Occidental Oriented by Gino Gaffney — March 2019

Good day to you, reader of the Gazette. Back in January’s column I wrote about my new year intention to plug into the effort to replace the gym floor at the Community Center. Well, I have news to report. I attended the January meeting of the Occidental Community Center Advisory Council and learned that we are in the running for grant funding from the Bothin Foundation that could potentially give us all the money needed to replace the floor (apprx. $20K). Pretty exciting stuff! We will receive word on or around February 22nd. We might not get anything, or perhaps will get a portion of the request but not the full amount. Keep your fingers crossed.

I also learned that the OCCAC at this point basically consists of two people. Kudos to them for carrying the torch of improving the Community Center, finding this foundation and putting together the grant proposal. On the bright side my attendance represented a 50% increase, on the downside – come on friends and neighbors, please step up your help is needed! They meet every first Thursday at 6:30pm at the Community Center (March 7th).

In hopes that we do receive the full funding request the floor could be replaced in the next few months which would be a wonderful improvement for the community. This would also allow for energy and fund-raising efforts to shift focus to remodeling the Community Center bathrooms and resurfacing the tennis courts. The tennis courts are obviously the low hanging fruit of those two projects and I am told a quote of $15,000 has been given to take care of that job. As with the gym floor I will put out the thought, does anyone have any connections that could help make this project happen? Money of your own certainly or relationship with sporting goods or tennis specific companies. Perhaps the USTA?

I know everyone who lives in our area has a general fondness for the community and would profess to wanting the best for it. I also know that you all have plenty going on in your personal lives and limited free time. However for our community to function, let alone improve we need your help. As a small unincorporated town we don’t have people on payroll to perform many functions that other towns can rely on. We also lack in interest and funding trickling down from the county level.

These realities can feel like negatives holding us down, they can also plug into our already strong sense of self-reliance. It truly does take a village. I implore all of you, and especially those of the younger generations to get involved keeping the village functioning and moving forward.

The last two evenings I attended events at the Arts Center – a book launch and a concert. The book launch was free, and the concert was a very reasonable $15. Both were fun, were attended almost exclusively by the elder generation (though there were two teenage girls dancing up a storm at the concert – awesome!) and both had plenty of empty seats. Coming to an event is an easy way to support the community. A little more potential effort in support is that they always need help with the set up and breakdown for events. Or donations of time or money to help complete the new lobby project.

I have already mentioned the need for more people engaging in the OCCAC group. Another group I work with, the Occidental Community Council would really benefit from some increased community interest. We meet the third Saturday of every Month at 10:30am at the Community Center (March 16th). Our longtime secretary is retiring so we could use help in that regard or, if note-taking isn’t your thing we could use help in deciding what community projects are most deserving of the thousands of dollars we have in our budget for this year and beyond.

Speaking of projects do you realize that our town doesn’t have a public restroom or water fountain? That just seems crazy to me. Well, I can tell you neither of those things is going to change unless we rise to the challenge of making it happen.

Trudy who runs the after school program at the Community Center is planning an Easter event on April 20th from 9-12. I am sure she would be happy to have help in creating a successful event, stop by the Center weekday afternoons and see what ya’ll can accomplish.

Another group picking up steam locally is Fire Safe Occidental. They are looking to improve the safety and resiliency of our community in relation to fire. Their next meeting is prior to this issue hitting the newsstands but check out their website for more general information and to learn about future meetings at www.firesafeoccidental.org

Thanks for coming along with me on another article ride, as always I welcome your input and I hope to see you out and about – helping to create and