7 | Firewise Committee |

14 | HVLT Board |

21 | HVCA Board |

28 | Sanitary District Board |

1st/3rd Weds. | Tam Design Review Board |

SAVE THE DATE: Dennis Rodoni's office hours: Tuesday, Oct 7, 6:00PM via Zoom, see details below.

It is with great excitement that we announce the Homestead Valley Pool Renovation Project is scheduled to commence the week after Labor Day. Many HVCA Board members, staff and community volunteers have worked for years to make this project a reality. Currently the project is expected to be completed by March 2022 and we will be ready to open for a full pool season next Spring. Construction hours are Monday - Friday from 8am-5pm. We will try our best to communicate early and thoroughly if there will be any planned deviations from the schedule. 

As this project is being led by the County of Marin, any questions or concerns about the construction process should be directed to Tara McIntire, Project Manager, ASLA, RLA #5309 PRINCIPAL LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT - 415 521 8059 TMcintire@marincounty.org.

By Alan Cowan

Please use info@homesteadvalley.org as your primary email contact for all HVCA business. And we welcome your calls to the Community Center phone line, but know that it may take us a little longer to pick up messages and get back to you as needed.

By Alex Scalisi

Photos by Suz Lipman

The 2021 Homestead Valley Music Festival returned to the Meadow on Saturday, August 28h with another sun soaked event featuring an all female fronted line-up and smiles across the faces of neighbors, friends and loved ones who - as it turns out - need a good party :).

With an estimated attendance of just over 1,000 adults and children, the festival kicked off with Scalisi family favorites, Blonde Sided, featuring Juli Stewart on lead vocals. The festival got into full swing with our annual “Youth Showcase #1” featuring local youth singer/songwriter, Anna Harrell, from Tam High School. Next up was an acoustic set by Forest Sun that gave way to Elliott Peck. Elliott brought the house down with tracks from her album Further From The Storm and some soaring covers including ‘Miss Ohio’ by the great Gillian Welch. Following Elliott was our “Youth Showcase #2” featuring singers from the independent film “Seen”. A powerful film by Homestead resident Dawn Shalhoup, the film is a finalist in the Independent Shorts in LA and follows the story of local students working through the tragic events of the loss of a friend. Highly recommend you seek this film out if you haven’t already. Rounding out the day was a double bill featuring bassist Angeline Saris in both Catfight and Angelex. Catfight fronted by former Mother Truckers vocalist and Tam High graduate, Teal Collins got the party in gear with deep grooves, their own theme song, and a blazing rendition of Led Zeppelin’s Immigrant Song! Angelex brought the funk with a mix of jazz, dup-step and hip hop to bring the event to a rousing close with the sounds of California (Homestead) sunshine. Truly another amazing day of live music in our meadow.

Lots of food, beverages and fun accompanied the musical offering including amazing BBQ from Pig in the Pickle, (best BBQ in the Bay) and Mia’s Desserts, snow cones by Grace Westbrook -- all of which completely sold out of all items!

Lisa’s Bar in the Meadow, run by Homestead resident Lisa Santos and team, once again poured ice cold Lagunitas beer (one of our major sponsors) from a 1953 Chevy flatbed truck turned draft beer truck.

Finally, we could never pull this off without the many fine volunteers we had, working on everything from set up, food, wine/beer, set up/clean up, etc. We thank them whole heartedly and they are (in no particular order...!) as follows: Ashley MacDonald (co-chair) Jen Coyne (sponsors) Jen Hochschild

(marketing) Ron Shaloup (talent) Bob Westbrook (MC) David Rush (art) Lindsay Scalisi (promotion) Margaret Harding (volunteers) Patrick Wyman (parking) Mira Kim (power and storage) Pete Hottenstein (bartender) John Reimers and Alan Cowen (setup and breakdown) Diana Flasher (runner) and Jim Derich (electrical and maker of things right).

We’d like to give a HUGE thanks to our sponsors this year. Please support these local businesses that support your community: American Solar Corporation, Fort Point Beer Company, Lagunitas Brewing Co, Pig in a Pickle BBQ, Good Earth Natural Foods Tam Valley, Malugani's Tire Shop, The Hivery, Mill Valley Dentistry, Marin Horizon School, Juice Girl, The Junction Beer Garden & Pizzahacker, Millie’s Crepe, LaLa’s Cafe, Sip Sip, Mill Valley Boards and Compass Real Estate.

We would also like to take a moment to thank our local Community resident sponsors who stepped up to ensure the Music Festival would happen this year. Your generous contributions touched all of us on the Music Festival committee and we can’t thank you enough. It takes a village --thank you again.

AND, finally, thank you again for years of service to our Executive Director, David Ross at the HVCA. Congratulations on your retirement and we look forward to seeing you as a music fest attendee next year ---August 27, 2022 :).

From September 10th-October 17th, a new art installation will be featured at Homestead's Volunteer Park. The project is called DROPS, and is part of ARTx Marin, a county-wide, site-based art exhibition featuring Bay Area artists and makers. Homestead resident Tim Ryan has brought together a group of artists varying in age and experience level. The challenge to the artists has been to represent their individual interpretation of the drought and the Marin watershed on one side of their drop form. A watershed is an area of land where all of the water drops that fall in it drain off to a common outlet.

One Sunday morning in late August I woke up early thinking of huckleberries. A few evenings before I had introduced my wife to the land trust's newest, Madrone Trail.

When this link between Homestead Trail and Madrone Park Circle was laid out, we had to fight our way through tall huckleberry brush, the only concentration of it I've seen in the valley. I wondered if the bushes produced many berries.

They do. As Suki and I came through the thicket our mouths watered at the sight of the laden branches. Hundreds and thousands of tiny black globes hung in ripeness, waiting for the enthusiastic grasp and appreciative tastebuds to release their rich flavor.

That grasp was provided by me on this Sunday morning. I reached and stripped, sorted out the chaff, and dropped them in the old malt syrup tin. It's a good feeling when the pail stops pinging as the bottom gets covered.

The first savoring tastebuds were my dog's. She found low branches with berries, and ate them directly like a bear would.

Back home an hour later, the berries were added to some "blue heaven" corn meal hot cake batter. With a little freshly made apple sauce or a touch of maple syrup, a most delicious experience was had.

A final note: this patch is on very steep ground, the side of a ravine, and is not easy to reach for the most part. But that assures there will be plenty left for the birds.

September 1988

When the Golden Gate Bridge was completed, in 1938, Greyhound buses replaced the train service from Mill Valley to the Sausalito ferry. However, the tracks were left in place for freight trains. Miller Ave. two-way traffic went on the road on the southwest side of the tracks. The other side was for parking. In 1950, the Locust Business District was quite a bit different from what it is today. It had the largest concentration of automobile sales and service in Marin County. There were Chrysler-Plymouth, Chevrolet, Pontiac and Buick dealerships, two repair garages, an auto parts store, an automotive machine shop and five service stations.

Today there are no car dealerships, two service stations and six car repair shops.  The Quonsets, now Whole Foods, housed the Miller Avenue Shopping Center containing a grocery store, meat market, drug store, soda fountain, beauty salon, and post office – it closed in the 1980s. A grocery store and a bakery were on Locust Ave. There were no restaurants. Today there are many restaurants: Mill Valley Coffee Shop, Joe’s Taco Lounge, Mama’s Royal Café, Extreme Pizza, Sol Food, Super Duper, Samurai, Tamalpai Pizza and Grilly’s.

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