Avila Beach Life • April 2024

See You at the Beach

Avila Beach Foundation News & Views

April brings delightful weather to the Central Coast, making it an ideal time to explore our great outdoors. We welcome an abundance of sunshine and mild temperatures during this time, creating perfect conditions for adventures such as beach outings, hiking along the coast, or cycling on the Bob Jones Trail. Additionally, April offers an array of spectacular wildlife viewings, a kaleidoscope of blooming wildflowers dotting the land-

scapes, and the Pacific Ocean shimmering in brilliant aquamarine. We’re all so very fortunate to live in an area filled with such amazing beauty and natural wonder. This month, the foundation is spotlighting 2024 grant recipient the Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers. The Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers (PSLHK) is a nonprofit 501(c)3 formed in 1995. The Keepers’ mission is to restore, preserve, and operate the historic Point San Luis Light Station as a public park and museum. The Keepers have spent more than 80,000 hours since 1995 restoring the Lighthouse and its historic structures to their original condition circa 1890-1900. With the first phase of improvements completed, the current focus has been on the maintenance of the historic site and the surrounding buildings and property. The Light Station operates as a historical destination site thanks to the participation of the Port San Luis Harbor Commission and PG&E. The Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers offer docent-led

A View From the Beach

Hi All …

Several months ago, Avila Beach Postmaster Cindy Baker-Kobliska lost her son. A number of community members donated to the Josh Brown Memorial Youth Soccer Scholarship in Portland, Oregon. Josh was an amazing supporter of youth sports through his career as a soccer coach at the club level and in high schools …and he is missed by so many. The donation will give kids a chance to play soccer at the club level who otherwise might not be able to afford the opportunity. An engraved Commemorative Paver will be placed in the Community Center’s Healing Garden in Josh’s honor. Cindy and her brother Marc Baker asked me to thank the Avila Beach community for your generous support. The Avila Beach Civic Association is hosting its annual Spring Spaghetti Dinner/

ALSO INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Bingo Night on Friday, April 19, from 6 to 8 p.m. The dinner will consist of delicious spaghetti with meatballs/meat sauce or marinara sauce, salad, bread, and dessert. Popcorn is served during bingo, and beer and wine are available for sale. Tickets are $10 per person and $5 for kids 6 and under. If you are interested in getting involved with this event or any of our other upcoming events, please contact me at avilabeachcc@gmail.com or (805) 627-1997.

Sue Butzow will again offer a Posture Class on Wednesday, April 10, from 10 to 11 a.m. You can pre-register and/or get more information at schedulicity.com/scheduling/ SB4EQQ or call her at (408) 888-4405. She will be charging $20 for -1/2 the class and will be available on Zoom for future classes when not in our area.

As I am sure you have already heard, the Avila Beach Life will no longer be published after this issue. We are all very sorry to lose this wonderful opportunity to keep our community up to date on activities and events in Avila Beach. I have enjoyed highlighting the Pet of the Month, Community Spotlight, and all the fun things being planned at the Community Center, but hope that you will continue to follow us at avilabeachcc.com. You can contact me at avilabeachcc@gmail.com or (805) 627-1997. I want to thank Hayley and Nicholas Mattson and their staff for all that they have contributed to our community.

interpretive tours to experience the rich history of the beautifully restored Lighthouse, the Hornhouse, and other structures.

The book, “The Lighthouse at Point San Luis,” by board member and lighthouse historian, Kathy Mastako is “a collection of short (true) stories,” that details the lives of the lightkeepers of Point San Luis from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. To mark the book’s publication in 2023, the Keepers arranged a reunion of “Coasties” and their families last summer. Many of these former keepers had moved away and hadn’t seen Avila Beach or the light station in 50 years.

Throughout the world, lighthouses and light stations are considered significant sites, worthy of protection and preservation. The Point San Luis Light Station, built to protect shipping traffic, which grew rapidly with the construction of the Harford Pier, played an important part in the economic and cultural growth of Avila Beach and San Luis Obispo County.

It is tied to the development of the county in the 1890s, the protection of the coast during World War II, the safety of the fishing fleets and pleasure craft today, and even the launching of missiles at Vandenberg, as the site houses the range clearing radar for the base.

