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Volume 172 • Issue 7 | $1.00
mtdemocrat.com
Friday, January 20, 2023
Mosquito Fire
County files lawsuit against PG&E Mountain Democrat staff El Dorado County and four other public entities are suing PG&E for damages resulting from the Mosquito Fire. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging PG&E’s equipment was the cause and origin of the Mosquito Fire that caused significant damage to public and natural resources in El Dorado and Placer counties, according to a news release from the El Dorado County Chief Administrative Office. Co-plaintiffs include Placer County, El Dorado Water Agency, Georgetown Divide Public Utilities District and Georgetown Fire
“The lawsuit seeks to hold PG&E accountable and to help our community rebuild after this devastating fire.” — David Livingston, El Dorado County counsel Protection District. “El Dorado County’s lawsuit seeks all recoverable damages allowed under the law caused by the fire,” states El Dorado County Counsel David Livingston in the news release. “The lawsuit seeks to hold PG&E n
Photo courtesy of U.S. Forest Service
See Lawsuit, page A3 The Mosquito Fire was California’s largest fire of 2022, burning 76,788 acres. El Dorado County Department of Transportation Highway Maintenance Supervisor Paul Saltsman shows a collapsed roadway on Mining Brook Road in Placerville Jan. 16.
Mountain Democrat photos by Eric Jaramishian
Come high water DOT at work around the clock Eric Jaramishian Staff writer
PLACE ADDRESS LABEL HERE
A snow plow driver clears Sherman Way in Pollock Pines.
Paul Saltsman got into his truck Monday morning to assist his road maintenance crews conducting snowplowing operations in Pollock Pines and Camino. While assessing snow on the roads the El Dorado County Department of Transportation highway maintenance supervisor gets a call — one of his crew member’s plowing equipment is stuck on Cable Road. While on his way to help the plow driver, Saltsman encounters a large, fallen tree in front of Grandpa’s Cellar n
See DOT, page A3
Trip to Green by the numbers Eric Jaramishian Staff writer Highway 50 motorists driving westbound through Placerville Sept. 5, 2022, likely saved four minutes of travel time during the Trip to Green date. That is one statistic from an analysis of the Trip to Green pilot program shared with Placerville residents last month. Transportation officials and city leaders looking for solutions to address seasonal traffic congestion on Highway 50 launched Trip to Green last summer/fall, in which stoplights at Highway 50 and Canal Street, Spring Street and Bedford Avenue stayed green from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day the first weekends of August, September and October. Only right turns were allowed on and off the highway.
By the numbers
According to the analysis conducted by surveying and consulting company Wood Rodgers, eastbound travelers saved mere seconds on Highway 50 from Forni Road to Mosquito Road on Friday, Sept. 3, 2022. Going westbound on Sunday two days later, the company calculated an average of four minutes saved between Smith Flat and Forni roads. In retrospect, this means travel times could be extended by 20 minutes when traveling longer distances on the Highway 50 corridor without Trip to Green, especially on Sundays, according to Wood Rodgers engineer Mario Tambellini. “Everybody is coming back down the mountain on Sunday, so that seems to be when you get the worst congestion,” Tambellini n
See Trip to green, page A7
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