The following is part of Ronnie's Awesome List, an unbelievably comprehensive roundup of family-friendly events throughout the Bay Area. Click here for the full list!

The Very Hungry Readerpillar

Forty five years ago, the warm sun came up, and POP, out of the mind of Eric Carle came the classic illustrated children’s book, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar.’ To mark this milestone and encourage children to develop their imaginations through storytelling, is a list of all the story times in Marin for every day of the week, throughout the summer. It’s a great opportunity to feed young minds with creativity and energy from our amazing storytellers who will turn your child’s world into a beautiful butterfly.

On Monday he ate through one apple, but he was still hungry.

• 10:30am & 11am, Baby and Toddler Storytime, 0-3 years, San Anselmo Library, except August
• 10:30 am & 11 am, Baby Bounce, 2 years and under, Belvedere Tiburon Library, June 23 thru Aug 4
• 11am Storytime with Judy Buchanan, Ages 3 to 5, Stinson Beach Library
• 2:30pm, Stories and More, all ages, Mill Valley Library
• 6:30pm, Pajama story time, all ages, 2nd Monday, Mill Valley Library

Click here for the full list of events through May!

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Mill Valley resident, former Grateful Dead singer/guitarist and digital music innovator links with four-year-old competitor to the likes of Pandora and Spotify on an initiative called "Artists for Quality," hoping to improve the sound quality of streaming audio.

On the heels of fellow rock icon Neil Young's hugely successful Kickstarter campaign to launch Pono, a music download-service and dedicated music player focusing on "high-quality" recorded audio, Mill Valley resident Bob Weir is looking to improve the audio quality of the other major piece of the digital music pie: streaming audio.
Weir, a co-owner of the Sweetwater Music Hall and well known as a digital music innovator with ventures like TRI Studios in San Rafael, appeared on CNBC recently to discuss with his friend and CNBC Squawk Box anchor Steve Liesman his latest campaign, "Artists for Quality." 
The initiative teams Weir with Rdio, a popular online streaming music service, to raise the audio quality of streaming music, starting with Rdio itself. The company is improving the "bit-rate" of the music it streams to 320 kbps, a move that Rdio says will improve the music-listening experience for its customers without raising the price.
"Our joint mission is to ignite and lead discussions on inequity in streaming audio quality, and to commit to both artists and music fans to establish the highest standard of streaming quality in the digital music space," Weir and Rdio said in a statement on Rdio's website."Through Bob Weir and his network of friends, from music legends to top emerging artists, we are looking forward to working together to ensure that Rdio delivers the best possible audio quality option to both artists and music fans," Rdio added.

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Looking to inject the annual Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival (Sept. 20-21, 2014) with an interactive flavor, organizers of the landmark event are seeking four to six artists to create art installations and/or demonstrations in the beautiful creekside setting in the heart of Mill Valley's redwood-forested Old Mill Park.
Here are the details:

• Accepted artists will recieve a 12’ X 16’ space with a value equivalent to a $600 booth fee.
  
• Special preference will be given for use of organic material or use of the natural environment in a unique way.
  
• Work that is interactive or demonstrates the artistic process is encouraged.
  
• On-site construction can begin Wedsday, Sept. 17 and must be completed by Friday evening Sept. 19 unless it is an ongoing demonstration project. Artist must be present during entire show, Sat.-Sun. Sept. 20-21, 10-5 daily.
  
• Installation must be completely deconstructed and removed from site by dark on Monday Sept. 22.
  
• Artist may present information about their work and take commissions for future projects, but may not sell anything at the show. 
  
• The Installation must be free-standing and the site cannot be altered in any way (no digging, cutting of vegetation, moving rocks, etc.)
  
• A $200.00 prize will be awarded to the best installation or demonstration.

Interested artists should send by June 15 a one-page description of the proposed installation or demonstration together with a sketch of the basic design and up to 4 images of related art projects they have previously completed. Send to: MVFAF Installation Project, attention: Tom Killion & Joy Turrini, PO Box 1028, Pt. Reyes CA 94956; or email Tom or Joy directly.

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City of Mill Valley officials, members and board members of the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce and a residents turned out to assist the downtown portion of Mill Valley Beautification Day on Saturday, April 26. 

