Short Takes Short Takes (March 03, 2004)

Oh say, did you hear?

The 87-member Hillview School Band will perform in a pre-game show at the "Battle of the Bay" pre-season baseball game between the San Francisco Giants-Oakland A's on Friday, April 2, in the Giants' stadium, San Francisco.

Already, 655 boosters of the band and Menlo Park's schools have bought tickets for bleacher seats to hear the band play the national anthem and watch the game.

This is the third year in a row that the band will perform at PacBell Park, said Richard Vaughan, band director and music specialist at Hillview, the Menlo Park district's middle school.
Passing the fire helmet

La Honda's volunteer fire brigade desperately needs a new set of wheels and it needs help footing the bill. The brigade's 24-year-old second-hand fire engine has seen better days -- it's logged 84,000 miles, caught on fire, snapped a rear axle and had a number of pump failures, said Larry Whitney, the volunteer fire chief.

Replacing it with a sturdy, "all-hazard" replacement that can take fire crews off-road, up steep and winding streets and across flooded areas will cost over $215,000, he said.

So why should folks outside of the tiny community of La Honda contribute to the cause? For starters, La Honda's fire brigade is the first responder for a 54-square-mile territory that includes three county parks, one state park, and on sunny weekends, thousands of recreation-seeking Bay Area residents, said Chief Whitney. Last year, more than three-quarters of the brigade's calls were from people who live outside the La Honda area, he said.

"Out on the roadway you've got equestrians, motorcyclists, bicyclists, local residents and Enterprise rent-a-cars. All together, it can be a fairly dangerous equation if everybody isn't paying attention," Chief Whitney said.

Donations may be sent to: La Honda Fire Brigade, P.O. Box 97, La Honda, CA 94020. For information, call 747-9447, extension 103.

Short Takes is edited by Andrea Gemmet. Send items to agemmet@almanacnews.com.

E-mail a friend a link to this story.