On November 4, 2014, voters overwhelmingly (by 77 percent) approved Proposition 47, the initiative allowing “those with records that include certain low-level felonies to have old charges reclassified as misdemeanors, opening up new opportunities for housing, education and employment.” This may enable as many as 11,000 Santa CruzCounty residents to clear their records and put them on the path to a brighter future.

SCOTTS VALLEY

E-books now available through Scotts Valley Public Library

On Thursday, November 19, the San Lorenzo Valley Water District’s Board of Directors conducted a public hearing to give customers the opportunity to protest the proposed rate increase of $1 per every unit of 748 gallons of water consumed. If written protests against the proposed surcharge had been filed at or prior to the end of the protest hearing by a majority of the affected property owners, the District Board would not have approved the surcharge.

On November 18, a public meeting, “The Politics of Pot,” was held in Ben Lomond at the Highlands Park Senior Center. The new law “The Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act,” and how it will relate to Santa CruzCounty, and particularly in the Santa CruzMountains, was the subject of discussion.

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Guy C. Earl often told his four children—Alice, Martha, Guy Jr. and Eleanor—bedtime stories about his own childhood in “The Enchanted Valley” of the Owens River. ”I had the great good fortune,” he believed, “of spending my boyhood in the midst of majestic surroundings and wondrous beauty —where I walked in Paradise.” “To listen to Father,” remembered son Guy Jr., “one would think that he had spent the major portion of his life in the EnchantedValley.” In fact, his tenure there lasted only half a dozen years.