reliant on high-end tourism, the city is showing lower than expected returns from local hotel and retail taxes.

As a result, Half Moon Bay offi cials announced last week that new cuts to city services could be immi-nent to help fi ll a $2.1 mil-lion revenue shortfall due to the area’s ongoing econom-ic slump.

City offi cials originally es-timated they would receive approximately $11.2 mil-lion in revenues when they compiled the current bud-get last spring. At the time, city leaders called the bud-

get estimate “conservative.” They believed that tax rev-enues would rebound after months of recession.

But that rebound hasn’t appeared yet, according to the new numbers. Receipts from local hotels and hos-pitality businesses were al-ready expected to decline from previous levels when

the budget was ad-opted last year, but they came in even lower than project-ed. City offi cials now estimate a 21 percent drop in ex-pected tax income, or a loss of $846,000 to municipal cof-

fers. Similarly, sales tax rev-enues are now projected to be 12 percent lower than budgeted, a difference of $212,113.

Property taxes were ex-pected to rise 2 percent, but they instead dropped 10 percent, or $228,000.

The new budget report shows a 50 percent drop in revenues from construc-


South African surfer Chris Bertish emerged from the icy water as victor on Saturday. He won $50,000 and bragging rights at Mavericks.

Michael Dolder


Kenny “Skindog” Collins is chased down by a mountain of water Saturday at Mavericks, during one of the most memorable big-wave contests of all time.

“We need a parcel tax. It’s inexcusable for us not to look at this.”

— Kirk Riemer, CUSD board member

SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES $150-PER-PARCEL MARK

[ s c h o o l s ] [ h a l f m o o n b a y ] [ s o u t h c o a s t ]

Kirk Riemer

“It allows us to fi t the students we have into the facilities we have without spending money that we don’t have.”

— Andy Wilson, La Honda-Pescadero

Unifi ed School District board president

CHANGES RECONFIGURE GRADES IN LA HONDA, PESCADERO


BLOWN AWAYThe Mavericks Surf Contest creates its own

storm. Giant swells roll in. Surfers scramble. Fans the world over turn their attention to Pillar

Point’s craggy coast. Then, like a low-pressure system swinging over California, high drama builds to climax … and is gone. Sunny skies and shared memories are left in the wake. This year, Mavericks left an indelible impression. It will be remembered as the contest that South African Chris Bertish survived rather than won on the February day when many fans got a salty taste of the Mavericks wave.

Photos: Two pages of full-color photos inside, 6A, 7ASafety: Organizers may get more scrutiny next year, 6ACommentary: Spectators, contest must share responsibility, 4A


Mark Foyer / Review

Spectators scramble for higher ground after a wave crashed over the seawall at Mavericks beach on Saturday.

“Everyone says the economy is going upward, but based on these numbers, that’s not true.”

— Michael Dolder, Half Moon Bay City Manager See SCHOOLS a 11A

See BUDGET a 11A

See PARCEL a 11A

“CONTEST ASIDE, IT DOES SEEM LIKE IT’LL NEVER BE THE

SAME FOR THE SPORT. … THIS WAS PRETTY MUCH

UNHEARD OF — HISTORIC.”— GRANT WASHBURN, MAVERICKS SURFER






COMMUNICATION, SHARED INTERESTS KEY THIS VALENTINE’S DAY

— AND EVERY DAYBy Stacy Trevenon[ [email protected] ]

If you are looking for a little Valentine’s Day wisdom, it’s simple things like shar-ing your heart that make marriage last, say four Coastsiders who ought to know.

Take Ted and Lorraine Schapp of El Granada, who celebrated their 60th an-niversary July 10 at the Moss Beach Dis-tillery, where a romance-minded waiter brought them cake by candlelight.

“You have to be committed to it,” said

Ted Schapp. “A promise is a promise is a promise, I guess.”

Having known each other since inter-mediate and high school and college, the Schapps forged their bond while living in Modesto, Encino and Berlin, where Ted Schapp served as a Presbyterian minis-ter. They have three children, fi ve grand-children and an unoffi cial daughter from Berlin. Ted offi ciated at her marriage to a German man, and their family became part of his. He also has been one of sever-al ministers with the Pescadero Commu-nity Church since 1988.

But marriage is hardly a business prop-osition for them. “We cuddle when we go to bed and kiss in the morning,” said Ted, 83.

“We’ve always taken the time to talk

Love, like good wine, mellows with time


Don and Virginia Barnaby of El Granada, both in their 90s, have been through thick and thin dur-ing 40 years together. As Valentine’s Day approaches, the couple says they remain deeply in love.

[ v a l e n t i n e ’ s d a y ]

See VALENTINE a 6A

Midcoast traffi c changes

inch along


On a gloomy February eve-ning, Debbe Kennedy stood in her cozy living room, staring through a picture window to a spot on Highway 1 about 20 feet from her Montara home.

Chains of fast-moving cars periodically pierce the tran-quility outside, and to the un-initiated eye the traffi c scene is one of everyday life on the coast. But for Kennedy, each car that zooms past conjures 17 years of memories of twist-ed metal and fatalities.

“There has become what I would characterize as a lethal cocktail of conditions that have created a tragedy waiting to happen at a number of places on the coast,” she said.

