Merced, an International Rest Stop - Buses bring worldwide visitors and their wallets

Visitors depart their motor coach for a rest stop at a local supermarket. Photo: Steve Newvine

After seeing to it that his passengers are safely off the bus, Juan speaks with pride about his job as a motor coach driver for a travel company.

“We like stopping in Merced,” he says.

Frequently, huge tour buses stop for a rest break at a few Merced area supermarkets.

Those buses are loaded with visitors, many from other countries. All of them are passing through town as they make their way to Yosemite National Park.

On a recent Saturday morning, visitors from three bus tours made their last stop before Yosemite at the Raley’s supermarket in north Merced.

One group was visiting from France.

Another group was from Taiwan.

A tour bus can bring a lot of spending power to a local business. That’s why stores like Raley’s and Savemart cater to these tour groups heading to Yosemite. Photo- Steve Newvine

Juan’s bus was a little late making it to the parking lot at Raley’s. The California Highway Patrol was pulling all motor coaches off a section of Highway 99 near Merced for a safety check.

“We passed,” Juan said of the impromptu inspection by authorities. “But that’s because our company has strict rules about keeping our buses safe.”

It’s the hope of tourism professionals in Merced that local businesses capture as much of the economic windfall as possible from a tour bus. The Visit Merced website displays plenty of information about activities motor coach visitors might experience while in the County.

The Merced California Tourist Information Center on 16th Street has all kinds of brochures, and they assign staff to help answer questions about the area.

But these visitors know exactly where they are going.

Yosemite is world renown as a destination anyone should experience.

“We’ll take them up there, and they’ll have a great time,” Juan says.

Driver Juan stands in front of his bus. Juan drives for a company based in Los Angeles and he’s been to Yosemite dozens of times. Photo- Steve Newvine

Drivers like Juan say the stop in Merced is perfectly timed.

“The prices here are better than what they see in the park,” Juan said. “Up there, a typical meal, say hamburger and fries, might run them twenty dollars. Here, they get different things and can save a lot.”

The visitors seemed impressed with the vast selection of foods and beverages than line the shelves.

One group of about six Taiwanese visitors gathered in front of a beverage refrigerator case discussing, in their language, what might be the best one to buy.

The group seemed oblivious to the other shoppers who were trying to pass by. Eventually, I caught their eye and smiled.

They immediately formed a single line to allow shoppers to pass.

Another reason why the Raley’s stop is attractive to visitors is access to the ATM in front of the Wells Fargo Bank. Photo: Steve Newvine

According to the Ontario Motor Coach Association, an international organization for the industry, a bus filled with visitors can bring over fourteen-thousand dollars in economic benefit per day to a community.

That calculation takes into account spending on hotels, meals, admission fees, and souvenirs.

Even a small slice of that economic pie will suffice for restaurants, supermarkets, or a reasonably priced attraction such as Castle Air Museum in Atwater or the Fossil Discovery Center just over the southern Merced County line in Fairmead, Madera County.

The National Parks Service reports that Yosemite alone accounted for nearly seven-hundred million dollars in economic benefit to California just three years ago.

It won’t be long before Yosemite becomes a billion-dollar a year attraction.

That suits drivers like Juan just fine. He plans on retiring in a couple of years, but he says he may stick around part time after that.

“I love this work,” Juan says.

And with that, he finishes his cigarette.

He’s back to work, tending to his passengers on their way to Yosemite, just seventy miles away from the City of Merced.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced. He’s written about California in two books: 9 From 99-Experiences in California’s Central Valley and California Back Roads-Stories from the Land of the Palm and the Pine.

Both books are available at Lulu.com

For more information about Yosemite, the Merced Tourist Information Center and other attractions, go to: www.visitMerced.com

For more information on the economic impact of Yosemite, go to: www.nps.gov For information on the motor coach industry, go to www.omca.com

Merced County’s Elevator Speech

A local company doing its part to help grow the regional economy. Photo: Steve Newvine

Most of us are familiar with the term “elevator speech”.

It’s grown to mean how we explain a detailed concept in the amount of time it would take to ride an elevator up or down several floors.
Here’s the scenario.

Someone walks into an elevator and stands next to a friendly-looking stranger. As the doors close, this person strikes up a conversation. You don’t have much time to answer.

You want to make a good impression.

That’s the idea behind the elevator speech.

You have just a few moments to cut to the most important aspect of the question, and you have to leave an impression with the person you are talking to.

The five-year strategy document prepared by the County Economic and Community Development department contains the elevator speech about Merced County.

The document was prepared by the Community Economic Development Strategy committee or CEDS.

In Merced County, a CEDS Steering Committee has representatives from six cities and two from the County. The CEDS Committee is the Workforce Investment Board where I serve as Vice Chair and served as Board Chair a few years ago.

The Community Economic Development Strategy or CEDS document.

In order to get federal economic development funding, a CEDS document needs to be in place. The 2019-2024 CEDS is fifty pages long. It has an executive summary, sections on such topics as demographics and transportation, and a breakdown of seven primary locations for industrial growth. There’s a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) recap, and the section called “Action Plan”.

That Action Plan is the elevator speech for Merced County.

In just three pages, the reader can see the top three priorities for economic development in our community. Broken down in three sections, this action plan/elevator speech should serve as a quick front-and-center awareness statement for Merced County.

The Elevator Speech

• Grow our Economy- create local jobs by helping existing businesses and bringing in new companies.
• Enhance our Competitiveness- prepare the County for business investment by addressing real estate infrastructure, improving the permit process, and developing business parks.
• Develop our Talent- work with business and education to create a work-ready labor force

If you can articulate these three statements, in your own words, to someone who wants to know more about doing business in Merced County, you will have mastered the elevator speech.

So how do you tell this elevator story?

Here’s a quick primer. Grow our Economy. We can begin by saying we’re working hard to create local jobs.

Point to last summer’s effort to save hundreds of jobs at Foster Farms in Livingston. That effort didn’t just happen. A number of key organizations, like the City of Livingston, Merced County, and the State of California stepped up to do what they could do to keep Foster Farms from moving most of their chicken processing operation out of state.

Several months after the deal was made, the company announced further expansion plans in Merced County.

Intensified efforts to improve Career and Technical Education in Merced County Schools exemplifies the “Enhancing our Competitiveness” component of the Community Economic Development Strategy. Photo: Steve Newvine

Enhance our Competitiveness.

We can talk about how local governments are working to make it easier for businesses to start, expand, and grow. We need to remind people there is now a one-stop permitting center inside the Merced County Government Center on M Street in Merced.

Develop our Talent.

We can point to the Career and Technical Education (CTE) efforts going on right now in the Merced Union School District. Every student, not just those on the CTE track, now are required to take two courses that are designed to prepare for the workforce. This makes sense when you hear how employers are looking for workers who are prepared for work. It makes even more sense when we realize that just about every college student holds a part time job while pursuing their degree.

All of this rolls up into the Strategy document. When it is formally adopted by the Board of Supervisors, it will be on the County’s website.

The words matter.

The actions matter even more.

9 From 99 w/new afterword

Steve Newvine lives in Merced. For the past thirteen years, he has served on the Merced County Workforce Investment Board including two years as chairman.

For the past eleven years, he has written an annual assessment of Labor in Merced County; first with the Merced Sun Star and now with MercedCountyEvents.com

Gilroy Grieves

Life resumes in community scarred by shooting

This banner in the downtown area is one coping mechanism residents are using to deal with the July shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Photo: Steve Newvine

July 28 is a date that will forever be remembered in the community of Gilroy in Santa Clara County.

On that day, this city of just under sixty-thousand located on the other side of the western Merced County border, endured a tragedy many will never forget.

The story is familiar to most of us. A man enters the Gilroy Garlic Festival and pulls out a gun. Shots are fired.

Two children and one adult are killed while more than a dozen others are injured.

Police were able to fire and hit the shooter, who then shot and killed himself.

The story shocked the nation. But Gilroy’s brush with a deadly gunman was knocked off the front pages shortly after in the wake of shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.

One of many roadside stands that line highway 152 going into the City of Gilroy. Photo- Steve Newvine

Gilroy is known to most Californians as “that garlic place”.
Agriculture is the backbone of this community with rich soil and ideal growing conditions that produce a bounty of vegetables and fruits.

Roadside stands selling everything from avocados to zucchini, and yes even fresh garlic, are a common site. Today, those vegetable stands remain.

Visitors stop by to pick up whatever is in season.

Some go about their tasks.

Others can’t help but ask the local residents about the tragedy.

