Community Connection Committee

The Community Connection Committee sponsors and participates in selected community events and provides liaison with other SLV organizations and with government officials.

Events

Redwood Mountain Faire, June 5, 11am–7pm, Roaring Camp Railroad, Felton. Benefits local nonprofits. Volunteers needed! Email or 338-6570

CERT Disaster Preparedness Training, Contact Liz Taylor-Selling (Mountain Community Resources) 335-6606

Candidate's Forums: before elections - contact Sherry Skold or 336-5700

Hammer-Marcum awards: bi-annually in spring - contact Nancy Macy or 338-7107

Halloween pedestrian safety, October 31, Boulder Creek. Contact Hilary Stanley, 338-2247

Liaisons

Education/Cabrillo: Donna Ziel

End of Life Coalition: Emmi Schambeck    Event: Advance Directives Workshop

Felton Library Friends: Michele Mosher, Nancy Gerdt; Sherry Skold

MCR Disaster Preparedness: Mary Hammer; Sherry Skold

Political Connections (Electeds and County and State Agencies): Beth Benjamin and delegates as needed

Reproductive Rights, Women’s Commission: Sheila De Lany

Community Connections news

Winter 2010–2011

The Redwood Mountain Faire Expands to Two Days in 2011

Lower Cost to Attend! Volunteers and Sponsors Needed Now!

Wahoooo!! The magnificent Redwood Mountain Faire will return June 4th and 5th next year for a wonderful weekend of music, arts and crafts, food and drinks, information and fun, at Roaring Camp, while benefitting over a dozen important local nonprofit organizations. The Faire Steering Committee has already been hard at work organizing and improving all aspects of the event, which provided $15,000 to vital local nonprofits in 2010.

It will cost less to get into the Faire next year so that more SLV folks can come enjoy the event!!

Every aspect of the Faire has been reviewed and evaluated, enabling the Steering Committee to make improvements that will create an even more enjoyable experience from the time you enter the parking lot when you arrive, to the time you leave with hearts and minds full of delightful memories.
In order to fulfill this commitment, and to assure that the event raises significant funds for the many nonprofits helping staff the event, volunteers are needed. The VWC must provide half the volunteers at the event itself, and all those doing the planning for the event. You are invited to help us out! It's easy to sign up to help and you may receive free entry to the Faire while having fun working on a great event. Think about all the parts of the Faire, and pick a role you would enjoy being involved in, and let us know! We'll try to match your interests to tasks.

Simply go online to the Faire website, www.redwoodmountainfaire.com and click on the link, below the photos of the nonprofits receiving their checks, under the words "Get Involved!" If you cannot go online to volunteer, please call the Faire message line, 831-216-6535, and leave your name, address, phone number, and interest. The email address works too: . We'll contact you as soon as we can.

Also, in order to provide the Faire at the reduced entry fee, since it costs many, many thousands of dollars to produce, sponsors are needed to provide funds, prizes for raffles and other fundraisers, and supplies for the event. Please consider becoming a sponsor. The publicity and recognition for sponsors is an important part of the PR plan, from the website and poster to giant banners at the Faire and more. If you know of an individual, business, company or corporation that might be willing to sponsor the Faire, please let us know so that we can request their support. Contact Linda Moore (566-7788) with this information.

In addition, if you have contacts in the media, please let them know about the Faire and ask them to help us get the word out about the event as it approaches – then let us know whom you have contacted, so we can provide them with the information they will need for their reporting and to find out if there is something special they want to do.

Finally, if you were at last year's Faire and have good photos of the event, we'd love to take a look, in case we can use them for publicity (with proper credit, of course). Send them to the Faire's email address. Be sure to include the name of the photographer, and indicate that we have permission to use the photos.

There is a LOT to do! Please, contact us right away (and tell your friends), so we can bring it all together after the first of the New Year!

Felton Covered Bridge Update

The Felton Covered Bridge, which is both a state and national historic landmark, was damaged by last winter's storms and is currently in need of about $9,000 worth of repairs.

Because it's part of a county park, Felton Covered Bridge Park, the county is responsible for fixing and maintaining the bridge. County Parks has asked the State Historical Resources money to help pay for it.

