Lincoln Hills honors residents Oct. 14

A wide brim ...Lincoln Hills Foundation presents Hats Off II on Friday, Oct .14, in Orchard Creek Ballroom, 965 Orchard Creek Lane.The foundation's second annual dinner event honors individuals who make a difference to our community and groups. Festivities get underway at 5 p.m. with a no-host bar.Dinner follows after which celebrations begin with tributes and awards presented to 17 individuals and two groups.Tickets are $50 per person and are available now through Oct. 1.This year, Lincoln Hills Foundation will honor Mark Burke, Pearl Chang, Jim Datzman, Mark Dentinger, Shelly Ebenholtz, Bob Free, Vic Freeman, Michele Hutchinson, Dan Karleskint, Dan Larsen, Gay Mackintosh, Rich Regan, Ken Silverman, Dennis Valentine, Marcia VanWagner, Pauline Watson and Larry Whitaker.Additionally, the foundation will honor Neighbors InDeed and the board of directors of the Sun City Lincoln Hills Community Association.Reservation forms can be downloaded from the website at LincolnHillsFoundation.org. Forms, along with payment, should be mailed to Karen Foley, Lincoln Hills Foundation, P.O. Box 220, Lincoln, CA 95648. Lincoln Hills Foundation promotes and funds innovative solutions that enable senior residents to remain in their homes and enjoy their independent lifestylesContact Lincoln Hills Foundation President Vern Chong at 408-0306 for more information.Southern style ...Thanks go out to Nancy Rich, who let Scene to be Seen know about the Lincoln Hills Players' Theater Group's upcoming production of "Christmas Belles" scheduled for 7 p.m. Nov. 17, 18 and 19 in the ballroom at Orchard Creek Lodge, 965 Orchard Creek Lane. There will also be a second performance at 2 p.m. Nov. 19.Expect all performances to sell out quickly."Christmas Belles" is part of the very popular and hilarious comedies co-authored by Jesse Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten who now make their homes in Asheville, N.C.All three were on hand last Sunday when Players' Group hosted a champagne and dessert reception."Christmas Belles" Ely Award-winning director Diane Bartlett has been friends with Jamie since the 1970s when a community theater production brought them together.Diane is directing the Players' Theater Group production of "Christmas Belles."Paul Schechter is assistant director.Readers may recognize Wooten as writer for more than 400 network television episodes, including four years of the well-known series "The Golden Girls."Jones is a well-recognized character actress, who has appeared in many television and stage productions as well as the co-author of "Dearly Departed" that was adapted into the feature film, "Kingdom Come."Hope teamed up with Jesse and Jamie following a successful career as director of casting for Theatre Communications Group in New York, The Goodman Theatre in Chicago plus ABC Television in New York and Los Angeles."Christmas Belles" is a side-splitting and wacky satire that is being performed around the world.The Lincoln Hills Players' Group production features Judith Jesness, Karen Ulijohn, Barbara Swerdlow, Steve Garavito, Peggy Schechter, Ken Reiss, Ginny Sutherland, Pat Shafer, Bob Murdock, Bob Dale and Jeri Ferris.Craig Stults is producer and stage manager.Tickets go on sale to the general public Nov. 1 and can be obtained by calling 625-4000.Cover up ...On Saturday, Fran Neves reports, Friends of Lincoln Library will hold a book sale to help raise much-needed funds to support library programs.The sale gets underway at 10 a.m. and will run to 5 p.m. in the Willow Room at Twelve Bridges Library (434-2410), 485 Twelve Bridges Drive. For more information about Friends of Lincoln Library and library programs, visit libraryatlincoln.org.No cover ...After the book sale, why not head downtown to Kim's Country Kitchen (645-2727), 537 G St.?Kim's is now open all day Saturday.In addition to featuring Saturday dinners and specials, Kim's will feature local performers.This Saturday, look for Becca Danielsen and Chuck Weeks to perform.Saturday, Oct. 1, look for Ken Koenig.Different artists have been booked to perform through Oct. 15 and beyond.Just in from Jeeves ...Jeeves watched the Sept. 13 Lincoln City Council meeting.He enjoyed Dennis Wagner's presentation from the Economic Development Committee.This committee includes volunteers Rick Bluhm, who serves as chairman; Casey Cloud, James Datzman, Ron Gilman, Judy Guiraud, Richard Pearl, Al Roten, Roger Ueltzen and Wagner; plus Mayor Paul Joiner and Councilman Stan Nader; and City Manager Jim Estep and the city's housing and special projects coordinator Amanda Norton.Economic Development Committee seeks to increase city revenues by attracting new businesses.During the council meeting, the committee sought about $21,000 to help the improve the city's website.The committee believes that the website is our portal to new business.So it wants