When Scotts Valley school officials, teachers, students, architects, and contractors dug into a pile of dirt at Tuesday’s groundbreaking ceremony for the Scotts Valley Middle School, there was a sense of release – and of urgency.Relief because finally – more than three years after voters approved the bonds for the project, more than 15 years after the first failed bond vote, and more than 75 years after the first middle school building was built on the site – construction on a new school was about to begin.Urgency because, despite recent delays, the $33.29 million contract to build the Scotts Valley Middle School has an August 2018 completion date.That’s just 14 months to build six new buildings – including a new gym – and renovate four others, with the majority of the work occurring during the teaching year.The site of the groundbreaking was the site of what will be some of the first work of the project, building an administrative office on what had been boys and girls locker rooms. The site preparation work and removal and relocation of portable buildings began last fall.The general contractor, Overaa Construction, won’t be able to begin taking apart the old gym or erecting the pre-fab administration, classroom  or library buildings until mid-June.That’s when a 30-day comment period required by U.S. Fish and Wildlife is over and actual construction permits can be issued.The goal is to have the principal’s office, library and three classroom buildings completed by the end of the calendar year.This will be possible, say architects, because the new structures are modular, pre-fabricated buildings, which will be placed on concrete slabs.The district got its critical greenlight – and cause for celebration at the groundbreaking –when Fish and Wildlife officials last week announced final approval of a plan to ease the impact of the project on an endangered beetle, the Mount Hermon June Beetle, that will allow construction to begin in earnest.That approval had been expected in February, but new requirements – and some bureaucratic foot-dragging – in Washinton, D. C., stalled the process for nearly three months. Superintendent Tanya Krause said pressure from Congresswoman Anna Eshoo appeared to have helped.The project will proceed in two broad phases.The first phase, with a completion goal of the end of this year, will see the erection of three pre-fab class room buildings at the southeast corner of the campus, located at Bean Creek Road and Scotts Valley Drive.In the courtyard of these three new buildings – now an open area where portable classrooms has once stood, the new library will be built. This also is a pre-fabricated structure.Demolition of the old gym will begin in June, said Mike Smith, the staff person who is coordinating the project.After completion of the first phase, the district plans to spend the winter “break” moving into the new classrooms, and clearing out three current classroom buildings so they can be gutted and completely renovated.The two temporary classroom buildings now being used at the southwest corner of the campus will help in this extensive relocation effort.If all goes well, the renovation of the three classroom buildings, and a multi-purpose building which is the current administrative office, can begin.The new gymnasium will rise during the school year, with completion slated for next summer. Plans to build a new athletic field were scrapped because of issues related to the Mount Hermon June Beetle.If all goes according to plan, students next fall will enter a new campus. 

The San Lorenzo Valley Water District Board of Directors on May 8 debated and voted 3-2 to approve a plan addressing the rampant French broom growth in its Olympia Wellfield in Felton.The plan, as proposed by director Margaret Bruce and narrowly approved by the board, had five distinct provisions.When District Manager Brian Lee officially announced the board action the next day, in a press release that was emailed to media, posted on the district’s website and emailed on May 10 to the district’s email list, it mentioned only three of the provisions.Missing from Lee’s press release about the board action – which was distributed by the district’s Santa Cruz public relations firm, Miller Maxfield – was a provision that directed “an immediate hand eradication program” in the Olympia Wellfield. This provision, as described by Bruce and clarified at the meeting for dissenting directors Bill Smallman and Eric Hammer, was for “cutting only,” and would involve no herbicides.The provision also said this no-herbicide cutting of the French broom would be implemented using the $25,000 budgeted for invasive plant removal in the current district budget.Also missing from Lee’s press release sent out by Miller Maxfield was a provision that directed staff to calculate the cost of manual removal of the invasive plants from the watershed – without using herbicides – and add it to the district’s five-year budget documents for the upcoming public debate over water rates.Lee’s announcement did give prominent mention to the fifth provision in the board’s May 8 vote – to begin cutting French broom and carefully applying the herbicide glyphosate to the stumps, identifying large “mother plants” (in Bruce’s words) as the targets of this chemical eradication effort.Lee’s announcement gave that action top billing, going so far as to say that a “super bloom” of the yellow-flower shrub had “inspired” the board to “take a stand to protect the Olympia watershed.”That provision – to apply the controversial herbicide using the “cut-and-stump” method before a “blue-ribbon task force” to be created by the board could weigh in on the method’s safety or effectiveness – inspired Hammer and Smallman to vote against Bruce’s five-part plan.When asked why two of the five provisions of the high-profile decision were omitted from the release and who made that decision, public relations consultant Bill Maxfield wrote:“District staff are confident the press release adequately covers the major points included in the motion that are of greatest interest to the public (selective use of glyphosate; immediate cutting in target locations; applying for a “take permit”; establishment of a task force), understanding that all information/details related to the motion is public and available. The formatting and purpose of the press release is intended to present the gist of the news resulting from the motion, as well as overall context.”The May 8 meeting was not videotaped because it was not a regular board meeting. Maxfield could not say when minutes or audio tapes of the meeting might be available. He also could not provide an immediate answer when asked if either board president Gene Ratcliffe or Bruce had read or approved the text of the announcement before it was released. “The SLV community has really stepped up to actively participate in the district’s discussions about how to address this issue and we’re better for it,” Lee said in the press release. “We have a plan that enables the district to take immediate action, while also making it clear that we’re very much open to a long-term strategy that moves away from use of herbicide.”“It’s time to redouble our efforts to consider new ideas for our long-term effort to protect the watershed,” Lee said. “This plan provides the path to do that.”

A divided San Lorenzo Valley Water District Board of Directors voted Monday, May 8 night to begin applying the controversial herbicide glyphosate in its Olympia Wellfield in Felton.

When the San Lorenzo Valley Water district presented its Bloom and Acacia eradication plan for the Olympia watershed, it used portions of two documents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that supported the district’s claim that it could begin work on the plan immediately, with no required permits.

Rainfall tops 100 inchesThough the water year is not officially over until Sept. 30, the area’s rainy months ended in April. And what a delightfully wet year it was.Indeed, the entire state climbed its way out of the five-year drought, with rainfall rivaling the torrential rains of 1982-83.In north Scotts Valley, where Ferd Bergholz maintains a private weather station, the bucket tipped at 100.89 inches. That’s far above 43.09, which is normal for this time of year.Felton received 92.28 inches for the year. Average for this period is 48.39 inches, according to a Cal Fire report.At Cresta Vista in Boulder Creek 82.31 inches of rainfall has fallen this season.Meanwhile, climate experts are monitoring strong signs that El Nino may be making a comeback in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.“There is significant multi-model agreement that a significant event may unfold in the coming months,” Daniel Swain, climate scientist at UCLA. “That would be pretty eyebrow-raising, since it has only been a year since the last big El Nino.”Swain added that it is still too early to predict what kind of effect this event would have on California.During the 2015-2016 El Nino, the northern tier of the state received above-average rainfall, Central California measured average rain, and the southern part of the state had below-average rainfall.

Felton resident Dr. Ann Lopez dedicates her life to the struggling dilemma of farmworkers on both sides of the border. To celebrate this work she will receive the Democratic Ideals Award this weekend.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials on Tuesday announced final approval of a plan for an endangered beetle that will allow construction of a new Scotts Valley Middle School to begin in earnest.