CRA News January 2007

Selected articles from the newsletter of the Carmel Residents Association

From left, Terry Layne, Lee and Gloria Eldred, Maggie Hardy and Lisa Budlong had lots to talk about during the social hour before the CRA holiday party. Gloria is recovering rapidly from a hip replacement and Lisa is enjoying managing Carmel's Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center.

CRA Meeting: Cultural history of Carmel through Its Art

Two important future events

Mark your calendars now for Sunday evening, April 29. That's the date of the CRA 20th Anniversary celebratory event which co-chairs Barbara Livingston and Shirley Humann and their committee are planning for our enjoyment. Details will follow in next month's newsletter.

Attention all artists, writers, musicians and actors! Frankie Laney asks that you circle Saturday, May 26, on your calendars and start creating and practicing for our celebration of the arts at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts.

President's Message
A Vision for Carmel

by Roberta Miller

As we enter a new year, our thoughts turn to renewal, to what we can do to improve the quality of our lives, our environment and our city.

This is a special new year for the Carmel Residents Association as we will celebrate the 20th anniversary of our founding in April.

Thinking about our wonderful past and our hopeful future, I wanted to put to paper our vision for Carmel -- what it is that makes this village so special and what must be done to maintain and expand that quality.

I remembered and found a vision statement prepared for a Carmel Residents Association meeting some years ago by Karen Ferlito. Rather than reinvent what she stated so eloquently, with Karen's permission, we reprint below this vision, with which we thinks all Carmelites would agree. The final two items were taken from the Athenian Code.

1. We choose to have a city that serves both residential and business community needs.

2. We choose to have a city which values and conserves our beach, our forest, our open spaces and our historical properties.

3. We choose to have both fiscal responsibility and sustainability in our city government as well as the services that enhance our quality of life.

4. We choose to support the arts, cultural events and social events.

5. We choose to have a city that is safe, well maintained and welcoming to residents and visitors alike.

6. We will work together as citizens to achieve our mutual goals, respect our differences and strive to understand each other.

7. We choose to look to the past for continuity and to the future for inspiration.

8. We will support and defend the ideal and sacred things of the city both alone and together with many.

9. In all these ways, we will transmit the city not only not less, but greater and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.

We wish all of you a peaceful, fulfilling, joyous new year.

Friends of Harrison Memorial Library --
an extraordinary group!

Friends of Harrison Memorial Library is a non-profit organization established in 1972 to provide support for library activities and to help purchase needed books and equipment.

Harriet Harrell has been sorting and pricing donated books for three hours once a week for the Friends of Harrison Memorial Library for 33 years. She says she's sure of this because she started with the first book-sorting group in 1973. But it's not as easy for the other hard workers who appear at the lower level of Sunset Center each Tuesday. Most have been also doing it for years but aren't sure how long. It's just what they do. Ann Rook said "I don't know -- five or six," Marilee Cominos, "I don't remember how long -- maybe seven," Barbara Palm, "I don't know either," Betty McAninch, "four years." Joe Rizzo was recruited less than a year ago by long-time Friends volunteer Paul Laub, who wanted another "heavy lifter" available when he was out of town. It didn't work out that way, of course. Joe now works every week too!

"It's a lot of books to sort," commented Harriet Harrell, "but we are very fortunate because All Saints Church (where the annual sale is held) makes it easy for us by taking the books that don't sell so we don't have to move them out."

A quick look at the labeled boxes in the Sunset sorting-storage facility (formerly Studio 15) reveals diverse topics -- fiction, languages, audios, mysteries, literature, nature and animals, travel, history, biography, health and humor. Barbara Palm may have spilled the volunteer recruitment secret when she smiled and said, "We come across all kinds of books and workers have the privilege of borrowing them before the sale." "Marvelous books!" added Harrell.

According to Friends President Kay Power, in March the group will present the city with a check of approximately $18,000, the proceeds from the 2006 sale. Power says that the August event had over 10,000 books, paperbacks, records and audio and video tapes for sale and took in more money than ever before.

