Jan. 27

  Ready to plant some of the poppy seeds obtained for the Wallace/Burson Association’s West Calaveras Poppy Trail are, from left, Project Chairperson Fran Rupley, Larry Rupley, Claireed Allen, Cassie Goltz, Lacy Sigman, Peal Regis and Joan Bohl.

Association's poppy effort successful

Demand triple of first expectations

By Nick Baptista

   The Wallace/Burson Association’s inaugural West Calaveras Poppy Trail effort is coming to a successful ending.

   The civic organization celebrated the end of the campaign with a ceremony Saturday at the Wallace Post Office. The association honored its premier sponsors and planted seeds donated back to the effort in a field across the street.

   “This project has captured folks' attention and enthusiasm all over Calaveras County! We went way beyond expectations,” said Project Chairperson Fran Rupley. She said the association planned on buying and distributing 25 pounds of poppy seeds, but in the end the amount tripled.

   “I had to go back to the seed supply store three times,” Rupley said to meet the demand. “This is all new to us and we didn’t know how much we’d really need.”

   The program was designed to enhance the west entrance of Calaveras County this spring with a mass planting of California Poppy seeds. The association distributed one-ounces packages of seeds for $2 each to residents and businesses. In addition, residents and businesses could sponsor or donate seeds back to the Wallace/Burson Association for association members and volunteers to plant along the roadsides.

   Premier sponsors purchased at least 25 packets of seed for a $50 donation. As of Wednesday, the project had attracted 26 premier sponsors, Rupley said.

   In addition, Rupley had mailed or delivered 551 packets of seed to purchasers.

   With this year’s success, the association will “absolutely” do it again next year, she added. “I’m really looking forward to doing it again. You don’t mess with success.”

   However, Rupley said she will be better prepared in 2007 to meet the demand.

   “I’m going to have a better idea on how much supplies we need and I’m not going to be driving to Staples and the Stockton seed store as often,” she added.

   Much of the work to prepare the seeds for distribution was done in Rupley’s kitchen where she measured the seeds and placed them in packets with home-printed labels.  

Jan. 25

Marathon runner Kathleen Nelson, right. Photo by Action Sports International.

Valley Springs woman completes her first marathon

   Kathleen Nelson of Valley Springs earlier this month completed her first, but probably not her last, marathon.

   Nelson, who works at the Valley Springs Longs as a bookkeeper, participated in the Jan. 15 P.F. Chang's Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon & Half Marathon. She was one of more than 30,000 runners and walkers who challenged their strength and endurance on the 26.2- and 13.1-mile courses that went through the Valley of the Sun communities of Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe.

   Nelson, who said she is “runaker,” which is the level between a runner and a walker, participated in the marathon through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training. She said she finished in the middle of the pack of about 8,000 who were in the full marathon.

   She was motivated to run her first marathon due to the loss of her aunt to leukemia and her father to colon cancer.

   “I joined because I love helping people,” Nelson said. She became affiliated with a Sacramento area Team In Training the past summer. The team would meet twice a week and gave Nelson a schedule for individual workouts. She worked her way up to 20- and 23-mile workouts.

   Nelson’s husband Ken was there during those workouts to follow her and pass out water when she needed it.

   “I made a promise to finish to all the people who donated,” Nelson said.

   Each Team In Training participant had to raise a minimum of $3,500 in pledges to cover expenses and raise money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, she said, and in all, the runners at the event netted $7 million for the society.

   As the title of the event indicated, rock ‘n’ roll was also featured. There was a big concert and a band was playing every mile along the route.

   “It bumped your spirit up a bit,” Nelson said about running and hearing the bands play along the way.

   Nelson’s next running effort will be limited to a 10-miler in July in the Bay Area.  

Staff members of the new H&R Block office in Valley Springs are, from left, Karin Salbu, Jodi Owens, Elmer Owens, Kara Hughes, Amanda Leonard, Alayna Stevens, Jerry Owens and Susan Colwell, not pictured.

