The La Honda Voice

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The La Honda Voice July edition is available in the Post Office and here for download. Enjoy

Mindego Hill Opening Space

by Randy Vail

On Friday, June 25th at 1:30 pm the Use and Management Committee of the Mid-peninsula Regional Open Space District held a special meeting to decide on the development of trails in the Mindego Hill Open Space. 

Originally purchased by POST from long time land owners, the True family, Mindego Hill was subsequently purchased by MROSD with the agreement that they would provide public access to the top of the hill by the summer of 2011.

The committee decided to proceed with the first of two options of a planned trail route to the top of the hill from the gate that connects it to the adjacent Russian Ridge Open Space.  Several studies of native wildlife, including the protected San Francisco Garter Snake, are underway before further development will take place.  However, it seems likely that the Option 2 trail, which includes an existing road on the property, will eventually be opened, and there is the possibility that the two trails will be connected to create a loop around the hill. 

Initially, the trail will be open only to hikers, but in a year or so, pending the outcomes of the various studies, the trail may opened to equestrian users and possibly mountain bikers.  The process of creating a trail involves the approval of various agencies and various permits and necessitates many considerations of steepness, views of the hill, lines of sight on the trails, views from the trail, trail routes through various vegetation areas and wildlife habitats, and the potentially conflicting interests of public users. 

At the meeting, the possibility of eventually connecting the Mindego trails with the Cuesta La Honda Guild trails was raised.  Some of the committee members seemed amenable to the prospect of potentially connecting the Mindego Open Space with the La Honda Open Space.  However, discussion, decision, approval, and action are lengthy and involved processes that will take years.  In the meantime, initial public access to this beautiful and majestic open space - in our own backyard - is now only one year away.

The following is a brief history of Mindego Hill from http://www.gomindego.org/history.php

"People have lived on Mindego Hill since 500 A.D., beginning with the Ramaytush Costanoans, a group of Native American hunter-gatherers. They thrived in the area until the early 1800s, when immigrants arrived to settle the West.

In 1859, Juan Mendico, a Basque farmer and the first non-native settler, established a homestead and cattle ranch here. Historian Bud Foss, in his 1941 book History of La Honda, describes the California Grizzly Bear that once frequented Mindego Hill, and how in 1885 they got away with seven of Juan’s calves. Interestingly, in the Basque language, Juan Mendico’s name means “John of the Mountain”—a prophetic coincidence, considering the property was eventually named for him as “Mindego” Hill.

In 1954, Admiral Arnold True, a World War II veteran and professor of meteorology, and his wife, Corinne, purchased Mindego Hill, where they continued the ranching traditions of the land. In 1977, their son Chris took over management of the ranch and later began raising Brahman and Angus cattle as well as a cross of the two breeds for rodeo bull-riding. Admiral True passed away in 1979, and Mrs. True passed away in late 2006. The couple always treasured the natural beauty of their land and spoke often of preserving it. In honor of their parents’ wishes, the True family finalized an agreement with POST to protect the land permanently. Thanks to our mutual goal of land conservation, we all have a unique opportunity to save Mindego Hill for generations to come."

 

 

Pescadero migrants drank well water with dangerous levels of nitrates

 

(excerpts from the San Mateo County Times)
More than two dozen farmworkers and their families are looking for new places to live after being evicted from their Pescadero homes because their water source is contaminated by nitrates.