In addition to the annual book sale, this active group promotes awareness of the library through an essay contest at Carmel High School, featuring interesting speakers at their spring and fall teas, as well as holding an annual members' meeting.

The Friends of Harrison Memorial Library, along with the members of and contributors to the Carmel Public Library Foundation, are great examples of the depth and breadth of support our local library receives from residents of Carmel and the surrounding area.

A great advantage of membership in this group is the special Friday "Friends' Preview" before the annual August book sale, which is held on Saturday and Sunday for the public. Think kids in a candy shop! To join, send a check for $10 to Treasurer, Friends of Harrison Memorial Library, P.O. Box 87, Carmel, CA 93921. Or call Membership Chairman (and CRA member) Vi Fox at 626-1588.

Winter Storm Preparation and Awareness
by Captain Mitch, Carmel Fire Department

During the winter season we face heavy rains that can create many problems. The city's storm drains and curbs are, at times, unable to properly route the unusually large volume of water. The tremendous overflow of water in the streets forces runoff not only into, but through people's yards, threatening damage to property. When this happens, the Fire Department receives many calls within short periods of time, quickly exhausting available resources. Calls need to be prioritized and people have to wait for help. With this in mind, an ounce of prevention will certainly go a long way in helping to prevent problems.

With our advanced technology, up to the minute weather reports are available through the Internet. If you do not have access to updates, call the Fire Department and we will provide you with whatever information we are capable of getting.

Many citizens in town have electric pumps. They should be serviced regularly and checked frequently to make sure debris is not inhibiting their function. We recommend that if you are planning on installing a pump, get one that can handle larger volumes of water. Although you may not need this kind of capability that often, when the time comes you will be prepared.

Make sure your rain gutters and down spouts are clean. Clogged gutters can cause unexpected flooding and property damage. The Fire Department will help you, but during heavy storm activity, as mentioned earlier, it may take us a while to respond. All of our resources will be committed in these situations, and the availability of our neighboring departments for mutual aid will most likely not exist.

If you suspect you will need sandbags, prepare in advance, not during a heavy storm. Filled sandbags are available at the Vista Lobos parking lot, Torres north of 4th.

Portable generators can ease the frustration and concern that come during a power outage, but only if used properly and according to manufacturer's specifications. Generally speaking, most portable generators are designed to have appliances plugged into them. They are not designed to be back-fed -- plugged into outlets or other receptacles to provide power to a building. This risky and illegal practice can ruin the generator, electrical systems and appliances or cause a fire. In back-feeding the power also goes back into the service wire, which supplies power to the building, and also back to the primary utility wire. A small generator can supply enough energy to seriously injure or kill an unsuspecting worker who thinks a wire is dead.

Fire hydrants and insurance rating

Fire Chief Andrew Miller reported at the Jan. 9 City Council meeting that progress is being made on bringing Carmel's 29 non-functioning fire hydrants back into service. Cal Am, he said, has agreed to start work right away on half of them and will hopefully have those fixed within six months. The remainder, however, present a more difficult situation -- they must either be relocated or the entire water main replaced, which is very expensive. The city is working with Cal Am to see how and when this can be done and how it will be financed. According to the City Council's progress report, "Of the City's 201 fire hydrants, many had not been flow tested for over 20 years."

Chief Miller assured the council that if a hydrant is not working, firefighters would go to the next "hydrant out." Normally hydrants are 500' apart and the fire trucks carry 1200' of hose.

President Roberta Miller, on behalf of the CRA Board of Directors, told the council: "We know that Carmel's last Insurance Services Office (ISO) evaluation [which helps to determine our insurance rates] was almost 12 years ago, in February, 1995, and that it gave the City a Class 4 rating, considered very good. Chief Miller told us at the end of 2005 that the Carmel Fire Department had completed a Community Outreach Program Questionnaire -- the precursor for an reevaluation -- a year or two before. Our questions are:

"1. Has the City been contacted since filling out the Community Outreach Questionnaire for a field survey and reevaluation?