In 2024, Avila Beach Community Foundation is pleased to award funding to the Point San Luis Lighthouse Keepers in support of the historical preservation of their water cisterns.

As a reminder, the foundation is currently accepting applications from local organizations or individuals to apply for a single $8,500 Community Impact Grant. Interested parties are required to complete and submit an application and cover letter no later than April 30, 2024. To download an application and for additional information, please visit our website at avilabeachfoundation.org.

Until next time, enjoy the great outdoors and have a wonderful April!

Avila Community Spotlight: Christy Kasarjian

By MARY FOPPIANO For Avila Beach Life

Growing up on the Central Coast, Christy Kasarjian’s love for the water and the outdoors influenced both her personal and professional life. After graduating high school in San Luis Obispo, she attended Boise State University. The friendly residents and vast outdoor recreation opportunities captured her heart and kept her in Boise for almost 20 years. Fighting fire for the U.S. Forest Service while at BSU opened her eyes to many land and environmental issues.

After earning her degree in business administration and management, she became a director at Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation and Ski Area (a nonprofit local in Boise), where she was challenged in all aspects of business. Managing large groups of employees, coordinating with other entities, fundraising, and increasing the scope of the department were just a few of her responsibilities.

Returning to her roots

as the executive director of the Central Coast Aquarium brings Christy a lot of joy. Serving the Avila Beach community and being in closer proximity to her family and an integral part of the CCA team contributes to a fun and supportive environment.

organization dedicated to marine science education. Their Exhibit Hall features 15 exhibits representing marine life on the Central Coast. If you would like to learn more about the CCA, please check out their website CentralCoastAquarium.org or contact them at info@ CentralCoastAquarium.com or (805) 457-5357.

Mary Foppiano Avila Beach Civic Association

Christy Kasarjian

Rick Rowe avila beach foundation

See You at the Beach Reflecting on the End of an Era

Dear Readers,

Last month, I touched upon the shifting landscape of newspapers, recognizing the enduring significance of our print editions in an increasingly digital world. As the publisher of several newspapers along the coast, including Avila Beach Life, I’ve come to deeply appreciate the role our print editions play. They serve as not only a historical record but also as cherished documentation of local events within our region. Our newspapers offer a tangible account of our community’s narrative during specific periods, providing a unique perspective that digital platforms often fail to capture.

With a heavy heart, I must now address a difficult decision. Despite efforts to sustain Avila Beach Life, we have had to confront the harsh financial realities. Despite the support from the Community Foundation and our two advertisers, the publication can no longer sustain itself. Therefore, it is with regret that we announce the cessation of Avila Beach Life until further notice.

We have poured our hearts and dollars into preserving it, driven by our love for the community. Yet, the financial losses incurred each month have become insurmountable. However, this isn’t a final farewell. Should anyone wish to explore ways to support the printing of Avila Beach Life , please don’t hesitate to reach out to me. Your thoughts and ideas are invaluable as we navigate this change.

Avila Beach will forever hold a special place in our hearts. It is where I spent my summers as a kid, where Nic and I exchanged vows on the beach, and where we now enjoy summers with our family. This tradition will persist in the years ahead.

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our devoted writers who deeply care for our community: Mary Foppiano, Betty Hartig, John Salisbury, Kathy Mastako for Port San Luis, and Rick Rowe, our newest contributor for the Avila Beach Community Foun dation. Special recognition goes to Rick Cohen for his leadership in fostering community involvement over the years.

We have cherished every moment of publishing Avila Beach Life, and while circumstances may not allow its continuation now, we hold hope for its revival in the future. Until then, I invite you to explore our other publications on 13stars. media, where we continue to share stories from up and down the Central Coast. The spirit of Avila Beach Life will live on through our collective memories, and perhaps, one day, we will once again bring it to life in one form or another.

As Rick Cohen used to say, “See You at the Beach.”

