THE UNION Articles on
Miscellaneous Topics -- September
Fire Plan meeting set for Oct. 5, Union staff, September 28, 2005
Police finding Tasers useful, Trina Kleist, September 23, 2005
NID may increase rates 9%, Dave Moller, September 20, 2005
Governor fills county judge vacancy, Trina Kleist, September 15, 2005
Penn Valley Fire wins grant, Union Staff, September 9, 2005
...brace for big cuts to senior services, David Mirhadi, September 8, 2005
Fire Plan meeting set for Oct. 5
The Union staff
September 28, 2005
Nevada County Supervisor Robin Sutherland plans to host three forums to inform residents about Nevada County's recently created Fire Plan. Tony Clarabut, unit chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, will clarify the role of the Fire Plan at each meetings.
North San Juan residents can meet with Clarabut and Sutherland from 7 to 8 p.m., Oct. 5 at the North San Juan Senior Services Center, 29290 Highway 49.
A Penn Valley meeting is scheduled for 7 to 8 p.m., Oct. 6 at the Penn Valley Fire Station, 10513 Spenceville Road.
Rough and Ready residents can learn about the Fire Plan from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., Oct. 13 at the Rough and Ready Chamber of Commerce, the Grange Hall.
Chase highlights guns' good points
By Trina Kleist,
trinak@theunion.com
September 23, 2005
Two hours after midnight, a suspected drug dealer is stopped by police. He jumps out of the car and runs, tossing rocks of crystal meth onto the street. He stumbles, falls and tries to get up again, giving an officer enough time to hit him with a Taser stun gun.
The lingering shock allows the cop to snap handcuffs onto the suspect's wrists until back-up arrives.
It's the exact situation that highlights the role of Tasers in law enforcement, and it's exactly what happened early Wednesday morning when Grass Valley police arrested Robert M. Kendall, 26, on suspicion of possession with intent to sell.
Before the Grass Valley Police Department bought two Taser guns in February, that arrest early Wednesday could have forced the officer to physically pin down the combative suspect for several minutes.
But after using the guns for seven months, police said Thursday the weapons reduce potential injury to arresting officers. In fact, they've already bought a third Taser.
"The majority (of people arrested) are high on narcotics," police Capt. Dave Remillard said. "We attempt to use only that amount of force necessary to subdue them, and they're using whatever force they have to get away. ... That's how our officers get injured."
All of the department's sworn and reserve officers - more than 20 people - have received training. It included being shot with the weapon at least once, Remillard said. "I'm here to tell you, it works," he said.
The device usually is shot with darts the size of a pen cap. The darts carry a thin copper wire that sends a 50,000 volts of electricity, at 0.004 amps, into a person's body for five seconds.
The current snarls the electro-chemical communication between the person's brain and muscles, making the suspect unable to move, according to the manufacturer's Web site.
Taser International claims the guns are safe when used properly. It cites studies by American and British researchers.
The human rights organization Amnesty International has raised concerns about the improper use of Tasers. On its Web site, the group cites more than 70 deaths and cases where the weapon has been used as many as six times, used against school-age children and against suspects fleeing from minor crimes or who are mentally disturbed.
Each time a Grass Valley policeman uses a Taser, a report on its use is reviewed by the police chief, Remillard said.
"We look at it and make sure it's deployed property," Remillard said.
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To contact staff writer Trina Kleist, e-mail trinak@theunion.com or call 477-4231.
Agency trying to raise revenue to pay expenses
By Dave Moller,
davem@theunion.com
September 20, 2005
Nevada Irrigation District officials are poised to raise rates again in a continuing effort to have revenue pay all expenses without having to dip into savings.
Members of the water agency's rate committee voted Monday to recommend increasing treated water rates 9 percent and most fees about 4 percent. The issue will be up for a full board vote in October. Raw water users in the district would see a 7 percent increase, with a 15 percent increase for those getting water who live out of the district.
The increases mean an average family with a 5/8-inch meter would see the monthly bill rise from $34 to $37. Those with a 3/4-inch meter would see it climb from around $41 now to almost $45 .
That is about the same percentage increase as last year, when NID embarked on a five-year budget program that increases fees enough to meet expenditures while saving reserves for projects.
Rates committee member Nancy Weber said, "we'll need a stabilization period" after the last planned increase for 2009. Until then, NID ratepayers could well see similar annual rate and fee increases, according to NID's plan.
Although most proposed fee increases are about 4 percent, total connection fees include increased capacity fees. That could drive total connection fees up this year about 15 to 18 percent.
The owner of a small home would see his or her fee to get water go to $6,900 from about $6,000. A large house would go from about $10,000 to $10,900.
NID Committee member Scott Miller said the fees were similar to those paid by users in the Placer County Water Agency, which serves much of the Auburn area.