"2. If not, when do you expect to be reevaluated by ISO?

"3. Do you anticipate, with the changes in our department from 12 years ago, [Carmel had own its fire chief and asst. chief, hydrant problems] that our rating could change? For better? Or worse?"

Chief Miller will answer the questions at the February City Council meeting.

"Holly" is thriving in her new home!

You probably read in the Pine Cone that when the plan for the new library landscaping called for removal of the large holly tree, Dianne and Jim Brun, unable to bear the thought of the magnificent tree being destroyed, agreed to pay the costs of moving it into their garden on Camino Real.

In a photo in the printed January 2007 CRA News, CRA members Dianne and Jim Brun stand dwarfed beside the new tree in front of their house. "Holly" as the Bruns have named her -- she's female -- is happy and thriving.

Moving "Holly" to her new home was not a simple task.The Brun's gardener, Robert Luster, of Town and Country Gardening and Landscaping, told them there was only one person for this job -- David Teas of Environmental Design in Marina. "It was the luck of the draw," says Dianne, "that he had a little window of time to help us. It was meant to be!"

It turns out that Teas is not just an ordinary landscaper. He has done many large projects around the country and is currently working on the World Trade Center memorial. According to the Bruns, the largest living object he has moved was a 60' x 60' ficus, weighing 450,000 pounds, which he moved from one location to another at the San Diego Zoo.

OLD CARMEL
by Connie Wright

Marcel Sedletzky, Inspired Architect

Marcel Sedletzky was born in 1923 in Vogograd, a Russian port city on the Volga. His mother, Elena, was Russian and a physician; his father, Apollon, a Pole and a landscape architect. In 1933 Marcel's father was taken away to Siberia either because he was an intellectual or a foreigner, or both. As refugees, Marcel and his mother fled Russia with two suitcases. They wandered; he attended school in Poland and Yugoslavia. In 1946 he entered the Technical University at Graz, Austria, where he took a workshop with the architect of stupendous concrete buildings, Le Corbusier. He and his mother left for New York in 1949; in 1950 he entered the University of Cincinnati. He married Gunnel Rodën, and graduated in 1952 with a degree in architecture. They went to Los Angeles where Richard Neutra was one of the architectural stars. Marcel got a job with Victor Gruen Associates, chiefly noted as architects of shopping centers. Small wonder that he left VGA in 1958 to join the firm of Robert R. Jones in Carmel. There he designed a drive-in at Fort Ord, which features a parabolic roof and a towering wall of glass, a far cry from the usual drive-in design.

In 1960 he left the Jones firm to go into private practice. He shared an office with Kipp Stewart, a planner, on Ocean Avenue. In his first house (Carmel, 1961) there is the startling effect of having space open up before you as you enter, leading you to look through the house to the outside, an interpenetration of interior and exterior space. In all, Marcel designed fifteen houses in Carmel and the surrounding area. Since he was very meticulous in his work, and worked almost entirely alone, his rate of production was very low, about one house a year. He did not make much money. By then he had three children and sometimes had to hire out, as an electrician, for example.

Surrounded by large gray outcroppings, on a bluff in Carmel Meadows, facing Point Lobos, is the Jackson house (1962), perhaps Marcel's masterpiece. A combination of the architectural tenets of Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright and Marcel's own genius, this 3,600- square-foot house is built of reinforced concrete, echoing the boulders and gray fog surrounding it. Only the top of the house is visible from the street. The house has been much altered since its completion. As originally conceived, it burrowed into the cliff on which it stands. Entering through a somewhat dark and narrow passageway at the top, the visitor descends three floors into growing light on a concrete and stone staircase to the living room where the space opens up and light streams in from the windows. All of the rooms face Point Lobos. Below the living room, the bedrooms have a warm and cozy feeling. The house has been called "an ode to Le Corbusier," and certainly in its reverence for the site and view, it echoes Frank Lloyd Wright. It was the ability to combine the two that was part of Marcel's genius.

