LEGENDS NIGHT
Interesting illumination
Drivers revved up for last point race of the season.
See inspiring works from the Transcendental Painting Group at the Crocker.
Sports, A6
News, etc., B1
171
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C ali forn ia’s Olde st Ne w spaper
Volume 171 • Issue 100 | $1.00
mtdemocrat.com
Friday, August 26, 2022
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Are tiny homes a solution for Grizzly Flat? Eric Jaramishian Staff writer El Dorado County will look into options on providing temporary housing to the devastated Grizzly Flat community per Board of Supervisors’ direction. Supervisor George Turnboo, whose district includes Grizzly Flat, presented the idea of having the chief administrative officer explore purchasing pallet homes, or “tiny” homes, for uninsured residents who lost everything to the Caldor Fire. Turnboo’s idea is to obtain $1.5 million for purchasing these homes through grant funding or nonprofit donations. “I think this could be a great thing for our community if we get behind it,” Turnboo said as supervisors heard the matter at Tuesday’s board meeting. “We need to look at different kinds of funding, anything to solve this problem.” Impacted residents urged county leaders to follow through with exploration of temporary housing. “Winter is upon us and we are going to be shoveling snow off the top of our trailers and tanks when there is 3 feet of snow on them,” said Candace Tyler. “We really appreciate this proposal. Anything you can do to help get this, even if it is temporary housing, because my family is going to live in our trailer for the next three years while we rebuild our home.” Lou Lucas, a fourth-generation Grizzly Flat resident currently living in Shingle Springs, asked n
Mountain Democrat photo by Eric Jaramishian
El Dorado County residents pack the Board of Supervisors’ chamber Aug. 23 to express their opinions on the proposed homeless shelter/navigation center.
Homeless shelter short of supervisor support Eric Jaramishian Staff writer
See Tiny homes, page A9
Power goes out for 80,000 PG&E customers Mountain Democrat staff PG&E officials estimated more than 80,000 customers in El Dorado County experienced a power outage Wednesday morning. PG&E spokesman Jeff Smith told the Mountain Democrat the cause of the blackout, which hit at about 10 a.m., is under investigation and that utility crews went to work to restore power as quickly as possible. On social media folks from Folsom, Cameron Park, Georgetown, PLACE ADDRESS LABEL HERE
Fair Play, Pollock Pines and all the way up the Highway 50 corridor to Strawberry were reporting outages. Placerville residents saw the lights come back on at about 11 a.m. PG&E reported at about 11:30 a.m. that all but 1,156 customers remained without power, with service for them expected to be restored within the hour. City of Placerville officials, through their contacts at PG&E, said they were informed the cause of the blackout was likely a failed substation in El Dorado Hills. Smith did not confirm this, stating the cause of the power outage remains under investigation. CBS Sacramento reported that a PG&E official told its news team the problem stemmed from an “erroneous signal” sent to a piece of equipment while crews were doing compliance testing. The signal caused several transmission lines and substations to be deenergized.
It appears El Dorado County’s proposed homeless shelter/navigation center on Perks Court in Placerville will not break ground this fall. A motion to award a construction contract to build the facility and make the necessary budget transfer to pay for the project failed to get the four-fifths vote needed to move forward at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting. District 4 Supervisor and Board Chair Lori Parlin, who had previously supported the emergency shelter, put in a no vote this time around. She noted that the board had earlier in Tuesday’s meeting, during closed session, voted 3-2 to discontinue negotiations on a property at 471 Pierroz Road — a site for a long-term navigation center.
“Our original board direction was to explore Pierroz. I think that could be a long-term location,” Parlin said. “We only have so many dollars and I want to have the county do its due diligence, which is what we are supposed to do as a county, but the board voted this morning not to do that. “I will not be able to support these agenda items today on an emergency ordinance …” Parlin recommended continuing the discussion to a future meeting, to which other supervisors took issue. District 3 Supervisor Wendy Thomas argued a short-term navigation center allows the county to test the model to see if it will work. On July 28, the last time the project was up for approval, Thomas recused herself from voting due to an n
See Perks court, page A8
Ukrainian family fleeing war taken in by Tahoe couple Tahoe Daily Tribune STATELINE, Nev. — For the last six months Ukraine has been forced to wage war with Russia. For one Ukrainian family, a vacation turned into a saving grace. The Falko family, Oleksandr and Olena Falko and their 3-year-old son are residents of Kherson, Ukraine. They received devastating videos and images the day they were to return home from holiday in Thailand. The Photo courtesy of Cari Beetham unsettling news set in Oleksandr, Olena and Sasha Falko are staying with Cari and Brian Beetham on Lake Tahoe's motion an extended adventure they never south shore. planned. too ambiguous and saw cars and people dwindling population “We wanted to return our neighbors’ sent shot.” of Kherson, the first home on the 25th pictures and videos,” Increasingly dire but the situation was n See refugees, page A7 Oleksandr said. “We circumstances grips the
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