Serving the communities of Valley Springs, Burson and Wallace

Nov. 25

Post office ready for growth, the holidays

 The Valley Springs Post Office is preparing for the holiday season rush and its list of addresses is growing at an incredible pace.

  The post office is serving 5,468 addresses in the Valley Springs and West Calaveras area, up from 5,127 since February of this year, said Valley Springs Postmaster Chris Mondragon. He attributed the bulk of the recent growth to new homes begin completed in Gold Creek Estates.

   Mondragon is also planning to add a ninth route. Six years ago when the post office moved to its present location, it had five or six routes, the staff reported.

   Using an industry standard of 2.6 people per household, Mondragon estimates the Valley Springs area has a population of 14,216.8.

   To service all of those people, the local post office is extending its hours from Dec. 5 to 23. The post office will open an hour early, at 7:30 a.m., Mondragon said.

   He anticipates business at the post office will jump the first Monday of December.

   “All of us elves will be working hard,” Mondragon said.

   And Mondragon’s advice to all postal customers is to avoid waiting until the last minute to mail holiday packages.

   The Parcel Post deadline for packages to reach their destination before Christmas is Dec. 14, Mondragon reported. The first-class deadline is Dec. 19, Priority is Dec. 21 and Express is Dec. 22.

   The 2005 commemorative holiday stamp, “Holiday Cookies,” is also available at the Valley Springs Post Office, along with traditional religious stamps, Mondragon said.

   Packaging products, boxes and holiday gift bags are also sale in the lobby.  

Nov. 23

Holiday shopping time

Unique Christmas cards made by Eileen Shumate, pictured here, and Karla Schuster of Valley Springs were some of the many hand-made items for sale at the recent Rancho Calaveras Holiday Craft Faire. Shumate and Schuster work the entire year to make the cards and raise money to attend the Ronald McDonald summer camp in the Reno-Tahoe area.

Nov. 18

John Miller, left, Garry McGinness and Mark McGinness are mixing ice cream and electronics in their new business at the old Valley Springs railroad depot.

Monster mixes computers with ice cream in old depot

   Monster Electronics and Computers opened for business last weekend in the old Valley Springs train depot.

   Monster owners John Miller and Mark McGinness, both of Valley Springs, are combining the new electronics and computer store with the old Ice Cream Depot at the 25 California St. location.

   So in addition to the latest piece of new computer hardware or software, customers can grab an ice cream cone or espresso at the combined store.

   The ice cream and coffee shop opens at 6:30 a.m. seven days a week and the electronics store opens at 8 a.m. Miller and McGinness plan to stay open till approximately 7 p.m., but will stay longer to help a customer.

   Eventually, they hope to wire the ice cream and coffee shop as an internet “hot spot.”

   The computer store has a limited amount of stock on hand, but “if we don’t have it, we’ll get it,” said McGinness, and he expects a two-day turnaround for most special orders.

   “We need the residents to tell us what they want. We can’t add to the inventory until we know what they want.”

   In addition to sales, Monster will provide support and service. Miller, retired military, is the IT guy and master technician. He worked for the Department of Defense for a number of years on computers and is a network engineer.

   Miller said he strives to provide solutions to businesses as well as personal computer users.

   “We’ll purchase, build and give computer instructions,” Miller said.

   Why did they call the computer and electronics shop Monster?

   “It’s a name that reaches out and grabs you,” said McGinness. “We want to reach out and grab you for our services.”

   The business is a family affair with their children involved in the operation, whether behind the ice cream counter or sweeping the floors.

   The historic building is not lost in the transition to a computer store.

   “We want to keep the history of this building alive,” said McGinness. Old photos of the train station are situated in both the computer and ice cream store. In addition, railroad signage continues to decorate the ice cream portion of the business.

   The ice cream store will host birthday parties and future plans call for an outdoor barbecue at the location.

   “We want this to be a caring, family type of place,” McGinness said. The ice cream shop also features a big screen for movies and video games.

Nov. 16

Back for more

At the end of last week it looked as though sight-line improvement work at the intersection of Highway 26 and Silver Rapids Road had been completed. However, on Monday traffic controls were back in place and crews were at the site further shaving the hillside and cutting through a layer of freshly sprayed hydro seed.  

