New pros, old-timers, First Tee upstarts, Pebble watch-at-home Beach goodies and more ... AT&T PRO-AM 2021 inside this week! VolumeThe 107 No. 7 Carmelwww.carmelpinecone.com Pine ConeFebruary 12-18, 2021 T RUS T ED BYLOCALSANDLOVEDBYVISI T O RSSINCE 1 9 1 5 Moreno, vaccine rollout debated during ‘State of City’ n Adams: Hard to keep up rollout, she said, “I hear so many peo- ple say Dr. Moreno is not the great- with constituent calls est communicator. Dr. Moreno is the most shy person I have ever met, and By MARY SCHLEY this is agony for him to have to speak publicly. He also is very conscious of WHILE THE Carmel Chamber giving precise and correct answers.” of Commerce’s State of the City pre- Unmentioned during the call was sentations Friday might have intended the fact that Moreno’s job description to focus on city issues, it was Mon- requires him to be able to “prepare terey County 5th District Supervisor clear and concise written and oral re- Mary Adams’ comments that had ports,” and “speak effectively before PHOTOS/MICHAEL TROUTMAN, DMT IMAGING some viewers spitting out their coffee. large groups.” In her presentation, Adams men- Clockwise from left: CBS Sports broadcaster Jim Nantz, just days tioned some issues facing the coun- Bad names after calling the Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla., was the announcer for ty, such as $600 million in deferred MacMurdo urged Adams to “get an “Every Shot Counts” charity event on Wednesday, with celebri- maintenance on county roads and ties like Kathryn Newton (“Big Little Lies”), Larry Fitzgerald and Bill back to your constituents, and get Murray. And during Thursday’s opening round of the no-fans AT&T the search for ways to pay for it, and back to them in a timely manner so Pro-Am, an official tries to answer the question, “If you signal for qui- complaints about traffic and illegal that they fear less,” and the supervi- et and there’s no one around, do they still make a sound?” parking on Scenic Road around Car- sor replied that she receives more than mel Point, but it was her defense of 200 emails a day, “and it’s very hard Monterey County Health Officer Dr. to keep up.” She also said her assis- Ed Moreno and her own efforts during tant is forced to listen to complaints, the past year that got people talking. “ugliness,” and “vitriol,” “so it’s tough to pick up the phone to someone who ‘He’s so shy’ has just read you the riot act and called After chamber CEO Jenny Mac- you bad names and say, ‘How can I Murdo raised the issue of communica- help you?’” tion problems with the county, which And she said “it’s difficult” when has been slow to release information “people are asking questions they al- throughout the pandemic and is often ready know the answer to, and all they unresponsive to questions, Adams told want to do is complain.” viewers she sends out an e-newslet- Jessica Faddis, executive director ter every other week, but that people of the Carmel Youth Center, asked have to call the county to subscribe, why nonprofits are barred from apply- Nantz comes home to cover one-of-a-kind Pro-Am and she’s proud of the five town hall ing for the second round of county-ad- meetings held to share information ministered coronavirus relief grants. By MARY SCHLEY down in brutally cold weather, he said, “you can about last summer’s fires and their af- Adams said she must be mistaken bet there are going to be some spectacular cam- termath. and that nonprofits were eligible, but FRESH OFF a whole lot of sportscasting era angles for a lot of America to enjoy.” “And you can call our office or Adams was incorrect. The applica- firsts — first live broadcast of a major event af- “As many times as you can put a blimp in you can email us or text us, so we can tion window for the new round of 825 ter the start of the pandemic, first NFL games the sky and look down on the Monterey Penin- serve as a liaison to get you the an- $10,000 grants opened Feb. 8, and without fans, first Super Bowl with a home-field sula, there’s a lot of value in that for the view- swers that you want,” she said. nonprofits are listed as “ineligible” on advantage — longtime CBS sportscaster Jim er living vicariously through that broadcast,” As for Moreno, who is often under the Monterey County Workforce De- Nantz returned home to Pebble Beach this week he said. “They can watch and hopefully be fire for his poor communication skills, velopment Board website. to cover another first: the AT&T Pro-Am being failure to crack down on the county’s played without amateurs and celebrities, as well See NANTZ page 26RE hot spots and dysfunctional vaccine See DEBATED page 31A as without fans. Grateful for the chance to spend the week at home with his family instead of quarantined in MUSK BEGINS TESTING SATELLITE INTERNET IN BIG SUR hotels as he’s been for the past several months, Nantz said Tuesday he’s delighted to be able By CHRIS COUNTS ceiver/transmitters to provide internet connections. Each satel- “to walk to work every day” during the AT&T, lite weighs about 500 pounds and has its own solar array. More which started with practice rounds and culmi- BIG SUR has long had lousy internet and cell service, than 1,000 satellites have been launched so far, and the compa- nates with a final round Sunday following three but that could change, thanks to Elon Musk’s low-orbit satel- ny hopes to have 4,000 in orbit by 2024, with long-range plans days of tournament play. lite-based internet service, Starlink. to increase that number to tens of thousands. The satellites will “Starlink will begin offering service in your area beginning be in orbits just 350 miles high and, unlike traditional commu- Blue skies ahead mid- to late-2021,” reads a recent email from the company to While he doesn’t work for the Golf Channel, one local resident. See STARLINK page 30A which covers the AT&T during the week, Nantz According to Butch Kronlund of the Community Associa- was asked to announce Wednesday’s Charity tion of Big Sur, the impending arrival of service has many curi- Challenge by Steve John, chairman of the Mon- ous about it. “Yesterday, this opportunity went live, and several terey Peninsula Foundation, which hosts the Big Sur locals have already signed up,” he said. tournament. “We’re going to have a five-hole match, and Rural and connected I think it’s a great idea, since there are no ama- Internet service is notoriously bad in Big Sur — especially teurs and celebrities this year,” he said. “This is along the South Coast and in remote canyons. But Kronlund the 75th anniversary of it being in Pebble Beach, said he’s hopeful the new system will make it better — and of- and there had to be some sort of connection with fer enough bandwidth so people can stream movies, play online the spirit and the lifeblood of such an important games or use the internet for phone calls. tournament.” “There are many places in Big Sur where nobody can get a On Saturday, Nantz will step into the CBS signal, and there are other places where service is poor,” Kro- booth with his crew to begin coverage of the fi- nlund said. nal two days of the tournament, which will be Starlink said “rural and remote” communities — where con- treated more like a standard pro event, without nectivity has been a challenge — are “ideally suited” for the the usual camera shots of celebrities and their service. antics seamlessly meshed with footage of some The company is offering pre-orders of its service for $99 a of the world’s best players vying for part of the month, plus $499 for a router and other equipment. GRAPHIC/STARLINK $7.8 million purse. To make Starlink possible, Musk is assembling a constella- Once it has thousands of mini satellites in low-earth orbit, Starlink says it’ll And, as some of the country is hunkered tion of small satellites that will work in tandem with ground re- be able to offer high-speed internet almost anywhere. Attention readers: Don’t forget that you can have the complete Carmel Pine Cone delivered every Thursday evening to your tablet, laptop, PC or phone — with no banner ads, popups, click bait or paywalls. We also don’t harvest your data or make you create an account or password. 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