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Sonoma County, a diverse county of over one million acres, is famed for its agriculture, industry and recreation, boasting a booming economy and unique lifestyle for its citizens. Described by the same Luther Burbank as the chosen spot of all the Earth, Sonoma County is the place to

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live, work and play as we move into the 21st century. Led by the forward looking philosophy of its governing bodies, Cinema Counties, 340,000 residents are, Ah, harmonious, successful blend of ethnic and economic backgrounds. We invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in the

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nineties with your host rich McGlinchy. How you doing, Everybody? Welcome to another edition of Sonoma County in the nineties, on location at Spring Lake Park. A beautiful park is located in east of sent roses, one of our Sonoma County regional parks, and we're gonna learn more

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about them and some of the other part that we have in this county. We're gonna be talking to Mike for board and Carol preshow, uh, Mike, you have to give me your title. I'm the supervising park ranger for Cinema County regional parks. OK, providing park Ranger.

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Remember that, Rick Carol, what is your title? I'm a park ranger, too, and I'm stationed here. It's spring like Park. The Resident Rangers. That's correct. You live here? That's right. A great place to waive. Talked recently to Rogers. You're a ranger here. Bring Lake about some

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of the facilities here, and there are many of them and it's beautiful. It's about a 300 acre park site, right? About what? About 75 acre lake. Isn't it correct? Yeah, and one other. Some of the other things people could do here, here, at Spring Lake Park.

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Yeah, OK, well, spring like part walk. I know that you're Springlake is probably our most highly developed facility. It has everything from group picnic areas to group camping. We have a campground. The 74 acre lake, which is behind us, is available for boating and fishing. We

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have a 2.5 acre swimming lagoon that has operated during the summer months. In addition, we're joined on both the east and West by other agencies we have. On the west side of the park is the city's Howarth Park, and we have a connecting path of paved

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bicycle path. On that goes from that facility into ours. And then on the east side, we have an Adele State Park. Yeah, we have a Siris of trails that connect into that first big. Sure. Well, listen, let's talk about some of the regional park facilities. The

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type that you operate, what are what was included in a redo park system would say, OK, rich, we've just completed our 25th anniversary as a department was cinema count, and I was here when it started. It's really 25 years, 25 years. So we have. We've grown,

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of course, Originally, 25 years ago, when the department started, we only operated, uh, the department took over the operation of Healdsburg Beach and Door in Park. Since that time, we've grown dramatically as the county has ago. I have one right now. We have a variety of

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facilities throughout the county that are available for the public to use. We have our little neighborhood community facilities, those air small parks. Generally, they have playgrounds, picnic tables in some small turf areas and those air usually used by neighborhood groups. Then you get into your community

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facilities, which are a little larger. They'll have the same amenities as small neighborhood parks. But generally they're a little more developed in there, a little bit larger in size. And those types of facilities would include baseball diamonds, soccer courts, tennis courts, volleyball cords, maybe some undeveloped

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area that would allow for some hiking trails and those types of things. You know, we're talking with Arnie, uh, weeks past about this. Sanoma County has probably the best regional park system in Northern California. Well, probably for me, the best. Because some of the counties of

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losing their parts I think that's correct. Yes, that with the state of the budget, all government agencies, and even in the private sector today things have become a lot tighter. We feel we've done an excellent job on. Of course, we have a responsibility to the citizens

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of the county to continue to provide them with a good recreation experience. I can tell you, ladies and gentlemen, without any fear of contradiction that these people have done a wonderful job have been with the county since right after Joe go to came on and I

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got started in things and it was carried on by Jim Angelo. But the parks that are available in Sonoma County. The Bay Heels, Bergson Normal, Petaluma. We hear anyone you want to go are just simply outstanding. If you haven't been eating, you should make it a

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point to go very soon. We're coming. We're into coming into Weber in the winner now, almost into it. What kind of activities are there that people can enjoy in the park during the winter? Okay, actually, the winner is a good time for people to visit, especially

