C ALI FORN IA’S OLDE ST NE W SPAPER
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– Midweek Edition – VOLUME 174 • ISSUE 21 | $1.00
mtdemocrat.com
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 2025
Placerville officials appoint new commissioners Andrew Vonderschmitt Staff writer
The Placerville City Council held a special meeting on March 5 to interview candidates for vacancies on the Planning and Recreation and Parks commissions. Councilors were looking to fill two seats on each commission. For the Recreation and Parks Commission nine qualified applications were received. William Burke, Lois Hathway, Rick Kile, Zack Kragel, Megan Lattanner, Jared Noceti, André Pichly, Michael Potter and Alyssa Stratton were all interviewed. Pichly and Potter, whose last term expired March 1, were both appointed to seats with terms ending on March 1, 2029. They will join commission Chair Larissa Lujan, Commissioner Lynne Spencer and Commissioner Tony Windle at the next regularly scheduled meeting. The commission generally meets the third Wednesday of each month at 5:30 p.m. at Town Hall. Six qualified applications were received for Planning Commission appointments. The council interviewed Sean Briggs, Larissa Lujan, Michael Potter, Todd Sprague, Alyssa Stratton and Catherine Silvester. Silvester and Stratton were both offered seats with terms also ending on March 1, 2029. They will join commission Chair Kristine Kiehne, Commissioner Amy Lepper and Commissioner Kirk Smith at the next regularly scheduled meeting currently set for March 16 at 6 p.m. at Town Hall.
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MICHAEL POTTER Courtesy photos
El Dorado Hills resident Chris Hillman is on the curling team that won the national championship in Wausau, Wisc. Left to right are Brian Feldman Sr., Brian Feldman Jr., Hillman and Camren Spangler.
It’s all about the bonspiel Californians conquer at curling competition
Shelly Thorene Staff writer
ANDRÉ PICHLY
CATHERINE SILVESTER
ALYSSA STRATTON
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hris Hillman, 54, of El Dorado Hills loves to curl. He’s been participating in the sport for 17 years, beginning in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada in 1998. When he moved to California he thought he’d have to give up the sport forever but in 2015, he met a man at a Christmas tree lot while wearing a sweatshirt he purchased at the Canadian Men’s Curling Championship. The man spotted it and asked him if he knew that he could curl here, too. Hillman said he went home and Googled “curling in Sacramento” and found the Wine Country Curling Club, a group that curls at the Skatetown Ice Arena in Roseville. That search led to Hillman becoming a curling national champion.
CURIOUS ABOUT CURLING? The Wine Country Curling club’s next Bonspiel, The Barrel 2025, starts March 14 at 8 a.m. and goes through March 16 at Skatetown Ice Arena, 1009 Orlando Ave, Roseville. For more information visit winecountrycurlingclub.com. At first, Hillman said he didn’t know what to expect as he was used to curling in Canada, where curling clubs had dedicated sheets of ice used only for curling. “At Skatetown, the Zamboni cuts the ice as flat as possible, then the ice crew quickly prepares the ices and freezes in the hacks (a stable base to push off from when delivering a rock), while the rest of the curlers move the 40-pound rocks to the ice for play,” he said. The sport of curling is said to have its origins in Medieval Scotland.
Chris Hillman delivers a stone at a bonspiel at Skatetown Ice Arena. Two teams compete to move a granite stone across the ice into a target called a “house.” According to the World Curling Organization, it is an Olympic and
Paralympic winter sport with disciplines for women’s, men’s, mixed doubles and mixed wheelchair teams. A competition ■ See CURLING, page A8
County’s Senior Day Care fees staying steady ... for now Jo Carrerow
Mountain Democrat correspondent El Dorado County supervisors had more questions that needed to be answered before they would approve a new fee schedule for the Health and Human Services Senior Day Care program, at the March 4 Board of Supervisors meeting. In addition, they directed questions toward the Public Guardian program before its new fees are implemented. Representatives of the two programs presented a final report of a fee study done by MGT Consulting in June 2024.
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The report states the county is currently generating fee-related revenues of nearly $346,000, just a 14% cost recovery level, and it subsidizes the two programs with $2.4 million. Current cost recovery levels for the individual departments range from 8% to 47%, leaving 86% or approximately $2 million funded by the county. Adjusting fees would “maintain the cost recovery percentage at 52%,” the report reads. In the report, two options for the Senior Day Care program, which serves adults who need care and supervision during the day, were identified. The first was to impose new fees all at once and the
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second to gradually increase fees over three years. Lynette Englehart-Stott, deputy director for Community Services explained, “This service provides families with peace of mind and the opportunity to take a break from their caregiving responsibilities or continue their employment.” She said option two was the option Health and Human Services has recommended. It is “sort of phasing in the increase so it wasn’t a one-time increase … but increase
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