Carmel Pine Cone, July 25, 2008 (Main News)
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Big Sur parks reopen and businesses put out welcome mats By CHRIS COUNTS life in Big Sur is slowly returning to normal. The only thing Big Sur that has spread through the media and the Internet. missing now is tourists. “Some people are still canceling their reservations,” he WITH THE reopening of Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park “The bottom line is: We need people to come back,” said reported. “They think we burned to the ground.” Friday and the restarting of the local softball league Monday, Stan Russell, director of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce. Part of Russell’s job is countering misinformation about See WELCOME page 14A BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID CARMEL, CA Permit No. 149 Volume 94 No. 30 On the Internet: www.carmelpinecone.com July 25-31, 2008 Y OUR S OURCE F OR L OCAL N EWS, ARTS AND O PINION S INCE 1915 Something for everybody ... Water board: Peninsula rationing could last ‘forever’ By KELLY NIX A STATE water board expert testified Wednesday that the Monterey Peninsula could survive with 50 percent less water than it uses now. But local mayors say such severe rationing would have all sorts of dire con- sequences — including killing tourism. The cutback testimony was made by Mark Stretars, senior water con- trol engineer for the State Water Resources Control Board, who conclud- ed Peninsula residents could live on a “reasonable allowance” of 75 gal- lons of water per day, an amount he said would not jeopardize the pub- lic’s “health and safety.” Stretars, responding to cross examination by Cal Am’s attorney and others, also testified that water cutbacks on the Peninsula could go on indefinitely. Stretars’ comments drew sharp criticism from Peninsula officials See WATER page 13A New fire code bans wood roofs, siding in new homes By MARY BROWNFIELD CARMELITES HAVE long cherished their wooden cottages, and many balk at the suggestion of using faux anything. New PHOTOS/PAUL MILLER homes are often built with wood siding and shingle roofs, but they might not be anymore — at least, not the real thing. More than 100 Dachshunds gathered on Carmel Beach Sunday According to revised state fire codes that took effect July 1, a as the Monterey Peninsula Dachshund Club hosted its annual wee- large section of forested Carmel has been classified as “very high nie roast and Weiner gathering. At the same time, just a short dis- tance uphill at Sunset Center, the Bach Festival orchestra and cho- rus were performing Bach’s B Minor Mass, creating a perfect storm See WOOD page 31A of Carmel quaintness. The Bach Festival continues through Aug. 9 (concert and ticket info at www.bachfestival.org). You’ll have to wait until next year to see the Dachshunds again. WHEN FLAMES ARE ON THE WAY, ‘Always the smartest guy in the room’ BUY A $120,000 BULLDOZER By CHRIS COUNTS By PAUL MILLER leaving his family, friends and colleagues stunned at their inexplicable loss. HE’S BEEN in Big Sur longer than anybody, so it shouldn’t come as AS ONE of Community Hospital’s top radiolo- “It hit me really hard,” said family friend Dina too much of a surprise that Don McQueen wasn’t about to let the Basin gists, James Randall Forbes spent his life helping other Eastwood. “He was the person who was helping the Complex Fire — or a sheriff’s evacuation order — move him off his 70- people with serious illnesses. rest of the world, and he’s taken? I just don’t under- acre property. But cancer came suddenly to Forbes in the summer stand.” Besides being perhaps Big of 2005. And last Tuesday, at the age of 46, he died, “He will be deeply missed by everyone he touched Sur’s tallest resident at 6 feet 8 and worked with at the hospital,” said Steven inches, the 79-year-old Packer, CHOMP president and CEO. “He was McQueen is also arguably its truly an extraordinary physician who com- most experienced firefighter, bined a genuine empathy for the patients he having battled blazes since cared for with a highly developed set of tech- 1948. So when fire officials nical skills.” decided it was time for “Randy had a very engaging smile and per- McQueen and his neighbors to sonality and a very quick wit, and put his leave Big Sur, he gave them an patients at ease,” said Dan Hightower, one of earful. Now, three weeks after CHOMP’s senior radiologists and the man he and his neighbors put up a who hired Forbes in 1994. “He exuded confi- desperate — and largely suc- dence and reassuring calmness.” cessful — fight to save their One local family, composer Alan Silvestri homes, McQueen still has a and his wife, Sandra, recalled how comforting lot to say about the fire and it was to have Forbes’ help after Sandra was the