FOREST HILLS
JOURNAL
Your Community Press newspaper serving Anderson Township, California, Mount Washington, Newtown
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2014
BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS
Street repairs on tap for Mt. Washington By Forrest Sellers fsellers@communitypress.com
MT. WASHINGTON — A number of Mt. Washington streets are scheduled for repairs in 2015. In response to a question posed in the Forest Hills Journal, residents have expressed concerns regarding the condition of several of them. Peggy Keefe said the condition of Coffey Street continues to get worse. “A few holes have been filled in, but it needs a lot of work,”
she said. Sally Mills and Lois Swisher identified Mayland Drive as being in need of work. “Mayland is in deplorable condition,” Mills said, while Swisher said the street posed a danger to cyclists. Kathy Burkhardt said both Meadowbright Lane and Tridale Court are in bad condition. “Our streets have been neglected for many years,” she said. James Ford, a longtime resiSee REPAIRS , Page A2
75¢
Mayland Drive is among several streets in Mt. Washington that will be repaired in 2015.FORREST SELLERS/THE COMMUNITY PRESS
COLLECTION TIME Now you can get more for your dollar! In the next seven to 10 days your carrier will be collecting for your Forest Hills Journal. When you pay your carrier the monthly charge of $3.50, you will receive a coupon worth $3.50 off a classified ad. Not only will you be helping to supplement your carrier’s income, you will also be saving money doing it.
Ivy Hills man completes swim across the English Channel
By Chuck Gibson
foresthills@communitypress.com
Gregg Bolsinger started swimming at the Anderson HealthPlex to get in shape. “I think that first day I wanted to swim 20 laps,” Bolsinger said. “If I swam 20 laps, that was going to be a great day.” About three and a half years later, on July 22, Bolsinger swam across the English Channel. It is widely considered to be the toughest open water swim of all. How did this Newtown man go from swimming laps in the HealthPlex pool to crossing from England to France in the English Channel? He started reading online about open water swims. Bolsinger signed up for a 5K swim called “Big Shoulders” in Chicago. He took his wife, Kindra, with him. Unseasonably cold conditions prompted the race directors to relax the rules and allow swimmers to wear wet suits – normally banned – without penalty. “I’m sitting there with my wife; she’s taking all of this in and she said, ‘Where is your wet suit,” Bolsinger said. “I’m like ‘It’s still at the store honey. I’m just here with a bathing suit.’ I get in the water and it just takes your breath away.” Somehow Bolsinger decided it was a “fun, fun time” swimming threeplus miles in breathtaking cold water with hundreds of people watching. No lane markers, people going every which way, waves he never experienced in the pool and no sense of racing like you’d have in a pool race. He was hooked and signed up for a couple more. “It became fun to do
Gregg Bolsinger swam through the choppy channel conditions to complete his English Channel crossing (England to France) in 11 hours, 22 minutes July 22. THANKS TO GREGG BOLSINGER
those as kind of a treat for all the pool training,” Bolsinger said. All that came within a couple months of his first 20 laps in the pool. The following year he swam a 10K in the coastal waters off Miami, Florida. Doubling the distance each time made each event a new adventure. Each race raised the question: ‘Can I swim that distance?’ Bolsinger said he liked not knowing the outcome; whether it would work, or not work. Then he heard about an open water distance swimming clinic in Los Angeles. That’s where Bolsinger met Mallory Mead and Anne Cleveland, directors of the clinic and acclaimed swimmers. Mead is a professional open water swimmer and Cleveland is in the Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame. He was the only male there among 10 women, but he’d met his match unable to finish the swim on that first day in the Pacific Ocean. “I’m there. I hear about sharks. I’m concerned about sharks. I’m con-
Gregg Bolsinger is wrapped in towels as his crew tries to get him warm on board the Louise Jane following his July 22 swim across the English Channel. THANKS TO GREGG BOLSINGER
cerned I’ll have a heart attack due to cold water,” Bolsinger said. “I did a miserable job. That first swim everyone else just dropped me like a potato.” During breakfast, after the swim, Bolsinger listened to the women introduce themselves and their accomplishments – Catalina, training for the English Channel, swam in
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the Red Sea etc... When they got to him, he pointed out he was the only guy there and the worst swimmer in the group. “It was just an eyeopening experience,” he said. “We’d swim for an hour and a half and I’d be totally wiped out. It was kind of a springboard to want to be better.” That concentrated one
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week introduction to ocean swimming in April 2013 taught him valuable lessons. By June he had already signed up to swim a 12.5 mile swim around Key West. He knew it would take more than an hour and a half in a pool three times a week to accomplish such a feat. Bolsinger ramped up his training. “I figured if ‘Swim Around Key West’ is going to take me five to six hours, I better be swimming five to six hours,” he said. “I just really tried to figure out what those girls would do. How would they train for this?” Bolsinger, 53, had a “very positive” experience, doing well in his age group and finishing in a little over five hours. Later he was talking with Molly, one of the swimmers he met at the clinic, about her training to swim the English Channel. She had signed up about a year earlier for the “EC,” as it is commonly referred to. About a month after his Key West swim, they had another conversation.
He mentioned plans to swim Catalina. She told him, “There are sharks in Catalina Channel,” and everyone from the clinic knows his first question is, “Are there sharks, and what do I do if there are?” She suggested he swim the English Channel with her. No sharks there. “I didn’t know anything about it,” Bolsinger said. “I didn’t know about costs. I didn’t know about hiring boat captains. I didn’t know about the tides. I was just completely clueless.” Within a few days Bolsinger was researching the EC swim. He fired questions off to Molly by email. He learned about hiring a boat captain and the application/qualification process to swim the English Channel. Boat captains are usually booked at least a year in advance of EC swim attempts. Odds were against him. Luck was with him though. He knew his swimming qualifications were thin. His 5K, 10K and 12.5 mile swim would not excite any boat captain in the English Channel. It was all he had. By sheer coincidence he connected with Captain Andy King who knew Anne Cleveland, and had a spot to offer in July; only eight months away. “And I said I also may hire Anne Cleveland to be my coach,” Bolsinger said. “I said the magic words because my boat captain knew Anne Cleveland. Anne has done four crossings. She’s done two solos and a double. She’s the real deal.” He received confirmation, signed a contract, sent money, ($1,600 down payment) and made his See SWIM , Page A2
Vol. 54 No. 21 © 2014 The Community Press ALL RIGHTS RESERVED