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VOLUME 171 • ISSUE 21 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2022
School districts defy state mask mandate Thomas Frey Staff writer The El Dorado Union High School District announced a significant change in mask enforcement Tuesday by asking students to mask up and leaving it at that. “The enforcement of masking will be done by educating students and asking them to mask but no further actions of exclusion from class will be taken,” state district officials in a letter to parents. As COVID-19 cases across the state drop, Gov. Gavin Newsom was on Monday expected to revise the mask mandate for schools but instead,
California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly announced there would be a two-week delay in a decision and rules for schools would be reassessed Feb. 28. Dozens of Oak Ridge High School students protested that announcement in front of campus Tuesday. According to a post to the Facebook group EDH Republicans, students showed up to school without masks as part of an organized protest that day. Oak Ridge administrators said they moved the protestors into separate classrooms to continue their schoolwork but the
Courtesy photo
See PROTEST, page A5
Oak Ridge High School students protest masking in schools in front of the El Dorado Hills campus Tuesday.
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Saluting our presidents George Washington
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
1789 – 1797
1797 – 1801
1801 – 1809
“99% of failures come from people who make excuses.”
Author of the oldest written constitution still in use in the world, the Massachusetts Constitution, approved by voters in 1780.
“Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.” - Thomas Jefferson
George Washington
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Missouri Flat PG&E lines going underground Thomas Frey Staff writer PG&E has begun to convert overhead power lines to underground along Missouri Flat Road in the Placerville/ Diamond Springs area. The project is expected to be completed in July. Missouri Flat Road between China Garden Road and Pleasant Valley Road will have an all-new underground electric system put in by PG&E crews and contractors. The work is being done
at the request of the county through PG&E’s Rule 20A program, which provides cities and counties a process to work with PG&E to convert utilities from overhead to underground in designated districts. It’s a beautification process that will also prevent fires, according to PG&E spokesperson Megan McFarland. This is the only Rule 20A project in El Dorado County right now.
E OAKS SENIOR CARE VILLAG
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See PG&E, page A3
Mountain Democrat photo by Thomas Frey
Tree trimmers with Placerville-based Tree Service Unlimited contracted by PG&E clear branches along electric lines near Missouri Flat and China Garden roads in Placerville as part of a project that will run electric lines underground.
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