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City seeking Senior Commissioner applicants, again News, Page 6
including tax
Behindthe-scenes at 10-Minute play festival Features, Page 1
Volume 139, Number 42 — Locally-owned since 1884
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, November 16, 2022
City plans Winters 183 Project Community Meeting on Nov. 30 By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief The City of Winters is hosting a community meeting to share information about a potential project proposal site noted as the Winters 183 Project. On Friday, Nov. 11, City Manager Kathleen Salguero Trepa announced the Winters 183 Community Meeting date would be held on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 6 p.m. in the Winters Community Center (201 Railroad Ave.). According to Trepa, representatives of the property owner of a 183-acre parcel located north of
Moody Slough, within the City limits, had approached City staff regarding the potential development of the property. “Community engagement is the first step; therefore, we have coordinated a town hall-style meeting for the project representatives to introduce themselves and their philosophy and approach to creating a master-planned community,” Trepa said. “Staff will also present information regarding the potential development process and Measure A.” Trepa noted the property owner has
Rominger receives recognition for farm to school efforts By Aaron Geerts
not submitted any development-related applications and there has not been any planning or engineering work initiated with City staff. The community meeting will be held in person. Trepa said display boards will be staged around the room with information about the potential project, and time has been accounted for to allow the community to have their questions answered. The City plans to create a landing page will be created on its website to provide easy public access to the project information.
Crystal Apilado/Winters Express
Winters Fire Department crews were able to extinguish a blaze that destroyed a mobile home before it spread to nearby neighbors on Sunday, Nov. 13.
Editor-in-Chief
EXPRESS
The cause behind a two-alarm fire that damaged a single mobile home on Sunday evening is still under investigation. Interim Fire Chief Matthew Schechla
2 Main St., Winters, CA 530.795.4503 buckhornsteakhouse.com
said the Winters Fire Department was alerted to a structure fire at the Winters Mobile Park on Sunday, Nov. 14 at 8:42 p.m. Upon arrival, Winters FD crews found a single, wide mobile home with smoke showing from the exterior. The incident was elevated to a twoalarm fire due to the proximity of other homes, Fire Captain Art Mendoza told the
Features ........................ B-1
See FIRE, Page 3
We at he r Rain
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McNaughton Media
Community .................. A-2
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Opinion ......................... B-3
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It will likely be the first week of December before Yolo County residents know the final vote totals of local races, including the races for Winters City Council and the school district Trustee Area Two. This election saw an immense number of vote-by-mail ballots
Real Estate ................... B-2 Sports ........................... A-5
Rain for week: 0.04 in. Season’s total: 2.09 in. Last sn. to date: 8.23 in. Winters rainfall season began 7/1/22. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m.
licious, healthy food and we’re not serving it to our students?’ Instead, we’re giving them stuff pre-packaged or something. So, the Farm to School program was born out of that question,” explained Rominger. “I was really interested in seeing school gardens. I was a master gardener, worked on our family farm and see all the benefits of kids digging in the dirt and learning about where their food
comes from. That’s how I got involved and never expected it to become what it did, seeing it be so successful and it’s really been a model not just for our state but across the nation we’ve been recognized.” Rominger was quick to credit the nonprofit’s success to the scores of volunteers who comprise it and the community it’s a part of. While other
See ROMINGER, Page 3
post. “Once on scene, deputies located a deceased adult female with a fatal gunshot wound inside of an RV.” Investigators identified the suspect as the victim’s husband, 56-year-old, Alfonso Hernandez Jr. of Sacramento, and issued a be-on-the-lookout bulletin for the Highway 50 corridor, where Hernandez was believed to be headed by car. At about 1 p.m., reports came in that authorities had located Hernandez’s vehicle at about 1 p.m. on Icehouse Road, near the small town of White Hall.
“As El Dorado County sheriff’s deputies and California Highway Patrol Officers attempted to contact Alfonso, he shot himself and was pronounced dead at the scene,” the Facebook post said. “The firearm believed to be used in the homicide was recovered.” The victim’s name was expected to be released by Yolo County coroner’s officials after she is positively identified and next of kin notified, sheriff’s officials said. The motive for the killing also remains under investigation but is believed to be an isolated incident.
County expects to release final vote tallies in December
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By Anne Ternus-Bellamy
dropped off on Election Day, including through the postal service, ballot drop boxes and voter assistance centers, according to county elections officials, and adding to the challenge was “an unprecedented amount of conditional and provisional ballots, primarily due to same-day voter registrations associated with UC Davis stu-
dents.” As of last Thursday, an estimated 22,000 ballots countywide remained to be counted and those conditional and provisional ballots required more staff time to process. “As such, it is estimated that our office will need the entire 30 days to officially certify the election
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A man allegedly killed his wife at a rural Winters home Sunday shortly before taking his own life, according to the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff’s officials said they performed a welfare check at the home in Canyon Creek Resort on Highway 128 at about 11 a.m. in response to a call from a friend of the couple. That person “advised a friend called him and stated he had killed his wife and was going to kill himself,” the agency reported in a Facebook
Nov. 21
Classifieds ................... B-4
Courtesy photo
Patty Rominger is one of 27 honorees being recognized at the Yolo Community Foundation’s 2022 Philanthropy Day.
First responders discover body in rural Winters home
Date
27990 County Road 90 Winters, CA 95694 www.pearcehvac.com 1 Main St., Winters, CA 530.795.2682
For over a decade, Patty Rominger has been an integral part of Winters Farm to School’s success. While her unbridled selflessness is just part of who she is, it’s also the reason Yolo Community Foundation is recognizing Rominger as one of 27 honorees at its 2022 Philanthropy Day event.. The Winters Farm to School nonprofit was started in 2011 by Patty Rominger, Cathy Olsen, Melanie Bajakian, Pat Thompson, Fran Lewis and Christie Mayo. This Winters-esque organization strives to not only provide students with quality, local produce but to cultivate curiosity, knowledge and respect for the agricultural roots and heritage of their hometown. “Farm to School programs were getting popular around the country, and when locals got together we were asking, ‘why is it that we live in this town that’s surrounded by working family farms that produce all this wonder, de-
McNaughton Media
Express at the scene on Sunday evening. According to Mendoza, they wanted to have additional crews on hand if the fire spread. However, the fire was contained quickly. “Crews made an aggressive attack and had the fire contained in about 15 minutes,” Schechla said. Significant damage
Index
Express staff writer
By Lauren Keene
Winters FD extinguishes mobile home fire By Crystal Apilado
The hometown paper of Jim & Terry Brockmeyer
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