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our coastal facilities. Those facilities have camping overnight facilities, stuff like that, but it's a good time of the year. The there's not the summer fog, and the winds tend to be down a little bit more so you can go out and enjoy the beauty of the

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surf. The beach coming It's a good time. There's also the whale watching type of activities. Now it It's also the time of year when we get some of our migrating runs in some of the streams and rivers, and so people do use Healdsburg Beach and, uh,

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the Woeller Bridge access point to get into some fishing. The glass on the wall, all a campground, is used fairly heavily because of the salmon and steelhead runs in the wall, a river. And, of course, they do stock springlike park during the winter months. So we

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get a lot of fishing, those types of activities. It's a good time to hike some of our open space parts during the summer. It's very hot. And during the wintertime it's cool. It's refreshing, and it's a good time to get out now for programming. We will

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continue through the winner right here. It's spring like Park and Carol can talk about some of the programming with the with the visitor center a little later on, they will offer some nature programmes from nature walks, possibly some bicycle lights. And those types of activities are

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very popular. Yes, um, you're the assistant Rangers sort of speaker, Chief Ranger or whatever the phraseology. I get it for your own eases. Number one person. Okay. Your hours of operations change in the wintertime from the summer. Don't. That's true. I mean, that starts about you

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not just hear spring like that throughout our parks. Yeah, normally are day use parks close at sunset so as the sun sets earlier are closing times get earlier and earlier. We also have some parks that their facilities changed the services we offer change. For example, the

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spring like campground in the wintertime is only open on weekends and holidays, and it's closed during the week. And we also have some parks, like Hood Mountain Park, which are closed during the summer time. Because of the fear of fire hazard, They may be opened in

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the wintertime. When, when the weather gets a little cooler and the rain starts so that the fire danger is over new parks. Are you gonna be open in a new direction? Well, if or maybe a for loop parking a big thing. Well, the department has some

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plans to upgrade. Ah, lot of the existing facilities this year, rich, and we will be adding some new facilities I can think of to. We have acquired another portion of the railroad right away in the Sebastian pool area. So between annalee High School in Highway 1

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16 and that's probably 1/2 a mile, 3/4 mile piece that should be developed this year. And then that will be an extension of the redoubt. A trail. Oh, yeah, Yeah, yeah. Yes. Um, how about a map? You're a map available, it may be, shows all the

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regional park facilities. And if there is one, how could you get a copy? Sure, we have the department brochure that lists all our facilities and talks a little bit about those. And those were available at almost all of our park headquarters. If they see one of

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the Rangers staff, they can acquire that. The visitor center has it. And, of course, our main office downtown and the county center. The well, let's jump. Another seven people are having problems with vandalism everywhere. Has regional parks suffering the the tortures of the vandalised So far,

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Actually, we noticed a dramatic change in the vandalism, probably during the year the fiscal year of 1990 1991. Prior to that, we didn't keep individual records on those types of activities. So we started actually in 91 92 we tracked all of the vandalism throughout the county

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park system, and we found that we spent about $22,000 on vandalism. Now, this last year, 92 93. This is kind of like a food. July 2 July we spent a little over $16,000 so we know we're doing something a little bit better out there with regards.

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Teoh handling the vandalism problems Most of our vandalism, I would say the major problems in vandalism that we experience probably Number one is graffiti. The writing is is sort of something that's become very popular and stuff, and it's time consuming and takes away from other functions

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that we tried to do out there. But graffiti damage to signs, trash litter, maybe after hours parties. When people get into our facilities and stuff, those air probably are leading causes. Yeah, now, knowing what you've just said to be true, what have you done, Teoh. I

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want to stop the vandalism. Well, we've been involved in several programs, one of which we've worked in conjunction with Cinema County, Sheriff's Office, the community Park watch program through their community services, off operations. And we've we've kind of molded it after the neighborhood watch program. We