Warm regards,

“EVERY

Well, I guess it is true that after around 20 years of over 240 columns, all good things must come to an end. I have gone through three great publishers who managed to supply our Valley with newsworthy columns and really felt the pulse of the community. My thanks to John Sorgenfrei (TJA Advertising) — who thought maybe a column on the trials and tribulations of a local farmer would be interesting early in 2000 when we planted our vineyard at the Bassi Ranch — Avila and Pismo Beach News , and the Mattson family and my boss Camille DeVaul of 13 Stars Media. Not only did they tie the community together with news, festivities, history, beautiful pictures of our beach town, and personalities, it was always a comfort to be kept informed of the goings on in our community on a monthly basis, much of it at their expense.

You only need to look at our other local,

GRAPEVINE Goodbye for now

state, and national newspapers to see print news is going the way of the buggy whip. It is sad because I enjoy opening my Wall Street Journal at breakfast and will do so for as long as it lasts, especially since the loss of the Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle , which I also read daily but are now no longer delivered. There is something about having detailed information in your hands instead of a small screen that you flip through, basically looking at misleading click-bait headlines. The same goes for a good book, instead of an electronic device, that I read nightly in bed for 15 minutes or an hour or more until sleep takes over. Call me a dinosaur, but that is the way I see it.

In these 20-plus years, we have talked about the boom in winegrape plantings, wineries from around 50 odd vineyards in Paso Robles when I started custom farming in 1966 to five times that now, the ups and downs, and the future looking a bit bleak for the wine business unless we can get the younger generations to replace us war babies and boomers. The average farmer is close to 60 years old. In total, farmers make up around 2 percent of the population, 20 million acres of farmland have been lost in the last five years along with 141,000 farms, and rural towns and school districts are declining in population with a depressing economic ripple effect for neighboring businesses. Still, production is keeping up on the remaining 880 million acres thanks to increased agricultural productivity. As long as the regulators, “Greenies,” and lawmakers leave us alone, we can continue to feed

America and much of the world.

There were columns starting about this time last year about the amount of damage producing an EV battery causes to the environment and how they do not make much sense if you can only go 300 miles or less without a time-consuming charge; if you can find one, in a big state like ours. Plus, the infrastructure will not be ready soon enough to meet EV vehicle mandates. Expensive EVs people don’t want, and a few who can afford them, with short battery lifetimes, are piling up in car lots all around the world, with many brands, including battery manufacturing, filing bankruptcy or curtailing their production. The shift to hybrids makes more sense, and the way the industry is ramping up. Oil and gas production is not going away for a long time.

Large solar installations are taking up thousands of acres of farming grounds out of production, and there is the problem of finding how to deliver the sun power thousands of miles through farmlands and communities to the consumers. Solar on homes, we have panels on our roofs, buildings, and structures make sense — when the sun shines. We need to concentrate on small Nuclear plants, hydrogen, and another soon-to-be-developed energy process that can be built here instead of relying on countries that don’t like us for things like windmills and solar panels and all the environmental problems needed to produce and deliver them.

Ocean windmill projects on the East Coast and Europe are being canceled because they don’t pencil out because of

costs to build and maintain, increased costs to the consumer, disruption of marine life and the fishing industry, and what do you do with them they are finished because football field long blades are not recyclable. They are building what will be the largest plane in the world to haul just one blade. What is the cost of that delivery and pollution? I pray the planned offshore windmill farm on our coast doesn’t happen, and especially that there will be no disastrous construction facility in our bay.

I have personally cleaned the two-mile route from San Luis Bay Drive south to the Shell Beach tennis courts in the Adopt-AHighway program for 17 years, and now, instead, have taken the San Luis Bay Drive northbound to Higuera route with the highway sign slostay.com for our Airbnb business, two rentals in Avila and one in SLO, and advertising for other qualified shortterm rentals plus coordinating filling empty dates. Because I’m going on 82 and need to keep my mind challenged — an anti-Alzheimer/dementia exercise — I will continue writing an Avila Valley Grapevine column with community news on our slovines. com website this time, leaving myself wide open with a comment section, a luxury with the paper because I didn’t have to worry disparaging comments the last two decades! Shooting for mid-April for the first one and hope you tune in. Thank you for all the great compliments and support over the years. So, for now it is Adios, y Hasta Luego. Cheers, John

John Salisbury contributor

—

Shy little 6- to 8-inch turtle found on Bob Jones Pathway is the only one native to California

By BETTY HARTIG

For Avila Beach Life

While strolling the Bob Jones Pathway, pause, look, and listen. There are wonderous sights to see along the trail. Sometimes, one requires a keen eye to notice a small little creature living near the creek, and

Turtles along the path

water. You may see a western pond turtle basking in the sun on an exposed limb. It is a fine treat to see these peaceful reptiles designed with a protective shell-covered body. Fascinatingly, turtles do not outgrow their shell, conveniently, it grows with them.

