Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/259684
In response, California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, both Democrats, proposed leg- islation that would pour $300 million into emer- gency aid and drought relief projects, upgrading city water systems and water conservation. It also would speed up environmental reviews of water projects and allow operational flexibility to state and federal officials wanting to move water south from the delta to San Joaquin Valley farms. Brown, whose adminis- tration supports the bill proposed by the Democ- rats, said he is doing what he can to find middle ground, rather than exploiting the drought as a chance to throw ''cheap rhetorical missiles'' at the other side. ''Look, if anybody can get it done, I can get it done,'' said Brown. ''I'm working night and day to achieve it.'' He did not elaborate on those efforts. 7A Thursday, February 13, 2014 – Daily News Death Notices Death notices must be provided by mortuaries to the news department, are published at no charge, and feature only specific basic information about the deceased. Paid obituaries are placed through the Classified advertising department. Paid obituaries may be placed by mortuaries or by families of the deceased and include online publication linked to the news- paper's website. Paid obituaries may be of any length, may run multiple days and offer wide latitude of content, including photos. Setting it straight A front page article in Wednesday's edition about a presentation on water issues in the Antelope area omitted the time and location of the event. The Sacramento River Discovery Center's Thursday evening program will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Tehama County Farm Bureau building, 275 Sale Lane in Red Bluff. The Daily News regrets the error. –––––––– It is the policy of the Daily News to correct as quickly as possible all errors in fact that have been published in the newspaper. If you feel a factual error has been made in a news story, call the news department at 527-2153. Rowena Curry Rowena Curry, of Corning, died Sunday, Feb. 9 at St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Red Bluff. She was 81. Arrangements are under the direction of Hall Broth- ers Corning Mortuary. Published Thursday, Feb. 13 in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. Mary McBrayer Mary McBrayer died Tuesday, Feb. 11 at her Corn- ing home. She was 80. Arrangements are under the direction of Hall Broth- ers Corning Mortuary. Published Thursday, Feb. 13 in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. Gerald Lee O'Connor Gerald Lee O'Connor, of Los Molinos, died Sunday, Feb. 9 at Windsor Redding Care Center in Redding. He was 78. Arrangements are under the direction of Hall Broth- ers Corning Mortuary. Published Thursday, Feb. 13 in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. David Marion Taylor David Marion Taylor died Monday, Feb. 10 at his Los Molinos home. He was 79. Arrangements are under the direction of Hall Broth- ers Corning Mortuary. Published Thursday, Feb. 13 in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. Barbara Ruth Wiesner Barbara Ruth Wiesner died Tuesday, Feb. 11 at her Gerber home. She was 79. Arrangements are under the direction of Hall Broth- ers Corning Mortuary. Published Thursday, Feb. 13 in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. W-2s for Chico State workers go missing CHICO (AP) — More than 1,000 employees at a Northern California state university have not received their federal tax forms from the state, even though the law requires that they be mailed by the end of January. Chico State University public affairs coordinator Sarah Lang- ford says the State Controller's Office, which is responsible for issuing the wage and tax state- ments — or W-2s — is conduct- ing an investigation into the mat- ter. The Chico Enterprise-Record reports that about 60 percent of Chico State's employees and an unknown number at other state university campuses have not yet received their W-2s. Langford says the forms were mailed Jan. 24 and that no one knows why they have not arrived. Calif residents warned of tax-related phone scam YUBA CITY (AP) — Residents of California's Central Valley are being warned of a telephone scam in which the caller claims to be with the Internal Revenue Service seeking delinquent tax payments. The Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday that the callers ask for a member of the household by name and inform the individuals that their tax bill needs to be immediately resolved. The Sutter County Sheriff's Office says the scammers request that the targeted individuals wire the money within 60 min- utes. The callers also tell the victims to stay on the phone with them as they transfer the funds. People who receive suspicious calls are advised not to give out personal information, such as Social Security and bank account num- bers. Feds: Small Ore., Calif. fish no longer endangered GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A small fish found in desert creeks of Southern Oregon and Northern Cali- fornia has recovered enough to get off the endangered species list, federal biologists said Wednesday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the Modoc sucker no