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The Scotts Valley School District has scheduled a groundbreaking ceremony for its new middle school, even though the project remained stalled this week by a Presidential order.

Directors of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District have invited the public to an environmental committee meeting at 10 a.m. in May 3 to discuss a plan to use glyphosate, an herbicide that last month was labeled carcinogenic by the state of California.

KBCZ, Boulder Creek’s homegrown radio station, continues to amaze by offering eclectic programming and an intimate glimpse into small-town life.Broadcasting at 90.1 FM, the station got its start in 2013 when the Federal Communications Commission made available non-commercial, low-power licenses. KBCZ beams at 100 watts.“We said, ‘We’d like to have a radio station,’ not knowing what that meant,” said station manager Tina Davey, remembering when the Boulder Creek Recreation and Park District first purchased the license.Led by director Hallie Greene and board member George Galt, the BoulderCreek Recreation Center drove the project through a series of community meetings.“People think of the Rec Center as being just for kids,” said Green. “This has brought a whole new demographic.”Green originally handed over the volunteer work of daily operations to interim director Tim Welch, and associate directors Davey (the station’s only paid employee at 10 hours a week) and Sam Peacock. Nitty-gritty technical work was taken on by Paul Nanna.A relatively small investment – slightly more than $12,000 including paid legal and technical assistance – propelled the station into what can arguably be called a worldwide presence.Global listeners from the Netherlands to United Kingdom can tune in at kbcz.org online, while locals from Ben Lomond to Boulder Creek can spin the dial to 90.1 FM for a variety of radio programming.About 25 local DJs entertain listeners, touching a vast range of topics from the garden report and reggae music to heavy metal and Brookdale bluegrass.“The radio station provides a unique recreational outlet for a portion of the residents that was previously underserved,” said Davey. He is currently in search of as many as 30 additional DJs to create programs on just about any subject, from cars and health to cooking and hobbies. Experience is nice, but the station will train those who have never had a radio show.About 50 percent of the station’s shows are prerecorded, but that is slowly changing to live broadcasts. Current live shows include a live drive-time show 4-6 p.m. Monday through Friday, Celtic music with Julie O, noon-1 p.m. Wednesday, and Metal from the Mountains 10-11 p.m. on Friday.Though an actual listener count is not available, about 1,500 people have subscribed to the station’s Facebook page, where there is a link to live radio.Davey said the FM reach will soon expand south to Felton, after their antenna is relocated from the Rec Center to a donated space near one of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District’s tanks.Though the Rec Center continues to make donations, along with other businesses and residents, the station is barely meeting its operating expenses.Davey said the station’s fund-raising goal is $10,000 this year to help with equipment and software. Most of the money to run the station comes from fundraiser dances and summer outdoor movies.The fourth annual all-ages spring fundraiser is scheduled from 7-10 p.m., Saturday, April 22. The dance will take place at the Bear Creek Country Club, 15685 Forest Hill Dr. in Boulder Creek.All ages are welcome and donation is $10 adults and $5 for kids.KBCZ DJs will be spinning 60s platters and there will be a silent auction. Beer and wine will be served. The theme for this year’s dance party will be: “Time Machine Dance Party, 1960s Edition.”  60s attire and costumes are encouraged.“Flicks in the Sticks” Outdoor Movie Night, presented by KBCZ at Junction Park, begins again in June.

Month after month, Rick Moran, the citizen member of the Environmental Committee of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District, had raised the issue with his fellow committee members, district directors Margaret Bruce and Gene Ratcliffe.Last week, he raised the issue again, and again he was outvoted: A plan endorsed 2-1 by the committee was sent on to the full water board.To “improve the health of the [Olympia] watershed and protect its native habitat,” the proposed district plan would eradicate stubborn French broom plant thickets using the herbicide glyphosate. The 180-acre watershed, owned by the district, is located off Zayante Road in Felton.A frustrated Moran decided to write a brief letter to the Press Banner, fewer than 100 words, asking his neighbors to come to the April 20 meeting of the water district board, to protest use of the herbicide, whose common retail version is Roundup, sold by Monsanto. In the letter, Moran called the herbicide “highly controversial.”The Press Banner published the letter on its website on April 13, and also posted a reference to Moran’s opposition to it on its Facebook page, along with a link to a Center for Biological Diversity article that noted that the state of California on March 28 – two weeks before the committee decision by Bruce and Ratcliffe – had designated glyphosate a “known human carcinogen.”What followed can only be described as a firestorm, at least by San Lorenzo Valley standards.In the first day, the post was shared by more than 40 Facebook pages, reaching more than 4,000 people. It also was a topic of conversation on the Good Morning Monterey Bay talk show of KSCO in Santa Cruz hosted by Rosemary Chalmers of Ben Lomond.On April 12, Moran wrote a detailed 750-word letter – reprinted in this week’s Press Banner and posted online earlier this week – to the full water board, laying out his case against any use of the carcinogenic herbicide by the district anywhere in the San Lorenzo River watershed. The SLV water district supplies water to nearly 8,000 homes and businesses.“Water quality is far too important to jeopardize with an herbicide that raises this much doubt. Roundup should not be used in our watershed,“ Moran wrote. “If this plan goes through it will undermine public confidence in the water it drinks.”Two days later, the district announced that the committee’s Olympia watershed preservation plan had been pulled from the April 20 agenda.“Changes recently discovered in the behavior of the June beetle resulted in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service requiring an additional permit to ensure protection of the beetle,” the district said in a 473-word statement posted on its website explaining why the proposed eradication plan was pulled from the agenda.Yes, that is the same endangered beetle whose sandhill habitat requirements continue to stall construction of a new middle school in nearby Scotts Valley.Environmental activists, including a group called the San Lorenzo Valley Watchdogs, indicated earlier this week that, agenda item or not, they would show up at the April 20 meeting to let the water district board know how they felt about using glyphosate.The plan was not withdrawn, simply held back. And district officials gave no indication it planned to replace the herbicide plan.One group of residents in Upper Zayante this week was preparing to mobilize community volunteers to offer to pull all 19,000 broom plant by hand.The district reposted its position statement on the Olympia watershed plan on the Watchdog Facebook page, and the Press Banner Facebook page, and in responses to individual posts on the pages, in a unique direct public communication effort.The district attempted to draw a distinction between spraying the controversial carcinogenic herbicide and applying it directly.“The plan includes a combination of cutting mature plants and a one-time application by a certified expert of a small amount of diluted glyphosphate herbicide to individual French broom stumps, one at a time, using a specialized sponge applicator. There will be absolutely NO spraying of herbicide in the watershed.”It misspelled the name of the chemical, glyphosate.The district statement stressed that its plan “restricts, and where feasible, excludes the use of pesticides or herbicides on district land. In addition, the district supports the goal of not using herbicides or pesticides anywhere in the San Lorenzo River watershed.”Moran isn’t buying it.“This Invasive Broom Plan calls for applying the herbicide Roundup/Glyphosate on over 19,000 plants within a 180-acre area. That amount of herbicide doesn’t come close to not ‘minimizing its use,’ nor is it being sensitive to the public opposition of such use,” he wrote the board.

It may have seemed anticlimactic, especially with a very wet April in the forecast, but Gov. Jerry Brown nonetheless announced on April 7 an official end to the three-year statewide drought emergency.