Our 2025 Christmas Letter

Dear Friends and Family: May we present our hopefully interesting and memorable 2025 Christmas Letter 

 Alice thinks it’s wonderful that I do the Christmas cards and letters each year. My secret is that I think that it’s wonderful too. Each year a great white space begs me to fill it with something interesting and memorable. That’s a big challenge because then I must change my focus from Alice and I to you, the cherished reader of innumerable Christmas letters. What would you think is not only interesting but memorable? 

I'm wearing the red cap

 How about the Gualala Art Center presenting its most memorable show ever, Fiddler on the Roof. I had two parts, the innkeeper and a rabbi. Best ever? A huge talented cast – almost 40 – plus a superbly crafted set with outstanding stage crew members doubling as Russian soldiers. The key was our director, Tony Salamone, supported by selfless musicians Don Krieger and Sue Bohlin who played at every moment we rehearsed. 

 Early May we spent ten days on San Pedro Island, Belize. We peddled bikes and snorkeled amongst big nurse sharks – non-man eating - that thankfully preferred the chopped fish our guide threw amongst us. Another highlight of our trip was a scenic flight over the mysterious Blue Hole located 78 miles from our resort. We chose the two-hour flight rather than a bone-shaking six-hour boat trip, which would have begun at 5:30am. We also visited the Altun Ha Mayan ruins and stopped at a roadside restaurant on our return for curry chicken, so good that we’re still trying (without success) to duplicate the recipe. Memorable ruins, memorable chicken.

Front, Alice and Hans. Behind, Josie, Debbie, Jeanette, Jack, Me, Daniel, and Kevin

On the 5th of April a very interesting and memorable person, Hans Stiller, died. Hans and Alice married in 1962 and have two daughters, Jeanette and Debbie. Hans was born in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1941 and survived Allied bombings. His father was killed on the Russian Front in 1944. His mother, Ilse, remarried and his family immigrated to Las Angeles in 1954. Hans became a SF Bay ferry captain and an accomplished cello player. Alice and I married in 1989 and I met Hans in the Dallas airport just before he took a photo of Alice and me sleeping together on a flight enroute to a 1991 vacation in Germany. 

In July I hosted a fifth Point Arena High reunion, this time in Santa Rosa – never the same place twice. This reunion was small - I underestimated the effect of schoolmates aging two years since the last one - but it was fun. I’m already working on the next. Alice and I had reunion leftovers – spaghetti, fettucine Alfredo, cake – for a month. 

Kevin Mone, Vulcan wire CEO Mike Graffio, and founder and former CEO Alice

Alice founded Vulcan Wire 50 years ago and its CEO Mike Graffio is mentoring his replacement, Alice’s oldest grandson, Kevin. 

Front, Theresa and husband Chuck

Vulcan’s annual Christmas party was attended by 15 of 17 employees plus six guests. Special honor and thanks went to Theresa Rodrigues, soon to retire after forty years of selling wire for Vulcan. 

Josie, Jack, Alice, and Debbie

After grandsons Jack Cosentino and Daniel Mone graduated from college this year, youngest granddaughter Josie Cosentino will be the last graduate next year. 

2nd Lieutenant Daniel Mone

Daniel was also just commissioned an Army 2nd Lieutenant and will start after Christmas at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, training in field artillery.

Savannah and Eric

Oldest granddaughter Savannah Mone and fiancé Eric Briltz announced their plans for a 2027 wedding at Keady, Northern Ireland, with her father, Kieran’s, family plus us Californians. 

My oldest son Bruce and his wife Lisa now live in Arizona, and my middle son Scott in Fortuna, Ca. My youngest son, Jeffrey, died over a year ago at age 55 in San Antonio following a stroke. I have five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren scattered in California, Arizona, and Nevada. 

Alice’s first husband, Hans, told her: “Alice, you plan too much.” As such, we have plans that already take us through 2026 – and beyond – many involving eliminating her right-leg pain caused by a back issue. Progress looks good, with injections to stabilize bone strength and density and arthroscopic surgery to relieve spinal cord pressure. That probably won’t allow us to answer Jamaica’s call this year, but if not, there’s a lot to like and enjoy closer to home. I wonder what is interesting and memorable around Corvallis, Oregon? We’ll probably go there twice, once to admire Josie’s Oregon State campus, and then for her graduation. Plans, plans, and more plans. Maybe Hans was right. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy (Memorable) New Year! Michael, Alice, and cute little Radar

Hans with grandchildren, 2005-2006

David and Oi-Lan motorcycle to visit from Idaho

Gualala Community Center

 When an arsonist destroyed the Gualala Community Center in February, 2023, it set off a rebuilding process that is deeply dividing our community. It began with a very ambitious concept that swiftly became unrealistic with rampant inflation and a lack of government support for the high cost. Then followed the special interest phase, in which Pay 'N Take volunteers, especially the ones in the used clothing store, felt that they were disrespected by not being included in plans for the new building. They formed a "steering committee" which sprung a new design on the Community Center board at a May, 2025, board meeting. 

