Ellen Gorelick Plans to Leave Museum Job

Tulare - After nearly 14 years as executive director and chief curator of the Tulare Historical Museum, Ellen Gorelick plans to step down from that position in March.

Gorelick’s association with the museum began in 1981 when she became a charter member of the Tulare City Historical Society's board of directors, which planned, built and continues to operate the museum at 444 West Tulare Ave.

Her decision to leave her job was triggered by a fall last year in which she re-damaged her right shoulder and broke her elbow, Gorelick said in announcing her intentions to the Historical Society's board.

“To make a long story short, I have been through physical therapy and continuous pain and I feel that now is the time to turn my job over to others,” she said.

The decision to leave was difficult and she intends, after at least a three-month break, to return as a volunteer, Gorelick said. She, like her three-member staff, is paid for 80 hours of work a month but volunteers for many more hours to keep the museum running smoothly.

Patricia Hillman, one of the original docents for the museum who continues to volunteer, credits Gorelick and Gerry Soults for getting the museum off to a terrific start in the 1980s and Gorelick with taking it to new heights when she returned 14 years ago.

“I think that museum has been one of the biggest gifts to Tulare and I think she's been the spark plug and the guiding light behind it,” Hillman said. “I can't imagine how anyone can do what she does.”

Terry Brazil, the museum's administrative assistant and director, said Gorelick has put her heart and soul into the museum.

 “She just approaches this job with love,” Brazil said. “I'm telling you, she is nuts about this place and she wants it to be the best it could possibly be.”

During Gorelick's tenure, the museum acquired both the Bob Mathias and the Manuel Toledo military collections.

“I am proud of both of those collections and I think residents of the city of Tulare should be too,” Gorelick said.

Through her efforts, the museum has also become recognized as a cultural center, where six to eight exhibitions are held in the Heritage Room annually.

Offerings have included many high-quality traveling exhibitions, such as the upcoming show of writer William Saroyan's drawings and watercolors, which will have its statewide premiere here.

 Gorelick has also organized many exhibitions featuring artists from throughout the Valley and elsewhere. Musical programs and lectures are also held on a regular basis at the museum, as are Tulare Palette Club meetings.

"Somebody told me that people are drawn to the museum because of Ellen,” Brazil said.  “She not only knows a lot of people, but they want to please her and they want to be here because she's here and I hope this doesn't go away.”

Her long association with the Historical Society includes stints in the early 1980s—shortly after she and her husband, Judge Walter Gorelick, moved to Tulare—as board vice president, program chairman and member of the Museum Planning and Building Committee.

From 1984 through 1987, she served as museum curator and had the responsibility to set up the C. R. “Budge” Sturgeon Exhibition Hall.

She left in 1988 to take a job teaching at College of the Sequoias in the place of a fulltime instructor during her sabbatical leave.

She continued, however, to volunteer with the museum and in 1991 she co-chaired the first annual Taste Treats in Tulare with Joan Hammond. The always-popular event has become the museum's largest fund raiser.

Having served as both executive director and chief curator for 14 years, Gorelick is recommending the board split the positions.

“In my opinion, it is really too big a job for one person to comfortably handle,” she said.

She also asked the board to consider Terry Brazil, the museum's administrative assistant and director, and Kary Mancebo-Ingram, administrative assistant and curator, for the positions.

Gorelick, 61, is a former Tulare Woman of the Year for the Tulare Chamber of Commerce and the 34th Assembly District and is a member of College of the Sequoias' Hall of Fame.

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High Bids Unlikely to Derail Skate Park

By Rick Elkins

Tulare - Four bids to construct the city's first skate park came in higher than budgeted but less than the engineer's estimate, which gives hope the project can be completed by early summer.

“We'll work with the lowest bidder to get it to a more manageable level. I think we can get it done,” said Milt Stowe, the city's director of parks, recreation and library.

The lowest bid was submitted by California Landscape and Design at $1.63 million. The other three bids ranged from $1.68 million to $1.96 million. The bids were opened Dec. 11.

The city had budgeted $1.3 million for the 24,000-square-foot skate park in Topham Park, just west of the railroad tracks off of Tulare Avenue. After paying for design costs, the city has $1.2 million to spend.

Stowe said the city will see how it can cut costs, but the fact the bid is lower than the engineer's estimate is encouraging. The city also wants to include lights for the park, which would add another $125,000 to the project.

“The goal would be to include the lights right now,” Stowe said. “We want to finish the entire project at one time.”

The Tulare Rotary Club is paying for the construction of the park restrooms, which Stowe said will cost in excess of $150,000. Work has already begun on the restrooms.