H&R Block first to open in center's new addition

By Nick Baptista

   H&R Block is the first tenant to open at the new addition to Valley Oaks Center.

   With tax season around the corner, H&R Block opened its doors Jan. 13 in the 1,250-square-foot office. The addition to the shopping center has also attracted Starbucks Coffee, Subway and Countrywide Home Loans.

   Elmer and Jodi Owens are the owners of the H&R Block office. They also have offices in Angels Camp and Jackson. The three offices employ 22 people, with six at the Valley Springs office and the Owens’ son Jerry is the regional manager for the operations.

   In addition to tax preparation, tax consulting and tax education, H&R Block provides mortgage and financial services, Jodi said.

   “Valley Springs looks like the place to be,” she added. The family has had the Angels Camp office for 30 years and Jackson for 28. Elmer has been keeping an eye on the Valley Springs market for a number of years.

   “We have loyal clients from Angels Camp who have been with us since the day,” Jodi said.

   Overall, H&R Block has more than 10,000 offices nationwide.

   The local office can establish Individual Retirement Accounts and has the resources of H&R Block financial planners in Modesto or Stockton. They can meet with clients at the Valley Springs office or at the convenience of the client’s home, Jodi said. Eventually, she would like to have a full-time financial planner working out of the Valley Springs office.

   The office is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday. The phone number is (209) 772-1712.

   During the tax season, “we’ll extend our hours for anyone who wants it,” Jodi said.  

Jan. 20

The Ridge of Trinitas Project, which includes a golf course and clubhouse, will be the topic of a public meeting Feb. 2 at the Burson Firehouse.

Meeting set for proposed golf course development

   A public meeting to identify potential environmental impacts associated with construction and operation of The Ridge of Trinitas Project is scheduled for 6 p.m. Feb. 2 at the Burson Firehouse and Community Center.

   Mike Nemee, chairman, Trinitas Olive Oil Co., has proposed subdividing 280 acres off Ospital Road between Warren and Southworth roads into 14 parcels, 13 of which will be single-family residential lots, each approximately two acres in size. The remaining 244-acre parcel would include an 18-hole golf course with a driving range, clubhouse and lodge with overnight accommodations.

   The two-story, 18,000-square-foot clubhouse would include a tasting room for olive oil products produced on the property, retail space, a restaurant and banquet facilities.

   The Burson Firehouse is located off Burson Road at Dickenson Court, a half mile north of Highway 12 in Burson.

   Comment cards will be available at the meeting. In addition, emails and faxes will also be accepted. The project file is available for review at the Calaveras County Planning Department, 891 Mountain Ranch Road, San Andreas.

Jan. 18

Phil Weaver started ourvalleysprings.com to assist the area’s civic organizations and publicize the positive activities in the community.

 Ourvalleysprings.com established to highlight area's positive aspects

By Nick Baptista

   A website seeking to bring Valley Springs together has emerged from the depths of cyberspace.

   Phil Weaver launched Ourvalleysprings.com  last month. He and his wife Liz own Sheng Chi Kung Fu of Valley Springs.

   Weaver said he envisions the website in part becoming a community forum by bringing the area’s clubs, civic organizations and non-profits together under one umbrella. In a relatively easy fashion, the organizations will be able to post their latest news, events and activities on the website, he said, and the public can go to ourvalleysprings.com and find out what each community organization is doing.

   The community forum is set up as a blog and does not require any technical training for a member of the public to post an item, he said. They establish a user account at the site and write what they want to post.

   It’s a lot easier than each civic organization maintaining its own website, which all too often in general have out of date information, and one focal point will attract many more visitors, he said.

   The Girl Scouts, Calaveras Youth Mentoring Program, Valley Springs Softball League, and Wallace/Burson Association are taking advantage of the website by posting pertinent information.

   By each group posting what they are doing, Weaver said he hopes it will eliminate any duplication of efforts and community organizations will be more efficient in their undertakings.

   In addition, the site features the histories of Burson, Valley Springs and Wallace.

