8 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY MAy 30-june 5, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com news More than any other city on the Monterey Peninsula, Sand City feels like a place of possibility, somewhere that new ideas can take root and flourish. The latest such idea is something not unlike Night Market 831, a monthly music and art festival in the Sand City Art Park with live music and food trucks. The first Friday of every month since late 2021, the Art Park becomes a crush of people with long lines and not enough places to sit. But what if there was a food truck park open seven days a week? That’s the vision for The Yard, the brainchild of Jeanne Colletto. The concept seeks to turn a vacant, rectangular lot between California and Dias avenues into a landscaped food hub. The property has been in Colletto’s family for three generations—her grandfather used it to dry his fishing nets, and in the adjacent house, which he also owned, for himself and his friends to drink and play cards—John Steinbeck was a frequent visitor, she says. Colletto, her husband Gustavo Carvalho and her two sons Joshua and Noah Reeves are all collaborating on the project. They’ve yet to submit a full site plan for the project to the city. Colletto is working out a contract with the Carmel Valley-based firm Wild Land Workshop to help with the designs, and she estimates the site plan will cost $25,000 or more. Both she and Carvalho are concerned about making that kind of investment without more assurances from the city that it’s a project it wants, but City Manager Vibeke Noorgard says the city has been trying to move the project forward, it just needs the plans in hand. In concept, there is support. “The city wants this,” Noorgard says, “[but] we’re now at the stage where we need real plans.” Dining Out An idea for a permanent food truck park is starting to take shape in Sand City. By David Schmalz It was not the ending that anyone wanted for Forrest Eggleston’s life of 42 years. The local artist and off-road skateboard pioneer who was well-liked throughout the Monterey Peninsula, thanks to his friendly nature and collaborative spirit, was found dead of a suspected drug overdose on the Monterey Peninsula College campus on Tuesday morning, May 14. His friends and family say they knew addiction had been a struggle for Eggleston, but it was not the thing that defined him. Eggleston’s light “shone brightly” even though he struggled with addiction, says his cousin, Zarosh Eggleston. The two spent time together the day before Eggleston was found dead. “He was the happiest he had ever been,” Zarosh says. Just three days before, Eggleston spent Mother’s Day with his mom, Maura McPadden. “We had a great day,” she says. Although she knew he had an addiction, “he never went to a dark place, he stayed in the light,” she says. “He was just the friendliest person, he could talk to anyone—and he would.” Now McPadden is planning his celebration of life, to be held in July, possibly around Eggleston’s birthday on July 30. “What I realized is nobody chooses [addiction]. It’s something that takes over people and they don’t have the power to stop,” she says. “Nobody chooses this, it just gets a hold of you. As far as fentanyl goes, we have a real scourge in our world right now, because it’s straight-up deadly.” It won’t be known what drug caused Eggleston’s overdose for up to three months, as toxicology tests are completed by the Monterey County Coroner’s Office, says Monterey Police Lt. Jake Pinkas. Fentanyl is suspected because of how it’s flooded the local drug supply over the last several years. Another person was found dead of a suspected drug overdose a day later, on Wednesday, May 15, on Lottie Street in Monterey. Both deaths are being investigated by police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Two overdose deaths a day apart and a surge in all overdoses this year prompted MPD to issue a notice to the public. From Jan. 1-May 1, there were 283 reported overdoses, most non-fatal. According to the California State Department of Public Health, Monterey County saw 31 opioid-related deaths in 2022. The total numbers for 2023 are not available, but what is known is that in the second quarter of 2023, the number of overdose deaths was 109. Every year overdoses and related deaths are increasing, Pinkas says. “We get overdoses every week now,” he adds. Spike alerts—issued in the county every time there are two or more overdoses reported in a 24-hour period—are happening more frequently. Highly addictive fentanyl is often the cause. And while previously the issue was counterfeit drugs laced with fentanyl with users unaware of the opioid’s presence, police are seeing more straight powdered fentanyl in searches. Recently, the City of Monterey began making naloxone—the antidote to opioid overdoses—more widely available through free distribution boxes at the Monterey Transit Plaza in downtown, the Monterey Outreach and Navigation Center (401 Camino El Estero), and the Monterey Police Station at 351 Madison St. Forrest Eggleston, born and raised in Carmel, at one time operated the Underground Forest, a space inside The Barnyard, where artists, musicians and others gathered. A Light Lost Two more deadly drug overdoses leave families grieving and police seeking justice. By Pam Marino The above rendering, property owners say, captures the vibe behind a proposal for a food truck park in Sand City. The plan would also add weatherproofing elements. “Nobody chooses this, it just gets a hold of you.” courtesy Maura McPadden Gustavo Carvalho
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