Shaw said he was contracted through the playground and shade equipment company Park Planet.

The shade roof and new playground at the park on East 16th Street were thanks to a $2.9 million grant from California State Parks. The park had a grand reopening in January.

It was Karen Escott’s “Explorers” team against Cynthia Paulo’s “Peeps”. Paulo’s Peeps prevailed “barely” in both the gross and net categories, 529 to 533 and 423 to 428.

Individual gross category: 1, Susan McVicker Wever; 2, Tie, Robin Manna, Sally Pearson and Shelley Carney. 3, Karen Olson. Net Category: 1, Sue Osterholt; 2, Vickie Spelts; 3, Linda Arellano; 4, Cathy Edgar; 5, Linda Alworth. Closest to pin on hole No. 3: 1, Pearson; 2, Gayle Hutchinson; 3, Vieira. Hole No. 6: 1, Escott; 2, Osterholt; 3, Alworth.

The Canyon Oaks Women’s Golf Club also held a 3-player, 2 net best-ball Shamble format for its weekly game.

The best tee shot was selected and from there, each member played their ball until holed out. Taking first was the team of Nancy Dooly, Gina Snider and Evie Spring with a score of 116. The team of Karen Escott, Sally Pearson and Vickie Spelts finished in the second spot at 121.

Closest to pin on No. 11: 1, Karen Escott; 2, Nancy Vieira; 3, Shelley Carney. Hole No. 6: 1, Escott; 2, Osterholt; 3, Alworth.

Bidwell Park Golf Course

Kelly MacKinnon continued her winning ways in the Bidwell Women’s Golf Club’s monthly Pro-Points tournament.

MacKinnon was low gross in the first flight with a score of 92. Karla Dreiss and Sheila McMurphy tied for low net at 72.

Second flight low gross: Sandy Fortino, 102. Net category: 1, Barbara Albers, 75; 2, Irma Jenkins, 78; 3, Donna Ensele, 79. Third flight low gross: Liz Mosher, 104. Net: 1, tie, Linda Mowell and Sue Blizman, 75; 3, Deena Cooper, 77. Closest to pin on No. 4: 1, Shelley Connolly; 2, Albers. Bidwell is still playing a little tough, because of the wet conditions, but not much longer.

Butte Creek Country Club

It was a good turnout of the senior men’s club members, with 15 teams participating in its monthly tournament.

The team of Ed Anderson and Mike Lim played a bogie-free round in the 2-Man Blind Draw Scramble format, shooting a gross score of 68 and a net score of 64.04 to take both the low gross and low net stipends. The old “Ham & Egg” adage was definitely the deciding factor.

The team of Mike Bechtol and Rovane Younger took second low net with a score of 66.88 by a mere 0.03 of a point. The team of Gary Crane and Jim Westcott, along with the team of Erv Alves and John Olsen, tied for the third spot at 66.91. Rounding out the payout in golf shop credit was the team of Royal “Aire” Hawkley and Richard O’Sullivan, with a score of 67.16 to take the fifth spot. The scores were close, to say the least.

The Butte Creek Women’s Golf Club weekly tournament was a Step Aside Scramble, meaning whose shot is chosen, that person is ineligible to hit on the next shot.

There was a good turnout of 26 members taking advantage of the great weather as short-lived as it was. There was a two-way tie for first place, with a score of 55, between the team of Joan Bequette, Sally Hayes, Pam Miller and a blind draw, and the team of Janet Alves, Paula Sands, Pat Stephenson and a blind draw.

The third spot was won by the team of Tami Blofsky, Cilla Hauer, Barbara Joronen and Sherri Kimmelshue with a score of 57.

Chico-Paradise SIR’s Golf Club

The Chico-Paradise SIR’s traveled up to Red Bluff and played a 4-Man Scramble format at Wilcox Oaks GC for its semi-monthly tournament last week.

The club’s guru, Darrell Hands, reported that the course in general was in great shape, especially the greens. Apparently, Rich Reynolds’ move from Butte Creek, as an assistant golf professional, up to Wilcox Oaks as its general manager and PGA head golf professional was beneficial, not only for Reynolds, but also for Wilcox Oaks.

The good turnout of the SIR’s members enabled the payouts to go down to fourth place.

Taking first was the team of Sam Davis, Darrell Hands, Cap Porterfield and Craig Herman with a score of 61.

The scores of the other teams finishing in the money were really close. No. 2, Jim Barger, Bob Mabrey, Dennis McNamara and Gary White, 62.0; 3, Dave Barnum, Mike Lim, Charles Staser and Jim Weidert, 62.3; 4, Ron Griffin, Richard Nussbaum, Ron Peterson and Benny Sommer, 62.7. Closest to pin contest: Hole No. 4: 1, Staser; 2, Mabrey. Hole No. 8: 1, Dennis Bruggman; 2, Rich Carlson. Hole No. 15: 1, Mabrey; 2, Weidert. Hole No. 18: 1, Carlson; 2, Don Lampe.

Junior golf

Livy Woodward won an unprecedented seven tournaments in a row in the U.S. Kids Central Valley Tour girls’ 8-and-under division, as a result of her win last weekend in the Tour Championship Tournament at Rancho Solano GC in Fairfield. Woodward shot another subpar round of 35 to easily win the tournament and the title, dominating her opponents in the process. Awesome.