That “cocktail” is a mixture of speeding cars, scattered and misplaced road signage and a complete lack of pedestrian pathways across a three-and-a-half-mile stretch of highway through Montara and Moss Beach. The tragedy Kennedy speaks of has come home in the form of a number of life-al-tering and deadly car accidents over the years.

A 12-year-old boy pedaling across the Moss Beach road-

way one night in December was left in critical condition after being hit by a passing car. Last spring, a Half Moon Bay High School student was killed crossing the highway near Dunes Beach.

“We are in the fi ring line,” Kennedy said. “We watch near-misses happen all the time.”

Kennedy and other con-cerned Midcoast residents point to the lack of crosswalks and ineffective deterrents for speeders as contributors to ac-cidents and close calls alike. For two years, Kennedy has been working to improve the situation, and two weeks ago she won a small victory: a new speed sign and a new stop sign where 14th Street intersects with Highway 1 in Montara.

The signs, however, were supposed to be there all along. Caltrans erroneously moved the “Speed Limit 45” sign

Talk about traffi c safetyWhat: Midcoast Community Coun-cil meeting

When: 7:30 tonight

Where: Seton Medical Center Coast-side, 600 Marine Blvd., Moss Beach

CHP TAKES RENEWED INTEREST IN STRETCH

[ t r a n s p o r t a t i o n ][ c o m m u n i t y ]

See TRAFFIC a 6ASee ELKUS a 6A

Leaky roofs leave Elkus Ranch all wet‘ADOPT-A-SHINGLE’

SEEKS MONEY TO REPAIR BARNS


Water leaking through the roofs of the barns at Elkus Ranch has been a problem for ranch managers for several years, but now it threatens to put a damper on op-

erations.“Once the

ewes start hav-ing babies it will become a prob-lem for us,” said Leslie Jensen, program coor-dinator on the ranch, situated in quiet hills a few miles south of Half Moon Bay. About 20 newborn lambs are expected late this month, and the stables where they’d

sleep are in the drip zone.January storms stripped shingles from

the tops of the ranch’s two barns and exac-erbated the leakage problem, prompting a call for help from ranch managers late last month. They started the “Adopt-a-Shingle” campaign to raise money.

“We’ve done patchwork before, but we’ve come to the point where this is eat-ing away at our time and money,” Jensen said.

The shingle-and-plywood roofs are more than 20 years old and will take about $65,000 to repair, Jensen says. The ranch has garnered about $30,000 in grants and donations for roof refur-bishments over the past six months — enough for one of the barns. The remain-der is unaccounted for.

“We’ve put this off for as long as we can put it off. … This is our top priority right now.”

— Leslie Jensen, Elkus Ranch p

rogram coordinator


Elkus Ranch manager Leslie Jensen holds buckets used for catching rain water that trickles through the barn’s leaky roof. The ranch, south of Half Moon Bay, is seeking do-nations to repair the roofs of two of its barns.

Good reads for V-day

VOLUNTEERS BEGIN NEW MEDICAL RECORD HANDOUTPHOENIX PROJECT TAKES OVER CLINIC

INVENTORYBy Mark Noack


Local volunteers now have custody of thousands of medical records be-longing to former Coastside Family

Medical Center patients and they want to return those records before August, when they could be legally destroyed.

Organizers from the local Phoenix Project nonprofi t received a judicial order last week allowing them to take control of about 34,000 patient medi-cal charts left by the former clinic.

Local volunteers have been seek-ing a way to get medical records back to patients since the Coastside clinic

closed down last March. “Finally, after all these months, we

have guardianship,” said Dr. Grant Weiss, director of the Phoenix Proj-ect. “Absolutely the most important thing now is to get the word out to the community.”

What to do with the inventory of medical records has been the most pressing question in the bankruptcy

Your medical recordsFormer patients of the Coastside Family Medical Center can retrieve their

medical records by contacting the Phoenix Project at [email protected]. You can request your records by providing name and birthdate. Once the request is made, volunteers will pull a patient’s record and have it ready for pickup from 10 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., and 1:15 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Satur-days and Sundays at Purisima Family Medicine at 575 Kelly Ave.

Patients need to provide some form of legal identifi cation to obtain their records. More information can be found at hmbphoenix.org.

See RECORDS a 6A

Cougars blow by JeffersonHMB girls turn it on after slow start > Sports 5B

Coastside book lovers offer romantic favorites > 4BBOOKS



Volume ı ı ı Number 4 ı | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com


Supervisor promotes census in Pescadero


The once-a-decade head-count is around the corner, and to make sure everyone is accounted for when social ser-vice providers are doling out stipends, San Mateo Coun-ty supervisors are making the rounds to some of the most underserved areas in their districts. For Supervisor Rich Gordon, that meant a trip to Pescadero.

On Thursday afternoon, a band of local census workers set up a table at a social service event at Pescadero Communi-ty Church to spread awareness about the upcoming count in

April. They handed out pam-phlets and collected e-mail ad-dresses in hopes of penetrat-ing a language barrier they say separates needy people from necessary services.

Addressing a crowd of more than 100 Pescaderans distrib-uting and picking up crates of food and waiting in line for di-aper handouts and H1N1 vac-

cinations at the church, Gor-don laid out in plain English the benefi t of participating in the count.

