Happy News!

Dear Friends of the Sweetwater -
As many of you may already know, we've been successful in securing a fantastic new site for Sweetwater! Just around the corner from our former location at 32 Mill Avenue, there's a building that - once remodeling is completed - will look and feel a lot like the original location except that if will be a bit larger and a lot more comfortable (including functional bathrooms!) for both performers and patrons. As a result, we'll be able to continue to bring to Mill Valley the stellar line-ups, new artists and all the variety that we enjoyed at the old location but with more breathing room and better viewing of those exciting artists on stage due to improved site line. To say that all of this excites us would be an understatement!

This relocation effort has been exhausting, but our spirits have been lifted and sustained by your many expressions of support and your best wishes for the future for the "new Sweetwater". Almost all of your communications have ended with an offer to help with the relocation effort, and now we are getting back to all of you on two topics where we very much need your assistance:

1. Relocation Costs Fund

The costs of the relocation (including the remodeling of the new building) are projected to run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars—while our forecasts were close and we're raising a fair portion of this through our private offering, we are also looking ahead to ensure we are in compliance with building codes that are about to become effective. Our vision is long-term and we want the reborn Sweetwater to be on as stable a foundation as possible—structurally and financially—for many, many years to come. For this reason, and with time being of the essence, we are enthusiastically announcing the creation of the "Friends of the Sweetwater Gift of Support Fund" allowing offers of financial support to be deposited in a "Support Sweetwater" account to be used on relocation expenses. If you would like to play an indispensable role in the relocation effort, please send a contribution today. This can be done in either or two ways:

By going to our sweetwatersaloon.com website, through which a secure electronic contribution can be made electronically (via PayPal) to the Sweetwater Gift of Support Fund account; or

By sending a check for your contribution, payable to Melodieux H20, Inc., to at:

Friends of the Sweetwater Gift of Support Fund
38 Miller Avenue, PMB #255
Mill Valley, CA 94941

We cannot thank you enough for your enthusiasm, spiritual and financial support!! Please understand that your contribution, while it will certainly be going to a good cause, will not be tax-deductible. What we can offer every contributor is a limited-edition (contributors only), collectors-item bumper sticker saying:

SWEETWATER LIVES!
(And we helped!)
Contributions of $500 or more -- and we'll really welcome those! -- will also entitle the donor and three guests to free attendance at one of our Grand Reopening Concerts.

If contributions exceed the construction cost overruns, we'll both put that excess to use in further improving the premises and will think up some other way to reward all contributors. We're not in this for the money -- we just want to get re-opened pronto! So...please provide the help needed to see Sweetwater open as soon as possible. And thanks, in advance, for doing so!!!

2. Permit Process

We've applied for the permits needed to reopen the Sweetwater at this new location, and your support of those applications will be absolutely critical. While it often seems like 100% of Mill Valley is supportive of the re-opening, there will inevitably be nay-sayers and we need to convince the Planning Commission (and, if an appeal is filed, the City Council) that the City's best interests will be served by the Sweetwater re-opening in this new location. The first (and hopefully last!) hearing will occur in the City Hall at 6:30 p.m. on December 10, and we hope you'll make every effort to attend that meeting. Meanwhile, and whether or not you'll be able to attend in person, a letter of support to the Planning Commission will be most helpful. It should be sent to:

Mill Valley Planning Commission
City Hall
26 Corte Madera Avenue
Mill Valley, CA 94941

Needless to say, such letters of support should be both temperate and considerate of the fact that the Commission simply cannot respond to each writer. We encourage you expressing how effectively the Sweetwater has served the our town, actively supporting important and worthy causes year over year while respecting our neighbors and the neighborhood for the 35+ years of Sweetwater's existence.

* * * *

So, that's where we are. We love you all, and really appreciate all your indications of support. Now it's time to close the deal!

Warmest regards to you all,

Thom & Becky Steere