Community Corner

Save Mount Diablo Recognizes Three San Ramon Residents

Doug Burr, Phil O'Loane and Sally Scholl will be awarded for their work in "preserving the Bay Area's natural land."

Three San Ramon residents who led the campaign against Measure W last year were nominated for Save Mount Diablo's "Mountain Star Award" for their work in protecting the region's natural land.

Measure W was a general plan update on the ballot last fall that would have extended San Ramon's urban growth boundary more than 1,600 acres into the rural Tassajara Valley. It lost by nearly 72 percent of the votes.

"San Ramon residents were frustrated by the actions of their City council, and three residents led a community group to challenge the city’s ballot measure," according to a Save Mount Diablo press release. "Doug Burr is a management consultant. When the San Ramon city council refused to put stop signs near a neighborhood school, he wrote an initiative to require it. Sally Scholl has lived in San Ramon for 45 years, taught in San Ramon Valley schools for 25 years and was both District and County Teacher of the Year in 1999. In her retirement she works on clean water projects in Africa. Phil O’Loane is an executive at Kaiser Permanente and was Chairman of the San Ramon Planning Commission."

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O'Loane also recently announced he's running for City Council this fall. His name will be on the Nov. 8 ballot.

"Urban growth boundaries are a linchpin of our community's ongoing commitment to maintaining a balanced approach to growth," O'Loane said in a prepared statement. “I am proud to have been able to team up with people who share a vision and an energy for open space preservation in the Tassajara Valley and our Western Hills. These areas are treasures worth preserving."

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Other award recipients are: East Bay Regional Park District’s Wildlife Program Manager/ornithologist Doug Bell and Bay Nature co-founder/Bay Nature Institute executive director David Loeb.

At a glance

WHAT: Mountain Star Award presentation/ Save Mount Diablo's 40th anniversary celebration

WHEN: Sept. 10

INFO: 925-947-3535


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