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call it the Neighborhood Park Watch program, and what we've done in several areas is to contact the local neighbors and get them involved in in what are problems are most of our problems occur after hours by meeting with these people and putting up some sign age

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were able to get a notification. When people are in the parks after hours, we're getting reports of suspicious people. Another program that we've gotten involved with is the Drug Free Zone program, Uh, that's geared more towards eliminating illegal drug and alcohol use within the parks and

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by designating a park as a drug and alcohol free zone. It allows the court system to impose a little more severe penalty upon the individuals if they're caught doing illegal acts. We've also we've publicized. We've done a number of press releases talking about vandalism and the

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cost to the general public, those types of things. What can the general public do to help your initial Well, because of the state of the budget anymore, which I guess what we primarily ask, even in our public watch, our park watch meetings. We asked the public

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to be an extra set of eyes and ears out there for us. Uh, we don't want them to actively get involved. In other words, don't confront someone that's not their role. That's the Rangers role or is the law enforcement role. But if they can report immediately

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in the vandalism. Any hazards? Any suspicious people if they can get license numbers or any of those types of things and let us handle it, that's primarily the biggest thing that could be done by them. Yeah, well, ladies Denver, let me add this to what? My

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extreme? That these parks are marvellous facilities in a great place to come get away from the pressures of the rest of the world. They're beauty. Here, there's entertainment. These animals and things were great to watch. You can walk to your heart's content. All these things will

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be done and therefore you and me. But if you go out and foul any of them up, you're taking away from me and everybody else, so I don't know it. It just simple that Don't do it. Uh, Carol, um, bring me a park. Has something new

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at least understand? It has called a bicycle patrol program. Now tell us about That's right. We're very proud of this program. It's about a year and 1/2 hold. And, um, it was started by a couple of park rangers, and it's kind of grown. They started using

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their own bicycles, and now we do have two fully equipped professional bicycles, mountain bikes and were ableto patrol around the bike path patrol in some of the dirt trails and into some of the areas that are very difficult to get to. In our vehicles, we can

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contact fishermen that air out on small trails, waken contact, bicyclists and people walking. We've done a nature bike ride where we had a group of people comma gave him a nature program that we rode around the park. We've had numerous contacts with people that we wouldn't

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normally get to see if we were just walking or driving around in the truck. And it's a wonderful program. Were very run of the trail for the bike. So here in the park of self yes, we've got lots of dirt trails and narrow trails that the

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only way to get to is either on foot or by bicycle. And, um, the Bicycle patrol has been one of the first responding units to several first day who calls. And because we're able to get there more rapidly than the cars can. Oh, yeah, this is

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just geared for that. Yes. Bring like certainly. Yeah. Alright. We're gonna pause right here, has a radius the station. Bring the audience a public service announcement, after which will come back with Dr Mark Wahlberg and Carol Pressure. More about the kind of regional park department and

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also maybe a little bit more about spring like part First. This message. I'm a counselor and have worked with teenagers for 12 years, along with their friends. They're making tough choices every day, like whether to drink or smoke or experiment with sex. I've learned that for

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them, the K to dealing with peer pressure is self confidence. Parents can do more than anyone else to build that confidence and make sure they don't smoke. Here are some of the ways you can help show interest in their activities. Complement their achievements, whether they're on

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the first team or the third string. Respect their individuality, their need for independence. Help them set realistic goals. And when things go wrong, avoid personal criticism focused on the problems. Show your teenagers you love and respect them. It's one important way you can strengthen them to

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help make the right decisions. Everybody needs help talking to their kids, sometimes called for your free booklet on how parents can talk to their teenagers about smoking and other tough issues. The family course consortium believes smoking shouldn't be a part of growing up. Welcome back to

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this tradition of Sonoma County in the nineties, on location at Spring Lake Park. And we're talking to people living very familiar with Spring Lake Park. Mark Wahlberg, the my Commute title again supervising park Ranger to providing park Ranger and Carol preshow And you are granted to