The volunteers, who included City Councilmembers Garry Lion and Jessica Jackson, Chamber Board Chair Paula Reynolds, Board Members Ann Aversa and Clifford Waldeck, Chamber member Gina Seaborg of CMA Mortgage Advisors, among others, dispersed throughout downtown and its array of side streets, picking up litter (ok, mostly cigarette butts) and doing some weeding to the tune of filling up more than a dozen large garbage bags.

That being said, most volunteers observed that downtown businesses have done an excellent job of keeping the areas in front of and around their respective businesses quite clean. So here's to the merchants, restaurants and businesses who treat every day like it's Earth Day! And thanks to Chamber Coordinator Katie Rodden and the City of Mill Valley for making it all happen!

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The Redwoods’ 22nd annual Celebration of Service Awards were held April 25, with 18 Mill Valley youth, teachers, volunteers and a police officer among the honorees. Awardees for the invite-only event are nominated by The Redwoods, the schools and the Public Safety Department of the City of Mill Valley. Click here for more info.

The following post comes from the folks at Equator Coffee & Teas, who are set to open a new downtown coffee shop later this year:

Back in October of last year, Equator Coffee and Teas accepted the key to 2 Miller Avenue, officially taking over the space that was, until that point, home to La Coppa—Arnold Spinelli's longstanding café. While Equator worked to secure building permits, the company set up a mobile coffee cart to jumpstart their mission— fueling Mill Valley, the beginning of many a bike ride, and the corner that would soon host their flagship café. Now, the permits have officially been granted and build out is slated to begin soon.

Though Equator Coffee and Teas has been around for over 18 years, 2 Miller will be the company's second retail location. The first, in the Proof Lab surf shop at Tam Junction, is nearly one year old. Equator spent the intervening years seeking out direct relationships with farmers, partnering with social enterprises in coffee producing countries, sponsoring various women's empowerment initiatives, and growing a diverse network of wholesale accounts. In the beginning, Equator was a small roasting operation, born in a garage in Corte Madera, and has since grown to a beacon of social responsibility, bolstering the connection between quality coffee and the quality of farmers' lives.

The buildout will blend the old and the new, the traditional and the modern. Redwood salvaged from Mill Valley's surroundings will comprise some features as well as the café ceiling, coupled with a few copper accents and the classic Equator black and red. The space, designed by Boor Bridges Architecture, will be open and inviting, clean and warm, and ready to open its doors in August.

The longtime home of one of Mill Valley’s busiest gas stations is currently a fenced-off vacant dirt lot – and the future home of a 4,100-square-foot Chase Bank branch.

Six years after its previous owners battled to get City Hall’s approval to expand Mill Valley Gas Station at one of Mill Valley’s most landmark intersections, the new owners of the nearly 36,000-square-foot property at 630 East Blithedale Ave. at Camino Alto say they are about six months away from having their tenant Chase Bank open its first local branch.

“The building is going to be a really nice design that fits very well at that location,” said Dan Almquist, managing partner at Frontier Real Estate Investments, a Newport Beach, Calif.-based firm. “It’s going to be a great addition to Mill Valley.”

Almquist said his firm is approximately 45 days away from getting its construction drawings approved by City Hall, and the subsequent construction should take another four months.

To date, crews have removed all of the Mill Valley Gas Station, including its three unleaded and diesel fuel tanks and related piping underground underground. Almquist said his firm has redeveloped a number of former gas station properties, and that the project has received approval from the California Environmental Protection Agency.

The plan, which was approved by the Mill Valley Planning Commission in December 2013, calls for a single-story, 4,113-square-foot bank branch with one walk-up ATM inside and one outside, and a drive-through ATM outside as well. You can ready the full staff report on the proposal here.

The approval came after multiple study sessions before the commission, with commissioners in May 2013 relaying a series of concerns about the proposed location and angle of the building, its height, the corporate look, feel and color of its signs and the need to have the building materials be “authentic.”

Chase Bank architect Douglas Fong said at the time that Chase could address those concerns, and the commission approved the amended proposal in December.

