Record Searchlight from Redding, California • 26

ORTH Thursday December 23 1993 Redding Record Searchlight C-10 i JBM 1LIH UllLLUBL mess with this jolly oP elf for Santa with Update: iVorti State KCVU joins Police officer Chris Darker escorts Santa and McGraff the Crime Dog on their rounds of good cheer Officers bring Christmas joy to ill children Young faces brightened as police officers escorted McGruff the Crime Dog and Santa Claus to hospitals and homes By Adrienne Packer R-S public safety reporter Redding police CpL Richard McCartin knows what it's like to escort Santa Claus through the corridors of a hospital pediatric ward dishing out gifts and candy canes He's participated in Operation Blue Santa the past two years This year he gained an even greater appreciation for the Redding Police program in which officers help the jolly fellow and McGruff the Crime Dog hand out food and gifts to hospitalized children and needy families McCartin paced the halls of Mercy Medical Center in Redding Wednesday carrying his 5-year-old son Matthew who only hours before underwent surgery in which tubes were placed in his ears Groggy and cranky Matthew's face brightened when he saw Santa's bright red suit emerge from a crowd of doctors and nurses this side McCartin said you're handing out the gifts you sometimes think they really appreciate presence and presents injected energy into the young children Joshua Kruggel 2 has battled a severe case of the flu since Monday said his father Steve Joshua seemed to forget about the intravenous tube in his arm when Santa entered his small room holding a stuffed white dog was just lying around I haven't seen him with this much energy in a while" said mother Vauna Santa (aka Tom Risk of Redding) hugged Joshua and went on his merry way but encountered Matthew again in the hallway Matthew wasn't looking for a goodbye hug or even a candy cane he wanted a high-five After visiting 14 kids at Mercy the motorcade rolled to Redding Medical Center where Santa and McGruff zeroed in on the only two children admitted Then it was over the hills and through the dense fog Fox network Television viewers in the north state will be able to watch Fox network television programs on Chico station KCVU beginning Jan 1 KCVU-TV Promotions Director Robin Delgado said Wednesday the independent station which went on the air in Redding Chico and Paradise Oct 6 will join the Fox network as an affiliate station The 24-hour station is seen on over-the-air channel 30 or cable channel 13 for Viacom Cablevision customers Fox recently outbid CBS for the rights to broadcast National Football Conference games including the San Francisco 49ers The station will also air programs such as Simpsons" Hills and With Delgado said DA gets funds to fight crime The Siskiyou County district attorney's office has received a $6170 grant from the McConnell Foundation to buy equipment used to investigate child abuse The equipment will be used by the district attorney's child abuse response team which investigates and prosecutes child sexual and physical abuse offenders and provides counseling for victims said Barbara Back-man victimwitness coordinator The grant will be used to buy a laptop computer a printer two video cameras three hand-held tape recorders an office tape recorder two 35mm cameras one Polaroid camera a pager human anatomical models used for court exhibits and an overhead projector Ms Backman said Girl wins raffle for playhouse A 6-year-old girl was the winner of a Victorian playhouse raffled off to benefit Project Playground The name of Mary Beth Watts who lives north of Redding was on the ticket drawn Saturday said Kristina Rogers Project Playground spokeswoman was so nice that it was a child who won it We have some people who bought tickets for it because they wanted it for a doghouse" she said The playhouse was designed by Redding architect Jeff Peterson who also helped build it It is worth several thousand dollars he said The fund-raiser brought in more than $6000 for the all-volunteer effort to build a wooden play structure at the planned Enterprise Community Park off Victor Avenue is scheduled to be built next fall Johannessen office gets number Residents in Shasta and Tehama counties can now call the Redding office of state Sen Maurice Johannessen To reach his north state field representatives by phone call 224-4706 Redding office is at 410 Hemsted Drive Suite 200 The mailing address for the Redding office is 410 Hemsted Drive Suite 200 Redding CA 96002 Or send letters in care of the State Capitol Sacramento CA 95814 Johannessen's Sacramento number is (916) 445-3353 meets Santa Claus (Tom Risk of R-S photo by MichMl Burk Redting) Wednesday at Mercy Medical Center in Redding graph with the police crew Darker said families were nominated for the gifts by schools DARE officers and directors of low-income housing facilities Each officer that participated -in disseminating gifts was off-duty but in uniform Darker said While they enjoyed traveling through Redding pleasing people in need their mission was interrupted when duty called Between stops Darker with Santa in the passenger seat of his patrol car assisted a stranded motorist helped locate an 85-yearold Alzheimer's