This week, we begin the traditional ‘Year In Review’ feature to look back at the year gone by. To be presented in three installments, Part 1 focuses on the top news events from the front page of The Times for the months of January through April. Part 2 on Jan. 1 will cover May through August and the final installment on Jan. 8 will review September through December.
JANUARY
Texting while driving, school lunch options and lack of adequate recreational opportunities are among the topics on the minds of Escalon High School students. In a class activity, one that stretches back more than two decades, teacher Ryan Young has his students voice opinions on what they feel are current issues in need of addressing, especially at the local level. He said the assignment was first done by students in the 2001-2002 school year. According to Young, the assignment is “based on the Progressive Era muckraking (investigative) journalists” who were intent on exposing a variety of issues facing society at the turn of the 20th century. For today’s students, they can choose to address a local topic of concern to them or expand it to statewide, nationwide or worldwide concern. Letters are written by the students and then are sent to The Times.
Mark the calendar for Saturday, Feb. 10 and join in as the Escalon Educational Foundation hosts its sixth annual Color Run at Escalon High School. Participants can choose to do a one- or two-mile walk/run and there will be several color stations set up along the route. Registration is on now for the event; cost is $25 if you register by Friday, Jan. 12 and that early registration also guarantees you a race T-shirt. After Jan. 12, the price increases to $30. All proceeds from the event benefit the students of Escalon Unified School District. With the 2023 proceeds, the effort provided school grants to all EUSD schools and funded 18 EUSD senior scholarships.
If you have some free time in the New Year, officials at Micke Grove Zoo are looking for a couple of volunteers. Requirements include being at least 18 years old and every volunteer shift requires a commitment of a minimum of four hours. Volunteers also need to commit to a minimum of six months. Currently, there are openings for morning shifts, though Zoo officials also indicate they can work with a volunteer’s schedule of availability. Micke Grove Zoo is at 11793 Micke Grove Road, Lodi.
Officials with the San Joaquin Regional Transit District (RTD) have announced an upcoming service change designed to improve transportation options for underserved communities, including Stockton. Starting Jan. 28, 2024, RTD will increase the frequency of all Local Routes from once every hour to approximately every 30 minutes. In addition, a new Local Route 40 will be introduced and modifications will be made to select route maps as part of a pilot program.
In action at their regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 9, members of the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors had a special item on the agenda. It was recognition for a couple of Escalon High School sports teams, with District 5 Supervisor Robert Rickman extending the invitation. The varsity Cougars football team and the varsity Lady Cougars basketball team were due for the recognition in front of the county board during a brief ceremony hosted at the county administration building, 44 N. San Joaquin St., Stockton.
The first of two planned Public Meetings in Escalon focusing on park upgrades was hosted on Tuesday, Jan. 9. The second is on the schedule for Tuesday, Jan. 16. “These are public information-suggestion gathering meetings, but have agendas so that members of council can attend,” explained Escalon City Manager Dominique Romo. The first session was hosted at noon Tuesday at Main Street Park, an on-site discussion. “The City has proposed improvements to Main Street Park which include bike and pedestrian improvements,” Romo added. Among the improvements under discussion are sidewalks, bike lanes, and a multi-use trail.
Each week, those in need throughout the community have an extra opportunity to get some food items. Escalon Strong, in partnership with Oasis out of Stockton, has food to distribute at the Escalon Community Center on Thursday afternoons. Elsa Sandoval of Escalon Strong said Oasis is a youth center/food bank/homeless organization that serves Stockton, but they were able to partner with the group to bring food to the Escalon community as well. She explained that Oasis has a contract with businesses including Starbucks, Trader Joes, Save Mart, Costco, Walmart and more, whereby they get surplus food items. Now, some of those come to Escalon Strong.
