Sage, pictured here, has one of the longest histories of culinary or medicinal use of any herb. Photo by Esther Oertel.

Sage is far more than a flavoring for the stuffing in our Thanksgiving turkeys.

It has a legendary history as a medicinal and culinary herb, and its use in that regard is longer than that of any other herb.

Up until World War II, sage had grown in popularity to become the favorite cooking herb in the United States. At the end of the war, its esteem was quickly supplanted by the oregano brought home from Italy by returning military personnel.

Its once-lost popularity is resurging, it seems, and I’m finding it as a centerpiece ingredient in the repertoire of many a modern-day cook.

While it’s held my respect for many years, I fell in love with it as a culinary herb when I experimented with its use in an intriguing soup recipe, the one that’s offered below. (One caveat must be given in relation to the recipe, however. Sage caramelized until crisp in brown butter is an addictive substance. You’ve been warned.)

Sage is native to the Mediterranean region, though it’s been naturalized in other areas of the world. There are modern sage cultivars that have leaves in shades of purple, rose, cream, or yellow, including in combinations of variegation, but sage’s most common color is gray-green, with a bumpy, almost velvety, texture on the top side of the leaves.

A popular addition to landscapes and gardens, its flowers are typically lavender, but can also be white, pink, or purple. The blooms of pineapple sage are brilliant red, beloved by hummingbirds.

Ancient folklore names sage as an effective remedy for numbers of conditions, including snake bites and infertility. It was believed to ward off evil and was described as having miraculous healing properties in old herbals.

It was one of the ingredients in Four Thieves Vinegar, a medieval blend of herbs that was thought to be a remedy for the plague. In the Middle Ages sage was also employed as a treatment for memory loss, fevers, intestinal and eye problems, liver disease, epilepsy, and infections.

Sage’s Latin name, salvia, is derived from salvare, meaning to save, a reference to the many perceived healing properties of the herb. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Arabs attributed sage to long life, even immortality.

Pineapple sage has a taste worthy of its name. A wonderful fruity scent is emitted when leaves are crushed between one's fingers, and the bright flowers are a favorite of hummingbirds. The pineapple sage pictured here is from the garden of Hidden Valley Lake resident, LaDonn Morgan. Photo by Esther Oertel.

Sage has a strong, spicy flavor, with hints of musk and camphor, and is best enjoyed cooked, rather than raw. It holds up well to heat and should be added at the beginning of the cooking process, unlike some herbs which quickly lose their flavor. Sage becomes even stronger when dried.

It marries well with beans, particularly white beans, and a bundle of sage tied with cooking string can be thrown into the pot as they cook. Lentils are another good match, as is split pea soup.

Other favorites with sage are some Italian dishes, such as gnocchi and ravioli. It has an affinity for fatty meats, and is often used in the making of sausage. Pork is particularly good with it.

Onions and sage go hand-in-hand, as do some cheeses, particularly mild ones, and all manner of poultry. It’s a major component of poultry seasoning and flavors prepackaged stuffing.

I love finely chopped fresh sage in cornbread; I throw it into the batter before baking. Sage butter is another way to marry the herb with cornbread. It’s delicious spread atop it when warm and fresh from the oven.

Making sage butter is an easy process. Allow butter to soften to room temperature and mix in finely chopped fresh sage, either by hand or in a food processor. Put it in a little tub to store in the fridge, or roll it into a log shape in waxed paper for the freezer. The frozen butter can be cut into medallions for individual servings when needed, such as for bread or melting atop a sage-friendly dish, like chicken breast.

Sage marries well with the beautiful array of winter squashes available now. I especially love roasting butternut squash in the oven with apples and onions and then flavoring it with some crumbled crispy sage, a favorite fall ingredient of mine.

To make crispy sage, heat olive oil until a droplet of water makes it sizzle. Throw in a small handful of fresh sage leaves and cook a few seconds until crispy and darker green. (Don’t let it get brown or its flavor will be diminished.)

