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Volume 140, Number 35 — Locally-owned since 1884
The hometown paper of Liese Ripley
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Council approves censure Winters police investigate potential gun violence threat of council man, introduce By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief On the morning of Friday, Sept. 22, Winters Joint Unified School District placed the Winters High School campus under a shelter-in-place as Winters Police Department investigated a threat of potential gun violence between two groups of students who had been involved in ongoing incidents since the beginning of the school year.. Winters JUSD initially issued the Shelter-in-Place status at WHS at 8:42 a.m. on Friday. A message sent to school district families said the move was a
precautionary measure due to an active investigation. The announcement started off by noting that “Your student is safe,” and that, “Instruction will continue but students and staff must remain in the classrooms while administration and law enforcement gather additional information.” The post confirmed that none of the other Winters JUSD school sites were impacted by the investigation. Superintendent Rody Boonchouy told the Express that due to confidentiality, the school district could not disclose
See INVESTIGATE, Page 5
Courtesy photo
WHS students celebrate homecoming Alex Garcia, Albert Mora, Aleni Valadez, Ben Wandschneider and Kenneth Matheson proudly show off their purple class color pride at the traditional powder puff game on Wednesday, Sept. 20. See page B1 for more updates and photos from the Winters High School homecoming week festivities.
acting city manager By Amelia Biscardi Express staff writer The Winters City Council took on multiple agenda items and recognized the efforts of the city manager before her retirement last Tuesday.
Censure approved Council member Richard Casavecchia was censured by the Winters City Council with a 4-0-1 vote on Sept. 19. Additionally he was removed from his committee assignments for a period of six months. The agenda item was originally included under the Consent Calendar agenda on request of Casavecchia at the Sept. 5 when he voiced he would voluntarily waive his right to a hearing. However, at Tuesday’s meeting, City Manager Kathleen Salguero Trepa said they would pull it off of the consent agenda for further discussion. This process of censurship is due to the two misdemeanors
Courtesy photo
City manager Kathleen Salguero Trepa received bouqets and praise for her efforts in the city. The Sept. 19 city council meeting was her last in-person meeting before her official retirement in October. that Casavecchia took a plea deal on regarding California gun laws. Trepa explained to the council and public what the place of the city council was in this situation. “The council has
the apparent power, right and authority to censure an individual council member,” Trepa said. “The council does not have the authority to remove
See COUNCIL, Page 5
Emergency agency updates alert notification system Express staff
EXPRESS
The Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services announced it is updating its notification system, and on Oct. 1 it would be deleting contact information entered prior to January 2023.
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The message sent to accounts currently in the system said the changes would allow them to “maximize the benefits of the new system and reduce over-notifying our community” and would only impact accounts that were entered prior to Jan. 1 of this year. Users who signed up prior to Jan. 1 who want to continue to receive emergency and community alerts should visit www.
sacramento-alert. org to create or update their account. Accounts with an address added onto the profile ensures they will only receive alerts that are relevant to that area. “It will also help our office better assist you in the event of an emergency,” the message stated. Users were also encouraged to download the Smart911 app to their smartphone.
Index Features ........................ B-1
We at he r Rain
High
Sept. 20
.00
86˚
56˚
Sept. 21
.00
87˚
52˚
Sept. 22
.00
83˚
50˚
Sept. 23
.00
81˚
53˚
Eventos hispanos ....... A-2
Sept. 24
.00
83˚
47˚
Sept. 25
.00
81˚
52˚
Opinion ......................... B-3
Sept. 26
.00
86˚
62˚
Real Estate ................... B-2
Rain for week: 0.00 in. Season’s total: 0.01 in. Last sn. to date: 0.99 in.
Community .................. A-2
Sports ........................... B-7
Low
Winters rainfall season began 7/1/23. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m. daily by local weatherman Joe Bristow.
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Actions to bring spawning salmon into Putah Creek will start earlier than ever this fall. Plans are to pull the Los Rios Check Dam boards on Oct. 18. “This is the earliest since we started doing the (salmon) pulse flows in 2000,” said Max Stevenson, the streamkeeper for the Lower Putah Creek Coordinating Committee and the Solano County Water Agency. “The salmon are
starting to show up in October, and really start coming into the system by mid-October,” Stevenson said. By pulling the boards early, the fish are not just waiting around and can get to the spawning grounds on the creek. That could give the Nov. 4 Salmon Festival in Winters a good showing of fish. Additionally, an early start will allow five farming operations to put the boards back in for a one- or two-
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Efforts encourage early salmon spawning this fall Express staff
Date
Classifieds ................... B-4
Robinson Kuntz/McNaughton Media
UC Davis researchers collect fish samples from a rotary screw trap on Putah Creek, near Winters, on May 25, 2017.
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week period in late November for rice straw decomposition operations, but then take them out for the remainder of the the winter. Another possible benefit is that the salmon eggs could hatch earlier, depending on water temperatures, which could allow the juvenile fish returning to the ocean to take advantage of higher water flows and have a better
See SALMON, Page 5 YOUR
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