Nine-year-old Alex Baca tied for second place in the U.S. Kids, Sacramento Tour Tournament at Mather GG last weekends with a score of 44. Congratulations!

Spectacular shots

Ed Anderson (aka, “yours truly,” as Ted Blofsky refers to me) scored an eagle two on the 16th hole at Butte Creek during the senior men’s weekly outing. Witnessing the ball being retrieved from the hole, because no one actually saw it disappear into the cup, following the 137-yard, 24-degree hybrid approach shot, were Cliff Kitayama, Ray Parker, Denny Varley and Rovane Younger.

Greg Martin eagled the par 5, 10th hole at Butte Creek last Friday, albeit he made it look easy. Reaching the green in two, Martin sank his putt for a 3 on the scorecard. Martin’s teammates were, Jim Westcott, Ray Parker, Cliff Kitayama and Erv Alves.

Carla Fritzler, a member of Butte Creek, traveled out-of-town recently to achieve her first hole-in-one. Fritzler aced the 17th hole at the Shadowridge GC in Palm Desert. Witnessing Fritzler’s perfect 94-yard, 7-iron tee shot find the bottom of the cup, was her husband, Mark.

Ed Anderson’s local golf column appears Tuesdays. He can be reached at edanderson1936@gmail.com.

Some braved the chilly waters of Big Chico Creek while others enjoyed the sun.

The temperatures are expected to stay in the low 70s today before a storm brings rain Friday and Saturday to the north state.

Modern Western-style homes, on the other hand, burn quicker, and Japanese firefighters don’t have familiarity fighting fires in Western style buildings, which are becoming increasingly common in Japan.

“You guys have the experience; that is why we need to learn the American firefighting techniques and tactics (and bring them) back to Japan,” said Takahiro Sato, a Japanese liaison and instructor who helped coordinate the training for Japanese firefighters with Cal Fire-Butte County.

The firefighters are learning and doing practical exercises this week at Cal Fire-Butte County’s training center on Openshaw Road outside Oroville. They’re planning on using ladder truck 91 today and climbing the ladder to the top of the training facility’s tower. On Friday, they plan to have a live fire exercise in which they will put out a fire in a building.

Fighting fires isn’t new to the Japanese firefighters, and communicating in Japanese isn’t new to Cal Fire-Butte County Firefighter James Stovall, who spent 15 years of his childhood in Japan.

“I think it helps the unit and the firefighters of Japan to see a fellow firefighter working in the states, who also happens to speak Japanese, who grew up over there and kind of share some similarities and connect them a little bit more to our department,” Stovall said.

While Sato translated and worked Wednesday with Engineer Alex Klein to show one group of five firefighters roof ventilation techniques and “sounding” out a safe path while on rooftops, Stovall taught another group of five different hose tactics, showing the firefighters how to unravel and work with water hoses, a vital part of firefighting.

“They’ve been showing us a few techniques which we haven’t seen or haven’t heard about,” Stovall said.

The firefighters are from a few different departments in Japan, and Sato organized a similar training in March 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic put a halt to trainings the last few years, but Sato and Butte County firefighters plan on continuing the relationship and bringing more firefighters for training next year and beyond.

“This is a great opportunity,” Stovall said, “it’s pretty cool to see that we do have fellow firefighters overseas all over the world and being able to connect with them and spend some time and get to know them on a personal level and a skill and performance level is pretty awesome.”

Big Chico Creek isn’t the only local waterway that is rising. The Sacramento River is expected to reach monitor stage this afternoon, according to the California Department of Water Resources data exchange center, which forecasts river stages.

At Hamilton City, the river is forecast to reach 142.1 feet, just above the monitor level of 142 feet, but still well below the flood level of 147 feet. The Sacramento River at the Woodson Bridge area near Vina is forecast to reach 179.9, just below the monitor stage of 180 feet and below the flood stage of 183 feet.

Downriver, the water is predicted to overflow the Colusa Weir this evening, sending water into the Sutter bypass where it is contained. The weir is at 60.9 feet, and the overflow depth is expected to reach 4.7 feet through Friday. The flood stage is 70.1 feet at the weir, and river levels are expected to peak at 65 feet.

A fire engine blocked the left lane of East Ninth Street near the overpass after the crash, which was called in around 2:05 p.m. Although highways are California Highway Patrol jurisdiction, the Chico Police Department was first on the scene and the CHP acquiesced to Chico investigators, according to the CHP’s traffic incident website.

Two SUVs were wrecked at the intersection of the offramp and East Ninth, a one-way street that is also Highway 32. An ambulance left the scene around 2:30 p.m.

By 3:30 p.m., the roadway had been cleared.

From Jan. 20 through Friday, the weather service’s observed precipitation map shows upper Paradise and much of Magalia received about 10 inches of rain while the rest of the ridge got about 8 inches.

East of Paradise and north of Berry Creek, the Middle Fork of the Feather River watershed also saw up to 10 inches of rain.

“Gauge reports are plotted against long term climatologic precipitation (PRISM data), and derived amounts are interpolated between gauge locations,” the National Weather Service explains in its explanation of how the data for the map is compiled west of the Continental Divide. The map can be found at https://water.weather.gov/precip.

Flooding was abated in much of Butte County by Wednesday, but to find out what roads are currently closed, visit Butte County’s road conditions site at buttecounty.net/964/Road-Conditions.