This article summarizes Bill Boucher's nearly 33 year career with the City of Morro Bay public works department. It discusses some of his early jobs including drafting work and emergency harbor patrol duties. It outlines some of the major projects he oversaw such as building Del Mar Park in 1979-80. It notes he was laid off briefly in 1982 due to budget cuts but was able to keep his job thanks to a city council member speaking on his behalf. The article touches on challenges like the late 1980s drought and deteriorating infrastructure like aging sewer lines that will be a major future expense. It closes by saying last week marked Boucher's last day in his role as Morro Bay's special projects manager, marking the end

1. Volume 19 • Issue 29 • July 17 – 23, 2008
Zoom — Zoom! One of the dozens of competitors in the U. S. National Slalom
Skateboarding Championships zooms down Turri Road Friday in the Super G
downhill slalom race. More photos on Page 10. Photo by Christopher Gardner
New
Owners,
New
Philosophy
page 15
Eight Local
Gymnast
Make
Nationals
page 12
End of
an Era in
Morro Bay
page 4
Officials
Dedicate
Harborwalk
page 3
YOUR COMMUNITY IN YOUR HANDS
Estero Area
Plan is Finally
Updated
By Jack Beardwood
Some critics talk about the “glacial speed of
government” and a perfect example of that
may finally be winding down locally.
After more than 15 years, it appears that the
County and the California Coastal Commission
have finally arrived at an agreement to update the
Estero Area Plan.
But the document only includes Cayucos and
unincorporated areas east of Morro Bay. Los Osos
is still in limbo.
According to Mike Wulkan, senior planner for
the County, the Los Osos portion of the document
was dropped due to outstanding issues surround-
ing development of a sewer plant, a habitat con-
servation plan to protect endangered species and
serious water supply problems.
The area plan is part of the county’s overall gen-
eral plan and is supposed to be updated every five
years. By that schedule the county is three updates
behind.
In a meeting held at the County Board of
Supervisors Chambers July 10, Coastal
Commissioners voted unanimously to approve
several compromises that the staffs have been
bouncing back and forth for years.
Naturally, it’s not over yet. Wulkan said sever-
al changes will have to be approved by Supervisors
and then Coastal Commission staff would send a
letter of approval to finalize the update.
“We think the changes are generally acceptable
and we will recommend to the board that they
accept the changes,” said Wulcan, who has been
steering the plan through for most of this time.
The update includes design standards for devel-
opment in both the commercial area and residen-
tial neighborhoods of Cayucos. Wulkan said there
will be tighter limits on the amount of construc-
tion allowed on residential lots.
It also includes an enhancement plan for down-
Oddball
Sea Otter to
Get Life
As the Bay Flushes
By Neil Farrell
An oddball, adult male sea otter could be
sentenced to life in captivity after he bit
and scratched a woman at Morro Rock last week,
while apparently protecting a dead paramour.
According to state Fish and Game biologist
Mike Harris, the otter — named “Repo” — had
been seen in and around the bay for more than a
week.
On Tuesday, July 8 a 21-year-old woman saw
the otter on a small beach near the North Jetty
lying with a dead sea lion. Both animals were
about the same size, and Harris said the woman
thought Repo was harming the sea lion. She got
too close and the otter turned on her.
“She thought she was doing good to get the
otter off the sea lion,” said Harris. When she
approached, Repo got mad. “He got real protec-
tive and tried to defend the animal he’d been car-
rying around a few days. She got bit and
scratched.”
One report said she was bitten in the throat, leg
and arm and suffered several scratches, resulting
in what was described as minor injuries.
Sea otters and other marine mammals are not a
concern for rabies, said Harris, who stressed the
point that people should stay away from wild ani-
mals.
“The public should not be approaching a wild
animal period,” said Harris. Instead call authori-
ties who will contact someone who knows how to
handle the animals.
Repo’s had a tough life and has a long rap sheet
with authorities.
Harris explained that about five years ago, the
otter was found as a pup abandoned by his moth-
er in the Monterey Bay area. The Marine Mammal
Center took him in and soon transferred him to
the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which has a special
program that teaches orphaned otter pups to for-
age in hopes they can be released into the wild.
Harris said Repo was eventually tagged and
released, but unfortunately, has become acclimat-
ed to humans. He’s had an eventful existence to
say the least.
He was once bitten by a shark and survived.
Shelbi Stoudt, the Marine Mammal Center’s
stranding manager, said they nursed Repo back to
health and he was released again.
Harris said a couple of years ago he stranded in
poor health in the Monterey-Moss Landing area.
Again, he was rehabilitated and released. A trav-
eler, Repo has been spotted from Moss Landing to
Pismo Beach.
Over the past year or so, Harris said Repo
began exhibiting some rather peculiar behavior.
He’s stranded several times on beaches from
Morro Bay has lost another commercial fishing boat, but
not to government regulations this time. This one is
gone due to bad luck and a pea soup fog.
At about 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 8 the fishing troller
Josephine became lost in thick fog while exiting the harbor
entrance and ran headlong into the South Jetty where she sank
and set off a 4-day effort to recover the wreckage and demolish
the boat safely.
According to Jill Lemon of the Coast Guard’s Marine Safety
Detachment in Santa Barbara, the Josephine had two men
onboard — Daniel Crowell and his father John Crowell of
Arroyo Grande — when it hit the rocks.
“The operator was outbound and became disoriented in the
fog and hit the South Jetty,” said Lemon. When the wooden
hulled, 36-foot vessel built in 1940 hit, the bilge alarm sound-
ed signaling the boat was taking on water. Lemon said Crowell
sent out a “May Day” on the radio and the Coast Guard was able
to rescue the two men unharmed.
The boat however, sank to the bottom and stayed partially
See Odball Otter, page 5See Fishing Boat, page 5
Fishing Boat Hits Jetty, Sinks in
Pea Soup Fog
By Neil Farrell
See Estero Plan Updated, page 4
INSIDE INFORMATION

2. 2 BN • July 17 – 23, 2008 • Bay News

3. Parks Issues Top
LOCAC Agenda
The future of local county park facilities and Montaña
de Oro State Park will top the discussion at the Los
Osos Community Advisory Council’s next meeting, set for 7
p.m. Thursday, July 24 at the South Bay Community
Center.
LOCAC will look at the options for funding a new oper-
ating agreement between San Luis Obispo County Parks and
California State Parks for managing the Morro Bay Golf
Course, the Cayucos Beach and Pier, the Norma Rose park
site, and the top of Bishop’s Peak.
The agreement is slated to be renegotiated by 2010 and
the state wants to put an entrance kiosk up at Montaña de
Oro and charge a day use fee.
One option being considered is for the county to pay the
state some $40,000 a year — adjusted annually for inflation
— to keep Montaña de Oro free to use, or the county could
just let the state install its kiosk.
It’s also possible the county could just walk away from the
agreement and return the golf course, Cayucos Beach and
Pier and the others to the state to manage. Supervisors will
ultimately make the decision on how to proceed.
One thing that’s not going to happen is the state will not
make any promises that if the kiosk goes up, Montaña de Oro
would be guaranteed to stay open despite whatever future
budget crises might arise.
Earlier this year, the governor proposed clos-
ing dozens of state parks including seven on
the North Coast alone, because the state’s
budget is again swimming in red ink. He’s since backed off
that proposal but the future of the state parks is by no means
assured.
LOCAC is hoping the community can come up with some
fresh ideas for the two agencies to ponder. The meeting will
be broadcast live on Charter Cable Channel 20 in Los Osos.
See the LOCAC Web site at: www.locac.us for more informa-
tion on the council.
City, county and state officials gathered last week to
officially dedicate the Harborwalk in Morro Bay,
calling it a major contribution to a statewide pedestrian and
bicycle path. The Chamber of Commerce organized the rib-
bon cutting with city officials and folks from the San Luis
Obispo Council of Governments and California Coast Walk
on hand to praise the project. Mayor Janice Peters told the
crowd of nearly a hundred that the overall project cost $2.9
million and was paid for through a $1.7 million grant from
SLOCOG and an $825,000 grant from the California
Coastal Conservancy, plus thousands from the city’s parking
in-lieu fund. This two-thirds of a mile stretch of path got
its start in 1995 when the city first started discussing the
concept, explained Mayor Peters. In 1998 the city asked
SLOCOG for money and it took until 2006 to gain all the
approvals so construction could begin. The Harborwalk has
been an instant success with hundreds of people walking
and bicycling out to Morro Rock on a daily basis. SLOCOG
director Ron Di Carli said the Harborwalk was
a “really phenominal project” and “represents
what happens when people get a vision and
work together.” Fran Gibson and Nancy
Graves of California Coast Walk gave the
mayor a certificate in honor of the project.
Their group wants to build a continuous bicy-
cle and pedestrian path from the Oregon bor-
der to Mexico. Di Carli said their next local
projects would be to put in a Class-1 bike path
through Morro Bay State Park and a dedicated
path along the beach from Morro Bay to
Cayucos. The Chamber also dedicated a memo-
rial rock bench to the late Ed Biaggini III that
will be installed along the Harborwalk. Photo
by Neil Farrell
Contributing Writers
Ruth Ann Angus
Teri Bayus King Harris
Jennifer Best Olivia Sellards
Ann Calhoun Anita Shower
David Congalton Randy Steiger
Max Conn Lori French
Megan McGreen Valentina Petrova
Romany Waters
art director
Tom Block
account executive
tom@tolosapress.com
Linda Garcia
account executive
linda@tolosapress.com
Jayne Behman
arts
Candice Conti
arts
Brenda Hock
cooking
Ismael Moran
graphic designer
Roxanne Chavez
graphic designer
Dan Gello
account executive
dan@tolosapress.com
Jason Hilford
copy chief
Michael Cervin
taste
Kathrene Tiffin
copy editor
The Bay News is a publication of Tolosa Press
LLC, Copyright 2007-2008 all rights reserved.
One free copy per person. Additional copies can
be obtained at our offices 2308 Broad St. San Luis
Obispo, CA, 93401. Tolosa Press makes every
reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy of its con-
tents. Please notify us if information is incorrect.
Mary Gardner
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mary@tolosapress.com
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bret@tolosapress.com
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Coast News
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reporter
Christopher Gardner
executive editor
chris@tolosapress.com
Neil Farrell
managing editor
Bay News
neil@tolosapress.com
Jack Beardwood
sports editor
jack@tolosapress.com
John Esther
film editor
phone 805.543.6397 fax 805.543.3698
2308 Broad Street, San Luis Obispo, CA 93401
www.slocitynews.com
Call 543-NEWS
Bay News • July 17 – 23, 2008 • BN 3
bay news
news
Send us your letters and submissions
for the Opinion page to:
neil@tolosapress.com or
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Letters and articles may be edited for grammar and length.
Officials Dedicate Harborwalk
Agroup of Cuesta College students wants to start
changing the world by helping orphaned, sick and
injured wildlife on the Central Coast.
“The Wild Volunteers” will launch a countywide volun-
teer recruiting drive this weekend in conjunction with
Pacific Wildlife Care at PWC’s triage center at the Morro
Bay Power Plant. The Wild Volunteers hope to recruit 25
new volunteers for the center, and collect donations to help
fill the center’s “wish list” of items.
An informational meeting for prospective volunteers is
set for noon, Sunday, July 20 at the PWC triage center.
Enter the power plant property off Main Street to access the
center. PWC’s Dani Nicholson, Kathy Duncan, and
Melinda Alvarado will lead the meeting. E-mail to:
kacey_dillman@charter.net or call (323) 806-4500 to
RSVP. Drinks and snacks will be provided.
The Wild Volunteers are five Cuesta students taking a
small-group discussion class. Their project began about two
weeks ago and the students are encouraging community
members throughout the county to get involved with the
center.
PWC is a non-profit all-volunteer organization trained
and certified to rehabilitate sick, injured and orphaned
wildlife. For years, volunteers rehabilitated animals in their
own homes until a few years ago when the triage center was
opened at the power plant. The PWC facility is next door
to a facility run by the Marine Mammal Center that cares
for sick, injured or orphaned seals, dolphins, sea otters and
sea lions, among other marine mammals.
Contact Alvarado at (805) 543-WILD or see the Web site
at: www.pacificwildlifecare.org to see the group’s wish list
and to learn more about PWC.
Wild Volunteers Seek
Committed Volunteers