If the bid can be worked out, Stowe said the Council could award the project at its first meeting in January and work would begin within 30 days. He said it will take four to six months to complete the project, leading to a June or July opening.

The skate park, a first for the city, will include a bowl and a streetscape that will have steps, rails and other apparatus for skaters. He said the facility will be large enough to safely accommodate 75 to 100 skaters at one time.

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Woman of Year Mederos an 'Awesome Choice’

Tulare - Cathy Mederos was surprised when the Chamber of Commerce named her its 2007 Woman of the Year, but the selection did not surprise those who have worked closely with or observed this energetic and dedicated Tulare woman in action.

They know and appreciate the time and effort she puts into helping the community and her ability to bring people together to get a job done.

“If you had to make a list of the things she's done, you might be there awhile,” said Rosanne O'Neill, who has volunteered with Mederos. “She is always organized and willing to do and give. I think she's an awesome choice.”

In addition to honoring Mederos, the Chamber will honor Man of the Year Paul Daley, Large Business of the Year Sturgeon and Beck and Small Business of the Year Lange's Plumbing and Supply at its annual installation banquet Friday, Jan. 25, at the Heritage Complex at the International Agri-Center. The other recipients will be profiled in future editions of the Tulare Voice.

Ellen Gorelick, executive director and curator of the Tulare City Historical Society and a past Woman of the Year, said Mederos is a wonderful asset to the community.

“When Cathy takes something on, it's done beautifully,” Gorelick said. “She's a very hard worker. She does it quietly without fanfare. She just gets it done.”

Mederos is a past president and past board member of the Tulare City Historical Society and is currently the organization's membership director. “She's also been in charge of all the supplies for Taste Treats for the past three years,” Gorelick said. “That's a huge job.”

Gorelick was one of five past Women of the Year who selected Mederos for the honor. The others were Connie Conway, Dollie Faria, Lynn Lampe and Mary Nunes.

Vern Barlogio, principal at Tulare Western High School, where Mederos headed up the school's Parent Teacher Academic Club for six years when her children were students there, was also happy with the selection.

“She was really instrumental in getting that club going,” Barlogio said. He and O'Neill said Mederos spearheaded a drive to get a new food booth built at a new World Ag Expo location, a move that has enabled the group to raise more money for college scholarships than in the past.

Mederos also served as co-chair for the high school district's Sober Graduation party in 2000, 2002 and 2005, was a member of the Aquatics Boosters, Track and Field Boosters and the School Site Safety Council, Barlogio said.

Mederos worked on the committee to pass a bond for the city's third high school. In 2001 she received the Honorary Mustang Award for parent service, which is given annually by the Associated Student Body. In 2005, she was recipient of the Golden Apple Award for service to education by the Tulare County chapter of the Association of California School Administrators.

This year's Woman of the Year has served the community on other fronts as well.  She is a member of the Tulare Youth Services Bureau board and volunteer with the American Cancer Society, serving this year as the 2007 liaison between Tulare's Relay for Life and local schools. She was also a team co-leader for the chamber's 2007 membership drive.

She also is; a member and financial secretary for the Sons of Italy's Roma Lodge; an active member of the Tulare County Cabrillo Civic Club #2, serving as co-chair for the program and advertisement booklet for the 2008 state convention; and an active member of St. Aloysius Church, where she is a Centurion Dinner volunteer.

Mederos learned of her selection as Woman of the Year when a visiting delegation of former Women of the Year interrupted a Youth Services Bureau board meeting.

She was certain the award was for someone else, she said. She told the group she did not expect the award and volunteered only because she likes to help people.

In a later interview, she said she has always told her children that, “You don't ever do something for anyone else expecting a 'thank you,' because then you're not doing it for the reason you should be doing it for—because it's a good cause or the right thing to do.”

She attributes her willingness to become involved with the community to the example her parents set, which was reinforced when she married her husband, Dennis, a Tulare attorney.

His family and my family mirrored each other in how they brought their kids up and their involvement in the community,” she said.

Dennis Mederos said his wife “is one of those rare individuals who almost never says 'no.'”

Asked how she manages to pull people together to accomplish so much, Mederos refuses to attribute it to any special skills on her part.

“When you're working for something people think is a good cause, it's easy to get others involved,” she said.

Born and raised in Fresno County, where her father operated a small dairy farm, Mederos graduated from Fowler High School and Reedley College and then attended California State University, Fresno, for a couple semesters.

She worked for the County of Fresno in various departments for several years before going to work for the Fresno County Employees Credit Union as a bookkeeper. When she and her husband moved to Visalia, she went to work for Tucoemas Credit Union. They moved to Tulare in 1991. Their three adult children are Melissa, Megan and Michael.