   Sal Manna, president of the Wallace/Burson Association, is contributing quite a bit to the website, Weaver said, and Paul Shinn plans to post a weekly article featuring a local business outlining their experiences in serving area.

   He also wants the site to serve as a community sounding board and spark positive discussions about visions and ideas for Valley Springs’ future.

   “There are so many great visions for our town,” Weaver says on the website. “Perhaps if we brought them all together even more and better ideas would form. There’s also something about putting an idea to print which helps make it happen.”  

Jan. 11

This pig featured at MyValleySprings.com has caused quite a stink.

New website draws reaction with photo, content

By Nick Baptista

   A new website with an anti-development editorial slant has drawn the ire of several locals.

   MyValleySprings.com has been in operation since November and the site’s use of a pig with lipstick and an aspersion to the man who is developing a comprehensive plan for commercial development and recreation in Valley Springs has drawn a backlash.

   “It’s disgusting,” Tillie Soyland, past chair of the Valley Springs Area Business Association, said of the website, which features a pig on its home page and says “Would You Kiss This Pig.”

   She was also upset with the way the website treats the new Community Shopping Center planned for the southeast corner of Highway 26 and Hogan Dam Road and Dave Tanner, the project leader and land planner for the complex.

   The website has headlines such as “Is This A Bad Joke” and “It makes you wonder what Mr. Tanner is doing” concerning the shopping center proposal.

   Soyland, who is also president of the Valley Springs Chapter of Friends of the Library, said she did not believe the website’s content concerning the shopping center would kill the project, which includes space for a Valley Springs branch of the Calaveras County Library.

   She is also displeased with what she perceived was a mean-spirited attack on Tanner.

   “Dave is taking the brunt of this and he does a lot of good for the community and is a good family man,” she said.

   Lynne Callahan echoed Soyland’s thoughts concerning Tanner.

   “He is a wonderful man and I trust what he is doing.”

   MyValleySprings.com was founded by a politically diverse group of citizens concerned with growth issues in the area, said Seana Hogan, who built the website and is a co-founder of the group.

   A letter that has been posted to the website motivated use of the pig, she said. Some in the group thought the pig was cleaver and others did not want to post the picture on the site, she added.

   The purpose of putting the pig on MyValleySprings.com was to get people to visit the site and get them talking, she said.

   The pig characterizes urban growth proposed in the Spring Valley project, she said.

   “Now is the time to ask yourselves, do we want development of this size in Valley Springs?” said Hogan, who relocated to Valley Springs two years ago from Gilroy. “Sure, progress is inevitable, but on a mega-scale? All at once? A thousand homes on one-tenth-acre city lots?”

   Hogan said she watched and did not get involved as Gilroy became an urban sprawl and she would not sit by and be a spectator again.

   Although the MyValleySprings.com group’s website says they believe in planned, “Smart Growth,” Tanner said it is an elaborate ruse for their “no-growth attitude,” which permeates the website.

   The “Smart Growth” page on the MyValleySprings.com website is an example of what type of growth is being planned for Valley Springs, he said.

   “They are a small group of people who do not represent a majority of the community,” he said.

   “They’re into fear tactics, half-truths and insinuation,” Tanner said. “How is that productive?”

   They hope to kill projects in Valley Springs by casting doubt or fear into the average person’s mind, he said.

   “Calling people names and putting out pictures like that is childish,” Tanner said. He said the characterization of him on the website bothers his family, friends and members of the community.

   “Regardless of how much lipstick (Ryan) Voorhees and Mike Dell’Orto put on this pig, the vast majority don’t want to kiss it,” says the letter on the website.

   “The demeanor of the site gives you insight to the people behind the website,” said Dell’Orto, who is working with Voorhees on the Spring Valley project.

   Voorhees said whether or not Spring Valley is developed, Valley Springs will face significant growth in the near future and his project helps mitigate many of the impacts caused by growth throughout the area.

   Voorhees added he would like to meet with the group and discuss solutions to the area’s growth issues.