“If the federal government knows how many people we have, we get more mon-ey,” said Gordon, amplifi ed through a microphone. A man standing beside Gordon trans-lated the supervisor’s verbiage into Spanish for the crowd, composed almost exclusively of Latinos. “It’s very simple. … Get counted. Help our com-munity.”

In a rural town like Pesca-dero, every body counted con-tributes to the community’s “political power” as well, add-

“It’s very simple. … Get counted. Help our community.”

— Rich Gordon, San Mateo County supervisor

Greg Thomas / Review

San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon speaks to Pescadero residents Thursday in an effort to increase the local count during the 2010 Census. County offi cials are concerned that the rural region’s Spanish-speaking population may shy away from government enumerators.

ISOLATED TOWN IS ONE OF COUNTY’S MOST UNDERCOUNTED POPULATIONS

[ c e n s u s ]

Martha Jenkins / Review

Kids helping kidsStudents in Melissa Moriarty’s fourth- and fi fth-grade class at Hatch Elementary School held a bake sale Friday to raise money for needy children in Haiti. In the wake of last month’s devastating earthquake there, Hatch students wanted to make a donation to UNICEF. The international relief organization has said it is focusing on the many needs of children in Haiti. Hatch students raised $275 during Friday’s bake sale alone.

[ c o m m u n i t y ]

[ b i g w a v e ]

Big Wave impact report nearly complete


The fi nal version of a highly debated environmental impact report for Big Wave might be close at hand.

The proposed Princeton de-velopment calls for a 225,000-

square-foot, three-story offi ce park paired with a cooperative-style wellness center for devel-opmentally disabled people on Airport Street, between Half Moon Bay Airport and Pillar Point Air Force Station.

Coastsiders and other con-cerned parties submitted more

than 300 comments on the draft report before the com-ment period closed on Christ-mas Eve. Those comments are being incorporated into the fi -nal report, which county offi -cials have assembled.

A Big Wave study session, hosted by the county Planning Commission last week, wraps up the public review process for the draft report. County planners are reportedly work-

ing with authors of the report to respond to the concerns raised during the comment pe-riod; several people who sub-mitted comments complained that the report was inadequate and misleading.

The process calls for con-cerns to be addressed before the Planning Commission votes on the project. Original-ly, the Planning Commission

EIR PROCESS CONTINUES BEFORE PLANNING VOTE

See BIG WAVE a 8A

See CENSUS a 8A

“The offi cers got a private party to take the boar. To dispose of it.”

-- Donald O’Keefe, Police Chief

POLICE KILL BOAR,

RUMORS FLYPOLICE GIVE CARCASS

TO PRIVATE PARTYBy Mark Noack


It’s not very often a wild boar is spotted in Half Moon Bay. It’s rarer still for local police to shoot to kill.

But the two circumstances came together on Thurs-day morning when a boar estimated to weigh around 300 pounds spooked residents and pedestrians as it wandered through front yards along Grandview Bou-levard. And in its aftermath, the unlikely situation has fueled much discussion and speculation as to what ex-actly happened.

On Thursday, the boar had apparently wandered into the neighborhood from the nearby hills. Boars typically avoid human contact.

But this animal didn’t seem scared, recalled Edgar Natan, a postal carrier who was delivering mail to the neighborhood that day. Natan said the animal came near him and was trotting by as he followed the mail

[ p u b l i c s a f e t y ]

Deal could shape senior campus, Coastal TrailCITY, COUNTY TO

NEGOTIATE ON 17 PARCELSBy Mark Noack


Half Moon Bay offi cials are beginning closed-door negotiations to trade an Arnold Way prop-erty to San Mateo County in exchange for bluff-top tracts. The deal could provide needed land

for both the downtown senior campus and the Coastal Trail.

The county has listed 16 properties it owns within Half Moon Bay city limits that it could offer the city in exchange for the Arnold Way property, according to county records.

All or some of those properties would be traded to the city for the 1.1-acre Arnold Way parcel next to the Lesley Gardens retirement home.

The 16 properties the county is including in the land deal are all public utility district parcels on the west side of Highway 1. The undevel-oped properties total 12.5 acres and lie between Seymour Street and Redondo Beach Road, a one-mile stretch that interrupts the Half Moon Bay section of the Coastal Trail. City offi cials say they have proposed a deal to acquire the coast-al properties as a step to someday develop the trail.

Although large in area, the county’s prop-erties would fetch only a modest price on the market because the parcels have little potential for development, offi cials say. The county par-cels are spread throughout open-space land and their price would be based on their preservation value.

Planning Director Steve Flint said the city is hoping the land deal can be a step toward ex-


Volume ı ı ı Number 4 ı | 75 cents Serving the entire San Mateo Coastside since ı898 www.hmbreview.com

FADING TO BLACK


FREE INSIDE! HMB MAGAZINE: THE MONEY AND FINANCE ISSUE

Moss Beach songwriter holds CD release party > 2B

NEW LEADER FOR CCPAgnes Chan takes over at Coastside Children’s Programs > 3B

See LAND DEAL a 8A

Approximate location of shooting

See BOAR a 8A

n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l e

Wednesday, January 27, 2010



n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l e n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l e n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l e n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l e

PUBLISHED IN PILATESLocal woman creates two new books on exercise. 6B

IN THE RHYTHMCongolese man leads classes in drumming and dance. 1B

MAVERICKS ICON SUES CONTEST ORGANIZERSSOURED RELATIONSHIP

COMES TO LIGHTBy Greg Thomas


Long-standing animosity between Mavericks pioneer Jeff Clark and his former business part-ners at Mavericks Surf Ventures, the company that organizes the Mavericks Surf Contest off Pillar Point, has come to a head. The legendary big-wave surfer announced last week he is su-ing the company and its board of directors for

failing to honor contractual and fi nancial agree-ments and for withholding basic fi nancial infor-mation from shareholders.

