Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 137

Introduced by Senator Wolk

(Coauthor: Assembly Member Levine)

May 2, 2016

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 137—Relative to Police Officer Vilho Ahola Memorial Highway.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SCR 137, as introduced, Wolk. Police Officer Vilho Ahola Memorial Highway.

This measure would designate a specified portion of State Highway 101 in the County of Sonoma as the Police Officer Vilho Ahola Memorial Highway. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs.

Fiscal committee: yes.

WHEREAS, Vilho Ahola, the son of Finish immigrants, was
born on June 11, 1927, in Massachusetts and, at the age of 12,
went to work in the cranberry bogs to assist his family; and

WHEREAS, As an adult, Mr. Ahola served in the United States
Air Force before going to work for the Scituate Police Department
in Massachusetts; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Ahola moved to California in 1961 and
enrolled in the Santa Rosa Junior College law enforcement training
academy where he received his California Peace Officer Standards
and Training Law Enforcement Certificate and later joined the
Petaluma Police Department; and

WHEREAS, Officer Ahola and his wife Marjorie had two sons,
Dana Carl Ahola and Kurt Alan Ahola, and in 1964 he built his
own house in Penngrove, California, a rural area a short distance
from the City of Petaluma; and

WHEREAS, Officer Ahola, who was a member of the Petaluma
Elks Lodge, was an avid outdoorsman and qualified for the
Massachusetts and California state championship rifle teams and
the United States Olympic rifle marksmanship team; and

WHEREAS, On November 7, 1969, Officer Ahola was shot in
the neck while responding to a domestic disturbance as a Petaluma
Police Officer and when a bullet became lodged in his neck against
his spine, Officer Ahola was rendered quadriplegic; and

WHEREAS, After sustaining those serious injuries, Officer
Ahola lived an honorable life and became an inspiration to those
who knew him; and

WHEREAS, After he was shot, Officer Ahola spent more than
a year in hospitals undergoing therapy for his paralysis and, after
recovering enough from his injuries, he began volunteering
part-time for the Petaluma Police Department records division
where he always had a smile on his face and was a source of
inspiration to everyone who knew him in the police department;
and

WHEREAS, Officer Ahola worked in the records department
until 1989 when his fingers became too stiff to operate a computer
keyboard, but he remained active in other community activities,
including the Police Athletic League (PAL); and

WHEREAS, In the early 1970s, Officer Ahola helped to organize
the PAL and sought to build partnerships among youth and police
by organizing programs that brought police officers together with
youth in a positive environment; and

WHEREAS, Officer Ahola was very active in the local PAL
chapter teaching rifle marksmanship and firearms safety and, after
his death in 1998, one of Officer Ahola’s former students said the
following: “I met Vilho Ahola through the PAL program at the
age of fourteen years in junior high school. Raised by a single
working mother I had little ‘fatherly’ influence in my life. A gentle
and giving man reduced to a wheelchair changed that for me. I
credit most of my success, positive attitude and manners to Vilho
Ahola. I am only one of hundreds of ‘Ahola kids’ that are around
today and benefitting from that great man and his program.”; and

WHEREAS, Officer Ahola’s will to survive and his dedication
to youth were an inspiration to all that knew him and, even after
suffering such tragic and traumatic injuries, Officer Ahola’s
positive attitude and desire to make a difference impacted the
people around him far beyond what one would expect; and

WHEREAS, Officer Ahola was dedicated to his family,
including his wife Marjorie, who became his primary caretaker
and looked after him in the years after he was injured, and his two
sons, who grew up to be fine young men; and

WHEREAS, The Sonoma County Coroner determined that
Officer Ahola’s death was directly related to the injuries he
sustained when shot in the line of duty and ruled that while his
death was not immediate, the shooting sentenced Officer Ahola
to a lifetime of pain and complications related to his paralysis until
the time of his eventual death on February 1, 1998; and

WHEREAS, Shortly after his death in 1998, Officer Ahola’s
name was added to the national and California Peace Officer
Memorials; and

WHEREAS, There is no person more deserving of this memorial
dedication than Officer Vilho Ahola of the Petaluma Police
Department; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates the
portion of State Highway 101 from milepost marker 4.5 to milepost
marker 8.5 as the Police Officer Vilho Ahola Memorial Highway
to honor and memorialize the sacrifice made by Officer Ahola
when serving as a police officer in the City of Petaluma, California;
and be it further

Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested
to determine the cost of erecting appropriate signs, consistent with
the signing requirements of the state highway system showing this
special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate
sources covering that cost, to erect those signs; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of
this resolution to the Director of Transportation and to the author
for appropriate distribution.