Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/25480
Saturday, February 19, 2011 – Daily News – 9A TAX Continued from page 1A Budget Committee members said the holiday is necessary to generate jobs and growth. Councilman Wayne Brown, a member of the budget committee, said the idea to suspend the fees was one that he has had for awhile, since he read a news story about a Southern California city that got rid of its fees. It’s the best thing for job stimulus, he said. The idea to suspend development fees was one of the original 10 ideas presented to the council by Red Bluff Rebound. Yet, the Budget Com- mittee’s proposal did not receive support from Rebound. The proposal is not an accurate understanding of what Rebound intended when it asked the council to reassess development impact fees, said Rebound member Brian Ramsey. “Develop a long-term approach rather than just do a holiday and then move on with work like it was before,” Ramsey said. Mayor Bob Carrel, the other Budget Committee member, said the council’s decision to support the committee’s recommenda- tion is not in opposition to Rebound’s ideas. “This was our idea to jump start the economy,” Carrel said. “It doesn’t eliminate what you want to do.” The council was inter- ested in Rebound’s recom- mendation to re-examine the concept of develop- ment impact fees and forming an ad-hoc com- mittee. The fees are beneficial, and the council does not eliminate them complete- ly, said Mayor Pro Tem Forrest Flynn. A one-year deferment will allow the council to get a better idea of how to restructure the fees without losing any more money. Rebound will present the Council with a recom- mendation of what the development impact fees ad-hoc committee will entail and who the mem- bers should be. The coun- cil will decide then if it wants to be part of the committee and which two of its members will sit on the committee. ——— Tang Lor can be reached at 527-2153, Ext. 110 or by e-mail at tlor@redbluffdailynews.co m. CARE TO COMMENT? At redbluffdailynews.com, scroll to the end of any story, click the link and type away. RENO, Nev. (AP) — The latest in a string of powerful storms dropped heavy snow Friday in the Sierra Nevada and set up ski resorts for a busy Presidents Day weekend, but it also caused more traffic delays and school closures. The Alpine Meadows ski resort just north of Lake Tahoe reported up to 4 feet of new snow over a 24-hour period ending Friday morning, for a total of as much as 9 feet of snow since the storms began Monday. Most other Sierra resorts reported 4 to 7 feet of new snow this week. Resort operators wel- comed the mountain of snow ahead of the holi- day weekend, which is usually one of their most lucrative periods of the season. ‘‘All this snow has people thinking about skiing and snowboarding again after a dry Janu- ary,’’ said Jon Slaughter, spokesman for the Boreal resort atop Donner Sum- mit. ‘‘Mother Nature set us up for a big weekend. She brought the light, dry powder that Utah usually brags about.’’ Snow was falling at a rate of about 1 inch per hour at the Kirkwood resort south of Tahoe, said spokeswoman Pru- dence Wiesener. ‘‘It’s really bucketing down. Despite the occa- sional road closures, it’s really attracting a crowd,’’ she told the Reno Gazette-Journal. Mountain motorists were not as happy as they were forced to strap on tire chains on most Sierra highways. Chains were mandato- ry most of Friday except for four-wheel drive vehicles on all three major highways linking the Sacramento, Calif., and Tahoe areas: Inter- state 80 over Donner Summit, U.S. 50 over Echo Summit and High- way 88 over Carson Pass. ‘‘We’ve had heavy holiday traffic and hun- dreds of calls for ser- vice,’’ said California Highway Patrol Officer Steve Skeen of Truckee, Calif. ‘‘Most involve vehicles that spin off slick roadways and become stuck in snow- banks.’’ The Nevada Highway Patrol reported 127 crashes and 43 such spin- outs across much of northern Nevada over a 20-hour period ending late Thursday afternoon. While no updated figure was available Friday, troopers stayed busy, said NHP Sgt. Bryan Jor- gensen. ‘‘The problem has been that the roads become real slick when the temperatures drop,’’ FAIR Continued from page 1A for adults and free for chil- dren 12 and younger. The meeting was the first of three the board scheduled to be held at night in hopes of getting more public attendance. “We held tonight’s meeting to get more public comment,” Board Presi- dent Bob Kerstiens said. “It’s very important that we get input from the peo- ple in the community to help base our decisions on.” The remaining two night meetings are set for July 19 and Oct. 18 with BUDGET Continued from page 1A address issues in their communities, but local officials have said they are concerned that the state might not provide enough money to fund the