Free Foreclosure Prevention and First-time Homebuyer Workshop
There will be a free workshop on foreclosure prevention and information for first-time homebuyers with Special Guest Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey on Saturday, July 24. Registration begins at 9:30 am and the workshop and counseling will run from 10 am to 2 pm. The workshop will be held at Redwood Credit Union, 3033 Cleveland Avenue, Suite 100, Santa Rosa. You need to bring documentation with you -- click for more information in English or Spanish. Register at www.nidsacramento.org or 866-920-3111. It’s free.
Police Service Dog, Raven, Retires
After six years as a police service dog, Raven officially retired from the Santa Rosa Police Department last week.
Raven was born as Fee Vom Wildferdeland on January 7, 2001 in the Netherlands to a long line of Shutzhund III titled dogs. Raven received her police K9 training at Brodie Kennels in Iowa on May 9, 2002 and was then put into service with the Novato Police Department. Raven was trained in obedience, suspect searching, criminal apprehension, tracking and locating narcotics including: Marijuana, Cocaine, Heroin, and Methamphetamine.
After Raven’s handler retired from the Novato Police Department, Raven was put up for adoption. K9 Officer George Berg quickly seized the opportunity to adopt Raven and worked with the Santa Rosa Police Department and the City of Santa Rosa in putting Raven back into service as a Santa Rosa Police K9.
Raven became a pioneer for the current SRPD K9 program’s expansion into narcotics detection. Raven’s nose for narcotics detection quickly became the standard for our K9’s and her skills were oftentimes in high demand from patrol officers and detectives. During Raven’s tenure, she has been extremely successful in the detection and seizure of large quantities of narcotics and cash. In addition to this, Raven was loved by our community especially by the children who were fortunate to have met her through the numerous school presentations which she participated in.
Raven loved four things; her handler, riding in her police car, finding illegal drugs and working alongside her other K9 partner, Boz. Raven will be tremendously missed but I’m sure she will find solace in a well deserved retirement through the love and pampering she will receive from the Berg family.
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You may have read about Taz, the police dog who jumped a couple of fences after hearing fireworks go off in his Windsor neighborhood. Luckily he was found and returned to his handler. After some rest and recovery Taz will be back on duty.
CityBus Safety Awards Banquet
The Santa Rosa CityBus bus driver's safety awards banquet was held on Sunday June 27 at the Transit Operations Building. The National Safety Council recognizes safe commercial drivers with awards for driving an entire year without a preventable accident. Santa Rosa CityBus has been hosting an annual awards banquet to honor the organization's recipients since around 1987 (the same year we first opened the Downtown Santa Rosa Transit Mall). Several CityBus staff, including a couple of drivers and the director of the department, have attended every safety award banquet hosted by Santa Rosa CityBus. The awards were presented by our Transit Superintendent, our Deputy Director and Director of Transit.
For this year's banquet, the awards given ranged from one year to twenty seven years of safe driving. In all, 42 bus operators received awards that add up to 315 years of safe driving. Also awarded at this year's banquet were the six employees who had perfect attendance records for the year. That number is unprecedented and nearly 9% of our non-management operations workforce. Read the rest of the story here.
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I previously wrote about Fabian Favila from our Transit Department and the TransForm contest that he participated in last month. Here’s part of an email from Fabian:
Dear Friends,
Thanks for your support. Because of you, I won in three categories. Although I didn't reach my goal to raise $600.00, I raised the most.
My personal total travel miles (commute & non-commute) for the week were 591 miles. What was revealing for me was that 93% of my travels don’t involve using a car. Wow! I knew it was high, but I never thought to measure it.
Save our Pools Benefit
Fusion Fitness is sponsoring a 5K Walk/Run in Juilliard Park on August 29 at 9 am to benefit the Ridgway and Finley Aquatic Centers. All proceeds from the 5K will go to the Aquatics Trust account. Runners and walkers can sign up at www.thesantarosamarathon.com or stop by either pool to pick up a registration form and/or pledge sheet.
The 5K will follow the Santa Rosa Marathon & Half Marathon. Runners are coming from all over the USA and some from other countries for the marathon.
Following the race, a free festival is planned for Juilliard Park, including a live band, food booths and activities for kids. All proceeds from the festival will be donated to the Aquatics trust account, too.
If you can’t make it to the event, please donate online at www.srcity.org/donatenow!