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Templeton Life
OCTOBER 2014
Local pilot is runner-up at nationals
COMMUNITY
Katrina V. Merson
Jordan Cunningham
Smoot competes in Reno Championships
TUSD candidates unopposed
By JEFF POIRIER Of Templeton Life
Merson and Cunningham ready to serve community By ALLYSON OKEN Of Templeton Life
November is around the corner and this means it is time to fill two seats on the Templeton Unified School District board. This election cycle two peopled — Katrina V. Merson and Jordan Cunningham — are running unopposed and will replace the seats being vacated by Nelson Yamagata and Lisa Hammond. Despite the lack of opposition, both candidates sat down with Templeton Life and talked about their experience and reasons for running for school board. Cunningham works for a local law firm and prior to this worked for the San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s Office as a deputy district attorney. He earned his law degree from the University Of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in physics, magna cum laude, from Point Loma Nazarene University in 2000. A native of San Luis Obispo County, Cunningham lives in Templeton with his wife Shauna and their four children. Cunningham said that it was his Please turn to Page 7
Photo by Louise Harris
Randy Baxley auctioneering at the Templeton Livestock Market in 2013.
End of an era
RENO — Templeton resident Sherman Smoot doesn’t fit the stereotype of a senior citizen. At 66 years old, Smoot is still thrill seeking like he’s a young buck with a death wish. The U.S. Navy veteran is an experienced aviator, and even with his military service in the rear-view mirror, he still takes to the air to get an adrenaline rush for the ages. Smoot has been flying for the better part of 45 years, and his most recent expedition ended with a national runnerup finish at the Reno Championship Air Races. The annual event, which ran over the second weekend of September, drew roughly 300,000 spectators to Nevada’s high desert to witness the wonder of the world’s most intense motor sport. “It is the most extreme of extreme sports there are,” Smoot said. “It’s the fastest motor sport in the world; nobody goes any faster than we do.” Please turn to Page 7
Templeton Livestock Market set to swing its gates for last time Oct. 4 By LOUISE HARRIS For Templeton Life
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he quiet Main Street of Templeton has been the home of the Templeton Livestock Market since 1946. It has been a weekly gathering place for ranchers to market their cattle and catch up with the local happenings. Cattlemen have gathered at the top loading chute or at ringside to discuss current beef prices and make predictions on next year’s rainfall for generations. The once small town has grown with the wine industry
boom and the drought has adversely affected cattle numbers throughout the Central Coast. As the area changes it is time to pay tribute to the livestock auction that has shaped the history and agricultural success of the community. The Templeton Livestock Market will conclude its legacy on the Central Coast with the annual Bull Sale on Oct. 4. Hoover’s Beef Palace Restaurant is also closing, but ownership was trying to relocate as of publication. Please turn to Page 4 Photo courtesy of Sherman Smoot
Roots run deep at J. Dusi Winery By CONNIE PILLSBURY For Templeton Life
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Meet TCSD candidates This and That Community calendar
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Inside ...
Monthly publication dedicated to covering Templeton, CA
Allyson Oken/Templeton Life
Haustin Morrison is the newest addition to the Templeton Fire Department.
hen Sylvester Dusi immigrated to America in 1907 from a little town high in the Italian Alps, he had no idea that 100 years later, in 2006, his name, “Dusi” would appear on a wine label under the name, J. Dusi Wines. But it was not his son, or his grandson or his great-grandsons that began a winery in the grape-growing family. It was his great-granddaughter, Janell Dusi, of Templeton, who started her own label in 2006, and opened her J. Dusi tasting room in 2012. Janell wasn’t a newcomer to the wine business. “I started making wine for fun when I was young, a barrel a year,” she said with a smile. Her grandfather, Dante Dusi, taught her the basics of traditional Italian winemaking. Living near her grandparents on the 100-acre Zinfandel
vineyard property, Janell would hop on the Cat-10 tractor with her grandfather to head into the vineyard and help with the work. “We were farmers who farmed the land, and every year we saw the grapes go out the driveway in a truck,” she recalls. In 1993, at age 13, Janell entered her wine in the California Mid-State Fair, winning an Honorable Mention for her 1992 Zinfandel, Dante Dusi Vineyards. She continued making wine as a teenager and into college at University of California, Santa Barbara, where she majored in global and international studies. Her zeal and passion for winemaking never abated, leading her to work threemonth “Vintages” in Adelaide, Australia and travel to France to study winemaking techniques. By 2006, she knew what she wanted to do — produce her own label. This was quite a surprise and a change
Templeton resident Sherman Smoot stands alongside his Yak-11 aircraft Czech Mate after taking second in the Unlimited Race Class of the Reno Championship Air Races on Sunday, Sept. 14.