Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California • Page 2

Local City Editor Royal Calkins 429-2410 A-2 Sunday, January 17, 1999 am 'I think for a lot of people it's an added dimension to when you go out in the woods Debbie Johnson mm (I Large white Leucopaxillus Scaly Chantrelle Redening Russula By KAREN CLARK Sentinel staff writer BOULDER CREEK An 18-year-old Boulder Creek man was killed while hiking with friends Friday night when he fell 75 feet down a sheer rock cliff. Paul Imrie, a senior at San Lorenzo Valley High School, was walking in a remote area near his Ridge Road home on the outskirts of Boulder Creek when friends lost sight of him about 6 p.m., authorities said. The friends told Sheriffs Office investigators that they tried to find Imrie, but were unable to spot him in the darkness. They walked to the 400 block of Ridge Road, which is just off Highway 236, and called the Boulder Creek Fire Station for help about 7:40 p.m. According to the county Coroner's Office, Imrie is believed to have fallen while walking on a thin trail.

Boulder Creek firefighters and the Sheriffs Office search and rescue team eventually found Imrie's body at the bottom of the cliff. Crews, however, were unable to retrieve him because it was dark and the body was wedged between a tree and the face of the cliff. The operation continued Saturday, and the Coroner's Office, with help of firefighters and the California Youth Authority, recovered Imrie's body in the early afternoon. According to Alan Burt, a deputy in the Coroner's Office, Imrie was described "as a genuinely good kid, good friend and (a) good son" by those who knew him. An autopsy will be performed to pinpoint the cause of death, but authorities are calling the incident "a tragic accident." Superintendent Andrew Meyer of the San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District said grief counselors would be on hand when school resumes Tuesday to help teachers and students cope with the loss.

There are no classes Monday because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Imrie's sister is a sophomore at San Lorenzo High. Fancy fungi star at the Fungus Fair By KAREN CLARK Sentinel staff writer SANTA CRUZ These aren't your mother's Agaricus bisporus mushrooms, the store-bought variety. These are the racier, more exotic versions she never told you about wild mushrooms with names like witch's hat, righteous red waxy cap, belly button, poison pie, candy cap and blewit.

And they're all on display at the 25th annual Fungus Fair, which continues its two-day run today between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. at Louden Nelson Community Center, 301 Center Santa Cruz. Sponsored by the city Museum of Natural History and Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz, the fair got some room to grow this year with the move to larger digs at Louden Nelson. That's good news for fungus aficionados, who now can browse the inocybe geophylla and Hygrocybe singeri without bumping Into each other.

"There's a little more moving around room," said Debbie Johnson, vice president of the Fungus Federation, which started the annual show at the cramped Museum of Natural History before trying the slightly larger scout house at Harvey West Park. The fair includes a browsing room to spy the various 'shrooms, as well as a room where children can learn about the varieties. Special presentations for adults include "Cooking with Mushrooms," "Tasting Fungal Favorites," and "Mushroom Identification Basics." Despite the dry-so-far winter, more than 140 varieties of mushrooms were collected in the week before the show. That number swelled Saturday as amateur mycologists brought in their fungus finds, only to be persuaded to add them to the pot so to speak. A few of the finds stumped the club's best, and while they could narrow it to a genus, the species remained elusive.

"There are many fungi that haven't I mil II v7.il Bill LovejoySentinel photos Fungus Fair volunteer Debbie Johnson primps a mushroom display Saturday at the Louden Nelson Center. The fair continues today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.ra frontiersman heading into the sunset. It got its name solely because the original species name was equestria. So what's the draw to collecting the some 3,000 types of mushrooms found in Santa Cruz County? "I think for a lot of people it's an added dimension to when you go out in the woods," said Johnson, adding that many collectors simply like a good meal.

That brings up a necessary warning. Of the 3,000 kinds of mushrooms that grow wild in the county, only about 100 are edible. While many of those 2,900 simply aren't tasty, some of them can make people sick or, worse, kill them. "The smart person makes the assumption that if they don't know what it is they don't eat it," Johnson said. "When in doubt, throw it out" General admission to today's Fungus Fair is $5, with students and seniors getting in for $3.

Children under 12 are free. even been identified yet," Johnson said. "They're all different. People spend their lives studying one species." But when they're identified, they often get tagged with unforgettable names. Bellybutton, for instance (formally Hydnum umbilicatum), has a tiny hole or depression in the middle of the cap.

"These guys have an Johnson pointed out. Another mushroom, called Man on Horseback, doesn't look a thing like a NLLK. Jr. Day closings Monday Government offices: Closed in Capitola, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and Watsonville. County offices also are closed.

Trash: Regular schedule. Libraries: Closed. Metro buses: Sunday schedule; Post offices: Closed. Banks: Closed Sentinel Open. Santa Cruz water works controversy spouts in 1885 ROSS ERIC GIBSON THEN AND NOW Steen couldn't serve the papers, because the city treasurer wouldn't let anyone in his office, and the city clerk and mayor were sequestered at the Masonic Lodge long after closing.

