Harvesting family fun - Winters Express

-4 — Winters (CA) Express, Thursday, October 21, 2010OpinionLETTERSQuizzicalappreciationThe Winters Friendsof the Library held itsAnnual Quiz Show onOct. 7. There are manypeople I’d like to thankfor making the eventsuccessful.First, I’d like to thankall the participants whoplayed. Tim’s Team, TheDems, and Out By SevenForty-Five, though notable to make it to the finalround, all contributeda great deal tothe fun of the game.The Wintun Warriors,sponsored by WarriorVideo, are the championsagain, and they donatedtheir $200 firstprize money back toWFoL. The TheaterGeeks, sponsored byThe Winters TheaterCompany, were kindenough to donate theirsecond place prize moneyback to WFoL as well.I thank both teams fortheir generosity.The Pizza Factory donated$5 gift coupons toeach participating teamember, and Warriorave “dollar off”oupons to every guest.appreciate thesehoughtful donations.Mary Lou Linvill, DineCary, and Tom Neeeywere our judges;oody Fridae was themoderator; Carol Scianna,Sharon Blaha, andaul Myer were scorekeepers;and SallyBrown was timekeeper.inn Myer was the czarf the kitchen and foundasty treats for everyne.Thanks go to all ofhem for their help andsupport.Who was it that said,“It takes a whole villageto make a quiz show?”Well, that’s a questionfor next year.REBECCA FRIDAETwo more little reasons to love this townGOD I LOVE THISTOWN. And God I lovethat I get to say that soften. Like just thisorning.Just after I arrived athe office, I walked toy desk and heard a litle“ping.” I lookeddown, and sure enough,he button I’d sewed ony jeans had fallen off.gain. I’d already reairedit once, but aparentlyeven thread isade in China now.What to do. We don’tven have the luxury ofost-its in the Expressffice, so the likelihoodf having a sewing kitas slim. We searchedor a safety pin – nuthin.’n retrospect, I supposecould have stapled theop of my jeans, but thatould’ve required taknga staple remover tohe restroom. Mutlipleimes.Still in the throes ofomelessness (I’m oneek six now), goingome and putting on aifferent pair of jeanswasn’t an option, as ally other jeans are stillin some warehouse inWest Sacramento, alongith most everythinglse I own. And Ithought, “Who has needlesand thread downtown?Bingo – ClothCarousel.”I walked around thecorner and was thrilledto see that it was openand owner Jan Bawartwas there. I told her Iwas in need of emergencyassistance — didshe have a bit of threadand a needle I couldborrow, and explainedwhy. Jan did one better.“I think we can sew itHighlight oftheir yearFamilies of disabledyoung adults in Wintersmust thank The Palmsmanager Dave Flemingfor his generous andheartfelt assistance inhaving a successful Halloweendance party forWinters disabled studentsand their schoolmatesfrom the adjoiningarea.It is often difficult fordisabled young peopleto have an opportunityto mingle with theirpeers, and to find acceptingpositive safeplaces where they canbe themselves and enjoythe social opportunitiesthat others take forgranted. Saturday nightwas a joyful gathering ofcostumed revelers,dancing the night away.This will long be rememberedas the highlightof the year.Music was provided bythe most excellent DJRyan Martinez. Ryannot only kept everyoneon the dance floor, healso took questions andresponded to eageryoung folks on hisbreaks who were fascinatedby his talents andright on right now whileyou’re standing there,she said.”And she did —dropped what she wasdoing, picked out someheavier duty thread,and knelt down rightthere in the middle ofher shop, customers andfriends coming and going,stopping to chat, noteven blinking to see Janpatching me up likeRaggedy Ann. (God, Ilove this town…) Withina few little stitches, Iwas good to go.While Jan was mendingme, I explained thatnot only do I not have abackup pair of jeans, Idon’t have any needlesor thread or much ofanything else until I getmy house reassembled.She pulled the laststitch through, tied itoff, and said, “What aminute, I have somethingfor you.”It being Tuesday, I figuredshe had somethingshe wanted to get intothe Express at the lastminute. But no, shewent into her back shopand returned with a darlinglittle pocket sewingkit, adorned with asparkly rhinestone butterfly,and handed it tome so I’d never be button-lessagain. How delightfulis that?Jan Bawart at ClothCarousel — one morereason to love this town.A BITTERSWEET