   According to a recent press release from the MyValleySprings.com group, they will use the web site and the press to inform the community of current and proposed development in and around the Valley Springs area. They intend to engage local citizens in a community dialogue, thereby creating a strong community voice. The website was created to give citizens who might not ordinarily speak out an opportunity to voice their opinions from the comfort of their homes and computers.

   Hogan said she did not think the website’s editorial stance would discourage comments from those in opposition to their viewpoints.

   “We don’t claim to be fair and balanced, but we will post all comments,” she said.

   In addition to Hogan, the MyValleySprings.com group includes Carol Barzee, Pat Brantley, Colleen Platt, Joyce Techel and Lori Whitney.

Mike Wietrick displays the Quilt of Valor he is personally delivering to his son Adam who was wounded last week serving in Iraq.

Valley Springs man's son wounded in Iraq

 By Nick Baptista

  Valley Springs area resident Mike Wietrick is bound for Ft. Riley, Kansas, to visit his son Adam who was wounded last week in Iraq when his Army vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb.

   Adam, an E4 specialist assigned with field artillery out of Ft. Riley, sustained a broken cheekbone and has a few loose teeth, Wietrick said. The force of the explosion threw Adam and three other soldiers out of the vehicle, but all survived the blast.

   “It sounds like they were all pretty lucky,” Wietrick said.

   Adam’s unit was scheduled to rotate out of Iraq in a few days and they were on possibly their last patrol when the vehicle was attacked.

   Wietrick already had plans to visit Adam when he returned stateside, but Friday’s call from his son to say he was relatively OK made paying a visit much more important, he said.

   Before leaving for Kansas, Wietrick obtained a Quilt of Valor for Adam from Gail Belmont of All Together Family Quilts and the Loose Threads Quilt Guild. Bonnie Cantoni of Wallace, a member of the quilt guild, pieced the quilt, which was machine-quilted by Belmont.

    Belmont and the quilt guild have made nearly 100 Quilts of Valor for service men and women wounded while serving their country in Afghanistan and Iraq.

   Wietrick, who was making the 1,700-mile trip to Ft. Riley by automobile, said he’d eventually like to get Quilts of Valor to the other soldiers wounded in the bombing. Adam and the three other soldiers have been awarded Purple Hearts, he added.

   Since Wietrick was able to talk to Adam only once, he did not know the real extent of Adam’s injury and he was not sure what doctors were going to do in regards to treatment.

   Adam could not get specific, but Wietrick said the attack probably occurred north of Baghdad. It came last week during a barrage of violence that claimed the lives of 11 U.S. troops in one day.

Jan. 6

Warren Killam, left, and Travis Haywood at the end of last month were assisting contractor Larry Meyer with interior work at the Valley Springs Youth Center. An update on progress at the new center appears below.

Completion of youth center entering the home stretch

By Joanne Schwinghammer

Valley Springs Youth Executive Director

   At last the Valley Springs Youth Center can see the light at the end of the tunnel from the Community Development Block Grant process!  What started as a vehicle to repair the roof on the old American Legion trailer at the edge of Valley Springs Elementary School in 2002, has become a huge improvement project for the neighborhood and the Valley Springs Youth organization.  (Huge for us itty, bitty non-profit country folks).

   Many hundreds of hours have been spent trying to hook different interested parties and agencies together to meet the Dec. 31, 2005, deadline to complete the project or lose the grant money intended on improving the facility for our community’s after-school teen program. 

   For the past three years, the staff of Valley Springs Youth knew they were on the verge of packing up the old center and coordinating a temporary operating location – which became one of the simpler tasks, and took place just as the 2005-06 school year began. With the tremendous support of Calaveras Unified School District, the teen center has been able to continue providing a safe place for area youth to attend three days a week while waiting for the new center to be completed. Things really did not kick into action until mid-September of last year when the old library, as some remember it, was finally demolished and hauled away. Within a couple of weeks the retired classrooms gifted by C.U.S.D. were split in two and moved into place at the 201 Pine St. location.

