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Community Connection
01-25-06

Winter Ramblings

Help for seniors.

The new federal Medicare prescription drug plan provides a wide array of options and apparently an even stronger dosage of utter confusion.  To help seniors navigate their way through the new Medicare Part D  program, The Corte Madera Lions Club and the Corte Madera Women’s Improvement Club are teaming up to offer an information session on the evening of Thursday, February 23rd at the Corte Madera Recreation Center.  Watch for more information to come soon.  Do mark your calendars now, as there may be penalties for those who don’t sign up for the plan before May of this year.

Also, don’t forget the Community Foundation is installing safety grab bars in your home, free if you need them to be.  It’s so easy to slip in the tub or shower and break something, and you know how much longer it takes to heal as you get older.  Don’t be too proud to call for these wonderful life saving and health supporting tools.  Jim Fox, a great local handyman will do the installation.  Even if you are still relatively young (and we all know that “young” is getting older and older) remember that an ounce of prevention is worth at least a phone call, right?   Call me (925-3209) or Joanne Vaughan (924-0150).
 
Those younger Seniors can breathe a sigh of relief.

A salute to all the senior high school students and their parents who have spent hundreds of hours applying to colleges.  As one of those families, I can say that the stress of it all is immense.  We applied to 18 (eighteen) of them.  It’s a circus!  To get into a really good school these days, you need excellent grades, excellent test scores, a very strong extra curricular sport or other activity, and as a friend of mine put it “You also need to have founded a non-profit school for third world children.”  Okay that is an exaggeration, but how expectations have increased for what a human being is supposed to have accomplished by age 18!  Maybe eventually, seniors will be able to post one universal application on the internet, and it will be up to the colleges to go shopping for kids and make them offers.  The emotional rollercoaster would still be in play, but at least it would be easier for kids than writing 18 different essays about “why I am such a great kid -- without bragging, of course!”

New Boat Dock Looks Likely.

The Town Council was very responsive to an excellent presentation by Larry Chin recently about why and how the town can and should rebuild the Higgins Landing boat dock over on Lucky Drive across from Redwood High School.   There are extra requirements to rebuild it, in order to assure that the facility met ADA requirements, but all members of the Council seemed positive about the possibilities of rebuilding it.

Town Center priorities, actions to be reviewed?

In a surprising and gratifying move, the Town Council has placed the subject of “Commercial Uses at Town Center” on the February 7 agenda.  Not sure what action can or will be taken, but communities all over the country are setting new policies and initiatives to support locally owned businesses and protect their town’s individual character.

To read more about some of these efforts, visit www.newrules.org/retail/index.php.  If you put “Barnes and Noble” into the search, you can read why some people are so upset about the recent turn of events. It’s interesting that some people feel this is one of the most upsetting issues in recent years, while other wonder why such a big deal is being made.  Many think it is simply our job to vote later, with our dollars.  But aren’t we all, first and foremost humans, convenience and bargain seeking beings? Won’t the temptation be too great?   I confess that, like many, I often succumb to the lure of Amazon or the discounts of big chains.  But my commitment to locally owned businesses is growing daily, and obviously, the more people who make an effort, the bigger difference we will make.  Yet because Corte Madera has become such a regional shopping Mecca, our local dollars are only a portion of the issue, meaning our impact isn’t so great after all. 

There is a silver lining over all the angst over the past couple of weeks. There’s proof that our community is filled with strong, smart people who care mightily about preserving our small town character. Now we just have to find a way to turn all that passion and commitment into policy.  No easy task, but February 7 at the Town Council meeting is a good time and place to start.

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