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Borges to Bush: 'Portuguese Not Pork’

Tulare - Dennis Borges, a Tulare Union High School Portuguese language teacher, couldn't believe his eyes when he read President Bush's explanation for vetoing a spending bill Congress had approved.

The measure was $10 billion over budget and filled with “wasteful projects,” Bush told an Albany, Indiana audience Nov. 13. Then he cited three examples, including a $200,000 Portuguese-as-a-second-language program in Rhode Island.

“Congress needs to cut out that pork, reduce the spending and send me a responsible measure that I can sign into law,” the President said.

Bush's speech came only two days before Borges went to the Azores, where he said he was “bombarded by the press,” which was unsure of the impact of Bush's statement. “Even national television was all over it [the story],” he said.

Bush's comment did not escape the attention of other Portuguese-language teachers in North America and within a few days of his return home Borges, who is president of the Association of Portuguese Language Teachers in the U.S. and Canada, had dashed off a letter to Bush on behalf of the organization. He asked the President to reconsider and retract his statement.

Copies of the Nov. 26 letter were sent to the Portuguese ambassador to the U.S. and to Portuguese-American members of Congress, including Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia.  As of last Thursday, no one had replied, he said.

With 200 million speakers, Portuguese is the seventh most spoken language on earth and the third most frequently spoken in Europe, Borges said. More than 1 million people are of Portuguese descent in the U. S. and many speak the language.

Bush's comments are not going to hurt any Portuguese language programs, but his comments were not appropriate, he said. “I just don't think you say that about any language, even if it's only spoken by five people.”

The Portuguese language was identified in 2005 as a “strategic language'” by the Department of Defense in collaboration with the Defense Language Institute and the National Security Education Program, Borges said.

In an opinion piece he wrote for U.S. newspapers, Borges also spoke of the “strong diplomatic, economic and cultural bonds” that tie Portugal and the U.S.

“It was on Portuguese soil, the Lajes Air Field in the Azores, that the President met with his counterparts from Britain, Spain and Portugal in order to acquire the backing of some European leaders and thus take the first steps in the process that led to the invasion of Iraq,” he wrote.

“To consider the Portuguese language as a “pork project” is to insult over 220 million speakers worldwide, most of them our allies and friends,” he wrote.

The program Bush vetoed was one of 2,000 “earmarks” that were attached to the spending bill. Borges said he has since learned the Portuguese language project the President cited included a component to prepare students to teach the language.

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Res•Com Raises Record Amount

Tulare - Approximately 900 Tulare-area families, working poor who barely have enough to get by, will have a better Christmas thanks to Res•Com Pest Control and the community's generosity.

“It's awesome,” a very pleased Res•Com co-owner Tony Taylor said after the company's annual Christmas Party raised a record-setting $70,000 Thursday.

The money will be used to help the Tulare Corps of the Salvation Army provide 1,200 boxes of food this holiday season. And, it will help to provide gifts for 2,500 area children.

“Tulare is such a family community and this is a family event,” said Capt David Scott of the Salvation Army.

The Res•Com event evolved from a company Christmas Party nine years ago into what Scott describes as “the community's Christmas party.” More than 550 people attended this year.  Taylor's employees and family helped put on the party.

“It's a luncheon so we don't have to take away from our families,” Taylor said.

While he was worried about the results this year because of a poorer local economy, Taylor said pre-event sponsorships and donations had put the amount at nearly $55,000 before the luncheon was held. That total included one anonymous $10,000 donation.

“You're the ones who make this all happen. It's such a wonderful community,” Taylor said before the live auction netted another $10,000-plus.

Money dropped into a Salvation Army kettle and other donations boosted the total for the event to more than $70,000, Taylor said. Last year's event netted about $57,000.

“We always get exactly what God wants us to have,” Scott said. He said it will take $110,000 to cover the cost of the food baskets. While the Res•Com event helps, the balance still must be raised through donations, mainly the kettles around town.

“The kettles are down 53 percent,” Scott said. He urged people to give to the kettles and to the Angel Tree efforts. As the community becomes more affluent, the burden on the working poor grows greater because the cost of living rises, he said.

“They [the working poor] have enough to survive, but this helps them to enjoy Christmas like we do,” Taylor added.

Three officers from the Salvation Army's Golden State Division attended the event. Joe Posillico said there are four such events in the Central Valley and 10 from San Francisco to Bakersfield. He added about $1 million is generated from those 10 events.

“This is a good event. This is a very generous community,” added Judy Smith of the division office.

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