Remove the leaves from the oil and onto a paper towel. Repeat the process until the desired amount of sage leaves are crisped. These crispy treats may be crumbled on everything from salads to soups to meats to roasted vegetables, or left whole as an attractive garnish.

The oil used to crisp them may be used to add sage flavor to dishes, as well, such as drizzling atop soup. Since olive oil solidifies after a few days in the fridge, the oil in semi-solid form may be used in much the same way as sage butter.

Crispy sage, a flavorful garnish, is made by tossing fresh sage leaves in hot olive oil. It's shown here with a by-product of the process, sage-infused oil, which may be used in a variety of ways to add sage flavor to food. In the background and at top right is pineapple sage. Photo by Esther Oertel.

In addition to the boons offered by its uniquely strong flavor, sage has an array of health benefits.

Modern evidence shows possible uses as an anti-sweating agent, antibiotic, antifungal, astringent and antispasmodic due to the properties of its volatile oils. It has been shown to have potential for producing estrogen and controlling blood sugar.

In a double blind, randomized and placebo-controlled trial, sage was found to be effective in the improvement of memory, even in the management of Alzheimer’s disease.

In other words, much of what the ancients believed about sage has been shown to be true by modern scientific methods.

Today’s recipe makes an especially nice autumn lunch, especially when wind and cold weather abound. Use Lake County pears if you have access to them. Either way, enjoy!

Caramelized pear soup with sage

6 pears

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon minced fresh sage leaves

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

Gray salt

Blue cheese bruschetta (recipe follows)

Preheat broiler.

Peel, halve and core the pears. In a large bowl, toss pears with lemon juice to prevent oxidization.

Melt butter in an ovenproof skillet over medium-low heat and let cook until butter begins to brown.

Add sage to butter and allow it to caramelize.

Add brown sugar and a pinch of salt.

Add pears to mixture, and roll them around to coat thoroughly.

Broil pears in skillet, stirring occasionally, until pears are light brown, about 15 minutes.

Puree pears and brown butter mixture in a blender until smooth. (Esther’s note: You may also use a food processor or immersion blender for a more rustic texture.)

Pour into room temperature soup plates and serve with blue cheese bruschetta.

If preparing ahead of time, refrigerate and reheat slightly before serving.

Blue Cheese Bruschetta

1 loaf walnut bread or raisin bread

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese, crumbled

Preheat broiler.

Slice loaf into finger-wide slices. Cover each slice with butter, then top with blue cheese.

Place bread on baking sheet and broil, with the door open, until the cheese begins to melt, about 30 seconds.

Yields five to eight servings.

Recipe by Michael Chiarello and courtesy of www.FoodNetwork.com.

Esther Oertel, the “Veggie Girl,” is a culinary coach and educator and is passionate about local produce. Oertel gives private cooking lessons. She welcomes your questions and comments; e-mail her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Seventeen-year-old Kya Hill's right arm was severed in the crash, which occurred inside the Napa County line on Highway 29, according to reports from the scene and the California Highway Patrol.

Hill was riding with her boyfriend, 22-year-old Samuel Weatherwax, also of Middletown, in his 2005 Dodge pickup when the crash occurred at about 6:55 p.m. Thursday, the CHP's Napa office reported.

The CHP report said Weatherwax was driving southbound on Highway 29 north of Tubbs Lane when the vehicle lost traction and left the roadway.

The pickup's right side hit a rock embankment on the highway's west edge. Hill's right arm – which was out the passenger window – also hit the embankment, the CHP said.

Weatherwax, who was uninjured, drove Hill back to the Middletown Fire Station, where Cal Fire paramedics tended to the girl until a REACH air ambulance few her from the station to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to the CHP report.

The CHP said the crash's cause is still under investigation.

In the wake of the crash and her injury, Hill – according to accounts shared by her friends – appears to be in good spirits, and is inspiring those around her.

A friend, CyCy Taylor, posted this message on Lake County News' Facebook page on Friday morning, which she said had been posted several hours earlier by Hill: “Hey guys!! I'm alive(: and now I'm left-handed because my arm got ripped off lol. Thank you everyone for the love and prayers!! And I get a fake arm(:.”