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It’s been called the greatest synchronized sex show on earth: A few nights after the November full moon, corals release millions of pink bundles of egg and sperm that drift to the surface in an enormous upside-down blizzard, resembling what it must be like on the interior of a shaken snow globe. Only the very lucky few have been witness to this mass spawning event in the waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but on Friday, May 2nd, attendees of the Mill Valley Public Library’s First Friday event, “Sex on the Coral Reef,” will receive a front-row seat to this exotic and rarely seen world. Using gorgeous images, marine biologist Erika Woolsey will provide an inside look at coral reef ecosystems, including the annual spectacle that keeps divers and scientists traveling from around the globe.

A native of Marin, Woolsey has been living in Australia, where she is currently finishing her PhD with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. Her area of expertise is coral reproduction, and her research seeks to understand how warming oceans will affect the ability of coral reefs to replenish themselves and recover from disturbance, which is especially important in changing oceans. As she shows photos and shares her experiences Down Under and underwater, Woolsey will discuss the threat that climate change poses to the long-term future of coral reefs.

Often referred to as “rainforests of the ocean”, coral reefs are diverse ecosystems that cover less than 1 percent of the sea floor, yet support about 25 percent of marine species. These fragile environments are dependent upon healthy oceans to survive, and unfortunately, about 60 percent of the world’s coral reefs are under immediate threats from climate change and localized human disturbances.

“Coral spawning is truly an incredible natural phenomenon,” says Woolsey. “It’s been happening for millions of years all over the world, and no other sex event in the Animal Kingdom is this well organized. Not only is coral spawning fascinating and visually stunning, it allows coral populations to persevere. Without baby corals, we wouldn’t have adult corals that build important ocean habitats. Contemporary climate change and human disturbance are severely impacting these ecosystems, so it’s becoming more and more important to understand how young coral react in a changing ocean.”

The 411: Part of the Mill Valley Public Library’s ongoing series of First Friday events, Sex on the Coral Reef takes place May 2 at 7 pm in the Library’s Main Reading Room. A wine reception for pre-registered guests will begin at 6:30 pm. This event is free, but registration is recommended. First Friday events are open to adults and high school students only. To register, call 415-389-4292, ext. 3 or sign up online at www.millvalleylibrary.org.

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The Mill Valley Planning Commission is set to hold a public hearing on April 28 at 7 p.m. on the application for amending the Tyler Florence Shop’s conditional use permit to add a demonstration kitchen and to hold classes and private events, limited alcohol sales, and limited filming of online content at its existing 3,395 square foot retail store at 59 Throckmorton Avenue.

Shop owners Tyler and Tolan Florence hope to time the creation of the demo kitchen with the retrofit work occurring in their building’s adjacent shop, which Vintage Wine & Spirits vacated earlier this year, and the subsequent construction of the four already-approved “Aloha Lofts” residential units on the second floor of the building.

“Ever since we opened in 2008, we have wanted to host cooking classes, demonstrations and private events in our shop,” Tyler and Tolan Florence wrote in an email to customers earlier this year. “The building’s construction provided a long-sought opportunity to build a test kitchen at a time when the customer experience might be disrupted anyway by the dust and noise coming from the second floor.”

The Planning Commission approved the Aloha Lofts – four rental units between 750 and 940 square feet in size – in October 2012. Lee Lum L.P. has owned the building and the large parking lot behind it for 20 years.

The eventual residents of the Aloha Lofts will be the first people since 1956 to live on the second floor of one of downtown Mill Valley’s most prominent buildings. It was built by Michael O’Shaughnessy, who owned it until he died in 1934, according to Barbara Ford of the Mill Valley Historical Society. It is widely known as the O’Shaughnessy Building, she said.

The upstairs space was condemned in 1956 after serving as a lodging house of sorts during World War II for employees of the Sausalito Shipyards and the Red Cross, operating under the name the Aloha Lido Hotel. Incredibly, the 4,000-square-foot space at Throckmorton and Corte Madera avenues has been empty ever since, through multiple building owners and many popular tenants in the storefronts below.

San Rafael attorney Riley Hurd will represent the Tyler Florence Store at the April 28 hearing.

City officials remind local business owners and residents that all interested persons are welcome to attend and to comment, in person or in writing, at the public hearing. All Planning Commission meetings are webcast live and archived and may be viewed by clicking here. 

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The Redwoods’ 22nd annual Celebration of Service Awards event is set for April 25, with Mill Valley youth, teachers, volunteers and a police officer among the honorees. Awardees for the invite-only event are nominated by The Redwoods, the schools and the Public Safety Department of the City of Mill Valley.