4. An era came to an end in Morro Bay last week, as spe-
cial projects manager Bill Boucher bid adieu to a job
he’s held for nearly 33 years.
Boucher began his work with the City of Morro Bay in
October 1975 after spending some six months fresh out of
college working for the County trimming trees and striping
roads.
His first city job was as a drafting aid under then public
works director, Doug Stuart who hired him. That job
meant, “You pretty much did everything,” said Boucher,
relaxing in his office last Wednesday, wading through a
mountain of papers on his desk.
Back then the harbor and public works departments were
housed in the same cramped office by the North T-pier.
“You had two harbor patrol officers, a chief harbor patrol
officer and two boats,” said Boucher. “In emergencies, if
they needed a fourth person, they took whoever was handy.
Back in those days there were a lot of emergencies and I got
to be the fourth person on some of those responses. What an
eye-opener.”
In 1978 public works moved up the hill to new digs at
the corner of Piney Way and Harbor Street (a building that
caught fire in the late 1990s).
“The first real project I was given authority on was build-
ing Del Mar Park,” said Boucher. That was in 1979-80. “It
was the first city project of any magnitude since I got here.”
Prior to that the city had built the Centennial Parkway and
Giant Chessboard on the Embarcadero but not much else.
He almost lost his job once. “I was actually laid off in
1982 over budget cuts,”
said Boucher. “Rodger
Anderson, who was on the
city council at the time,
spoke strongly on my
behalf and I was able to
keep my job. How things
would be different if he
hadn’t done that. He will
always hold a special place
in my mind.”
Over the years, he’s
been intimately involved
in the biggest projects in
the city — state water,
the desal plant, street
paving, and untold num-
bers of storm drain, sewer
and water line repairs —
as he worked his way up
through the ranks and even back down a notch.
“The water system has held up pretty good,” he said.
“The streets are starting to deteriorate now but we got 20
years out of them.”
He said the city’s sewer lines are a major concern and will
be a major expense, eating up much of a rate increase the
council passed last year. Some of the pipes are more than 80
years old.
The drought of the late 1980s was one of several chal-
lenges he’s endured. “The salinity in the drinking water
wells was going through the roof,” he recalled. “We had
wells dropping out of service and we reached a point where
we had all the wells on and didn’t know from one day to the
next which would remain operating. We had to go check
the tanks in the morning to make sure they’d filled up
overnight. And there were times when it didn’t.”
Finally the city brought in a portable desalination plant
to filter the Morro Creek wells and get through the crisis.
He brought the desal plant online and the State Water
Project in, amid lots of controversy, something he’s had to
occasionally endure for the past 33 years.
“I’ve always had good relationships with the city council
and the public regardless of what politics people have,” he
said. “I never tried to have a hidden agenda. I always tried
to give the best, most accurate information. I’ve always been
able to tell people stuff they might not want to hear but
once you explain the underlying philosophy or policy they
understand.”
He had good things to say about one former co-worker in
particular. “Jerry Ramos,” he explained, “was the single
most important person in my professional life here. He was
really the one that taught me the importance of public serv-
ice, why we’re here doing what we’re doing. He taught me
you have to be flat out honest and up front. You shoulder
the burden and keep pushing ahead. A lot of that part of me
is from Jerry. I keep pushing that rock up the hill.
“Jerry is a real humble guy. But he’s the most important
public servant for this
community in its histo-
ry.”
In the mid-1990s,
Boucher ascended to the
job of public works
director, which he soon
discovered he was not
well suited for. “I took
over for a few years,”
said Boucher. “The
toughest part of that
time was when Jerry
retired. He left no
replacement. It was too
much for me. The best
decision I ever made was
to step back from that
spot.”
The department was
reorganized and the job of special projects manager was cre-
ated for him. “A lot of the stuff we’re doing now had origins
when I shifted from director to projects manager.”
He met his wife of nearly 25 years, Jaime, on the job, sort
of. She also works for the city in the personnel depart-
ment. Together they have two kids, Mike, 23 and Paula,
21, both of whom were star athletes at Morro Bay High.
That’s understandable, considering both their parents are
former jocks.
Boucher said he met Jaime, who was working for the
recreation department at the time, during a softball tourna-
ment in San Luis Obispo. He had a bum knee and she had
a broken foot. He umpired and she kept score. “We met
that way and I pretty much knew right away she was the
one for me. We’ll be married 25 years in September.”
With his trick knee, Boucher could no longer play sports
but he spent a lot of time coaching his kids in soccer and
baseball and he still chases the white ball around the golf
links. “I don’t count golf as athletic activity,” he laughed.
“With the kids at the point where they are self-sufficient
adults, it’s given Jaime and I the ability to remember why
we fell in love in the first place. It’s been really good hang-
ing out with my honey.”
It’s time to do some other things, he said, like learning to
play guitar, write short stories and maybe do some volun-
teer work in between golf rounds.
“I’ve worked full time since I was 13,” he said. “I don’t
know what it’s like to go to bed at night and not have some
place I need to be in the morning.”
4 BN • July 17 – 23, 2008 • Bay News
bay news
news
town Cayucos to improve its appearance and provide
more parking.
The document has goals for developing parks,
including a coastal bluff park between Cayucos and
Morro Bay.
During recent years, representatives of the
Cayucos Citizens Advisory Council said it was diffi-
cult to make recommendations on development
applications when there were essentially two sets of
building standards. One set is in the current Plan,
and others are in the unapproved update.
Ed Carnegie of CCAC said that some developers
took what they liked from both plans and chose to
ignore what they didn’t like when presenting their
proposals.
According to a Coastal Commission staff report,
the document will:
• Maintain agricultural lands and minimize con-
flicts between agricultural and non-ag uses.
• Enhance protection of ESHA (environmentally
sensitive habitat).
• Improve standards that prevent polluted runoff
from point and non-point sources.
• Ensure that scenic public views are protected.
• Strengthen standards related to bluff setbacks,
potential seawall development and development on
bluff-top lots.
• Maximize public access opportunities to the
shoreline.
End of an Era in Morro Bay
Bill Boucher Retires
By Neil Farrell
Estero Plan Updated, continued