Readers and friends alike wished her a speedy recovery, and on Hill's Facebook page her attitude was cited as an inspiration.

Her friend Devin Negrete called her one of the strongest people he's ever met. “Her attitude through this whole thing is truly inspirational.”

Maria Gonzalez wrote that she learned a valuable lesson “from the most amazing person in the world last night” – which is not to dwell on what you don't have.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

It is entirely possible that your legal instruments do not adequately address the needs of all your loved ones, particularly your adult children.

These documents focus on protecting your needs during your disability. Adjustments are needed if you want to protect persons such as your adult children who are no longer your legal responsibility.

Let us consider some scenarios that might present a hardship to the loved ones of a disabled person.

First, consider a parent whose adult child lives at home and take cares of the parent.

If the parent were hospitalized or placed into a skilled nursing home would that child still be allowed to live at home while the parent was away and unable to manage her own affairs? Would anybody else in the family object to the child staying? Who will pay the utility bills incurred by the child?

If the parent's plan is that the parent's resources are to assist the adult child then the parent's power of attorney and trust (as relevant) should specifically authorize the same. Otherwise that child may find himself in an impossible situation and be forced to leave the area; even if the parent might prefer the child stay at the home and be close at hand.

Next, consider a parent with a special needs child who lives independently in his or her own home.

The special needs child may still depend on the parent for supplemental financial assistance, personal care, and advocacy regarding to maintain SSI and Medi-Cal benefits.

What will happen to the child if the parent were to become disabled? Will the parent's resources still supplement the child's benefits? Will the parent's resources be made available to pay for an advocate to represent the child before the Social Services Department?

Now, consider a parent supporting an adult child at college. Will the child be forced to withdraw from college because the parent's money becomes unavailable to pay tuition, room and board? If the child withdraws from college prior to obtaining a degree then will he or she be able to make a living without further parental support?

Finally, consider a parent who moves into a skilled nursing home and obtains Medi-Cal coverage. How important is it to the family to preserve the parent's home for the surviving children after the parent dies? Does the parent's power of attorney or living trust authorize the gifting of the home prior to the parent's death in order to save the home from Medi-Cal estate recovery claims after the deaths of the parent and his or her spouse?

For reasons like the ones discussed above, it is important that you review with an attorney the provisions in your power of attorney and trust documents that pertain to disability planning to see whether these provisions adequately protect your family in the way that you like.

It is better to correct any inadequacies now rather than have your family encounter nasty surprises later when it becomes much more difficult to try to correct.

Dennis A. Fordham, attorney (LL.M. tax studies), is a State Bar Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law. His office is at 55 First St., Lakeport, California. Dennis can be reached by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by phone at 707-263-3235. Visit his Web site at www.dennisfordhamlaw.com.

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The National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather outlook for interior Northern California, explaining that a cold Pacific storm is bringing more winter weather, including snow over higher elevations in the Coastal Range and the Sierra Nevada.

Forecasters predicted a 100-percent chance of showers overnight Saturday and into Sunday morning, with showers likely to continue after 11 a.m.

Sunday is expected to be mostly cloudy with light winds and temperatures in the 50s, with a similar forecast for Monday and Monday evening, the National Weather Service predicted.

Tuesday could be partly sunny, with daytime temperatures edging into the 60s, but the National Weather Service said there will be a chance of rain throughout the rest of the week.

The rain caused some minor rock slides around Lake County on Saturday, including one on Highway 20 at Scotts Valley Road, reported shortly after 3 p.m., and another on Highway 175, where two large boulders had rolled into the roadway, according to the California Highway Patrol.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews, on Tumblr at www.lakeconews.tumblr.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

The California Highway Patrol's initial reports indicated the collision occurred shortly before 7 p.m. in the 5100 block of Highway 29, just inside Napa County.

There were not many details about the crash available Thursday evening.

However, reports from the scene indicated a young woman's arm was severed because of the single-vehicle collision.

