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FRIDAY JUNE 18, 2010 Breaking news at: Painting the town BLUE Select TV www.redbluffdailynews.com See Inside RED BLUFF Game 7 Showdown SPORTS 1B Weather forecast 10A Mostly sunny 85/59 By GEOFF JOHNSON DN Staff Writer Tehama County Supervisors are in for an earful. The Planning Commission on Thursday held a public hear- ing for proposed Development Impact Fees — the first of at least two sessions designed, in part, to collect public comment and pass it on to supervisors before they consider the matter. “You are a receiver of testi- mony, essentially,” Planning Director George Robson told DAILYNEWS TEHAMACOUNTY DAILY 50¢ T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Crowd gathers to protest development fees the commission. Robson has advised the fees are not supposed to be taken at face value. Based on a 2.1 per- cent growth rate in population over the next 20 years — a his- torical average even more con- troversial when used for the General Plan and used here for consistency — the fees repre- sent the maximum, legally defensible amount the county could charge to add infrastruc- ture as its population grows. Robson has said the fees may be more than the business ‘As far as I’m concerned, this whole fee should be thrown out, if we’re going to move ahead as a new community’ Larry Lalaguna climate will tolerate, and expects the county to ask for something lower — say, some- thing which does not ask for the purchase of new parks to keep the ratio of people-to-parks the same as the county grows. The road ahead The fees, in other words, are a baseline figure for the county to whittle down. But the audience in a packed Board Chamber wanted the county to do more than whittle. “As far as I’m concerned, this whole fee should be thrown out, if we’re going to move ahead as a new community,” said Larry Lalaguna, one of the proposal’s chief critics told the Planning Commission. Lalaguna took issue with some of the study’s methodolo- gy, protested the Average Daily Traffic figures used for certain roads and questioned the idea that fees should target new development. Others view the fees as a See FEES, page 9A Deputies uncover 9,600 pot plants PAYNES CREEK — Tehama County sheriff’s deputies are searching for the owners of an illegal, 9,600-plant marijuana garden discovered in eastern Tehama County. Deputies raided the garden Wednesday after tips See POT, page 9A Board gets fair, project updates By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer The Tehama District Fair Board discussed a variety of items from the reclassification of the fair to the solar project and the Round-Up Museum prop- erty at Tuesday’s meeting. The fair was reclassi- fied as of June from a class two fair, which it has been for more than 20 years, to a class three. “There will be no Daily News photo by Julie Zeeb Los Molinos resident Melissa Tallan looks for her residence on the “I Live Here map”on which residents marked their homes with colored dots. By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer LOS MOLINOS— Those attending an open house Wednes- day at the Veterans Hall for the upcoming Highway 99E Bond pro- ject in Los Molinos got good news — construction is scheduled to start after the town’s Fourth of July Parade. “We’re actually delivering Phase I a year early,” said Steve Rogers, Caltrans project manager. At one point there was concern that construction would affect the parade route, but work on Phase I will run July 6 through Oct. 30. Rogers said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked for a list of projects that were ready to go because Schwarzenegger wanted to inject money into the economy and get safety measures out early. “This project really started with the needs of the community,” Rogers said. “There was an outcry about speeding.” The project, which will cost about $1.6 million in Phase I, was Proud to be an American? If you’re proud to be an American, tell us why in 300 words or fewer and you could win a chance at as much as $10,000 on the Fourth of July. The Daily News is hosting a patriotic essay contest to celebrate our nation’s independence with grand prizes of Golden Tickets for the Red Bluff- Tehama County Chamber of Commerce Golden Tick- et drawing scheduled for July 4 at the Tehama Dis- trict Fairground. There will be three win- ners of one ticket each by age category — 10 years and younger, 11-18 years and adults. Winning entries will be published in the Daily News Sat- urday, July 3, and selected entries will be posted on red- bluffdailynews.com. Only 300 Golden Tick- ets will be sold for the July 4 drawing and, if all tickets are sold, one lucky winner will walk away with $10,000. Additional prizes will be awarded as part of the drawing. Simply answer the ques- tion “Why are you proud to be an American” and sub- mit entries to editor@red- bluffdailynews.com with subject line “Proud Ameri- 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 See PROUD, page 9A split into two phases because there were environmental issues that needed to be worked out with the drainage, Rogers said. Funding is channeled through Proposition 1B and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. A variety of improvements will be made to help slow traffic, espe- cially around Orange and Grant streets, including designated bike lanes and stamped, colored con- See ROAD, page 9A effect to our allocations, but it will affect the man- ager’s salary,” said Fair CEO Mark Eidman. The Tehama District Fair was one of 10 fairs to be reclassified by Fairs and Expositions, he said. The process of priority reporting to Fairs and Expositions, which nor- mally audits a fair’s spending annually, will be required monthly. “We can argue with it, we don’t have to like it, but it’s where we’re at,” Eidman said. On the positive side, the Tehama District Fair maintained an A Compos- ite Performance Rating score from Fairs and Expositions. Eidman said the fair may have to pay more for its photovoltaic solar pan- els installed in June 2006. “(Fairs and Exposi- tions) didn’t get the financing for the project they had anticipated,” Eidman said. “The whole thing just kind of crum- bled from within.” With the Krebs bonds that paid for the project not doing well, the agency is looking to up the the payments. To date, the solar pan- els have paid for them- selves and even brought in a little extra energy, so if the interest is only raised a little, fair would be okay. If not, the fair’s pay- ment would be more than the panels bring in. “There is an upside that when this is paid off we’ll enjoy electricity without paying for it (if we can hold on that long),” said Director Ger- ald Sanders. The board discussed the next step of getting the See FAIR, page 9A From darkness to seeing the light Local author charts road from checkered past to God By TANG LOR DN Staff Writer From being an alco- holic and drug addict to full recovery, a Red Bluff man claims his life was changed after he found God. In Doug Shepard’s book, “Victim of Plea- sure,” he writes about his days in the adult film industry, which led him to become an alco- holic, and how he recov- ered from alcoholism and being suicidal by turning to God. In his 20s, Shepard was working to become a professional body- builder in Southern Cal- ifornia when he met a stripper who gave him a contact to the adult film industry. He kind of dared himself into doing it and from there, every- thing just fell into place, he said. Shepard fell into a cycle of drug and alco- hol abuse, as is common in the industry culture, and life in a big city. “I overcame my lone- liness with wine and alcohol,” Shepard said. “I used it as a way to dull my pain.” After a few years in the industry, he eventu- ally left and got a job as a bodyguard for Phil and Robin McGraw. It was during the two seasons that he worked for Dr. Phil that his life began to change. He credits much of his recovery to the Bish- op T.D. Jakes, an evan- gelist out of Dallas, Texas, whose sermons are broadcast on televi- Shepard sion. Shepard first heard of Jakes and his philoso- phy when Jakes was a guest on the Dr. Phil Show, offering advice to other guests. “Just being on the set and listening to what he was telling other people just really got me think- ing about my life,” Shepard said. “(Jakes) talks about applying a common sense approach to life. The more I lis- tened, the more it made sense. He gave me the direction to change.” Shepard, who had been agnostic his entire life, turned to God and through prayer and belief in God’s love, he began to change. “There’s really some- body who’s higher than us who’s looking out for us,” he said “Just give God a chance.” Tired of the city life and with an eagerness to See LIGHT, page 9A TEHAMA COUNTY GLASS MOULE’S DOORS! Entrance, Screen, French, Security, Garage, Store Front We have them all! Best of all we install! 515 Sycamore St. 529-0260