“ Families living at two labor camps in rural Pescadero have been drinking unhealthy levels of nitrate-contaminated water for years, possibly even a decade, a San Mateo County Times investigation has found. About 50 people — 28 farmworkers and their families — were evicted from their barracks and trailers south of Pescadero on May 14 after county health officials discovered they were drinking and cooking with nitrate-tainted water more than six times the public health limit. Another camp with at least 25 residents was closed on May 18 for identical reasons. The families are tenants of "Red" Marchi, their employer and owner of Marchi's Central Farm. The farm grows 300 acres of Brussels sprouts, leeks and other vegetables in and around Pescadero. .Nitrates are linked to blue baby syndrome, which cuts off oxygen to essential organs in infants. It can also affect pregnant women and immuno-compromised adults…Nitrates have tainted Pescadero's drinking water for years. The county installed a well to serve central Pescadero in the early 1980s after the groundwater wells at the local elementary school and under several homes developed serious nitrate problems. A byproduct of nitrogen fertilizer and leaky septic tanks, nitrates seep into groundwater and stay there for decades, even forever…Marchi's Central Farm also has a long history of housing safety violations, county records show.

( From Julia Scott, San Mateo County Times, for the full article go to: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/nationalbreaking/ci_15119587?source=email)

The La Honda Voice - printable version

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Pescadero Public Radio Service and KPDO-FM

 

Pescadero Public Radio Service was founded in 1994 in order to develop a community-based radio station for Pescadero and outlying communities.  The story of PPRS and KPDO was written by Celeste Worden, who was substitute teacher for the language arts students of Pescadero Middle School. Celeste explains she was having great difficulty getting her students to write even the most basic assignments until she had an idea...

“…As we topped the rise of the bridge, the Bay clear of fog in the distance, my son and I literally fighting over the push-button radio controls, I had an epiphany: if this is what they want, even my own literate and intelligent son, then I would find a way to make it work for me… in my
classroom.

[…]

We would make a mock station, complete with station staffing, program hour, DJ’s, sales creatures, the works. The kids would develop their program philosophy, target market, write copy, select music, determine advertising prices and guidelines: the works, just like real people.

[…]

I knew I had a hit and set about writing down as many of the details as I could imagine for Monday’s presentation to the class. And they went for it, lock stock and microphone. We began immediately: I divided the class according to their interests into Programming, Sales, and Technical staff. They chose a Station Manager, who took himself very seriously right out the gate. I outlined the concept of a ‘program hour’: we had to decide how many minutes were devoted to music, news and advertising. […]

Now Programming had to decide what they were going to play. Pescadero is a mostly rural community with a large Hispanic population, hence the bi-lingual emphasis of our programming. But there was the Rap thing, and then the Country thing, and there were a few Alternative Rockers and Metal Heads in the group as well.

[…]

Now came the biggest carrot I could have found. I made a phone call one day to a young Hispanic jockey at the biggest Rap station in the Bay Area, Chui Gomez, knowing that he was the closest thing to a “Hero” my students had. Relaying the events of the past few weeks, and my history in radio, I begged him to come all the way to Pescadero and listen to the kids’ work. He agreed, without hesitation, and earned my eternal gratitude and respect.

 […]Chui Gomez was expected within the next 15 minutes. They were as nervous as newlyweds. When he arrived, they couldn’t even speak, but just stared as this star, this 30-something, scruffy-faced, round-bellied homeboy who had driven more than 2 hours to listen to their radio broadcast.

And he did. He listened without interrupting for the first 20 minutes, then stopped the tape.

“Who wrote this copy,” he asked.

I pointed to the kids, looking strangely tongue-tied.

He looked at them and asked again, “Who wrote this copy?”

“They did, the students,” I answered, proudly.

He paused, looking from me to them, and finally said, “That’s some of the best copywriting I’ve ever heard.”

I swear, a nuclear bomb could have gone off and they wouldn’t have budged.

 […]

On February 23, 2010, in an emergency meeting of the PPRS board, Daniel Roberts of Pirate Cat Radio was offered the newly created board position of Station Manager for KPDO…I look forward to the successful flowering of a lifelong dream: a station that gives purpose and voice to the youth of Pescadero and beyond, that supports the migrant workers who toil in the fields of California’s coastline and for whom radio is a vital lifeline, and that provides access to the people of Pescadero to a community-building medium of exchange for the free flow of ideas and culture.”

 

The complete story is here:

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