The vehicle and the two people riding in it made it to the Middletown Fire Station, which was where a REACH air ambulance picked up the female to fly her to a trauma center, according to the CHP.

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The onset of cooler, wetter weather allows Cal Fire to reduce staffing through release of seasonal employees, the closure of select facilities and release of fixed wing aircraft.

However, Cal Fire is prepared to increase staffing and provide statewide response if weather or fire activity dictate.

The requirement for Cal Fire burn permits also expires with the end of fire season.

Property owners interested in conducting control burns should check with their local fire agency and air pollution district to ensure they meet all fire and air pollution permit requirements, prior to burning.

The Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit responded to over 383 wildland fires within the six counties during the peak season. The vast majority of these fires were less than 10 acres, due to aggressive initial attack by Cal Fire and local fire agencies.

Residents creating and maintaining 100 feet of defensible space around their homes had a major role in keeping these fires small, reducing the threat to life and property.

“The department’s successes this year can be contributed to a number of factors: the support from property owners creating and maintaining a defensible space around structures, cooler summer temperatures, and the public’s heightened awareness regarding fire prevention,” said Unit Chief Tim Streblow.

Cal Fire is a full service fire department and will continue to provide response to local emergencies such as fires, traffic collisions, medical calls and hazmat incidents through local agreements, as well as statewide or regional emergencies such as floods or earthquakes.

The unit includes the State Responsibility Areas within six counties, Sonoma, Lake, Napa, Yolo, Solano and Colusa.

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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This Sunday, Nov. 6, Californians will be rolling back their clocks as daylight saving comes to an end.

Cal Fire and fire departments across the state are reminding residents to replace the batteries in all smoke alarms as well as their carbon monoxide alarm when they change their clocks.

“We recommend changing the batteries in your smoke alarms twice a year,” said acting State Fire Marshal Tonya Hoover of Cal Fire. “While you are spending a couple minutes to change the time on all your clocks, it’s so easy just to add an extra minute to ensure your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarm all have fresh, new batteries as well.”

According to the National Fire Protection Association, roughly two-thirds of home fire deaths occurred in homes without working smoke alarms.

Working smoke alarms increase the change of surviving a home fire by 50 percent.

For decades, firefighters have used the time change as a reminder for residents to change their smoke alarm batteries. This year, officials are adding carbon monoxide alarms to their message following a new state law requiring all single-family homes have a carbon monoxide alarm.

Cal Fire has the following tips on smoke alarms:

• Test smoke alarms once a month.

• Replace batteries in all smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms twice a year.

• Don’t “borrow” or remove batteries from smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, even temporarily.

• Regularly vacuum or dust smoke and carbon monoxide alarms to keep them working properly.

• Replace smoke alarms every 10 years.

• Don’t paint over smoke or carbon monoxide alarms.

• Practice family fire drills so everyone knows what to do if the smoke alarm goes off.

Find more information visit the Cal Fire Web site at www.fire.ca.gov.

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Brian Hennek, 34, of Cobb suffered moderate injuries, including a cut on his right hip, as a result of the crash, according to a Thursday report from the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP report from Officer Dan Frederick explained that Hennek was riding the motorcycle on a friend's private property – the exact location of which wasn't known – in Cobb at about 10 p.m. Wednesday, when the crash occurred.

Hennek was traveling at an unknown speed when the deer ran into his path, Frederick reported. As a result of colliding with the deer, Hennek was thrown from the motorcycle and suffered the cut hip.

Hennek was transported via air ambulance to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to Frederick.

Alcohol is not suspected to be a factor in the collision, which Frederick said is still under investigation.

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Two spiral arms emerge from the gas-rich disk around SAO 206462, a young star in the constellation Lupus. This image, acquired by the Subaru Telescope and its HiCIAO instrument, is the first to show spiral arms in a circumstellar disk. The disk itself is some 14 billion miles across, or about twice the size of Pluto's orbit in our own solar system. (Credit: NAOJ/Subaru)

For more than four hundred years, astronomers have used telescopes to study the great variety of stars in our galaxy.

