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Parks district gets a jewel for the crown




For a district that has limited resources the Valley Center Parks & Rec District is doing pretty good in the vision department.

Last week after more than a year in escrow (courtesy of the County, thank you very much!) the district took possession of 15.5 acres that could very well become the jewel in the crown for the community of Valley Center.

The members of this board of directors have proven themselves to be excellent stewards by acquiring this wonderful piece of property that will henceforth be known as Star Valley Park.

Given some of the problems that the eventual development of the Belanich property will eventually create for the rodeo and Western Days, it may very well be that someday both of those celebrations will happen at this new park. Who knows?

Maybe we can have a huge celebration soon at this land. It’s certainly flat enough and has plenty of natural wonders to keep everybody occupied.

Keeping her Irish up

Kathleen McKewan is to be congratulated on continuing to build a bigger and better Irish Stew Cook-off each year. This last one was the 16th since she founded it and it’s beginning to look as though the St. Stephen Hall might be too small of a venue for it. I figured that maybe 500 folks showed up for the event on the 12th. Maybe more!

A volunteer for all seasons

Sue Richmond, Valley Center’s Citizen of the Year three years ago, made a quiet exit last week with husband Fran. For six years Sue was the face of the VC Chamber of Commerce, where she made important contributions to the success of the Chamber as well as Western Days. She had been secretary of the VC Parks & Rec district for several years.

She lived in VC for nearly 30 years, raising children, being a sports mom and a volunteer at many local organizations.

My favorite story about Sue was the weird phone calls she used to take when she was the Chamber secretary. Once a woman called and demanded that she take down the casino night club signs on Cole Grade because she didn’t want children to read them on the way to school. People complained when their trash wasn’t picked up on time, and other people would demand that she paint the Valley Center Road median a more pleasing color.

I’m sure that the Chamber continues to field similar questions and demands.

I know that the County Road department has taken a few, shall we say, odd phone calls over the years. Like the call from the lady who objected to the placement of one of those signs that shows a bounding deer and warns motorists to look out for them.



*Note: Opinions expressed by columnists and letter writers are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the newspaper.

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