Sedletzky was intense, charming and very fit. He rode his 10-speed bicycle to Big Sur and back in a day. Handsome, with dark hair and eyes and a thick Middle European accent, he could sometimes be very authoritarian in his manner with clients and family. For a woman client who wanted a cozy Tudor cottage on Scenic, he designed a kind of sculptural abstraction, which, nonetheless, had the coziness inside of a Tudor cottage. His designs were expensive to build; none of the doors were standard size, for example; in one the boards had to be individually cut to fit. He was a member of the Sierra Club and initiated their hike down Arroyo Canyon Gorge; he was also the president of the American Institute of Architects, Monterey Branch.

In 1971 Gunnel objected to his authoritarian manner and divorced him. Short of money and stressed from the divorce, he accepted a job teaching at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. His career as an architect was almost finished. In 1973 he met Barbara, a Realtor, who became his second wife.

The little Mexican fishing village of Bahia Kino became his refuge from academic life. He and Barbara bought a lot there and built a house. He retired from teaching in 1992 and they moved permanently to Bahia Kino, where he died in 1995.

Barbara Sedletzky gave all of Marcel's papers to the University of California at Santa Cruz. In 2002, Bill Stagg's book on Marcel was published by Special Collections, U.C. Santa Cruz. A reception for the publication was held at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, sponsored by Julie Packard and Edward and Camille Penhoet, for whom Marcel had designed a Carmel Valley house, which they love.

OUR FAVORITE PLACES

The Carmel Card

Next time you need a gift, consider the new Carmel Card. Launched by the Carmel Chamber of Commerce in November, it is a gift and rewards card to be used in participating businesses for shopping, overnight stays, cultural activities or attractions. It may be purchased on the internet at www.carmelcard.com, at the Chamber Visitor Center on San Carlos or at businesses who are participating in the program and can be loaded with any amount.

Participants include Homescapes, Nielsen Brothers Market, Buon Giorno Bakery and Café, Augustina Leathers, Allegro Pizzeria, Travel Bag Luggage, Pilgrim's Way Bookstore, Monterey Movie Tours, Horizon Inn and Ocean View Lodge.

The card will allow consumers to accrue rewards points while they spend, just like air miles. These points can be redeemed for local event passes, lodging or even spent like cash. According to Chamber CEO Monta Potter, "We are frequently asked in the visitor center for a gift card to be given for weddings, birthdays or any special occasions. This will be that gift card and more because the user will get reward points for using it."

Dust-free floor refinishing

Nancy Collins writes, "I would like to recommend JC Hardwood Floors to anyone who needs to have their wood floors refinished. I chose JC because he advertised a dustless method. Previously I had another contractor work on some of the floors but I dreaded going through the mess again. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the work can be done without dust. Jody Collins (no relation) does excellent work and I would use him again. His number is: 521-3344."

How to find General Plan petition

The Supervisors voted to place the slower-growth "Community General Plan" on the June ballot along with their more development-friendly version, GPU4. However, they also decided to approve GPU4 in advance, which will allow large projects such as Butterfly Village/Rancho San Juan to go through before the June vote.

In order to stop these projects and to lessen voter confusion, LandWatch has initiated a referendum petition drive to keep GPU4 from being adopted before the June vote. If you want to sign and don't connect with one of the LandWatch volunteers, here are three opportunities:

• Jan. 17, 2 - 7 p.m. -- Big Sur Gallery, Barnyard in Carmel (next to Garden Health)
  
  
• Jan. 18, 10 - noon -- home of Barbara Livingston, San Carlos, 2 NW of 13th
  
  
• Jan. 29, 2 - 7 p.m. -- Mid Valley Fire Station Community room, Carmel Valley

Or contact Paula Lotz at 659-5226 for help finding another place to sign.

Remember that your City Council is on T.V.

City Council meetings are taped and re-broadcast
Sundays, 8 a.m. - 12 noon on
KMST Channel 26