services. Blumenfield said Democrats sup- port the governor’s approach but indicated they would prefer an alter- native that can achieve the same amount of budget savings without eliminating redevelopment agen- cies. Local government officials have objected to Brown’s plan, forc- ing lawmakers to consider a com- promise. Some lawmakers have proposed alternatives that would allow rede- velopment agencies to continue while funneling some of their tax money to local services, but the issue has yet to be negotiated by party leaders. While Democrats embraced most all other meetings set for 1 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month. At Eidman’s request, the board passed two reso- lutions that allow him to turn in an application for a $53,000 grant that would pay for stall mats to be put in the fairground barns. The grant does not require a match, but does require that the fairground follow a list of environ- mental practices, most of which it already does, Eid- man said. Eidman will hear back on the grant within about 60 days, he said. The board discussed the proposed elimination of state fair funding and the Tehama District Fair’s placement on the 29 most at-risk fairs put out by the California Fairs Alliance, an oversight coalition for California fairs. The list is for fairs who have less than 10 percent in a reserve account and rely 20 percent or more on state funding, Eidman said. The Tehama District Fair is about 25 percent reliant on the state, which represents about $200,000, he said. Kerstiens suggested the elimination of the post office box, which would cut about $220 from the budget and save on the gas to go to the post office. “It’s not much, but pen- of Brown’s plan, they rejected what they described as the worst propos- als— ending welfare for poor chil- dren after four years, eliminating adult day health care and capping the number of doctor’s visits for Medi-Cal recipients. They accepted the governor’s request to require Medi-Cal recipients to pay $5 for doctor’s visits and $50 for emer- gency room visits. Recipients cur- rently receive those services for free. Democrats also expressed sup- port for Brown’s recommendation to reduce the lifetime limit for wel- fare assistance from five years to four. The governor is asking lawmak- ers to call a June special election so voters can consider a ballot measure to extend the temporary tax increas- es. That timeframe is putting pres- sure on the Legislature to act by the middle of March. GOP lawmakers so far have refused to put the tax question before voters and not put out their Storms dump 4-9 feet of snow in Sierra he said. ‘‘Most people don’t realize they’re dri- ving on black ice.’’ No major injuries were reported because traffic moved so slowly, he added. The storm also closed schools in Washoe and Douglas counties in northwestern Nevada and in the Tahoe-Truckee Unified School District in California, and caused a two-hour delay in class- es at the University of Nevada, Reno. The storm also was blamed for power out- ages that temporarily knocked out power to about 250 Reno cus- tomers, including the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles’ main office in the city, and to about 6,000 customers around Tahoe City, Calif., on Tahoe’s north shore. National Weather Ser- vice forecaster Shane Snyder said the snow was not expected to taper off in the region until Saturday morning. Another storm was expected late next week in the Sierra. This week’s storms were a major boost to the Sierra snowpack, which provides much of the runoff water for homes, businesses and farms in California and Nevada, Snyder said. The recent storms have pushed water con- tent in the Tahoe basin’s snowpack to over 130 percent of average for the date. That figure for Tahoe had been more than 200 percent of nor- mal for the date after an unusually snowy Decem- ber and November, but had dropped after a dry January. Elsewhere in the coun- try, record warmth was being recorded a week after residents saw record-low temperatures in Oklahoma. The National Weather Service said a new record was set at Will Rogers World Airport in Okla- homa City when the mer- cury peaked at 80 degrees Thursday. The previous record of 79 degrees was set in 1991. The minimum temper- ature in Oklahoma City early Thursday was 58 degrees, breaking the previous 1991 record of 50 degrees. Forecasters said Tulsa tied a record high tem- perature of 79 degrees, and Bartlesville reached a record high 82 degrees, three degrees warmer than the old record. Both previous records were reported in 1907. Last week, the mer- cury plunged to minus 28 at Bartlesville. A low of minus 31 in Nowata broke a state record of minus 27 degrees. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A man believed to be the last surviving worker who helped con- struct the San Francisco Bay Bridge and the Gold- en Gate Bridge has died. He was 97. Last surviving Bay, Golden Gate bridge worker dies painter in 1976. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Harry Fogle dies Feb. 10 of natural causes at a Roseville hospital. Fogle was born on a Wisconsin dairy farm and moved to California in 1935 when he got a job on the Bay Bridge painting the towers and supporting cables. He was paid $11 a day to work hundreds of feet above the bay with no safety net. ‘‘I felt I was lucky to have a job,’’ he said of the Depression-era job in an interview with The Chronicle last year. The next year, he trans- ferred to the unfinished Golden Gate Bridge. He worked on a “high gang,” often painting the bridge’s 746-foot-tall towers. He also painted por- tions of the Carquinez Bridge. He retired as a Golden Gate Bridge Golden Gate Bridge district spokeswoman Mary Curie told the Chronicle that Fogle appears to be the last sur- viving worker of both bridges. Fogle is survived by his wife, Marie; two daughters, JoAnn Tripp of Fair Oaks and Judith nies add up to dollars,” Kerstiens said. Discussion of the solar panels, which were financed by a Clean and Renewable Energy Bond that had not done as well as hoped, brought good news that a California Construction Authority representative was expect- ed to be in Red Bluff today. CCA is visiting each of the fairs that put in solar panels in 2008 to deter- mine new payment sched- ules, Eidman said. ——— Julie Zeeb can be reached at 527-2153, exten- sion 115 or jzeeb@redbluff- dailynews.com. own budget plan. Their support is necessary to meet a two-thirds vote requirement for legislative ballot measures. Republican Assemblyman Jim Nielsen of Gerber, vice chairman of the Assembly’s budget committee, said the governor made a “reasoned and sincere attempt to come up with solutions that are long term,” but noted that many areas of the budget have yet to be defined. The GOP contends the Democratic package passed by the Assembly only makes $6.8 billion in cuts, about half as much as Democrats say they are cut- ting. “So much is unspecified right now, particularly as related to realignment,” Nielsen said of shift- ing some responsibilities to local governments. “There is concern that the taxes are five years as being pro- posed now, and folks were told this was going to be a two-year (tax). Now that temporary tax is a seven- year tax. And I think that is prob- lematic.” California gov’s newest ally? A’fur ball’ with charm SACRAMENTO (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown has found an unlikely new best friend in his efforts to work with Republicans and fix California’s budget mess. Brown and first lady Anne Gust Brown officially wel- comed Sutter, a 7-year-old Welsh corgi, as the state’s top dog this week. The stocky, sable-colored canine with a milky white belly and marble-shaped eyes has been accom- panying California’s first couple to work at the state Capitol every day. The dog has emerged as the warm-and-fuzzy counter- point to the often blunt demeanor of the veteran Democrat- ic politician, and his scratch-me-on-the-belly playfulness has disarmed even the governor’s most persistent political foes during the sometimes-testy discussions over how to close the state’s $27 billion deficit. “Sutter and I have developed a relationship,” said Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton, one of the legislative lead- ers with whom Brown has to negotiate on the state budget. “I met him down at the governor’s conference room. As we got to talking, I noticed there was a fur ball under my seat. He was very calm, laying there, sleeping. I think he was looking at me to be a protector of the taxpayer’s dollars.” In announcing earlier this week that Sutter would become California’s official first dog, Anne Gust Brown told reporters gathered on the steps of the Capitol that “he’s going to herd the budget vote.” The breed of dog is best known for its herding skills. “He gives snuggles. He warms up the Republicans. As you see, Senator Dutton is very fond of him,” she said. Brown will take all the help he can get. He needs some Republican votes in the state Assembly and Senate to put a five-year tax extension before California voters in a June special election. He also has called for about $12.5 billion spending cuts, a proposal that has produced resistance from Democrats. Sutter was the pet of Jerry Brown’s sister, Kathleen, a Goldman Sachs executive who also is a former state trea- surer. She decided to leave her corgi with the first couple when she transferred from San Francisco to Chicago. Kemp of Cool; a son, Steve Fogle of Rohnert Park; seven grandchil- dren; and eight great- grandchildren. Over 50 years of serving Tehama County Located in Chico, CA Independently owned Telephone: (530) 824-3792 529-3655 www.affordablemortuary.net