Donna Steiger announces retirement, When she was 79 she traveled to Bulgaria with the Peace Corps
Loss of vision forces Yountville councilwoman to call it quits
Friday, August 6, 2004
By GABE FRIEDMAN
Register Staff Writer
Yountville Town Councilwoman Donna Steiger, 82, has announced she will resign from her council seat at the end of September.
Steiger, who suffers from macular degeneration, said she has lost most of her vision in both eyes in the past year. Staying on as a resident at the California Veterans Home in Yountville and serving out the rest of her council term has become too much of a strain under the circumstances, she said.
Now the Town Council must decide how to fill Steiger's soon-to-be vacant seat, which expires in November 2006. State law mandates that the council either appoint a successor to serve out the remainder of her term or leave the seat empty and let voters decide in a special election. Town Clerk Joyce Houghton said that if the matter goes before voters, it would come up in the next scheduled election, in March 2005.
Steiger will remain on the council for two more meetings before departing for Washington, D.C. where she hopes to make a new home and advocate for the blind.
"It was like being hit head on in a car accident," said Steiger. "The one eye went in April and the other went in November.
"When you lose your vision and you lose driver's license," said Steiger, "you're very isolated. And public transportation (here), even though it's adequate, it's not the best in the world."
The routine work required of councilmembers before each meeting -- reading the staff reports and agenda -- had become difficult, Steiger said.
"It was sudden," said Steiger. "If I had any thought that anything was wrong with my eyes, I wouldn't have run for council.
"I cannot read up close ... (without) huge magnifiers," said Steiger. "It's like going back and learning to read all over again."
What she could once read and absorb in an hour on her own now requires two days with the assistance of a friend.
The type of macular degeneration, the leading cause of legal blindness among people over 55, that Steiger suffers from is known as the "wet" type, the rarer form among age-related cases of the illness. It can involve bleeding within and beneath the retina, according to researchers.
While Steiger said her frontal vision is fuzzy, she said her peripheral vision remains clear. Thus, she is training herself to see things from the side, a sometimes painstaking and slow process, she said.
By returning to Washington, Steiger's former home, she said she will have access to a better transportation system, a network of friends and a chance to lecture on issues she feels strongly about. Specifically, she named blindness and a Peace Corps for senior citizens.
When she was 79 Steiger traveled to Bulgaria with the Peace Corps. Now, she said she wants other seniors to experience the Peace Corps, and hopes to lecture on this point.
Yountville Mayor Todd Carlson commended Steiger for doing a great job as a councilwoman and expressed disappointment that she was leaving.
If the council decides not to appoint someone new to serve the rest of her term, three council seats, as well as the mayor's post, would be up in the next scheduled election.
There was no indication which way the council would go on the matter. Steiger said she had a few people in mind, none of whom are residents of the Vets Home, that she might suggest as possible replacements. Steiger will not be allowed to vote on an appointee for the position.
"I'm going to miss Yountville like mad," she said.
