Our 8th Annual Past President’s Dinner and Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship Award Ceremony was another awesome evening of history and celebration for the Sierra Chapter. On February 20th, your illustrious past presidents were joined by an assortment of members and guests including our Guest Speaker, Clark Peri with Caltrans. In addition, we were joined by Camilla Saviz, UOP Civil Engineering Department Chair and Ben Fell, Sac State Civil Engineering Department Chair. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening’s pageantry and presentations!
Although the parade of Past Presidents was impressive, the highlight for me was handing out the Tim Fleming Memorial Scholarship checks to Taneil Evans of the University of the Pacific and Andrii Noga of Sac State.
They each received checks for $2,000. That’s right, we were able to award two scholarships this year due to the quality of submissions and the financially healthy scholarship fund. Susan Fleming Bentley was again in attendance and joined the ceremony. This was the 8th year of the scholarship. Remembering Tim’s legacy in this way is absolutely a win-win for our Chapter and the schools in our area. Thanks are also due the California Transportation Foundation (CTF), who administers the fund. In addition, the Sierra Chapter Board approved another $3,000 donation to the scholarship which is now an endowed scholarship!
Following the scholarship presentation, Clark Peri of Caltrans District 3, provided an excellent overview of the Capital City (CapCity) Corridor Improvement Project. This is State Route 51 (Business 80 through Sacramento) extending from I-80/Business 80 in the north to US 50/Hwy 99 in the south, and is the most congested corridor in the region. Clark presented some of the alternatives they are looking at to ease the congestion as well as the challenges in funding this ambitious project.
Finally, Past Presidents joined us from as far back as 1985 and 1987, Orin Bennett and Ed Gillum, when we were known as WAELS (Western Association of Engineers and Land Surveyors) up through and including the 2016-2017 Past President, Dana Remington. After dinner, we gathered for the ritual “Past President’s Photo” see below. Thanks again to all the Past Presidents, Clark Peri, Susan Fleming Bentley (and her spouse, Noah), Camilla Saviz and Ben Fell, and our scholarship winners for making this another awesome Sierra Chapter event!