The five-year plan for fee and rate increases began last year when NID officials figured that most future projects would have to be paid for with reserves. The district also expects to spend at least $10 million getting new licenses for its hydroelectric facilities by 2013.
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To contact senior staff writer Dave Moller, e-mail davem@theunion.com or call 477-4237.
Governor fills county judge vacancy
By Trina Kleist,
trinak@theunion.com
September 15, 2005
A man already experienced at issuing judicial opinions in Nevada County has been appointed Superior Court judge, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office announced Wednesday.
Family Court Commissioner Sean P. Dowling will replace outgoing Nevada County Superior Court Judge Ersel L. Edwards, who retired in May. Edwards continued to serve temporarily as an assigned judge until he went on vacation at the end of August.
Dowling was contacted by Schwarzenegger's appointments secretary, John Davies, on Tuesday while visiting his son in Newark, N.J.
"I'm thrilled to death. I hardly got any sleep last night," Dowling said Wednesday from his daughter's home in Austin, Texas, where he was on vacation.
Dowling, a 56-year-old Republican, could be sworn in Monday when he returns to work. "I'm confident it will be Monday's first order of business," Court Executive Officer Sean Metroka said.
Dowling has served in the county court system as a commissioner for nearly eight years. He said he would probably finish up his calendar of current cases before taking on his new assignment as a judge.
The commissioner system was created by the California Legislature in the 1990s. The commissioners serve as subordinate judicial officials who take some of the workload off judges, Dowling said.
After working in private practice for 22 years in family law and general civil litigation, much of that in Nevada County, Dowling was hired in 1997 as a commissioner by the court. Since then, he has traveled a circuit from Nevada City to Downieville to Sierraville and eventually to Truckee as a commissioner shared between Nevada and Sierra counties.
During his first year on the job, Dowling donated nearly half his time, as only 60 percent of the full-time salary was funded by the state, he said.
In 1998, Nevada County judges hired Dowling full time to work in the family court.
"Functionally, I'm doing everything the judges do. I think that's one reason the judges and others supported my appointment," Dowling said.
Members of the Nevada County Bar Association gave Dowling a "highly qualified" rating in a vote that was tallied earlier this month. Members also voted him as the "best qualified" among the six people who were being considered for the position, Bar Association president Michael Phillips said.
"He got the clear majority of the votes," Phillips said.
State law requires Dowling to stand for election to his bench in the primary election of June 2008, Metroka said.
Dowling maintains residences in both Nevada City and Truckee, where he also worked for the court at times.
Dowling is from the Bay Area. After attending Catholic schools, he graduated from the University of San Francisco with a bachelor's degree in 1971 and a law degree in 1974.
He fondly recalled the focus on rigorous thinking at the Jesuit university. "But that's dangerous as a judge because your first obligation, after finding out the facts, is to apply the law, not get creative," Dowling said.
But he said he would not find that position constraining. "The process of judging a case is fascinating enough, just to listen to the evidence and create a fair playing field," he said.
Judicial assignments will be decided by the judges themselves in the near future, Metroka said. Dowling said he is likely to continue in the family law area.
Dowling will earn $149,160 in the job, according to a press release from Schwarzenegger's office.
Remaining candidates continue to be eligible for the position left by the retirement of Nevada County Judge John Darlington, which is scheduled for Nov. 30. People who have applied for the judgeship include family and criminal defense lawyer Scott Thomsen, real estate lawyer Raymond Shine, Deputy District Attorney Kathryn Kull-Francis and Deputy County Counsel Julie McManus.
Bio in brief: Sean P. Dowling
Age: 56; born and raised in San Francisco Bay Area.
Education: University of San Francisco, bachelor of science and law degrees
Legal experience: Private practice in Nevada County, 1976 to 1997; co-founder, Nevada County Legal Assistance Inc., 1975; appointed court commissioner in Nevada and Sierra counties, 1997; trustee, Nevada County Law Library, 2001.
Family: Married with two grown children.
Political affiliation: Republican.
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To contact staff writer Trina Kleist, e-mail trinak@theunion.com or call 477 4229.
Penn Valley Fire wins grant
The Union staff
September 9, 2005
The Penn Valley Fire Protection District will use a $6,200 grant to buy special breathing equipment and a day of training for firefighters, Chief Gene Vander Plaats said Thursday.
The Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. awarded the grant in a ceremony at the district's board meeting on Tuesday. The company's Heritage Foundation turned down the district for the grant request last year, but awarded the request this year, Vander Plaats said.
Of the total award, the district will use $3,200 to buy eight custom fitted, self-contained breathing masks for its eight volunteer firefighters. The volunteers have been sharing masks that are sized large, medium and small - which do not always give a perfect fit, Vander Plaats said.