Clark, of El Granada, is credited with intro-ducing Mavericks to the surf community and promoting it as an international destination for big-wave riding. He co-founded the famed Mav-ericks Surf Contest in 1998, and partnered with Evolve Sports in 2003 to create Mavericks Surf Ventures, the company that runs the event to-day.

Clark acted as contest director and a key fi g-urehead for the Mavericks brand until last sum-mer, when Mavericks Surf Ventures terminated

him. Despite his break with the company and the event, Clark’s name and image remain ir-revocably tied to Mavericks for many surfi ng fans.

The circumstances of Clark’s departure from Mavericks Surf Ventures were murky at fi rst; both sides issued statements focused more on his contribution to the sport and love for the wave. But in interviews and prepared statements shortly thereafter, Clark said he was “ousted” as contest director, a move that prompted his res-ignation from the company board of directors.

Filed with the Superior Court of San Francis-co County, Clark’s complaint alleges the compa-ny reneged on contracts that would have netted the surfer $9,250 a month, and is withholding tens of thousands of dollars in payments. Clark

“I made a mistake and I trusted the wrong people.”

— Jeff Clark, Mavericks surf pioneer

See CLARK a 12A

COMMUNITY SCHOOLS LOOKS TO CITY, COUNTY

FOR $80,000By Mark Noack


At lunchtime on Friday, the former Cun-ha Intermediate School library building was a cacophony of middle-schoolers. Paper air-planes whizzed through the air, Jenga game blocks crashed onto the tables, and students screamed, chatted and laughed in delight.

The library is a hushed place no longer. Now the building houses the Community Schools Initiative, a pioneering project to expand stu-dents’ educational opportunities by giving them activities and a safe environment before, during and after school.

The Community Schools project counts among its advocates some infl uential locals who are quick to support the program’s poten-tial to revolutionize Coastside education.

“This is our springboard to the future,” said former mayor Bonnie Dunham, who sat on the Community Schools advisory committee. “It’s the most important thing I’ve done on the City Council.”

“Community Schools is truly an exciting op-portunity,” said former mayor Jim Grady, an-other member of the committee. “Everyone checks their guns at the door to move this proj-ect forward.”

These days, Community Schools needs as much local support as it can muster. The proj-ect has been funded through a cooperative agreement between Cabrillo Unifi ed School District, the city of Half Moon Bay and San Ma-teo County. Looking for $120,000 in funding for the next three years, Community Schools offi -

[ s c h o o l s ] [ w e a t h e r ]

Lauded school program seeks

funding


Cunha Intermediate School students stand by a poster supporting after-school activities that are developed through the Community Schools program. The program is a cooperative effort of the Cabrillo Unifi ed School District, the city of Half Moon Bay and San Mateo County.

See CUNHA a 12A

Calm returns after the storm

LIGHT RAIN TO CONTINUE


Patchy clouds and rainy weath-er will linger for the week on the Coastside, but weather offi cials say it won’t be anything like the bar-rage of storms in recent days.

Over the coming days, the Coast-side may actually see some sun-shine. Weather forecasts an-ticipate partially cloudy skies through Friday, leading into a weekend of gray clouds and light rainfall.

The front expected this weekend appears to be much tamer than the recent storms, said Brian Tentinger, a me-teorologist with the National Weather Service.

“We’ve got a weak rain system moving in,” Tentinger said. “It’s not as strong and not a return to what we had before.”

The Coastside received about six inches of rain in a series of winter storms that began about 10 days ago. The multiple systems meld-ed together before they hit Califor-nia, making the days of pounding rainfall seem like one continuous storm.

The windy, wet weather caused numerous problems in the area. Mudslides and trees and branches littered rural roads throughout the South Coast last week. Powerful gusts of wind knocked over trees

and power lines along Highway 84, closing down the rural avenue near Pescadero Creek Road and taking out power to the La Honda area.

Further up the coast, the windy weather also knocked over electri-cal poles along the Midcoast last week, causing thousands of cus-tomers to lose power. The wind also caused damage to fi xtures on the roof at the Half Moon Bay City Hall, and it dislodged a patio roof

behind Sam’s Chowder House, damaging solar panels used to power the restaurant.

The tumultuous weather was ex-citing for some Coastside amateur weather trackers.

“This is when things get inter-esting,” said Half Moon Bay resi-dent Dennis Paull, a storm spotter with the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail & Snow Network. “The Coastside is full of microclimates, so it’s a little different all around here.”

Paull makes daily reports to his organization, using a gauge in his yard to track rainfall, which he has

“The rain and hail were so strong that I couldn’t

even see the ground.”— Dennis Paull,

Coastside storm spotter


Crews worked through the rain last week to keep Highway 84 open in La Honda. The South Coast reported a series of problems related to days of sporadic heavy rainfall.