longer is in danger of extinction, after nearly 30 years of recovery efforts. The Modoc sucker is the second fish in two weeks proposed for delisting. It was listed in 1985 due to loss of habitat. Recovery efforts have focused on working with landowners, both private and public, to reduce overgrazing and fence livestock out of streams. The proposal goes through a 60-day public comment period before a final decision. ''The Endangered Species Act has not only helped prevent the Modoc sucker from going extinct, it has also promoted its recovery to the point that today, we believe that federal protections are no longer needed,'' Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe said in a statement. ''Although this fish is small in stature, its recovery is a big victory in our efforts to preserve our natural heritage.'' The action comes as Republicans in Congress are trying to change the Endangered Species Act to limit lawsuits and give states more power. rounding area. There are no mechanisms in the measure to raise the salary in the future. Boardmember monthly stipends that include a $500 automobile allowance and $100 for remote communications would not change. Boardmembers are also eligible to participate in the county's health insurance, retirement and deferred compensation plan. In a resolution and ordinance placing Measure B on the ballot, the board stated it intends to pass future language requiring supervisors to pay the full employee share to the retirement plan. Currently the county pays the supervisors' share, while union con- tracts were recently renegotiated to require employees to pay their own share. When approving the measure for the ballot, supervisors said they were willing to serve no matter what their own salaries were. Supervisor Dennis Garton said he knew what the salary was when he decided to run and that he served to keep the county's way of life the way he liked it to be and ensure it stayed that way for future genera- tions. However Garton stressed the amount of time a supervisor puts into being on the board. He said he serves on 20 different committees or commissions because of his status as a supervisor. He esti- mated he spends about three hours each month for each commission, plus large portions of Friday through Tuesday preparing and attending the supervisor meetings. On top of that he attends as many nightly functions as he can to meet with the public. "It's not a part time job if you're willing to do it right," Williams said. Williams said he feared the time would come when the salary would be so unattractive to perspective boardmembers that only those with a hidden agenda would run. Then the county would find itself paying more money in the costs of recall elections. Supervisor Burt Bundy said he was happy to serve no matter the income, but asked residents to con- sider the responsibility boardmem- bers carry on their shoulders. "The buck stops here with the five of us," he said. The annual cost to increase the five salaries would be $165,000 to the county. If all five supervisors participated in the state retirement plan there would be an additional yearly cost that could reach to roughly $19,500. The discussion ended with two boardmembers voicing support for the county having a chief adminis- trator. Garton said in regards to a recent suggestion the county eliminate the position, he wanted to go on record that he wasn't in favor of doing so. Garton said if that were to occur, it would mean the chairman of the board would have to take over and that he believed he didn't have the time, knowledge or expertise to run 27 county-wide agencies. Chairman Steve Chamblin backed that claim, adding that he didn't think any person would have enough hours in the day to serve as both a supervisor and chief adminis- trator. Chamblin said many people question why the board has so many 5-0 votes. He said that was a result of the Chief Administrator Bill Goodwin and department heads doing a great job reviewing items before present- ing them to the board. Goodwin thanked Garton and Chamblin for their support and said he has spoken to political groups in the past about the issue. Goodwin said he doubted he would have a job if he was frequent- ly presenting items that the board shot down and that while the board set county policy it was his job along with department heads to carry out that vision. Rich Greene can be reached at 527-2151, ext. 109 or rgreene@redbluffdailynews.com. Continued from page 1A BALLOT with a notice of drought conditions in the state should start appearing on utility bills soon. "A really user-friendly website," Public Works Director Patrick Walker said during the meeting. "You can go on there, interact and it can tell you how much water you're using and where you can save it." California is coming off its driest year on record, and is in its third year of drought conditions. The lack of rainfall has been a blight on the state's lakes and reservoirs, and Gov. Jerry Brown in January declared a drought emer- gency. He urged residents to voluntarily reduce water use by 20 percent, and cities throughout the state have implemented similar conservation requests. "I think we really need to try and emphasize to our citizens of Corning that we do need to get into think- ing about saving," Mayor