With a wide range of furry and slithery friends, Jennifer Dickey of the Turlock-based Cruzin’ Critters provided lots of laughs and educational tidbits for those attending a special program offered at the Escalon Library. The Jan. 17 afternoon program showcased animals ranging from a red fox to an owl, a porcupine to a hedgehog, snake, rabbit, black throated monitor lizard, a turtle and more. Each was introduced by Dickey, who told the crowd the animal’s name, a little bit about its natural habitat, food preferences and behaviors. In some cases, she also shared how the animal came to be in her care, with some of them having been injured and unable to return to the wild. And, when it came time to ask questions, the young audience member who answered correctly when called upon had the chance to pet the animal that the question was about.
Theme for the Winter Homecoming at Escalon High School this week is High School Musical and the King will be crowned on Friday night, Jan. 19. Named as Homecoming King candidates were, in alphabetical order, Shehab Algaheim, Frank Richard Barrera, Angel Castro, Darrius Higby and Nate Krieger. As with any Homecoming celebration, winning the game is key. Escalon’s varsity boys basketball team did their job, thrashing visiting Hilmar on Friday night and watching as senior Shehab Algaheim took home the crown as Homecoming King. “It feels amazing, especially since it was really a surprise, just wasn’t what I was expecting,” Algaheim admitted. “I’m just really happy and excited, it was a fun experience, this whole week.” There were dress up days and special activities, a Friday rally and the chance to be introduced on Friday night during halftime of the varsity game, after being escorted to center court by family members. For Algaheim, his brother, aunt and uncle served as his escorts.
There are many places where Escalon High School students excel and one of them is in the area of music. This school year has brought many accolades for the musical Cougars, with some performances already in the books and another on the way. Coming up is the Golden State Honor Band, due in Sacramento and running Feb.1 through 4, with practices and a performance. “Hannah Wampler was selected to perform in the California Golden State Honor Band,” explained EHS music teacher Katie Carbajal. “She is the first EHS band student to be selected in about 20 years. Hannah was selected based on a recorded audition, blindly adjudicated by music professors and teachers from the state.” The public performance is free, scheduled at the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium on Sunday, Feb. 4.
FEBRUARY
It wasn’t your typical day at work for Juan Carlos Aviles. While the clerk at the Escalon Post Office usually aids customers with sending out packages or buying stamps, on this particular day, he likely saved a life. Aviles has been nominated for a ‘Hero’ award through his Postmaster Ken Crandal and Supervisor Jackie Draper for his actions on Tuesday, Jan. 30. He was working the window when his customer, an 86-year-old male, suddenly clutched the counter in the middle of the transaction with little or no notice. Seeing the change, Aviles was able to grab the customer and hold him up to keep him from falling, he then was given a chair to sit in and Escalon Community Ambulance was called to request a welfare check. The man appeared to lose consciousness and stop breathing while seated in the chair. It was then that Aviles took decisive action. “It just happened so fast,” he admitted. “I had never been in that situation before.” Aviles started chest compression CPR, which successfully revived the elderly customer.
The total number of calls for the Escalon Consolidated Fire Protection District came in at 1,220 for 2023, covering a wide range of incidents. That figure was up slightly from the 1,193 incidents in 2022. For the year, the busiest month was August, when the department responded to 117 calls, said Fire Chief Rick Mello, while the slowest month was February of 2023, with 79 incidents.
After several days of rain over the past couple of weeks, organizers of the annual Escalon Educational Foundation Color Run were counting their blessings on Saturday. Though there was a definite chill in the air, there was also bright sunshine and the more than 300 runners lined up to run the route around the Escalon High School campus on Feb. 10 were in good spirits. This year, due to the wet weather of late January and early February, the route had to be revamped. It still measured out to be roughly a mile long loop around the campus, but covered a slightly different area and took off from the quad as opposed to utilizing the track/football field for the starting point.
Escalon city residents will see some changes in their water and garbage bills beginning next month. The annual increase to both the water and garbage rates will go into effect with the March bill. According to information released by the city’s utility department, the new bi-monthly base charge for water will be $80.38 with water usage coming in at a rate of $1.98 per thousand gallons. For the 60-gallon black garbage can, the bi-monthly fee will be $34.24; the senior rate for the 60-gallon can will be $28.24 with the rate for the 90-gallon black can coming in at $42.02. The green waste can fee is $30.06 and additional cans will be charged at a rate of $19.86 bi-monthly.