5. Bay News • July 17 – 23, 2008 • BN 5
bay news
Pismo to Moss Landing, including a few
times in the Morro Bay area. What’s unusu-
al is he appeared to be healthy each time.
Repo once hauled out next to the Pismo
Pier on a crowded weekend. People were
able to approach quite close, but he didn’t
attack anyone.
And this isn’t the first time the 65-
pound sea weasel has been spotted
carting around dead things.
About a week before his Morro
Bay incident, Harris said Repo
was in Moss Landing carrying
around a dead sea lion. Sea
otters sometimes exhibit this
strange attachment to the non-
living. To paraphrase Alice Cooper,
some otters “…love the dead.”
Females have been seen carrying around
dead pups; males carry around dead females;
and Harris said he’s gotten reports of sea
otters trying to mate with baby harbor
seals, killing them and then carting around
the carcasses. Sea otters have even been seen
swimming around with dead birds, which
Harris said they sometimes prey upon.
About 1-1/2 weeks ago, Harris explained,
Repo started hauling out inside the Morro
Bay Harbor where he was attracting crowds.
Last Tuesday came the fateful call — Repo
was laying with a dead sea lion at Morro
Rock and someone finally got too close.
Harris said when he came out to check on
the big guy, Repo was acting different than
the past. “I could tell he wasn’t going to let
me get close to him while he was next to
that sea lion,” said Harris, who had to get
out the nets to bring him in.
Repo now awaits his fate
— jealousy his apparent final
undoing.
He was taken to a familiar place — the
Monterey Bay Aquarium. Harris said they
are now waiting for a consultation with the
federal Fish and Wildlife Service on the
otter’s future. It’s likely he
won’t swim wild and free
again.
“We’ll probably put
this animal in captiv-
ity for the rest of its
life,” said Harris.
“We just can’t take
that chance. We’ll
have to find a home for
him and that’s not going
to be easy.”
Adult male otters don’t adjust
well to captivity, he explained, sometimes
becoming more aggressive. Harris said Fish
and Game has a research facility in Santa
Cruz with five other sea otters that can’t be
released because they too have become
accustomed to people.
So, Repo will likely be towed off to the
Fish and Game research facility where he’ll
help biologists develop methods of treating
his wild brethren that get caught in oil
spills.
Lest anyone think Repo is some kind of
perverted critter, Harris said they had no
reports that he had actually tried to mate
any of his no-pulse paramours. “Sometimes
you just get these demented animals,” he
said.
Repo
now awaits his
fate — jealousy
his apparent final
undoing.
Odball Otter, continued
news
submerged until Friday, as the Coast Guard
and its contractors worked to raise the vessel.
The Josephine had an estimated 60 gal-
lons of diesel fuel on board when she sank
and Lemon said a small amount did leak out
but was unsure how much. State Fish and
Game officials searched the jetty and local
beaches but didn’t find any oiled wildlife.
The coast Guard “opened up the Oil Spill
Liability Trust Fund,” said Lemon, and hired
Ocean Blue Environmental to come in and
raise the vessel, as well as clean up any fuel
spills.
At first the boat was anchored near where
she sank about two-thirds of the way down
the South Jetty with a large containment
boom strung around it. But waves rolling
through the entrance were making it diffi-
cult to work on the boat. So she was towed at
high tide Wednesday to calmer water near
Coleman Park where additional flotation
barrels were attached.
By Friday, she was high enough out of the
water to tow down the harbor channel to the
launch ramp. A large excavator was used to
drag the Josephine up into the parking lot
and plans were to crunch it up and haul it off
beginning on Monday.
Lemon said the Coast Guard would con-
duct investigations into the pollution spill
and the loss of the vessel.
Sources indicated Crowell did not have
insurance on the boat. Of note, at the time of
the accident, the Army Corps of Engineers
dredge ship, Yaquina, was working inside
the harbor channel. All of the red channel
marker buoys have been removed, leaving
just the green buoys and the fog light at the
end of the North Jetty to visually navigate
by. Warning flyers have been posted around
the harbor and the Coast Guard has issued
advisories about the missing marker buoys.
Lemon said the Josephine had already
passed the Yaquina when she struck the jetty.
Fishing Boat, continued

6. 6 BN • July 17 – 23, 2008 • Bay News
bay news
opinion
My July 3 viewpoint about the Morro Bay primary
election was explanatory, but John Barta apparently
perceived it as an attack. He’s very angry about the headline,
“Council Upheld Will of the Voters.” He quotes it four
times (“Change Is In the Air,” July 10) and repeated-
ly chastises me for saying it.
Actually, I didn’t say it at all. The headline
was written by the editor. That may take
some wind out of Barta’s sails, but I
doubt it will appease him, since this is
campaign season.
So let’s set the record straight on his
other gripes and imaginative accusa-
tions.
Yes, I was appointed to fill a vacant
council seat without having to run for
office. That appointment was in recognition of
my six years working on the Planning
Commission and one year on the TV Franchise Advisory
Board. I’ve campaigned successfully several times since then.
No, Melody DeMeritt and I did not have any pre-arranged
plot to have her appointed to my vacated council seat when
I was elected mayor. Actually, before her election to council,
Melody and I had only a passing acquaintance. The accusa-
tion is totally false, but I think it reveals a lot about how
Barta does things.
No, I did not leave Stan House “in the cold” regarding
that vacant seat when he was the next highest vote getter in
the election. In fact, I made a very impassioned speech in
favor of appointing Stan (I still have it in my files) but was
unable to get majority support from the council.
And one of my first agenda items as mayor was a discus-
sion on changing policy to seat the next highest vote getter
should that situation happen again, although the council
declined to do so.
No, I certainly do not have “contempt for the voters”
because I mentioned the $12,000 cost of the pri-
mary. Cost was one of the reasons given by a
number of voters who asked the council to
consider a repeal initiative. That we dis-
cussed it indicates respect for those vot-
ers. That we declined to put a repeal on
the ballot indicates respect for the vot-
ers who approved the original initiative.
I absolutely respect our voters, and
consider winning over 30 percent of the
primary vote in a 4-person race a good
thing. I love Morro Bay and (most) of the
people in it, and am glad to serve them for as
long as they want me to.
No, change does not make me “nervous.” Change happens
constantly, and it keeps me interested and engaged.
Unlike Barta, I’ve never had a political axe to grind or per-
sonal agenda or righteous cause as my motivation. My years
of work for our city and its citizens have always been a labor
of love, not a desire for power or position. This concept is so
foreign to Barta that he simply cannot comprehend it, and
that apparently makes him angry…and nervous.
Janice Peters is a 2-term mayor running for re-election in
November. And yes, the editor did write the headline mentioned
above, as he does all the headlines in The Bay News.
‘He Said She Said — Editor Said!’
By Mayor Janice Peters
My
years of work for
our city and its citi-
zens have always been a
labor of love, not a
desire for power or
position.
Two things I hear often from people who have never
done yoga are: I can’t do yoga because I am not flexi-
ble enough; and yoga is not for me because I have such-and-
such disability or health issue.
First of all, I wasn’t flexible either when I started yoga,
neither are the majority of other people who join yoga class-
es. You do yoga to become flexible.
Second, yoga is for absolutely every body. It is a system
that can be tailored to absolutely every situation and every
condition can improve with the practice of yoga. I say this
because I’ve worked with people in wheelchairs, people with
physically debilitating injuries, serious mental issues like
brain trauma, seizures, and people with degenerative diseases
like MS, Fibromyalgia and others.
I’ve worked with people with all sorts of ailments, med-
ical conditions, and issues. One thing always happens —
they feel better, get better, and love the practice, so long as
they stick to it. The question you need to ask yourself is,
“Can you afford not to do yoga?”
Every year 1.2 million Americans have a heart attack.
Most are attributed to a lack of physical activity, stress and
diet. Physical activity affects the function of the heart, blood
vessels, boosts HDL (good cholesterol), lowers blood pres-
sure, and reduces the risk of blood clots, which reduces the
threat of stroke.
Something that seems to deteriorate quickest with inac-
tivity is insulin sensitivity but it is also the thing that
responds the quickest when you are active, according to Ben
Hurley, a professor of kinesiology at the University of
Maryland.
In a study of more than 50,000 people, every 2 hours a day
of watching TV was linked to a 14 percent increase in the
risk of diabetes. Every 2 hours of sitting at work brought a
7 percent increase. Evidence is clear now that people of both
genders who are physically active have a 30-40 percent lower
risk of colon cancer and about a 20 percent lower risk of
breast cancer, with studies being done on other types of
cancer.
So, do you need to become an athlete in order to be
healthy? Absolutely not! Walter Willett, chair of the nutri-
tion department at the Harvard School of Public Health says
30-60 minutes a day of moderate-intensity physical activity
You’re Never Too Young or Old to Yoga
Yoga for Life
By Valentina Petrova
Thank you Trinity
The membership of the South Bay Seniors/People
Helping People wishes to gratefully and humbly
acknowledge the generosity of the congregation and leader-
ship of Trinity Methodist Church of Los Osos.
Trinity’s kindness in assisting in our medical equipment
loan program is a literal “Godsend.” It is through communi-
ty support such as theirs that People Helping People is able
to fulfill its mission of helping meet the needs of the residents
of the Los Osos/Baywood Park community. Thank you
Trinity!
People Helping People is an all-volunteer, non-profit
organization whose activities include: lending medical equip-
ment — wheelchairs, walkers, canes, transfer benches, and
shower stools— distribution of donated food commodities;
and scheduling appointments for seniors in need of legal, tax,
and renter’s assistance.
PHP holds a monthly “social potluck” on the second
Thursday of the month, featuring local community entertain-
ment and Bingo, for members and prospective members.
PHP’s office is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the South Bay
Community Center. Information: 528-2626.
Carol Cribbs for PHP
See Yoga for Life, page 7