City Hall Caption: Gilroy City Hall. Photo- Steve Newvine

The community of Gilroy is coping with the loss of part of that small town feeling many residents have grown to appreciate in recent years.
The annual Garlic Festival was more than something people from outside the area came to see. It was something that defined the community.

“Not only did it raise money for local charities, many non-profits raised funds from the influx of visitors to the festival,” a local resident told me on a recent visit.

Tens of thousands of visitors came to the Festival every July.

Organizers had worked tirelessly over the years to tweak the logistics of moving thousands of people from designated parking areas to and from the Festival site.

Security has been a priority in recent years, and a strong law enforcement presence at the site was noted as a factor that likely kept the number of deaths to three.

The City of Gilroy’s community park where families are winding down their summer vacation days. Photo: Steve Newvine

So now, one day at a time, residents touched by the shooting and its aftermath are getting on with their lives.

Some are going to the park, others are taking in a shopping trip, and others are just staying home.

Life may never be quite the same, but it goes on. “It’s really important that we have the Garlic Festival again next year,” one local resident said.“It means so much to us.”

Another crop matures in a field in Gilroy. Photo- Steve Newvine

Throughout the City on the mid-August afternoon when I walked along the streets, there was a sense that residents are moving on with life.

No one talked about it, but there seemed to be a feeling that the community must get past the tragedy, eventually.

Maybe just not today. Not yet.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced. His book California Back Roads is available at Lulu.com

Volunteers Get the Best Gift

Summer Enrichment Programs End in Merced with Happy Kids and Delighted Helpers.

Children take part in the Summer Enrichment and Reading program organized by Harvest Park Educational Center in Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine

Ask any non-profit organization how valuable their volunteers are, and you’ll get an earful of praises.

Most of the kind words can be summed up in one sentence: We couldn’t do it without them!

That’s the case for the Summer Enrichment and Reading Program organized by Harvest Park Educational Center, a Merced-based non-profit organization that is sponsored by Valley Harvest Church.

When Esmeralda Ramirez decided to devote part of her summer helping young people, she knew it might be hard.

“I wondered what it might be like, and wondered whether I was up to it,” she says.

Esmeralda got everything she hoped for during her time working with young learners.

“It’s really encouraging to see these kids be excited about learning.”

One of the first projects students in the Summer Enrichment and Reading Program embarked upon was stuffing t-shirts for use as pillows during rest breaks. Photo: Steve Newvine

We heard about the organization’s program last year and shared the story of children getting immersed in exposure to such STEM areas as science, technology, engineering, and math.

Those lessons continued in this latest version of the program, but there were some changes.

“We added a reading program this year,” says Managing Director Gloria Morris.

“We acquired a nationally acclaimed program called “All About Reading” and introduced it to the students in the afternoon session.”

Volunteers helping out include a reading specialist, a parent, a high school student who was served by the program when she was younger, and four college students.

Magdalena Valdez is another college student who made the most of the five weeks she had with the children in the program.

“I created lesson plans and served as the lead intern in charge of pre-K through third grade,” she says. Like everyone touched by the program this summer, the time went by quickly.

“The summer just flew by,” Magdalena says. “I can’t believe it.”

Lily Ketchum and her daughter Jaime continue to give their time almost every year. “Jaime participated as a student in 2008,” Lily says. “And now she’s back as a volunteer.” Betty Jackson-Yilma helped pilot the “All About Reading” component to this year’s program.

“The improvement in the student’s reading comprehension has been gratifying,” she says.

“But to see their desire to read, to want to read more and more, is really satisfying to me as an educator.”

The Summer Enrichment and Reading Program ran for five weeks this summer with students spending their mornings in a classroom at UC Merced, and their afternoons at the Harvest Valley Learning Center on 25th Street in Merced. Photo- Steve Newvine

Colleges represented with interns this year were UC Merced, Merced College, UC Stanislaus, and San Jose State. Melissa Chavarria is pursuing a children development college curriculum.

She came to the program because service in a child development program was a course requirement.

She’s leaving her volunteer post with a great deal of satisfaction. “Working with the children opened my eyes a little,” she says. “Now I know I can handle it.”

If there is such a thing as a winner in an effort like the Summer Enrichment and Reading Program, one needs to look no further than the smiling faces of participating children.

Most of them greeted me with a smile when I entered the classroom. One of them made his way up to me and shook my hand.

He was seven years old. Managing Director Gloria Morris confirms reading skills have increased, character development is becoming more prominent, and children are having a good time.

“We are pleased with the results from this year’s program.”

While the volunteers are praised by the staff that puts on the program, they in turn give kudos by heaping lots of admiration to the team that makes it all possible. One of the volunteers said it best with just a few words.

“I couldn’t get over how caring the staff is toward us and toward each other.”

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

You can read about some of the places he has traveled in the golden state in his book California Back Roads, available at Lulu.com

An Apollo 11 Scrapbook

Some of the pages from the Apollo 11 scrapbook I made when I was twelve.

My Grandma Newvine would save clippings from local newspapers and put them into scrapbooks back in the 1960s and 1970s.

That’s where I got the idea, when I was twelve years old, to collect stories about the mission of Apollo 11 that took Americans to the moon.

Back then, scrapbooks were nothing like what you might see now at a local crafts store.

The scrapbooks from my grandmother’s era were made with thick construction paper and cardboard covers. No stickers or 3-D accruements from the hobby store.

My scrapbook from 1969 includes articles from the days leading up to the launch from the Kennedy Space Center and into the first days of the mission.

All the clippings were from our daily newspaper from northern New York State: the Watertown Daily Times.

The Times arrived every evening, hand delivered by our paperboy.

The newspaper price in 1969 was ten cents.

Sprinkled among the clippings in my space scrapbook are articles about the preparations for the historic launch. There are several stories about the first two days of the mission as the astronauts were heading to the landing spot named the Sea of Tranquility.

Aldrin family Caption: Photos clipped from newspapers featuring Astronaut Buzz Aldrin and family.

There are plenty of sidebar stories.

I clipped pictures with captions featuring Buzz Aldrin and his family. There’s a photo of his son with a caption suggesting that the young boy may be the most popular child in school.

Barbara Aldrin, the wife of Buzz, is shown in a photo unfurling the American flag. Buzz is highlighted from a demonstration the astronauts did inside the orbiter midway to the moon.

I wonder whether I just favored features about Buzz Aldrin, or whether Neil Armstrong, who was noted for his desire for privacy, asked NASA to downplay stories about his family to the media.

There’s a small glossary of acronyms NASA used throughout the mission. In the days long before computer graphics, the paper had artist renderings of how the lunar module would separate from the command module for the moon landing and subsequent rejoining of the mother vehicle.

President Nixon’s phone call to the astronauts is the subject of one of the clippings, and there’s a story that reports NASA may move the actual first steps on the moon from 2:21 AM Eastern Time on Monday, July 21, back to a more viewer friendly time on Sunday evening.

And that takes me back to Sunday July 20, 1969

Newspaper diagrams of the Apollo 11 landing.

My family had planned to spend the better part of that Sunday evening at the Port Leyden Firemens Field Days in my hometown. The mix of rides, games, and carnival food was a big part of the summertime tradition.

When we learned the actual walk on the lunar surface would take place on Sunday evening, the Newvine family left the field days earlier than in previous years.

We went home, gathered around our television set, and watched the coverage.

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Neil Armstrong’s words were about as clear as a voice on a long-distance phone call. The image of his stepping on the lunar surface was hard to make out in black and white. But there was no doubt both Armstrong and Aldrin made it.

Astronaut Mike Collins orbited the moon until it was time for Neil and Buzz to reconnect and head home.

I couldn’t wait for the next day’s newspaper to arrive so that I could begin clipping the stories of the moonshot.

There is was in glorious black and white: mankind’s great achievement. We were eyewitnesses.

Photos from the local newspaper that were clipped for my Apollo 11 scrapbook.

The scrapbook stayed with me for all the moves made after I graduated from college and went out on my own.

The covers were lost somewhere over the past five decades. The scotch tape that held the clippings had long lost its’ stickiness. The pages from the actual landing and subsequent return to Earth are missing.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ll never forget how the US race-to-the-moon ended.

The scrapbook was my “Google” of the moonshot several decades before we ever heard of search engines.

The Apollo scrapbook belongs to me, but the idea of keeping up a collection of articles about this historical event came from my Grandma Newvine.

Thank you Grandma.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

He wrote two books about his hometown of Port Leyden New York: Growing Up, Upstate and Grown Up, Going Home. Both are available at Lulu.com

Sidelined by a Sidewalk- How a Simple Fall is Taking Me Off Track This Summer

Where my fall took place in north Merced.

