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Wednesday, April 24, 2013 – Daily News MELEE Continued from page 1A New York to put on the event. RACW members are dedicated volunteer living historians who bring to life the daily experiences of both soldiers and civilians during the Civil War. Rick Barram, event Coordinator, portrays 1st Sgt. Horatio Biddle, top NCO of Company C of the 72nd New York. His character Biddle "is a hard-bitten veteran, of dubious heritage, raised by Irish nuns, who finds himself caught up in the swirl of America's greatest conflict. He's seen a lot of fighting in Lincoln's army. He's also a bit of a stickler for spit and polish." Pete Scibilio, portrays Captain Alexander F. Brown, commander of Company C of the 72nd New York. Brown described the emotional connection to his character, "Alexander Brown was a real soldier in the real 72nd New York, who died a prisoner of war in the infamous Andersonville prison. As a veteran myself, I have had a strong connection with Brown and will continue to honor his memory as long as I am in reenacting. For similar reasons, many reenactors have taken on the persona of ancestors or men who actually served in the Civil War, and they all love to interact in character with the public. Come and talk to Sgt's. Biddle and Hank, Corporal Pipp, Pvt's Popp and McGoogan and all the other lads — you'll learn a lot about those who built our country". Admission to the Civil War Camps and Reenactment is $5 for adults, $1 for children 10 and younger. The Kiwanis will have food and drinks for sale. A free shuttle service, run by Paratransit Services, is provided from the southwest corner of the Home Depot parking lot at 2650 North Main St. Parking at the lot is free. The public is urged to make use of the official event parking and shuttles, as parking will not be allowed at Dog Island (except for handicapped parking or handicap drop-off) or along Main Street in front of the park. Those walking to the site must cross Main Street only at marked pedestrian crossings. A new attraction at this year's event is the History / Military Heritage Faire, which will include equipment and uniform displays from World War II, a helicopter from the Vietnam War and representatives from several local historical associations and museums. Displays and information tables will be set up on the lawn area next to the parking lot at the park entrance. SOLAR Continued from page 1A The photovoltaic solar array generators ranging between 250-kilowatt and 500-kilowatt production would put energy back into the grid. In exchange landowners would be able to supplement their income through 20-year lease contracts. The board heard from nearly a dozen residents who live near the proposed projects. Their concerns ranged, but mainly focused on decreasing property values as the result of declining aesthetics caused by the solar panels. Lourence Alvares, a land owner of two of the proposed locations, said he did not know where his neighbors got the mistaken idea he owed them a pristine view from their property. Alvares said his family has lived in the Paskenta area for years and remembered a time when there were no other houses in the area but their own. Supervisors Bob Williams and Burt Bundy shared that sentiment. Williams said he had no issue whether the facilities were harming aesthetics, but rather that the projects did not fit into the spirit of the Williamson Act. UPDATE Continued from page 1A she said. "We don't have all the services and products for that to fully be utilized and the old Red Bluff Ford would be the perfect opportunity to have a center with 30-40 businesses that offer everything to really deliver on the brand product," Sarmiento said. Under diversions, there is a need for retail districts and business developments along with itineraries where visitors can find out what is offered, a welcoming public plaza where people want to stop and entertainment available after 6 p.m., Sarmiento said. "We need our downtowns," Sarmiento said. "It's the 10 x 10 x 10 rule. In a two- or three-linear-block area there needs to be 10 each of local retail, food and dining and entertainment options available after 6 p.m. and open at least four days a week. There's an opportunity to fill in the void." While Red Bluff has seven or eight retail shops there are only three options for entertainment after 6 p.m., including the State Theatre and two local bars, she said. Under icon was listed Lassen Peak and Lassen Volcanic National Park with the idea to reinforce both through pictures and food item names on menus, Sarmiento said. Amenities included the wayfinding signs, which is the No. 1 priority of the branding project at this point and will be phased in. The Downtown Red Bluff Business Association recently gave $15,000 to the branding project for signs, All makes and models. We perform dealer recommened Member Discount 30K, 60K, 90K SERVICES AT LOWER PRICES Smog Check $ starting at + 25958 $ 25 certificate (MOST CARS & PICK-UPS) 527-9841 • 195 S. Main St. Daily News photo by Julie Zeeb A photo of downtown Red Bluff shows possibility for development. which is being matched by branding, Sarmiento said. With Red Bluff staff working on the approval process and funding options, it is hoped the signs will be in process sometime between summer and early