7. Bay News • July 17 – 23, 2008 • BN 7
bay news
opinion
Junkie Nation and the
only question now is,
Has our moment of clarity
finally arrived? From the
politicians pandering and from
too many letters to the editor, I’d have to say, Nope. Instead of
a serious, sober evaluation of what steps we need to take to
recover, we’re still in full-blown junkie mode: More gas!
Cheaper gas! Drill in the ANWR! Drill off the California
Coast! Drill in My Backyard! Pump! Pump! More! More!
More!
Yep, in full meltdown junkie withdrawal mode, crazy as bed-
bug, convinced that the cure for oil addiction is . . . MORE oil.
Wrong. The cure for oil addiction is to understand that
cheap and plentiful oil is what got us into this pickle in the first
place. Europeans were paying two, often three times as much
for their gasoline years ago, and as a result they developed very
thrifty, gas-sipping cars. They also maintained and expanded
on their urban rail systems. In short, they understood the con-
nection market price could have on real-world behavior and
consumer choices. The Japanese understood too.
Americans did not want to understand. They thought they
were outside history and outside time, and that their exception-
alism would protect them from reality. That’s Junkie Thinking;
I mean, only an American would actually buy and—serious-
ly—drive a Hummer. Or be fooled by a slick marketing cam-
paign into buying mass quantities of huge, rollover-prone, dan-
gerous, gas-guzzling SUVs or ginormous, macho, engine-boot-
ed pickup trucks that have nothing to pick up, except the kids
after school. We became a nation of Work-a-Daddy corporate
drones stuck in freeway traffic dreaming of becoming
Mountain Men zooming up the side of the Grand Tetons in our
whippy 4x4s, when, in reality, the only thing our 4x4s climbed
was a curb outside our suburban homes.
Like all junkie thinking, when the drug wears off and reali-
ty sets in, our national addiction becomes painfully hilarious.
And sad. Thirty five years ago, President Carter, an adult in his
boring cardigan sweaters, told this nation of children that the
pudding they were consuming would kill them. Told them
they needed to eat their broccoli. But children, being children,
wanted more pudding and elected a man who promised them
lots of pudding and Morning
in America, and so ignored
the coming darkness while
the party raged on.
By contrast, here’s what
the New York Times reports Japan was doing at the same time:
“Japan is by many measures the world’s most energy-frugal
developed nation. After the energy crises of the 1970s, the
country forced itself to conserve with government-mandated
energy-efficiency targets and steep taxes on petroleum. . . . It is
also the only industrial country that sustained government
investment in energy research even when energy became cheap
again. . . . Japan taught itself decades ago how to compete with
gasoline at $4 per gallon . . . it will fare better than other coun-
tries in the new era of high energy costs.”
Only now are we beginning to understand just what those
35 years of brain-addled neglect will cost us—an auto industry
tanking because nobody wants to buy gas-guzzling American
tanks, and an economy in disarray, fueled by the high cost of
gasoline that caught Americans flat-footed. All the pain com-
ing down now was totally avoidable, had we paid attention to
the message during the 1973 oil embargo: Junk will cost you
your life and your nation’s life. It’s time to get serious and sober.
Are we now ready for our moment of clarity? It’s especially
important since an incredibly lethal component has been added
to our drug of choice. A Hummer and a Prius still burn gaso-
line, which contributes CO2 to the atmosphere, thereby
increasing the effects of global warming. So while cheaper
and/or more oil might keep our Junkie Nation going a few
more years, the effects of global warming from the burn may
well end the game permanently.
That’s the real connection that’s now becoming clear. The
pudding that has us hooked is also the pudding that will poi-
son the frugal and the profligate alike. But the response to the
coming crisis will require a nation of sober, very clever, innova-
tive, committed adults—not feckless, addicted children. It’s
2008. We’ve lost 35 years. The bell has tolled once again. Will
we listen this time?
Keep up with Ann at www.calhounscannon.blogspot.com or at
www.newsmissioin.blogspot.com
Fill ‘er Up? No Thanks, I’m Driving
Denial isn’t just a river in Egyptis all you need to make a huge difference.
Women in their 40s and men in their 50s loose
muscle strength at the rate of about 12 percent a year
because they lose muscle mass at the rate of about 5-
8 percent a year. However, with only two months of
resistance training, they can increase strength by 40
percent, reversing the effects of two decades of typi-
cal muscle loss and three decades of strength loss.
Along with that comes more self-confidence, better
balance and fewer injuries.
Yoga is resistance training. In recent studies, yoga
has been found to lower blood pressure, reduce
stress, increase strength, endurance, flexibility and
agility. It has been found to improve circulation,
digestion, metabolism, sleep and even sexual per-
formance. It helps brain performance — focus, con-
centration and improved memory. It helps people
lose weight and maintain it longer than dieting
alone. Yoga is often prescribed for rehabilitation
after injuries, accidents and for managing chronic
aches and pain.
Athletes cross train with yoga in order to improve
performance. It is called the fountain of youth. It is
really a treasure handed down to us from the sages of
India.
It is in the nature of the practice to be truly adapt-
able and useful for every body issue.
Disabled people can have a yoga practice specifi-
cally designed for them and their condition. No one
is too old or young, too fat or skinny, too strong or
weak, too stiff or flexible to do yoga.
Yoga can be as gentle as a feather floating on a
summer breeze, or as challenging as training for the
Olympics. The key is to find your practice and then
to stick to it. As you grow and change, so will your
practice. The possibilities are endless.
Valentina Petrova teaches yoga at the Holistic
Movement Center in Morro Bay. See the Web at:
www.holisticmovementcenter.com for schedule of classes or
call (805) 909-1401 for a private session. Yoga for Life
is a regular feature of The Bay News.
Yoga for Life, continued

8. 8 BN • July 17 – 23, 2008 • Bay News
bay news
community
It was a Thursday morning, June 28, 1990, the day after
the wind-driven Painted Cave Fire raced down a Santa
Barbara mountainside vaporizing hundreds of homes and
scorching thousands of acres in what
seemed like a matter of minutes. The
property damage was inestimable. But
the fire’s furious flames would also take
a life, as I was about to find out.
I was producing a special 6 a.m. news
report for KEYT-TV. I had been up all
night, reporting on the fire’s fury, and
later the destruction it left behind. At
5:30, the phone rang. It was long dis-
tance, from New York.
“Hello, can you help me?” It was a
woman’s voice, and she sounded terribly
distraught.
“My daughter is missing,” she con-
tinued. “I need to know if she’s all
right.”
“Lady, a lot of people have been dis-
placed,” I impatiently replied. Then
realizing how upset she was, I tried to calm her. “She’s prob-
ably at a Red Cross center.”
“No, no, you don’t understand!” She was very persistent
and determined. “Something has happened to her. I know it
has. She calls me every single night, and last night she did-
n’t call.” She sounded unusually sure of herself.
“My daughter’s name is Andrea Gurka. Her husband,
Michael, just called me. He doesn’t even know where she is.”
She gave me her phone number and that of her son-in-
law. I reassured her, promising I would do some checking
and would call her back with any news. But her ominous
tone didn’t sit well with me.
After the broadcast, I called Michael Gurka, who, unable
to go home, was staying at a friend’s house in Goleta. He
wasn’t there, I was told. He was out looking for his wife. I
alerted the Sheriff’s Department and Red Cross, confident
that once the smoke finally cleared, she would eventually
turn up.
By Thursday evening, rumors were rampant about a
woman whose whereabouts were unknown. The next morn-
ing, our worst fears were realized.
Andrea Gurka’s body was found face
down in a creek not far from her house
in the woods directly in the path of the
Wednesday night inferno.
I called her mother, who had just got
off the phone with the coroner’s office.
We spoke for an hour, about Andrea’s
dreams, hopes and inspirations. “You
know it’s ironic,” I remember her telling
me, calmly. “During the last conversa-
tion that my daughter and I had, she
mentioned that when she died, she did-
n’t want her body to be cremated.”
I was to learn, shortly after in talking
with Michael that his wife had suffocat-
ed. On the phone from his friends’
house, Michael told me that when the
fire first broke out, he was in Montecito
finishing errands and heading home. He
immediately called his wife and told her
to leave. But how could she? Their
neighbor was nowhere around. She
couldn’t drive out—the new battery to
her car, one of Michael’s errands, was in
his trunk. And she couldn’t walk out
because she had a weak knee. The only
option, they both decided, was that she
head for the creek and lie low in the
water until he got there. But the fire
denied him access. All he could do was
hope and pray that Wednesday night,
that his wife had survived.
And that she might have done, fire
investigators later told Michael, had she
moved 10 yards to either side of where her body was found.
Michael knew, whether he liked it or not, that Andrea’s
death was now the top news story, and related to me that
morning that he needed time to
think about whether or not to
appear on our news that evening.
He called a half hour before the
newscast and said he had some-
thing to say.
I rushed out to his friend’s
house in Goleta to capture on tape
what I could, and then back to the
studio to get it on the air. I’ll
never forget first gazing upon the
man who was suffering the loss of
his dearest companion. Through
the screen door between us, all I
could see were his eyes, steadfastly
penetrating the gauze. In front of
the camera, Michael very calmly
and with assurance spoke for 40
seconds, not so much about the
enormous tragedy of the now-deadly fire, but more about
overcoming the losses shared in order to rebuild the commu-
nity and rekindle its spirit. For a man I imagined was bur-
dened with such grief and possible guilt, it was a very pow-
erful and positive message.
We aired it moments later that night, and in the days that
followed, Michael received the overwhelming support of the
community. He appeared on our Painted Cave Fire telethon
a week later, not only as a volunteer answering the phones
for donations for fire victims, but as a guest speaker
throughout the evening, where his presence exposed the
pain of the past yet provided an inspiration for the future.
I didn’t see Michael for a year after that, when he called
me on the first anniversary of the Painted Cave Fire. We
agreed I’d produce a follow-up story on his life since then. I
found him once again to be living in Santa Barbara’s volatile
backcountry. The weather was warm that afternoon, and a
breeze was blowing. The wind chimes were clattering. We
looked at each other. He didn’t have to say a word.
Fire Now Fatal
Good to be King
By King Harris

