Angels council, small districts set fall ballots

By Enterprise staff

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Posted: Friday, August 22, 2008 12:30 PM CDT

Editor's note: This is the second part of a two-part story describing local elections scheduled for Nov. 4 in Calaveras County.

Four applicants will vie for three seats on Angels Camp City Council.

Incumbent Jack Boeding, Planning Commissioner Elaine Morris, Craig Turco and J. Shoop have filed. Boeding, who has lived in Angels Camp for 18 years, was appointed as an interim council member in February, and served on the council for four years in the 1970s. Morris has lived in Angels Camp since 1988, and has served on the Planning Commission for three years. Turco, who has lived in Angels Camp for more than four years, has a business degree and spent 24 years in management for UPS. Shoop, the latest filer, has lived in Angels Camp since 2002 with his wife, Shauna. They have a daughter, Savannah, 5.

Shoop, 42, who regularly attends Planning Commission and City Council meetings, is primarily a mortgage broker, but has separate interests in writing and speaking. He is a native of Campbell, and moved to Angels Camp from Los Gatos to be closer to friends.

“I like that feeling of knowing not just your neighbor ..., knowing the people in your community,” Shoop said of life in Angels Camp.

He is a member of the Calaveras Community Foundation board of directors, the Angels Camp Business Association, Chamber of Commerce and the Calaveras County Association of Realtors. If elected, Shoop said, he will work to facilitate cooperation among all members of the community.

“In my assessment, there seems to be a disconnect between longtime residents of Angels and relative newcomers,” he said. “I want to help to improve that connection.”

Community boards

A chance to help steer the direction of veterans services and healthcare in Calaveras County has drawn a slate of enthusiastic residents to the November ballot.

Seats on the Angels Camp and Mokelumne Hill veterans memorial district boards, Mark Twain Health Care District board are on the ballot.

One thing that all three candidates for the two open positions on the Mark Twain Health Care District Board share is a high-opinion of the facility they seek to serve. As Calaveras County's primary health care providing entity Mark Twain St. Joseph's Hospital and its clinics receive high marks from incumbents Colleen Smart, Kenneth McInturf and first-time contender Gerald Lucas.

“I've served on the board for 20-odd years,” San Andreas resident Colleen Smart said. “I have felt that if I live in the community I have to give back.”

She said she is very excited by the changes and directions of the institution even since it went from a freestanding hospital about 10 years ago and partnered with Catholic Healthcare West, which she said is very supportive of the community's desires.

“Our doctors are able to keep up with the needs of the community as it changes,” she said.

Smart said she wants to be there for the hospital as it moves into the future and expands and adapts to the county.

“We are actively recruiting nurses and new doctors to the area,' she said.

Her colleague on the board, McInturf, 77, a retired loan officer, has special interest in the financial vibrancy of the hospital.

“We have had a fantastic year; we went over and above our expectations,” he said.

He said he is particularly proud of the institution's efforts to reach out to the community, citing the program that brings high school students in to try their hands at different aspects of health care and the expansion of community clinics.

Gerald Lucas, 66, from Avery said he has been volunteering with Mark Twain's foundation and decided to put his name in for the board of directors.

Lucas points to the facility's efforts to increase programs geared towards women's health care issues as one of the key selling points for his service.

“They are working towards bringing a digital mammography machine into the county, which will really increase care for woman,” he said.

Since retirement from his work as a financial executive, he said he has plenty of time to give back and sees Mark Twain St. Joseph's Hospital as a great way to do so.

Angels Camp Veterans Memorial District Board incumbents Diane L. Gray and Daniel B. Brooks are unchallenged and will be reappointed.

Mokelumne Hill Veterans Memorial District Board candidates Patricia Yocom and Thomas Ringlein will also be appointed to the seats available on that board.

Contact Editor Buzz Eggleston at editor@calaverasenterprise.com

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