Photo courtesy Hovik Azadkhanian

Storm Watch volunteers Derry Kabcenell, left, and Ed Daley, center, remove a fallen tree branch obstructing traffi c on Pescade-ro Creek Road last week while Steve Wineinger, right, keeps an eye out for oncoming cars. Volunteers played a major role in cleaning up debris on South Coast roads after high winds and heavy rains.

Storm Watch volunteers

bolster county efforts

COASTSIDE CREATES DRAIN ON EMERGENCY RESOURCES


Storms of last week’s magnitude swamp fi rst responders, giving emergency service providers and utility maintenance workers more work than they can handle in a timely fashion. More than half of the county’s resources are directed to the Coastside during storm events, said county Emergency Ser-vices Bureau Sgt. Joe Sheridan.

“The coast always has those unique things that occur out See STORMS a 12A See OES a 12A




a n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l ea n d p e s c a d e r o p e b b l e

LEDERMAN EARNS HONORCoastside theater arts champion named

Arts Educator of the Year | Page B2

COUGARS FINDING THEIR FOOTINGGirls soccer team has a toughtime with San Mateo | Page B7

New classes, new doubts for college

FATE OF COASTSIDE

COMMUNITY COLLEGE ANNEX

UNCLEARBy Mark Noack


A new semester at the Coast-side College of San Mateo starts today, but the ringing of the class bells could sound more like a funeral toll.

The fate of the satellite cam-pus is hanging by a thread, threatened by upcoming cut-backs that will be decided by the board of trustees for the San Mateo Community Col-lege District in the coming weeks.

Administrators at the com-munity college say it is like-ly the nascent campus will be shuttered after this semes-ter, even though the Coastside branch has been open for less than two years.

Talk of closure has frustrat-ed many Coastside students, many of whom have sent let-ters beseeching the college dis-trict to save the campus.

“We can’t just let this cam-pus wither. There’s too much at stake for the community,” said Coastside resident Jo-Ann Ordano. “I’m a senior, I have mobility problems … I have hesitation in going over the hill for community college.”

Her watercolor painting class starting this week, Or-dano said she would speak up at the beginning of class and urge her classmates to petition the college district to save the campus.

The community college dis-trict is reeling from multi-ple fi nancial burdens, includ-ing a $30 million defi cit from the Lehman Brothers invest-ment house collapse and ongo-ing cuts to education from the state. For the upcoming budget year, the College of San Mateo is looking to trim its $28.3 mil-lion budget by 22 percent.

Those setbacks have made cost-cutting a brutal necessity for the district, which oversees the College of San Mateo, Sky-line College and Cañada Col-lege.

“To be honest, everything’s

Sound offThe next San Mateo Com-munity College District board meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m., Jan. 27, at the district boardroom at 3401 CSM Drive in San Mateo. Send an e-mail with your comments to [email protected], or call (650) 358-6753.

“We can’t just let this campus wither. There’s too much at stake for the community.”

— Jo-Ann Ordano, Coastside CSM student

Skylawn plans ahead for grave futureCEMETERY SUBMITS

300-YEAR PLAN TO COUNTYBy Mark Noack


The Skylawn Memorial Park may become a boomtown for the dead.

That growth won’t happen overnight. In fact, cemetery di-rectors are planning expansion for the next 300 years.

Currently featuring about 40,000 burial plots, the large cem-etery has submitted plans and studies to San Mateo County to grow by about fi ve times that amount. And Skylawn offi cials are certain the next three centuries will provide plenty of cus-tomers.

General Manager Chuck Hotchkiss led a visitor on a tour of the new graveyard areas being planned at Skylawn. A fourth-generation cemetery director, Hotchkiss is a large, goateed man with the practiced calmness of a delicate profession. He explained that he was pulled into the family profession after getting his MBA. He said Skylawn was following the same ad-vice it gives all its clients about preparing for the future.

“We looked at the entire property for how we can serve the community for generations,” Hotchkiss said. “Obviously, it‘s


Chuck Hotchkiss of Lifemark Center at Skylawn Memorial Park looks out at the area his company hopes to turn into natural gravesites as part of a 300-year plan for expansion. See CEMETERY a 8A

Parcel tax vote

a go, but how much?

SCHOOL LEADERS MULL LOW RISK VERSUS HIGH

REWARDBy Mark Noack


Elected leaders for the Ca-brillo Unifi ed School District unanimously voiced support for a June parcel tax for local public education.

But the devil is in the details. School board members remain undecided on the specifi cs of a tax initiative, particularly on the dollar amount.

Cabrillo schools are facing a $2.5 million defi cit next year that will need to be addressed in the coming months. With no easy choices left, local school offi cials are crossing their fi n-gers, hoping that a sympathet-ic Coastside public can relieve the district from the worst out-comes of a bad budget situa-tion.

Budget meetingsThe Cabrillo Unifi ed School District has announced four meetings to discuss the funding situation for local education and the possibil-ity of a parcel tax. The meetings will be held at 6 p.m. at the following dates and locations:t Thursday, Jan. 21, at the multiuse room at Farallone View Elementary School.tMonday, Jan. 25, at the library at El Granada Ele-mentary School.tTuesday, Feb. 23, at the multiuse room at Hatch El-ementary School.tThursday, Feb. 25, at the District Offi ce boardroom.