9. Bay News • July 17 – 23, 2008 • BN 9
bay news
community
More than 700 years of
tradition will again be
celebrated when the 84th
Annual Portuguese
Celebration comes to the
Cayucos Vet’s Hall, Saturday
and Sunday July 26-27.
The festivities begin at 5
p.m. Saturday with dinner fea-
turing Sopas, a traditional
Portuguese dish. Recitation of
the Rosary begins at 7:30.
Dancing by Acoreano (a tradi-
tional Portuguese folk dance )
and American music from 8
p.m. to midnight with the
“Grand March” showcasing the
queens at 9 p.m. All of these
events are free and open to the
public.
On Sunday, the festivities
start at 10:30 a.m. with the
annual parade of queens from
various Irmandade do Divino
Espirto Santo (I.D.E.S.) organi-
zations.
Sunday the 27th will commence at 10:30 a.m. at the
Vet’s Hall with the Parade of Queens and their courts, rep-
resenting the I.D.E.S. organizations from all over
California. The parade will march up Ocean Avenue to St.
Joseph’s Catholic Church for 11 a.m. mass where the coro-
nation of the Conselho Biera Mar No. 106 Senior and Junior
Queen will also be held.
The 2008 queens will lead the parade back to the Vet’s
Hall where there will be a barbecue from 11:30 a.m. to 2
p.m. Cost is $15 a plate (with top sirloin, beans, salad and
bread). An auction will begin at 2 p.m. with a raffle follow-
ing the auction.
Marissa Hay of Morro Bay has been selected as this year’s
senior queen. She is the daughter of Thomas and Mary Hay.
Marissa’s attendants are Ellyssa Boehm, daughter of Joseph
and Janda Boehm of SLO and Tessa Andreini, daughter of
Gary and Denise Andreini of Arroyo Grande.
The Junior Queen is Holly Thomas, daughter of Eric and
Cari Thomas of Cayucos. Holly’s attendants are Lani
Krossa, daughter of John and Gwenn Krossa of Cayucos and
Cynthia Potter, daughter or Todd and Georgianna Potter of
Cayucos.
This celebration dates back some 700 years and honors
Queen Isabel of Portugal who sold her jewelry during a
time of drought and depression to help feed the poor. To
show her love and humility, the popular queen would place
her crown upon the head of a young village girl.
Queens and court of the 84th Annual Portuguese Festival in Cayucos are back row left
to right: Ellyssa Boehm, Marissa Hay (senior queen) and Tessa Andreini. Front row
are: Madison Potter, Holly Thomas (junior queen) and Cynthia Potter. Submitted photo
84th Annual Portuguese
Celebration July 26-27CASA Adds
to Board
Court Appointed Special Advocates of San
Luis Obispo County, recently elected tow
new board members for its efforts to help abused
and neglected children navigate the court system.
New board members are: Lindsay Waugh of
American Principle Bank, and Brian Baker of
Carmel & Naccasha LLC, Attorneys at Law.
Continuing board members include: Dena
Bellman, State Department Parks and
Recreation, president; Cindy Wittstrom, Juvenile
Justice Commission Chair, vice president; Lisa
Winn, Avila Beach Marine Institute, treasurer;
Rose Marie Picanco, Heritage Oaks Bank, secre-
tary; Tony Brizzolara, Morgan Stanley; Barbie
Butz, business owner; Christine Cornejo, City of
San Luis Obispo; Mike Manchak, Economic
Vitality Corp.; Hillary Trout, Barbich, Longcrier,
Hooper & King; and Irene Vega, SLO County
Public Health Department.
Call 545-6542, or see the Web site at:
www.slocasa.org for more on CASA.
OBITUARY
Beverly Doris
Wade
Beverly Doris Wade of Newport Ore., and
formerly of Morro Bay, died June 27, 2008
at a Newport hospital. She was 86.
Beverly was born April 17,1922 in Illinois to
Adrian and Irene (Howk) Sorenson. She attended
school in Corvallis, Ore., and graduated from
high school in Los Gatos, Calif. Beverly was self-
employed as a pet groomer at Bev’s Dog
Grooming in Morro Bay. She was a lifetime mem-
ber of the Morro Bay Eagles and retained dual
membership with the Newport Eagles after mov-
ing to the Oregon Coast, where she was very
actively involved. Bev loved working in her yard.
She is survived by a daughter, Camille Jones of
Newport, and a son, Fred Inman of San Antonio,
Texas; and by a sister, Margarite Swisher of
Pennsylvania. She had two grandchildren and five
great-grandchildren. Beverly was preceded in
death by her husband Arthur Wade. A private
family memorial has already been held in
Oregon. Donations in her memory may be made
to the Alzheimer’s Association, 225 N. Michigan
Ave., Floor 17, Chicago, IL 60601-7633.

10. 10 BN • July 17 – 23, 2008 • Bay News
bay news
Turri Road in Los Osos turned into a
major speedway for skateboarding as
dozens of professional and amateur boarders
from the U.S. and several foreign countries
turned out for the U. S. National Slalom
Skateboarding Championships.
The men and women competed in the
Super G downhill race on Turri Road
Friday, as the cones were spaced about 50
feet apart and speeds topped 35 mph. At
those speeds a wipeout could be highly
painful.
Friday afternoon, the skaters broke in the
Harborwalk bicycle path in Morro Bay as
they held a One-and-Done tight slalom race
that had 50 cones set just 6-feet apart.
Competitors got just one chance to run
through the course, racing the clock and try-
ing not to knock down more than five cones
or be disqualified.
On Saturday, they took over Pacific Street
for the hybrid and tight slalom prelims fol-
lowed by a fun event — the Kahuna
Longboard Skate Paddle Race — on the
walkways at Cloisters Park. Competitors
used long sticks as paddles surfing their
skateboards through the course.
On Sunday the slalom races returned to
Pacific Street for the finals and to crown the
new U.S. champions. We’ll try to get the
names of the winners for next week’s sports
page.
Photos by Christopher Gardner and Neil
Farrell
skateboarding

11. Bees If You Please
Wild Things
By Ruth Ann Angus
You’ve probably heard the buzz; it’s been in the news. Bees are in trouble.
I watch the busy bees in my garden and I find it hard to think what might be going on
with them. First of all, there is more than one kind of bee.
My big succulent is flowering and large black and yellow bumblebees are all over it. The
rest of the garden, with a variety of colorful flowers, is visited by smaller, black and yellow
bees that I identify as honey bees. There appear to be a lot of them, so what’s the problem?
Honey bees have been declining in 35 states, Europe and South America. As many as
200,000 bee colonies may have already disappeared. The disaster is a mystery as no one
knows what is causing the decline. One day a hive may be full and active and the next day
barren, with the bees literally disappearing overnight.
“The bees just take off from the hive and never return,” one beekeeper said. “We don’t
even find any carcasses.”
So far a third of honey bees in the U.S. have disappeared. This phenomenon first came to
light in 2006 and has grown worse every year.
Honey bees are critical to agriculture. You may have seen the white beehive boxes set out
in local fields and orchards. Commercial beekeepers transport the hives to farmers at their
request to pollinate their crops.
One-third of all the food produced in the U.S. is pollinated by bees. Corn, wheat and rice
are not affected but would provide us with monotonous and unsatisfactory nutrition if they
were the only crops available.
Because of the needs of agriculture, we rely on bees for more than what nature needs. As
agriculture calls for bigger and bigger harvests, it bears the question, are we overworking
our honey bees and other pollinators, possibly to death?
The life of some honey bees in a hive is limited. Worker bees live only 30 days. Some of
them become foragers at 3-weeks old. At this time they communicate with other bees in the
hive by performing a special dance using movement and sounds to relay specific sites where
nectar may be found. In some cases new foragers are setting out but never return to perform
the dance.
If a bee falls ill it leaves the hive to die in order to prevent the rest of the population from
getting sick.
There is a name for the mysterious decline, “colony collapse disorder” (CCD), and scien-
tists are frantically trying to find its cause. Everything from malnutrition to AIDS has been
suggested.
Bees are adversely affected by pesticides and the Varoa Destructor mite also kills them.
But in this case the dead bodies are found. With CCD they just disappear. It might be that
pesticides, parasites and poor nutrition could all be the cause.
Certain viruses are being explored and one called, “Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus” (IAPV),
has been found in Israel, the U.S., China and Australia. But whether this is the culprit is
not known.
The more hardy Africanized bees appear to be resistant to CCD and
beekeepers are now trying to interbreed the
“killer bees” with honey bees. In the meantime,
many keepers are using Australian bees to
build up their depleted hives.
A 4-year research project will start soon
with multiple universities taking part. If
the cause of colony collapse disorder is not
found soon, it is estimated there could be
no honey bees in the U.S. by 2035.
Busy as a bee freelance writer and nature
photographer Ruth Ann Angus makes her hive
in Morro Bay. Wild Things is a reg-
ular feature of The Bay News.
Send comments to: neil@tolosa-
press.com.
Bay News • July 17 – 23, 2008 • BN 11
bay news
wild things
Bees coming out of hive.
Bee boxes in almond tree grove.

