Save the Date

December 7 |  Winter Holiday Celebration | 4:00-6:00 PM 

January 25, 2020 | Homestead Valley Annual Meeting

By Leslie Dixon, President 

Homestead Valley Community Association

 

Homestead Valley has a long history of volunteerism whereby residents see an opportunity to create 'a more perfect valley' and make it happen.  From the creation of the Community Association (HVCA) over a hundred years ago and the Land Trust (HVLT) in the early 70's, to a music festival in Stole Grove that then moved to the Community Center meadow and more recently an undertaking to ensure we live in a "firesafe" community with community education, tree and brush clearing and federal grant money, the spirit of community service and generosity is omnipresent in Homestead Valley.   

 

Each year, HVCA recognizes two of the many people who passionately give their time to make a difference in Homestead Valley. You can find a list of prior Service Award winners on our website: Homestead Valley.Annual Service Awards. Winners are announced at the HV Annual Meeting in January.

 

The HVCA Board would like to reach out to the community this year for nominations for 2019 Volunteer of the Year and Distinguished Community Service Award.  Please send your nominations with a one paragraph write up describing the reason for your nomination by November 30, 2019 to [email protected].

 

Volunteer of the Year  - this recognizes someone for their outstanding contribution of service and leadership in the community this past year.  (This award can go to a previous recipient.)

 

Distinguished Community Service Award  - this person has been continuously giving extraordinary service, inspiration, and an enduring dedication to our community (while giving generously of their time).  This is a one-time award.

 

Many thanks to everyone who helps make Homestead Valley a very special place to live.

 

Homestead Valley 2020 Annual Meeting

Saturday, January 25, 2019

4:30 Potluck Social - 5:30 Meeting

By Kristin Cann

 

Two nights before Homestead's celebration of Halloween and the season of diminishing daylight, wildfire alerts and a widespread power outage cast a pall over the neighborhood, stirring questions of how to bake, make soups and bring light to the Center. A decision was made to hold the celebration with or without power to boost spirits taxed by a week of no power, high anxiety about fires. One night before Halloween the lights came on, Cynthia Sampson made her special cookies, Liz Bolton and Mike Cann made soul-soothing soups. On Halloween the Center came alive with Summer Shapiro's decorations, Megan Schoenbohm's great music, warm greetings from John Bolton who recorded each child's guess about how many pumpkin seeds were in a jar, and platters of delicious treats including ghost bananas and pumpkin oranges brought by Sarah Stoelting, Sarah White, Jen Hochschild, Lindsey Tucker, Kimberley Hanson and many others.

 

An expert crew including Marilyn and Burnett Tregoning, Marabeth Grahame, Margaret Harding, Joyce Martha and Marilyn Barrett made sure no one went hungry or thirsty and organized the cleanup; Nadia Dean and Carson Cann created designs to transform faces and complete costumes; Liz Bolton, Alan & Susan Saltzman and Christina Oldenburg guided children as they decorated pumpkins and cookies.

 

The relaxed flow of neighbors enjoying the mix of young and old concluded with a costume parade and prizes. Summer Shapiro, Homestead's pied piper, played spooky music as she led strange figures around the meadow to the amphitheater, introduced these strange figures and Colin Cann presented prizes for costumes and for the winners of the pumpkin seed guessing contest. As darkness came, Summer sent the costumed figures - Donald Trump, Peace & Freedom hippie, Bob Ross, wounded zombie soccer player, Harry Potter and many more - off for a night of trick-or-treating. As the trick-or-treaters moved into the night a very dedicated group of volunteers restored the Center to pre-celebration state.

A warm thank you to the wonderful volunteers who set a tone of fun and caring, and special thank you to the co-chair of this event, Sarah Stoelting, whose support is invaluable, to my husband, Mike Cann, for his wonderful soup and his photos (accessed at secure DropBox via this link: www.dropbox.com/2019Homestead Halloween Photos)  and to Jen Hochschild, Sarah Stoelting, Sarah White, Lindsey Tucker, Kimberly Hansen and Natalie Cann for low key but effective publicity, to David Ross for his guidance and support and, finally, a huge thank you to Summer Shapiro for sharing her many talents and for her "going the extra mile" support.

By Jim Derich

You may have noticed that green reflective address placards have been popping up all around Homestead Valley. These are the result of a program initiated by our local FIrewise Committee working in collaboration with the HV Safety Committee.

