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Community brings holiday meals to local older adults News, Page 3
Marovich retiring after 21 years Features, Page 1
Volume 138, Number 48 — Locally owned since 1884
The hometown paper of Dave Caselli
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, December 29, 2021
City begins process to comply with state food recovery mandate By Rick von Geldern Express staff writer City Manager Kathleen Salguero Trepa presented requirements for Senate Bill 1383, the state mandated Surplus Food Recovery Program, to councilmembers at the Dec. 21 meeting. The program requires counties in coordination with jurisdictions and regional agencies within the county to comply with the mandate which was signed into law in September 2016. Starting Jan. 1, food service providers, distributors and industries falling under a Tier One category will be required to reduce organic material disposal. The program’s objective, Trepa said, is to reduce climate changing greenhouse gases and direct food to the food insecure that would otherwise be diverted to landfills. Trepa’s presentation outlined how the City of Winters is to comply with the man-
Courtesy photo
This June, members of the Winters Hispanic Advisory Committee worked on details to gauage if they could hold the annual Festival de la Comunidad (Carnitas Festival).
Council formalizes Hispanic Advisory Committee as standing committee By Rick von Geldern Express staff writer
Crystal Apilado/Winters Express
Lorenzo’s Market and Mariani Nut Company are two of the 44 Yolo County businesses identified as Tier One commercial edible food generators in an assessment. date, which includes requirements to estimate the amount of edible food disposed of by local commercial edible food generators. Additionally, the city is to estimate the capacity of food recovery organizations and
Council wraps up 2021 city business By Rick von Geldern Express staff writer
EXPRESS
The Winters City Council took action on upcoming development street names, repurposing grant funding and other business items at their last meeting of 2021 on Dec. 21. Councilmembers discussed street naming through Resolution 2021-90. In 2005, city staff and council determined it was in their best interest to maintain control over street naming. At that time, the council directed staff to create a street naming com-
mittee and a street name list. The committee created a list, although it was never formally adopted. With new developments coming to Winters, Contract Planner Kirk Skierski said the 2005 street name list is adequate for the upcoming year or so. Councilmember Jesse Loren suggested adopting the current list and revisiting the matter again in 2022, or later. Mayor Wade Cowan strongly recommended that the Winters Historical Society be involved with any future street naming committees. Council agreed and a motion to accept the current list of street
See CITY, Page 7
Index Features ........................ B-1 Classifieds ................... B-4
identify new food providers and food recovery organizations. “The goals are good, it’s the implementation that has created the potential for some pretty significant fi-
See FOOD, Page 7
By Anne Ternus-Bellamy McNaughton Media With the spread of Omicron now responsible for more than 40 percent of new COVID-19 cases in Yolo County, Yolo County’s health officer on Thursday issued a new health order requiring individuals working in those skilled nursing facilities to test for COVID-19 twice
a week regardless of vaccination status. Visitors must also provide proof of a negative test regardless of vaccination status — a negative test within one day for antigen tests and within two days for PCR tests. Exceptions will be made in the case of compassionate care visits, such as for a dying resident. The health order
took effect on Monday and will remain in effect through Jan. 31 unless otherwise ordered by Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson. In issuing the new health order, Sisson said, “the highly transmissible Omicron variant will be difficult to stop once it is introduced into a skilled nursing facility, so we need to take additional steps to keep the virus out of
By Anne Ternus-Bellamy McNaughton Media Of the 297 new cases reported by the county since last Thursday, Winters reported six. Other Yolo County cities have report-
We at he r Date Rain High Low Dec. 22
.67”
48˚ 38˚
Dec. 23
.71”
55˚ 42˚
Dec. 24
.02”
61˚ 45˚ 56˚ 45˚
.21”
Dec. 26
.49”
51˚ 36˚
Opinion ......................... B-5
Dec. 27
.06”
48˚ 41˚
Dec. 28
.02”
53˚ 36˚
Rain for week: 2.18 in. Season’s total: 15.90 in. Last sn. to date: 1.79 in. Winters rainfall season began 7/1/21. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m.
ed rising numbers. The City of Davis reported the highest of 118. The city of West Sacramento reported 71 new cases, Woodland reported 60 and Unincorporated communities reported 39. Hospitalizations have jumped as well — a total of 10 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 in Yolo County’s two hospitals on Monday, up from just two at the end of last week. All but one are unvaccinated. UC Davis also reported an increase in new cases and test positivity during the week of Dec. 19-25. The 22 positive cases detected on Dec. 22 are the second-most for a single day since testing began. The only day with more
positive tests was Jan. 6, when 25 cases were detected. The UC Davis campus test positivity rate has also jumped to 1.34 percent, according to the campus dashboard. That’s the highest it has been during the pandemic. What’s happening locally is likely what is happening elsewhere in the state and around the country — the Omicron variant is driving a surge in new cases. And while breakthrough cases are occurring among the vaccinated and even among those who have received booster shots, it is the unvaccinated who are taking the biggest hit. Yolo County’s overall case rate, for example, is 5.2 per
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these facilities in the first place. “Requiring everybody entering a facility to have a recent negative test for COVID-19 is a critical step to keep residents safe.” While vaccinations, including booster doses, provide vital protection against serious COVID-19 disease, older
See HEALTH, Page 7
COVID cases, hospitalizations rising in Yolo
Dec. 25
Sports ........................... B-9
tion (WCCF), a 501(c) (3) organization. In Spanish, “corazón” means heart, love, courage and is also used as a term of endearment. City Manager Kathleen Salguero Trepa said the city is holding $34,197 of funds raised by HAC activities in an exclusive account for the benefit of HAC’s programs. At the Dec. 21 meeting, the Winters City Council approved establishing the HAC
Newest County health order adds testing requirement at skilled nursing facilities
Community .................. A-3
Real Estate ................... B-2
The Winters Hispanic Advisory Committee (HAC) has served the community since 2005 and has presented various fundraising activities, like the annual Festival de la Comunidad (Carnitas Festival). With HAC’s growth and success, HAC members created a nonprofit earlier this year from what had been acting as an “informal” advisory committee to
the City of Winters. “Informal” because when it was authorized by a city resolution, it was only authorized for a period of six months which ended long ago. HAC has presented community events in collaboration with the city and continues to raise funds, but realized they were functioning as a nonprofit, not an advisory committee. In February, HAC members branched out and formed the Winters Community Corazón Founda-
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100,000 residents among the vaccinated but 40.6 among the unvaccinated. “Real-world evidence continues to show that the vaccine is preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death,” the department noted in a press release Monday. Vaccination appointments can be made by visiting myturn.ca.gov or calling 1-833-422-4255. The county is not holding vaccination clinics during the holidays though vaccines, including boosters, are available at pharmacies and through health systems. The county will host additional vaccine clinics after the new year.
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