agencies in charge of man- hit by a car. aging it. “I rushed to the hospital with heart pound- For starters, McQueen ing and had the great good fortune to run into insisted the fire burned far Randy almost immediately,” Silvestri said. more acreage than he believed PHOTO/CHRIS COUNTS Dr. Randy Forbes, right, with his family: son Tucker, wife Alex, and “He dropped what he was doing and proceed- was necessary. Don McQueen has been fighting fires daughter, Maddie, 11. Forbes’ death last week of complications for 60 years, and he knows all about from cancer shocked his friends and colleagues. See FORBES page 15A See DOZER page 10A the tools you need to do it. Get your complete Carmel Pine Cone every Thursday evening in convenient pdf format via email. Free subscriptions available at www.carmelpinecone.com. 2A The Carmel Pine Cone July 25, 2008 Did you know... Lucky Lindy- Aviator Charles Lindbergh – “Lucky Lindy” - spent a Council finalizes beefed-up styrofoam ban few weeks on the Monterey Peninsula in March 1930, three years after his By MARY BROWNFIELD at two locations in the state. Though Carmel already has a historic solo flight across the Atlantic. similar rule on the books, the council decided to consider He was here to experiment with a THE CARMEL City Council made official the amend- amendments that might better address the problem. Randi Greene motor-less glider, and tried to launch it ments to its 19-year-old ordinance banning styrofoam this The revised ordinance defines the products that can and almost daily from a hill south of Carmel month. The updated law provides more information about cannot be used, and provides a six-month grace period dur- Highlands. The world was watching, but the usual Pacific packaging materials and adds some teeth in the form of spe- ing which businesses can exhaust their current supplies of winds didn’t materialize. The first day’s flight could last only cific penalties. The council tentatively approved the changes styrofoam products. After that, violators will face fines, a few minutes. The longest – an hour and 10 minutes, accord- in early June and considered them for final adoption July 1. penalties and possible legal action for using the banned pack- ing to a New York Times report – ended with an emergency According to city administrator Rich Guillen, who rec- aging. landing after an aileron control fell off a wing. Lindbergh kept ommended the council adopt the amendments, “The City of No one at the meeting objected to the law, unlike during trying, but without enough wind sometimes had to land on the Carmel-by-the-Sea was much in the vanguard of the move- the June hearing, when representatives of the plastics divi- nearby roadway, the weekly newspaper High Tide reported. ment to reduce food packaging litter, becoming the second sion of the American Chemistry Council criticized it as inef- According to that local paper, Lindy and his new wife, Anne California city (after Berkeley) to adopt an ordinance aimed fective and unfair to cash-strapped restaurateurs who use Morrow Lindbergh, stayed at the Del Monte Lodge in Pebble at reducing take-out waste materials, back in 1989. Since cheap styrofoam containers. Beach, and the famous aviator played a lot of polo while then, the problem of food packaging waste litter has not Monta Potter, CEO of the Carmel Chamber of Commerce, waiting for winds. He fell off his pony on one occasion. improved, but there has been a new array of alternative, recy- presented the council with an Internet-based survey of cham- (Next week: Bob Dylan at the Monterey Folk Festival) clable and compostable materials available to food service ber members. Randi Greene, Realtor®, MBA, GRI, SRES providers.” About 80 people responded, and while some questioned Randi Delivers Results! International President’s Diamond Society He reported the basic premise of the two-decade-old law the need for the law, “the majority were very supportive,” remains solid, and the modifications “merely strengthen and according to Potter, who also brought examples of cardboard (831) 622-2589 modernize it by adding more information about polystyrene boxes used by Grasing’s and Il Fornaio restaurants, and the [email protected] (styrofoam) packaging and adding specific penalties for non- plastic containers utilized by the Grill on Ocean Avenue. www.RandiGreene.com compliance.” The council and mayor voted unanimously to adopt the Research by Thom Akeman, veteran newspaper reporter changes to the ordinance, which will take effect 30 days from Roadways, waterways and beaches the July 1 meeting. The changes came in response to the Monterey Regional Waste Management District’s creation in March of a model ordinance aimed at cutting the amount of styrofoam packag- ing discarded on roadways, waterways and beaches.