In Ireland, there is a "marching season" in late Spring. For me, that same time of year seems to be taken up by "marching" around to events that display programs or honor people/groups who work to make things better in our community.
I'll start my report by describing a stop last night at the Elks Lodge. With Craig Pedro as my escort, I attended the 90th anniversary of the Lions Club. The Lions have been in Sonora since 1922. It is a club which has a dedicated group of members who work hard to make communities better for local people and for people around the world too. The Lions are famous for their work in helping people with eye problems of all sorts. One thing they do in this regard is collect and distribute used eyeglasses to people who can't afford them. The mission of this club is uplifting and their members are "can-do" people. My friend Bill Dunlavy was there. Also talked with Dusty and Pat Rhodes. Club President is Jack Harris, who is a person I worked with when I was employed by the Sonora High School District many years ago.. The Master of Ceremonies for last night's event was Chris Bateman. My part in it was to read a Resolution that the Board of Supervisors passed on May 1 proclaiming the good work this club does. It was a great home-town evening!
On May 1, my fellow Supervisors and I attended the groundbreaking for Phase II of the Bypass. This event was held at the CalTrans office (which is a hard-to-find converted house across the street from the shopping center at Highway 108 and Standard Road). Gregory Oliver gave me a ride to the groundbreaking site so we were able to catch up on some issues we thought would come up at the Housing Policy meeting we were both scheduled to attend on May 3. At the groundbreaking, there were a few speakers before the Supervisors were supposed to turn the ceremonial dirt over with shovels. The "dirt" turned out to be sand, much to my relief. I thought John Gray's speech was great. He talked about progress being linked to saving lives on what is now a dangerous stretch of road. Because he is a person who was born and raised in Tuolumne County, I set great store by what he says. He has the perspective that so many newcomers lack.
The ceremony took about an hour and it was a little hot out there, but I'm glad I was able to attend. I agree with John Gray. Things that make life less dangerous for people are on my "Yes" list.
One last stop on my "march" was an open house held at the new Day Reporting Center on Highway 49, just outside of town. This happened on April 30. The Tuolumne County Probation Department invited me to come to this event and see how things are working out. The Center is located in the remodeled Social Security building. The program at the Center is an alternative to county jail for some inmates. I met with one of them who had been charged with the duty to explain the Center's activities to the open house visitors. I thought she did very well, although by her own admission, she was nervous and not used to public speaking. There were two employees of Mariposa County there. One of them said that their county had not even started a program like Tuolumne County's. They had come over to get an idea of how to do this. I can report that things looked pretty good at the Center when I came by. The strong advocate we have in Tuolumne County for getting this facility up and running (with the goal of a model program built within budget) is Probation Department Director Adele Arnold. She and Judge Eric DuTemple are to be commended for the work they have done to achieve this goal. Others have worked on this as well. In fact, for a long period of time, many members of the community worked on a committee that directed the progress of the Center
That's all of Liz On The Road for now. Thanks for joining me!