 

These two groups are coordinating with Southern Marin Fire District to mobilize our Homestead Valley residents to install reflective address placards throughout the valley.

 

WHY? Reflective Safety Address Placards ensure first responders can easily locate your home.

 

"One of the biggest challenges faced by fire personnel are inadequately addressed homes, particularly in rural areas. Of particular concern are medical calls that occur at nighttime when lighting is compromised and the address numbers cannot be seen from the road serving the property."
Former Healdsburg Fire Department Chief, Randy Collins

 

"As a police department, we are often faced with responding to emergency calls where time is of the essence. Officers responding to calls depend on well-marked numbers that are not covered by landscaping or other visual obstructions." 
Healdsburg Police Department Sergeant, Matt Jenkins

 

Don't be green with envy. Order your very own today!!

 

Placard Order Form:

HVLT Firewise Address Placards.pdf

We at Mill Valley Refuse realize we're on a rocky road towards acceptance of dual stream recycling collection by our customers. I'd like to address some of the most common complaints we're receiving about dual stream collection so far.

 

Most of the calls are about recycle carts not being dumped for one of the following three reasons:

We picked up carts with the first two problems during a grace period for the whole month of September. Loads were dumped during this time to the single stream processor in San Jose. Now our drivers must deliver only properly separated loads to the dual stream processing plant in San Rafael, so they can no longer pick up improperly sorted carts.

 

The really big issue is the third reason carts are not being picked up-contamination. This is not a result of dual stream sorting. Contamination in the recycle carts existed long before and was actually a reason to move to dual stream recycling. We are taking contamination seriously and will continue to monitor and enforce the collection of clean recycling materials in the foreseeable future.

 

The good news is that the majority of our customers (your neighbors) are doing great with dual stream sorting. Initial reports from the Marin Sanitary processing plant are that our separated loads are very clean.

 

However, contamination in the forms of outright trash or a misunderstanding of what is actually a recyclable item frequently occurs. Which brings me to a common-but erroneous-complaint about dual stream recycling: that dual stream has changed the rules about recycling. The truth is that more carts on the Container Week are being tagged simply because trash items are much easier to spot now that paper is no longer hiding the trash items.

 

Clearly plastic items are giving people the most trouble. Keep it simple by only recycling plastic bottles, jugs and tubs. All plastic bags, plastic wrapping, and ANY other forms of plastic that aren't in the shape of a bottle, jug or tub should be put into trash. And please don't bag any recyclables. Dump all items from bags into the Container cart and put paper bags into the Paper cart.

 

Also, when we say no "coated paper," we are referring only to waxy coatings-like milk cartons. Glossy magazines and cereal boxes are not considered coated paper and are OK to recycle.

 

I understand the alternating-week collection of the Paper and Container carts adds an added detail to your waste collection service, but the calendar with the week-to-week schedule is available on our website, and if you prefer not to think about it, you can just put out both carts and our driver will dump the correct one for that week.

 

Please understand we are committed to dual stream collection and will continue our efforts to make the rules about what goes into which cart as clear as possible.

Jim Iavarone

For more information, please visit www.millvalleyrefuse.com 

Marin Horizon School/Homestead Valley

Joint Committee Meeting

 

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

7:30 PM

Marin Horizon School

 

The Joint Committee is co-chaired by Bill Perrine, Head of School (415.388.8408, x 225) and Christina Oldenburg long-time Homestead Valley resident (415.388.9315). 

 

Meetings are open to the public and the community is invited to attend and share any issues which are of joint concern to members of the Marin Horizon School and Homestead Valley communities.

 

Additional Agenda items may be submitted in advance to the co-chairs.

7:00-9:00 PM

please arrive a few minutes early to find seating

Homestead Valley Community Center

Upstairs

Join neighbors for this intimate and free music event!

This is the first of four free evenings of chamber music sparked by an exciting new partnership between the homestead Valley community Center and the Mill Valley Philharmonic.

The Good News Revival is a special community event hosted by one of our local community members, Aaron Schiller, along with a collection of artists, singers, and teachers. You are invited to come, meet your community, find handmade gifts for your loved ones and participate in enriching talks by guest speakers.  This is a great way to kick off the holiday season of gratitude and thanks giving; come celebrate the good news of your life and welcome in more!

 

For more information or if you'd like to support Aaron put on this event you can donate here.

www.eventbrite.com/e/medicine-path-presents-the-good-news-revival-tickets