COARSEGOLD - This community took a look at itself last Thursday and concluded it can do better.
    Or at least 75 or so residents did so, gathering at Coarsegold Community Center to talk about a "vision that includes a plan for future growth.
    Despite sidetracking for a suggestion that no growth is the best growth, and for a brief but intense discussion of the gaming casino, the audience concluded the evening by agreeing to form what amounts to a community council.
    A meeting this Thursday [June 3], 7 p.m., at the Coarsegold Historical Society Museum, will see the selection of the seven-member council from among 19 residents who volunteered to serve. [List on Page 2.]
    Last week's meeting was a result of a gathering a month earlier of a "town hall -style meeting convened by new county Supervisor Gary Gilbert [Mountain Area-District 5], who encouraged a serious look at what is called an "area plan, a document county government recognizes as a guideline for where growth ought to occur within that area.
    Mr. Gilbert's appointee on the county Planning Commission, Tony Ward of Ahwahnee, quickly offered help at the earlier meeting. The former chairman of the Ahwahnee Community Council said that community's experience in creating its council and its area plan should be helpful to Coarsegold.
    That seems to be so.
    Once Coarsegold's Claude Rust opened Thursday's meeting, he quickly turned the chair over to Mr. Ward.
    "The first question, Mr. Ward began, "is why are we here?
    He quickly produced from props: copies of the county general plan and the 2 1/2-page Coarsegold Area Plan, an aging and fairly vague document; and a copy of the new Ahwahnee Area Plan, on the agenda for adoption by the county Board of Supervisors on July 27.

    AHWAHNEE - During a brief, but solemn Memorial Day service, veterans honored and remembered comrades who have given their lives for their country.
    Before the small gathering at Ahwahnee Cemetery, incoming Commander Dan Thornton, of the Veterans of Foreign War Chapter 8743, spoke of the memory of the heroic dead, of never forgetting the cost of freedom.
    As spectators reverently bowed their heads, a prayer was led by Chaplain Bill Johnson, also of Chapter 8743.
    Three veterans - Jack Ross, Bud Burrows, and Commander Bill Godfrey (all from 8743) - spoke a few words before placing flowers as a tribute of devotion and remembrance on a grave representative of all comrades, wherever they may now rest.
    Taps was played and all saluted. In the background, the American flag and the VFW flag waved in the breeze. Holding these flags and two rifles were four veterans - George Priest, Chuck Lott and Charlie Coelho, from VFW North Fork chapter 7140, and John Schlepp, from Chapter 8743.
    Following the Memorial Day ceremony in Ahwahnee, the veterans traveled toOakhurst's Oakhill Cemetery, and then Coarsegold and North Fork to repeat the memorial services at cemeteries in those communities.

    MERCED - YARTS [Yosemite Area Regional Transportation Strategy] project comes to a critical point for its very survival with an open meeting scheduled for Friday [June 4] in Merced at 9:30 a.m. It should last about two hours.
    It will be held in the Merced City Hall, 678 West 18th Street, in the second-floor city-council chambers.
    The meeting, called by the state Transportation Commission's Public Transit Committee, will determine how much (if any) funds will be granted by that agency to continue the project.
    State Department of Transportation [Caltrans] has awarded $2.68 million in grant money for YARTS.