“The Redwoods is part of the fabric of the Mill Valley,” says Barbara Solomon, CEO of The Redwoods. “We hold this event to give back to the community that has supported us for over 40 years.  It is great way to publicly thank members of the broader community for the extraordinary services they perform and the difference they make in the lives of others – not only at The Redwoods, but throughout the community.”

The 2014 awards, which are given in six categories, will be presented to the following individuals:

Trisha Garlock, recipient of The Award of Honor, a special recognition (not given on an annual basis) selected by The Redwoods. This award honors an individual for long term commitment and dedication to community service. Garlock (Mill Valley) recently retired as executive director of Kiddo, the foundation that raises $3 million annually for Mill Valley school programs. A co-founder, she was associated with Kiddo for 32 years.

Kathy Magnuson, recipient of the Grace Orne Award, which honors a resident of The Redwoods who has made a significant contribution of time and effort to help others. This award is nominated by residents of the Redwoods. Ms. Magnuson, age 81, began volunteering at the Redwoods when she moved in eight years ago. She has chaired the College Scholarship Committee for five years, chaired the annual Bazaar for five years and has served as editor of The Bark, the residents’ newsletter, for six years.

Donna Cameron, recipient of the Bill Bacon Award, which honors a member of the community who has made a significant contribution of time and effort to The Redwoods and its residents. This award is also nominated by residents of The Redwoods. Ms. Cameron (Larkspur), 68, is a retired physical therapist. She has been teaching exercise classes at The Redwoods since 2009.

Detective David Kollerer, recipient of the Public Safety Officer Award.  Kollerer, 29, (Petaluma) was nominated by the Mill Valley Police Department for two aspects of his work:  addressing crimes related to children (including his close working relationship with the schools and his ability to effectively communicate with children); and, his success in investigating elder abuse fraud.

Seven Mill Valley public school teachers will be honored with the Elizabeth Terwilliger Award for excellence in teaching. Selected by their respective school principals and fellow teachers, this year’s recipients are:

• Jen Berry, 1st grade teacher, Old Mill School
• Jason Lane speech and language teacher, Strawberry Point School and Mill Valley Middle School
• Gwen Perin, art teacher, Park School
• Teresa Shern, 5th grade teacher, Edna Maguire Elementary School
• Anne Maria Padilla, 4th grade teacher, Tam Valley School
• Cari Pompanin, 7th grade teacher, Mill Valley Middle School
• Nate Severin, PE teacher, Tamalpais High School

Seven public school students will be honored with Student Community Service Awards. Selected by their respective school principals, the recipients are:

• Amelia Sharpe, age 10, 5th grader at Edna Maguire School
• Natalie Frederick, age 11, 5th grader at Old Mill School
• Jessie Fisher, age 12, 5th grader at Park School
• Serafina Carlucci, age 10, 5th grader at Strawberry School
• Lily Rose Fruchter, age 11, 5th grader at Tam Valley School
• Olivia Shine, age 14, 8th grader at Mill Valley Middle School
• Lauren Killingsworth, age 18, senior at Tamalpais High School

The Celebration of Service event was founded by Bob Canepa.

Friday’s event will be emceed by Mill Valley Mayor Stephanie Moulton-Peters.  The event has been supported by in-kind donations from the following:  Jonathan and Deborah Goldman (wine), Sol Food (food), Barbara Borden and Anne Stearns (music), and past student recipients (dessert). 

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Gary Scheuenstuhl is getting ready for one of his busiest days of the year for his Mill Valley Music shop on Miller Avenue.

But the customer service-minded record store owner is also bracing himself for having to tell his loyal customers the five words he hates to utter: “I ran out of that.”

Record Store Day 2014 – a celebration of independent record stores like Scheuenstuhl’s – is set for Saturday, April 19, and Scheuenstuhl admits he has “a love-hate relationship” with the event that produces one of his best sales days of the year but also has him unable to fulfill some customer requests.

Record Store Day started as a grassroots campaign in 2007 to support independent record stores that were facing extinction in an increasingly digital music business. The event features hundreds of musicians appearing and performing at independent stores across the country, and issuing special vinyl and CD releases to mark the occasion. It has grown immensely over the years. In 2008, there were 10 special Record Store Day releases. In 2014, there are more than 425 special RSD releases, the list of which fills more than 10 pages, from the Allman Brothers to the Zombies.