There were some special invited guests at the Escalon Historical Society’s Main Street Museum on Wednesday, Feb. 14, including the daughter of Escalon Packers founder Christopher Colombo. Noting that the cannery along McHenry Avenue will be marking its 80th anniversary this year and has long been a staple in the community, Society Historian Wendy Fenton said Christina Colombo was one of those in attendance. The day also included a visit to the museum by several members of the Escalon Packers management team, many of whom had never toured it before.
Among them was plant manager Javier Lora. He is a third-generation employee at the plant, which has gone through several name changes and is now owned by Kraft-Heinz. It is also known as Escalon Premier Brands; Colombo began Escalon Packers in 1944.
Next up for members of the Escalon Senior Fun Bunch, they will gather at the Escalon Community Center for their ‘Love is in the Air’ February event on Wednesday, Feb. 21 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. There will be entertainment, refreshments and prizes; the ‘bunch’ gathers on a monthly basis and is still going strong more than four years after it began. The Fun Bunch group is designed to give local senior citizens a chance to get involved in the community while socializing with each other and making new friends. The Escalon Senior Fun Bunch meets every third Wednesday of the month from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the Escalon Community Center, 1055 Escalon Ave.
Playing on the biggest stage of their careers so far, Escalon’s varsity Lady Cougars fought hard but ultimately took a 64-48 loss in Friday night’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division 4 championship game. The Feb. 23 contest, at UC Davis, paired the number three seed Escalon girls and the top seed, defending champion Colfax Falcons, with a 6 p.m. tip off. Head coach Joseph Dalpogetti said the big stage proved to be a bit intimidating, with nerves getting in the way in the early going. Colfax, which now has 13 Section titles to its credit in girls basketball, was at ease throughout the contest and their tough defense made it difficult for Escalon to get comfortable in their offense. Senior Sammy Lang, who went in as the team leader in average points scored at 15 per game, was limited to just eight on the night, half of them coming in the fourth quarter.
MARCH
While still needing – and gratefully accepting – donations for their regular programs hosted on a monthly basis, the Escalon Fun Bunch has received some funding from the county level, which will be used for very specific special needs. Submitting the application for funding was Escalon Senior Fun Bunch Director Ann Shaddix, outlining the needs in a letter to San Joaquin County District 5 Supervisor Robert Rickman. His district includes the City of Escalon. Among the most pressing needs, a new laptop and printer, portable speakers and funding for the monthly newsletter.
The funding request of $10,000 submitted by Shaddix was detailed down to the penny and Rickman presented the request to fellow supervisors at the Tuesday, Feb. 27 board meeting in Stockton. The board unanimously approved the funding request.
Brightly colored drawings, pencil sketches, collages and more were on display in the old gym on the Escalon High School campus over the past week, with the annual Arts Alive showcasing the talent of Escalon Unified School District students. The show ran from Monday, March 4 through Friday, March 8. Each day saw groups of students from other schools in the district visit the show at the high school and take part in a number of hands-on art activities. Those ranged from simple coloring to spin art, block printing to face painting, stencil art and air brush tattoos, among others.
The pending departure of two key Escalon city staffers – City Manager Dominique Romo and Police Chief Gustavo Flores – will mean some major changes in the weeks ahead. Mayor David Bellinger said City Council members are already considering options and will likely appoint both an interim City Manager and an interim Police Chief to fill those slots. Police Chief Flores has announced his retirement and will leave the city in April. City Manager Romo is leaving for a position with the City of Hughson, taking on a leadership role there.
