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VOLUME 171 • ISSUE 112 | $1.00

mtdemocrat.com

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2022

FPPC rejects conflict complaint Eric Jaramishian Staff writer The Fair Political Practices Commission has dropped a conflict of interest inquiry of District 3 Supervisor Wendy Thomas and will not pursue the case further. The Fair Political Practices Commission brought the anonymous complaint to Thomas’ attention July 27, a day before the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors was to vote on an agenda item that would further plans to construct a navigation center/homeless shelter on Perks Court just outside of Placerville city limits off Highway 50. The complaint cited Thomas’ “ownership interest” in commercial buildings on Broadway, stating the supervisor would benefit financially by voting on a facility that would help move homeless individuals from upper Broadway, where there is a homeless encampment. The complaint halted the board’s decision July 28 while Thomas recused herself from the agenda item requiring a 4-1 vote. Thomas proceeded to hire an attorney and the complaint was rejected Sept. 7 after following up with the FPPC. “This baseless and anonymous complaint was nothing more than a nasty political hit piece meant to discredit me and derail plans for a navigation

center,” Thomas told the Mountain Democrat in an email. “Dirty politics continued days later when Placerville was blanketed with flyers filled with blatant and outright lies designed to further insert civil unrest to stop this solution to address homelessness.” The flyer she referred to, sponsored by the El Dorado County Republican Central Committee, states the plan would provide “housing with no accountability,” would allow drug use on the premises and have free paraphernalia provided by Sierra Harm Reduction Coalition. County leaders stated previously the facility would have been a drug-free site and have wrap-around services, including drug and alcohol treatment. Thomas, who said she is a registered Republican and has long worked to provide solutions to homelessness, further called those tactics against the navigation center “a new level of ugly politics” in the community. Although the Perks Court navigation center didn’t get the needed majority vote to move forward at the Board of Supervisors’ Aug. 23 meeting, where Thomas cast a ‘yes’ vote, the county found another solution in utilizing 299 Fair Lane in Placerville, the old juvenile hall site.

County to buy Tahoe property Noel Stack Managing editor El Dorado County will get a new government campus in South Lake Tahoe. Tuesday the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors approved the $7.5 million purchase of four buildings on two parcels currently owned PLACE ADDRESS LABEL HERE

by Barton Health, the Tahoe Basin's nonprofit healthcare provider. District 5 Supervisor Sue Novasel, who represents the Tahoe Basin, could hardly wait to make the motion, which was unanimously approved. She called the purchase at 1111 and 1119 Emerald Bay Road in South Lake Tahoe the “cherry on top” of her final term. “This has been a long time coming,” Novasel said. “It’s very exciting.” “We have been talking for several years about how to get out of our (Tahoe) El Dorado Center; that’s an endof-life building,” agreed Laura Schwartz, deputy chief administrative officer, who also noted that rebuilding at the current location proved to be cost-prohibitive. The new buildings offer nearly 17,500 square feet of space, ■

See PROPERTY, page 7

Photos courtesy of Steve Nelson/Caltrans

The roundabout and undercrossing at Ponderado Road at Highway 50 in Camino is expected to open to traffic today.

Undercrossing ready to roll Mountain Democrat staff

The bridge over Ponderado Road will get a final layer of pavement this week.

The undercrossing at Ponderado Road in Camino Heights is complete and will be open to traffic beginning today, according to a news release from Caltrans. Camino Heights Drive at Highway 50 was permanently closed to left-turn traffic Thursday. The undercrossing is part of the $55.4 million Camino Safety Project that also includes 3 miles of a 56-inch-high center median barrier and a wildlife crossing. Work began in October 2020. Repairs on the median barrier will continue as will highway grinding to meet smoothness specifications, states the news release. The overcrossing bridge deck is scheduled for final paving this week with smoothness corrections required over the next several weeks. Motorists can expect day and nighttime lane closures on the bridge until mid-October. Permanent striping, sign installation and erosion control work also remain to be completed. Caltrans officials note all work on the project is expected to completed by the end of the year.

EDH Fire getting rescue boat Noel Stack Managing editor El Dorado County will contribute $204,000 toward the purchase of a 23-foot, open-bow lake rescue boat with firefighting capabilities for the El Dorado Hills Fire Department. “The boat will be a 23-foot, open-bow lake rescue boat with firefighting capability,” EDH Fire Chief Maurice Johnson told the Mountain Democrat. “It will have the capacity to carry four to eight patients in addition to the crew. The boat will have sonar, radar and FLIR (forward looking infrared), which will allow the crew to have up to 1 mile visibility in total darkness.” The request came during the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors’ 2022-23 budget discussion Sept. 20. EDH Fire Deputy Chief Mike Lilienthal asked supervisors to include funding in the final budget, noting that the boat will be used by “El Dorado Hills predominantly but … if there’s a request for help, for any resource we have, we share those resources. It happens every single

The El Dorado Hills Fire Department is looking to purchase a lake rescue boat with firefighting capabilities similar to the watercraft pictured above, which will primarily be used on Folsom Lake. The county has agreed to cover more than $200,000 of the cost. The EDH Fire Department responds to emergencies at Folsom Lake, including this boat fire, left photo, in which two people suffered burns. The county has pledged to fund a new boat for the department to better serve victims of an emergency. Courtesy photos

day.” The boat for which the fire department requested funding will be

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