n Streets closed for weeks at a time

By KELLY NIX

RELIEF IS still more than a month away for PacificGrove residents beleaguered by a seemingly never-endingseries of construction projects that has closed streets, forceddetours and been an overall headache for more than a year.

In 2015, numerous sewer lines were replaced, and sincethe spring of 2016, construction crews have torn up numer-ous streets in the business district and in residential neigh-borhoods to replace 6,700 feet of storm drain pipes, 43 stormdrain catch basins and 33 manholes, from Pine Avenue toLovers Point.

“We are replacing all of the storm drain pipes that run toLovers Point in an effort to keep contaminants out of thebay,” Pacific Grove public works director Daniel Gho told

Big Sur: Campground woes, cell phone upgrades

By CHRIS COUNTS

BEFORE THIS past winter’s storms caused wide-spread destruction along the Big Sur coast, a brief strollalong an easy trail led from the parking lot at AndrewMolera State Park to its popular walk-in campground.

But today, at roughly the place where the trail onceentered the campground, the pathway is blocked by theBig Sur River, which slices through the campground on itsway out to sea.

“The river basically changed its course,” state parksofficial John DeLuca told The Pine Cone. “It looks like alog jam created a fork and forced the river into a newpath.”

Not only does the river now flow through the camp-ground, it follows the course of a trail thatonce led from the campground to a dramaticoverlook and the site where the river meetsthe sea.

The trail between the parking lot and thecampground, meanwhile, is obstructed by atangled mess of fallen trees and overgrownpoison oak, and suffers from considerableerosion, too. Getting to the campground —which is off-limits to the public indefinitely— requires some meandering and bushwhacking.

“Until people see this, they don’t get themagnitude of what we’re dealing with,” saidDeLuca, as he surveyed the scene at BigSur’s newest “riverfront” campground.

For now, state parks is focused on creat-ing a safe way for people to walk to thebeach. The main path that leads directlyfrom the parking lot to the beach was oblit-erated during the winter’s storms.

“It’s a mess,” DeLuca said. “There are nocontiguous trails to the beach anymore. Ourgoal is to get coastal access back this season.But we don’t foresee opening the camp-ground this season.”

DeLuca said he understands how impor-tant beach access is to bringing visitors backto Big Sur.

n River took out favorite Molera spot

The Carmel Pine Cone

Have the complete Carmel Pine Cone delivered every Thursday evening to your iPad, laptop, PC or phone. Free subscriptions available at www.carmelpinecone.com

T R U S T E D B Y L O C A L S A N D L O V E D B Y V I S I T O R S S I N C E 1 9 1 5

Volume 103 No. 19 On the Internet: www.carmelpinecone.com May 12-18, 2017

By CHRIS COUNTS

USING THE softball field at Pfeiffer Big Sur StatePark as a staging area, AT&T workers this week wereshuttled by a helicopter to the top of nearby 3,500-footMount Manuel, where they made upgrades to equipmentthat will improve cell service down the coast, AT&Tspokesperson Steven Maviglio told The Pine Cone.

Due to its steep and varied topography, much of BigSur has spotty cell service.

AT&T’s communications services in Big Sur are pro-vided by a microwave radio signal. The work this week“replaces older equipment installed decades ago, before

n AT&T installs new repeater

n Despite fire, floods, city anticipatestourism, revenue upswing

By MARY SCHLEY

REGARDLESS OF the slump that some business andhotel operators in town are blaming on the lack of throughtraffic on Highway 1 due to the closure of the PfeifferCanyon Bridge, city administrator Chip Rerig and his staffpresented a draft budget Tuesday that predicts a 4.2 percentincrease in sales tax, and 2 percent increases in property andhotel taxes during the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Those taxes represent 83 percent of $23.2 million in rev-enue the city expects to get during 2017-2018, including$5,258,315 in sales tax, $6,086,537 in property taxes, and$6,212,508 in transient occupancy tax.

Budget and contracts director Sharon Friedrichsen dis-cussed the draft with the council at its May 9 meeting andsaid last summer’s fires, this winter’s rains and interruptedtravel through Big Sur have all affected tax revenues — andcontinue to do so, although to a lesser degree, as the cityenters its peak travel season.

“I’ve also been reading about whether international travelwill be curtailed in light of foreign policy,” she added.

Rerig acknowledged the city is “experiencing a malaise insales tax,” and the budget is “relatively static in terms of

$23.2 million budgetsees increase in sales,hotel, property taxes

See RIVER page 12A

See CELL page 11A

A helicopter (top) takes an AT&T crew to MountManuel, where the crew installed a newrepeater to improve cell phone communicationsin the area. The Big Sur River (left) flows straightthrough what used to be the campground atAndrew Molera State Park.

See BUDGET page 21A

See CONSTRUCTION page 20A

See CROWDS page 21A

P.G. residents ask,‘When will storm drainconstruction end?’

PHOTO/KELLY NIX

PHOTOS/CHRIS COUNTS

For more than a year, streets have been regularly closed for sewer andstorm drain work in Pacific Grove, and residents are losing patience.

P.B. Co. says U.S. Open will bring record crowdsBy KELLY NIX

THE 2019 U.S. Open is expected to draw the largestcrowd ever to Pebble Beach for a golf event, an executivevice president of the P.B. Co. told a business goupWednesday morning.

Addressing members of the Pacific Grove Chamber ofCommerce, David Stivers said that the U.S. Open, which willreturn to Pebble Beach in 2019, should draw even biggercrowds than the 275,000 spectators who came to the event in2010, the last time Pebble Beach hosted the premier golftournament.

During the tournament, there will be four days of champi-onship rounds, June 13-16, 2019, but spectators can alsowatch three days of practice rounds June 10-12.

The Pacific Grove Chamber of Commerce estimates thecrowd at the 2019 U.S. Open could be in the 300,000s.

The tourism estimates mean that the three-day tournamentwill probably be a boon for hotels, inns, B&Bs, restaurants,shops and other visitor-serving businesses on the MontereyPeninsula. Pebble Beach has hosted the U.S. Open five pre-vious times — in 1972, 1982, 1992, 2000 and 2010.

“Based on my experience, the U.S. Open is the biggest

boost of our economy before, during and after the event,”chamber president Moe Ammar told The Pine Cone afterStivers spoke. “In addition to filling up all hotel rooms andselling out restaurants, the event uses the services of localvendors, and hundreds of residents from the area areemployed.”

And sometimes, golf fans return to buy property on theMonterey Peninsula, Ammar added.

Millions more watching broadcastWith Mayor Bill Kampe, two councilmen, and city man-

ager Ben Harvey also in attendance at the chamber eventWednesday, Stivers summarized the history of the U.S. Openin Pebble Beach, going over some of its winners and keymoments at the tournament.

“Tiger Woods was the winner in 2000, and SportsIllustrated said it was the greatest performance in golf histo-ry,” with Woods tying or breaking nine U.S. Open recordsthat year, he said.

And in what may be a preview of what to expect in 2019,Stivers also shared some fascinating facts and figures about