YOUR COMMUNITY IN YOUR HANDS
Volume 9
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Issue 24
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May 18 - 31, 2017
SLOCityNews.com
See Inside and Online
One of the Central Coast’s largest annual events to raise money towards autism awareness was held in San Luis Obispo’s Mission Plaza on May 7. Proceeds from the event go to the Central Coast Autism Spectrum Center’s (CCASC) fund for Camp Expedition. Se more on page 40. Photo by Camas Frank.
Special Olympics @ Cuesta Page 8
Return to the Water Page 38
Coffee with the Constabulary
Bob Jones Inches Closer
By Camas Frank
O
ne of the advantages of a small town is getting to know people. Sure it sounds trite, but just as travel is the bane of ignorance and narrow mindedness, getting to know someone alleviates stigma and removes stereotypes. Even in a small town though, one of the last people most folks want to have an up close and personal encounter with are the Police. “We don’t always have the most favorable interactions on the job,” said SLO PD Lt. Bill Proll diplomatically. The Police Lieutenant, a 30 year veteran of the local force, was hanging out at the Blackhorse Espresso & Bakery on Los Osos Valley Road the morning May 12 to launch a new program, “Coffee with a Cop.” It’s a public outreach formula made popular in other cities and the launch in SLO seemed successful from the 9 a.m. get go. To blast one stereotype out of the water, Lt. Proll did not have doughnuts with his coffee. Cuisine and personal biography weren’t the type of questions on the minds of citizens that gathered at the table however. See Cop, page 7
By Camas Frank
P
rogress on a decades old community dream to connect the City of San Luis Obispo’s bike route network to the Avila Beach Bob Jones Trail - and by extension to bike corridors in Shell Beach and Pismo Beach - got a bit closer May 9. Over the last several years that progress has been measured in bureaucratic hurdles overcome inside County government; but a major physical link at the border of the City of San Luis Obispo was finished in 2014 with a City-to-Sea Bike Trail extension. That project installed a bridge completing the Class 1 bikeway from Prado Road and the Water Resource Reclamation Facility to Los Osos Valley Road and with the addition of repainted bike lanes at the LOVR / Highway 101 interchange last year the links are in place for City commuters. On Feb. 24, 2015 the SLO County Board of Supervisors gave the green light for an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on the 4.5-mile extension from the Octagon Barn to the Ontario Road parking lot and trail header to Avila Beach.
See Bob Jones, page 7
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