September 1922
FIRE ESCAPES BEING ERECTED AT HIGH SCHOOL

Improvements at the Analy Union High School are being made by the board of trustees which lessen the danger to students in the event of a serious conflagration at the school. The furnace room is being provided with semi-fireproof partitions to lessen the spread of fire should a blaze start in this room. Fire escapes are being constructed at the rear of the building. These escapes will provide exit from the second and third floors and will have separate exit and stairway for each floor.

SEPTEMBER 1947
CiTY COUNCL APPROVES SOFTBALL DIAMOND AT IVES PARK

The Sebastopol City Council met with delegation of Rotary Club and 20-30 Club representatives and has agreed to enter into a contract with the 20-30 Club to construct a softball diamond and bleachers at Ives Memorial Park. The new diamond will be of regulation length, with home plate backing up against the park property near Bodega Avenue. New lighting system and new bleachers to be constructed by the club will provide more seating space, dressing rooms and a small meeting room under the stands. Councilmen praised the club for its interest in the project. E.J. Foster, chief of police, stated that the 20-30 Club has done more to combat juvenile delinquency in Sebastopol than any other organization.

SEPTEMBER 1972
IRS TAXATION PROTEST ESCALATED TO ARREST

Sebastopol based Americans for Constitutional Taxation “confiscated” the Santa Rosa Internal Revenue Service office and said it was no more illegal than the “confiscations” of property made by the IRS.

The confronters declared that, as an example, the IRS had failed to pay locksmith Henry
Brunhoeber for changing locks on businesses taken over by the IRS for non-payment of taxes.

Glenn A. Bernd of Sebastopol, Chairman of the group said they took their non-violent action to dramatize the unlawful acts of the IRS. The IRS has by unrestrained power denied the people their due process of law, their rights to be secure in their person, property and papers. They have confiscated peoples bank accounts, cars, businesses and other property.

ACT was formed by Bernd and is dedicated to resisting the IRS taxation practices which include confiscation of personal property, according to Bernd. Bernd, owner of the Sebastopol Health Food Store on Main Street, has refused to pay his income tax for some time now as a protest to IRS policies.

Two weeks later Bernd was arrested on charges of obstructing federal officers. He was at the home of Mrs. Marthaller, there to block the path of a wrecker. Marthaller owed $1,268 in taxes for 1967 and 68 and had been notified payment was due. IRS agents seized two
Volkswagen’s and arrested Mr. Marthaller for obstructing the agents before Bernd arrived.
Bernd positioned himself between the wrecker and one of the seized autos and informed an IRS agent that he was under citizen’s arrest for auto theft. The agent countered by arresting Bernd for obstructing federal agents and was taken to San Francisco for sentencing.

As a condition of their release they were not to interfere with any employee of the IRS in the performance of their duties and neither defendant in any way is to counsel, advise or
participate in counseling or advising other individuals to interfere, obstruct or impede the
operations of the IRS.

Bernd has asked the Sonoma County grand jury to consider legal action against the nine IRS agents who arrested him. In his complaint he would charge the nine agents and an additional four John Does with robbery in the first degree. Technically this is armed robbery, Bernd contends since, the IRS were carrying weapons when they seized the cars. They might also be charged with trespassing or conspiracy.” Bernd planned to represent himself, “the legal profession wouldn’t be interested in going against the trend of sovereign immunity they were instrumental in establishing,” he said.

Bernd was in the news for similar protests of payments until he sold his business in 1991.