Make your
See page 3 to read Financial financialFocuS
Thanks, coach
Tahoe’s future
Oak Ridge football’s head coach steps off the field.
Transportation plan for Lake Tahoe aims to cut congestion.
Make your financial future a priority future a priority.
Stacey M Caso-Turk, AAMS®, CRPS® Financial Advisor
550 Main Street Ste D Placerville, CA 95667 530-626-8651 ® ®
Stacey M Caso-Turk, AAMS , CRPS Financial Advisor
Inside, page 8
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550 Main Street Ste D Placerville, CA 95667 530-626-8651
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C a l i f o r n i a ’ s O l d e s t N e w s pa p e r – E s t. 18 51
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Volume 170 • Issue 52 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
Monday, May 3, 2021
Chiefs make case for new headquarters
Bloom boom
Andrew Vonderschmitt Staff writer In 1976 Placerville city leaders had the idea for a public safety facility but by the time it was built in 1978 it was clear the building was not quite up to the task. Sgt. Ray Bosnich at the time said, “We ran out of room when we moved in.” Yet, the Placerville Police Department has been in the same location since. “We’ve grown as the population has grown, which is what you would want,” said Police Chief Joseph Wren. The infrastructure supporting the department, however, has not grown. Wren invited the Mountain Democrat for a tour of the police station after a needs assessment was approved last month for a public safety building — a joint police and fire headquarters. The tour began in the lobby, a small space that could comfortably host around six people. It is also the only public area in the station. If you’re there for fingerprints, just to the left of the lobby restroom is what used to be a janitor’s closet that now serves as the fingerprint station. If a witness needs to be interviewed in the lobby area, the only way to get privacy during that interview would be to take them outside to talk. Once inside the station the constraints of the facility become more obvious. “Some of the offices have three or four desks in them,” Wren said, showing one such office. “When the building was built it was not built for future expansion.” Placerville’s population was around 6,500 at the time of construction and the idea that the city would grow, nearly doubling its population in less than 50 years, was not part of the overall concept for the building. Around 11,000 people currently reside in Placerville and the daytime population hovers around 25,000 with county offices, the courthouse and other institutions bringing employees into town during working hours. While the facility has not grown with the city, the police force has indeed kept up. In ’76 there were 23 employees at the police department, today there are more than 40 officers and support staff employed by the n
Acres of blooming lupin have turned the droughtdropped shores of Folsom Lake a picturesque purple this spring. The sight is drawing all sorts of visitors to the lake’s Rattlesnake Bar Road area, including a pair of photographers on vacation, top photo, Laurel Perkins of Queen Creek, Az., and Rachel Ross of Banff, Canada.
Photos by Cecliia Clark
See Needs, page 2
Weevils put to work in EDC to combat invasive weeds Bureau of Land Management EL DORADO HILLS — Non-native rosette weevils were released last month at Magnolia Ranch in Coloma to combat invasive yellow starthistle. A joint effort of the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service and University of California Cooperative Extension, this is the first time the weevils have been released for biological control on BLMmanaged public lands and only the second time the insect has been used in the United States. “Collaboration, cooperation and partnership have been key for this ground-breaking weevil release to become a reality,” said BLM Mother Lode Field Manager Elizabeth Meyer-Shields. “Yellow starthistle is an invasive weed that can outcompete native plants, harm
wildlife habitat and block public access to our recreational areas.” Non-native yellow starthistle is a noxious weed with thorny spines that is poisonous to horses and may damage the eyes of grazing livestock. In California, it can grow to shoulder height, forming massive, thorny patches that can block popular trails. The BLM Mother Lode Field Office uses herbicides, targeted sheep grazing, mowing, mechanical removal and controlled burns to fight yellow starthistle and other invasive weeds at Magnolia and Cronan ranches. However, with roughly half of the 735acre Magnolia Ranch infested with yellow starthistle, BLM staff are turning to other environmentally responsible remedies. In 2019 the yellow starthistle rosette Photo by Beth Brenneman/Bureau of Land Management n
See Weevils, page 10
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