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Volume 172 • Issue 29 | $1.00
mtdemocrat.com
Wednesday, March 15, 2023
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Sun ConStruCtion
C ali forn ia’s Olde st Ne w spaper
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See page a7
Everything fire wise in Placerville all at once Andrew Vonderschmitt Staff writer
The Get Prepared for Wildfire Season event will be held 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 18 in the Midtown Mall a.k.a. Wilkinson-Hupcey Building at 681 Main St. in Placerville. Providing information on everything from defensible space to vegetation management, home hardening to evacuation plans and Firewise USA communities to insurance concerns, organizers
The Placerville Fire Safe Council’s expanded public wildfire preparedness event will bring together local fire and law enforcement agencies, elected officials and municipal senior staff, nonprofit organizations and private businesses to share the latest information with the community.
have a single focus in mind — to protect lives, property and natural resources from the ever-ubiquitous wildfire threat that continues to daunt residents of Placerville and other El Dorado County communities. Since the tragic Butte County Camp Fire in 2018, many foothills residents have had fire protection on their minds. The devastating Caldor Fire in 2021 further cemented
Community involvement will ultimately be how the community defends against wildfire threat. — Mark Acuna, Placerville Fire Safe Council board member terms like “defensible space,” “home hardening,” “fire wise” and “vegetation management” in everyday conversation, say organizers of the event. However, people tend to become complacent, said Placerville Fire Safe Council
Board Chair David Zelinsky. “You don’t think about it when the sky is blue,” he said, adding that the objective of the annual event is to keep fire awareness in the front of the n See get prepared, page A3
Students stand up
Tahoe Daily Tribune photo by Ashleigh Goodwin
The Raley’s on Emerald Bay Road at the “Y” closed Sunday for snow removal in an “abundance of caution.”
Heavy snow load worries continue Tahoe Daily Tribune Three grocery stores in the south Tahoe area closed due to unsafe conditions from continuous stormy weather. Both Raley’s grocery stores in South Lake Tahoe remained closed Tuesday, one after the roof collapsed and the other to avoid injury from a possible collapse. Raley’s at the South Y Center closed Sunday as a precaution after the location at the Crescent V center near Heavenly Village was closed Saturday when the roof caved in due to a heavy snow load, officials said. South Lake Tahoe Fire
Rescue Fire Marshal Kim George said she was told the closure of the “Y” location was purely precautionary in case “the worst happened with the weight of people on the roof ” working to remove snow. Raley’s Executive Director of Community Impact and Public Affairs Chelsea Minor said, “At the direction of the fire marshal, we closed our store at Stateline. For the Emerald Bay Road location, due to the increased snowpack we closed the store. Our team is actively working to assess the situation and reopen.”
Oak Ridge High School’s Amnesty International Club, above, leads a march down Main Street in Placerville Sunday to demonstrate against the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors’ disbanding of the county Human Rights Commission. Supervisors voted 3-2 to dissolve the commission at this week’s BOS meeting, with final passage of the amended ordinance to come March 21. Youth leader for the Amnesty International Club Aiden Chemmannure, at right in top photo, organized the protest. “It’s about human rights. It’s just something that has to stay,” he said. “If it isn’t working as they hoped, fix it; don’t get rid of it.” The protest began at 1:30 p.m. and demonstrators walked up and down the street three times, the rain unable to dampen their spirits. Read the full story about the board’s action in Friday’s Mountain Democrat. Mountain Democrat photos by Odin Rasco
n See collapse, page A6
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