See PARCEL TAX a 8A

See COLLEGE a 8A


A double rainbow envelops the fi eld along Airport Road in Moss Beach during a lull in the bad weather Monday. Similar unsettled weather is expected through the rest of the work week.

WEATHERING THE STORMCOASTSIDE SURVIVES FIRST ROUND,

BUT MORE IS ON THE WAYFrom staff reports[ [email protected] ]

Foul weather blew into the Coastside this week, and it looks like it’s here for an extended visit. Despite periods of heavy, sustained rain and wind gusts as high as 50 mph, the coast escaped serious problems … so far.

That isn’t to say everything was left high and dry by sporad-ic deluges Monday and Tuesday.

Much of the damage Monday occurred between 10 a.m. and noon, when a violent burst of rain and wind toppled trees and power lines and left some prominent landmarks worse for wear. Then the skies boomed overnight Monday, as thunder and lightning rattled homes and nerves across the coast. An-other heavy band of rain followed just in time for the morning commute on Tuesday.

The forecast calls for rain today through Friday, and again Sunday and Monday following a brief respite on Saturday. The National Weather Service has issued a variety of watches and warnings, including a high surf warning through 4 p.m. Thursday and small-craft and coastal fl ooding advisories.

Monday morning Half Moon Bay Police blocked the 700 block of Main Street when a power pole leaned over the road-way. A couple blocks north, plywood paneling was stripped away from the roof on City Hall. The paneling, which had covered mechanical units on the building’s roof, were even-tually removed.

City employees heard the plywood working loose on the roof and beating against the air-conditioning machinery. “It was like a loud drum,” said City Manager Michael Dolder.

“With the sheer mass of those boards, they could’ve caused some damage if they fell off.”

Further up the coast, the wind took the roof from the ter-race behind Sam’s Chowder House. The dislodged roofi ng damaged solar panels used to power the restaurant. Owner Paul Shenkman said Tuesday morning that a gas line also ruptured and he was waiting for PG&E crews to come restart gas fl ow.

“It was gnarly,” Shenkman said. “I haven’t tallied it up, but it’s a lot of damage.”

Thousands of local customers were without power Monday,


A volunteer, working with the Half Moon Bay Police Depart-ment, directs traffi c around a power pole that was leaning precar-iously over the 700 block of Main Street Monday.

[ w i n t e r s t o r m s ]

See STORMS a 8A





COASTSIDE PAC CITED FOR 2005 VIOLATIONSLCP FINED FOR MAILING,

‘CLERICAL’ ERRORSBy Mark Noack


The San Mateo County League for Coastside Protection has agreed to pay $3,500 in fi nes lev-ied by the state Fair Political Practices Commis-sion for two campaign violations dating back to the 2005 election cycle.

The state commission cited the Coastside-based political action committee for failing to properly identify itself as the publisher of the

short-lived “Voice of the Coast” mailing, which was distributed several times in the run-up to the 2005 election.

State elections laws require political organiza-tions or candidates to provide their names and

addresses on the outside of any mass mailings sent to voters. The “Voice of the Coast” did not include this information on the outside, but it was printed inside the newsletter.

The commission also penalized the league for misreporting its donations from City Council candidate and former Mayor Mike Ferreira and Coastside County Water District candidate Jim Marsh. In elections reports fi led by the league in January 2006, Ferreira and Marsh were listed as donating $827 and $300, respectively. The actual donations were later determined to be $912 from Ferreira and $680 from Marsh. Both candidates were endorsed by the LCP and paid for inclusion

in the “Voice of the Coast” publication.“It was a clerical error,” explained Scott Boyd,

co-chair of the league. “A couple things fell through the cracks.”

The two violations together could have amounted to $10,000 in fi nes, but the com-

Minor violation or clear deception?The Review’s editorial suggests that the LCP’s vi-olations were both minor infractions and an at-tempt to deceive voters — the latter offense being the most egregious. See editorial, Page 4A.

“It was a clerical error.”

— Scott Boyd, San Mateo County League for Coast-side Protection co-chair

See PAC a 9A

High surf brings Mavericks waves,

but no contestSURFERS VOTE AGAINST

HOLDING CONTEST TODAYBy Greg Thomas


The National Weather Service issued a high surf ad-visory to boaters and beachgoers Monday, anticipat-ing waves as high as 20 feet rolling into the Coast-side on Thursday morning. The weather service also warns of the potential for coastal fl ooding in the re-gion over the period.

Of course, one man’s danger is another’s attraction and the 24 big-wave surfers on call for the Mavericks Surf Contest have their eyes on the coast this week. They voted not to hold the contest today, but weath-er watchers say storm systems are stacking up out in the Pacifi c.

The weather service expects the surge to produce powerful waves, strong rip currents and beach ero-sion along a stretch of the California coast, but it’s the wind that compelled surfers to pass on the opportu-nity to compete.

Mark Sponsler, a key Mavericks weather forecaster, said Monday the wind and rain expected today is “cer-tainly not good contest weather.”

El Niño is in full swing, stirring up batches of big surf that will continue to land on the Coastside inter-mittently this winter. Holding a contest is just a mat-ter of aligning big waves with wind and other factors, say Mavericks surfers and offi cials.

Weather models infl uencing the confi dence of surf-ers have been erratic, generating a series of near miss-es and false starts since the window opened in Novem-ber. Sponsler said surfers are aware that more swells are “piling in behind (this one).”