Perfect so far

The Calaveras Redskins capped a perfect regular season and won The Bell Trophy with a 20-0 Big Game victory Friday night against the Bret Harte Bullfrogs. The varsity Redskins advance to section playoffs with a game Friday at 7:30 p.m. at home against Patterson. 

Happy 100 CHS

Calaveras High School celebrated its centennial at a special dinner Saturday evening. Saturday’s dinner in the San Andreas Town Hall attracted almost 300 alumni and was marked by several alumni speaking about the school’s place in the community, the traditions and their importance to the community. In the photo above, all gather to sing the school’s alma mater. 

Wallace/Burson Association ready to provide Santa Smiles

   The Wallace/Burson Association's annual Santa Smiles program is about to kick off. 

   Santa Smiles provides food and gifts to needy Burson and Wallace area residents during the holiday season. 

   Barbara Sutton is organizing the program for her second year. She said donation boxes for food, clothing and toys will begin to appear the day after Thanksgiving at the Burson and Wallace post offices, Burson Market and Wallace Chevron. The boxes will remain until mid-December when the items will be collected for packaging and distribution.

   Families in need are identified in several ways, she said, by word of mouth, through the school and this year the association has a message center to receive the names of families in need.

   “We would like to ask the public to recommend the names of needy families or seniors in our area; they can call anonymously to our WBA message center at 547-3244,” said Sal Manna, Wallace/Burson Association president.

   Santa Smiles also works with Santa Express to make sure every needy family in the area is covered, Sutton said. Last year, Santa Smiles assisted 10 families in the area.

   Wallace/Burson Association members get into the spirit of giving by buying clothing and toys for children of the families in need and then gather for a “wrapping party,” Sutton added.

   She calls the families in need prior to the wrapping party to find out whether they’re willing to accept the help and the names, ages, sizes and holiday season wishes of the children in the families. She then passes the information to WBA members so they can shop for each child.

   In addition to toys and clothing for the families, the association packs a food basket with a holiday dinner and other items. Area merchants have been very generous in this effort, she said.

   In addition to the message center phone number, Sutton can be reached at 772-3542.  

Nov. 11

Valley Springs goes to the polls

Fourth-grade teacher Rochelle Pena, left, signs in at the Veterans Memorial Hall polling place before casting her ballot in Tuesday’s statewide election. Assisting her are Bev Rushing, center and Carol Shrum. In the background are polling-place workers Linda Larson and Diana Ponte.

Two of three incumbents lose in Foothill Fire race

    Steven J. Sugar and appointed incumbent Gary West won four-year seats to the Foothill Fire Protection District Board of Directors, while Steffen Sommer won a two-year seat on the five-member board.

   Incumbents Kenneth “Ken” Glissman of Wallace and William P. McFall of Valley Springs lost in their bids to remain on the board.

   Sugar of Burson, a firefighter, was the top vote-getter in the four-year race with 919 votes, to West’s 682 and Glissman’s 673.

   Sommer of Burson, a firefighter/paramedic, received 825 votes to 603 for McFall in the two-year race. 

   The Foothill Fire Protection District, which covers 64 miles in western Calaveras County, was the only Valley Springs area race on Tuesday’s state special election ballot.

   While voters statewide cast a majority of ballots against all eight propositions up for consideration, Calaveras County voters bucked the trend on Propositions 73, 74 and 75.

   Proposition 73, parental notification about abortion, received a 54 percent “yes” vote in Calaveras County. Proposition 74, the five-year teacher tenure proposal, was acceptable to 55 percent of Calaveras voters, while Proposition 75, the government employee union dues initiative, received 56.2 percent support locally.  

BloodSource sets Nov. 29 blood drive in Valley Springs

   A Valley Springs community blood drive is scheduled for Nov. 29 to meet the community’s need for blood and blood products.

   The blood drive at the Valley Springs Health & Fitness Center, 145 Mangili Road, is sponsored by the local Knights of Columbus. It will be from 3 to 7 p.m.

   The Knights and BloodSource will continue to team up for area blood drives in 2006. Those blood drives will be set for the last Tuesday of the month in January, March, May, July, September and November.

