BILL NUMBER: SCR 137 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Senator Wolk
(Coauthor: Assembly Member Levine)
MAY 2, 2016
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.