While it's unclear at this point whether grant money will be available, it is very clear that Santa Cruz County is short on funds for this type of project. As a result, an informal group has started taking steps to raise money to help the county pay to fix the front left corner that was knocked off by a falling tree; repair the holes in the roof; and to help maintain this San Lorenzo Valley landmark.

The bridge was built in 1892 and is believed to be the tallest covered bridge in the US. It was used by horse-drawn and gas-powered vehicles for 45 years as the only entrance to Felton until it was taken out of service in 1937.

The 80-foot span suffered major structural damage during the storms of 1982 and, thanks to groups like E Clampus Vitas, the Felton Volunteer Fire Department and other local talent, was restored using native materials about 5 years later.

Bill Burton, a retired civil engineer who lives in Ben Lomond, is spear-heading the current effort on behalf of the bridge. Burton feels the bridge is a huge community asset that the residents of the Valley should be willing to help pay to maintain in good condition.

Burton says the other problem is that you can't even see the bridge unless you are right on top of it. He feels that some judicious pruning of the landscaping around the front entrance to the bridge would allow more people to appreciate it. As Burton says, "Perhaps the name of the park should be changed to "Felton Hidden Bridge Park"?

A Felton Covered Bridge account has been set up at Liberty Bank in Felton. If you would like to donate money to help pay for repairs on the bridge, please send a check, made out to "Felton Covered Bridge," to Liberty Bank, 6230 Hwy 9, Felton, 95018.

5th District Report

By Supervisor Mark Stone

The Holiday season is the time of the year when we become reflective about what we have done during the year, and what lies ahead in the New Year. The work of the County Board of Supervisors continues to move ahead through some very choppy fiscal waters, but we are optimistic that there will be eventual relief. Much of the business of the Board may appear mundane, but even basic housekeeping is important and there are always some issues that stand out as critical

As a county we must, by law, balance our budget. In this respect the State budget process weighs heavily on what we can do locally. With much of the state budget locked into constitutional constraints, the most vulnerable area to cuts is human services. I am proud our Board of Supervisors has done everything possible to maintain some supports for our local human service programs, although they remain in jeopardy through the upcoming fiscal year.

Recreation and Parks has been another area that is vulnerable to budget cuts. One bright spot in the Fifth District is the Ben Lomond Park Dam, that for several years had languished in disrepair. Thanks to a very positive and involved community process, County Parks was able to qualify the Ben Lomond Park for a grant that will initiate the first stage of improvements and reinvigorate public use of the park. While we were not successful with the grant that would have funded the second stage of improvements, the community-driven process gave us all a good idea of what is possible. We will continue to try to get funding for the upgrades and I am always hopeful that we eventually will also be able to reinstall the summer flashboard dam.

I was very pleased at the support I received from the entire Board of Supervisors in confronting the issue of plastic bag pollution. It appears each of the cities in Santa Cruz County will also issue bans on the use of single use plastic bags, making it a county-wide ban. After the environmental review is complete the proposed ordinance is scheduled to return to the Board in February 2011 for possible final approval.

There is one issue affecting County residents where the authority of the Board is unclear - the installation of PG&E smart meters. PG&E is a public utility under the legal jurisdiction of the State Public Utilities Commission. However, when that company moved ahead with a new technology and provided scant public information and no public input, the County Board called for a moratorium on further installations at least until the end of the year. We have asked the County Counsel to investigate aspects of possible County authority, requested the company to provide meaningful community meetings and information to the public, and asked the State Legislature and the Public Utilities Commission to investigate the environmental and health effects of the technology. PG&E has not acknowledged any constraint over their actions in spite of an angry public.

The Board also recently adopted in concept a new ordinance governing medical marijuana cooperatives. Some of the key issues are keeping them away from schools, proper security and locally sourced product. I think that the draft ordinance that we are working with is innovative and would provide much needed medicine while providing appropriate protections for our neighborhoods.

A hotly contested issue that will come to the Board in early December is the regulation of Vacation Rentals in Santa Cruz County. I certainly understand the impact that these sites have on their neighborhoods, I remain concerned about regulating where there has not been a demonstrated problem. I remain in favor of a simple ordinance that would require registration of vacation rentals so that the County would be ensured of collecting much needed transit occupancy taxes and neighbors would have contact information should there be any need to contact the property owner for noise or nuisance issues. If the ordinance is to contain any other restrictions, then it needs to be limited to the beach areas in the County where there are demonstrated problems. This ordinance will be very helpful to the beach neighborhoods but also should have minimal impact on the San Lorenzo Valley.