Millions of distant suns have been cataloged. There are dwarf stars, giant stars, dead stars, exploding stars, binary stars; by now, you might suppose that every kind of star in the Milky Way had been seen.

That's why a recent discovery is so surprising.

Researchers using the Subaru telescope in Hawaii have found a star with spiral arms.

The name of the star is SAO 206462. It's a young star more than four hundred light years from Earth in the constellation Lupus, the wolf.

SAO 206462 attracted attention because it has a circumstellar disk – that is, a broad disk of dust and gas surrounding the star.

Researchers strongly suspected that new planets might be coalescing inside the disk, which is about twice as wide as the orbit of Pluto.

When they took a closer look at SAO 206462 they found not planets, but arms.

Astronomers have seen spiral arms before: they’re commonly found in pinwheel galaxies where hundreds of millions of stars spiral together around a common core. Finding a clear case of spiral arms around an individual star, however, is unprecedented.

The arms might be a sign that planets are forming within the disk.

“Detailed computer simulations have shown us that the gravitational pull of a planet inside a circumstellar disk can perturb gas and dust, creating spiral arms,” said Carol Grady, an astronomer with Eureka Scientific, Inc., who is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. “Now, for the first time, we're seeing these dynamical features.”

Grady revealed the image to colleagues on Oct. 19 at a meeting at Goddard entitled Signposts of Planets.

Theoretical models show that a single embedded planet may produce a spiral arm on each side of a disk.

The structures around SAO 206462, however, do not form a matched pair, suggesting the presence of two unseen worlds, one for each arm.

Grady's research is part of a five-year international study of newborn stars and planets using the giant 8.2 meter Subaru Telescope.

Operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Subaru scans the heavens from a perch almost 14,000 feet above sea level at the summit of the Hawaiian volcano Mauna Kea.

From there it has a crystal-clear view of innumerable young stars and their planet-forming disks throughout the Milky Way.

“What we're finding is that once these systems reach ages of a few million years – that’s young for a star – their disks begin to show all kinds of interesting shapes,” said John Wisniewski, a collaborator at the University of Washington in Seattle. “We’ve seen rings, divots, gaps – and now spiral features. Many of these structures could be caused by planets moving within the disks.”

However, it is not an open and shut case.

The research team cautions that processes unrelated to planets might give rise to these structures. Until more evidence is collected – or until the planets themselves are detected – they can’t be certain.

Whatever the cause of the arms, their reality is undeniable and the great catalog of stars has one more type. Stay tuned to science@nasa for future entries.

Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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An artist's concept of a comet storm around Eta Corvi. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected signs of icy bodies raining down in an alien solar system.

The downpour resembles our own solar system several billion years ago during a period known as the “Late Heavy Bombardment,” which may have brought water and other life-forming ingredients to Earth.

“We believe we have direct evidence for an ongoing Late Heavy Bombardment in the nearby star system Eta Corvi, occurring about the same time as in our solar system,” said Carey Lisse, senior research scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., and lead author of a paper detailing the findings to appear in the Astrophysical Journal.

During the Late Heavy Bombardment, comets and other frosty objects from the outer solar system pummeled the inner planets. The barrage scarred our Moon and produced large amounts of dust.

Spitzer has spotted a band of dust around Eta Corvi that strongly matches the contents of an obliterated giant comet, probably destroyed by a collision with a planet or some other large body.

The dust is located close enough to Eta Corvi that Earth-like worlds could exist in the collision zone, suggesting that planets like our own might be involved. The Eta Corvi system is approximately one billion years old, which researchers think is about the right age for such a hailstorm.

Astronomers used Spitzer's infrared detectors to analyze the light coming from the dust around Eta Corvi. Curiously, the light signature emitted by the dust around Eta Corvi resembles the Almahata Sitta meteorite, which fell to Earth in fragments across Sudan in 2008.

The similarities between the meteorite and the object obliterated in Eta Corvi imply a common birthplace in their respective solar systems.