12. ALos Osos girl is among several local gymnasts that
has tumbled her way to the National
Championships.
Erica Rohach, 13, is one of eight members of the Central
Coast Gymnastics’ Acrobatic team heading to the National
Championships in Des Moines, Iowa July 25-Aug. 1.
All eight took first place in their events at the recent
Region 1 Championships in Riverside, which included ath-
letes from California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado.
Rohach and Cameron Monroy of Arroyo Grande won the
Level 7 Women’s Pair Age 12-14 group. They were credit-
ed with 24.867 points.
“I’m super excited,” Rohach said about her upcoming
appearance at the nationals.
She was pleased with her performance at regionals. “I felt
like all my practice really paid off,” she said. “I could final-
ly see all of my progress. It’s not just getting up and com-
peting, but also working as a team. Everybody on the team
works their hardest. It has really shown this year.”
The team’s coach, Christina Dillon, a Cal Poly student
and team member, said Rohach is the consummate per-
former. “She loves to get in front of the judges and show
off,” said Dillon. “She always impresses them with her atti-
tude and facial expressions. More than anyone, she makes
her routine look fun.”
According to Dillon, Acrobatic Gymnastics — or Acro
— is not just tumbling and dance like traditional gymnas-
tics. It integrates the grace and beauty of dance, the balance
and strength exhibited in gymnastics, with the magnifi-
cence of teamwork not shared with any other sport in the
USA Gymnastics family.
“Groups of two to four athletes reach new heights in
gymnastics by performing tempo, flight, and balance skills,
seemingly defying laws of physics and human movement,”
she said.
Dillon and Bryn Andersen of Paso Robles took top hon-
ors sat regionals in the Level-8 Women’s Pair Age 17-over.
Their score was 51.000.
In the Level 5 Women’s Pair Age 11-under, San Luis
Obispo resident Emily Flachman and Catherine Mulder of
Atascadero were winners. They tallied 23.633 points.
San Luis Obispo resident Shanna Sullivan and Janelle
Setina of Grover Beach were victorious in the Level 7
Women’s Pair Age 17-over with a score of 22.200.
“They’ve improved incredibly and they’ve been winning
everything all across the board,” said Dillon. “It’s amazing.
They definitely put in a ton of work, a ton of time and
effort. They have to miss so many other outside activities,
like dances and family gatherings, in order to come to prac-
tice all the time and just work really hard. It’s a lot of com-
mitment, but it shows. They work hard and it pays off.”
Dillon, who has been coaching them since October, said
that her partner, Andersen, is committed to the sport and
the team. “She has to come all the way to San Luis Obispo
several nights a week and her practice schedule is constant-
ly changing around my work and school schedule. This
summer she’s even had to stay at the gym late at night to
practice but she still sticks with it and always does really
well at competitions.”
She said that Setina and Sullivan were in a trio until
halfway through the year when one of their teammates was
no longer able to compete. In order to qualify for the state
championships, they had to relearn their routine and all
their tricks as a pair in only one week. Since then, they got
second place at the State Championships, first at the region-
al championships, and were voted by all the other teams in
Region 1 to be the 2007-08 Group of the Year.
“Shanna put a tremendous amount of time and effort into
learning how to base a pair,” said Dillon. “It is completely
different from basing Trio which she has done the last few
years, so it’s amazing how quickly she relearned everything
she knew and was able to compete and succeed in such a
short amount of time.
“Janelle never misses practice and is so funny. She’s defi-
nitely the class clown. She’s a little blond-haired, blue-eyed
acrobat who likes to beat box and break dance when no one’s
looking.”
12 BN • July 17 – 23, 2008 • Bay News
bay news
sports
Erica Rohach of Los Osos and Arroyo Grande resident
Cameron “Cami” Monroy perform at the regionals.
Eight Local Gymnasts
Head to National Championships
Los Osos Girl Among Regional Champs
By Jack Beardwood
See Nationals, page 13

13. Having lost eight seniors to graduation, includ-
ing County Player of the Year Dylan Royer,
the Morro Bay boy’s basketball team has to improve by
leaps and bounds this summer if they expect to be
competitive next season.
The Pirates started off with a 3-7 record playing in
the Azusa Pacific and UC Irvine tournaments, but the
team has won nine of 13 since then.
“Because we have 11 new faces to this year’s varsity
we took some lumps the first couple of weeks of sum-
mer basketball,” said Morro Bay head coach Dave
Yamate. “It is a big adjustment from the lower levels to
the speed and strength of the varsity level. Not only did
we have 11 players adjusting to varsity competition but
we also had to adjust to playing together.”
Yamate said their goal for the summer is to improve
every week, come together as a team, adjust to varsity
competition and most importantly, get ready for the
highly competitive Los Padres League.
“We have shown tremendous growth the past two
weeks,” he said.
The Pirates went 4-1 at the Pioneer Valley High
School Summer Tournament. Their only loss was 68-62
to San Luis Obispo. After that, they defeated Paso
Robles 48-38, Pioneer Valley 37-14, Nipomo 48-38
and Righetti 57-49.
“Righetti starts two players with good height at 6-8
and 6-7,” said Yamate. “It was a big win for us and a
good sign of our continued improvement. I’m very
excited about this year’s team. They are a great group of
kids. They get along well and with a lot of hard work
we are looking forward to an exciting basketball season
in 2008-09.”
With nine games remaining on the summer schedule,
Morro Bay is now 12-11.
The only returning players from last year’s squad that
advanced to the second round of CIF are Daniel Kersten,
a 6-2 forward, and Jun June Ebreo, a 5-11 guard.
Bay News • July 17 – 23, 2008 • BN 13
The coach praised Mulder for her dedication.
“She never misses practice and always has a huge
smile on her face. She has learned so many skills
that are way above the level she’s competing in
right now. It’s hard for me to remember that this
is only her first year.”
Dillon said Flachman makes everything look
easy. “She has worked so hard to learn skills that
she’s afraid of but when she gets out on the floor
at competitions you’d never know.”
Central Coast Gymnastics is located in San Luis
Obispo. Acrobatic Gymnastics is one of five disci-
plines under the auspices of USA Gymnastics, the
official governing body for the sport.
USA Gymnastics is responsible for the training
and development of the teams and athletes who
represent the U.S. in the World Championships
and World Cup competitions.
Daniel Kersten (No. 5) is one of only two returning play-
ers from last year’s Morro Bay boys varsity team.
Photo by Jack Beardwood
Nationals, continued
Young Pirates Working
Hard this Summer
bay news
sports

14. 14 BN • July 17 – 23, 2008 • Bay News
bay news
public safety
Morro Bay
Police & Fire Logs
The Morro Bay Fire Department responded to 37 calls
from June 29-July 5 including 15 advanced life sup-
port medical aids and nine basic medical emergencies. There
were three public assists and one injury crash. They also
responded to four requests for mutual aid in Cayucos and
Los Osos that all turned out to be false alarms. The depart-
ment has 844 calls in 2008.
July 10
• Show-off: Police stopped a woman driver at 10:25 p.m.
in the 300 block of Morro Bay Boulevard but could only get
her on exhibition of speed.
• Vandalism: Some scoundrel slashed the tires of an inno-
cent car in the 400 block of Napa Avenue.
July 9
• Busted: Police picked up a 26-year-old hooliganette in
the 3000 block of Main Street for violating felony proba-
tion.
July 8
• Pot: Police stopped some 21-year-old hombre at 8:45
a.m. in the 1000 block of Quintana Road and arrested the
pothead for allegedly having less than one ounce of Mary
Jane in a vehicle, a convenient way to get around the
decriminalization laws.
• Camper: Police actually arrested a homeless man in the
100 block of Embarcadero for violation of the city’s camp-
ing where we can’t collect a bed tax law. He’s now camping
in County Jail at taxpayer’s expense.
• Arrest: Police arrested three men at a motel in the 500
block of Embarcadero for alleged “street gang felony crimi-
nal activity of a death threat” and creating a disturbance,
which is no doubt what they’ll plea to.
July 4
• Fraud: A citizen in the area of Morro and Olive Streets
reported getting his or her credit cards ripped off and some
scumbag running up more than $900 in phony charges.
• DUI: Police stopped a 25-year-old man in the 2600
block of Main Street and arrested the sozzled gent for suspi-
cion of driving crapulous.
July 3
• Oops: Harborwalk claimed its first stumblebum as a
man reportedly walked off the pathway in the 1100 block of
Embarcadero at 9:36 p.m. and landed on the rocks. He was
dusted off and by some miracle, police let him go home
with a sober friend rather than to jail like they do with
everyone else.
• DUI: Police stopped a man driving at 9:15 p.m. in the
700 block of Quintana Road and arrested the groghound for
suspicion of driving deep in the cups. But, he was booked
and released to a sober friend instead of being jailed.
July 2
• Vandalism: Police are investigating a reported case of
vandalism at a kayak business in the 500 block of
Embarcadero, in yet another unsolved mystery.
• 2-4-1: Police stopped a 25-year-old man driving at 1:26
a.m. on Highway 1 at Yerba Buena Street and arrested the
chug-a-lug for driving under the table. They also arrested
his passenger, a 23-year-old pie-eyed floozy, for suspicion of
being drunk in public.
• Busted: Police stopped a juvenile boy or girl in the 400
block of Shasta Avenue and arrested the mope for possessing
dope and for not ditching his hookah pipe before the fuzz
showed up.
July 1
• 5150: Police received a report of a man with
Alzheimer’s running amok in the 2900 block of Main
Street. Logs indicated they took the confused fellow to
County Mental Health for 72-hours observation that isn’t
likely long enough to fix what ails him.
• Bust: Police responded at midnight to a disturbance in
the 200 block of Beach Street where they found a 17-year-
old juvenile delinquent in a motel room with a 27-year-old
man who had warrants for burglary and forgery. The hooli-
gan was busted for suspicion of possessing meth, a crack
pipe and tobacco — a hanging offense in these parts.
Sheriff’s & Los
Osos Fire Logs
Cal Fire/County Fire Station 15 in Los Osos responded
to 23 calls from June 29-July 5 including 15 medical
aids of which three required advanced life support measures.
There were five fire calls sending an engine company to the
Gap Fire in Santa Barbara and a reported vegetation fire
July 4 at Highway 1 and 13th Street in Cayucos. There was
also a serious accident July 2 in the 1300 block of El Moro
Avenue involving four cars. One person in an apparent
hurry to get out of the middle school rear-ended another car,
which in turn smacked into two others. Five people were
taken to the hospital with various injuries, according to the
fire department. The department responded to five reports
of fireworks on July 4 though Sheriff’s logs indicated there
were 10 reports that night in Los Osos alone. The station
has responded to 667 calls in 2008.
July 10
• Los Osos: Rock’n’Roll was noise pollution at 2:49 a.m.
in the 2300 block of Alexander Avenue. Deputies con-
quered the great problem.
• Los Osos: Deputies encountered a pedestrian at 2:51
p.m. in the area of Second Street and Santa Maria Avenue
and arrested the louse for some undisclosed misadventure.
• Cayucos: Deputies are investigating petty thefts in the
2700 block of Santa Barbara Avenue and the 2500 block of
Highway 1 as the crime wave continues.
July 9
• San Simeon: Deputies responded to a report of assault
with a deadly weapon in the 900 block of Castillo Drive and
arrested some hothead for the crime.
July 8
• Los Osos: There’s no need to fear Underdog is right
around the corner… deputies arrived within 31 seconds to
a requested citizen assist in the 700 block of Highland
Drive.
July 7
• Cambria: Deputies responded to a reported spousal
battery in the 600 block of Canterbury Lane and no doubt
have quite a tale to tell the judge.
• Cayucos: Deputies are going and going and going… on
a reported battery in the 300 block of North Ocean Avenue.
• San Simeon: Deputies are investigating an undisclosed
crime on Hearst Castle Road as Popsie’s apparently getting
restless.

