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FRIDAY The Ripple Effect JULY 26, 2013 Donovan Shines TC Museum Breaking news at: www.redbluffdailynews.com See Page 2A SPORTS 1B DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF Mostly sunny 104/70 Weather forecast 8A TEHAMA COUNTY DAILY 50¢ T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Grand Jury reports on Child Welfare Services By RICH GREENE DN Staff Writer The Tehama County 2012-13 Grand Jury found children are being efficiently offered all of the social services to which they are entitled, but still found two major concerns facing the Department of Social Services Child Welfare division. The Grand Jury noted that the safety of Child Welfare Services (CWS) staff members was potentially problematic and Tehama County's lack of foster and adoptive parents and group homes was leading to extra expenses of county assets. CWS staff's normal responsibilities include observing children at their place of residence. "This, for various reasons, can be in an uncomfortable location where drugs, guns or other dangers may exist," the Grand Jury's report states. The Grand Jury recommended that CWS meet with local law enforcement to confirm the method of request and response to produce the most efficient and safest possible method. The Grand Jury recommended that CWS develop a strategy to recruit and obtain more qualified adoptive parents, foster parents and group home facilities. That lack of resources had sometimes led CWS to place children outside Grand Jury Tehama County, which causes more expensive out-of-county observation trips. The Grand Jury recommended CWS hire more bilingual staff, consider wireless in-the-field data entry and establish mandatory reporter training for county Solano Street plan employees who have special relationships or contact with children at home. The Grand Jury found 100 percent of calls made to CWS were handled by local staff members and that all calls were logged and reviewed for actions by the first responder and a supervisor. CWS has adequate budget and staffing and Tehama County's various social services are in line with other counties in California and federal requirements, the Grand Jury found. Details of 99E fatality released One person was killed around 1:20 p.m. Wednesday in a traffic collision on State Route 99E and Sherwood Boulevard in Los Molinos. The name of the deceased was not release, but he was a passenger in a 1997 Nissan driven southbound by Katie Ramsey, 31, of Gerber. Ramsey stopped at the intersection of Sherwood and 99E to turn left, according to a collision report issued late Wednesday by California Highway Patrol. Tyler Burrone, 21, of Ft. Jones, failed to notice Ramsey has stopped and crashed his 2008 Ford into the back of Ramsey's vehicle, pushing it directly into the path of a big rig being driven northbound by Roderick Abbott of Medford, Ore. The collision caused the big rig and its two trailers to overturn, blocking both lanes of 99E for several hours Wednesday. Ramsey was taken to Enloe Medical Center in Chico with major injuries. Her passenger was taken to St. Elizabeth Community Hospital. Neither Burrone nor Abbott was injured, according to the report. Suspect flees across I-5, ditches cops By RICH GREENE Map courtesy of city of Corning By ANDRE BYIK DN Staff Writer CORNING — The funding for the beautification and enhancement of a stretch of Solano Street is still up in the air, but a confident mayor and the City Council were presented Tuesday with plans that focus on bringing visitors, foot traffic and businesses back to downtown Corning. "This is not a guaranteed funding yet," Mayor Gary Strack said before the presentation. "But we're 90 percent sure ... So we want to make sure that we're ready for when it does come so we don't mess that up." The estimated $2.2 million project, which could be supported and funded by the California Transportation Commission and Tehama County Transportation Commis- sion, would include decorative street lights, new sidewalks, new pavement and decorative concrete for crosswalks. The plan could also replace the 77 Bradford pear trees along Solano Street that produce red fruit that falls and then stains the floors of businesses. The Solano Street Transportation Enhancement Project runs between Third and Hoag streets. Perhaps the most controversial part of the project is a plan to unify Solano Street's traffic lanes that transition from two to three to four lanes into a three-lane configuration, which would include a median turn lane, and bike lanes. The plan was likened to the recent enhancements to State Rough 99E in Los Molinos, Shasta Dam Boulevard in Shasta Lake and Walker Street in Orland. DN Staff Writer During a public discussion, some conveyed the enhancements may not attract the amount downtown visitors that could be expected, and that moving to a three-lane roadway would stall traffic, complicate emergency vehicle routes and make it more difficult to parallel park. Others, such as Lisa Rodriguez, welcomed the proposed changes. "The sidewalks are in terrible repair," Rodriguez said. "We've had clients trip and fall and actually draw blood. The reality is a threelane would slow down traffic. We have to wait two minutes instead of one and a half. We really have it very lucky here, and adding that bike lane in would not only encourage sustainable activities and green activities, but I would love to ride my bike downtown." Around 16 law enforcement officials spent about five hours Thursday searching for a man who fled from a stolen vehicle across Interstate 5 and disappeared into a nearby orchard near Corning. Tehama County Sheriff Lt. David Greer said the incident started around 10:30 a.m. when a deputy located a suspicious vehicle stopped on the interstate near Canal View. A license plate check turned up a stolen vehicle report made out of the Shasta County side of Cottonwood in the past 24 hours. Inside the vehicle was a man and two women who were initially held at gun point. The man eventually ran across the interstate and into a nearby orchard. The two women were detained and the sheriff's department was still trying to determine their role in the stolen vehicle. Meanwhile around 16 officers from the department, California Highway Patrol, Corning Police and District Attorney's Office searched the nearby area. "It's not looking good right now, he's eluded us," Greer said shortly before 4 p.m. Law enforcement initiated a Reverse-911 call to See SOLANO, page 7A See FLEES, page 7A Feds: Girl Spring-run salmon numbers improve sexually abused at Calif. pot farm By BARBARA ARRIGONI MediaNews Group SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Two men are accused of forcing a 15year-old girl to work on a Northern California marijuana grow, sexually abusing her and locking her in a metal toolbox for days, authorities said. Ryan Balletto, 30, and Patrick Pearmain, 24, both allegedly had sex with the girl who was cutting marijuana buds for them at Balletto's Lake 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 County property, according to a federal complaint unsealed Monday. The girl, described as a runaway from the Los Angeles area, told investigators she was locked in a 4 by 2 by 2-foot box. Holes had been drilled in the box and water was run through the box to wash her without letting her out, the complaint said. ''Some in our community believe that marijuana grow operations are run by compassionate caregivers interested only OROVILLE — An abundance of spring-run salmon has been seen this year in the Feather River in Oroville, and officials said they expect the fall run to be plentiful, too. News the number of salmon in the river is up came from two Department of Water Resources fishery technicians — Alana Imrie and Amy Chase — who were out on the river for two hours Tuesday tracking tagged fish from the spring run. Imrie said they went out around 9:30 a.m. looking for spring-run chinook that had been tagged earli- See GIRL, page 7A See SALMON, page 7A MediaNews Group photo by Barbara Arrigoni Fishery technician Alana Imrie watches colleague Amy Chase guide a boat onto a trailer on Tuesday at Riverbend Park in Oroville after tracking salmon.