The oscillating models for big waves have prompted a handful of votes since the contest window opened. As weather updates roll in, surfers face the challenge of calling an appropriate day to hold the contest some 48 hours in advance of the arrival of a swell.

Even without a contest, Mavericks surfers have been seen hitting the spot on big days, and there’s ev-ery reason to believe they will be on the coast today — despite the risk.

Contest invitee Ion Banner of El Granada said the setup “looks like a prime tow-day” at Mavericks, de-spite a potentially choppy experience. r

[ w e a t h e r ] [ s t a t e p a r k s ]


On Thursday afternoon, Gary Stra-chan made a fi nal sweep of his for-mer abode, a weathered white Victo-

rian adjacent to the park rangers’ station at Año Nuevo State Reserve. He occupied the home for two-and-a-half decades during his career service as a State Parks ranger.

Tracing each empty, echoing room, Stra-chan scooped up two last mementos: an

acrylic canvas a friend painted of him riding a wave at Waddell Creek, and a spray-paint-ed gold park ranger’s hat — a sort of going-away gag gift from a rang-er buddy.

Donning the shiny hat, cocking an eyebrow and twisting down the corners of his mouth, Strachan struck his best impression of a John Wayne charac-ter. “Don’t take yourself too seriously,” is the fi rst of Strachan’s four guiding principles for life.

At 60 years old, the gangly surfer looks happy and healthy — the telltale signs of a man who spent his best years active out-doors.

After 25 years patrolling the beaches, pro-tecting the forests, mobilizing vol-unteers and lobbying for preserva-tion of Coastside resources, Stra-chan retired. His last day was Dec. 31. He leaves behind a legacy of

dedicated service on the Coastside. Friends and colleagues say he embodies the iconic omnipresent ranger.

“He’s a guy who’s a real generalist old-time


Retired California State Parks ranger Gary Strachan sits on the porch of his former home at Año Nuevo State Reserve. He’s holding the gold-en hat he received at his retirement party.

A State Parks icon looks back on career in ‘paradise’34-YEAR RANGER HANGS UP HIS GOLDEN HAT

See STRACHAN a 9A

Q&A

Cunha students venture into science

ANNUAL SCHOOL FAIR IS A RITE OF PASSAGE


Developing the scientifi c method took humankind a few mil-lennia, but Cunha Intermediate School eighth-graders managed to get a pretty good handle on it over the last few months.

“Yeah, I think they got it,” said Cunha science teacher Lucin-da Hitchner while touring the rows of science projects placed throughout the school gym Monday night. “The kids always sur-prise me with their ideas.”

Hitchner walked by the dozens of backboards featuring titles such as “Skydiving Barbie,” “¡Eating Chocolate!”, “How Fast Are You?”, “How Tall are You?” and “Who Died?” A bit drained after a full day in the classroom, Hitchner and her team were doing

SURVEY GAUGES INTEREST IN

NEW HOOKUPS By Mark Noack


The Coastside County Water Dis-trict is testing the waters, fi guratively, to see whether they can entice proper-ty owners using private wells to sign up for the district’s water service.

The water district is surveying land-owners to fi nd out if there is a market

[ s c i e n c e f a i r ][ i n f r a s t r u c t u r e ]

See SCIENCE FAIR a 9ASee WELLS a 9A

Water district looks to lure well-users


Cunha Intermediate School science teacher Lucinda Hitchner looks over eighth-grade science projects in the school gym Monday. The fair itself takes place today.

Checking out the whales a Tours out of the harbor get you close to our ocean neighbors > 1B





DUI TROUBLES CONTINUE ON COAST

Getting from bar A to bar B can be a taxiing experience

67 ARRESTS REPORTED FOR 2009


Half Moon Bay Police say they made 67 arrests for driving under the infl uence in 2009 — about average for the decade just passed. They are less sure what to make of that fact.

Recent DUI statistics for Half Moon Bay fl uctuate and demonstrate no clear trend. In 2002 police arrested the highest number of the decade, 100 people. But in 2005 DUI arrests dropped to nearly half that number, 52 people.

Interpreting arrest fi gures comes down to perspective. Are high arrest numbers a good sign, indicating that police are do-ing their job well? Or are they a bad sign, showing an increase in drunken drivers?

“There’s a lot of variables that are hard to pinpoint,” said Police Chief Don O’Keefe. “Usually the more offi cers you have on the road, the more (DUIs) you see.”

In recent years, local police have reduced their ranks from 18 to 14 sworn offi cers, meaning that the department has fewer re-sources to spare. Catching drunken driv-ers, O’Keefe said, frequently depends on

NEW YEAR’S EVE IS THE HIGHLIGHT OF CABBIES’ CALENDAR


Not normally a wallfl ower, Mark Restani was pushed to the edge of the bar to make room for a team of servers hoist-ing trays of champagne for the thirsty crowd.

It was New Year’s Eve at La Costane-ra restaurant in Montara, and the booze was fl owing for the packed room of rev-elers, who were shouting, laughing, spill-ing and — in some cases — wrestling on the barroom fl oor.

Restani, 25, shook his head when the champagne server approached, but the

employee thrust a glass into his hand anyway. Restani said nothing but ditched the drink on a coffee table.