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for Spring Lake Park near the assistant. Uh, chief Ranger here in the car. Okay, we enter the quest. We talked to you about the bicycle patrol. What you got started and is working real well, but have also found some creative ways to fund the bicycle program

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on the patrol. Uh, tell us about it. Well, as everyone is aware, we've all been having budget problems. And this was a program that, you know, this is the program that we really wanted to follow through on. So, um, the staff, the rangers purchased part of

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their own uniforms themselves, but in order to fund Theo equipment needed for the bicycles such as the saddlebag that we hold all the first aid equipment in and things like that pumps and water bottles and a little speedometer and things like that. We've gone to our

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recycling program here, X spring like park, and we have barrel sit around the park asking people to put the aluminum cans in. Then we take the money that we generate from that, and it goes to funding the bicycle program and also to fund all our interpretive

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programs for supplies and things that we need to give nature programs around the park. I think that's a marvelous idea. And you should, uh, people should be commended for giving of yourselves in more ways than one Mike. Another thing that important people, certainly in the audience.

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Regional parks, annual passes. How can people get one of those? Okay, well, first of all, Rich, we offer three types of annual passes. The 1st 1 is our annual day use parking permit. Those air valid for one year from the date their purchase so people can

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buy those at any time of the year, and they're good for an entire year. Those allow free parking at any of our facilities. That charge there presently cost $40 if someone goes toe apart more than 15 times in a year, they're going to start saving money

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now. Our other type of past that we have is our senior citizen pass. It's called Our Golden Years Pass. And what that pass allows is senior citizens of Sonoma County, where 60 years of age and older can purchase the past, which is also good for a

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year for $15 that entitles them for free parking thing. This is really, really a break. The third type of past that we have is a site specific pass and those air used for athletic, uh, facilities. We have one at Maxwell Park, and we have one at

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Regal Ranch in Sebastopol. There are $10 they're good for four months. And those were primarily developed to assist people through, ah, the Little League season or the soccer season or the adult softball season so they could buy the past for $10 because the only frequent at

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that part, those passes are only good for those facilities, though. Okay, the passes can be purchased. That's all right. The passes can be purchased from any park ranger in the field at any of the facilities, or they can come into our main office and pick him

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up. Where? The main office. It's Ah, in the LA Plaza West building in the county Center Theatric s. You want me to give the address? Sure. 2300 County center drive. Okay, 1 20 A Santa Rosa. Okay. 2300 county center drive. That's his new too big building.

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That's crazy. All right. All right. Um, we talked a little bit earlier about Spring Lake Park, and what's in it? It was a question I had to ask. It was, since we are here, maybe want to dwell on that a little bit more. But have you

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missed anything that's here that people have? No, uh, within this park here, maybe. Let's restate with you. What's here. Well, we do have this new visitor center, rich. All right, What about that? Well, kill is Are you coordinator for that? Is that you've been Were you

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tell us about that? Yeah. This is one of my pet projects is just a little bit over a year old. Um, the spring like visitor center is a wonderful building. It's won awards for its design. It's kind of hidden in the side of the of the

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hill up in the Shady Oaks picnic area off of violating Road, the beautiful, Beautiful. If people come into this, the swimming lagoon side of the park, it's up on the hillside, and we have displays in there on the plants and animals and cultural history of the

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spring like area. And one of the special things about the center is most of the displays are interactive displays. People can come and do have a hands on approach to the displays that could touch and smell and draw. And we've got games for the kids. And

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it's not just, you know, coming in looking at pictures in reading a text. It's We encourage people to come and actually get their hands a little dirty and have fun. Uh, what type of events do you hold this new center? Well, we try to have some

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kind of special van each month or so, and in the past we've had programs like we had the Owls at dusk, where we had wildlife rescuing bird rescue come out. They brought some wild owls that people were able to touch and learn about, and that was

