so pawsitive
SWIMMINGLY
Animal lovers give their all to help local critters.
New Taz coaches ready to make a splash.
Good Living, B1
Sports, A6
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Volume 171 • Issue 31 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
Monday, March 14, 2022
Much in motion for fire resilience in Placerville n Placerville Fire Safe Council plans public outreach event Andrew Vonderschmitt Staff writer Placerville Town Hall will be abuzz with the latest in wildfire preparedness as the Placerville Fire Safe Council hosts Placerville Wildfire Awareness Day March 19, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Placerville Fire Safe Council Board
of Directors member Mark Acuna said the hope is to make this an annual event to help get residents up to speed on fire preparedness efforts and methods and spring vegetation management and encourage a fireconscious community. A number of agencies and pertinent local merchants will be in attendance with interactive booths in the parking lot, kids’ activities and rotating presentations inside Town Hall. The Placerville Fire Safe Council
“Fire affects everybody and the more we can work as a community to get involved with pre-fire activities, the more prepared we will be.” — Mark Egbert, district manager of the El Dorado Resource Conservation District
is an all-volunteer associate council of the El Dorado County Fire Safe Council, whose mission is to mitigate the loss of life, property and natural resources in the Placerville area due
to wildfire. Volunteers with the council work year-round on ways to protect the Placerville region from catastrophic n
See Awareness Day, page A3
EDH Fire to do more defensible space inspections Eric Jaramishian Staff writer With the fire season on the horizon, El Dorado County seeks to expand the scope of its defensible space inspection program per an agreement with the El Dorado Hills Fire Department. The county Board of Supervisors approved a $250,020 renewal agreement March 9, good from April 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023, which allows the fire department to conduct fire defensible space inspections in the county’s emphasis areas. The program started May 25, 2021, through an agreement between the county and EDH Fire Department to conduct wildfire safety inspection services in Rescue. Plans for the 2022 defensible space inspection program include conducting inspections in emphasis areas Rescue and now Diamond Springs, too, where they will inspect developed parcels for fire safety. Emphasis areas in Diamond Springs include along Union Mine Road, Little Canyon Road and Martina’s Creek. This year the department plans to service Luneman Road and Lotus areas in Rescue. PLACE ADDRESS LABEL HERE
EDH Fire Department Chief Maurice Johnson advocated that inspections be conducted year-round. Inspections only occurred between the months of July and December last year. “Starting the program year-round gives folks an opportunity to do the mitigation work during
“This is a massive project and we are only chipping at a small piece of it.” — Maurice Johnson, chief of the El Dorado Hills Fire Department the off season when it is safer,” Johnson said. “Just because we are through a fire season it doesn’t mean that the threat is not still there.” The EDH Fire Department conducted 428 inspections on 254 parcels in Rescue last year. They found 77% of those parcels were defensible space compliant, with the rest of the inspected parcels to be either noncompliant or uninspected. El Dorado Hills Fire manages the Rescue Fire Department through a shared services agreement. Cal Fire staff helped identify Rescue and Diamond Springs as high fire-risk severity areas. Johnson said since the program is new, the public needs to be informed on how the inspections work and why they are necessary. “A lot of folks do not understand why we are doing this,” Johnson said. “We hear a lot about government overreach, but that has to do with not understanding what exactly we are doing.” Johnson said public outreach plans include hosting two community n
See inspections, page A2
Mountain Democrat photos by Thomas Frey
Mason Bean of Union Mine jumps up as he is introduced to the crowd during the 2022 Gold Nugget Unified basketball game at Union Mine High School Wednesday. Students from each of the rival schools packed the stands on their lunch break for the latest installment of the Cougars Diamondbacks rivalry. Union Mine won a close game 24-22.
Fans fill the Snake Pit for Unified basketball
Thomas Frey Staff writer
L
ike a crowd running into a store as it first opens on Black Friday, students at Union Mine were running into the Snake Pit to get seats for the 2022 Gold Nugget Unified Sports basketball game between the Diamondbacks and the visiting El Dorado Cougars as soon as lunch began. Within three minutes bleachers were filled and students and staff took up every crevice of the arena to watch Union Mine defeat El Dorado 24-22 in the latest chapter between the fierce El Dorado County rivals. Elizabeth Russell, a Union Mine special educaton instructor who helped put on the event, said this game is really special to the players. Union Mine coach Hannah Dewater compared the cheering crowd to an “eruption when they would score.” As Gavin Smith, Corey Gutierrez, Jacob McGregor,
The Union Mine student section is jam-packed. Efrain Ramon, RaeLynn Galloway, Lizzy Murry, Courtney Whitney, JJ Bluhm, Anika Coggliola and Kamryn McNeil of El Dorado were introduced to the crowd by announcer and Union Mine senior Sam Garcia, a deafening roar from the Cougars’ student section greeted them. “It’s really, truly exciting,”
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Bluhm said of playing in the game. Moments later when Savannah Kirk, Adam Nasario, Shane Van Noord, Abigail Roberts, Ruben Duran, Hunter Bibb, Skyler Farchi and Mason Bean of Union Mine were introduced the Diamondbacks’ fans sent out n
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