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Volume 172 • Issue 68 | $1.00
mtdemocrat.com
Friday, June 16, 2023
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eldoradocountyfair.org
Swimmer’s body found at Jenkinson Eric Jaramishian Staff writer The El Dorado County sheriff ’s deputies, Cal Fire medics and a dive team recovered the body of a missing swimmer from the bottom of Jenkinson Lake in Pollock Pines Tuesday morning. Sheriff ’s and El Dorado County Fire Protection District officials identified the missing swimmer as 19-year-old Carmichael resident Mehki Clay, who was reported missing at the lake 30-40 feet off a shoreline near an island within the lake around 4:45 p.m. Monday. The body was found around 10:30 a.m. the next day by a Sheriff ’s Office dive team. Firefighters initially conducted a search, along
Mountain Democrat photo by Isaac Streeter
One of the two Ferris wheels featured at the 2023 El Dorado County Fair takes folks up and around for a bird’s-eye view of fair festivities. The theme of this year’s fair — Country Nights and Carnival Lights.
Carnival lights shine at the 2023 El Dorado County Fair
n See Swimmer drowns, page A8
Mountain Democrat staff
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The 2023 El Dorado County Fair is in full swing, bringing Country Nights and Carnival Lights to the El Dorado County Fairgrounds through June 18. A longtime tradition in the area, the first documented county fair took place in Coloma in 1859, when the Gold Rush was still a fresh memory. Though the location has changed since then, the good food and good times are still in ready supply. The community has come together to make the fair a can’t-miss event, with rides, races and rodeos ready to entertain. Students from across the county will show off the animals they have been raising for the past year — and the barns are packed with an assortment of beasts and birds. Future Farmers of America, 4-H, Grange and independent programs have brought their
Rafter drowns in river strainer Mountain Democrat staff
already been judged and shown but the real excitement comes Saturday morning at
A man who was rafting on the South Fork of the American River in the Lotus area Tuesday afternoon drowned when he became entrapped in tree branches, according to Capt. Jacob Poganski with the El Dorado County Fire Protection District. Rescuers and bystanders formed a human chain to pull the man from the river but it was too late. Salinas resident Stanley Rice, 81, was reportedly riding on a raft with two women downstream of Henningsen Lotus Park. Poganski told the Mountain Democrat Rice became submerged underwater, caught in branches in what whitewater recreationists call “a strainer.” Initial reports indicated the boat may have been wrapped around a tree that was pushing into the victim.
n See Fair, page A6
n See Rafter drowns, page A8
Courtesy photo
Dylan Brewster, 17, has been invovled with Union Mine FFA for three years. This year, he plans to donate 100% of the money raised by the sale of his pig to the families of the Pollock Pines schoolchildren struck by a van May 31. best, with the battle for the champion ribbons proving hard-fought. Many of the animals have
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