Autumn COG 2015 – Castro Valley Rotary

We had a rockin’ and rollin’ series of speakers for our five September lunches, thanks to the hard work of September Speaker Chair Gary Bosley! Here is the snapshot of what we talked about each week:

Sept. 1 – Danville Rotarian Dr. Robert Brown gave us an overview of the opportunities we all have to adopt more healthful habits, cutting out some of the “advances of modern medicine” in favor of more natural, organic, less chemical ways to take care of ourselves. Some of what Dr. Brown was, of course, just common sense, which most of us could adopt a little more of when it comes to what we eat and how (much) we exercise. Taking care of our mental health was also a point he made strongly. Much was covered in just 30 minutes!

 

Sept. 8 – We had the honor of having our district Supervisor, Nate Miley, join us for lunch and present the current state of business and property development in our part of Alameda County. Updates on the state of the Daughtrey Building (some progress there, but nothing to write home about…), the shared parking behind that and neighboring buildings (slated to start in February), and the addition of a Sprouts grocery store within the current RiteAid store. This property will actually be split into three stores, with Sprouts in the middle. Sup. Miley also gave updates on the Farmer’s Market and various programs dedicated to raising the quality of life for seniors in the county.

 

Sept. 15 – Jeff Shields of the South San Joaquin Irrigation District, another Rotarian, gave us a rather sobering but highly informative talk about the impact of the four-year drought on agriculture and geology in the San Joaquin Valley, and the state of water supplies in California generally. In short, we will run out of water without significant rain this winter, and El Nino will help, but not solve the problem in one year. Plus, massive pumping of groundwater by farmers has dropped the floor of the Valley as much as fifteen feet in places, which is a permanent change to the landscape. Finally, given the precipitation history of the state going back hundreds of years, we have actually been in a pretty wet cycle since 1700, so this turn to dry years may be a trend that continues if that wet period has truly ended. As I said, sobering! If you want a copy of Jeff’s presentation, contact us!

 

Sept. 22 – We had a full update from Jim O’Connor on the current and future plans for the newly renamed Redwood Canyon Golf Course and Event Facility. Jim is general manager of East Bay Parks District, and made it clear that the facility will remain a golf course. He was frank about the large list of updates and upgrades that the course and buildings need, but overall gave a positive assessment of the progress already made, and the good work that the temporary course managers, Touchstone Golf is doing to bring the old course up to current standards. Future plans include expanding the event facility to make it more attractive to larger groups, and further improving the golfing experience with course improvements.

Sept. 29 – We were honored to have State Senator Bob Wieckowski make his first ever presentation as senator to a Rotary Club. He did a great job giving us a sense for the challenges of the job, his legislative priorities, and the politics that underlay some of the legislative agenda. His priorities are on the environment and the health of the judicial process in California. He detailed some of the ways in which the court system and the process of obtaining judicial relief could be improved, and how he is working on those issues. Our fellow Rotarians whose days jobs are in the Law may have followed along with the presentation better than the rest of us, but the senator did do a good job of describing the workings of the legislative process in terms that mere citizens could understand.
As you can see, it was a full and lively month of lunch meetings for the Castro Valley Rotary. Join us to see what may be on the speaking schedule for the balance of October and September!