Western pond turtles live in streams, ponds, lakes, and ephemeral wetlands that have abundant vegetation. The San Luis Creek that flows adjacent to the Bob Jones Trail is an optimal place for the native turtle to inhabit. The shy little 6- to 8-inch turtle is in fact the only native turtle to California.

search for food, mates, or a new location. In the spring females will travel to ground elevated above the waters to nest their clutch of eggs. Using her hind feet, a female turtle digs a cavity about four inches deep where she lays soft oval eggs. The complete nest takes about 10 hours to dig. Whew! That is arduous work.

After hatching, the young will remain in the nest until the next spring after hatching. It is interesting to note that western pond turtles reproduce slowly. Females can take an average of 10 years to sexually mature.

When a western pond turtle senses danger they will immediately dive into the water for safety and can quickly hide both head and legs in their hard shell. Despite these self-preservation characteristics the western pond turtle is being considered under the Endangered Species Act. In California, they are designated as a state “species of special concern” due to population decline. Both habitat alterations and destruction along with the release of nonnative species pose a threat to the western pond turtle as well as worsening drought conditions. Another issue that led to a decline in population occurred in the mid-1800s.

During that time approximately 300,000 people moved to California for gold and fortune. Included in their search were western pond

turtles. Turtle soup was a popular meal in restaurants, especially in San Francisco. Records indicate that more than 250,000 turtles were in the food market between 1863 and 1931. However, signifi cantly more were likely unre ported. So, no turtle soup for you!

An amazing pond turtle fact is that it has the ability to remain underwater for 60 minutes or longer. However, normally these turtles rise to the surface every few minutes to breathe. During the winter, turtles go into brumation, which is like hibernation, burrow ing into mud above or below the water and remain inactive until temperatures warm back up. But no worries, turtles are capable of breathing underwater using cloa cal respiration. This process allows turtles to pump water through sacs lined with blood vessels that act like gills.

Western pond turtles can live to be 50 years old. Aquatic plants, invertebrates, worms, a variety of insects, tadpoles, frog eggs, snails, plus other diet delights are found on a turtle menu. To help ensure a healthy western pond turtle popu lation, keep fishing lines and rope, which can easily entangle them, in addition to other trash items out of the water.

of the Month

Observing nature is fun, free, and enlightening. Fully savor the moments spent outdoors. Who knows what you will see. Perhaps, a little western pond turtle soaking up some sun.

Buddy

Kevin, the UPS driver. Buddy likes to go for rides in the truck, walks, riding on the back of his daddy’s bike, Frisbee and In-NOut is his favorite restaurant!

Running With the Dogs

I’ve been to the horse races but not to the dog track—the places that used to use a mechanical rabbit on a metal loop racing ahead of the greyhounds. My knowledge of the dog track was limited to the Bugs Bunny cartoon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ynzq9DXiT0 until I watched some YouTube videos. Quite the spectacle.

As I write on March 25th, lots of “dogs” (aka “meme” stocks and the “most shorted” stocks) have been leading the stock market.^ While some of the “thoroughbreds” like Nvidia, Meta, and Amazon have had a good year, past champions like Apple and Tesla are no longer running with the “Magnificent 7” and are falling behind the leaders. So, does this mean there is too much speculation? That is the big question.

One of my favorite financial sites, SentimenTrader.com, has put out data over the past 45 days showing that, when markets have had a run such as they have had since late Oct, 2023, there may be some short term meandering while the longer term (6-12 months) is almost universally positive with above average returns. That speaks to the old adage of “trend-following,” meaning buy stuff that is going up and wait for it to go higher.

Of course, what happened in the past doesn’t necessarily predict the future. Something I’ve been doing for myself and clients is “index investing with guardrails,” whereby one’s gains are linked 100% to the major indexes with partial* or full** protection if markets decline. We want to be prepared for when the euphoria ends.