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WHS Soccer teams wins Section Championship News, Page 5
Sixth graders connect with nature and camaraderie Features, Page 1
Volume 140, Number 5 — Locally-owned since 1884
The hometown paper of Ernesto Segura
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Councilmembers approve creation of Paseo Park project ad hoc committee By Jacob Hoffman Express staff writer
Courtesy photo
Commiunity member Jenni Jacobs Garcia with Winters Collective owner Meika Ogando and collective vendors Carla Knabke, Ayca Walters and Veronica Kenyon. The Winters Collective was named the 2022 Business of the Year.
Winters Collective is 2022 Business of the Year By Aaron Geerts Express staff writer The Winters Collective has officially been named the town’s 2022 Business of the Year. Although the business took root in 2019, the accolade confirms it’s a must-visit staple of the community. Started by Meika Ogando, the Winters Collective is a veritable mosaic made up of small businesses, workout classes, art popups, floral workshops and more. All these pieces come together to create a unique storefront that stands as Ogando’s creative ambi-
tion coming to fruition — despite the pandemic. Nomination letters praised the Winters Collective for its efforts to bring in many retail items to Winters that were only found outside the city limits. Another nomination letter stated the business was a “role model” for “enhancing the relationship between the business community, nonprofits and the local residents.” “COVID was definitely the biggest challenge since opening. Just being able to keep all of my Collective vendors motivat-
ed and needing them to see the worth and value of having a collective in Winters,” said Ogando. “The Winters Collective is a happy, addictive shop therapy that has all items that make you feel good. It’s a collection of eight different businesswomen that are smart, fun and have unique personalities that meet a broad spectrum of customers. It’s a small business that supports local business, the community and the arts.” It’s no secret that ambitions to open a business downtown come with a heavy
financial burden. To Ogando, The Winters Collective is a way to simultaneously ease that burden on small business owners while giving them prime, Main Street real estate to operate on. “I can’t imagine if I had a regular setup with employees and opened a new business during that time (that) we would have made it. Our setup is different where my vendors all work the store as part of the business model,” said Ogando. “I just really believed in the concept
See BUSINESS, Page 3
Winters City Council continued its discussion of the Paseo Park construction process and moved to create an informal committee to help expedite the process at its Feb. 21 meeting. At a previous meeting, City Manager Kathleen Salguero Trepa informed the council that the city closed out a grant with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) for $100,000 for the Paseo Park construction process and that the city has sent a second grant request of the same size to SACOG which the city expects to hear about in April. Trepa told the council that city staff is “looking for some guidance and direction on where the council would like us to prioritize spending this next $100,000” because this grant is “clearly not going to do everything that people would like to see in the park, so we do need to focus our efforts on an area that can be accomplished with the $100,000.”
For possible uses of the funding, Trepa said the grant parameters are “pretty broad” regarding what the money could go towards, and provided a number of ways the money could be spent, including decorative screening for the park’s transformer, a structure to hold rotating art, and landscaping different areas of the park. On Tuesday, the particular issue council discussed was whether the City Council wished to form an ad hoc committee to help determine the priorities of how the grant funding could be used for the Paseo Park project. Under the Brown Act, a California law that regulates the actions governing bodies can make beyond public record, an ad hoc committee can be formed of no more than two City Councilmembers tasked with addressing a specific issue for a short period of time, typically less than a year. The ad hoc committee is also an opportunity for the public and community members
See PASEO, Page 3
City Council discusses future of hybrid meeting format By Jacob Hoffman Express staff writer
EXPRESS
During its Feb. 21 meeting, the Winters City Council mulled over the continuation of its virtual meeting system. Briefly, City Manager Kathleen Salguero Trepa reminded the council that virtual meetings were a product of the
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pandemic, allowing councilmembers to video call into meetings and the public to participate remotely. Trepa noted that “public participation has gone up significantly in the pandemic with remote access.” “The state legislature has passed a bill and the governor has signed it that’s referred to as AB 2449,” which is similar to the law that first allowed public meetings to be held remotely, as it allows “a hybrid platform and rules
for people to participate…in a meeting remotely, but it has different rules than (the previous law),” Trepa said. Firstly, councilmembers and commissioners are allotted two conditional absences from their in-person meetings, as well as emergency absences. In addition, the city can decide whether to continue with a true hybrid system that makes virtual broadcasting necessary for the continuation
See HYBRID, Page 3
Index Features ........................ B-1
We at he r Rain
High
Low
Feb. 22
.00
69˚
38˚
Feb. 23 TRACE
57˚
33˚
Feb. 24
1.49”
52˚
33˚
Feb. 25
.18”
50˚
38˚
Eventos hispanos ....... A-2
Feb. 26
.01”
49˚
41˚
Feb. 27
.24”
50˚
34˚
Opinion ......................... B-3
Feb. 28
.81”
49˚
38˚
Real Estate ................... B-2
Rain for week: 2.73 in. Season’s total: 26.29 in. Last sn. to date: 17.09 in.
Community .................. A-2
Sports ........................... A-5
Winters rainfall season began 7/1/22. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m. daily by local weatherman Joe Bristow.
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Kenney is 2022 Officer of the Year By Aaron Geerts The Winters Police Department (WPD) is the shield between the community and all manners of crime and public safety incidents. While the men and women of WPD operate under the motto, “Service with Integrity,” Officer Brandon Kenney was recognized as exemplifying it most in 2022 -- earning him the notoriety of being named the 2022 Officer of the Year. Originally from
Vallejo, Kenney now lives in Fairfield with his wife and newborn child. Although he’s not local, Kenney has made an indelible impact within the community and WPD since he joined the ranks in February 2021. Given his quality of work, the community has made an impact on Kenney as well. “It feels awesome to be named Officer of the Year. We have a lot of hardworking officers and community service officers in the department and it means a lot to have
earned Officer of the Year,” said Kenney. “Working in a smaller town like Winters allows me, as a police officer, to really engage with the community. In my two short years here, I feel like I can say I’ve had an impact on people in the community. Whereas in a bigger city, you don’t always get that connection. I enjoy being able to stop and talk to members of the community where I can help.” According to
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Winters Police Department announce that Officer Brandon Kenney is the 2022 Officer of the Year for his extraordinary efforts to engage and connect with the community.
Express staff writer
Date
Classifieds ................... B-4
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See OFFICER, Page 3
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