LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council has unanimously approved renaming a city walking path in honor of a local woman who helped create it.
The council approved a resolution naming the downtown walking path “The Ann Blue Walking Path” in honor of Ann Blue.
Public Works Director Doug Grider presented the resolution to the council at its Nov. 3 meeting.
Grider said Blue was the driving force for designating the walking path, which extends from Martin Street at the south end of town to 16th Street to the north. It follows Main Street, looping around Library Park and then follows another loop that includes N. High Street and Clearlake Avenue.
While working on the walking path, Blue was a member of the city’s Parks and Recreation Committee. She also previously served on the Lakeport Planning Commission and the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee, and was a longtime member of the Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club.
The council approved the proposal to create the walking path in February 2016. Initial funding came from a $5,000 grant from the Sutter Lakeside Active Living Grant Program.
At the time the council approved the plan, Blue said she had been working on the path since July 2015.
Grider said the proposal to name the path for Blue was brought to the Parks and Recreation Commission, which agreed and asked staff to bring it to the council.
He said Blue walked the path many times to make sure it would work.
Grider also recognized Blue for being very active in community projects and in her service on city commissions.
Mayor George Spurr said he had the honor of working with Blue on the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee, calling her a very nice lady. Renaming the path in her honor is “definitely something we should do,” he said.
Suzanne Russell, who formerly served on the planning commission, Traffic Safety Advisory Committee and the Parks and Recreation Commission, said she had the pleasure of working with Blue on two of those commissions and with the garden club for about 18 years. She said Blue was on the Lakeport Planning Commission in the late 1970s.
Both Blue and her husband had been teachers, Russell said.
“She’s been a joy to work with,” said Russell, who reported that Blue is now living in a nursing home.
Russell said she was pleased to see that the renaming wouldn’t take five years to do, as that’s how long it took to complete the path project in the Parks and Recreation Commission.
“It was a real big thing for Ann to do,” said Russell, who along with Susanne Lyons, donated a bench for the path.
City Manager Kevin Ingram noted that, to say Blue walked the path a number of times is an understatement. He said an incredible amount of thought and effort went into the project.
Spurr asked about a new path going through the Lakefront Park now under development.
Ingram said that would be fitting, as he said he didn’t believe Blue saw the path ending in its current form. There is definitely an opportunity to add more paths and pieces to the main path, he added.
Councilwoman Stacey Mattina moved to approve the resolution, which the council approved 5-0.
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Lakeport’s downtown walking path renamed for Ann Blue
- Elizabeth Larson
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