I won’t be playing golf for a while.

A fall on a north Merced sidewalk on a recent summer Sunday morning has taken my activity down a few notches.

There we were: one moment taking in the serenity of a walk together. The next moment changed everything.

Immediately upon hitting the ground, pain shot up from my foot to my hip. I felt numbness in the first minutes following the fall.

The thought that I might suffer some paralysis actually crossed my mind.

My wife was with me and as soon as she felt I could be left alone, she went back to our house to get a car. By the time she returned ten minutes later, I was standing and walking slowly.

During the wait, three motorists passed by me as I was writhing in pain.

No one stopped.

She took me home, and took care of me for the next couple of days. Slowly, walking became easier.

After a couple days rest, some over-the-counter pain relief medication, and treatments of heat and cold to my upper leg, my doctor confirmed our earlier diagnosis.

I suffered a severe sprain of the upper thigh.

But for the next few weeks, I am what you might call sidelined. No daily runs in the morning Merced sun.

Golf might resume when it stops hurting as I take my driver stance. I resumed work after a day-and-a-half sick time. I hate taking sick time.

This longer shot of the street shows at least two other spots where excessive water may pose a safety issue.

It’s easy to blame myself for not being fully aware of my surroundings.

I slipped on a light layer of sidewalk mud before several years ago. While the earlier fall was not nearly as severe as this latest one, I dropped my guard and did not anticipate a safety hazard.

Whoever is responsible for watering that particular section of grass should share some responsibility. There are no homes directly on the street, but rather a cul-de-sac divided by a wall.

According to the City of Merced, watering is permitted on Sundays. Their website reads: “Addresses ending in even numbers may water on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Addresses ending in odd numbers may water on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Watering is allowed before 9 a.m. and/or after 9 p.m. on those days.” The houses across the street had odd numbers.

That would make the side I was on the even side; meaning the sprinklers should not have been on.

But regardless of whether this was the correct day use irrigation, the water in this section was clearly on longer than it needed to be. If mud forms on the sidewalk, water may be forcing dirt from the grass to the pavement.

No one is suing anybody. I hope to continue making progress so that I can eventually resume my daily runs and weekly golf outings.

I sent an email to the City telling them about my concerns. I got a prompt response telling me they would look into it.

They followed up a few days later.

They also directed me to a new app called Merced Connect, available at Google or Apple Playstore, where citizens can report things like the water issue and follow the progress on these issues.

But I urge everyone to check into areas where irrigation systems push dirt onto sidewalks. Adjust the watering times if necessary. Be a good neighbor.

I’ve already forgiven whoever was responsible, especially me. I’ve also forgiven the three motorists who passed by me when I was on the ground and nearly in tears with pain from that fall.

And every morning, I get into my golf stance. Once I can swing without pain, I’m back on the golf course.

It’s safer there.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His murder mystery Ten Minutes to Air is available at Lulu.com

Speed Dating with Community Information- Cramming Two Weeks of Radio Programming into One Afternoon

KYOS Audio Engineer Casey Stead checks microphones for two guests on Community Conversations. Photo- Steve Newvine

I welcomed the opportunity to fill in again for host Roger Wood for the KYOS public affairs program Community Conversations.

It was my hope that interviewing local people for a couple of hours might help me develop an idea or two for future Our Community story columns.

The segments were recorded at such a fast pace, that it felt like speed dating.

Eight segments, each running about nine minutes, are recorded at the KYOS studios during an afternoon session.

The segments are stacked to make two full-hour programs. With commercials and station announcements added to the stack, we walk out of the studio knowing that two hour-long shows are “in the can”. In broadcasting, that phrase means the shows are done.

The purpose of Community Conversations is to hear from local non-profits, government, and others about fund raising events, issues of concern, and services available to people.

The audience gets informed through listening to the weekly broadcast (7:00-8:00 AM Saturday).

As the fill-in host, I got my information first hand and crammed into a two-hour window as we recorded the interviews.

Community Conversations is public service program of KYOS, AM 1480, in Merced.

The person heading up the Atwater Fourth of July celebrations stopped by to tell us what’s new and different about this year’s event.

Atwater has been doing this since 1962, so there’s not much new. But the reminder was still worth the effort.

By the way, Fourth of July fireworks begin at Castle at dusk.

Admission is ten-dollars a carload.

(Details at Atwater4thofJuly.com)

Merced’s Police Chief once again sat behind the guest microphone.

He offered an update on how the City’s illegal fireworks enforcement will roll out this year.

Two representatives from the Merced County Historical Society described the upcoming exhibit Shaping Justice: A century of Great Crimes in Merced County.

The exhibits are always interesting, and this one sounds like it will be in that same category.

Three of the guests touched on the importance of STEM or science, technology, engineering, and math curricula.

Each interviewee came from different organizations and each highlighted summer enrichment events. But as the interviews unfolded, I couldn’t help but see the connection as they described how these programs continue in the direction of more science, technology, engineering, and math for our students.

One guest, from the Merced County Office of Education, added an “A” to form the acronym STEAM.

The “A” is for arts. The other guests were from Merced City School District and Merced Union High School District.

A photo from my first guest host radio stint in early 2019.

Two UC Merced professors chatted about the Extension Program teacher training offerings available to local educators.

The pair, now in their third decade as a married couple, brought some variety to the usual format of host talking to guest.

It was a refreshing mix of guest talking to guest and then talking to host. Speaking of variety, we broke with the regular format again with a monologue by yours truly. I spoke to the audience about my writing of this column and the ten books I’ve written over the past decade.

I read from California Back Roads and Stand By, Camera One.

The City of Merced’s Assistant to the City Manager discussed upgrades to Applegate Park, and a local band leader rounded out the interviews to tell listeners about a big band concert soon coming to the Merced Theatre stage.

It was a jam packed afternoon as KYOS audio engineer Casey Stead recorded my interviews with these local folks.

The content for Community Conversations is assembled with the help of the public information departments of the City of Merced, County of Merced, County Office of Education, and host/producer Roger Wood.

I just happened to be the lucky fellow who spoke behind the microphone on a warm summer afternoon.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His new book Stand By, Camera One is available on Lulu.com and Amazon

Ben, the Birdhouse Man of Merced

On most Saturday mornings in the Savemart parking lot in Merced, you might find a man selling birdhouses and dog houses from the back of his pick-up truck.

Ben Franco shows his handmade birdhouses to me. Photo: Vaune Newvine

Meet Ben Franco, a retired truck driver who has turned his spare time into productive work.

He builds birdhouses that are now in dozens of backyards throughout Merced.

When Ben retired, he traded in his trucker’s log book for a workbench.

He spends many hours every week designing, building and selling bird and dog houses. “It gets me out of the house,” Ben says about his pastime.

Ben has a lot of stories to tell about his birdhouses. He says the folks at Savemart know he’s out in their parking lot and he says they don’t seem to mind.

“This keeps me busy,” he says.

Keith Visher of Merced buys a birdhouse for his mother from Ben’s selection on the back of a pick-up truck. Photo: Steve Newvine

As well as keeping himself occupied, Ben experiences the joy of knowing a customer is buying a well build birdhouse.

One of those customers is Keith Visher of Merced. I came across Keith and Ben on the Saturday before Mother’s Day. Keith was looking over the selection before picking out the perfect birdhouse for his mom.

“Mom had two birdhouses,” Keith told me. “Summer weather destroyed the one in the backyard, and the one in the front had seen better days.” Keith paid Ben twenty dollars, and was on his way.

Ben Franco is a walking time capsule with stories about his military service. Photo: Steve Newvine

Before working as a truck driver, Ben was in the military and stationed in Germany in 1957 and ‘58. When I asked him about his time in Germany, he took a few moments to tell me a couple of stories.

“One day when we were off duty, a friend suggested we fly to Spain. We did and when we landed, we were questioned by the French police because we were in uniform. The police officer asked me my name and I told him ‘Franco’. He got real serious with us because of General Francisco Franco.”

General Franco was the Spanish dictator at the time. After a few tense moments with the French policeman, Ben and his friend were on their way.

Another interesting story from his service days that came to Ben’s mind was when he and his buddies recognized actor Jack Palance. Ben says the actor was not pleasant to the soldiers. Palance at first refused to pose with the uniformed soldiers for a photograph.

“He was there with his wife,” Ben said. “She pulled him aside and after she talked to him, he came back to us and said he’d stand next to us for picture.” Ben laughs, “We told him never mind, we don’t want a picture anymore.”

Ben’s selection of dog houses and birdhouses change as some are purchased and new ones are finished. Photo- Steve Newvine

Ben says it takes him a little over an hour to assemble each birdhouse.