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a very popular program. We've had a basket weaving demonstrations. We've had storytelling in the storytelling cavern. We've had games for kids when a holiday comes up. For example, around Halloween we had a hollowing program where kids came in costume and we had prizes and games year

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toward spooky nature, things like like spiders and bats and things like that. And, um, trying to keep it interesting and have something exciting happening regularly. Sounds fascinating. Do you have programs for organized groups? And if you do have somebody arranged for a group program? First of

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all, do you have? Yes, we dio. Right now we're offering programs on a, um, as requested basis. And we have programs available for school groups of all ages for, like Cub Scouts and Brownie troops. And, you know, any small small group even we've had adult senior

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groups come. We have nature walks and ordered nature programs where we can have a You're a tourist toward a specific topic. If they wanna learn just about birds or just about plants or just about you know the Indians weaken accommodate that. And people who are interested

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in that need to contact us at spring like park, and the phone number is 539 8092 and give us at least two weeks advance notice, preferably more so that we can try to arrange the, uh, schedule scheduled. The event number. It's 539 8092 And that's spring

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like parks. Phone number. Uh, Michael, If I'm correct, I think you'll even mentioned that the, uh, visitor center is just passed its first anniversary. Either of you. How many people visited instead? Would you guess, or do you have some kind of account? Well, the first year

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we had over 7000 people come to the visitor center and waiting, and we had additional 4000 people calling and asking questions about, you know, all the regional parks. So we've had over 11,000 public contacts in its first year. And, yes, we were very proud. What about

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one of the hours? Well, right now the center. Because of some budget problems, the centers open, staffed by ranger or parking staff on weekends, it's open, usually from about nine until six or nine until five, and then during the week we're have some volunteers and some

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dough. Since that staff the center on an intermittent basis were hoping to be able to staff it all the time. If we can get enough volunteers. And so if people call the park, we can let him know definitely if which week day it's gonna be open.

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We got about two minutes left, goes pretty fast. Uh, what kind of jobs to the original volunteer do we've? We've got all kinds of opportunities for people who are interested in volunteering. We've got trail walkers. We've got geese, feeders. God, um, people who are interested in

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something specific, like photography or something. They can have programs for that put together slide programs. We can have people doing trail work, building trails, trimming brush painting, people who are interested in doing office work. We've got all kinds of clerical type tasks that need to be

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done. Just about anything you could think of. Um, is available for someone who's interested in being a volunteer, not just a this park, but any of the snow mechanic part Well, and with a budget crunch that we're all going through, the county is a city in

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the state. We need to help all the help we could get. The volunteers provide tremendous help and they, you said earlier, both of everything. They're enabling us to continue to services. Definitely. If it if it hadn't been for the volunteers. The budget crisis hit. The visitation

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are very hard. We started out being open seven days a week, and now we're down to two. And we we depend on the volunteers and the dough. Since to help keep the center running, keep the displays changing. So it's interesting for people. Do some of the

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nature walks and, um, just keep the center going. Uh, we're out of time, but I don't want to ask one quick thing. How does a person go about becoming a volunteer for the park? Anyone who is interested in being a volunteer needs to contact our Parks

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Department either at Spring Lake or a main park office in the numbers of 5 to 7 to 041 And we'll send them all the information they need and answer any questions they have. Okay, thanks for being here. Thank you so much. Thank you. Wasn't too bad.

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Was on. Mike says, I don't know. It was one. I want to be on television. Well, they did a marvelous job. We've been talking to Mike Faubourg, and we're talking to Carol Pressure to members of Sonoma County Regional Part Staff. We on location here at Spring

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Lake Park, which is a magnificent place to visit. If you haven't been here, come from here sometime soon. My name's rich. McGlinchey the program. Sonoma County in the nineties. I'll be back with you next week with another member, the county government, family or related agency. Until

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then. Goodbye. Good luck could help you all. And as I said before, come, enjoy your plan.