It was no night for him to be drinking. As a cabby, he was everyone’s designated driver and for him New Year’s Eve was the pinnacle night of the year in more ways than one.

“It kind of sucks. Often there’s just a lot of awkward standing around,” he explained. “But if I have one drink, somebody’ll see me, and then all of the sudden I’ll be the drunk cab driver.”

Restani, an El Granada native, was well- known among the bar crowd, and many tipsy friends shuffl ed over to greet him. But conversations were a little stilted due to the booming music and the handicap of his sobriety.

During the midnight countdown, Restani’s cell phone fi nally buzzed with

the job he had been waiting for, and he rushed out to the parking lot. His cab, a well-worn Ford Aerostar van, grumbled to life as he took off down the highway toward El Granada.

Restani met his fi rst customers of the new year along Avenue Alhambra. The passenger door handle of the van had been ripped out, and Restani had to reach across the van to fi ddle with a pair of pli-ers to open the door.

The shocks of the van groaned from the weight of the four passengers who entered, asking to head down to the Old Princeton Landing bar.

“I know I’m getting hammered to-night,” one rider said. “So I’m either coming in a taxi or leaving in a cop car.”

One of his friends followed that point. “We’re intelligent enough to learn from

New tsunami maps refl ect impact

to Coastside


A slate of new maps high-lighting where the California coast is susceptible to fl ood-ing in the event of a major tsu-nami were released late last month. The Coastside is in the danger zone.

A “worst-case” tsunami sce-nario in San Mateo County shows less would be inundated on the Coastside than offi cials previously anticipated. Howev-er, scientists still consider Half Moon Bay one of the top fi ve most vulnerable points in the state, says Rick Wilson, Cali-fornia Geological Survey se-nior engineering geologist.

“It’s like a catcher’s mitt of tsunamis,” said Wilson, lead scientist for the state in pro-ducing the maps. “The way that the bay is facing and the underwater symmetry seem to amplify waves coming in. Par-ticularly the inundation into the (Half Moon Bay) airport is a big concern.”

The maps update a set of similar charts produced in 2005 in the wake of a tsunami that swamped coastlines bor-dering the Indian Ocean af-ter an undersea earthquake.

Sounding the alarms

Tsunamis pose a sig-nifi cant potential danger to Coastsiders, but winter storms and earthquakes are more pressing issues in the short term, says San Mateo County Offi ce of Emergency Services Planner Jim Asche. With that in mind, county offi -cials plan to run an emer-gency exercise in April to help with earthquake planning.

In the meantime, emergency offi cials will continue testing tsunami sirens at 10 a.m. on the fi rst Wednesday of every month, on low volume. The only high-volume test comes in September, Asche said.

If people hear warning sirens sound at any oth-er time, they should tune into 740 AM or 106.9 FM radio stations for more in-formation on evacuation and instructions, Asche said.

— Greg Thomas

[ s k y l i n e ]

RISK TO HALF MOON BAY CONSIDERED AMONG GREATEST IN STATE

Princeton Harbor

Pilarcitos Creek

Miramar

[ t s u n a m i r i s k ]

FREEINSIDE!

THE DOCTORS ARE INOur annual HMB Health and Fitness Magazine features the Coastside Running Club, an overview of apples and profi les of local physicians.

See TSUNAMI a 7ASee TAXI a 7A

Review fi le photo

Searchers scoured the area around Skeggs Point south of Kings Mountain in July, looking for a missing hiker named Douglas May. Last week, offi cials recov-ered human remains in the area.

Skeleton could be that of lost hikerBy Mark Noack


A human skeleton discovered last week around the El Corte de Made-ra Creek Open Space Preserve could be the remains of a San Carlos hiker missing since July.

An unidentifi ed person told San Mateo County Sheriff’s offi cials that he found the human remains last week while walking near Star Hill Road, which runs west off Skyline Boulevard through the open hills.

The human remains were retrieved in a joint operation involving the Sheriff’s Offi ce and the Midpeninsu-la Regional Open Space District. The remains were reportedly little more than a skeleton and tattered clothes, with no obvious clues that could be used to discern who it was.

The skeleton has been delivered to the coroner’s offi ce for DNA analysis, which will take two to three weeks, of-fi cials say.

Douglas John May, a 55-year-old San Carlos hiker, went missing in the same

area in July. A frequent hiker, May often went on

walks at Skeggs Point, a trailhead and vista area just south of Kings Mountain. When his family reported May was miss-ing, authorities located his car at Skeggs Point, but numerous search-and-rescue attempts were unsuccessful.

Sheriff’s offi cials say May is the only missing person last seen in that area. But spokesman Sgt. Wes Matsuura said it was premature to speculate on the identity without defi nitive proof.

“Is this Douglas May? I don’t know,” he said. “We’re not going to guess at this time.” r

REMAINS FOUND IN OPEN SPACE PRESERVE

See DUI a 7A

Map courtesy California Emergency Management Agency

New tsunami maps indicate the threat of tsunami may not be quite as great as originally thought — but experts agree that a tsuna-mi could still leave swaths of the Coastside under water.


Coastside cabdriver Mark Restani of Adams Coastal Airporter was on duty on New Year’s Eve — one of the biggest nights of the year for cabbies the world over.

HMB Magazine

Red portion of the map represents the area at risk of inundation in the event a tsunami.

half moon bay review page 1

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