LIT-TLE STORY emergedthis week at our office. Igot an email from someonehere in town regardinga local man whopassed away named TimKehoe. She told me thatequipment. Thank you,Ryan.When we asked Daveif his venue would workout all he asked was“Will we have a lot offun?” And right he was,this group was thrilled,with ear to ear smilesand lots of dance moves.The parents and youngadults all felt great gratitudefor this singularchance for fun, social interactionand great experience.If Dave hasn’t yet gottenan award for all hedoes for the community,he certainly should.Thanks again Dave.ROY and CYNTHIAMARUBAYASHIand Adult Living Skillsclass membersThanks forsupportingeducationThe Winters EducationFoundation thanksthe businesses that participatedin this year’sAdd-A-Dollar campaign.This year theyraised over $500 morethan last year.Once again, PacificAce Hardware won theGolden Apple award byshe would be sending anobituary for this week’spaper, and asked if Icould include his photo,because I’d taken hispicture not too long agofor the “Who is This?”teaser that’s on the frontpage every week. Shedidn’t have a good photoof him to send.I couldn’t rememberhim, but the namesounded vaguely familiar.I found the photo ina special file I keep ofpeople who’ve been Expresscover girls, andluckily Mr. Kehoe’s photowasn’t among themany we’ve lost in twodisastrous computercrashes. I opened it up,and remembered himimmediately.It wasn’t the answersto his questions that Iremembered, but his reactionwhen I asked himto be the person of theweek. Usually, I have tobeg, threaten andstrong-arm people whowander unknowinglyinto the office on Tuesdaymorning into lettingme take their picture onthe spot and ask them afew questions. Not Mr.Kehoe. When I informedhim that he wasthe lucky winner of theblank spot on the upperleft corner of the frontpage of the Express, hebeamed.He told me that althoughhe’d lived inWinters for many years,raising the most money.Lorenzo’s Town & CountryMarket came in secondand Winters TrueValue Hardware camein third. We appreciateyour support and lookforward to putting themoney back into ourschools.Thank you: ARC Guitar,Berryessa Gap,Berryessa SportingGoods, Berryessa Vet,Biasi Auto Repair, BijouShabby Chic, Camile’sHair Salon, CanyonCreek Resort, Chuy’sTaqueria, Circle 9,Cody’s, Curves, CustomCleaners, Eagle Drugs,Edward Jones, Ficelle,First Northern Bank,Food Mart, KountryKitchen, La Bodega,Lester Farms Bakery,Lorenzo’s Town & CountryMarket, Metro PCS,Ocean Restaurant, PacificAce Hardware, PizzaFactory, Quinta doSol, Root Stock, R&RRanch, Round TablePizza, Steady Eddy’sCoffeehouse, Studio C,Subway, The Clayground,The ClothCarousel, The MarketKitchen at the Farmer’sMarket, the WintersStrawberry Stand, TheSee LETTERS, page A-5he’d never been in theExpress before. Heseemed just tickledthrough and through tobe in our little spotlight.This touched me, rememberingthis, as Iwas setting his obituaryfor print this morning, Ithought how sad itwould be if the one andonly time someone everappeared in the Expresswas in his or herown obituary.I didn’t know Mr. Kehoe,but I’m glad he hada chance to see himselfin the Express, even if itwas only once. It’s somuch happier to appearin the upper left cornerof page 1 than the upperleft corner of page 2. I’mpleased that the photoof him that appears withhis obituary this weekcaptured a moment intime when some randomlittle occurrencebrought him some joy.So, if you ever wanderinto the Express officesome Tuesday morningand I beg, threaten orstrong-arm you to be ourcover girl that week,don’t back away in panic— say “Yes!” and bethankful that I’m gatheringinformation aboutyou for page 1 and notpage 2.Making the front pageof your hometown newspaperjust becauseyou’re you. That’s onemore reason to say,“God, I love this town.”OPEN GOVERNMENT. I had a conversationwith a subscriber a couple of weeksago and she told me I should watch whichbattles I choose to fight. She thought I waswrong to expose our police department’s accidentaldischarging of weapons inside the policestation. She was the first reader to ever disagreewith one of my columns, so I was reallysurprised by her comments. I told her that makinggovernment transparent, that’s the newcatch phase, was my main job in life. Someonehas to watch out for what our government is upto and report it to the people. Newspapers havefilled that roll since before Benjamin