I was a spectator at that meeting, a Community Center member interested in the rebuilding project which seemed to be coming apart. The steering committee handed out a schematic of their plan which about a month later became this:

I immediately sized it up and commented to the assembled multitude - about 60 or 70 people, I guess - that it was a camel, a horse built by a committee. Its first of many deficiencies was its L-shape, with the partitioned offices in the angle of the L, cutting off any way of using the spaces at either end together. Apparently that was because its designers wanted a patio, an unnecessary vanity that was never a consideration in the rebuilding process - wasted space that causes more wasted space. 

In the near future a better place for the used clothing sales store could be the current Annex building which now houses household goods, and the household goods - which have already outgrown the Annex- could move to a new 4,800 square-foot metal building ($250,000 cost) on adjacent Community Center property. 

The second glaring deficiency is that their Main Hall is 440 square feet smaller than the old Main Hall, built 70 years ago when the population of this area was less than one-fifth of the present population.

The third is that, even with the most optimistic assumptions, their plan will cost at least $300,000 more than their available financing of $3,300,000 - $1.8M from insurance, $1M from Coastal Seniors - who have better things to do with their $1M - and $0.5 from a mysterious donor - "Show us the money!" Their cost projections also include large savings from using volunteer labor and services and receiving large discounts. 

Volunteer savings are commendable, and "Build Local" has great appeal, but if construction of a flawed building at a cost two to three times that of a more flexible Butler building is their product, the bottom line is wasted space, time, and money.

The Build Local plan: a building that doesn't meet the Community Center's rebuilding objectives of providing a large community gathering space quickly and economically, and a building that wastes half its space for its lifetime.

Large, fast construction, economical

A friend mentioned a metal building, known colloquially as a "Butler" building. Another friend did a cost analysis that confirmed that a Butler building could be built quickly and inexpensively. This inspired me to gather information for a 7,500 square-foot building:

Viking Metal Building Costs
Building, 75 x 100	$        113,413
Contractor installation	$          87,367
Insulation, 6" R 19, enclosed roofs, all walls	$          17,245
Insulation instalation	$            6,200
Raised wooden floor	$        250,000
Fiber cementr wall panels, 4900 sq ft	$          49,000
Drywall, 4900 sq ft	$          98,000
Suspended ceiling, 7500 sq ft	$        150,000
Professional grade kitchen	$        300,000
Utilities	$          25,000
Heating	$          20,000
	$     1,116,225

Invalid Election

On September 2, 2025, Gualala Community Center (GCC) mailed a ballot to choose the design to replace the Main Hall destroyed by arson in 2023. However, on August 25 the GCC Board admitted that the election was “totally invalid” but then released a draft ballot to all GCC members which contained only two options and excluded an inexpensive, quickly built, metal building option.

 

Unbelievably, only two days after their “confession”, the GCC Board’s termed-out Directors met with two carryover Directors and selected as new Directors the same four who had been improperly elected. What an "Alice Through the Looking Glass" moment! 

 

Improper election followed by improper selection equals proper GCC Board?

 

On Sunday, August 24, the day before the GCC Board admitted a “totally invalid” election, the GCC Board informed me that a source of funds for rebuilding that I had listed could not be displayed because I had no written agreement with the donor agency. On Wednesday, August 27, I was told to have such a written agreement by 3pm the next day, August 28, or it would not be on the ballot. However, a letter from the donor dated August 29, 2025, proved that the GCC Board had no written agreement until Friday, the day after the deadline they set for me. Nor did they when the draft ballot was sent to GCC members on August 25, without a metal building option.

 

The California Corporations Code, Section 5511, provides that election invalidity is decided by a court - the existing board cannot unilaterally declare an election invalid and choose new members. This must be determined through a court process under Section 5617.

 

The GCC Board knowingly violated its bylaws and took actions that could result in a violation of their fiduciary responsibility to members. 

