Positive changes being made in the city of Sacramento

Chili cook-off raises money for Kiwanis Family House

2011-05-24T07:17:01Z

On Sunday, members of the Kiwanis Family House and the International Chili Society brought their best bowls of chili to the Kiwanis Chili Cook-off at The West Sacramento Moose Family Center on Jefferson Blvd.

While the judges were inside the center tasting various kinds of salsas and Chile Verde, the participating cooks began chopping up onions, and adding meat to their pots of chili.

Both the Kiwanis and ICS members were given one hour of prep time and three hours to cook their chili before the judging began at 3 p.m.

The chili cook-off consisted of two challenges: the Kiwanis Chili Challenge and the International Chili Society Regional Chili Cook-off.

The ICS regional chili cook-off had a total of 20 participants who competed in three categories: best salsa, best Chile Verde and the ICS Red (Texas style chili).

The Kiwanis members of the East Sacramento-Midtown club sponsored the event that was made up of eight contestants.

The Kiwanis Family House is a nonprofit organization that provides housing to families that have ill children or adult family members who are being treated at the University of California, Davis, medical center.

Development Manager of the East Sacramento-Midtown Kiwanis Family House Gary Christensen said the profits from the event will stem from the $10 donations from the community to taste the chili and the ICS member’s registration fee, who participate in the regional cook-off.

Together, both organizations helped to raise a total of $2,500 for the Kiwanis Family House.

“We’ve had over 20,000 families come stay at The Kiwanis House since 1984,” Christensen said.

Christensen added the proceeds from the event will go to families who cannot afford to pay the $40 rent per day, which is required of families that want to stay at the Kiwanis Family House.

“The winner gets bragging rights for a whole year and a banner,” said Kiwanis Family House member and competitor Leslie Merker.

Heather Schiltz, who lives in the suburbs of Sacramento, won by popular vote for the best-cooked chili.

“This is the first time I’ve done this type of event, so it’s cool,” Schiltz said.

Vice President of the Board of Directors, at the Kiwanis Family House in Citrus Heights Bill Hooper said he has been working with the Kiwanis Family House for 33 years and was satisfied with the outcome of the event.

“I enjoyed tasting all the different chilis, the fellowship and working for such a great cause,” Hooper said. “With the bad economy, families really need us.”

In addition to both chili challenges, the event featured a live band, Last Call, and a raffle by the Kiwanis Club.

Vendors such as the Salt City Candle Company and Baja Mariner were stationed across from the chili competitors.

“When you dine with people, you become friends. When you cook with people, you become family,” said Bobby Brown, who was at the event selling his Baja Mariner seafood and vegetable dip.

“I’m having a great time and having fun tasting all the chili,” said Nikki Shepard, 40, who lives in Elk Grove.

David Hipskind, who was a participant of the ICS challenge, said the first-place winners will go to the world champion ICS cook-off.

Hipskind has been a member for of the ICS for 30 years and said he uses only the freshest ingredients for his chili.

“My wife and I have developed the recipe so it’s a proven winner,” Hipskind said.

There were 12 judges for the ICS chili cook-off.

“The ICS is very consistent with their chili making. With the community, you’ll get everything from chili to spaghetti,” said Steve Boldenweck, who participated as a judge in the cook-off.

Boldenweck said the Kiwanis Club community is not required to follow the same rules as the ICS in their chili making.

The ICS cannot use beans in their chili only meat and the ingredients used to make their sauce.

The Kiwanis community cooks are allowed to add anything from black beans to sausage links to their chili.

Boldenweck added that as a judge he likes to go by T.A.C.A, which means to judge based on taste, aroma, consistency and appearance.

Steve McIntire has been nominated for president elect at the East Sacramento-Midtown Kiwanis club and joined about a year ago.

Before the event ended, McIntire gathered everyone outside of the lodge to announce the winners.

Bobby Santos, who lives in East Sacramento, won for best salsa.

“It feels great to have won,” Santos said.

Lynn Robinson, who is a member of ICS and lives in Lincoln, won for best chili Verde.

“This is awesome, we’re going to the world championship!” Robinson said.

The winner of the red chili was Steve Atkinson, who resides in Reno.

“I was really shocked there were a lot of good chilis out there,” Atkinson said.

“When I heard about the Kiwanis house, it became a passionate thing for me,” McIntire said.

McIntire has been a member of the ICS for 20 years.

He brought the idea of the cook-off to the board of the Kiwanis Family House and plans on making this an annual event.

“The family house needs the money to operate. Since I became aware of the family house, I wanted to help them,” McIntire said. “We’re using the chili as a vehicle to raise money for the family house.”

“If we have it again here next year, it will be twice as good,” said director of the West Sacramento Kiwanis Family House, Mauda Butte.

“The family house touches a lot of people,” Butte said.

For more information on future events held by The Kiwanis Family House visit their website. www.kiwanisfamilyhouse.org

Organization monitors government actions

2011-05-18T07:12:17Z

Eye on Sacramento, a nonprofit Sacramento-based government watchdog organization, has recently been launched in the city of Sacramento to maintain a watchful eye on the policies and actions of the city government.

“We formed EOS because we believe that too little attention is paid to the broad public interest and too much attention is paid to special interests,” said EOS President Craig Powell. “The public has little inside knowledge of what really goes on in city government. We hope to change that.”

“Eye on Sacramento was started by a core group of about nine people who were active in the Campaign for Common Sense Utilities Rates (the group that sponsored Measure B on the November 2010 ballot),” Powell said.

