An American Perfectionist Cats aren’t bad, once Idol comes to chef gets you get to know them Monterey high marks — INSIDE THIS WEEK BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID CARMEL, CA Permit No. 149 Volume 93 No. 22 On the Internet: www.carmelpinecone.com June 1-7, 2007 Y OUR S OURCE F OR L OCAL N EWS, ARTS AND O PINION S INCE 1915 Whale bones unearthed Desal cost soars as permits drag on said Catherine Bowie, Cal Am’s community relations at Trader Joe’s site ■ $230 million and climbing manager. “The proposed project was $191 million, and it’s now By KELLY NIX gone up to $230 million,” Bowie said. “And the timeline has also been extended. We now think the project won’t THE ESTIMATED cost of California American be done until the end of 2012.” Water’s Coastal Water Project, which would provide the And that timeline may be too optimistic. Even con- Monterey Peninsula with a drought-free water supply, struction of a pilot plant to test the feasibility of desali- has increased a whopping $40 million because of per- nating water from the Moss Landing harbor is a year mitting delays, a spokeswoman for the water company behind schedule. said this week. “We want our ratepayers to be aware of the increase The price of building a desal plant in Moss Landing in costs,” Bowie said. and various other components of the water project goes “We are doing every- up about $800,000 every month construction is delayed, thing we can to move the project as quickly as pos- Environmental sible.” The water project, review, multiple O NEW CONTRACT FOR which will be funded by permits and a N Cal Am’s 40,000 cus- tomers through incre- lawsuit PHOTO/KELLY NIX SUNSET CENTER EXEC mental rate increases, These large whale bones — the top one is about 20 inches long would supply 11,730 — were among many found at a construction site in Monterey. By MARY BROWNFIELD acre-feet of water per year. JACK GLOBENFELT — the New Yorker hired to The desal plant is seen as the only way to comply ■ Archeologist called in run the newly renovated Sunset Center in January 2005 with a 1995 order from the state to come up with an — will leave in alternative to pumping from the Carmel River. Cal Am to evaluate discovery September. After negoti- was ordered to reduce pumping because of harm to the ations failed, he and the river’s environment, including native populations of By KELLY NIX nonprofit Sunset Cul- steelhead trout and red-legged frogs. tural Center Inc.’s board But other environmentalists oppose a desalination WHEN THE new Trader Joe’s opens in downtown of directors decided not plant in Moss Landing because of the harm the plant’s Monterey this fall, it won’t be selling antique whale bones and to renew his contract, intake and outfall could do to marine organisms. vintage car bumpers. which expires June 30. But that’s exactly what construction workers unearthed while “We were in discus- Time is money working on the foundation for the new 12,000-square-foot sions about continuing Before Cal Am can construct the full-scale, 18-mil- Trader Joe’s building at 570 Munras Ave. on, and we couldn’t lion-gallon-per-day desalination plant, it must operate a “What they found was a pit full of whale bones,” said Ellie come to some kind of 280,000-gallon-a-day pilot desalination plant at the agreement that would be Moss Landing power plant, which is the proposed site of See BONES page 20A workable for me under the larger facility. the circumstances, so we The test plant is expected to operate for 12 months. decided just not to con- The water it produces would not be consumed. tinue. I’m disappointed Jack Globenfelt Components for the pilot plant were delivered last City catches small — I liked it here — but summer. But getting the test plant up and running has the stars weren’t align- proved a challenge. Although the coastal commission ing” Globenfelt said. “I wanted a longer-term contract approved the pilot plant in December, it faced several break from Flanders than they were willing to offer.” delays, including earlier challenges by two commission- The result would have dictated where Globenfelt’s ers and a lawsuit filed by activists. Mansion judge wife, Lisa, calls home. During the past two-and-a-half In April, a judge rejected a request from the activists See SUNSET page 19A See DESAL page 21A By PAUL MILLER A MONTEREY County Superior Court Judge won’t be changing his Feb. 21 order that the city can’t sell Flanders Mansion without Chamber hopes council