Bennett Valley Voice

BENNETT VALLEY VOICE VOLUME 6

Number 1 Bennett Valley

Homeowners Association

Memo From The Board

As has been the custom in recent the January edition of the Bennett Valley Voice is being distributed to all area homes as part of our membership effort. join or re-join at this time as your input and support is needed. meets the third Wednesday of each month at 7:30 in the firehouse and you are welcome to attend.

At our last meeting, the Board selected its officers from the directors elected by you in October. They are listed on this page. we offer a spec1al thanks to out-going president Tamara Boultbee for her diligent and efficient work in our behalf thig past January 1983 BOARD

Of Directors

President Vice-President Secretary Treasurer Warren watkins Dave Steiner Barbara Maberry Nancy Batson Ted Chamberlain Bill Jacobs Sam Mitchell Tamara Boultbee Paul Mowbray Other recent Board actions include letters to the Federal Communications Commission and County Planing Dep't. regarding the proposed FMtransmission tower on Pressley Road.

We are concerned with the visability aspects and adverse magnetic field side effects possible with the tower. Also, our letter the the city of Santa Rosa Public Works Director regarding the poor condition of Bennett Valley Road between Bethards and Yulupa has led (we assume) to the recent Improvments there.

We would like to thank Public works for their assistance and also the county road crew for the extensive repaving further out the valley. Again, please take a moment to re-join the BHA. Ne need you. Update: 7129 Bennett Valley Road proposed 3-way lot split This proposal to split a steep section of property adjacent to Bennett Ridge was formally dropped at the December 14 supervisors meeting.

Several valley homeowners and directors were in attendance and were told that the applicant will need to "start over" if he decides to re-apply with a new plan. As we opposed the original plan for reasons prevlously reported, this action was favorably received by the BHA.

Update: 4630 Pressley Road proposed rezoning This proposal for rezoning of the 13 acre parcel owned by Mr. Schweiger is being watched by us as it is not in with the Bennett Valley Specific Plan. Kathy Jacobs is the county planner in charge of the application and interested Pressley Road neighbors or others wish to contact her for details.

The homeowners association mailing address is: P.O. Box 2666 Santa Rosa, CA 95405 Hope to see you at the February 16 meeting at the firehouse, 7:30 PM. If you would like to join, please fill out and tear off the slip below. Mail the attached self-addressed envelop.

1983 Membership Dues

Bennett Valley Homeowners

ASSOCIATION, P.O. Box 2666, Santa Rosa, New membership... $5.00 Existing membership renewal... $3.00 95405 Name Address B.V. address, if different Make checks payable to: Bennett Valley Homeowners Association (BHA) Please remit by February 28, 1983

2-

Soncma Mountain Rcad Refaired

Residents and frequent travelers of upper Sonoma Mountain Road were glad to hear of its reopening over the New Year's weekend. What was to have been a twoweek closure began in early November to repair a sogey, slumping 195-foot section of roadbed just below the old Erle Sutherland place, where steep sideslopes poor drainage had over the years narrowed the aging thoroughfare to little than a goatpath, poised precariously above a sheer, 20-foot cliff.

It had become obvious after the torrential rains of last January that a band-aid repair was not going to do the jor this time. County Fublic works had little choice (if the road was to remain passable) but to gird up its financial loins in preparation for a real battle with the mountain.

Hindsicht is cheap, of course, but it's safe to say that a worse November could not have been picked in twenty years to begin a major cut-and-fill road repair. No one was prepared for this season's heavy fall rains, and original closure estimate quickly quadrupled.

work had only been underway for a few days when, according to County foreman Bud Fiori, the original plan for a wider roadbed of relatively low cost ran about five feet afoul of what the downhill property owner claimed to be the County's right of way.

Work stopped long enough to verify that claim, and to determine that, the property owner was furthermore unwilling to sign a waiver allowing the work to continue beyond the right of way. The rain, however, continuer to fall, working conditions to worsen, and nearby disposal sites for the tons of sodden cut material to become inaccessible.

Faced with the necessity of working within the existing right of way, the powers that be called in a pile driver. That noisy beast pounded thirteen ten-inch steel I-beams, thirty feet into the mountain (all muck, no bedrock, says Fiori to form the structure for a retaining wall: below the roadbed, the structure being then cables.

the uphill side with steel The fill behind the wall is porous toward the bottom to promote subsurface drainage, and compacted shale and gravel above, to form the road base. Some settling is expected as the fill dries, and final surfacing has heen postroned for that reason until after the rainy season.

Uphill property owner Michael Bates expresses lingering concerns over surface drainage and foreman Fiori talks about tentative lans for an extension of the retaining wall next year, both suggesting the possibility of additional work on the We hope that future frojects be carried out during the dry season and after the necessary paperwork.

Though a better-planned project would have been cheaper and time, we do appreciate t e priority given us by Public Works. problem has been taken care of, and not we especially appreciate the crews, who worked long hours under the nastiest of conditions to give us a This newsletter is compiled and distributed to members quarterly-the next issue arriving in April 1983.

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