Powell currently serves as the vice president of the Sacramento County Taxpayers League and is the league’s point person on city government issues. He is also the president of the Land Park Volunteer Corps (which cares for William Land Park) and writes the monthly “City Hall” column for Inside the City magazine.

“Six more individuals have joined the effort over the past five or six months, so the 15 key participants now comprise the initial Board of Directors of EOS,” Powell said.

Powell said EOS was formed for two reasons: to “shine a very bright light” on the actions and policies of local government in Sacramento and to develop and promote local government policies that advance and protect the broad interests of the general public.

“The three functions that form the core of Eye on Sacramento’s work is the watchdog unit, our policy incubator and our community unit,” Powell said.

The watchdog unit is composed of about half a dozen people amongst whom are several board members and whose responsibilities entail monitoring the role of the city government.

Powell explained that the watchdog unit is responsible for attending all City Council meetings, monitoring the actions of all City Council members and being able to follow up with the council by asking questions during public comment.

“We are actively recruiting volunteers who wish to serve in our watchdog unit, either as regular monitors of government actions, investigators of particular issues or government actions, researchers and writers,” Powell said. “Volunteers expand our capacity to scrutinize local government.”

The policy incubator is the process in which the board will review current policy issues on a regular basis in order to make a final agreement on creating a new policy.

Once the board has created a policy that they all can agree on, a recommendation of the policy will be proposed to the City Council.

“Sacramento residents should have every opportunity to feel confident in their local government. I appreciate anyone who sees priority in the importance of maintaining integrity and transparency throughout government offices,” said City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby.

Powell added that EOS is now focusing on the cellphone tower and billboard policy and recommendations to the current budget crisis within the city.

“Outsourcing is an alternative budget solution to mass layoffs and public service-level cutbacks, which have been the primary budget-balancing tools of the local government in the past few years,” Powell said.

The implementation of presenting awareness to the public about the actions of local government will be done through the EOS community unit.

“The city not only welcomes but encourages public input and participation during the budget adoption process,” said city spokeswoman Amy Williams.

“We want to create a strong communication system between ourselves and neighborhoods,” Powell said.

These efforts will be performed through the EOS representatives, whose role is to watch over particular communities within the city of Sacramento and attend neighborhood meetings.

“By attending neighborhood association meetings, EOS representatives will be able to connect with members of the community and report back to the EOS board as to what the issues or concerns of the community are,” Powell said.

He added that EOS will assess public priorities by receiving feedback from local communities and periodically conducting polls within particular areas of Sacramento that question residents on their attitudes toward government.

“Right now, improving the local economy is critical and ensuring that we don’t make cutbacks in the city’s public services,” Powell said.

“(On May 12), City Council directed staff to explore ways of restoring community centers and staff is working at reviewing all feasible options,” said Williams.

EOS will use email alerts, newsletters and TV interviews to voice to the public the actions of local government as it pertains to the concerns of the residents of Sacramento.

“The government performs better when they’re being scrutinized than when they know that no one is looking, “Powell said.

The members of the Board of Directors of Eye on Sacramento include Craig K. Powell, Greg Hatfield, Lisa Garcia, Carl Burton, James Felton, Ray Garcia, Diane Schachterle, Erik Smitt, Arnold Duplantier Sr., Karen Klinger, Sarah Foster, Katy Grimes, Phil Nails, Dennis Kellogg and Adam Willoughby.

Next year, EOS plans to focus its attention on the city’s school, park and fire districts, as well as the cities of Elk Grove and Rancho Cordova.

New soccer field is dedicated to Grantland Johnson in Hagginwood Park by councilwoman Sandy Sheedy and Hagginwood community

2011-03-17T16:23:57Z

City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy, along with the Hagginwood community, will be gathering Saturday in honor of a new soccer field recently constructed in Hagginwood Park.

The soccer field will be named after Grantland Johnson, a former city councilman and county supervisor representing all of North Sacramento.

“We’re expecting about 60-100 people will show up,” said Jim Cones, director for Sacramento’s Parks and Recreation Department. “Recently we had a grand opening of a park in North Sacramento, and there were several hundred people.”

Cones said the plan to implement the soccer field came from a survey that was conducted in 2008.

“Some of the parks in the city were not as safe as they should be, so the community did surveys, and the No. 1 recommendation from the community was to reconstruct Hagginwood Park,” Cones said.

As part of the master plan to re-design Hagginwood Park, a new soccer field has been provided as an effort to make positive changes in the community.

“The park will be used to promote positive things and leave less of an opportunity for negative influences like drugs or gang violence,” Cones said.

In addition to the need for positive influences within the community, there was a lack of soccer fields for use in North Sacramento.

Sheedy said the soccer field can be rented throughout the year and has been built to meet the needs of the residents in Hagginwood.

The funding for this project was provided by both the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency and the Department of Parks and Recreation.

“SHRA contributed $1 million and our budget was $1.3 million,” Cones said.

Johnson grew up in Del Paso Heights and graduated from Grant High School, where he was a
member of the Grant Pacers football team and played baseball on what has now become the Grantland Johnson soccer field.

“It’s the community’s way of thanking Grantland Johnson for his contributions to this city and state,” Sheedy said.

The grand opening of the new soccer field will be at Hagginwood Park from 1 - 2:30 p.m. Saturday. The park is located at 3271 Marysville Blvd.

Cones said the reconstruction of Hagginwood Park is just beginning. There are still new restrooms to be built, parking lots to be redesigned, and a makeover of the entire playground to be done.