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Update on Putah Creek salmon numbers News, Page 2
including tax
Student organizes Find a Cure Night event Features, Page 1
Volume 142, Number 01 — Locally-owned since 1884
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, February 5, 2025
The hometown paper of Dawn Martinez
Council to continue cannabis retail-location discussion By Sonora Slater Express staff writer The Winters City Council meeting on Jan. 21 covered a variety of topics including a lengthy discussion about zoning for a potential cannabis dispensary in Winters. The council has not yet made a final decision, and decided to continue the discussion about whether a dispensary will be allowed within city limits, directing staff to work to set the regulatory groundwork surrounding where it would be allowed to go, the hours it would be allowed to operate at, what kind of security would be required and more. The topic was previously discussed by the Winters Planning Com-
mission in October and December. The conversation was sparked largely due to a grant that the city received in 2023 from the State Department of Cannabis Control. The grant was intended to be used to reimburse the city for any work performed in establishing licensing requirements and regulations for cannabis retail businesses. Some part of the grant has been used to reimburse the work done so far by city staff and by the planning commission in exploring the potential of allowing a cannabis retailer, but some of the grant funding is still available and could be used to offset the cost of commercial cannabis licensing, should the city decide to move
forward. The presentation by city staff included exhaustive details about safety standards, operating standards, enforcement plans, limitations on use and more, as well as showcasing the parcel that the commission recommended the council limit a potential cannabis retailer to. This includes a couple of small parcels on the northwest side of Winters, north of Grant Avenue and close to Interstate 505. Kate Laddish, a member of the public, said that she hopes the council will reconsider the zoning that the commission settled on to include a couple more areas and make it a little less restrictive.
Cherie Felsch/Courtesy photo
Water spills over the edge of Glory Hole Express staff Peter Kilkus of Lake Berryessa News reported that as of 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the Lake Berryessa water level had reached 441.3 feet and water had officially spilled over the edge of the Glory Hole the evening before. “The question is no longer when it will spill, but how high will the lake get,” Kilkus said in a newsletter.
See CITY, Page 5
Trustee reviews attendance gains, funding impact Byl Logan Chrisp Express staff writer
EXPRESS
The Winters Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees heard a presentation of an update on the school district’s attendance rates from last year from Parent Engagement Coordinator Humberto Jimenez at the Jan. 16 school board meeting. Jimenez said “The Every Day Matters” campaign has been ongoing since February 2024, focusing on increasing attendance rates across the district. The campaign employs several strategies to get students in class and
decrease absenteeism: staff outreach and support, coordination of services, the school attendance review board, home visits and banners/ posters. Jimenez broke down the attendance trends over the last year on a school-byschool basis, highlighting where the district has succeeded or fallen behind in bringing attendance to the 96 percent district-wide goal. He explained how attendance is calculated based on each class period attended. “This means that if a student misses one or more classes during the day, they are marked absent for each class period they miss. For high schools, attendance is often tracked in a similar way, where
students are marked absent for each individual class they miss,” Jimenez said. Waggoner Elementary School showed positive trends compared to last year. Across the same fivemonth period, the elementary school showed small improvements across the board, with a strong upward trend in the final month at 94 percent, which is 4 percent higher than the same month last year. Shirley Rominger Intermediate School and Winters Middle School both started close to the 96-percent attendance goal at 95 percent, but both schools dipped to 94 percent by the fifth month. However, both were 3 percent higher than the previous year.
See SCHOOLS, Page 5
Index Features ........................ B-1
We at he r Date
Rain
High
Low
Jan. 29
.00
63˚
29˚
Jan. 30
.00
60˚
31˚
Jan. 31
0.06”
60˚
35˚
Feb. 01
0.45”
50˚
43˚
Eventos hispanos ....... A-3
Feb. 02
0.88”
58˚
42˚
Feb. 03
0.12”
59˚
50˚
Opinion ......................... B-3
Feb. 04
0.81”
61˚
49˚
Real Estate ................... B-2
Rain for week: 2.32 in. Season’s total: 11.90 in. Last sn. to date: 14.67 in.
Classifieds ................... B-4 Community .................. A-2
Sports ........................... B-5
Winters rainfall season began 7/1/24. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m. daily by local weatherman Joe Bristow.
Sonora Slater/Winters Express
Winters Police Srg. Albert Ramos, Woodland Police Chief Ryan L. Kinnan and Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez speak as part of a law enforcement panel at the Yolo County Office of Education in Woodland on Jan. 13.
County immigration forum urges public trust in local law enforcement officers By Sonora Slater Express staff writer A community forum on immigration was held at the Yolo County Office of Education in Woodland on Jan. 13, bringing together police chiefs and other local law enforcement officials from throughout the county to lead a panel answering questions from the public about the timely topic. The officers largely focused on explaining the difference between their role as local law enforcement, and border patrol officers’ roles, as set out by the California Values Act. The law, also known as Senate Bill 54, went into effect in early 2018, and prohibits the use of local and state law enforcement resources in assisting federal immigration enforcement, given that it is neither
their jurisdiction nor responsibility. Laws on collaboration between local and federal law enforcement differ in other states. The members of the panel included Davis Police Chief Todd Henry, Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig, Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez, West Sacramento Police Chief Robert Strange, Winters Police Sergeant Albert Ramos and Woodland Police Chief Ryan Kinnan. The conversation was centered on trust, and reassuring the community that although local law enforcement will not and cannot legally stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials from coming into Yolo County, they also, in line with SB 54, will not share publicly available information like names or addresses of community
members with ICE. In brief introductory statements, many officers on the panel echoed each other’s sentiments, but Henry put it succinctly. “If our entire community does not trust us, we are ineffective,” Henry said. “And if people are concerned that their local law enforcement officials are going to be involved in immigration enforcement, we’re going to lose that trust.” Reisig shared a similar perspective, as well as highlighting their office’s diverse Victim Services Program. “Our No. 1 job is to take care of victims, and I do not care what their immigration status is,” Reisig said. “Six out of seven of the staff of our Victim Services Program have
See FORUM, Page 3
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