will test-drive free trollies going through several more legal steps. But Judge Robert O’Farrell did side with the city in amending the By MARY BROWNFIELD order to remove any immediate obligation that the city restore the old mansion. A YEAR ago, the Carmel City Council “It is not the court’s intention that they immediately go out and fix declined to bring free Monterey-Salinas Transit it,” O’Farrell said during a hearing May 18. “Rather, that they simply trolley service to town because the city would take whatever stopgap measures are necessary to prevent further have to pay for it. decay until this matter is resolved either by an appeal or the council On Tuesday, the council will have another go taking further action.” — and this time, the trollies would cost riders Despite that small victory for the City of Carmel, the judge let the and the city nothing, according to Carmel rest of his ruling stand, despite strenuous pleas from attorney Bill Chamber of Commerce CEO Monta Potter. Conners that he alter it — at least to make it clear what the decision The chamber and the Crossroad shopping was based on. center would foot the bill for two months of free “We need to see a factual basis, not just a panoply of legal conclu- MST trolley service on the regular bus route sions,” Conners said. “We need to know which facts the court looked between downtown and Carmel Rancho at and agreed with.” Boulevard. He said judges “must defer to the wisdom of the legislative body” “People who know about it say if it’s free, — in this case, the Carmel City Council — “unless there are facts that people will get on,” Potter said Wednesday. A Monterey-Salinas Transit trolley will pick up and drop off riders in Carmel for free if the chamber of commerce, which will help See FLANDERS page 18A See TROLLEY page 21A pay for it, convinces the city council to OK the deal. Get your complete Carmel Pine Cone every Friday morning in convenient pdf format as an email attachment. Free subscriptions available at www.carmelpinecone.com. 2A The Carmel Pine Cone June 1, 2007 ‘Click it or Ticket’ means zero tolerance for unbelted motorists By MARY BROWNFIELD “We’ve been knocking them out here for this campaign,” wearing a seat belt is younger than 16, the driver will be held Rana said. By the time the effort ends, he expects he and the responsible. THIS YEAR’S statewide Click It or Ticket campaign other patrol officers who signed up for overtime shifts dedi- The fine for someone with a clean driving record is $94, kicked off May 14 and, in just over two weeks, Carmel police cated to enforcement of seat-belt and other traffic laws will but anyone with any moving violation in the past three years officers cited 225 unbelted motorists in town. have issued 250 tickets. will pay a whopping $211, according to Rana. Cpl. Steve Rana, the city’s main traffic cop who is often Since the Click It or Ticket effort began, officers have Penalties for carrying children without required safety seen aboard his BMW motorcycle, said that number is more been cruising town looking for the telltale sign of no strap seats are much higher. A first-time offender will be fined than double for the same period last year. extending over the shoulder of a driver or passenger. $351, though completing a safety course can reduce it to $51. The annual PR and enforcement effort, funded by “If it isn’t, we advise them of the crackdown, notify them And someone caught more than once not restraining their California taxpayers, runs through June 3. that it’s zero tolerance during the campaign, and give them a small kids could be fined as much as $851. According to the citation,” Rana said. vehicle code, children who are under 6 years old or weigh A driver not wearing a seat belt can be ticketed, and so can less than 60 pounds must ride in “a child passenger restraint a passenger who isn’t buckled up. But if the passenger not system meeting applicable federal motor vehicle safety stan- dards,” usually in the rear seat. Rana said he has yet to ticket a person for having an unrestrained child in a vehicle during the campaign. Did you know... But he said most of the unbelted people cited by Carmel police had only driven a short distance before being pulled over. Many said they were preparing to put on their belts but In 1978, 20th Century Fox bought hadn’t gotten to it yet. Most of the offenders are local. the Pebble Beach Co. for $72 mil- “You’ve got to put it on before you start your car,” he said.