pguerra's blog

Hello from downtown Turlock. Tonight's agenda isn't particularly hefty, though it does include the RDA project list. At a couple of minutes before 7, the room is less than half full.

We will be having our second live Turlock chat on Wednesday, from 11 a.m. to noon. This time, I understand we'll have a special guest. Assistant City Editor Adam Ashton will be joining us, so we can talk Modesto elections, Turlock elections, other items of note.

I'm working on a haunted places story for Halloween. I spent part of this morning at Castle Air Museum, which has its own locally well-known ghost. You can read more about Arthur, who inhabits one of the bombers out there, in Saturday's paper and online. But I may have had my own encounter with him - a printer spitting out a copy of a photograph that includes a ghostly apparition suddenly seized up and munched the paper, post-print. A mechanical malfunction? Most likely. But it also could have been the mischevious Arthur. Certainly makes for a better story.

About a half-full crowd has been blown in by the crazy wind out there tonight. It's not a terribly heavy agenda, so we'll see how it goes.

I don't think I was as clear as I could have been in my story about the Stanislaus County Fair moving its dates. The fair had to make the change because the California State Fair moved up its dates for 2010. The dates, however, still overlap. The fair sent out a press release yesterday that explains it better, so I thought I'd share a piece of it: "The fair board was faced with the decision to change the date because the state fair moved their August fair to July 2010, overlapping with Turlock’s traditional late July fair. The state fair’s change created scheduling conflicts for some exhibitors, concessionaires, entertainers and even the carnival. Turlock’s carnival operator, Butler Amusements, also provides rides for the state fair. The board of directors was challenged to select 2010 fair dates that would result in the least amount of negative impact on all involved. The conclusion was that July 16-25 would have the least amount of negative impact."

It's a pretty full house tonight, though not the overflow crowd from a couple of weeks ago. Tonight's agenda includes the lease for operation of the Carnegie Arts Center, a new water feature at Columbia Park and various other items.

Thanks to the magic Internet stick, I am here. The City Council, meeting as Turlock's Redevelopment Agency, is holding a workshop on redevelopment projects. Housing program manager Maryn Pitts described some of the housing RDA projects the city has undertaken in the past, including Crane Terrace, the senior complex where Emanuel Hospital used to be. If anyone's out there, I'll do my best to keep you posted.