15. Bay News • July 17 – 23, 2008 • BN 15
bay news
business
What does a fish know about the water in which it
swims its whole life?” Albert Einstein asked. The
question reminds me that we often take for granted the envi-
ronment essential to our success.
Business owners should ponder two questions: 1) Do you
own your business, or does it own you? 2) Are you in your
business or on your business?
Several years ago, a very successful freelance writer told
me he could never turn down an assignment because if a
client found another writer for the task, he might choose
that writer for the next assignment. So my friend worked all
the time. He never took vacations. Yes, he earned more than
most writers did, but it seemed to me he had turned his
business into a relentless grind, and he lacked the liberty I
associate with entrepreneurship. It was a necessary phase of
business development, but at that point his business owned
him.
The distinction between “in” and “on” is the difference
between managing tasks and managing the business. You
know you are “in” your business when it feels as if you are
drowning in mundane details every day. My father used to
say that the mundane is like a cancer; it eats away at your
creativity and prevents you from seeing the bigger picture.
Being “in” the business means you spend downtime worry-
ing rather than dreaming. Getting “on” your business pro-
vides a completely different perspective. As the saying goes,
it’s hard to think about how to drain the swamp when you’re
up to your waist in alligators.
When you step above the frantic daily challenges, you can
focus on three big questions: 1) Are your coworkers motivat-
ed? 2) Is your checkbook balanced? 3) Where are your cus-
tomers going? To answer these questions, you need time to
think.
How can you anticipate tomorrow’s customer needs when
you’re obsessed with yesterday’s orders? You need motivated
coworkers to get the daily work done. Many entrepreneurs
face difficulty here because when you start as a one-person
shop, it’s very difficult to trust others with the work. But
trust allows motivated coworkers to blossom, so if you want
to grow, learn to let go.
I don’t think you have to do your own bookkeeping to
manage cash flow, but I think every business owner can ben-
efit from an accounting class. When it’s your money on the
line every day, you should be conversant in the language of
finance.
I often say that accountants live in the past, managers live
in the present and leaders live in the future. Get on your
business, and you’ll become the kind of leader who creates
the future.
Kinko’s founder and philanthropist Paul Orfalea is the author of
The Entrepreneurial Investor: The Art, Science and Business of
Value Investing and Copy This: How I Turned Dyslexia, ADHD,
and 100 Square Feet into a Company called Kinko’s. Dean
Zatkowsky is a former marketing executive and coauthor of The
Entrepreneurial Investor.
The Ins and Ons of
Ownership
By Paul Orfalea with Dean Zatkowsky
The year was 1967.The cost of gasoline was 33 cents a
gallon. Average cost for a new home was $14,250.
The Beatles had just released Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts
Club Band and tens of thousands marched in Washington
D.C. to protest the Vietnam War.
As the hippies emerged on San Francisco in a haze of pot
smoke, Lowell Hoff was going into the nursery business in
Los Osos. He bought 3.5 acres from Helen Fairchild, who
was operating The Garden Craft Shop at the corner of Los
Osos Valley Road and Fairchild Way.
After 41 years in the business, Hoff has sold Sheltered
Acre Nursery and retired. Hoff, 73, said it’s time to move
on. “I’m enjoying being free to pick and choose, to do new
things,” he told The Bay News. “It’s been wonderful being a
part of this community. We’ve had some interesting distrac-
tions, but it’s been fun.”
He did much more than just operate a nursery. For more
than 15 years he had a
florist shop in the build-
ing where Celia’s Garden
Café is now located. He
had a landscape contract-
ing business for almost
30 years and even had a
weekly radio program —
The Coastal Gardener —
on KATY in San Luis
Obispo.
New owner is Todd
Davidson, who has
renamed the nursery,
Sage Eco Gardens.
“We’re doing a whole
new layout with the
nursery,” said Phyllis
Martin, who joins Sage
after working with Hoff
for 16 years. “We’ve
expanded it and we’re going to be putting in landscape dis-
play areas which will include plants from around the world,
kind of like a mini-botanical garden.”
She said that among the areas to be represented will be
South Australia, Chile, the Mediterranean, South Africa and
California. “It is very much geared towards low mainte-
nance, drought tolerant plants.”
They have recently cleared an area of land on the property
where the new gardens will be planted, along with a new
sales office.
The nursery will continue to embrace the influence of
Hoff. Martin said they will maintain the roses, bamboo,
hydrangeas, tuberous begonias and fuchsias that were a key
part of the business. “We wanted to maintain the things that
he loved, a tribute to Lowell. He was just a wonderful
employer, a very nice person to work for,” said Martin.
Davidson said they will be taking a landscape approach to
the nursery with an
emphasis on integrated
pest management utiliz-
ing biological controls,
including the use of
“soft” chemicals and
mechanical controls.
The main theme will
be presenting plants that
do not require much
water to survive.
Davidson said they will
also be planting a sus-
tainable meadow, an
alternative to conven-
tional turf grass that
needs little mowing and
hardly a drop of water.
He said they hope to
Nursery has New Owners,
New Philosophy
By Jack Beardwood
The Sage Eco Gardens “team” (from left to right) is Hilda Davidson,
Todd and 18 month old Benjamin Davidson, Jill Marie and Phyllis
Martin. Photo by Jack Beardwood
See New Owners,
page 17

16. 16 BN • July 17 – 23, 2008 • Bay News
bay news
puzzles

17. L
o c a l
businesses are coming
out strong in support of
dressing up the Santa
Ysabel Traffic Calming
Project in Los Osos. A
volunteer community
effort, three donations
from Baywood Inn Bed &
Breakfast, Rabobank and
Coast National Bank total-
ing $750 were recently
given. Individual commu-
nity members have also
contributed more than
$2,500 to the project to
complete the job the
county began but didn’t
finish to the satisfaction of the community. Over the past year, volunteers drew up a landscape plan,
devised an irrigation system, planted, and mulched and weeded the center-divider islands on Santa Ysabel.
Adjacent neighbors are providing water and volunteers are committed to maintenance and upkeep.
Pictured here are from left: Alex Benson, Baywood Inn InnKeeper; Tessa Fields, Coast National Bank
Branch Manager; Mimi Kalland, Santa Ysabel Islands Project Coordinator; and John Mascarenas,
Rabobank Branch Manager. E-mail to: mimisun@charter.net for more information. Submitted photo
You could say Minerva Holden
is a needy baby’s best friend.
For the past six years, Minerva has led
a group of women from the Morro Bay
Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints making knitted
hats, bedclothes, receiving blankets
and quilts to be handed out to new-
borns and expecting mothers in Santa
Maria and Santa Barbara, and now in
San Luis Obispo County too.
“Some of these babies have noth-
ing,” Minerva said Thursday, as some
of her volunteer sewers and knitters
busied themselves putting together
the little care packages.
The ladies meet the second
Thursday of the month at the church
on Ironwood Avenue. They get along
like sisters and share a special bond
that comes from giving unselfishly. An
inspector on the elections board,
Minerva bought the fabrics and wool
herself for several years. Then her fel-
low inspectors began donating money
and her sisters in the church donate as well.
“I guess we’ve made about 2,000 blankets and put togeth-
er perhaps 1,000 packages to give away,” she recalled. They
deliver about a dozen of the care packages a month.
The San Luis Obispo chapter of Alpha, Inc., and the Santa
Maria Public Health Department’s County OB
Clinic/Visiting Home Health Nurses Program deliver the
items to teen mothers and poor mothers.
Maria Soria, a public health service aide at the Santa
Barbara OB Clinic, said 55 women received items for their
newborns last month alone. “Some of these women are with-
out the basic necessities, without furniture, without means,”
said Soria. “They come and have their babies, and would
normally leave with nothing. Minerva makes it possible to
have something special — a hat and receiving blanket — for
each infant to travel home in. We are so grateful to her for
her ongoing efforts.”
Bay News • July 17 – 23, 2008 • BN 17
Cayucos Woman is a Baby’s Best Friend
bay news
community
Pictured from left to right are: Kae Sanders, Annette Benson, Barbie Meyers,
Minerva Holden, Shannon Marley, Sandra MacDonald, Kathee Montgomery
and Susan Richards, put together care packages for needy infants. Photo by
Neil Farrell
make the nursery into a community garden where people
can feel free to roam. They will host garden tours, educa-
tional outreach, and special events including weddings and
concerts. They also plan to connect with local garden clubs
for special events.
For the last four years, Davidson has been operating a
landscape business and a landscape maintenance business.
That part of the business is called Sage Ecological
Landscapes and has 12 employees. See the Web site at:
www.sagelandscapes.net.
With regard to the nursery, he stressed that the operation
will be a team approach that includes his wife, Hilda, who
grew up on a family farm in Guatemala and avid gardener
and Los Osos resident, Jill Marie, who formerly worked at
Bay Laurel in Atascadero. “It’s all about being family with
the environment,” said Marie, who rides her bike to work.
Martin, who has 16 years experience in the field, will
remain as manager.
A Cal Poly graduate, Todd has been in the landscape busi-
ness for 18 years. His grandfather, Ray Houston, was a Cal
Poly horticulture professor from 1957-83.
They hope to have their new showcase gardens completed
and hold an open house within the next four months.
Call 528-1800 for information. The nursery is located at
1188 Los Osos Valley Rd.
New Owners, continued

