Friday Update on May 24 2019

All:

Just a couple items this week:

• Parking Enforcement in the Downtown will see us moving from warnings to actual tickets. Citations are $30. Lot’s of reasons to enjoy our Downtown and this is definitely not the ticket you want to get, so encourage folks to park in the City lots for extended periods to avoid the fine.
• The City Council approved street work and the construction of the Downtown Parking Lot at the City Council meeting on Tuesday. Look for lots of paving and work to commence sometime in June.
• Things are beginning to take shape on the Hotelwinters.com  . Street work, alleys and some nice finishing touches are starting to get done toward a summer opening! Exciting.
• Staff participated in an important meeting between the League of California Cities and the Rural County Representatives of California (RCRC). The goal is to work towards a “rural summit” combining cities and counties to work on issues which are distinctly unique to those in the smaller less urban areas. Councilmember Jesse Loren has been a key State-wide leader and advocate to advance issues for rural cities and things are starting to come together like never before. Really good stuff!!
• Some of the common issues being discussed are access to Broadband, impacts of State Legislation on smaller jurisdictions, Infrastructure and affordable housing.
• This weekend is the Davis World Cup Soccer Tournament and Winters is sending four, very competitive teams. Keep them in your thoughts as they play over the weekend toward the championships! Really proud of our kids in these competitions with quality coaches and really good players who represent our community well.

Finally, today, I attended the funeral mass and services for Don Rominger who passed away last week at age 89. He lived and farmed in Winters for 87 years and made a huge impact on the lives of many and was active in the Winters Community. Shirley Rominger Intermediate School is named for his wife who passed away almost 20 years prior. Don served on the Winters Fire District Board for 50 years and was honored last year by the District.

The services were a catholic mass followed by eulogies from two of his grandchildren, Cody Rominger and Julia Harder. The entire Rominger Family and its extensions all played a role in the services which were simply a beautiful tribute to an incredible man of faith, family, hard work, farming and commitment to the Winters Community. The services and eulogies paid a deserving tribute and celebration to family and a moral and committed life.

I personally met Don in October, 2001 when I attended my first Winters Fire District Board Meeting. Don’s first questions to me were “Where are you from” and “how long are you going to stick around”? My first impression was of a man who spoke with little to no filter in how he talked with you and he was the type of person willing to ask questions and say things that others typically kept to themselves. I absolutely loved the directness of his approach and quickly learned that many of his seemingly outrageous assertions about the District/City business relations on fire services in the past were 100% accurate. Don was a real character.

In my first few interactions with Don, he gave me some of the best advice for being City Manager in Winters: Understand that everybody knows or is related to everybody, be straight forward and don’t play politics, come straight at people on the issues. I have cherished that advice and respect and am grateful to Don immensely for giving it to me.

A common thread in today’s service was the word “commitment” which seemed to embody Don’s life. Family, faith, community, farming and a focused life are what made up Don Rominger.

Winters is blessed with a number Don Rominger’s who have made lifelong “commitments” to making this a special place. The culture, the multiple generations and the selflessness which embody the spirit of those who are “all in” are what makes Winters the community it is.  As I looked around the church today, I saw many faces of those who have given their lives to the Winters community. Funerals and weddings are special because they bring a lot of people who have shared common life interests together. Sad and good at the same time!

Don Rominger was a very blessed man with a beautiful family, leaving an incredible legacy and a community who is grateful for his lifelong contributions. Godspeed to Don!

John