patient who wandered through a shopping center parking lot and offered directions to a lost citizen All the stuffed animals and coloring books given to children were purchased with money donated in one week by the Police Department and the Redding Police Officer's Association Darker said $800 was donated the first day like to do this Darker said a personal thing with our bite of aid Redding pofice CpL Richard McCartin holds his son Matthew 2 Wednesday during visit to Mercy Mecfical Center 4 i Zacharia Harper 2 of Burney to a handfol of Redding homes Two police patrol cars and two police vans carried Santa McGruff fUcer Chris Darker (who started Operation Blue Santa three years ago) police chaplain Lester Westling community service officers Mary Ann Kelley and Linda Larson crime prevention officer Tina Lopez and cadet Phaedra Mitchell Dozens of small children swarmed the parking lot of a South Market Street housing complex when the police pulled in with their sirens wailing Some residents looked stunned when a red-suited man rather than a blue-suited officer stepped out Eric Goodrich 3 blew right past Santa and headed for Darker who was in uniform Much to delight Eric hugged him and began grilling him about the police car's equipment like this program because associated with Santa a good Darker said many times kids see mom or dad arrested The only time they see Of the fends $270 million is available for distribution among the three states during the current fiscal year California now is positioned in that marketplace We're guaranteed a certain amount of money But it doesn't mean we're not going to be energetic in our efforts to share in more of the said Terry Gorton Gov Wilson's assistant secretary of resources and leader of the Community Economic Revitalizations Team (CERT) California already has been assured at least 15 percent of the aid package which will be distributed over three years But competition is expected to be keen for the rest of the money among the three states and among timber communities The first of the money should laige boxes of turkeys hams and presents to the families Officers also helped Valerie Rafferty and her two children Tiffany 7 and Ryan 5 who were displaced by a fire that destroyed their trailer Nov 17 is so Rafferty said as her family posed for a photo for bigger Timber-dependent areas scramble 1 1 it a 3 a ti us is when we take their mom or dad Eric's mother Amber Goodrich 22 who has two other children and another on the way and 13 other residents in the complex were thrilled to have help with Christmas gifts Santa and the officers gave arrive in February according to Gorton The aid has excited local leaders but most still worry because of the prospect of farther logging curtailments on federal forests Under the Clinton administration's Option 9 plan federal timber harvests would be reduced to 12 billion board feet annually In recent weeks however the administration has moved to ease logging restrictions on state and private lands Timber-dependent communities including many north state towns say the logging restrictions are draining their economic livelihoods And the onus may now be on timber communities to assure themselves a cut of relief money by coming up with programs that will meet with approval from agencies charged with disbursing the funds ted by Shasta County groups The state CERT is expected to meet in mid-January to begin siting through the proposals California's CERT panel is composed of state officials and representatives of the eight northern counties Included on the board in addition to Mrs Sullivan are Tehama County Supervisor Shirley Marelli Siskiyou County Supervisor Roger Zwanziger and Trinity County Supervisor Ross Burgess who also sits on the tri-state CERT paneL Part of aid $12 million this year will come from the Old-Growth Diversification fend which state officials said they lobbied to get Those fends totaling million this fiscal year were previously dedicated to Oregon and How much Shasta Siskiyou Tehama and Trinity counties receive will depend on how well proposals are received by fending agencies such as the Small Business Administration and other participating state and federal agencies Among the criteria applications will be judged on how well a proposed project fits into a overall economic strategy state officials said a misconception that counties will get checks in their said Shasta County Supervisor Francie Sullivan a member of the state CERT paneL Instead groups will have to submit applications detailing their proposed projects As of last week the state had received some 550 requests for money to fend community programs according to Gorton Of those about 50 have been submitr California has already been assured at least 15 percent of the $12 billion aid package the Clinton administration has promised By Bobby Calvan R-S civic affairs reporter A new state panel is quickly marshaling forces to assure a larger share of federal aid money reaches California's timber-rich but economically faltering communities State officials already are trumpeting their successes and say California is in position to compete with Oregon ami Washington for the Clinton administration's promised $12 billion in aid money I.