Dog houses are larger and require a little more time. He uses pieces of lumber and other building material he has acquired over the years.
For Ben, building and selling birdhouses gives his retirement greater meaning. He enjoys seeing a satisfied customer.

He’s a happy man, even if he is doing it in part to get away from his spouse’s honey-do list.

“My wife will find me something to do around the house if I’m not busy,” he says.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His latest book, Stand-by, Camera One is available on Lulu.com .

79/19-40 Years of Life on the Job

In front of the Brewster/Boland dormitory at Syracuse University in May 1979. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

Milestones have always been easy for me to write about.

The basic format is to find a point in time that goes back in multiples of five years, recall what how I felt about it then, and end with what I feel about it now.

Okay, maybe there is a little more to it than that when recalling milestones.

Forty years ago this month, I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University, began a career in television news, and started four decades as a working professional.

My parents and me at the 1979 college graduation held at the Manley Field House at Syracuse University. Construction was already underway on a domed stadium that continues to host both football and basketball games at SU. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

There was a lot of stuff going on in the weeks leading up to graduation. In April, I ended a ten-week internship with a television station. Copies of a video audition tape of stories I reported during that time were being sent to stations all over the eastern United States in hopes of landing a job.

During the week of finals, I had an interview with station WICZ in Binghamton. The news director seemed impressed with the audition tape, but the station was still another two weeks away from making a decision.

My first paying job in television news was at WICZ-TV in Binghamton, NY. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

One week after graduation, the job was offered and accepted. For the next year and a half, I reported news, anchored newscasts, hosted a daily public affairs segment, and even tried my hand as a substitute for the station’s hunting and fishing feature.

Along the way, I got the opportunity to work on the local segments of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy telethon and helped call the play-by-play for a local tennis tournament.

Work buddies from WAAY-TV in the early 1980s. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

I also got married during that time and accepted posts at four other television stations over the next fifteen years.

Two daughters also arrived during that time. At that point, the press card was retired. I made the transition to the next career of running chambers of commerce in three cities.

Chambers help local companies succeed by providing networking opportunities, presenting training programs, and advocating on behalf of the business community before local and state government.

A 1998 photo with business owners on one of many local advocacy trips to the state capitol in Albany, NY. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

After thirteen years of meeting government officials, creating programs to foster leadership, and handing out dozens of plaques honoring business owners, another opportunity crossed the path.

The current job combines the experience from the two previous careers to help local governments lead their communities toward greater energy efficiency.

It’s been a pleasure to honor local business owners who lead the way in their communities.

Handing out awards honoring local business people who are making a difference in their communities is all part of my current role. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

Along the way, most of the spare time has been put to use to keep writing as a big part of my life. There have been about two-hundred columns posted to this website and about a dozen essays published in local newspapers in California and New York.

Thanks to a fellow attendee at a workshop in Fresno thirteen years ago, the discovery of on-demand publishing helped produce a few books along the way.

I am humbled by the acceptance of my writing efforts. It has been an amazing four decades as a working professional.

There have been many highs, a few challenges, and an incredible number of great people that have crossed my path.

It’s amazing to think that the journey started just a short forty years ago.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His latest book, Stand By, Camera One is available at Lulu.com and through Amazon.

Spring Clean-Up Days, another springtime ritual in Merced

Mini-vans, pick-up trucks, SUVs, and cars line up to drop off their owners’ stuff at Spring Clean-Up Days in Merced. Photo- Steve Newvine

You know springtime has arrived when you’re making a second or third trip to the home improvement center to pick up additional bags of mulch for the lawn.

It’s spring when you realize that there is now nothing keeping you from yard work and sprucing up the curb appeal of your home.

The City of Merced, like many communities, kicks-off the season with Spring Clean-Up days.

This year, two sites received the junk that’s been lying around in garages, along the back fence, or even inside the homes of City residents.

For employees in the City’s Public Works Department, it’s an all-hands-on-deck activity.

You might even call it the Super Bowl of trash removal.

“I’ve never heard our Spring Clean-Up called the Super Bowl before,” says Mike Conway, Assistant to the City Manager. “But that's pretty cool.”

City of Merced workers coordinate the flow of traffic coming into the Clean-Up day drop off site. This is the site at Merced College. The second site is at the Merced County Fairgrounds. Photo: Steve Newvine

Pulling off this annual rite of spring takes careful planning and admirable coordination.

According to Refuse Lead Equipment Operator Danny McComb, Clean-Up Days are a top priority.

“Planning begins several months prior to the clean-up dates,” he says. “Refuse Division has sufficient staffing to operate the equipment. Additional staff from Parks, Water, Sewer, and Streets sign up to work the event to complete a total of sixty.”

Behind the scenes, staff coordinates with metal recyclers, the Mattress Recycling Council, tire recyclers, and others to make sure the proper trucks and bins show up at the right sites on the right days.

There are plenty of details.

There’s coordination with the landfill, organizing lunch for the workers, and making sure there’s plenty of water throughout the four days and at both sites (Merced College and Merced County Fairgrounds).

Just about anything not designated for a specific collection area ends up in a garbage truck. Here, workers are “feeding” a discarded couch to one of the city’s trucks. Photo- Steve Newvine

It’s estimated about six-thousand vehicle loads come into a Clean- Up Day site every spring.

That’s a lot of stuff.

Especially when you consider the population of Merced is eighty-thousand.

Approximately seven-hundred, eighty tons of trash is transferred from homes to the dumpsters and trucks at the Clean-Up Day sites.

SPRING CLEAN-UP ESTIMATES

• 6,000 Vehicle loads
• 780 Tons of trash
• 145 Tons of metal
• 60 Yards of Brush
• 1,885 Mattresses
• 5 Trailers of Tires
• 4 Trailers of e-waste

The most common things seen by the workers at Clean-Up Days include televisions, mattresses, barbecue grills, fence wood, and furniture.

The most unusual thing ever brought in to Clean-Up Day was a ski boat.

But that depends on what your definition of unusual might be.
Workers have seen empty metal urns turned in for recycling.

Even a mannequin was brought in one time.

A steady stream of vehicles loaded with household junk moves along the access road parallel to M Street at Merced College for Spring Clean-Up Days. Photo: Steve Newvine

“Steve,” my wife Vaune reminds me a few days after the first day of spring. “We’ve got to start thinking about Clean-Up Days.”

The Clean-Up Day adventure begins in our household with the annual consolidation of junk in our garage.

My wife and I make up piles. One is for items still usable that might be suitable to donate to charity. One is for items that get a reprieve for at least another year.

A third pile is for items that will be loaded into our SUV for Clean-Up Day.

So call it a ritual of springtime, or maybe a rite of home ownership.
Whatever you wish to call it, Clean-Up Day is a time of renewal, of a fresh slate, and perhaps most importantly an organized garage.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His new book, Stand By, Camera One is now available in a special hardcover edition as well as the softcover version.

Both can be found at Lulu.com

Two-room Schoolhouse is Part of a Bigger Picture for Students

How the Venice school in Tulare County Helps Home School Families

The former Venice School building is part of the Eleanor Roosevelt Community Learning Center. Photo- Steve Newvine

It’s an ordinary old time school house. It looks like something you might have seen on the television series Little House on the Prairie or When Calls the Heart.

Except, this school house is real. Not only that, this school house is still being used to educate students.

In Tulare County, a two-room school house continues to serve students. The tale of this school house tells a much bigger story about education in the Central Valley.

The Venice school along with other buildings that make up the Eleanor Roosevelt Community Learning Center. Photo- Steve Newvine

Sometimes while driving around the back roads of California, one can come across a building that looks as if it was an old school house from many years ago.

Some of these buildings have been modified for other uses. Others have been abandoned.

The Venice School’s history goes back to 1898 when it opened as a rural school.

Farm families needed a school for their children. The Venice School, both rooms, filled that need.

The family that owned the building and land deeded it to the local district with the express condition that it remains a school.

According to a stone monument on the property placed by the historical organization E Clampus Vitus, the building reverted to the owners when the school closed in 1957.

It reopened as a private school in 1996, and eventually was repurposed as a library for the Eleanor Roosevelt Learning Center (ERLC).

The former Venice School is now a library that supports the enrichment activities for the Eleanor Roosevelt Learning Center. Photo- Steve Newvine

The Learning Center is a complex of buildings on a country road east of the City of Visalia.

“We’re very proud of the two-room school house,” Learning Center Superintendent & Principal Daniel Huecker says. “And we’re extremely proud of the students, parents, and enrichment specialists of the Eleanor Roosevelt Learning Center.”

