2025 FoVG SUMMER

MAY, 2025

*You may have received a preliminary draft of this newsletter.  This was a training exercise for the new editor, and it accidentally slipped out!

Calendar

May                    Boat Anchorage Available

May/June            New FoVG Website

May 31                Wonderland Radio Hour:  Camp Meeker Show

June 1                  Membership Renewal begins

June 11                Board of Directors Zoom meeting

June 21                RioFest

July 4                  Independence Day Festivities (volunteers needed)

July 13                FoVG Annual Member Reception 

THANKS TO EARTH DAY CLEAN UP VOLUNTEERS

 Earth Day clean up of the public spaces of Villa Grande was a success!  Much appreciation to at least 22 friends and neighbors who showed up to clean the streets and weed the various parks in town.

Thank you to coordinator Drew Farley and volunteers.

Matt D * John S * Claudia S * Kelly F * Patty T * Roberto E * Jon B * Alana C * Vickie S * Bruce & Llewyn * Cary K * Renate F * Chip C * Sukey RW * Rich H *  Jerry M * Jim B * Stan H * Frank T * Tom A 

Big thanks to Luke Hamilton who volunteered to haul loads of debris to the dump, saving FoVG hundreds of dollars for bin rental.

Special shout out to Greg and Susan Sampson for opening the old General Store and providing a wonderful lunch for all the workers.

Below: Tom & Drew load Luke's truck

Right: Alana & Bruce weeding in Town Square

The anchorage chain has been placed on the gravel beach, and there are a few remaining spaces available to members.

Cost is $150 to chain your boat from now until October 12. 

If interested, register here

NEW FoVG WEBSITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

The FoVG website is under construction with a target launch date of June 15th.  In the meantime, you may see messages on event registration, members renewal, and other pages noting that the site is “Currently Under Construction”  If you have difficulty using the new web site, please send a message to friends@villagrande.org and let us know how we can manually help.

MAY 31ST WONDERLAND RADIO HOUR: 

THE CAMP MEEKER SHOW

On Saturday, May 31, the 7th Wonderland Radio Show will relate some of the history, stories and characters of Camp Meeker.  Featured will be the original settler Boss Meeker, and activist Mary Moore.  Entertainment will be by the Bohemian Highway Band and much much more.  There will be a Community Sidewalk Fair from 10 - 11a.m. featuring local organizations, including Friends of Villa Grande.  We need a volunteer to help setup and staff the FoVG table for an hour, which guarantees priority seating at the show which starts at 11:00.  To volunteer email:  friends@villagrande.org

June 1  MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS

It's that time of year again. Memberships expire on June 30.  You should be receiving an automated renewal notice soon.  You can also renew your membership for July, 2025 to June, 2026 here. You may be asked for a new password. In the past we used a version of FriendsofVillaGrande#2023.  Feel free to use a variation of this password or your own password that requires 12 characters including upper/lower case letters/a number/and a special character.  For help, email friends@villagrande.org, You may pay via Paypal or send a check to FoVG, POB 28, VG, CA 95486.  Please note “Membership Renewal” on the check.  

MOSCOW ROAD TRAFFIC STUDY

• The recommendations of the report are:

•  Stabilitzing the speed to 30 mph along all of Moscow Road 
• • Currently 25 from Main Street to Starrett Hill Drive 
  • Currently 35 from Starrett Hill Drive to Duncans Mills
• Striping an ‘edge line’ to create narrower travel lanes in both directions to encourage drivers to slow down while creating more space for pedestrians and bicycle travel
• Refreshing the stop bar and “STOP” pavement markings
• Trimming foliage to maintain adequate sight distance.

Next Steps: During the next five months (May-October) the study will be undergoing a final internal review, a new County ordinance will be drafted to formalize the revised speed limits, and the ordinance will be reviewed for adoption by the Board of Supervisors.

The Moscow Road Coalition will continue to petition the County to reduce the speed limit to 25 miles per hour and requests all residents along Moscow Road and in Villa Grande maintain a  25 MPH speed limit while driving on Moscow Road

SUNDAY, JULY 13

MEMBER RECEPTION, ANNUAL MEETING 

&

BOARD ELECTION

On Sunday July 13 from 4-6:00pm FoVG's annual Membership Meeting, Reception for New Members, Cocktail hour, State of the Organization presentation, and voting for Board of Directors will take place. This year the reception for members will honor Leah Norwood and Linda Fisher, who have been responsible for guiding the development of FoVG since its inception, the planning and restoration of the Preserve, and creating the bird surveys and guides.  We will be celebrating our gratitude for all their work over the eighteen years of FoVG's existence.

The FoVG is in the final stages of renewing its agreement with Suburban Propane to provide members with a large discount off normal retail pricing for propane, and with a number of guarantees of prompt emergency service.  FoVG and Suburban first negotiated a group discount program four years ago, and many of our members benefited from it during the first term.  As we finish negotiating the new Suburban contract, we would greatly appreciate hearing from current customers about their experience with the company and their intention to use Suburban for their propane needs going forward.  Please email Patty Thayer (Thayer.patricia@gmail.com) or Roberto Esteves (friends@villagrande.org) with any input.  We also invite any FoVG member who has not previously been part of the Suburban group discount plan to contact us if they would like to receive more information about the program.  You can email Patty or Roberto with any questions.

NEW NEWSLETTER EDITOR:

FoVG is delighted to welcome Bonnie Peterson as our newsletter Editor. This is her first edition of the FoVG newsletter.  If you have articles or photos you would like to share, please let Bonnie know.   

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