Politics & Government

County Supes Expected to Rename Tennessee Valley Path After Charles McGlashan

The Marin County Board of Supervisors recommends approving a Marin County Bicycle Coalition request to rename the path after the former Marin County Supervisor who died unexpectedly in March 2011.

Like many a weekend before it, longtime Mill Valley resident Carol Misseldine went for a bike ride last Saturday along the Tennessee Valley Pathway, which just got a massive facelift as part of the (not-yet-finished) $3.4 million overhaul of the Hwy. 1-Tennessee Valley Rd. intersection.

For Misseldine's next trip across the now-raised boardwalk along Coyote Creek, however, the pathway will likely have a new moniker, one named for her late husband, Marin County Supervisor Charles McGlashan, who died of heart failure at the age of 49 in March 2011.

The renaming of the path, which allows for safe passage during high tide on both sides of Shoreline Hwy., goes before the Marin County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday morning, having already received widespread community support and the backing of the Marin County Parks & Open Space Commission, according to the Board of Supervisors staff report.

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"It really would be quite an honor to have it named for him," Misseldine said. "He was really committed to fostering a more walkable and bike-able Marin. And I know that he would have liked to bike (the renovated path) with me."

The renaming request was submitted by the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, and Misseldine has long since endorsed it. She appeared before the parks commission last month in which the panel agreed that the name change fits with the policy of acknowledging individuals or groups by naming places in their honor. In doing so, Misseldine was surrounded by a bevy of McGlashan supporters who used the occasion to once again memorialize the supervisor.

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"There wasn't a dry eye in the room by the end," Misseldine said.

Misseldine said the pathway held an important place in McGlashan's short-but-busy political career, as one of his first conversations as a supervisorial candidate with a would-be constituent was about what to do about the path and how to find the money to pay for it. The man told McGlashan that he like his answer best among all ofthe candidates he'd asked about the path, enough to earn his vote.

"We knew we were moving in the campaign at that point," Misseldine said.

McGlashan was elected to his first term on the board in 2004 and helped find the funding for it as part of the the $25 million federal grant to fund the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program (NTPP) in 2007.

McGlashan's death in March 2011 sent shockwaves throughout Marin. He had collapsed in the back seat of a car parked outside Mill Valley City Councilwoman Shawn Marshall's house in the North Lake Tahoe area, ready to head back home after a day of skiing with a group of friends and colleagues.

Government officials across Marin and beyond reacted with a mix of sadness and admiration to his untimely passing. The Tennessee Valley Pathway is one of many initiatives McGlashan is credited for pushing forward in his seven years on the board. Marshall said she imagines he's "very pleased from above" about the prospect of having the pathway bear his name. 

“I think it’s a great honor and I'm happy to support it," she said.

The path runs along the southern bank of Coyote Creek for approximately one-half mile from its intersection with the Mill Valley-Sausalito Multi-Use Path westward to the intersection of Tennessee Valley Road and Marin Avenue.

"It's a pathway that really brought things together," said Maureen Parton, a former planning commission member and current aide to Supervisor Kate Sears.

She was walking along it recently and stopped at one of the belvideres where there was an old man sitting on a bench reading a newspaper. A young runner came by and sat down next to him and asked what he was reading.

"I thought, 'Charles would love to see this,'" Parton said. "It's really just a great connector."

The Tennessee Valley Pathway is just one of many issues for which McGlashan fought. From Marin Energy Authority's launch of Marin Clean Energy in May 2010, to seemingly smaller but innovative initiatives like the Muir Woods shuttle, the plastic bag ban, non-motorized transportation projects and curbside composting, McGlashan has left his mark on Marin.

Since his death, he's been recognized in a number of ways by the community, including the Charles McGlashan Memorial Bike Ride, the 2012 Terwilliger Environmental Award from Wildcare and the May 2011  in his honor.

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