Everybody’s business

Butte booster
Starting with just a cluster of rented buildings and a handful of teachers in Durham, Butte College owes its existence to a small group of people who in 1968 got the funding, won state approval, wrote the courses and even set up the furniture. One of them was Robert Druley.

Druley died Nov. 4 at his home after a long fight with colon cancer. He was 71.

A former Los Angeles police officer, Druley started the Administration and Justice Program at Butte College, subsequently teaching police as they worked toward associate of arts degrees. Later, he started the Fire Science Program.

“He had thousands of students over the years,” said Steve McNelis, a judge who teaches at Butte. Druley taught there for 31 years. “[Students] enjoyed his class. He was fun. It was real-world, not from some textbook.”

Services will be held Nov. 18 at 11 a.m. at the Masonic Family Center. Druley ’s daughter, Cindy Ferranti, said that in keeping with her father’s casual spirit (he was fond of wearing cowboy boots and Levis to class) and love of his second home in Kauai, attendees are asked to wear Hawaiian shirts.

Good ag news, bad ag news
The annual Farm-City Celebration kicked off Nov. 8, and events continue through the 15th.

On Nov. 13, 600 third-graders are scheduled to visit the University Farm. Nov. 15 is the dog run/walk, with 1-mile or 5K ventures around the University Farm. A dinner/dance at the Silver Dollar Fair Grounds caps off the festivities the night of the 15th. Tickets are available through the Butte County Farm Bureau (533-1473).

As if to further illustrate the importance of agriculture to the region’s economy, the olive industry has suffered a blow. The Glenn County Cooperative Extension reports that the olive fly infestation has led Bell Carter Olives in Corning to cease accepting olives from the Oroville area.

The flies’ eggs hatch into maggots that tunnel inside the olives, decaying the fruit. The value of the olive crop in Glenn and Tehama counties alone totaled $22 million in 2002.

A meeting about the olive fruit fly is planned for Nov. 17 at Memorial Hall, 327 Fourth St., in Orland, beginning at 9 a.m.

Scour power
It’s been a month since more than 300 students and other community volunteers spread out to clean up the town in the sixth Scour and Devour event, which is an official club through Chico State University.

Event Director Jeff Boian, a Chico State senior who is affiliated with The Edge Christian ministry group, said that in the area where his team worked, near Bruce Road and Highway 32, six or seven Dumpsters were filled totaling “well over 12 tons” of trash. “It was by far the biggest event that we’ve had in terms of trash picked up,” Boian said.

“There were many big items,” he said, including refrigerators and TVs. “People think the easiest way to get rid of it is just leave it.”

For safety reasons, the volunteers didn’t clean up the old Humboldt Dump property, although some of the property owners donated to the cause.

Also contributing their services were LifeScapes landscape company and Norcal Waste Systems. The Neal Road Landfill waived its tipping fees.