BILL NUMBER: ACR 97 CHAPTERED BILL TEXT RESOLUTION CHAPTER 37 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE MAY 30, 2014 ADOPTED IN SENATE MAY 23, 2014 ADOPTED IN ASSEMBLY APRIL 21, 2014 INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bigelow (Coauthor: Assembly Member Beth Gaines) (Coauthor: Senator Gaines) FEBRUARY 13, 2014 Relative to the Staff Sergeant Sky R. Mote Memorial Overcrossing. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST ACR 97, Bigelow. Staff Sergeant Sky R. Mote Memorial Overcrossing. This measure would designate the overcrossing that spans State Highway Route 50 at Ray Lawyer Drive in the County of El Dorado as the Staff Sergeant Sky R. Mote Memorial Overcrossing. The measure would request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost for appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering that cost, to erect those signs. WHEREAS, Staff Sergeant Sky R. Mote, who was assigned to the 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion at Camp Pendleton, California was killed August 10, 2012, in Helmand province, Afghanistan, along with two other Marines; and WHEREAS, Staff Sergeant Mote was born in Bishop, California to Russell and Cindy Mote, who divorced when he was a young boy, and he was raised by his father and his new wife, Marcia, in El Dorado, California; and WHEREAS, As a boy, Staff Sergeant Mote raised pigs for 4-H, camped with his family, and shoed horses. From an early age, he spoke of joining the military, motivated in part by a love of airplanes and the desire to work with them; and WHEREAS, Staff Sergeant Mote graduated from Union Mine High School in El Dorado in 2003 and joined the Marines that same year. He deployed to Iraq as a bomb-disposal specialist, and twice to Afghanistan to work with the Marines special forces; and WHEREAS, After his death, people who served with Staff Sergeant Mote spoke about his heroism in battle. In one case, a captain spoke of stepping on an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, and of how Mote found his way to him, applying tourniquets and preventing him from bleeding to death; and WHEREAS, Staff Sergeant Mote received the Navy Cross, a Purple Heart, a Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal, a Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal, two Combat Action Ribbons, and three Good Conduct Medals; and WHEREAS, Staff Sergeant Mote was unmarried and leaves behind four brothers: Timothy, 37, an Army soldier in Fort Polk, Louisiana; Erick, 30, of Bozeman, Montana; Tyson, 28, of San Francisco; and Carson, 17, a high school student in El Dorado Hills; and WHEREAS, By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty in the face of certain death, Staff Sergeant Mote saved his comrades from further injury or possibly death, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates the overcrossing that spans State Highway Route 50 at Ray Lawyer Drive at the El Dorado County Veterans Monument/Government Center as the Staff Sergeant Sky R. Mote Memorial Overcrossing; be it further Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested to determine the cost of erecting the appropriate signs, consistent with the signing requirements for 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 Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the Director of Transportation and to the author for appropriate distribution.