Books and pajamas were pretty much the order of the day on Friday, March 8 on the Dent Elementary campus in Escalon, as the school observed Read Across America in honor of the birthday of Dr. Seuss. All campuses throughout the Escalon Unified School District marked the day with reading and a variety of activities, with a major focus on the elementary sites from Van Allen to Collegeville, Farmington to Dent.
It was all things Lion recently in Escalon, as several Lions Club members from a number of counites arrived in Escalon for a quarterly district meeting. Escalon is part of Lions International District 4-A1, an eight-county region that encompasses Amador, Calaveras, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tuolumne counties. Serving as District Governor is Claudia Miller; she said the two-day meeting Friday and Saturday, March 8 and 9 brought together clubs from throughout the area. “We cover over 13,000 square miles,” she explained. “The district meeting is where we invite everybody in the district, we usually get the people just close to us because some people don’t want to drive two and a half hours.”
It is a scene that has played out many times now on the Escalon High School campus but, for this year’s participants, it was new and incredibly painful. Students from both Escalon and Vista high schools took part in and watched the Every 15 Minutes program, which depicts the horror and repercussions of a drunk driving incident. This year, the scenario featured the drunk driver, portrayed by Nate Krieger, as trying to get his friend Talan Reider to the hospital after Reider overdosed on a combination of drugs and alcohol at a daytime party. Against the advice of friends Matt Rangel and Ben Lora, Krieger got behind the wheel of his pick-up truck. But they never made it to the hospital; a crash involving pedestrians – fellow students Hannah Wampler and Aileen Aguirre – occurred along Escalon-Bellota Road, just outside the school grounds. The crash scene unfolded in real time on Thursday, March 14. Escalon fire, police and Community Ambulance crews converged on the scene, followed shortly thereafter by the CHP and San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Department. A helicopter landed near the Community Center to take Reider via air ambulance to the hospital. Wampler was pronounced deceased on the scene, Aguirre was taken by ambulance to the hospital and also transported was Ryan Lewis. He was a passenger in Krieger’s truck and was pinned in the wreckage. Reider and Aguirre both died of their injuries at the hospital, Lewis was paralyzed. And though it is a staged accident, the impact is real.
Escalon City Council members gathered for a more than two-hour session on Monday, March 18 and, among other business, heard a mid-year budget review and made a top-level appointment. The council, on a 5-0 vote, approved the appointment of Development and Community Services Manager Jaylen French to serve as Interim City Manager when current City Manager Dominique Romo leaves later this spring. She has accepted the City Manager job in Hughson and French will serve both in his current capacity and as the interim City Manager while the search is underway for Romo’s replacement. Also seated on the dais Monday night was Interim Police Chief Anthony Hardgraves, named to serve in that role with the retirement of Chief Gustavo Flores. Hardgraves was appointed to the post and will serve as the search for a new chief is conducted.
An estimated $34,000 was brought in Saturday night, March 16 as the Escalon Sports Boosters put on their annual Boosters Dinner, hosted at the Escalon Community Center. Tables of silent auction items served up everything from a signed varsity Flag Football program football for the inaugural season, a custom designed fire pit, tickets to professional sports games, gift baskets and more. There were also several prizes in a raffle drawing and multiple sports photos available for purchase as part of the festivities.
It was a night of singing, dancing, some juggling, even an Elvis impersonation … and it was all in good fun, as the second annual Mr. Cougar Pageant was staged on Friday night, March 22 at Escalon High School. A total of 13 students were vying for the title and for Andrew Morales, the night ended with a victory, as he took home the crown. He also participated last year as a junior in the inaugural pageant, and said he has found that persistence is key. “I’m a man that never gives up, I believe second time’s the charm, it’s in sports too, my first year ever doing sports I was the second slowest on the (cross country) team, now I have been the fastest for the last three years so, you know, I believe in always following your dreams and never giving up,” Morales said following the pageant, wearing his crown, sash and holding on to the custom-made Mr. Cougar plaque.
