Thumbs up, thumbs down

Thumbs down to City Hall for rejecting ads on Fresno Area Express buses that would have pointed out the disparity between park acreage per resident on the south and north ends of town. City officials say they turned down the ads because they violated the Municipal Code, which bans bus advertisements that are political in nature. That doesn’t wash. The ads don’t advocate for a candidate or ballot measure. They don’t even say throw the rascals out. They merely point out the difference in park acreage between two Fresno zip codes. Moreover, our municipal government surely could have used the $25,000 that Fresno Building Healthy Communities budgeted for the ads. But stating the obvious — “We need #OneHealthyFresno with better parks for all” — is judged by the City Attorney’s Office to be a political statement. By rejecting the ads, City Hall sent a clear message: In its view, Fresno doesn’t need better parks for all.

Thumbs up to Karen Smith-Maroot, her husband Dr. Bradley Wajda and the crew at Oakhurst’s True Value Hardware for saving a family of cow birds. When Maroot and Wajda came to the store to pick out a tree for a home they own in the mountains, they fell in love with a beautiful Albert Colorado Blue Spruce. As they admired it, a bird kept flying around it and Maroot suspected there might be a nest. It is spring, after all. Sure enough, there were eggs in the nest.

The couple didn’t want to disturb the little family so they couldn’t bear to buy the tree, but after they left, they worried that someone else would buy it and destroy the nest. So they went back to the store and cut a deal with the owners, paying for the tree, but asking that staff play nursemaid to the baby birds and their mom, now named Elsie, until they all flew away. The hatchlings are popping out this week and Maroot is keeping her Facebook page updated with photos.

A shout out — or peep-out? — to store owners, Paul and Alan Bryant, and their nursery manager, Suzanne Jones. Now that’s some customer service. “This is one of the many reasons I love the community in Oakhurst,” Maroot said, “full of warm-hearted people who take the time to do what is right. I look forward someday to planting this tree, watching it grow and remembering the story and photos of the little family that lived within its branches, the fearless mama bird who protected her nest, and the team at True Value who made sure they were kept safe.”

Thumbs up to Edison High School’s Jessica Aguilar, Jose Toledo, Chinyere Nwonya and Anthony Shepard for winning Peter G. Mehas Memorial Scholarships. The $500 college scholarships are awarded to graduating seniors at Edison based on exemplary scholarship, leadership and team spirit. Aguilar participated in lacrosse, cross country and soccer and is graduating with a 4.16 grade-point average. Toledo, who has a 3.52 GPA and completed Edison’s engineering pathway, played baseball. Nwonya is graduating summa cum laude with a 4.32 GPA and played lacrosse and soccer. Shepard starred for the Tigers’ Central Section champion football team and posted a 3.8 GPA. The scholarships are provided by the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame in memory of Mehas, the longtime former Fresno County Superintendent of Schools and a former Edison football coach. Mehas served as Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame president for 22 years.

Thumbs up to Kelly Ayllon and Bryan Wood, two Valley students who got big surprises recently. They are two of 10 winners of PG&E’s Bright Minds scholarships, which carry a stipend of $20,000 a year for as many as five years. Wood attends Fresno State as a civil engineering major, and Ayllon is a senior at North High School. Hers is the biggest scholarship ever won at her school. As a child, Allyon was sick with a thyroid condition that went mistreated for years. Now she wants to be a pediatrician. The first in her family to attend college, she will attend University of California at Los Angeles in the fall and major in biochemistry.

Thumbs up to Comcast for donating money to replace dozens of plants stolen from Leadership Fresno Class 31’s xeriscape demonstration garden. Too bad they didn’t plant some poison oak here and there to give the thieves a real experience of itchy fingers. The demonstration garden was designed to highlight the beauty and benefits of water-wise landscaping while also educating visitors. A plaque in the garden honors the memory of Jack Hall, former Chairman of the Board for the Fresno Chamber of Commerce, who served as director of government affairs for Comcast from January 2010 until he died last year. Just days after the planting, thieves struck, the project was vandalized twice and a variety of foliage was ripped out of the ground. Comcast stepped up, volunteering to contribute $1,000 this year to help replace what was stolen from the garden. Additionally, the company has pledged an annual contribution of $1,000 each year over the next five years for maintenance. Good lesson: overcome evil with good. Meanwhile, we hope the authorities get those morons.

This story was originally published May 29, 2015 at 11:01 AM with the headline "Thumbs up, thumbs down."