   Blood donations are used to treat burn victims, transplant patients, people who must undergo surgery, those injured in accidents, patients with leukemia and more.

   BloodSource provides blood to Mark Twain St. Joseph’s Hospital in San Andreas, Kaiser Permanente, UC Davis Medical Center, Sutter and Mercy hospitals.

   To give blood, you must be in generally good health, free from cold symptoms for at least 48 hours; be at least 17 years old (16 years old with parental consent); and weigh at least 110 pounds.  There is no upper age limit for donating blood. Prospective donors must bring a photo ID. The entire process takes about an hour.

   All walk-ins are welcome. There will not be appointments. There will be a drawing for one extra large pizza from Pizza Factory and one meal for two from LaContenta Golf Course. For more information, call (209) 772-1863.  

Entries sought for annual Christmas Parade

   The Valley Springs Area Business Association’s 22^nd annual Christmas Parade is less than a month away and the call is out for entries.

  The parade will begin at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, rain or shine on Daphne Street, turn right at the Veterans Memorial Hall and then right at Sequoia where it will disband.

   The judge’s stand will be at the corner of Pine and Daphne streets. Trophies and ribbons will be awarded immediately after the parade at the judge’s stands.

   ABA Chairman Tillie Soyland said they’re always looking for youth groups, such as the Boy Scouts and 4-H, to participate in the parade. In addition, it would be nice to have more bands and animals in the parade and encouraged.

   All children under 12 will receive a participation ribbon.

   Dave and Mary Cahal, the ABA’s Citizens of the Year the past year, will be highlighted in the parade, she added.

   Santa and Mrs. Claus have agreed to make a special trip from their home in the North Pole to the parade and have politely requested that no other Santas show up. He’s had a problem with identity theft in the past.

   Liz Weaver of Sheng Chi is handling parade applications. She can be reached at 772-1760. The deadline to return applications is Nov. 23.

   Parade categories include float, auto group, vintage or classic auto, band, honor guard, show horse, mounted adult, junior and group, vintage farm equipment, bicycle, horse-drawn carriage, golf and go carts, costume for single and group, comic single and group, emergency vehicles.

   On the day of the parade, the registration table will be located at the corner of California and Chestnut streets and registration prior to 9:45 a.m. is requested.

   The Craft Faire at the Vets Hall will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Soyland said several booth spaces remain. To reserve a booth space, call Vicky Henkle at 772-0285.

Nov. 9

Valley Springs, Camanche last to regain electricity

  Valley Springs and Camanche were the last in line to receive power after Thursday’s electric outage, according to a PG&E spokesperson.

   The first report of the outage to 53,000 customers in a four-county area came in at 3:52 p.m. and Valley Springs and Camanche were the final 5,000 customers to regain power at about 6:15 p.m., said Emily Barnett of PG&E.

   In addition to much of Calaveras County, the outage affected customers in Amador, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties.

   Barnett said the outage began when a large transmission substation in the Linden area went down. The substation is the feeder for 11 distribution substations. PG&E “back feed” power to each of those transmission substations to restore service in the four-county area.

   Barnett said helicopters and survey crews were on the patrol Friday morning looking for the cause of Thursday’s outage. They believe something, such as a tree, touched a line to cause the loss of electricity.  

Nov. 4

Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Miguel Delgado Jr.

Operation Military Support sets Veterans Day fundraisers

   Operation Military Support has plans for two fundraising dinners on the Veterans Day weekend to accommodate people in upper and lower parts of Calaveras County. The purpose is to raise funds for mailing packages to the troops.

   The fundraiser on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, will begin at 5:30 p.m. at Sequoia Woods Golf Club in Arnold and feature Senior Chief Hospital Corpsman Miguel Delgado Jr. The cost is $75 per person. For information and reservations, call Suzette Glanville at 728-2000.

   Sunday, Nov. 13, the fundraiser will begin at 4 p.m. at the Calaveras Senior Center on Mountain Ranch Road in San Andreas. The cost is $75 per person. For information and reservations, call June Downum at 293-4223

   Senior Chief Delgado was instrumental in getting Operation Military Support up and running, through his care for the troops, while in Kuwait.