In the coming year the Board will continue to do as much as we can to maintain all of our responsibilities to the public, but there are some tough choices ahead.

Mountain Arts Center's Holiday Exhibits/SLV Artists in Open Studios

The Gift of Art

You will enjoy both looking and shopping at The Gift of Art, through December 24th, at the Mountain Arts Center in Ben Lomond, across from Ben Lomond Market. You can easily be artful in your gifts this year! A host of local, very talented artists are sharing their work in diverse mediums: jewelry, glass, ceramics, paintings, prints, baskets, wood, sculpture, textiles and more! You will find these works of art and artistry reasonably priced for holiday gift giving. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 12 - 6 p.m. Admission is free and everyone is welcome. Bring your children so they can have a glimpse into the beauty of human creation.

Open Studios Drew Visitors into the Mountains

Those attending Open Studios weekends this year had a huge number of artists to visit in the SLV. Three artists, including Linda Levy's digital paintings and her ceramics pieces, along with Larry Worley's shapely antler and driftwood baskets, and Lori Duino's paintings , helped bring in 300 visitors to their "studios" at the Arts Center, while many others displayed their work at their home studios. The variety of artists in the SLV is remarkable; virtually every kind of art is made locally. There were glowing comments about many of the artists from those who visited local studios.

Kevin Leopold enjoyed demonstrating his remarkable glass blowing artistry at his studio in Lompico: .

Chris Moorhead's "functional art" stained glass designs, and Dyann Paynovich's jewelry, both attracted buyers as well as lookers to Boulder Creek, including many returning fans from previous years. Dan and Laurie Hennig, among the founders of the Arts Center, again attracted a crowd to their ceramics studio in Boulder Creek – drawn in by their unique animal characters and distinctive designs: www.campclimaxpottery.com. Iver and Jen Hennig are also talented ceramics artists whose work brings repeat visitors: www.liveclaypottery.com.
In Felton, Lucy Martin's paintings drew lovers of mushrooms and intimate scenes of nature up close: www.lucymartinart.com ; April Zilber's gorgeous "fused art" glass designs, convinced visitors that her visions in glass were unique, and all found Michael Singer's work remarkable and beautiful; he does fine woodworking at his studio in Felton: www.msfinewoodworking.com.

Ben Lomond photographer, Frank Leonard, brought lovers of nature and of the human form, into his studio, who left with his remarkable calendars: www.frankleonardphotography.com.

Apologies to the other artists in our mountains who were not mentioned in this article. We urge you to visit the Mountain Arts Center in person, not only to see the art on display, but to participate in their many classes and workshops. Check it out online! www.mountainartcenter.org.

IRS Acts on Email Fraud

The IRS has an email address where you can send suspected email fraud relating to the IRS. If you have ever filed a tax return online, you may be surprised to receive an email that appears to be from the IRS. If this happens, send it immediately to so their fraud unit can investigate. (This happened to the VWC when we began to pay our Federal payroll taxes online.) The IRS NEVER EVER contacts people via email.

The Tannery Artspace has Lecture Series

The public is invited to a series of lectures on a variety of topics, taking place in the Tannery's 1030 Community Room, located at 1030 & 1040 River St., Santa Cruz, CA., at 7 p.m. on the third Thursday of every month through June. Dates and topics include: December 16th Understanding Art; January 20th An Evening of Dance and Music in Honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday; February 17th Tannery Musicians Co-Op; March 17th Bohemian Trance: Taking the Group Show "enTrance" to Bohemia, Czech Republic; April 21st Quantum Tantra; May 19th Found Object, Assembly Required; June 16th Council of All Beings. www.tanneryartscenter.org

Mountain Community Resources Offers Free Parenting Workshops

Looking for new ways to manage your child's behavior? Mountain Community Resources (MCR) is offering a FREE workshop series for parents and caregivers to increase their awareness of how to change unwanted behavior and encourage desirable behavior in their children.

Although several of the classes have already taken place, you are welcome to take the next three. Pre-registration is required for all classes. Call MCR at 335-6603 or send an email to to register.

All classes are held at the MCR office, 6134 Highway 9, Felton, from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm and free childcare is provided.

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