Franklinput the First Amendment into our Constitution.In California we have what is called theRalph M. Brown Act that is supposed to keepgovernment business open for pubic scrutiny.The Winters School Board is feeling the wrathof people who believe they weren’t completelyopen when they didn’t renew George Griffin’scontract. Many believe that they didn’t followthe rules; specifically they believe that theboard violated the Brown Act. If they didn’tbreak the law, they bent it over backwards.Last week the school board had their attorneygive a workshop on the Ralph M. Brown Actand I thought I would listen in. It was a casualworkshop as board members and audiencemembers asked questions to the attorney. Almostall of the candidates for school boardwere in attendance. Dan Maguire and a coupleof sitting board members were absent. RobynRominger was tardy, which I’m sure will showup on her report card.James Yarnell, the attorney, had copies of theBrown Act and the California Education Codeavailable for everyone. He had a Power Pointpresentation that went over what he thoughtwere important issues that the board shouldknow. When the question of board membersmeeting outside their official duties, like on vacationor at social events, came up, Yarnell toldthe board that they should avoid gathering as agroup. “You should avoid the perception of violatingthe act.” When Diane Beaton askedabout 3 board members going on vacation together,he said that was fine. When asked if 4board members were to go on vacation, he responded,“someone has to leave, you can’t havea quorum of the board on the same vacation.”He talked about serial meetings where eithera board member or an employee of the districtcalls, emails or talks to each member in advanceto see what they think of an issue. He saidthat one on one is okay, but there can be no exchangeof information about how the otherboard members feel. He added that there is nocase law on whether all emails are public. Herecommended to the board that they not useprivate emails for school district business andyou can’t use intermediaries to transfer knowledgeto other board members.When Board Member Matt Brickey broughtup the subject of responding to public commentsthat weren’t on the agenda, Jarnell saidit was okay to respond, or to ask questions forclarification, but it wasn’t okay to open a boarddiscussion. Brickey was told to put it on theagenda if the board wants to talk about it.I got interesting when the subject of closedmeetings came up. When members of the audiencestarted questioning how George wastreated and whether it violated the Brown Act,Jarnell literally call time-out, hand signal andall. He said he wanted to keep the conversationto the Brown Act and not past actions.When the audience asked about suing theboard for Brown Act violations. Jarnell toldthem the Education Code spells out employeenegotiations and that only the affected partycould take them to court with time lines. Headded that the court remedy was usually to askthe board to fix their procedures or the courtcould “cause their action to be null and void.”“After closed session, the board must reconvenein open session (prior to adjournment)and report any action taken in closed session,including the vote or abstention of every memberpresent. The reports may be made eitherorally or in writing.When Rodney Orosco asked what would happenif the board had violated the Brown Act,Jarnell responded by saying that the boardcouldn’t determine that they had violated theBrown Act, they would have to seek legal council.There was a lot to be learned at the workshopand I can’t cover over two hours of slide showsin this space, but I think you get the idea. I hopethe present board and future board memberswere paying attention.Have a good week.Policy for Letters to the EditorThe deadline for Lettersto the Editor is noon onMondays for publicationthat week.Letters may be mailedor hand-delivered to TheWinters Express, 312 RailroadAvenue, Winters, CA95694, or emailed tonews@wintersexpresscom.Letters should not exceed500 words. Do not useall capital letters.We reserve the right toedit or reject any letter.Letters must be legiblysigned by the writer, or ifemailed, must indicatethe writer’s name. We maywithhold writers’ namesfrom publication upon requestfor legitimate reason,such as fear ofreprisal or retribution.Anonymous letters willnot be printed.