Independent Coast Observer "Open Space" submission

Gualala Community Center (GCC) members filled The Sea Ranch Del Mar center on May 13 to discuss the rebuilding project for the Main Hall destroyed by arson. I attended as a member interested in the progress or lack thereof, particularly because of the frequent use that community organizations such as Lions and Rotary made of it. 

 

A group characterizing itself as a rebuilding steering committee labelled “Build Local submitted a design for an L-shaped building with over half its space allotted to the used clothing sales store and Coastal Seniors. I publicly denounced their design as a camel, a horse built by a committee, because having offices in the center of the L cut off the open spaces on either end from working together to accommodate large gatherings. 

 

Among its many failings was a 2,100 square-foot gathering hall which was 440 square feet smaller than the one built 70 years ago when the local population was less than one-fifth its present. Some recent revisions to that first plan increased its square footage while reducing estimated cost, in itself a marvel of engineering and budgeting. Their slogan could be “You can have more for less!”

 

In 2023 the rebuilding objective defined by the GCC Board was to create a large gathering space at a reasonable cost as quickly as possible.

 

Knowledgeable contractors advised me that compared to the Build Local design, a very large prefabricated steel building could be built for less than half the cost and time and would fulfill the planning objectives. That’s why I ran for the GCC Board.

 

I ran to fill a GCC Director position and was notified that I had won. What were the vote totals? No one knew because not all of the votes were counted. What were the results for changing the GCC bylaws? No one knew because none of those votes were ever counted. Because of election irregularities I declined the Director position and sat in attendance as a GCC member only. 

 

At the August 4 GCC Board meeting, prior to its being called to order, I presented a formal complaint that the election was invalid because voting was allowed by those with less than three-month memberships, a violation of GCC bylaws. From the California Corporation Code: An election of officers or directors that disregards the procedures outlined in the bylaws is an unauthorized act. It can be legally challenged by members, potentially leading to the election's invalidation. 

 

The Code did not suggest that the election could be ignored and that the old GCC Board could select among anyone who was a member for at least three months to fill the GCC Board vacancies.

 

The GCC Board did not give a formal reply but continued with business as usual. I could not ethically participate in any of their actions because the election was invalid. 

 

Then, on August 25, the GCC Board finally admitted that the election was “totally invalid” but at the same time released a draft ballot to all GCC members containing only two options and excluding an attractive, inexpensive, quick to build, metal building option. That option would save over a million dollars and provide a much larger Main Hall. The much larger Main Hall also provides flexibility for future use that the Build Local plan doesn’t. For example, a large, inexpensive building on now vacant GCC land would fill the expanded needs of the Pay ‘N Take household goods store and the used clothing store could be moved to the Annex building.

 

On September 2 the Gualala Community Center released an invalid ballot to GCC members to choose a design to replace the Main Hall destroyed by arson in 2023.

 

Unbelievably, only two days after their invalid election “confession”, the GCC Board’s termed-out Directors met with two carryover Directors and selected as new Directors the same four who had been improperly elected. What an "Alice Through the Looking Glass" moment! 

 

An improper election followed by improper selection equals a proper GCC Board?

 

The law in this case is quite clear. The California Corporations Code, Section 5511, provides that election invalidity is decided by a court - the existing board cannot unilaterally declare an election invalid and choose new members. This must be determined through a court process under Section 5617.

 

On August 24, the day before the GCC Board admitted a “totally invalid” election, the GCC Board informed me that a source of funds for rebuilding that I had listed could not be displayed because I had no written agreement with the donor agency. On Wednesday I was told to have such a written agreement by 3pm the next day or it would not be on the ballot. However, a letter from the donor dated August 29, 2025, proved that the GCC Board had no written agreement until Friday, the day after the deadline they set for me. Nor did they when the draft ballot was sent to GCC members on August 25, again without a metal building option.

 

The August 27 GCC Board minutes noted my remark that I had been “railroaded” by the GCC Board since they gave me less than two days to provide my input and would not allow me to review the actions taken by the GCC Board during the period when its operations were admittedly invalid. It is ironic that they “appointed” me a Director but would not let me act as one. Therefore, as the GCC design choice ballot went out September 2, I mailed a Complaint to the California Attorney General Regarding A Charity Or Charitable Solicitation on California Form CT-9. 

 

Because of the election bylaw violation, there has not been one minute since the new GCC Board “took office” on July 1, 2025, that any of their actions have been valid. The GCC Board knowingly violated its bylaws and that could result in a violation of their fiduciary responsibility to members. 

 

The ballots the GCC Board sent to members are not worth their cost of distributing them.