The breathing equipment is expected to arrive in about one month.
At the end of the current fire season, the district will spend the remaining $3,000 of the grant on a renting a special trailer that is used for live fire training. The large trailer is fitted with propane pipes to simulate kitchen and bedroom fires.
- Trina Kleist
Nonprofit leaders brace for big cuts to senior services
Budget could be slashed by 24 percent for food, transportation
David Mirhadi
davidm@theunion.com
Staff writer,
September 8, 2005
As a senior citizen, Mary Tucker has relied on the convenience of a hot meal delivered once daily to her doorstep as a means to maintain her independence.
As an advocate for other seniors, Tucker is keenly aware of the need to maintain the services that keep Nevada County’s most mature citizens living independently and leading meaningful lives.
In the next month, leaders of nonprofits who provide hot meals, in-home nursing, transportation, legal services and a raft of other programs that serve nearly a quarter of the county’s residents will be asked to slash their budgets to shift money to poorer, more populous counties in the region.
It’s a move being mandated by the Area 4 Agency on Aging, which provides the lion’s share of funding for programs used by those 60 and over in seven Northern California counties, including Nevada County.
The agency in October will be crafting a four-year budget that, at this point, stands at $356,147 annually for Nevada County beginning in the fiscal year 2006. The figure represents a 24 percent annual reduction in services from the $495,000 the agency has budgeted for the fiscal year that ends June 30 of next year.
While the services many have come to rely on won’t be going away, a larger portion of the money that would be serving Nevada County seniors is being shifted to counties with a greater percentage of minority senior citizens and those considered by the federal government as low-income seniors.
Services that are targeted for cuts such as those that provide no-cost minor home repair or weekly visits from volunteers — are essential, Tucker said.
“These are the services that keep people in their homes,” said Tucker, 82, who serves as a citizen representative on the seven-county agency’s 17-member board of directors.
“You can’t always change a light bulb when you’re 85,” she said. “Sometimes, you need someone to help you.”
The list of helping hands includes Telecare, Nevada County’s on-demand transportation service, and public health nurses. “They’re all important to us,” said Tucker, neatly packing away two foil-wrapped meals provided by the Senior Citizens Foundation of Nevada County that were delivered to her door last week.
“I think the cuts are unconscionable,” she said.
Leaders of Area 4 agree the cuts could hit Nevada County especially hard, considering the county’s static population growth and comparatively smaller percentage of low-income and minority seniors.
Nevada County has the highest percentage of non-minority seniors in a region that includes Placer, Sacramento, Sierra, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. It also has the second-smallest percentage, after Placer County, of seniors considered low-income.
Low-income and minority seniors are given the greatest weight under the California Department of Aging funding guidelines. Non-minority populations and those in geographically isolated areas are weighted less in the funding formula.
The news has energized leaders of senior nonprofits and Nate Beason, who represents Nevada City on the county Board of Supervisors, to lobby Area 4 to reconsider their cuts or find ways to keep programs viable in the next several years.
“I’m going to ask the larger counties to reconsider their portions,” he said at a roundtable discussion among senior service providers. Future meetings to discuss the cuts and perhaps find solutions will continue until proposals are due.
Members of senior nonprofits told stories of seniors benefiting from the diverse safety net of programs available, and lamented what cuts would do to their programs.
Bette Worth, who runs the Senior Citizens Foundation of Western Nevada County that provides meals for shut-ins, said a proposed $38,000 cut next year means she’d have to eliminate three of her seven staff members, potentially jeopardizing her program.
“I’m going to have to go from 200 meals a day to zero,” she said.“Do you want to brag about a community that doesn’t have home-delivered meals?”
Shifting money would also mean eliminating at least some of the more than 2,000 home visits made by Nevada County’s public health nurses, said Ann Bomberg, who helps run the program.
A fix-it program run by the FREED independent living program would also take a direct hit, said Ann Guerra, the nonprofit’s executive director. Keeping the program and its $38,000 allocation often means the difference between seniors keeping their home livable and having to move to more expensive nursing homes.
A “needs assessment” conducted last year by Nevada County showed that transportation was the most important service desired by seniors.
“There’s a lot of great programs out there, but if you don’t have transportation, what do you do?” asked Telecare’s executive director, Susan Healy-Harmon.
The nonprofit provided 60,000 rides last year, Healy-Harmon said, and is facing a $15,000 budget reduction from Area 4 for the next fiscal year.
Deanna Lea, executive director for Area 4, said Nevada County’s shifting demographics, and not a lack of need, are driving the funding changes.
“We really need to advocate funding for rural areas,” she said. “Until we get significant population group, I don’t see much help, but we will be examining every alternative to minimize the impact.”
To contact staff writer David Mirhadi, e-mail davidm@theunion.com or call 477-4229.