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FEBRUARY 4-5, 2012 WEEKEND RED BLUFF Breaking news at: www.redbluffdailynews.com Weather forecast 10B Sunny 63/36 By TANG LOR DN Staff Writer The Red Bluff City Council is considering appointing City Attorney Richard Crabtree as the new city manager. Crabtree, who has been the city attorney since 2002, would continue to work in that capaci- DAILYNEWS TEHAMACOUNTY DAILY $1.00 T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 City attorney to be considered for city manager ty and take on the additional duties of the city manager. The decision to combine both positions was mainly done to create a savings for the city, outgoing City Manager Martin Nichols said. The saving amounts to an estimated $40,000 annually. Combining departments is just one of those things cities and counties nationwide are doing to be more efficient, he said. "It's a cheaper way to get things done," Nichols said. Crabtree said he is ready to take on the role and is excited about the opportunity. He has the experience, as he has been serving as the Lassen County chief administrative officer and county counsel for the last 16 months. His legal background working with local government spans nearly 20 years. The dual role concept was CCP focusing on immediate needs Community Correc- How CCP money is allocated By ANDREA WAGNER DN Staff Writer tions Partnership mem- bers hope to have a draft county realignment plan possibly within the next two months. In the meantime, the group is working on a few more "immediate need" requests. Those include paying health services for jail nursing programs and staff training, and hiring a new probation employee to help crunch numbers. A small committee is working on the final draft of the new plan, an edited and spruced up version of a draft plan the CCP issued in December. Once that version is approved by the CCP, it will go before the Board of Supervisors before it is adopted, possibly in early March. The CCP was created in response to Assembly Bill 109 and its trailer bills to establish a county plan for how to deal with the transfer of criminals convicted of non-serious, non-sexual, non-violent felonies to county juris- diction instead of state prisons and parole. The general member- ship is composed of department supervisors, law enforcement adminis- Road crews Health Services — training, etc. Probation miscellaneous Data systems Health Services Work Farm feasibility Probation trailer Electronic monitoring Salaries and benefits District Attorney and Public Defender DN graphic by Andrea Wagner something he sort of stumbled into but has enjoyed, Crabtree said. If he is appointed by the council he will give up his job in Lassen County and close his law firm in Chico to work sole- ly for Red Bluff. See CITY, page 9A Blackburn Avenue project still on hold By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer CORNING —The city of Corning still has no meeting date set with the state regarding the Black- burn Avenue construction project following City Council approval to seek one at its Jan. 24 meeting. "We're still waiting to hear from the state," Public Works Director John Brew- er said Friday. "We want to get down there and see if we can get something done. It's just a bad housing market and we don't want to pro- ceed with the improvements and have to pay back money." Plans to widen the one- trators and representatives of community service agencies. An executive commit- tee is comprised of seven specific members estab- Bill would prohibit highway money for state's rail plan WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional oppo- nents of California's high-speed rail proposal are working to ensure that a new highway bill won't include more fed- eral money for the pro- ject. The House Trans- portation and Infrastruc- ture Committee approved legislation Fri- day that would authorize road, bridge and other transportation projects costing an estimated $260 billion over four- and-a-half years. Part of the bill includ- ed an amendment from Rep. Jeff Denham, a California Republican. The amendment pre- vents any of the money from being used on the state's proposed high- speed rail system. The amendment was approved strictly along a party-line vote with all GOP members of the committee supporting the measure and all Democratic members voting no. California plans to build a high-speed rail system that would extend from Anaheim to San Francisco at a cost of about $98 billion. Denham used to sup- port the proposal but now says that rising costs and construction time projections have caused him to doubt its viability. The highway bill essentially sends money to the states to help fund their top transportation priorities. Denham says he wants to make sure highway money is used for highways. ''This administration and the California Leg- See BILL, page 9A lished through legislation and is the voting body of the CCP. Throughout eight meetings since August, the CCP executive com- mittee has voted for 14 new positions, mostly added to the sheriff's and probation departments to See CCP, page 9A way segment of Blackburn Avenue first started as a part of the Salado Orchards development when Pacific West Communities bought its property for the complex. Phase Two of Salado Orchards was to include 24 additional apartments in three new buildings and 12 single-family residences on individual lots fronting a proposed cul-de-sac street. In 2010, the city received a $800,000 Community Development Block Grant to widen the segment of Blackburn between Edith Avenue and Woodson School on Toomes Avenue. Part of the grant's requirement was to provide 12 affordable single-family dwellings to be completed by June 30, 2013. "It's going to be a while and Salado has offered to give the land away, but no one will touch it," Brewer said. The best option would be to give it to the Self-Help Home Improvement Pro- ject, but at the time it was offered the group had already committed to an undeveloped lot in Red Bluff and was busy with that, he said. The lot was also offered to a Redding developer and Community Housing Improvement Project in Chico who both declined to take on the project. A second grant with the State Housing and Commu- nity Development Depart- ment was applied for, which would have infused up to $73,000 into each of the 12 dwellings, but Jan. 10 the city received a letter that it had not been awarded. "The second grant would have made a more attractive project," Brewer said. "The denial made it a tough spot. With the track record of attempts we hope to get an extension and we feel we can make an accept- able case." Program offers teens new level of support Students in the Red By TANG LOR DN Staff Writer Bluff Joint Union High School District have a professional source to help deal with personal issues that academic counselors may not be able to help with. The Youth Service Agency provides crises prevention and interven- tion through counseling, program co-founder Jenny Uhles said. The agency uses empathy, education and profes- sional counseling tech- niques to intervene and counsel adolescents in violence and crisis situa- tions. "There's a need for this interim step between education and social ser- vices, and we provide that," Uhles said. "We work in both the educa- tion and counseling area." Now in its second year of contracting with the school district, the agency has helped a Daily News photo by Tang Lor Danielle Speers, Monica Day, Andrew Rust and Kayla Spikes participate in a session through the Youth Service Agency at Red Bluff Union High School. number of students over- come personal issues. Andrew Rust had a bad breakup with his girlfriend and was hav- ing anger management issues, he said. He talked to a school counselor who referred him to Uhles' program. By their second meet- ing he knew she was See TEENS, page 9A FIRST ANNUAL RED BLUFF MOOSE LODGE CRAFT FAIRE TODAY 11745 HWY 99W PUBLIC INVITED! 8am-4pm No entry fee & free parking Hot Dogs & Chips $2.00