APRIL
Though some early morning rain meant the grass in the city’s Main Street Park was damp and the temperatures were more reminiscent of a December holiday, that didn’t stop a huge crowd from turning out for a Friday morning egg hunt in Escalon. Sponsored for the third year by the local Poppy on Main business, owner Jamie Butler said the egg hunt is a fun, festive way to mark the Easter holiday with the community. “Three thousand eggs; it went really good, our third annual,” Butler said of the March 29 festivities, noting that it was the second year in a row there has been some rain but it didn’t dampen the event. “It’s just to have fun and to thank our customers.” Mixed in with the brightly colored plastic eggs, filled with treats, were some special golden eggs. The finders of those eggs opened them up to find a cash prize.
Escalon Police have reported an arrest in the ongoing investigation into a series of threats that prompted two school lockdowns in early March. At the Monday night, April 1 Escalon City Council meeting, interim Police Chief Anthony Hardgraves updated council members on the case. Through the investigation by Escalon in cooperation with some surrounding agencies, police were able to identify a 16-year-old male suspect, said Hardgraves. An arrest warrant was issued for the teen and a search warrant as well, with the 16-year-old subsequently arrested on suspicion of terrorist threats and booked into the San Joaquin County Juvenile Hall. His name was not released by authorities because he is a minor.
Five new inductees are slated to be added to the Escalon Unified School District Hall of Fame later this spring. Action due at the Tuesday night, April 2 school board meeting was to officially accept the inductees and confirm the induction ceremony. District Superintendent Ricardo Chavez said those selected from among a number of nominees were Dave Mantooth, Roger Beeman, Bob Loureiro, Art Sanguinetti and the late Michael Backovich. All have played a pivotal role – and some multiple roles – in the development of Escalon students and the school community as teachers, coaches and/or administrators. The induction ceremony is planned for Friday, May 24.
The San Joaquin Delta Community College District is soliciting applications to serve as an appointed trustee for Area 5 of the Board of Trustees until the next regularly scheduled election for governing Board members, which is Nov. 5, 2024. Area 5 includes the area of east San Joaquin County, encompassing Escalon and Farmington, along with Calaveras County, and southeastern Sacramento County.
With close to 200 meals purchased, the Saturday, April 6 drive-thru tri-tip dinner staged at El Portal Middle School was a success. “We sold 185 tickets, that is a little lower than normal but it also came during Spring Break week,” said coordinator Renee Snow, who was overseeing things in the kitchen on Saturday morning, as preparations were underway. Those who purchased the dinner, however, received a full meal for four for the $60 ticket price. The menu included the seasoned grilled tri-tip, four baked potatoes, a bag of salad and a loaf of bread.
With temperatures in the mid-70s and plenty of sunshine, it was a festive crowd that turned out for the first of the season Farmer’s Market nights in Escalon. Debut for the 2024 market season was Wednesday, April 17 and the Escalon Chamber of Commerce-sponsored event was definitely a success. It will run the third Wednesday of the month throughout the summer and into the fall. Vendors had some fresh produce, there were cheeses, a variety of sweets, merchandise booths, homemade items, live music, and a food truck area for market visitors to fill up at when they took a break from browsing through and buying from the vendors. There were also favorites including kettle corn and shave ice available.
While the official ribbon cutting to dedicate the renovated Engel Field/Memorial Stadium complex on the campus of Escalon High School was last October, this past week saw another milestone. Escalon’s track and field team was able to host a home meet – the first in more than a decade – as a result of the extensive improvements to the facility. The varsity girls defeated Hughson in the April 17 home meet while the boys fell to the Huskies.
Hoping to make it a regular event, the Escalon American Legion Post was the site of a Family Play Day on Saturday. The April 20 gathering was open to all in the community and the Post rooms on Second Street were open for a free meal and conversation, while outside the building, in the back area, games were set up for children and adults alike. There were cornhole boards available, a water balloon toss area, an egg on a spoon race, and more.
Organizer and Post member Fallon Nunes said the idea was just to bring families together for a relaxing afternoon, especially encouraging the younger generation families in the community to come out and enjoy the day.