With that growth, it’s become harder and harder for shops like Scheuenstuhl’s to get their hands on some of the most limited releases. For instance, a reissue of Garcia, Jerry Garcia’s first solo album on white vinyl, is a surefire seller in the town where the late Garcia spent many nights at venues like the old Sweetwater. But with only 1,500 copies being released nationwide, Scheuenstuhl only received a single copy of Garcia for Record Store Day.

“By making these releases so limited, instead of celebrating independent record stores, you’re creating an instant collectible that immediately goes up on eBay,” says Scheuenstuhl, who opened his store after his former boss John Goddard closed his downtown Village Music shop in 2007.

That being said, Scheuenstuhl said Record Store Day remains a great way to celebrate stores like his that are forever trying to retain their longtime customers in a world where Amazon Prime makes anything and everything available at customers’ fingertips with near-instant gratification.

He uses RSD as a way to remind customers about his fantastic inventory, holding a storewide sale – 20 percent off new items and 30 percent off used items – to reward those who come to the shop on Saturday.

The 411: Record Store Day 2014 is Saturday, April 19. Mill Valley Music is located at 320 Miller Ave., (415) 389-9090. Click here for more details, and click here for a full list of Record Store Day releases nationwide. 

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One of the Bay Area’s most heavily trafficked thoroughfares for people on two wheels or two feet is about to get easier to reach for Mill Valley residents and visitors. That’s because the City of Mill Valley’s Public Works Department in June will begin building a pair of bicycle and pedestrian improvement projects – along Camino Alto in front of The Redwoods and along Sycamore Avenue between Camino Alto and the Mill Valley-Sausalito Multi-Use Pathway – designed to provide safer transit to and from the multi-use path for bicyclists and pedestrians. 

“These projects are going to improve the central connections for kids coming to school from all different directions,” said Mill Valley Mayor Stephanie Moulton-Peters, the chair of the Southern Marin Task Force for Safe Routes To Schools. "These new multi-use paths will really change the way we, and most importantly our kids, move around town." 

Both projects date back to at least 2008, when they were identified as priorities by the City’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Committee.  “This has been a top priority for the committee for many years – we’ve been trying to find the funding to build something and now we’re ready,” Director of Public Works Jill Barnes said. 

Work Begins in June

The construction kicks off soon after school ends on June 17, beginning with the Sycamore Avenue project, which involves building a separated multi-use path along the southern stretch of Sycamore Avenue. The first phase of that project actually finished on March 3 with the removal of eucalyptus trees fronting the Wastewater Treatment Plant. The trees will be replaced with native, non-invasive species with lower fire risks associated with them. 

The Sycamore Ave. path has a projected cost of $468,464, funded by Measure A sales tax revenue ($129,000), Federal Transportation Enhancement funding ($249,654) plus matching fund from the state ($32,346), and other local funds ($57,464). 

Soon after the beginning of the Sycamore project, work will begin adjacent to the northbound lanes of Camino Alto, where a 10-foot-wide, multi-use path will be built for the entire stretch from Miller Avenue to Sycamore Avenue. 

The Camino Alto project has an estimated cost of $606,914, primarily coming from Federal Safe Routes to School Program funding ($565,286), with some additional local funds. Both projects are projected to last about 30 days.  “We expect to have these facilities ready when students come back to school in August,” Barnes said. 

Alisha O’Loughlin, the Planning Director for the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, credited City officials for their leadership in moving both projects forward. O’Loughlin noted that the two new paths will link Tam High and the Mill Valley Middle School to the multi-use path, “giving our children a safe and separate from traffic path of travel to school,” she said. Hopes are high that this new path will allay many parents’ fears about allowing children to ride their bikes to school. 

Bicycle Roundabout

In September after the two projects are finished, the County of Marin’s Public Works Department will complete the direct link to the multi-use path by building a bicycle roundabout at the intersection of Sycamore and the path. 

Scott Schneider, an Associate Civil Engineer with the County’s Public Works Department, said the County is working to finalize a roundabout design, incorporate input from the Mill Valley Parks and Recreation Commission, the Mill Valley Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee as well as Marin County Parks, which maintains the path and much of the Bothin Marsh Open Space Preserve through which the path weaves. 