   The art of making things come together continued to be a challenge, as many promises from subcontractors did not come through.  Plan B and C and D were discussed and considered as the V.S.Y. board met with the general contractor, who then suffered a fairly serious fall just before Thanksgiving. Soon after the rain began and more delays paralyzed the project!  In the 11th hour several donations of material and support began to flow.  The roof was finally sealed on Christmas Eve – the first indication that we may just make it. Some of the center youth even spent their Christmas vacation helping where they could, learning some valuable trade skills. And on Dec. 30, the contract tasks were signed off – and we were finally at ease with no time to spare thanks to Larry Meyer, Marti Crane, Lucy Thein and countless volunteers who performed amazing acts of skill and kindness to get things done.

   Now the fun begins – the donated flooring needs to be installed; the computer work area, shelving and cabinets need to be built; painting and fencing and concreting to be done (if those donations actually come through).  We need certain things in place before we can operate, others can be a work in process.  We are on the home stretch and would love your help - come cheer us on, bring your paintbrush or hammer and be a part of Valley Springs history in the making.  V.S.Y. will finally have a place to call their own and our children have lived through it and continue to be a part of the creation of their new center.  Perhaps one day, they’ll take a drive with their own kids and show them just where they hammered in that last nail when they learned to hang drywall; or helped design or install the landscaping around the property….. my how that tree has grown!

   We plan to hold our next board meeting at the new facility on Wednesday, Jan. 11, at 6 p.m. and welcome interested community members to take a look at the place and find out the latest on the project status and our move-in date. Burson, we have electricity!

   Please contact the Valley Springs Youth at (209) 772-3922, if you have an interest in assisting with the final stages of our Big Make Over or have materials that we may be able to use; we even have a few loads of debris that needs to get to the landfill. Opportunities are available for everyone seeking a role in the Valley Springs Youth community development success.  

Jan. 4

Not another water hazard

 La Contenta Golf Club’s ninth tee looking toward the clubhouse gained an ominous water hazard during the New Year’s Eve storm. Rich Pastorino took this photo at approximately 9 a.m. Saturday. Despite Mother Nature’s outpour of nearly 5 inches of precipitation the past week and Cosgrove Creek overflowing its banks, Dave Rider, La Contenta’s head golf professional, reported Tuesday morning the course escaped any serious damage and is open for play with some standing water and soggy areas.

Wet, wild start to '06

By Nick Baptista

   Mother Nature end one year and began another with a wicked pair of storms in Northern California that dumped 4.7 inches of rain the past six days on Valley Springs.

   According to the Valley Springs Public Utility District’s rain gauge, the recent rains began Dec. 28 with .5 inches. Rainfall over the next five days was .2 on Thursday, an inch on Friday, .7 on Saturday and Sunday and 1.6 inches on Monday.

   The district’s holding pond is “still in pretty good shape” despite the heavy rains, PUD General Manager Michael Fischer reported.

   Too much water in the pond last year triggered a wastewater discharge order from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board.

   Fischer reported the holding pond is 9.2 feet from the top, while at the same time last year the pond it was 6.7 feet from the rim.

   Fischer said there remains a lot of inflow into the pond and he is concerned storm gutters are tied into the system.

   New Hogan Lake also experienced substantial inflows during the storms, raising the storage level past 200,000 acre-feet for the first time since Oct. 30, 2005. The reservoir had an inflow of 7,707 cubic feet per second on Saturday as the first storm came to an end.

   Jenny Lind Fire Chief Stacey Hebrard reported one sad New Year’s Eve and storm-related emergency call. A dog had to be put to rest by a sheriff’s deputy at approximately 9 p.m. Saturday after it jumped a fence and was struck by a vehicle on Highway 26 between Heinemann and Farris lanes.

   Hebrard said the dog jumped the fence after being frightened by illegal fireworks going off in the area. The fire department was dispatched to the scene after the dog was struck and dragged itself off the highway only to fall into the creek. The dog was rescued from drowning, but it was determined it had sustained too many internal injuries.

Mail: P.O. Box 1297, Valley Springs, CA 95252 
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