Checkpoint tonight

The Claremont Police Department will conduct a sobriety checkpoint tonight at an undisclosed location in the city. (They usually do them near Foothill and Dartmouth or down on American by the 10 Freeway.)

Police will be stopping all vehicles to make sure nobody is drunk or on drugs and driving with a valid license. The operation runs from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Relay for Life fundraiser tonight

You don't need to go to Vegas to play your favorite card games. Tonight at the Doubletree Hotel, guests can play poker and blackjack at the Relay For Life's Casino Night fundraiser. The event runs from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m.

Aside from the games, there will be live music, hors d'oeuvres and live music. There's a $15 entrance fee and a $10 donation gets you $100 in play money.

Upcoming Relay for Life fundraisers include the Haircut-A-Thon on Monday, April 20 at Essentials Day Spa and Salon, Scoop Night on Thursday, April 30 at Bert and Rocky's and Casual Monday and Potluck on Monday, May 4.

The Relay for Life takes place on May 16 and May 17 at the Claremont High School track.

David Cash moving on

Claremont Unified School District officials confirmed that Superintendent David Cash has accepted a position as the Superintendent of the Clovis Unified School District in central California.

According to this article in the Fresno Bee, Cash signed a 4-year contract effective July 1. Clovis Unified is significantly larger than Claremont, with 37,000 students compared to Claremont's 7000.

Cash will likely make some kind of announcement at tonight's School Board meeting. See Saturday's COURIER for a full story.

Death of the trolley?

Maybe. The fate of the Village trolley remains in the hands of the Claremont city council. At tonight's meeting, the council will decide if the lackluster trolley will have a future trucking around downtown Claremont.

The council basically has 3 options to consider. They could continue with the trolley for a while longer as it is currently running, hoping that warmer weather will attract more people into the Village.

The council could tinker with the schedule or travel route, with consideration for the Claremont Colleges, the Old School House or Claremont High School as possible destinations.

Or they could decide to abandon the pilot program altogether, basically admitting that the trolley was a bad idea to begin with.

Unfortunately, there’s not much going for the trolley. The ridership numbers have sharply dropped off since its inception. In November, there were 12.3 riders per hour, 10.7 in December, about 7 per hour in January, February and March.

Even at its peak, the trolley never attracted its benchmark ridership goals of 15 per hour that the city would consider the pilot program “viable.”

There should be an interesting debate tonight. I would expect new Councilmember Larry Schroeder to speak out more tonight than he did during his first council meeting, where he said very little.

During his campaign, he was critical of the trolley and felt the money ($886,670) should have been used for a more useful purpose. We’ll see if he and other Council Members are already willing to throw in the towel on the trolley idea.

Bob Messinger wins journalism awards

Congratulations to Claremont resident Bob Messinger, who will be honored tomorrow night with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Press Photographers Association of Greater Los Angeles. Messinger had a long career in newspapers around Southern California, covering everything from the Charles Manson trial, East Los Angeles Riots, parades, earthquakes and much more.

He was also the lead author of the Media Guidebook, which both government and media outlets use to understand the rights of journalist in the field. The award ceremony takes place tomorrow night at the Glendale Moose Club. See tomorrow's paper for a full story and along with some of his best photos.

Saturday will be a busy day in Claremont too. There will be an Easter Egg Hunt, sorry, Spring Egg Hunt in the morning at Memorial Park, the International Festival in the afternoon at the Colleges, the Taste of Claremont at Taylor Hall in the evening and a wildflower show all weekend at the Botanic Gardens.

Correction: The Taste of Claremont is next Saturday, April 18 at Taylor Hall.

Census Bureau Canvassing

The Claremont Police Department warns that a wave of Census Bureau canvassers will be hitting the streets of Claremont in the coming weeks.

Here's the statement via the Department's E-Watch system:

The 2010 Census launched its next operation, Address Canvassing. A preliminary wave began on March 29th, and the mass effort launched on April 6, 2009. The entire phase concludes by June 19, 2009.

During Address Canvassing, the Census Bureau will put to work approximately 140,000 people to canvass all known streets and roads throughout the country. The canvassers identify every living quarter where people live or could potentially live, and verify more than 145 million addresses.

For the first time in Decennial Census history, census workers will confirm, add, and delete addresses using a GPS-equipped hand-held computer. Each computer is so secure that it will work only when activated by the fingerprint of its assigned operator.

Each building or structure receives Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates to make sure it is also recorded in the right location. Census workers will also update maps by adding new roads. This work ensures that the census address list is complete so that everyone can be counted in the 2010 census.

For additional information, use the link below to go to the Claremont PD website

Saturday events

There's a couple of noteworthy events happening in Claremont tomorrow.

One is an E-Waste program at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church. Residents can drop off old TV sets, cell phones, chargers, toasters and anything else that's taking up space and collecting dust.

The recycling company will be at OLA's parking lot from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. OLA is located at 435 Berkeley Ave.

The second event is the Senior Talent Showcase. Head out to Taylor Hall to watch some very entertaining song, dance, magic and comedy routines performed by seniors from Claremont and neighboring cities.

The event takes place from 10 a.m. to noon at 1775 Indian Hill Blvd.