In the early part of this century, a handful of homeschooled families wanted a centralized resource to provide enrichment opportunities for their children.

In 2001, they formed the first charter school in Tulare County.

A few years later, a private school housed in the Willow building closed. The Learning Center took over the site east of the City of Visalia and has been using it and improving it ever since.

One of the buildings on that site was known as the old Venice School. The two-room schoolhouse was acquired by the Learning Center many years ago with a stipulation that it be used for educational purposes.

This new staff building at the Eleanor Roosevelt Learning Center opened in 2019. Photo- Steve Newvine

Over the years, portable classrooms have been added to the site.

Earlier this year, a permanent staff building was added along with a parent/classroom building as well as an outdoor assembly pavilion.

Superintendent Huecker emphasizes how important it is for homeschooled students to have a base to connect among one another.

“It’s important for the kids to get together,” he says. “It’s also important for parents to know they have resources available to assist in homeschooling their children.”

The Eleanor Roosevelt Community Learning Center serves two-hundred, seventy-five students from kindergarten through the twelfth grade.

All are homeschooled, and all are part of this unique educational resource.

Enrichment facilities including an outdoor assembly area, playground, and basketball court have been added to the Eleanor Roosevelt Learning Center. Photo- Steve Newvine

Credentialed educators meet with parents regularly to assist in helping students succeed.

Center staff and parents work together on the creation of personal education plans.

The team at the Center also helps with the selection from over sixty enrichment programs available to students. Enrichment programs available to students include: robotics, woodshop, and drama.

The logo for Learning Center uses the school house image. Photo: ERCLC.

The two-room school house is so important a symbol of aspirational leadership in education, the Learning Center uses it as a logo.

The Center staff is a resource for homeschool families four days a week; two days for elementary support and two days for secondary support.

Daniel says the Center’s role as a meeting place for parents is a key component in their children’s success.

“They have an opportunity to visit with other parents, compare ideas, and get support from a wide variety of educators,” he adds.

The bell on top of the Willow School. Photo: Steve Newvine

The two-room school house is so important a symbol of aspirational leadership in education, the Learning Center uses it as a logo.

Many decades ago, the Venice School opened to provide education for students living in rural areas.

The delivery of education has changed over the years, but with the repurposing of the Venice School as a library for the Eleanor Roosevelt Community Learning Center, there is a sense of turning back to the successful basics.

So that ordinary looking two-room school house may always remind you of a classic television show.

But in Tulare County, it represents a bold effort to support the efforts of families that choose to home school their children.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

You can read about some of the places he has traveled in the golden state in his book California Back Roads, available at Lulu.com

For more about the Eleanor Roosevelt Community Learning Center, go to ERCLC.org

Celebrating Central Valley Music Pioneers

Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame Honors Performers

The Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame. Photo-Steve Newvine

For Kim McAbee-Carter, the founding of a Hall-of-Fame to honor musicians from Bakersfield made a lot of sense.

As a singer, she performed regularly at the Crystal Palace in Bakersfield singing alongside country music legend Buck Owens.

She sang with him right up to the last night he performed in his adopted hometown.

Buck died in 2006, and while the music went on over the years for Kim, a deep-seated idea to honor Bakersfield music performers continued to grow.

That idea has led to the creation, along with her husband, of the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame honors the people who made Bakersfield proud.

It also contains items you might see in a music museum. And it is a venue for the performing arts.

“The Hall of Fame was started to promote the rich heritage of the not just country music, but all music,” Kim says. “We pay tribute to the local people who played a role in creating that music.”

Inside the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame. Photo-Steve Newvine

While this Hall of Fame is a home for all genres of music, there’s no doubt the initial focus is on country.

To be specific: The Bakersfield Sound.

The Bakersfield Sound was a title given to the music pioneered by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, his lead guitarist Don Rich, and the legendary Merle Haggard.

The Bakersfield Sound is described in my book 9 from 99, Experiences from California’s Central Valley as “Country, with an emphasis on electric guitars that sound as though the treble has been turned way up.” There are other definitions, but I’ll stand by mine.

Photographs like this one of music pioneers are on display at the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame

The Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame is more than a tribute to the Bakersfield Sound.

In the inaugural class of seventeen Central Valley music artists, country accounted for the first five honored in 2017.

The honorees range from country, nu metal, opera, and beyond. To give each honoree an appropriate induction, the inaugural class was divided into three smaller classes.

The first five are: Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Bonnie Owens, steel guitarist Billy Mize, and singer songwriter of truck driving songs Red Simpson.

“The inaugural Class was broken into three sections so that we could spend time honoring each individual,” Kim says.

Life-sized drawings of some of the honorees at the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame. Photo- Steve Newvine

The honorees have been featured in original artwork. The original art hangs in the conference room of the Hall of Fame, but an enlarged life-sized version lines the walls in the public areas.

While this is first a Hall of Fame, there are interesting things to see throughout the facility.

This piano was made to order for the late Buck Owens. It is available to artists performing at the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame. Photo- Steve Newvine

There’s a piano that Buck Owens had made just for him. He used this piano on many of his recordings, and played it practically every day when he was performing in his later years.

“It’s a Knabe piano,” Kim says.

“In this style, two were custom made. Elvis Presley had his painted white and Buck had his painted black. We let the performers come and play on that piano. We roll it out on the stage.”

Kim also bought a jukebox that greets Hall of Fame visitors. The jukebox contains the hit records of the inducted artists.

In her office, she proudly displays a red, white, and blue guitar given to her by her former boss.

As a member of Buck’s band, the Buckaroos, she sang regularly with him on the road and at the Crystal Palace night club just off the Buck Owens Drive exit of California highway 99.

The stage for performances at the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame. Photo- Steve Newvine

The Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame is also a performance venue.

Professional acts are booked to the Hall of Fame stage, local performances hold their shows there, and the facility is offered to other organizations for events and parties.

The place has been the scene for receptions and the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.

“We’re very proud of what we are trying to accomplish here,” Kim says.

The history of American music can be told through many chapters. Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame tells the rock story.

Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame has grown from a modest beginning in the 1960s to a world repository for country music.

There are at least two states that have Jazz Hall of Fames. Near my hometown in upstate New York, there’s the North American Fiddlers Hall of Fame in Osceola.

Kim McAbee-Carter on stage with the Buckaroos at the Crystal Palace in Bakersfield from 2009. Photo: 9 From 99-Experiences from California’s Central Valley by Steve Newvine

This Hall of Fame is taking a different approach and calling out the significant contributions from some local musical contributors who either lived in or near Bakersfield, or who made the city their home later in life.

Kim McAbee Carter thinks it’s only right that Bakersfield have a place to honor these artists.

She believes her former boss, the late Buck Owens, would be proud of what she and the Fall of Fame leadership have done for Bakersfield.

“His thoughts would either be he thought about it first and then was glad someone else did it,” she says.

“I’d like to think he would be happy it was me.”

Steve Newvine lives in Merced

He first wrote about Bakersfield in his book 9 From 99, Experiences from California’s Central Valley, first published nine years ago.

To learn more about the Bakersfield Music Hall of Fame, go to

BakersfieldMusicHallOfFame.com

Celebrating Yosemite

Two exhibitions in Merced are focusing on our National Park and the Merced River

The photography exhibit One River, Two Perspectives is running at the Merced College Gallery through March 21. Photo: Steve Newvine

It’s not every day one gets an opportunity to see a free photography exhibit in the community. But this month is extraordinary. There are two exhibits running in March.

Both are free.

Both celebrate Yosemite and the Merced River. One River- two Perspectives features the work of local photographers Jay Sousa and Roger Wyan.

The pair has worked together in their separate photography businesses for many years. So coming together to jointly present this representation of the Merced River came naturally.

“My contribution to the exhibit features some of my favorite photographs from the Merced River and Yosemite,”

Jay Sousa told me on the KYOS Community Conversations program when I filled in for host Roger Wood.

“The region is beautiful for a photographer.”

The Opening Reception of One River, Two Perspectives brought dozens of local community residents to the Merced College campus on March 1. Photo: Steve Newvine

While Roger Wyan agrees that the River and the Park are a natural fit for a nature photographer, his contribution to the Merced College exhibit was inspired by the great impressionist artists of France.

“I visited Paris recently, and was awestruck by the work of these wonderful impressionist artists,” he said.

“That inspired me to show a different perspective of the Merced River.”

Both photographers were pleased to share the exhibit space that generally features the work of just one artist.

Sharing was a challenge of sorts to appropriately showcase both photographers. Roger sums it up with just a few words.

“I think our work plays off one another well.”

Poster showing some of the original art work included in the newest exhibit at the Courthouse Museum.