fall, she said. Other amenities include visitors centers, making transportation in the county easier and creating public places to hang out that include clean bathrooms, shade and seating. Ambiance included making the downtown beautiful and inviting and doing clean-up and beautification projects, which both Red Bluff, through CleanerGreener, and Corning, through Pay It Forward, have done, she said. Leadership, communication, internal branding and cohesion fall under brand ownership. "It's important that we stay united," Sarmiento said. "Together we can do a lot and this is how we as a com- munity can move things forward." For Red Bluff, Kristen Gray gave an update on the Tehama Country Visitors Center to be run by North Valley Services. The center, which will have a soft opening May 24, goes hand in hand with branding, but is an opportunity for NVS clients to receive job training, Gray said. "It's so exciting not just to open a visitors center, but because of the catalyst behind it," Gray said. In addition to the 18-20 clients who will be helping out inside, there will be a landscaping team who will help maintain the building as well as go into the community, Gray said. The main focus will be Lassen Park and the building will have a web cam to Lassen as part of its interactive displays. It will also include a video from Bianchi Orchards on harvesting, information on The 5A Around 800,000 of Tehama County's 1 million agricultural acres are under Williamson Act contracts, created to discourage the development of rural land. Williams said the Hatfield Road project between the Corning Canal and Interstate 5 came the closest to being a compatible landuse within the Williamson Act. That project would put a generator on about 3 acres of a 28-acre parcel. As part of mitigation an equal-sized area would be irrigated, which would establish the possibility of an orchard planted in the area. The board directed county staff to examine whether mitigation efforts, such as including the orchard and drilling a well that could be accessed for fire suppression in the area, could be included. For the other two projects the board directed county counsel to make appropriate findings to deny the use permits, citing the lack of compatibility with the Williamson Act. All five supervisors said they supported solar power. Chairman Dennis Garton said he just did not believe that Tuesday's proposed projects were in the right locations. He said he would support projects built on land that had no other uses. Supervisor Steve Chamblin said he did not agree with businesses getting subsidies by utilizing Williamson Act land and that taxpayers needed to be able to capture revenue from those profiting. For Sandy Bruce, it was a long first day on the job as supervisor after being sworn in Monday morning. The public hearings stretched four hours. Bruce said she agreed with the rest of the board that the projects are not compatible with the Williamson Act. Chamblin and Bundy recommended the county work toward a solar power ordinance. The board held a joint study session with the Planning Commission on Aug. 21, 2012 to discuss solar power facilities on Williamson Act land. At that meeting the board directed county staff to advise future applicants to proceed with a method created by Senate Bill 618 that decommissions land out of Williamson Act contracts for specific periods through the Department of Conservation. However representatives form Pristine Sun told the board Tuesday they were told last fall by city staff to wait for an ordinance to be passed before proceeding. They said they had to move forward with the use permit applications because their contracts with PG&E on the specific sites were set to expire in June. "We've done everything to comply with recommendations from the county," one representative said. Chief Administrator Bill Goodwin said he did not believe the planning department had told anyone to not proceed, but did say there had been much staff turnover. At the time of the August meeting Jim Hamilton was the county's interim planning director. He was replaced on another interim basis by John Stover, who oversaw Tuesday's public hearings, which came a few minutes after the board officially hired Sean Moore for the permanent position. Pristine Sun representatives said they had 100plus sites in the works for Tehama County, just five of them were on Williamson Act land. "We don't like doing them either," a representative said. He urged the board to spend the next week contemplating whether they wanted the business and their investors being aggressive with funding for future projects in Tehama County. Abbey of New Clairvaux and the Manton wineries and the Tehama Trail Marketplace. An art gallery will have quarterly rotating art displays coordinated through Bob McConnell and the Tehama County Photo Club, which will include artist receptions, Gray said. Gray hopes to make the center a resource for Tehama County residents, trying to coordinate with schools to help with field trips, she said. Los Molinos Chamber of Commerce President Mike Druey gave a short talk on upcoming events in the town including the Los Molinos Mayors Race, an annual fundraiser for the Independence Day Parade and Play Day. Corning Planning Consultant John Stoufer gave an update on Corning Community Park, which