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Volume 140, Number 17 — Locally-owned since 1884
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, May 24, 2023
The hometown paper of Karianna & Shawn Creedon
Sunday Farmers Market pending county approval By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief Efforts to revive a local farmers market in Winters are underway. Chris Turkovich, Downtown Business Association President and owner of Turkovich Family Wines, told the Winters Express in a phone call that currently they are waiting for approval from Yolo County to make it official, but Winters DBA received the go-ahead from city staff to begin marketing the Sunday Farmers Market on social media. Ahmad (Simba) Baratti, of Simba’s Heirloom Farm, is coordinating the
efforts and submitted the application to Yolo County. According to Turkovich, once they receive County approval they will return to the Winters City Council to request a modification to the street closure schedule approved in February. At the Feb. 7 Winters City Council meeting, council members approved that Main Street would be closed from the Railroad Avenue intersection to the crosswalk at Paseo Park from the last weekend in March through the last weekend in October from Friday to Sunday afternoon (before noon) for 2023. City
Manager Kathleen Trepa noted the city has staff scheduled to work until noon on Sundays and the reopening of the street would need to be aligned with the schedule. Turkovich said that Winters DBA will request the council to modify the Sunday reopening to go back to an allday Sunday closure to accommodate for the Sunday Farmers Market timeframe of 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. However, the organizers are waiting for county approval before the street closure can be brought to Winters City Council. In the meantime,
See MARKET, Page 3
Winters councilman denies guilt in weapon charges By Lauren Keene McNaughton Media
EXPRESS
A Winters city councilman facing felony weapon charges pleaded not guilty to the allegations Wednesday in Yolo Superior Court. Richard Thomas Casavecchia appeared in Judge Tom Dyer’s courtroom via Zoom, as did his attorney Michael Wise, who requested a June 7 court date for setting a preliminary hearing in the case. “I did want to see if we could resolve it before we set it,” Wise said. Casavecchia, 39, remains free on his own recognizance in the meantime. Dyer also granted Wednesday a motion by the Yolo County
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District Attorney’s Office to file an amended complaint in the case, adding two counts of possessing an assault rifle to a previous misdemeanor charge of possessing an unserialized firearm. Documents filed in support of the motion allege that police found the assault rifles in Casavecchia’s home on April 2, after the victim arrived at the Winters Police Department to report a domestic violence incident and request an emergency protective order. “She then told Winters police that defendant has a concealed-weapons permit along with other weapons,” the document says. She initially declined to give officers consent to enter her home and remove the weapons, but later reversed that decision. About two hours earlier, a Winters patrol officer initiated
an unrelated traffic stop on Casavecchia at Neiman and Main streets and asked Casavecchia whether he possessed any firearms, the motion says. Casavecchia confirmed he did, producing three handguns from a case on his truck’s passenger seat. “One of the handguns did not contain a serial number or any identifying information,” prosecutors wrote. “Based on the officer’s training and experience, he opined the handgun was manufactured with several after-market parts, none of which contained a serial number.” Officers went to Casavecchia’s home at about 4:30 p.m. that same day, seizing three AR-15 style rifles, two ammunition magazines and four ammunition rounds, the motion says.
See CHARGE, Page 3
Index Features ........................ B-1
Rain
High
Low
.00
92˚
56˚
May 18
.00
94˚
51˚
May 19
.00
91˚
55˚
May 20
.00
91˚
53˚
Eventos hispanos ....... A-2
May 21
.00
91˚
52˚
May 22
.00
89˚
56˚
Opinion ......................... B-3
May 23
.00
91˚
57˚
Real Estate ................... B-2
Rain for week: 0.00 in. Season’s total: 37.62 in. Last sn. to date: 18.29 in.
Sports ........................... A-7
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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By Susan Hiland McNaughton Media Winters High School earned the top spot with the highest score for the overall competition at the Travis Spark Challenge hosted by the Solano County Office of Education and Travis Air Force Base’s Phoenix Spark program last Friday. Student teams from
Golden Hills Community School, Will C. Wood (three teams), DeAnza (three teams), Buckingham Charter (two teams), Vacaville, Winters and Vanden high schools entered the competition where they were challenged to select one of three genuine issues that TAFB is currently trying to solve. The three challenge prompts
were to develop solutions for gate traffic flow, dining facility customer flow or flight line perimeter control. The team solution and presentation incorporated a prototype for fingerprint checking at the TAFB gate stations so those with base access could pass through quickly.
See SPARK, Page 3
Council discusses safety of fireworks within city limits By Jacob Hoffman Express staff writer The Winters City Council discussed the current use of the fireworks booths as well as the potential safety concerns around fireworks in general at its May 16 meeting. As summarized in the city staff report, “Little League and the Winters’ municipal swim team coordinated separate fireworks booths to sell legal fireworks prior to the 4th of July. The booths were run separately until the city began contracting with a third party to
coordinate the summer swim team and provide recreational swim lessons. For the last two years, Little League has agreed to coordinate one double booth and split the proceeds with the city. Swim parents are requested to help volunteer at the booth.” Fireworks provided the city with $17,000 last year, which was placed in the Swim Team fund that sits at around $90,000. City Manager Kathleen Salguero Trepa reiterated that the fireworks sold at the booths are inspected
by the fire department and are of the legal “safe and sane” variety, and on the topic of illegal fireworks stated the city has taken steps in previous years to discourage their usage, including the creation and enforcement of administrative citations for using illegal fireworks inside the city, as well as a platform for reporting neighbors for using illegal fireworks. Since the citations are administrative rather than criminal, the city is more
See COUNCIL, Page 3
Library launching summer reading program, events In coordination with the launch of the Yolo County Library Summer Reading Program, the Winters Community Library has big plans for the summer. Ashleigh Torres, Winters Library Branch Supervisor, said residents can officially begin to log their reading for the 2023 summer reading program on June 1. “We will have a wide variety of programs for
all ages all throughout the summer,” Torres said. “The theme this year is All Together Now, which focuses on unity and friendship, which I think is a perfect fit for the Winters community.” The Winters Library is introducing a weekly series of All Together Outside programs, which is being funded by a California State Library grant received by Yolo County Library. Torres said the events will focus on local wildlife and
recreational opportunities. This summer, the Winters Library is partnering with Putah Creek Council to provide the Creek Explorers program every Wednesday at 2 p.m. starting on June 7. “This program is for (youths) 6–11 years old to come and learn about the stream and the creatures that call Putah Creek their home. Participants will also be able to do hands-on activities related to each theme,”
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Winters High takes top honors in Travis Spark Challenge
Editor-in-Chief
May 17
Community .................. A-2
Ben Nelson, Rayanne Roberts, advisor Dianne Halsey, Jack Tuel and Julian Garcia accept the top award at the Travis Spark Challenge on Friday, May 19.
By Crystal Apilado
We at he r Date
Classifieds ................... B-6
Courtesy photo
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See READ, Page 3
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