Just as local photographers Jay and Ryan are showcasing their original work, there’s an exhibit of mostly original photographs, art work, and artifacts at the Courthouse Museum in Merced.

The Originals of Yosemite features original photographs and memorabilia all tied to the National Park.

The local photographers who offered originals for this exhibition include UC Merced Chancellor Dorothy Leland and Museum volunteer Donna Lee Hartman.

“We pulled a lot of stuff from our archives,” Donna Lee says.

“And several of our Historical Society Members loaned the cherished items for the exhibit.”

Steve Newvine views a large framed photograph from Yosemite at the Courthouse Museum Exhibit The Originals of Yosemite. Photo: Donna Lee Hartman.

Beyond the photographs, there’s art work from local artists including a covered bridge painting by Vivian Knepel from 1980. Vivian turned 100 in January.

There’s a place setting from the dining room at the Ahwahnee Hotel (now known as The Majestic Yosemite Hotel), a scout outfit on the Museum’s mascot bear cub, and even some of Ansel Adams earlier works from before he became famous.

Most of the items are originals.

All of it well cared for by the Museum volunteers and staff.

entrepreneur Frank Gallison started air service from Merced to Yosemite back in the 1920s. These pieces of memorabilia are on display at the Courthouse Museum

Without realizing it, both the Merced College Art Gallery and the Merced County Courthouse Museum have turned this month into a salute to our two natural wonders: the Merced River and Yosemite National Park.

A visitor can see them both in one day. Both are free.

This covered bridge painting that is part of the Originals of Yosemite exhibition is from Vivian Knepel. She was well-known for paintings of a variety of scenes from Yosemite.

While the One River – Two Perspectives photographer exhibit at Merced College ends on March 21, the Originals of Yosemite will go on until early June.

It’s not every day one can experience so much local history, art work, and memorabilia.

Take advantage of it all. After seeing the photographs, art, and artifacts from these exhibitions, consider making plans to take in Yosemite National Park this year.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His new book is Stand By Camera One, a look back on his first year working as a television reporter four decades ago. It is available at Lulu.com

Research Week at UC Merced

Some amazing research going on at UC Merced is being celebrated with the whole community.

This symposium was one of many events tied to Research Week at UC Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine

If I remember my fifth grade instruction at Port Leyden Elementary School correctly, the scientific method begins with an observation, and ends with drawing a conclusion.

That’s sort of what UC Merced has in mind for this year’s Research Week. Simply put, if the University can showcase the kind of research going on to the broader community, it can hope to foster stronger links with everyone.

The first week of March is traditionally Research Week on campus. The activity is an effort to bring the public in to the campus and to take a part of the campus to the community.

Interested UC Merced students took part in many of the programs lined up for Research Week on campus. Photo: Steve Newvine

“We’re really excited about this,” David Gravano, Ph.D. told me on the Community Conversation’s radio program in early March. “Science is not confined to just our campus, or to just one group of people.”

Some of the activities during Research Week are eye-catching. There is a study into reusing organic wastes to improve ecosystems going on right now at the UC.

At the beginning of Research Week, interested community members had the opportunity to listen to an assessment of the future of safe drinking water in the Central Valley.

A campus Assistant Professor helped explain to the audience of students that safe drinking water is being threatened all over the world, including here in California.

Middle school students from all over Merced County are getting a chance to showcase their work and take tours of the University’s laboratories.

This is not the first time UC Merced has done a Research Week event, but this year was special because it included more venues throughout the greater community. The Sierra Nevada Research Institute presented findings on a number of projects at a luncheon on campus.

This presentation on drinking water helped connect curiosity with science during Research Week at UC Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine

The schedule for the week included a core facilities lab tour on campus followed a community forum on nicotine and cannabis policy at the Downtown Campus Center, a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fair, and an event called the Community Engaged Research Reception at City Hall.

Research Week wrapped with an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Center Scholar Panel where students can get feedback on their work.

“This is all about giving the public the opportunity to see the many innovative projects underway,” UC Merced’s Stephanie Butticci explained to me during the KYOS Community Conversations program.

“We’re welcoming the public to the campus, but being sure some of the activities take place in the community.”

UC Merced’s Stephanie Butticci and David Gravano joined me for a segment of Community Conversations on KYOS radio.

The complete scientific method follows the observation step with research. After research, a hypothesis is drawn and tested. This leads to the conclusion.

Anyone with a passing interest in the research going on at UC Merced are likely impressed with the depth of study, the engagement of students in the process, and the outreach to the larger community.

The hypothesis has been tested, and the conclusion is clear: Research Week at UC Merced helps bring the best the university has to offer to the community.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His book Stand By Camera One is available now on Lulu.com

Returning to Radio

My active afternoon interviewing community leaders for a local public affairs show.

Martha Hermosillo, Executive Director of First 5 Merced County with guest host Steve Newvine at radio station KYOS.

I got a head start on my bucket list recently when radio host Roger Wood asked me to fill in for him for his weekly public affairs show on KYOS in Merced.

The first job in broadcasting for me was in radio. I transitioned to television news where I worked as a reporter, anchor, producer, executive producer, and news director for five stations over fifteen years.

So my guest hosting stint on Community Conversations was a return to my radio roots.

KYOS, Merced’s oldest radio station, is the home of the weekly Community Conversations broadcast.

And it was a real hoot. Roger sets up the interviews alongside his co-producers Mike Conway (Public Information Officer, City of Merced), Nathan Quavado (Merced County Office of Education), and Mark North (County of Merced).

Casey Stead from KYOS makes sure all the technical details are taken care of in his role as the engineer for the program.

Every two weeks, interview guests are brought in for individual eight-minute segments.

After four hours, two weeks of programs are recorded. The broadcasts air on Saturday mornings on AM 1480, and on the web at www.1480kyos.com

KYOS Program Engineer with guest Casey Stead with Martha Hermosillo, First 5 Merced County

The first two interviews were with non-profit agencies with topics as diverse as cannabis and suicide prevention.

Next up was the new artistic director for Playhouse Merced who brought along two actors for the upcoming play Driving Miss Daisy.
Those interviews were followed by a conversation with two local photographers who are doing a joint exhibit at Merced College.

UC Merced’s Stephanie Butticci and David Gravano were guests with Steve Newvine on KYOS Community Conversations.

As the afternoon progressed, I spoke with a community leader pushing a workplace literacy initiative, two UC Merced staffers promoting Research Week activities on campus, and a volunteer from the Courthouse Museum who talked about a new exhibit called The Originals of Yosemite.

Merced Police Chief Chris Goodwin came into the station for an interview on what’s new in the department. What’s new is an ap that allows citizens to file crime reports from their computer.

With extra time to spare, I asked the Chief what has been the biggest change in law enforcement in his twenty-three years serving Merced; first as an officer and now as Chief. “Cameras,” was his answer. “They’re everywhere now. You see them at many of our intersections, on the bodies of our officers, and with members of the public as well.”

Fire Captain Josh Wilson from the Merced Fire Department was interviewed about a recent study of hazardous wastes that pass through our community from trains and trucks. “The study showed us the unique characteristic of the City’s main transportation thoroughfares,” Captain Wilson told me. “With two railroads and highway 99 all running parallel, this study helps us prepare for a potential incident that might include hazardous wastes.”

All of the interviews brought some new information to the table. As a columnist who has been writing about the community for several years, I learned a lot of new things. I also met some interesting people along the way.

Like Dave Gossman, a teacher at Atwater High School who spoke about the Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter at the School.

Dave was one of three teachers in Ag when he started with the district sixteen years ago. Today, he’s one of nine teachers in that field. Even more impressive is the growth in numbers of students in the FFA at Atwater High.

Sixteen years ago, there were about 250 students in the program. Today, there are more than eleven-hundred students in the Atwater FFA. That, according to Dave Gossman, makes the Atwater FFA the largest single high school Ag program in the nation.

It was all pretty impressive. So much going on in our community and I had the privilege of hearing it first hand by making a brief, but memorable, return to radio.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His new book Stand-By, Camera One is about his first year working in broadcasting.

Steve’s Community Conversation segments air February 23 and March 2 on KYOS, 1480 and online at http://www.1480kyos.com/

The program airs at 7:05 AM every Saturday morning.

Merced Through the Eyes of a Visitor

The online photo album of a French bicyclist who spent some time in Merced last summer

Francois Hennebert spent a day in Merced to get his bicycle fixed one-day last summer. Photo: http://velo.hennebert.fr/

When Francois Hennebert brought his broken bicycle to a Merced bike shop for repair one-day last summer, no one knew what kind of impression he would have of the area.

