The Yucca Valley Town Council heard a presentation from Hi-Desert Medical Center CEO Karen Faulis about services and programs offered by Hi-Desert Medical Center and its clinics. The hospital has added or expanded its neurology, cardiology, gastrointestinal, urology, interventional radiology, and mammography services. The hospital plans to add occupational medicine services as of April 1. Faulis stressed that the physicians in the hospital’s emergency department also work in the emergency departments of Desert Regional Medical Center and JFK Medical Center in the Low Desert.
The council also heard a report from some of the board members from Mara’s Christmas Wish, which fed 1,495 people on Christmas Day, and distributed more than 450 bags of toys to children. The board of directors of Mara’s Christmas Wish presented a plaque to Mayor Jeff Drozd in appreciation of his and the town’s help during the last Christmas dinner.
Managing editor Tami Roleff says the council also heard that the future of the parade for Grubstake Days could be threatened…
Grubstake Day without a parade? Wanda Stadum from the Yucca Valley Chamber of Commerce told the Yucca Valley Town Council last night that could be the future of the popular event.
“With the traffic and Caltrans and how we grow, how our community changes, we’re going to have to review this every year, I believe. I don’t think it’s just going to be a given. We don’t want to put a stress on our visitors, we don’t want to make it inconvenient for our commercial traffic.”
Mayor Jeff Drozd and the other council members agreed that the parade was a priority and an important part of Grubstake Days.
“It’s more important for us to have it than to cave in to visitors
going to Joshua Tree. I do believe that it’s really important to keep the
tradition.”
Stadum said she drove all over the town looking for a new route for the parade;
she said the staging area for the parade needs to be about a mile long, and the
parade route needs to be about a mile long. She added that there also needs to
be parking available for both the participants and those who come to watch the
parade.
Pending approval from Caltrans, this year’s parade route is scheduled to be eastbound on Highway 62 from Apache Trail to Sage Avenue. Highway 62 would be closed in both directions from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 or noon on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.