Gary Strack said during the meeting. In addition to the city of Corning's public outreach efforts to educate people on the state's parched con- ditions, city officials on a weekly basis will monitor the city's eight wells that supply water to customers. The Council observed that the standing water eleva- tions in the city's wells are lowering, but not yet at an alarming rate. "We have pretty deep wells, but they are slowly starting to drop so it's something that we do need to start paying attention (to)," Walker said. Corning's eight wells are hundreds of feet deep. The Blackburn Avenue well, for example, has a depth of 830 feet. Accord- ing to a staff document, the standing water level there is 145 feet. The standing water level at the State Route 99W well, which has a depth of 250 feet, is 93 feet. "I looked at those wells and was amazed," Strack said. "In 10 years they dropped an average of 20 feet of standing water in all our wells." He added: "We aren't going to run out of water in the city of Corning, but I know a lot of wells that are not 80 to a 100 feet around us and we're going to be pumping water when they go dry. And that's another reason for really empha- sizing the fact that we do need to save water." Continued from page 1A WATER The one-lane bridge has been considered structurally and seismi- cally deficient for years. In 2009 it received a lowered weight limit of 10 tons and large trucks were banned from crossing. The bridge is considered vital for north- and southbound travel between Tehama and Shasta coun- ties as well as emergency readiness. When access to the bridge is inundated with river overflow the detour route for residents adds an additional 16.6 miles and around 22 minutes of travel time. For residents in the area access to the closest fire station changes from being 15 minutes away to 27 miles. County officials say once replaced the new bridge would also be the only viable alternate north- bound route between Tehama and Shasta should Interstate 5 be closed for any considerable amount of time. In May 2011 the bridge's Annual Daily Traffic was rated at 350. However a public works study projects the ADT could reach 1,205 within 20 years. That growth is mainly around projections of increased construc- tion and use of recreation in the area. Jellys Ferry Road is included in the county's Bikeways Plan. One of the goals of the plan is to place signs along Interstate 5 direct- ing bicycle traffic to use Jellys Ferry Road. The Jellys Ferry corridor is used by bicycle groups and organiza- tions, but the wooden deck 1-lane bridge requires bicyclists to walk their bikes across for safety. Rich Greene can be reached at 527-2151, ext. 109 or rgreene@redbluffdailynews.com. Continued from page 1A BRIDGE a season in which she was ranked the nation's No. 1 dog. Among the dogs Sky beat out was Coco, a Cardi- gan Welsh corgi from Red Bluff who was discovered by a nationally recognized handler two years ago. Coco won Grand Cham- pion of her breed for the sec- ond consecutive year Mon- day, before moving on to claim Grand Champion of the Herding group. That qualified Coco, owned by Red Bluff resi- dents Julie and Bill Divens along with Julie's sister Deb Shindle and professional handler, Dina Planche, for Tuesday's Best of Show judging. Handler Gabriel Rangel scooped up Sky in one arm after she was picked as America's top dog. He kissed judge Betty Regina Leininger's hand as the title was awarded inside a nearly full Madison Square Gar- den. Rangel may have learned that trick from his dog. "Her personality is she loves to kiss people and she connects with everybody," Rangel said. This was Sky's 129th best in show ribbon overall — she became a Triple Crown winner in dogdom, having previously taken the Nation- al Dog Show and the AKC Eukanuba event. And it was the 14th time a wire fox terrier has won at Westminster. No other breed has won more than eight. The winner with the gin- ger-and-white coat and terri- er goatee beat out an impres- sive lineup in the final ring. Joining Sky were a standard poodle, a Cardigan Welsh corgi and a miniature pin- scher, along with the blood- hound, Portuguese water dog and Irish water spaniel. There were 2,845 dogs entered in the 138th West- minster Kennel Club show. They were eligible in 190 breeds and varieties. Continued from page 1A BEST Record was honored as the Media Person of the Year. Director Burt Bundy pre- sented Ken Lindauer with a Distinguished Service Award, having served 52 continuous years on the TCFB Board of Directors. The guest speaker for the evening was Sarah DeFor- est, the California State Uni- versity, Chico, College of Agriculture director of advancement. She spoke about the college of agricul- ture's beginnings and future. California Farm Bureau Federation Second Vice President Jamie Johansson introduced the TCFB Board of Directors for 2014, including Hebe Bradley, Burt Bundy, Nathan Bunting, Tyler Christensen, Carol Anne Crowley, Ed Curiel, Mark Gilles, Chip Gracey, Nicki Humphrey, Julie Kelley, Dave Lester, Bruce Lindauer, Shelley McDonald, BJ MacFarlane, Sam Mudd, Burt Owens, Scott Patton, John Pitter, Jud Pay, John Rohr, Martin Spannaus, Bob Steinacher, Garry Vance, Michael Vasey and Chris Wray. Continued from page 1A FARM Continued from page 1A BROWN