18. 18 BN • July 17 – 23, 2008 • Bay News
bay news
kiosk
Experience Filipino culture at the Bay-Osos Filipino
Community Association’s 2008 Cultural Night set for
5:30-11:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2 at the South Bay
Community Center in Los Osos. There will be a Filipino
cuisine dinner, dancing, scholarship awards, a parade of
Filipino costumes, folk dances by Cal Poly’s Pilipino
Kasayahan Na Dance Groupe and more. Donation is $15
per person and reservations can be made by calling Albert or
Pina Calizo at 528-4998 or Myrna Oliveros at 528-6874.
Tickets are on sale now for the annual Tip-a-Cop
Dinner, a benefit for the Special Olympics’ Law
Enforcement Torch Run. Tickets are $20 for adults, $5
for children or $150 for a table of eight. The dinner is
set for 5:30-7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9 at the Morro Bay
Community Center, 1001 Kennedy Way. Dinner tickets
include a barbecue meal plus a drink. Call 772-6284 for
ticket and event information. Special Olympics serves some
650 SLO County children and adults with developmental
disabilities
St. Benedict’s Episcopal Church’s second annual art
exhibit and sale titled, “Re-visioning Los Osos,
Reflections of Los Osos through an Artist’s Eye” is set
for 5-7:30 p.m. Friday Aug. 1. There will be entries from
many well-known artists from Los Osos and the surround-
ing community. The public is invited to the Aug. 1 recep-
tion for the artists, with music by pianist Janis Johnson. The
exhibit and sale will continue on Saturday Aug. 2 from 10
a.m. to 5 p.m. St. Benedict’s is at Los Osos Valley and Clark
Valley Roads. Call 534-0401 for information.
Small Wilderness Area Preservation will host archaeol-
ogist Dr. John Parker for some time traveling into the
ancient past of Central Coast inhabitants, the Chumash
and their ancestors at the next Elfin Forest nature
walk, set for 9:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, July 19.
Walking along the boardwalk, Parker will tell the fascinat-
ing story of the ancient peoples who preceded the Chumash
and explain how archaeologists determine changes in ocean
levels by studying human habitations. This will be Parker’s
last walk in the Elfin Forest, as he, his wife and assistant
Cheyanne will soon be moving to Northern California. Meet
at the north end of 15th Street off Santa Ysabel Avenue.
Park carefully to avoid blocking mailboxes. Dress for the
weather and no dogs allowed.
Free moonlight hours are now in effect at the San Luis
Obispo Children’s Museum the third Thursday of the
month through the end of the year. Made possible by a
grant from county supervisors, the moonlight hours
mean free admission to the newly revamped museum
from 5-8 p.m. Moonlight hours are Thursdays, July 17,
Aug. 21, Sept. 18, Oct. 16, Nov. 20 and Dec. 18. The
Children’s Museum is at 1010 Nipomo St., corner of
Nipomo and Monterey Streets, in downtown San Luis
Obispo. Operating hours are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday
through Saturday and 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays and
select Monday holidays.
The San Luis Obispo School of Law is hosting addition-
al introductory nights on Thursdays, July 24 and Aug.
21 at 6 p.m. This event is open to the public and provides
an opportunity for those that are interested in the school or
obtaining a law degree to come learn more and ask ques-
tions. All attendees can meet Judge Charles Porter, the
founder and head instructor of the school. The event will be
held at the former Pacheco Elementary School, 165 Grand
Ave., near the Cal Poly campus. Call (805) 544-6767 or E-
mail to: cheryluslolaw@hotmail.com for more information.
Learn how to hoop for fun and fitness with certified
BodyHoops instructor Wendy Ireland at a new class
offered by the Morro Bay recreation department.
Develop coordination, flexibility, and strengthen your core
and major muscle groups as BodyHoops integrates skills
and drills that will develop strength and stamina. Classes
will meet on Tuesday mornings through Aug. 12 from 10-
11 a.m. at the Morro Bay Community Center. The cost is a
$5 drop-in fee and hoops will be available to use and for
purchase. See Tides Web Activity Guide at: www.morro-
bay.ca.us/recreation.html for information on this and other
offerings.
On Saturday, July 19, the Officer’s Association and the
Grover Beach Parks and Recreation Department will
host a free skate day. From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Central
Coast Surfboards will host demonstrations by local
professional skateboarders. Admission into the park will
be paid for ages 15 and under and refreshments and much
more will be available throughout the day. Full pads and
helmet and a signed waiver by the parent are required for
participation. For more information, contact the Grover
Beach Parks and Recreation Department at 473-4580.
The San Luis Obispo Bicycle Coalition will hold a
fundraiser to benefit bicycle advocacy efforts as part of
the San Luis Obispo Downtown Criterium Classic bike
race on Saturday, July 19, from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The
“Pedal to the People” fundraiser, which will feature Bob
Mionske, JD, a two-time Olympian and national road race
champion, who raced against Lance Armstrong. Mionske is
an attorney advocating the rights of cyclists, contributor to
VeloNews magazine and author of Bicycling & the Law:
Your Rights as a Cyclist. Tickets are $50 for the public, $40
for coalition members and criterium racers. The event will
be held at the Ludwick Community Center, 864 Santa Rosa
St. in San Luis Obispo. For tickets, visit
www.slobikelane.org/pedaltothepeopleTickets/Event.
WHO · WHAT · WHERE · WHEN

19. Bay News • July 17 – 23, 2008 • BN 19
bay news
entertainment
Folk music lovers are in for a divergent treat when
Celtic meets African music at the next San Luis
Obispo Folk Music Society concert in Templeton.
Baka Beyond plays a blend of Celtic and African music
originally inspired by Martin Cradick and Sue Hart’s visits
to the Baka Forest People of Cameroon.
The rhythms and melodies of the virtuoso African players,
meet with the Celtic traditions, ancient and modern, of the
European musicians in the group that has grown over the
years to include members from Brittany, Cameroon,
Senegal, Sierra Leone and
Ghana, as well as Britain.
“It’s great to play with so
many talented musicians,”
said Seckou Keita,
Senegalese kora maestro and
percussion player for Baka
Beyond.
It is almost 12 years since
the album, “Spirit of the
Forest” was released, defin-
ing the term “World Music”
and pushing Baka Beyond
into worldwide recognition.
“It was the amazing bird-
like singing or ‘yelli’ that
first attracted me,” said
Hart, Baka Beyond’s lead
singer. “The women get
together before the dawn to
sing, enchant the animals of
the forest and ensure that
the men’s hunting will be
successful. Song and dance are used by the Baka for healing,
for rituals, for keeping the community together and also for
pure fun.”
The show is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, July 19 at Castoro
Cellars Winery, corner of Highway 46 and Bethel Road in
rural Templeton. Tickets are $22 and available at the win-
ery, call 238-0725, or from SLOFOLKS’ Web site, see:
www.SLOfolks.org. There will also be a catered dinner by
the 10th Street Grill of Los Osos starting at 6 p.m. for an
additional charge.
Tickets are on sale now for the 2008 Pops by the Sea
concert with the San Luis Obispo Symphony, set for
Sunday, Aug. 31 at the Avila Beach Golf Resort in Avila.
The Labor Day weekend event is in its 17th year and this
year’s theme is “Pops by the Numbers.” Conductor Michael
Nowak will lead the orchestra on classic tunes like Take 5,
76 Trombones, When I’m 64, 42nd Street and of course the
immortal 1812 Overture. The musical program always runs
from the silly to the sublime so there’s something for every-
one at Pops by the Sea.
Party Table seating starts at $25 a person and tickets are
available by calling the Symphony office at (805) 543-3533.
Bring a beach chair for lawn seating and the price is $15
with a $3 discount for groups of 10 or more.
Patrons can also save gas and money by getting out their
bikes and “Pedaling to Pops!” Riding a bike earns a $3 dis-
count for lawn seating and a chance to
win prizes from local bike shops. And
kids 14-under are free if they sit on the
lawn.
Lawn seating tickets are available
online beginning Aug. 1 at
www.slosymphony.com and will also
be available at ticket outlets and cham-
bers of commerce throughout the
Central Coast. Call the Symphony at
543-3533 for more information.
Sponsors include Avila Beach Golf
Resort, Big Images, Central Coast
Magazine, County of San Luis Obispo,
Harvey’s Honey Huts, KSBY, KVEC,
New Times, PG&E, Univision and the
Santa Maria Sun.
Grammy Winning Guitarist at Coalesce
Grammy Award-winning guitarist Ed Gerhard will bring is “guitar voice” to the Coalesce Bookstore Chapel in Morro
Bay for one show, set for 7 p.m. Friday, July 18.
Gerhard’s “guitar voice” is recognized and praised worldwide. Known for his gorgeous tone and compositional depth,
Gerhard can move you with a single note. Scott Alarik of the Boston Globe said, “Gerhard does not write instrumentals.
He writes songs only a guitar can sing.”
Tickets are $20 a person and available at the Coalesce Bookstore, 845 Main St. Call 772-2880 to reserve tickets.
Celtic Meets Africa
Pops by the Sea by the Numbers Aug. 31

20. Volume 19 • Issue 29 • July 17 – 23, 2008