Meet the New Caspar Community Coordinator

Caspar News and Press Releases

Meet the New Caspar Community Coordinator

November 2, 1998
For Immediate Release

A chance to meet and visit with Caspar's new Community Coordinator will be the centerpiece of an exciting Community meeting on Sunday, November 8, 1998, 3:00 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, on Caspar Road:

• Pat Ackley, the new Coordinator, will talk about her background and how she hopes to help in the effort to preserve Caspar. She will also meet informally with people over tea and cookies at the end of the meeting.
• Susana Morias of the UC Berkeley Landscape Architecture Dept. will present the next step in the continuing effort to create a community vision for the development of Caspar.
• Patty Madigan will present the Steering Committee's tentative ideas on future priorities for the Caspar Community and solicit community input.

Ackley was chosen as Caspar's first Community Coordinator after a lengthy search and evaluation process. Ackley's ratings were the highest of the candidates in all categories except knowledge of the local area. Co-workers from her assignments in Iowa and Kansas endorsed her heartily, and predicted that she would integrate herself into the community very quickly.

Before accepting the position of Caspar Community Coordinator, Ackley was Executive Director of an emergency family shelter in Council Bluffs, Iowa. For the 13 prior years, she served as Director of the Crisis Hotline in Salina, Kansas. In her letter of acceptance, Ackley wrote, "It's the opportunity of a lifetime, and fulfills my long-time dream of living along the Mendocino Coast. Everything that I've done in my life seems like preparation for this job. I am excited at the prospect of contributing to the preservation of an area that I love."

Morias has collected and analyzed the responses to the three Berkeley plans that were presented to the community in September. Responses were collected at the initial presentation and at four follow-on neighborhood meetings. Based on her analysis of reactions to different elements of the various plans, she has created a single new plan. Comments on the new plan will be welcomed, and survey forms will distributed.

Madigan will present the initial results of Steering Committee efforts to set priorities for the next six months. In the first six months since it has become formally organized, the Caspar Community has made great progress toward its initial goals: 1) to gain community consensus on a vision for development of the community, 2) to preserve important open spaces of Caspar, including the headlands, beach, riparian areas of Caspar Creek, and the duck pond, and 3) hire a Community Coordinator. The Community is now entering a second, more exciting, and even more challenging phase. We need now to translate the ideas that we have been developing into concrete plans and actions. Here is a chance to give your input to the setting of priorities.

The Caspar Community is a citizens' group that is striving to preserve Caspar village and its way of life. Over two hundred acres of village land owned by the Caspar Cattle Company are presently for sale, including 50 acres of headlands, Caspar Creek's riparian area, the duck pond, and the open spaces in the center of the village. Major elements of the Community's action plan include preservation of the headlands, beach, creek corridors, pond, and open fields around the village center, and creation of community consensus on a feasible development plan that would preserve and enhance the quality of all life in Caspar.

Within the last six months, the Community has raised more than $30,000 and has helped secure $1.8 million in state funds to acquire 100 acres of land south of Caspar Creek, including Caspar beach. The Community has engaged the UC Berkeley Department of Landscape Architecture to assist it in creating a vision for the development of Caspar. For more information, consult the Caspar website, CasparCommons.org, e-mail caspar@mcn.org, or call 964-4997.

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