the site to provide accurate information.While $21,000 may seem like a lot of money, more than 200 pages on the city's website need to be updated.Jeeves doesn't know if that's a competitive price to pay.But he does know that the city's website needs work.This week, Jeeves visited the website.He found a very old photo of Steve Art.The city's former economic and redevelopment manager left the city's employ more than six months ago.He also found a photo of old City Hall posing as new City Hall.New City Hall has been open for more than two years.The committee did not exaggerate - the website needs an overhaul.As a result, Jeeves was troubled by City Council's response to the committee's proposal.All councilmen were negative.Councilman Gabriel Hydrick spoke first.He said that he was disheartened by the committee.Also, Hydrick chastised it for failing to respond to his e-mail regarding the CCD Expo in Loomis on Sept. 16 to 17.Jeeves couldn't understand Hydrick's criticism.So Jeeves visited the CCD Expo website, ccdexpo.com.What he found is interesting.The website's link, "Who Should Attend," reveals that the expo was designed to attract film makers, producers, videographers and musicians.Jeeves scratched mightily to find out how an entertainment expo in Loomis could help Lincoln find new business revenue anymore than a lingerie convention in Las Vegas or a bungee jumping contest in Podunk.Jeeves is disheartened by Hydrick.Before Hydrick sends out e-mails, Jeeves wonders why he doesn't attempt to gauge their relevance.By doing so, he might receive responses.Just because Hydrick believes that it's a good idea doesn't mean that it's a good idea. But Jeeves is more puzzled by the negative reactions of Mayor Joiner, Councilman Nader and City Manager Estep.All three serve on the committee.Jeeves wonders why they didn't raise their concerns during committee meetings.He also wonders why they would oppose an effort to fix our website that is clearly out of date.And Jeeves wonders why they waited to trash a proposal from a committee on which they serve and in such a public forum.While Jeeves understands that the city has no money in its General Fund, he wonders why council failed to suggest other options, such as a grant.He also wonders why they failed to suggest approaching other businesses that might be willing to help fund the project in cash or in-kind.If this is a city that can raise $20,000 to fund fireworks that bring in no revenues, why can't it raise a comparable amount to fund a project that helps bring in new revenues?Jeeves would be willing to donate $100.He believes that there are others willing to match his contribution.Jeeves also wonders why City Council failed to suggest reaching out to a university or college and asking students to help with the project as interns.No positive suggestions came from any city councilman.At best, one was ambivalent.But what troubles Jeeves most is that no city councilman had the courtesy to say thank you to the committee volunteers.Jeeves can make no sense out of what he heard.He suspects that others share his confusion.So he decided to consult with the Downtown Dogs.Initially, the dogs were perplexed.They recognize that the Economic Development Committee seeks to find new revenues from outside our city.That should be a good thing.They wonder if City Council was trying to make way for a report from another committee that seeks to find new revenue from inside the city rather than outside - specifically, the fiscal sustainability committee.After all, the dogs note that Richard Pearl serves on the Economic Development Committee and he also serves as chairman on the fiscal sustainability committee.They'd like to know how he can sit and rollover at the same time.They also wonder if the fiscal sustainability committee influenced City Council's reaction to the Economic Development Committee's proposal.The Downtown Dogs have detected a whiff of something different in the air.They believe that it's the odor of a new tax proposal.The odor seems to be emanating from the fiscal sustainability committee.Jeeves and the Downtown Dogs will continue to sniff and scratch.Eventually, all will be revealed and may even make sense.Meanwhile, Jeeves would like to publicly thank the Economic Development Committee volunteers for their service and contributions - Bluhm, Cloud, Datzman, Gilman, Guiraud, Roten, Ueltzen and even Pearl.But he extends an extra special thanks to committee volunteer Wagner, who endured about an hour of abuse from our city council.The committee volunteers deserve better and they deserve the city's thanks.And Lincoln deserves better than City Council gave Sept. 13.If you have upcoming events that you wish to appear in Scene to be Seen, please call Kathy Dorsey at 645-0660 or e-mail JustInFromJeeves@gmail.com.This column may or may not necessarily express the opinions of The Lincoln News Messenger.