Because work on the roundabout will be happening after the 2014-2015 school year begins, the County will pave a temporary bypass on the eastern edge of the path to allow for safe north-south travel on the multi-use path, Schneider said. The $250,000 project is expected to take two months to finish. 

One of the goals of the roundabout is to improve safety and reduce tension on the path, where the interface of many different types and large numbers of users often creates friction. There are well over a half-million people who use the path between March and November each year and as many as 700 pedestrians and bicyclists use it over a two-hour period each day, according to the annual WalkBikeMarin Path Counts. 

Multi-Use Path: To Pave or Widen? 

Schneider said the trio of new links to the multi-use path are a big step, particularly because an update of the path itself is at least two years away. Extending from Vasco Court near Edna Maguire School all the way south to Mike’s Bikes in Sausalito, the path was built in 1981, more than four decades after the Northwestern Pacific railroad stopped using the tracks the path replaced. Other than minor touch-ups, it hasn’t been repaved since it was built. 

The Marin County Board of Supervisors voted to accept a $320,000 state grant more than three years ago to repave the path, and the Transportation Authority of Marin backed another $320,000 of federal money for the path rehab in Sept. 2013. 

But, because of other funding hurdles and delays – a repaving of the path has an estimated price tag of $1.75 million – and deadlines to use some state and federal funding, money has been diverted to shovel-ready projects like the update of the multi-use path that runs past Bacich School and College of Marin near Kentfield. 

Some of the delay is also a result of the tension around safety, since so many different user groups are on the path at the same time. The challenge is providing a path that is useful and safe for all – from fast-moving cyclists to pedestrians, the very young, as well as the elderly. Those safety concerns have caused Marin Parks officials to explore the possibility of widening the path, Schneider said. 

The County has $640,000 of the estimated $1.75 million it will need to repave the entire path. The work ahead entails hiring an environmental consultant to explore the environmental impacts of a simple repaving and a larger widening project and determine the feasibility of each. That process, which will allow regulatory agencies like the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the National Marin Fisheries Service and California Fish & Wildlife to weigh in, can begin in late summer and will likely take up to two years, Schneider said. That process will determine if the County proceeds with a repaving project or a widening of the path as well, he said. 

In the meantime, Mill Valley residents and visitors are expected to have a pair of safe new pathways to travel to and from the multi-use path. 

“We're looking forward to celebrating their completion,” O’Loughlin said. 

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One of Mill Valley's most prominent and divisive pieces of land heads back to the spotlight when the Mill Valley Planning Commission holds an April 14 hearing on a new mixed residential and commercial development project at 500 Miller Avenue. The application comes on the heels of a purchase of the land in 2013 by developer Daniel Deibel's Upworth Real Estate from longtime owner Al Von der Worth, who received approval for a development project there in 2010.

Von der Worth first proposed his project in June 2005, and it was the subject of more than a half-dozen study sessions and multiple hearings before the commission's approval. The approved project was a mixed residential and commercial development comprised of a 14,276 square foot building of 9 attached, single-family residential units with a 12,217 sq. ft. parking garage below and a separate two-story 4,948 square foot commercial building. 

Deibel's new application is for 9 attached single-family townhouse-style residential units totaling 23,502 square feet built as two buildings with 11,962 sq. ft. of parking incorporated at the rear first floor of the buildings, and a separate two-story 3,000 square foot commercial building with a separate parking lot. 

Click here for more info on the project. The hearing will be streamed live and archived on the city's website here.

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One day a week, 20-year-old Connor Barbee goes to work at Mill Valley Music, doing some filing for owner Gary Scheuenstuhl and handling the local independent music store’s overstock. 

But while the shift is brief and the work is often mundane, the relationship between Scheuenstuhl and Barbee is far deeper than employer and employee – it is actually proof positive that a person with special needs can be a valuable, diligent, hard-working employee who is not seeking a helping hand but simply a chance to counter stereotypes.

Barbee is autistic. With April being Autism Awareness Month, Barbee’s mom, longtime local resident and former Mill Valley School District board member Janet Miller, who founded the Challenger League and helped found the It Takes a Village initiative, has launched a campaign to encourage local employers to consider hiring young adults and adults with special needs – and to see the benefit in doing so. Miller is working with San Rafael-based Autistry Studios, a pre-vocational program, to spread the word about the potential benefits of hiring someone with special needs.