Francois crossed into Merced County as part of a twenty-five hundred-mile bike trip from Mexico to Canada.

He’s from France and spends several months each year traveling around the world. He took a plane to Mexico and saw three countries on his incredible bicycle trip.

My photo of Francois from that day in 2018 when he had his bike fixed at Kevin’s Bikes. Photo- Steve Newvine

You may remember my column on Francois from last summer.

Francois’ hearty bicycle had a breakdown shortly after his visit to Yosemite National Park.

He made his way to Kevin’s Bikes on Olive Avenue and G Street in Merced.

That’s where I caught up with him.

This photo of the tow truck that brought Francois to Merced was taken by Francois Hennebert and is featured on his website: [http://velo.hennebert.fr/][0] . The bike is between the car on the flatbed and the truck cab.

During our visit, where neither of us spoke the other’s native language, Francois told me about his worldwide adventures on his bicycle.

He had been on bike trips to China, South America, and New Zealand to name a few places. He gave me his web address and encouraged me to look up his journeys.

This family extended hospitality to Francois during his time in Yosemite. The caption from his website reads “on peut randonner à tout âge.” Translated, the phrase means “you can hike at any age.” Photo: [http://velo.hennebert.fr/][0]

Our community must have made an impression on Francois.

He posted several photographs from his visit here. I recently checked his website and found pictures from his time in the Central Valley.

Francois’ bike trip happened to fall in the midst of the primary season.

He found signs from the primary election campaigns going on in neighboring Stanislaus County.

Francois used this caption for his photograph of a fence covered with campaign signs: des élections locales auront lieu le 5 juin en Californie . In English, this reads: local elections will be held June 5 in California.

He seemed impressed by the Castle Air Museum in Atwater. He posted two photos of vintage aircraft from his vantage point of Santa Fe Drive.

The photos have the French caption: l'avion furtif, je pense, et une forteresse volante de la deuxième guerre.

This phrase translates to “the stealthy plane, I think, and a flying fortress from the second war.”

Francois referenced two planes on display at Castle Air Museum in his photo postings on his website. Photo: [http://velo.hennebert.fr/][0]

Francois referenced two planes on display at Castle Air Museum in his photo postings on his website. Photo: [http://velo.hennebert.fr/][0]

Prior to his unplanned visit to Merced, Francois had just completed the leg of his journey that took him to the Sonora Pass in Yosemite.

My bicycling friends tell me the Sonora Pass is one of the most difficult biking trips a cyclist can take.

I’m a runner, so I take their word for that assertion.

Just an ordinary bicyclist taking in the vistas throughout California. Francois Hennebert at the Sonora Pass in Yosemite. Photo: [http://velo.hennebert.fr/][0]

Francois’ journey from Mexico to Canada was a success. He took in the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Silver Falls Park in Oregon, and the Space Needle in Seattle.

He also enjoyed a large section of California.

His unscheduled stop in Merced County showed him a few things he may not have expected like warplanes and political yard signs.

Based on his gratitude expressed on-line for the team at Kevin’s Bikes who got his bike back in sound working condition, and the people who helped transport his bike to Merced, he was impressed by the folks he met here.

His photo caption from the Yosemite portion of his trip perhaps best describes why he would leave his native France for a bicycling adventure that started in Mexico and ended in Canada. It also suggests his overall impression of the area.

His post reads: celui va rester dans ma mémoire .

Translation: that will stay in my memory.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

He is indebted to the language translator feature on Google.com. You can read of his adventures traveling by car throughout the Golden State in California Back Roads, available at LuLu.com

The Grandpa Bucket List

This photo is not a bird in the sky. It’s an inexpensive kite purchased with the intent of showing my grandson how to make it fly.

It’s not a bird, not a plane, and certainly not Superman. Photo: Steve Newvine

As you can see, I was successful. The kite flew proudly over one of the City of Merced’s public parks shortly after the beginning of the new year.

But the safe launch, flight, and return of the kite were more than an achievement to start 2019.

It was also about crossing out something from what I call my grandpa bucket list.

My grandson and me, moments before our kite went in the air. Photo: Steve Newvine

From the time when I was a dad raising two daughters, kite flying was one of many activities we would do as a family.

At the time, we lived in upstate New York in a small community that had a large open park. The park had playground equipment, a small hill for winter sledding, an open air pavilion, and a giant oak tree.
In the summer, we’d go there to use the playground. In the winter, we’d go to use the hill for sledding. But in the spring and fall, we’d go there to fly a kite.

So it was no surprise to anyone when I declared after my grandson was born four years ago that someday, I would show him how to fly a kite.

Two kids, with about 55 years separating us, enjoying a day kite-flying. Photo: Steve Newvine

The beauty of those cheap kites is just how easy it is to get it airborne.

We made it happen within minutes and enjoyed about twenty minutes of flight time. Kite flying was one thing I wanted to experience with my grandson.

But it got me thinking about other things I’d like to do with him.

Here is my grandpa bucket list.

• Hold him as a newborn
• Fly a kite
• Take him to church with me
• Watch him perform in a school play
• Enjoy an adventure that ends with the two of us at a real diner (my grandfather did this with me and I never forgot it)
• Visit a cemetery on Memorial Day
• Tell him why I feel Johnny Carson was the best ever on TV
• Attend his high school graduation
• Attend his college graduation
• Play some Sinatra and Elvis and explain to him why these artists were so important to me
• Have a cup of coffee with him paid for from his paycheck at a job he enjoys
• Attend his wedding
• Take his phone call he makes just to say hello and see how I’m doing
• Be nearby when his first child is born

So far, the first two items have been checked off the list. I’m sure I could add a few more if I wanted to.

The important thing for me is that I cherish every opportunity I have to share my time with my grandson.

That’s my grandpa bucket list.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

He has published Stand-By, Camera One-Love, Friendship, & TV News in 1980. All his books are available at Lulu.com

Many Sad Days in Newman

Marquee at Westside Theater in Newman pays tribute to Police Corporal Ronil Singh, killed in the line of duty during a traffic stop on the day after Christmas. Photo: Steve Newvine

Newman is a city in mourning following the shooting death of Police Corporal Ronil Singh.

All over this community, there are tributes to the fallen policeman.

The Christmas holiday brought joy and warmth to homes throughout the Central Valley. But to our neighbors just north of the Merced County line in Stanislaus County, the day after Christmas was marked by tragedy, sadness, and the early stages of the grieving process.

Police Corporal Ronil Singh. Photo- Newman Police Department

Corporal Singh was shot and killed during a traffic stop in the early morning of December 26.

Law enforcement throughout California tracked the man who is now charged with that death.

Gustavo Perez Arriaga was arrested in Kern County two days later. Officials say Arriaga was in the country illegally. He has been charged with murder and could face the death penalty.

St. Joachim Catholic Church on Main Street in Newman, Stanislaus County. Like many properties displaying American flags in Newman, the flag in front of the Church is flying at half-staff in honor of Police Corporal Ronil Singh. Photo- Steve Newvine

In this city of eleven-thousand people, there is now a sense of true loss. Corporal Singh came to America and pursued citizenship so that he could become a police officer.

On my recent visit, I came across several American flags being displayed at half-staff in honor of Corporal Singh. Among the people I saw on my visit was a young father who silently looked at the many flowers in front of the Police Department headquarters. Respecting his privacy, I did not ask him any questions.

I merely offered my acknowledgment of the display of flowers and spoke just three words. “A sad day.”

He looked me in the eye and nodded his head affirmatively. “It sure is,” he said. He then went to his car, and brought his young grade school aged son up to the display.

Flowers from all over California have been sent to the Newman Police Department. All the arrangements are on display in front of the Department headquarters on Main Street. Photo- Steve Newvine

Based on the inscription on some of the arrangements, the flowers come from as far away as Redondo Beach in southern California.

Some had banners with short phrases helping the sender express their feelings about Corporal Singh. One in particular read “Hometown Hero”.

One of the posters taped to the wall honoring the Newman Police Department. Photo: Steve Newvine

There were posters prepared by younger mourners taped to the front of the Police Department building. One read, “To the police, from Gavin. Thank you.”

Another poster read: “Our hearts are with you Newman P.D.”

A display of flowers, candles, an American flag, and a cross in front of a residence in Newman. Photo- Steve Newvine

The expression of grief extends beyond Main Street in the City of Newman. As I was leaving town heading west of highway 33, I spotted another display in front of a residence.

The display includes a cross made from ordinary PVC pipe. Written on the vertical length of pipe are these words: forever in our hearts, Ronil Singh.

