Hometown News Since 1889 Making Communities Better Through Print.™ VOL. CXXX, NO. XXXVI
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2020
pasoroblespress.com • $1.00 • WEEKLY
UPCOMING
EDUCATION
Twisted Metal
PRJUSD Looks at Eliminating School Bus Program
Barbed Wire showcase returns to Paso Robles Pioneer Museum
By MARK DIAZ mark@pasoroblespress.com
and wildlife out at a cost-effective price. Lucien B. Smith of Ohio is credited as the inventor and received a patent in 1875 for the new type of fencing. “It changed people’s lives,” Eide said. “It improved their lot in life in many different ways. People don’t realize how much influence barbed wire had on this country; the development of it and the settling of it. We try to teach people at our shows a little bit about that history and maybe spark a little interest in them.” Eide said that the wire spurred fights between cattle ranchers and farmers. Being used to grazing the open lands, ranchers were stopped by fences strung up along the countryside. Iron-
PASO ROBLES — The Paso Robles Joint Unified District Board discussed the future of public transportation for the school district at its Feb. 11 meeting and considered ending the district’s school bus program. Joel Peterson suggested that the community work together to find a solution to the transportation challenge. Board member Christopher Arend repeatedly called for the abolishment of the bus program. “O ur responsibility is to get the special needs kids to school,” Arend said. “Those we are required by law to get here. Everyone else, it’s an additional service that the district provides.” At Peterson’s suggestion, the board decided to table the issue and will make a decision at the next meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 25. In December of 2019, the board increased prices from $95 to $190 for six months of morning and afternoon rides for a family’s first child. The prices drop incrementally for the second and third child, with the fourth child being able to ride for free. Prices also vary if the children are traveling only one way. The new one-way price for a single child doubled from $50 to $100 for a half-year. Last December, the Board of Trustees directed staff to develop
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Paso Robles Pioneer Museum Docent Paulette Pahler shows a local youngster the museum’s collection of barbed wire Sunday. Photo by Mark Diaz
By MARK DIAZ mark@pasoroblespress.com NORTH COUNTY — The Paso Robles Pioneer Museum will host the Barbed Wire and Collectible Show on Friday, March 6 through Saturday, March 7. Located at 2010 Riverside Avenue, the museum is home to one of the most extensive collections of barbed wire in the world. Only three other museums claim they have more thorny lines, but the closest one is in Texas. “It’s said that we have one of the larger collections this side of the Rockies,” said museum docent Bonnie Nelson. The California Barbed Wire Collectors Association started more than 50 years ago in Paso Robles. Two friends,
Paso Chamber of Commerce President Swift Jewell and Paso Robles Station Manager of the Southern Pacific Railroad Bud Park, decided to invite other collectors to joing them in their unique hobby. The two held a conference at the fairgrounds in Paso for barbed wire enthusiasts to learn more of the history and display their collections. The Swift Jewell Barbed Wire Collection (the combined collection of these two friends) is maintained by the CBWCA and is on permanent display at the Paso Robles Pioneer Museum. Member of the CBWCA and the International Antique Barbed Wired Society, Raymond Eide, talked to the Paso Robles Press and gave a brief history of the prickly steel and the signif-
icant impact it made on the development of the United States. “Barbed wire is not just barbed wire,” Eide said. “You look around this show, and you’ll see what I’m talking about.” The Homestead Act of 1862, ratified by President Abraham Lincoln, gave American citizens and future citizens the right to claim up to 160 acres of public land. If the person staking a claim could occupy the land, build a dwelling, and cultivate the property for five years, they would be granted ownership after paying a small registration fee. Eide said that the special fencing made farming on the prairie feasible. With a lack of wood to build fences and rocks to build a wall, the invention of barbed wire allowed people to keep livestock in
REGION
Coronavirus Patients Not Headed To Camp Roberts DHS rescinds announcement
By NICHOLAS MATTSON nic@pasoroblespress.com CAMP ROBERTS — On Sunday, the Department of Health and Safety notified the County of San Luis Obispo Public Health Officer Dr. Penny Borentstein that it reversed plans to consider Camp Roberts as a base to relocate infected coronavirus patients. The reversal came shortly after an announcement by the DHS that it was considering Camp Roberts as a location for coronavirus patients that were no longer needing hospitalization but were not ready to return home. pasoroblespress.com
Hearing the news that Camp Roberts was a possible relocation base for those infected with the virus was met with public concern and calls to local officials to oppose the decision. The forces behind the decision were not clear, but the decision is in the hands of the federal government, and Brian Ferguson of the California Office of Emergency Services told Paso Robles Press that California is ready to assist whenever necessary. “The federal government is responsible for repatriation efforts and quarantine procedures for travelers returning from China,” Ferguson said. “The U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of
LOCAL NEWS
LOCAL
PAY HERE: Paso Parking Problems
After five months of implementation, the downtown parking program is up for review
Health and Human Services serve as the lead authorities for repatriation missions and best equipped to address questions around this mission.” While there is currently no intent to use Camp Roberts to relocate patients, that might change as needs press. “California is prepared to assist the federal government should the need arise,” Ferguson said. The novel coronavirus has been so far contained among the American population, but that is no consolation for the 40-plus that remained on the Diamond
Downtown parking in Paso Robles is a hot topic. That is nothing new. What is new is the downtown parking program, complete with parking kiosks and an app for that, which is a topic of debate between business owners downtown and the City of Paso Robles. For some business owners, the parking program has been a positive impact on their business and they are happy to look out their windows and see some empty spaces for their next customer, while others have reported a downturn in business over the five months since the parking program was implemented. With the strongest economy on record, the bottom line for
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ENTERTAINMENT
LOCAL NEWS
By NICHOLAS MATTSON nic@pasoroblespress.com
SPORTS
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CALIF. SMALL FARMS conference coming to Paso Robles Feb. 27 | A2
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WASTE BOARD to vote on expanding plastic bag ban in April | A4
The Paso Robles Press
EAGLES ADVANCE to Division 3 semifinals with win against Trailblazers | B1
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