Daily Republic: Friday, March 3, 2023 by mcnaughtonmedia

Community gathers for HOPE Resource Fair A3

Vanden boys roll on into NorCal regional semifinal B1 FRIDAY | March 3, 2023 | $1.00

DAILYREPUBLIC.COM | Well said. Well read.

Travis reports no ‘petroleum’ sheen on Union Creek since December Todd R. Hansen

THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE — Travis Air Force Base officials reported the “petroleum” sheen that has appeared on Union Creek a number of times, usually after rain events, has not been seen since December. That includes after the most recent storm, Capt. Jasmine Jacobs, with the base Public Affairs Office, said in an email response to the Daily Republic. Jacobs led a site visit with the Daily Republic on Feb. 27. Leslie Pena, the civilian environmental element chief at Travis, was part of the tour. This week the base confirmed for the first time that testing has shown that aviation fuel, motor oil, gasoline and diesel have been present, but the source of the leak is still under investigation. “The drain that leads

into the outfall sites is a stormwater drain, which contains runoff from the main roadways. Travis (Air Force Base) continues to work with our environmental local, state and federal partners to conduct a thorough investigation and develop a conclusive determination of the source,” Jacobs said in the email sent Thursday. The sheen was first reported to Travis officials on Oct. 22, 2021, by a contracting firm, Sierra Range Construction, that had been hired to fix culverts, a security grate, erosion problems and related issues to the perimeter road where it crosses the creek downstream from Outfall No. 4. That outfall acts as a drain to the entire northern area of the base and beyond, Pena said. However, according See Sheen, Page A8

Planners back Dixon green waste project Todd R. Hansen

THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — Sack Holdings LLC has proposed placing a green waste chipping and grinding operation – coupled with a soil blending operation – on its property located near the intersection of Pedrick and Tremont roads north of Dixon. The Solano County Planning Commission, with Loretta Gaddies absent, on Thursday unanimously approved the use permit application and recommended the Board of Supervisors approve the rezoning and the zoning text amendment to move the project forward. It was the first meeting of new Commissioner Jack Batson.

“It represents a big step forward for our community and the county,” attorney Dana Dean told the commission, referring to the environmental and climate advantages of the project, and, in time, it could reduce the amount of organic material going into Solano landfills. However, none of the 6,000 yards of daily material going to the facility at the onset will be from Solano; it will be landscaping waste out of Sacramento. The project does allow for agricultural waste. Sack Holdings, with headquarters in Woodland, has requested to rezone 19.88 acres from Exclusive Agriculture, with a 40-acre minimum, to Commercial Service, See Green, Page A8

Aaron Rosenblatt/Daily Republic file (2020)

Wind turbines produce electricity in the Montezuma Hills near Rio Vista, June 1, 2020.

Panel backs plan to limit wind turbines near base Todd R. Hansen

THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

FAIRFIELD — The Solano County Planning Commission on Thursday night took a step to further protect the mission at Travis Air Force Base by recommending the Board of Supervisors approve restrictions on future wind power projects. “It’s a life safety issue,” said Commissioner Mike Reagan, who retired from the Air Force and had been stationed at Travis for part of his career. He wanted to extend the current moratorium on new wind projects, but county staff said the proposed changes will take care of the primary issues by prohibiting turbines in the line of sight of the base radar systems. The moratorium expires April 6. “So we based a lot of what you

Need for workforce housing may push Solano into bigger development role

EMLEN

FAIRFIELD — Workforce housing – especially for agricultural labor – should be a high priority for Solano County moving forward, and the county needs to play a bigger part in that effort. That was an underlying message from a discussion about housing Tuesday among members of the Board of Supervisors. “If I was trying to buy my house today, like I did 30 years ago, I could not afford it, and that’s not fair,” said Supervisor Monica Brown, a retired schoolteacher of 39 years. Brown noted the same is true for fire-

WALTERBORO, S.C. — Alex Murdaugh, the fourth-generation heir to a powerful South Carolina legal, law enforcement and political family, was found guilty Thursday of murdering his wife and son in a case that brought the glare of national and international media attention to a longsecluded but corrupt corner of the state’s Lowcountry region. Joshua Boucher/The A jury of seven men State/Pool/TNS Alex Murdaugh. and five women took less than three hours before unanimously finding Murdaugh, 54, guilty of two murders: the execution-style slaying of his son Paul, 22, with a shotgun

See Housing, Page A8

See Guilty, Page A8

3VJHS .PYS 2UV^Z 9LHS ,Z[H[L

— N A PA VA L L E Y —

Dr. David P. Simon, MD, FACS. Eye y Physician y & Surgeon, g , Col. ((Ret.), USAF Services include: • Routine Eye Exams • Comprehensive Ophthalmology • Glaucoma and Macular Degeneration Care • Diabetic Eye Exams • Dry Eye Treatment • Cataract Surgery • LASIK Surgery Now Accepting New Patients!

3260 Beard Rd #5 Napa • 707-681-2020 simoneyesmd.com

See Turbine, Page A8

Tribune Content Agency

THANSEN@DAILYREPUBLIC.NET

BROWN

lance Radar. n Explicitly recognize that larger commercial wind energy generation facilities can and do have adverse impacts on the surveillance radar and thereby negatively affect the operations and mission of Travis Air Force Base. n Retain existing General Plan policies that generally encourage the development and use of renewable energy sources, but clarify as county land use development policy that the protection of the operations and mission of Travis Air Force Base takes priority over the development of new commercial wind energy generation facilities or the modification of existing facilities to increase their production capacity. Additionally, the action revises General Plan land use and resources text:

Alex Murdaugh found guilty of double-murder

Todd R. Hansen

see here off of that,” Terry Schmidtbauer, director of the Department of Resource Management, told the commission. He also said the changes were motivated in part by the legal issues involved with the Sacramento Municipal Utility District. The commission, with Loretta Gaddies absent, unanimously backed the staff guidance and recommended the supervisors support a General Plan amendment that would: n Prohibit the development of new commercial wind energy generation facilities north of Highway 12. n Explicitly require that any proposals for new or modified commercial wind energy generation facilities provide line-of-sight analyses demonstrating that each new or modified turbine within the facility is not within the line-of-sight of the base’s Digital Airport Surveil-

Sandra Ritchey-Butler Expires 3/31/2023

REALTOR® DRE# 01135124

707.592.6267 • sabutler14@gmail.com '2+%