Corporal Singh is remembered as a family man, a trusted colleague, and a loyal friend. His life is being honored by police officers and other first responders, along with family members and friends.

Nowhere is that love and respect more visible than in that small city in southwest Stanislaus County.

It will take time for the City of Newman to grieve the loss of Ronil Singh. He leaves a wife and children, along with extended family, friends, and those in law enforcement near and far who lost a dedicated servant.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His new book Stand By, Camera One is available on Lulu.com

Spelling Bee Begins with a Twang, Ends with Phyllophagous

Middle school spelling teams competed in the Merced County Junior High Spelling Bee final held at the Merced County Office of Education offices in Merced. Photo: Steve Newvine

One by one, thirty-four junior high school students from all over Merced County wrote down the words as they were read out loud by the wordmaster.

“Twang,” she pronounced in front of the students who had gathered at the Merced County Office of Education (MCOE) conference room on December 6.

The wordmaster then used the word in a sentence, read the word in front of a microphone again, and instructed the students to go to work.

Unlike the spelling bees we see on television, the students did not have to spell the word out loud.

These students wrote the words in legible pencil. A proctor was assigned to each table of spellers.

When time was up, the proctor would raise his or her pencil signaling their assigned table had completed the task.

A proctor was assigned to each table of spellers at the Merced County Junior High Spelling Bee. Photo: Steve Newvine

As time ticked away, students were eliminated.

“I see many of the same students win year after year and even some from the same families,” says Stacey Arancibia who organizes the Bee as part of her role as Events Planner for MCOE.

“Our third place winner has won before and her brother earned second place in the Elementary Bee held December fifth.”

Some might think spelling is no longer a necessary skill in this day and age of computer spell checks, but that is not the case here.

Spelling is a big thing in Merced County, and an even bigger thing in the state of California.

The state competition allows two students from each county to attend the California State Junior High Spelling Bee in May.

The first and second place winners will represent the County at the statewide event to be held in San Rafael.

Trophies and certificates were awarded to the top finishers at the Merced County Junior High Spelling Bee. Photo: Steve Newvine

While this Junior High competition started out with relatively easy words such as twang, things started getting tight as the words became more complex.

Within one hour, the large group was pared down to about a dozen top spellers. Anxious parents sat in the audience with pride that their children had done their best.

Soon, it was down to just a handful of students.

When Nicole Nguyen correctly spelled phyllophagous, the competition was over. Nicole is the top Junior High speller in Merced County.

Junior High Spelling Bee Wordmaster Audry Garza, a coordinator at MCOE, poses with third place winner Samika Judge, first place winner Nicole Nguyen and second place winner Luke Almeada. Photo: Nate Gnomes, Merced County Office of Education

This year’s winners in the Junior-High Bee were:

• 1st Nicole Nguyen, Cruickshank
• 2nd Luke Almeada, Cruickshank
• 3rd Samika Judge, Los Banos Jr High

Each winner received a certificate and a trophy.

The Elementary competition was held the day before at Atwater Valley Community School. Ninety-four spellers took part in that bee.

Just like the Junior High contest, the top two finishers will compete statewide in May.

The statewide event will be held in Stockton.

The winners in the Elementary Bee were:

• 1st Harneet Sandhu, Los Banos
• 2nd Arvin Judge, Los Banos
• 3rd Mariah Dhillon, Winton

The state program these winners will be competing in is not affiliated with the Scripps National Spelling Bee that most people are familiar with.

“Our numbers are increasing,”Stacey says. “Which is always a great thing.”

Merced County Elementary Spelling Bee winners Mariah Dhillon took third place, Arvin Judge took second place and Harneet Sandhu took the top spot. Photo: Nate Gnomes, Merced County Office of Education

In case you’re wondering, phyllophagous as defined by my family’s American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language as an adjective meaning “feeding on leaves”.

I looked it up.

And for whatever it’s worth, my computer incorrectly flags this spelling with a red line meaning it is either not in the computer’s dictionary or it is misspelled.

It is not misspelled.

Don’t ask me, ask Nicole. Her correct spelling of that word makes her Merced County’s top Junior High speller.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

He has written Stand By, Camera One available from Lulu.com

Excerpt from Stand By, Camera One

From my college graduation in 1979 until the end of October in 1980, I was on an adventure that set the stage for my adult life.

My first job out of college was news reporter for station WICZ-TV in Binghamton, NY. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

My new book is called Stand By, Camera One- Love, Friendship, and Local TV News in 1980.

It’s the true story of my first job as a television news reporter for a station in Binghamton, New York.

But it’s also about getting engaged, getting married, meeting a special person who taught me the game of chess, and hopefully a slice of what life was like nearly forty years ago. Here’s an excerpt:

I walked into the lobby of WICZ-TV, channel forty, shortly before noon on May 21, 1979. I told the receptionist who I was and she called the newsroom. Two minutes later, Mark Williams greeted me. We walked through the studio and made our way to the small newsroom.

From there, Mark turned up the sound of a twelve-inch black and white television set that rested on top of a four-drawer filing cabinet. The noon newscast from competitor WBNG-TV channel twelve was just coming on the air.

Mark watched the first segment of the newscast with a pen and pad in his hands to jot down any story subjects that he felt might be worth following up on for that night’s six o’clock news.

I had seen this newsroom before during my job interview. It had three large metal desks with chairs, a four-by-six foot work table, the four-drawer filing cabinet, and a small typewriter stand behind the news director’s desk.

A police scanner was picking up calls on the various radio frequencies tuned into the device. Each desk had a Smith-Corona electric typewriter.

Some of my classmates in college had similar models. The typewriter’s had removable cartridges for typewriter ribbon. The news director’s desk sat at the far end of the newsroom. My desk would be in the middle.

The last desk was for the part time reporter who was covering news in the morning. It would eventually become the desk for the next full time person hired to work in the news department. Missing from what looked like an ordinary television newsroom in the late 1970s small market station was the presence of a teletype machine.

The news budget was so small at WICZ, the station did not subscribe to a wire service like Associated Press or United Press International.

The “tick-tick” sound of a press wire was common in most broadcast stations. That would not be the case here.

This picture was taken shortly after I started my television news job in Binghamton. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

WICZ programmed a half-hour of local news Monday-Friday at six and eleven PM. The station also did two five-minute newscasts that ran during the local breaks of NBC’s Today Show at 7:25 and 8:25 AM.

While we did not talk about it either in my job interview or even now on my first day, the station hoped to program news seven-days a week sometime in the future.

At about ten minutes after twelve o’clock, Mark turned the television set volume down, grabbed his keys, and tested the beeper attached to the side of his belt.

“Come on,” he said with a smile. “Let’s go to lunch.”

We headed to a nice restaurant in the Vestal Plaza and enjoyed a buffet lunch.

When he hired me, Mark said to plan on lunch with him on the first day.

It was his way of getting our working relationship off to a good start. When the check arrived, I reached for my wallet only to be told by Mark. “This one’s on me.”

My eleventh book is called Stand By, Camera One

I spent the rest of the afternoon meeting the staff at channel forty. I was shown my desk and given what amounted to an employee orientation. Mark reviewed the union contract.

My job was classified as an announcer in the union contract between WICZ-TV and the National Association of Broadcast Engineers and Technicians (NABET).

I would eventually get my union card. It was my second card as I had to join a meat-cutters union for a part-time grocery store job I held when I was going to college.

It came as no surprise that I would be going on the air that night. Orientation was nice, but baptism by fire was the only way to learn in a small market television station.

From my desk in the newsroom, I started preparing a three-minute sports report. With all the journalism training I had at Herkimer College and Syracuse University, I never did anything in the sports reporting arena.

This was the local news business, and we were ready to jump in and go to work. There’s a recording in my personal archives of my first broadcast on local television.

Mark Williams anchored the station’s newscast as well as served as news director. He introduced me to the viewers.

“We welcome Steve Newvine to the Eyewitness News team. Steve has lived upstate all his life and recently graduated from Syracuse. Steve, welcome to the Triple Cities.”

I thanked Mark, and began to read a short sports report and an even shorter weather forecast.

Behind the studio wall, the newscast director, Rich Krolak was working the six o’clock newscast. The director controls all the video and audio components that go into a television production.

He or she calls for a specific camera shot, a particular source of audio to be opened, or a video tape to be played. In bigger markets, the director would work with a technical director who would run the video switcher that allows takes from one camera to another.

At WICZ, both roles were handled by the director using dialogue that would sound a little like this: “Stand-by camera one. Take one, ready two. Take two, stand by tape, in three-two-one. Take tape.”

Click here to see Steve’s old TV station do a story about his book.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

His new book Stand By, Camera One is available at Lulu.com