“I want to stress that we and our children are not looking for charity – we’re looking for a chance for our kids to be productive and contribute to their communities – and they can,” Miller told the Mill Valley City Council this week after the council issued a proclamation recognizing April as Autism Awareness Month.

In making the case that people with special needs can be valuable employees, Miller stressed that employers will find that people with special needs often bring specialized skills. Barbee, for instance, is able to see patterns and irregularities in systems in ways that other can’t, Miller says.

Scheuenstuhl admits that he was initially a bit reluctant at the prospect of taking on an employee with special needs. But for the past two years, Barbee has proven himself “very conscientious, diligent and reliable – he’s just a great kid,” Scheuenstuhl says. “He cares so much and he wants to do things correctly, which is not necessarily a universal attribute.”

Barbee doesn’t work alone at Mill Valley Music, regularly bringing along a job coach. That fact highlights one facet of the vast support structure that exists for employers willing to hire a person with special needs.

The structure includes the state Department of Rehabilitation, which provides a variety of services to support both the employer and employee and has an office in Novato.

It also includes local organizations like Autistry Studios, which was founded six years ago by Janet Lawson and Daniel Swearingen as they imagined the future of their son Ian, who is autistic and who is now a senior at Redwood High School. Autistry is a pre-vocational training center for autistic kids.

“We don’t expect the world to be autism experts,” says Lawson, noting that Autistry supports five interns at the Buck Institute for Aging Research and two employees of the Play-Well Activity Center in San Anselmo. “We will support those business who hire our children and who partner with us to give back in a meaningful way to our community.”

Miller said that with the latest data indicating that 1 in every 68 children is diagnosed with autism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, awareness isn’t the end goal.

“The crisis is what happens to these children who are now becoming adults,” she says, noting that only 21 percent of adults with a disability participate in the labor force. “Very little has been done to understand these adults and provide services that help them transition into the labor force. It’s critically important that we as a society to recognize the talents and specialization that these people can bring as employees.”

The campaign to encourage employers to hire people with special needs is not solely focused on those with autism.

Mill Valley Market employs two people with special needs, and co-owner Doug Canepa says his store is better for it. One of those employees is Morena Weiss, a woman who is deaf and was born in El Salvador. Five years ago, she joined her two sisters as Mill Valley Market employees. Weiss works at the deli counter, and for those customers accustomed with the deli’s longtime use of a checklist for made-to-order sandwiches, there’s zero impediment for Weiss to be successful, Canepa says. Now married and the mother of two children, “She’s blossomed – she can’t speak but her personality just absolutely captures everybody,” Canepa says.

The market also employs someone who is bipolar. While Canepa stresses that it requires patience and training of both the employee with special needs and the entire staff to make it all work, the rewards are abundant.

“It provides something they didn’t have before – they can be part of society,” Canepa says. “Honestly, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. To know that you’ve provided something that they can’t get elsewhere – a sense of pride, self satisfaction – it’s just a great feeling.”

The 411: Miller is in the midst of launching an organization that will help connect employers with employees with special needs. In the meantime, for more information or if you are interested in receiving more info, click here to email her or visit Autistry Studios online.

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As a goodwill gesture towards merchants and residents during Pacific Gas & Electric's downtown pipeline replacement project, PG&E and the City of Mill Valley have partnered to provide free parking at 30 metered parking spaces downtown on weekdays for three weeks.

The Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce brokered an agreement between PG&E and the City of Mill Valley in the interests of mitigating the impact of the project on downtown merchants and shoppers. 

The free parking, which will be on weekdays from Monday, April 14 to Friday, May 2, will be at all 11 metered spots on the south/Depot Plaza/Chamber office side of Throckmorton Ave., and on the 19 spaces in the Depot Plaza lot that are closest to Throckmorton Avenue. The map above indicates the location of the free parking spaces.

Each meter will be clearly marked as free, but Parking Enforcement Officers will still enforce the maximum time limits for the spaces – two hours for those in the Depot Plaza lot and 30 minutes for most of the spaces in front of the Chamber office on Throckmorton.

Click here for more info on the project, which is set to move from Corte Madera Ave. to Throckmorton Ave. next week.

Thanks to PG&E and the City of Mill Valley!!