Steen posted men around the lodge, and when the two came out, they were served. But the mayor had -just concluded a secret meeting transfer- ring the deed to the city. The city operated the works while a second lawsuit over election irregularities was thrown out of court as irrelevant technicalities. However a higher court stated that while the bond election had taken place 21 days after the state act permitting Santa Cruz to issue bonds, it was 39 days before the state act became law. So another bond: election was scheduled.

In the meantime, a scandal broke that Mayor Effey had embezzled from County Bank. Why the resulting investigations didnt effect Effey's popularity is the subject of -part two of the controversy. Ross Eric Gibson is an authorhistorian, historic architectural consultant, and co-chairman of the Santa Cruz Historic Preservation Commission. cluding Santa Cruz, to own a water works. The concept was still experimental in California, where only two cities owned water works.

But Mayor Effey and most city leaders belonged to the prestigious "Pilot Hose" fire company, giving them a unique perspective on the benefits of municipal control of water. There were only three hydrants in the city, provided to private customers at $50 a month; and water hook-ups from unserved streets cost $100; both services a city could provide free. The state Legislature passed a bill in March allowing Santa Cruz to issue bonds, and Santa Cruz voters approved $100,000 in bonds to purchase the Duke Works. But Hihn smelled a rat. Hihn was a respected founding father and county benefactor, who at personal risk and expense brought county improvements in industry, utilities, education, culture, recreation, and even a railroad.

His sense of fair play made him refuse support to the anti-Chinese labor movement then popular. The town's leading citizens had helped finance his water works, so he was appalled when outsiders were allowed to build a competing one. But what hurt him more was that the city now intended to go into business against him. And worse, their slogan "Free Water Forever" was expanding from civic use only to private consumers: a tax-supported water system without monthly rates! Hihn's private investigation revealed a disturbing connection. W.H.

Duke, negotiating the sale of the works, was a Pilot Hose member, as were most men on the City Council. Pilot Hose members also were connected with the management of Santa Cruz County Bank, whose vice president, Dr. P.B. Fagan, was the chief stock holder in the company that purchased the Duke Works. Mayor Effey and Councilman William T.

Jeter both had been employed at one time by the bank. Hihn believed Duke announced its sale in the Pilot Hose club, sold it to the Pilot Hose's bank, and used Pilot Hose members of the City Council to push a city sale from which the bank was rumored would make a $25,000 profit! Hihn also noted irregularities in the election approving the bonds. Many of the town's leading citizens had faith in Hihn's suspicions. When the council voted to deliver $80,000 to the bank for the Duke Works in August, Jacob Steen got an injunction to stop the purchase. But SANTA CRUZ'S 1885 attempt to acquire a city water company resulted in a conspiracy involving embezzlement, forgery, espionage, "star chamber" politics, attempted assassination, grand jury tampering, and plot twists at every turn.

Each side called the other a conspiracy. Yet those who thought they'd won at the time, were too embarrassed later to describe it more thoroughly than "the water controversy." Few who didn't live through it understood its details. In 1791, mission workers dug a ditch down High Street bringing spring water from Tres Ojos de Agua to Mission Plaza, which ended as a waterfall at the end of School Street. In 1859, town founders Elihu 'Anthony and F.A. Hihn blocked the waterfall with a reservoir on the bluff, and fur-nished water through redwood pipes.

By .1870 this was known as the Hihn Works. But Ihere were problems: high rates, low pressure for fire protection, muddy water in winter, rationing in summer and no water at all in the evening. Santa Cruz had the most nearby water resources in the state, yet citizens complained there was more waiter in the streets than in the taps. So in 1877, a San Francisco company es- tablished a rival company by supplying free water to the city for the hospital, civic buildings and for sprinkling the dusty streets. The company built two reservoirs on Logan Heights near High and Highland streets, a San Lorenzo pumping plant near' the River Street city limits, a flume and reservoir on the De Laveaga bluff at the head of Branciforte Avenue, and piped in water from Majors Creek up the coast.

By the 1880s, this was called the Duke Works after manager W.H. Duke. The competition brought rates down and improved service. Then A.W. Bowman, the San Francisco president of the Duke Works, was arrested for embezzlement in 1885, and the water works went up for sale.

The city was concerned they'd lose their free water under a new owner. Then came word of a law allowing certain cities, in Do you agree that Gray Davis' No. 1 priority should be education? (Asked in Capitola Village) mm Jessie Stevens Student, Areata Yes, of course. It's the root of a stable society. Our government spends enormous amounts of money on fruitless endeavors.

His priority should be quality public Erin Poe Student, Santa Cruz I think it should be a top priority for anybody. There are so many things that need to be fixed; they should try to keep kids in school by finding and building on their individual interests. Marisa Fait Mom, Santa Cruz I don't believe that any California politician has education as a first priority. I'll believe that when I see it. Education should be all California politicians' first priority.

Chris Stone Student, Watsonville Yes, because the future of America is the children. I think there's a lack of focus on education, and it shows when kids try to get into college. It's hard for most kids because they're not prepared. ft 'V 'm aiaVfiwij.il im i i To suggest a question lor On the Street, call 423-NEWS, selection 6129.