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WEDNESDAY Top Tips For JANUARY 22, 2014 Hoops Wrap Up Chicken Wings County Fare Breaking news at: www.redbluffdailynews.com See Page 5A SPORTS 1B DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF Sunny 76/39 Weather forecast 8B 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 Long time public servant Frey passes Swap sign By RICH GREENE Former scout leader gets 6 years By ANDRE BYIK DN Staff Writer Russell Frey, Jr., who served nearly two decades as a Tehama County Supervisor and Red Bluff City Councilman, died Monday. He was 82. Frey was born in Red Bluff in 1931. He graduated from Red Bluff Frey High School before earning a bachelor's degree in political science at the University of California, Berkeley. From there he joined the United States Army and was stationed in Vienna, Austria in 1954-55 during the Russian occupation in the counter-intelligence field. Frey returned to the state and made a home in Oakland where he married Helen Gail Boyd and had two children, Russell Frey and Virginia Bugbee. Frey returned to Red Bluff in 1969 and began running the L&M Cafe and later the Round Up Saloon at the corner of Main and Oak streets. His son Russell said his father did not like big cities and he felt rooted in the small community of Red Bluff. After running the restaurant Frey ventured into property management and politics. He married again 1988 and his new wife urged him to run for the Red Bluff City Council. Frey spent eight years on the council, before moving on to the Tehama County Board of Supervisors. Following a brief absence from politics he was appointed to an open midterm position back on the Red Bluff City Council. He won re-election to the position, but retired shortly into the term in 2005 for health reasons. "He enjoyed serving the community and he liked the social aspect of meeting people and doing what he could for Red Bluff and Tehama County," his son Russell said. Frey's son said his father's major interests were target shooting and supporting the National Rifle Association, but that he was also an animal lover. See FREY, page 7A DN Staff Writer Daily News photo by Andre Byik Mike Lair with Pacific Neon Co. out of Sacramento works on a sign pole Tuesday at Riverside Plaza on South Main Street. The roughly 50-foot pole will now feature a U.S. flag, which will be illuminated by LED lights. By ANDRE BYIK DN Staff Writer For the Riverside Plaza, it's out with the old and in with the red, white and blue. Workers with Pacific Neon Co. out of Sacramento on Tuesday took down the red and white "Riverside Plaza" sign that stood in the plaza's parking lot at South Main Street. The roughly 50-foot pole will stay, however, as it is being repurposed as a flag pole. Mike Christensen with Pacific Neon said the flag pole will also feature a gold ball finial and LED lights that will illuminate an 8- by 12-foot American flag. The company previously installed the new Riverside Plaza cabinet sign, which can be seen from South Main Street, around Thanksgiving. A former Boy Scout leader was sentenced Tuesday to a six-year state prison term after pleading no contest last year to a charge of committing a lewd act upon a child. Tehama County Superior Court Judge John Garaventa handed down the sentence to Dustin Lee Hedrick, 22, of Shingletown following statements from the now-16-year-old victim and his family. Garaventa denied Hedrick's application for probation, for which he was eligible, noting that Hedrick misused a position of trust. Hedrick was charged with counts of committing a lewd act upon a child and child molestation stemming from a 2010 party that he attended with a group of Boy Scouts to celebrate an Eagle Scout commendation. The party was not an officially sanctioned Boy Scout event. Hedrick, then 19, was accused of committing lewd and lascivious acts with two minors, ages 13 and 16. The child molestation charge was previously dismissed, according to online court records. Hedrick pleaded no contest in May and faced up to eight years in state prison. Hedrick's sentencing followed a 90-day diagnostic report conducted by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which Hedrick's lawyer said recommended probation. Hedrick's lawyer, Anthony Cardoza, said this was a borderline probation versus prison case, noting that a previous court-ordered evaluation also found that Hedrick would be a low risk to the community should he be sentenced to probation. The District Attorney's Office, citing the age of the victim and Hedrick's position as a scout leader, recommended a prison sentence. In an emotional statement before the court, the victim said Hedrick made him feel as if he fit in with an older crowd, and that this came down to "Mr. Hedrick's lack of self control." The victim asked of himself how he managed to cope over the years. The See SCOUT, page 7A Chico and Redding Head of bank bailout runs for California governor banks to merge DN Staff Report Tri Counties Bank announced a merger with North Valley Bank Tuesday. The transaction is valued at around $178.4 million according to Business Wire. Tri Counties Bank has served northern California for nearly four decades. Headquartered in Chico, the bank employs nearly 800 people at 63 branches in 23 counties. North Valley Bank and its parent company North Valley Bancorp have 22 banking locations in northern California. It is headquartered in Redding. "Both institutions share similar values, priding themselves on personalized customer service, employee satisfaction and giving back to the communities they serve," a press release said. Both banks have a presence in Cottonwood. Tri Counties Bank has a branch inside the Red Bluff Raley's. Tri Counties Bank President and CEO Richard 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 Smith and North Valley Bancorp President and CEO Michael J. Cushman were scheduled to hold an announcement ceremony in Redding Tuesday evening. The combined company will have around $3.5 billion in assets, $3.1 billion in deposits and $2.2 billion in gross loans. Under terms of the agreement North Valley stockholders will receive a fixed exchange ratio of 0.9433 shares of TriCo common stock in exchange for each share of North Valley common stock, Business Wire reported. North Valley shareholders will hold about 28.6 percent of the common stock of the combined company. North Valley Bank has had a heavy presence in Shasta and Trinity counties since the 1970s. In 2000 it acquired Six Rivers Bank moving into Del Norte, Humboldt and Mendocino counties. In 2004 it acquired Yolo Community Bank adding locations in Rosewood, Woodland and Santa Rosa. Shares of TriCo Bancshares, Tri Counties parent company, were up 1.41 percent to $28.05 on the NASDAQ Index Tuesday. SACRAMENTO (AP) — Neel Kashkari, a former U.S. Treasury official who was the architect of the nation's bank bailout at the height of the recession, said Tuesday he is running for governor of California with a campaign that will focus on boosting jobs and improving public schools. The Republican newcomer will face long odds against incumbent Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat who has not yet declared his intention to run for reelection but has amassed $17 million in his campaign account. Kashkari, an engineer by training, made the announcement during a speech at California State University, Sacramento. He cited the relatively poor performance of California's public school system and unemployment and poverty rates that are among the highest in the country as his main motivations for running. ''The status quo is unacceptable,'' he said. California's schools rank 46th in test performance, he said, while nearly a quarter of the state's 38 million residents live in poverty. In denouncing those indicators, Kashkari took aim at one of Brown's most argue that spending almost $70 billion on this train makes any sense?'' Kashkari told about 400 business and civic leaders. ''It makes no sense. We have much more important priorities.'' He made his bid official after spending nearly a year meeting with influential policymakers and potential donors and studying California policy. Kashkari, 40, an Ohio native and son of Indian immigrants, has no political experience and has never before sought public office. Still, he said he has long felt a calling to public service. He has said that calling prompted him to approach Henry Paulson and ask to join him in Washington when Paulson was tapped to become U.S. treasury secretary under former See GOV, page 7A AP photo Neel Kashkari, a former U.S. Treasury official, shakes hands with Greg Mellor, right, before giving the keynote speech before the California Business Review where he announced that he would run for governor of California, at California State University, Sacramento, Tuesday. important yet controversial of all of our needs that milprojects — the $68 billion lions of California families bullet train. have over the next 20 or 30 ''Of all of our priorities, years, who can possibly Smog Inspection $ 2995 +$825 certificate (MOST CARS & PICK-UPS) • Members Welcome 530 527-9841 195 S. Main St., Red Bluff