was paid for through a $4.2 million grant. The park, which started construction Monday, will be 18.42 acres upon completion, including an 1,800 square foot skate and bicycle park. A ground-breaking ceremony will be held at the park, located on Toomes Avenue in southwest Corning, at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. Majestic oaks and the natural setting are a part of what gave Corning a hand in getting the grant, Stoufer said. When completed there will be a half-mile walking trail that goes across Jewett Creek. Construction is expected to be finished in 2015, well ahead of the grant's 2017 deadline, he said. Jim Livingston, who owns Cedar Crest Winery and Vineyard in Manton with his wife, Corey, gave a history of the wineries in what they hope will soon be Manton Valley, he said. Jerry Dobson, "a local guy who made it big in Hollywood" put in the first vineyard in 1970, starting with a 95 acre area for the trial with two more 35 acre lots added, Livingston said. Today there are 11 vineyards and seven wineries. Fred and Donna Boots of Indian Peak are the first to have a winery, Livingston said. The wineries and vineyards are now in the final steps of the application process, through American Viticulture Area, to be named "Manton Valley" when bottling, Livingston said. Livingston expects the process to be complete by the end of the year. He briefly touched on the Ponderosa Fire, which devastated the area of Manton, burning an area by Digger butte about five miles wide and 12 miles long. He is thankful the fire missed the wineries and vineyards, but now they are left to figure out what to do with the smoky flavored crops from 2012, Livingston said. Sonoma State University Professor Robert Eyler, Ph.D gave a talk on an economic overview of the region and thinking forward from a community development standpoint. "This county, like most rural counties, has been slow in recovering and one of the major concerns is it is heavily government employees," Eyler said. "Government is the No. 1 employer in this sector, which is not rare in most rural areas, but as the federal government continues to contract that will drift down to state, county and city employees." While the county is doing better is a great time to address the challenge of thinking regionally. "Tehama County is doing ok, but it's not screaming forward," Eyler said. "The question is how to keep it going and think about the next five years." The staff at Red Bluff Simple Cremations would like to thank all of the families who trust us with their loved ones needs. Red Bluff Simple Cremations & Burial Service 527-1732 722 Oak Street, Red Bluff, FD Lic. 1931 THE PASSING PARADE (Continued from a Dave Minch I Say column, earlier dated 1942 but now corrected to 1961 thanks to L. Brown of the Surrey Village Tribune) In 1933 we applied to the Army to allow us to sell meat to the CCC camps even though we were not, at the time, a federally inspected plant. The man sent up from San Francisco to make the inspection of our old plant arrived in Red Bluff on the train at 2 am in a driving rain. As he was preparing to walk to the Tremont Hotel I drove up and took him to the hotel. The next day he told me we had probably the poorest set up in California, but that anyone anxious enough to do business to meet a train at 2 in the morning should not be denied to sell meat to the Army. We then became the second plant given the o.k. to sell to the camps. The big packers met this by dropping their prices on Army bids from 15 to 20 cents a pound but we prospered even at the lower prices. The next thing the competition did was to exert their influence in S.F. to get a regulation sent out from the Presidio stating that all meat must be delivered to the camps in refrigerated trucks even though the camp trucks were in town almost every day and some of the camps were only an hour's drive from town. We only had a flatbed truck so we built a dog house sized box on it and stocked it with meat and ice, although sometimes the box was so full that the ice had to be put on the outside of the box. Many interesting events occurred during that first summer servicing the Camps. One Saturday a man came in from a camp in Susanville to buy a lot of groceries from our store on Main Street for their mess hall. I sensed something was wrong, and when he asked to cash a large check I told him to come back in an hour when I would have more cash. When he left, I called Camp headquarters. They said to call the Sheriff's office to keep him in view until they could get some military men down as the man was wanted all over the Pacific Coast. For a day I felt I was pretty important. Another time a hysterical man ran into the store told me to get the Army quick, that there had been a terrible accident. The Army truck that went to Paynes Creek had been involved in wreck 10 miles from town… and that there was blood and body parts strewn all over the highway. I made the call and soon ambulances and police arrived on the scene only to discover that 3 barrels of corn beef we had sold the Camps earlier that day had fallen off the Camp truck. I was not so important after making that call. Dave Minch 1900-1964 The Passing Parade is brought to you by by Minch Property Management, 760 Main Street specializing in commercial leasing and sales. 530 527 5514