A second, more massive ring of colder dust located at the far edge of the Eta Corvi system seems like the proper environment for a reservoir of cometary bodies.

This bright ring, discovered in 2005, matches the size of a similar region in our own solar system, known as the Kuiper Belt, where icy and rocky leftovers from planet formation linger.

The comets of Eta Corvi and the Almahata Sitta meteorite may have each originated in the Kuiper Belts of their respective star systems.

About 4 billion years ago, not long after our solar system formed, scientists think the Kuiper Belt was disturbed by a migration of Jupiter and Saturn.

This jarring shift in the solar system's gravitational balance scattered the icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt, flinging the vast majority into interstellar space and producing cold dust in the belt.

Some Kuiper Belt objects, however, were set on inward paths that crossed the orbits of Earth and other rocky planets.

The resulting bombardment of comets lasted until 3.8 billion years ago. After comets hit the side of the Moon that faces Earth, magma seeped out of the lunar crust, eventually cooling into dark “seas.”

Everyone has seen them: Those seas form the distinctive face of the “Man in the Moon.” Comets also struck Earth or incinerated in the atmosphere, and are thought to have deposited water and carbon on our planet. This period of impacts might have helped life form by delivering its crucial ingredients.

“We think the Eta Corvi system should be studied in detail to learn more about the rain of impacting comets and other objects that may have started life on our own planet,” Lisse said.

For more information about Spitzer and Eta Corvi, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu/ and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer.

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Bass Bowl queens and princesses gathered at a bowling competition on Sunday, October 30, 2011, in Lakeport, Calif. Courtesy photo.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – After months of build up, anticipation and hype, the Bass Bowl will take place on Friday, Nov. 4.

The Bass Bowl is the varsity football rivalry game between Kelseyville High School and Clear Lake High School.

The game takes place Friday night, starting shortly after 7:30 p.m., at Clear Lake High School, located at 350 Lange St., in Lakeport.

This year's game features two struggling teams, with Clear Lake High coming in with a 3-5 record, and Kelseyville with an 0-8 record. But if history is any judge, you can throw away the records when these two teams play.

“It's an amazing rivalry between these two schools, dating back over 80 years,” according to Kelseyville head coach Rob Ishihara. “No matter what the team's records might be, or no matter how big one team is the underdog, they are almost always close, and brutally fought games. The kids leave everything they have on the field to win this game.”

Starting last year, the winning team takes possession of the Bass Bowl Trophy, a large wood carved bass created by master carver Mark Colp. This year, Colp's understudy, Ryan Anderson, created a matching totem pole for the trophy to sit on.

Currently, the trophy is in the possession of Kelseyville, winners of last year's game, which came on the heels of a 10-year losing streak.

“It was great to get that monkey off our back, and now that we have the trophy, we don't intend to give it up,” Ishihara said.

The game will preceded by a a tail gate party at the High Street Plaza in Lakeport, hosted by Sicily's Restaurant. The plaza parking lot will also serve as overflow parking for the game, with the school providing regular bus service from the plaza to the gate, and back. The tail gate party will begin at 3 p.m. and go until 6:30 p.m.

Major attempts were made to create a big game atmosphere for the Bass Bowl. A Civil War artillery reenactment team will be on hand to fire a full size cannon after every score.

The US Coast Guard will be diverting a huge C-130 aircraft to perform a fly over of the stadium at 6:25 p.m.

Youth Sports Network will be on hand to film the game and project replays on a giant jumbotron screen. A military color guard will be present during the National Anthem. Additional food vendors will be on hand to handle the increased food needs.

“It will be like no other athletic event ever in Lake County,” according to Bass Bowl executive director Phil Smoley. “Folks should dress warmly as it will get a bit chilly, but this is one game no one should miss. It will be a topic of conversation for months.”

The goal of the Bass Bowl is to raise funds for the schools athletic departments which have been gutted by budget cuts.

A series of fundraisers were created to be a part of the week's festivities. A wrap up follows.

Supervisor Rob Brown