Taking care of business
March into the gallery
Bruins strike out opponents and score with speed and grit.
Local artists’ talents on display in Placerville.
Sports, A6
News, etc., B1
171
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Volume 171 • Issue 33 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
Friday, March 18, 2022
Placerville selects fire fuel reduction projects Eric Jaramishian Staff writer
Mountain Democrat photo by Krysten Kellum
Gold Bug Park, which sits in a wooded area of Placerville, is one of three properties owned by the city of Placerville that will see fire fuels reduced using American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The city of Placerville, in collaboration with its Community Services Department, has determined three local sites as project priorities for fire fuels reduction. Emphasizing areas of concern based on acreage and immediacy of fire danger, Placerville has budgeted $409,950 from American Rescue Plan Act funds to be used for fuel reduction processes, including parcel review, tree removal or trimming and bringing in a herd of goats to eat brush and grasses. Contracting goats is estimated to cost $2,000 an acre for a total of $108,320 and tree services are estimated to cost $5,500 an acre to amount to $297,880. The selected sites are Gold Bug Park, Lions Park and lower Placerville Drive. According to a report by Community Services Department staff, Gold Bug Park
is “the most immediate concern” due to its narrow roads and wooded, sloped terrain that abutts neighborhoods. A homeless encampment on the slope above lower Placerville Drive and below the El Dorado Trail has city leaders concerned about increased fire danger, where neighborhoods off Forni Road sit south of the area. The parcel is in a critical location if a fire were to start there with eastbound winds, according to the city manager’s report. In the 7-acre Lions Park there are northern and western slopes containing “a lot” of fuel. The park contains a disc golf course with thick, tall grass that could spread fire quickly and has a wooded boundary. The park is also near upslope neighborhoods. The city is aiming to have these three projects done by July 15 with a start date n
See Projects, page A8
Photo courtesy of California Highway Patrol
A rock slide on Echo Summit brought a large boulder down onto Highway 50 Wednesday morning.
Another Echo Summit boulder crashes down Mountain Democrat staff SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — California Highway Patrol officers in South Lake Tahoe reported a large boulder fell onto Highway 50 at Echo Summit Wednesday morning. Just two weeks ago a rock slide there brought down massive boulders that blocked the highway for about a day. Wednesday’s rock slide, which was reported at about 8 a.m., involved a boulder about 6 feet tall, along with PLACE ADDRESS LABEL HERE
large rocks Caltrans crews were able to move into the westbound lane. The boulders that came down March 3 — one estimated to be 14 feet tall — required blasting to reopen one lane on Highway 50. Motorists Wednesday morning were able to pass in the eastbound lane. Since March 9 Caltrans workers have been removing unstable or potentially unstable rock from Echo Summit’s cliffs above Highway 50. According to a California Highway Patrol spokesperson, there have been no deaths related to rock slides and very few injuries. Vehicles have been damaged. The side of a truck was smashed by a large rock that came down just hours after Highway 50 reopened March 4. “It’s very difficult to predict a rockslide in advance but our South Lake Tahoe maintenance staff does monitor the cliffs daily and is trained in rockscaling and explosives n
See Boulder, page A2
Mountain Democrat photo by Noel Stack
EDH Fire Board Directors Greg Durante, Bobbi Bennett and John Giraudo, Fire Chief Maurice Johnson and Directors Jim Hartley and Tim White, left to right, let dirt fly at the site of the future EDH Fire training center in the EDH Business Park near Station 87. Dozens attended the March 10 ceremony. Construction will take about two years.
EDH Fire finally turns dirt on training center Noel Stack Managing editor
T
he El Dorado Hills Fire Department broke ground on its new training center in the EDH Business Park March 10, a ceremony years in the making. Earlier this month the EDH Fire Board awarded an $11.7 million contract to DG Granade Inc., a Cameron Park-based construction company, for phase 1 of the project. The contractor will build two-story and threestory residential Class “A” live fire training structures of approximately 10,000 square feet and a 1,600-square-foot classroom as well as complete a water reclamation area plus grading, paving and utilities groundwork for this and future phases. DG Granade plans to use many local subcontractors,
E OAKS SENIOR CARE VILLAG
“It will be an asset for the entire region.” — Maurice Johnson, El Dorado Hills fire chief
noted Deputy Chief Dustin Hall, who has led this project since joining the fire department two-and-a-half years ago. He noted the bid comes with an 8% contingency ($856,447). “We wanted to be sure we were prepared for whatever we ran into,” he told EDH Fire Board directors at the special March 3 meeting. The contract was unanimously approved. Funding will primarily come from the development fee fund (75%) with the rest coming from the department’s general fund (the amount was included in the 2021-22 budget). The department received seven qualified bids for the project
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though one bidder withdrew a submission before the contract was awarded.
At-home training “Training is the foundation for our firefighters,” EDH Fire Chief Maurice Johnson told Mountain Democrat at a special workshop held late last year. The chief noted at this facility, when complete, firefighters will have the opportunity to train for high frequency/low risk and low frequency/high risk scenarios without having to leave the community. “This will challenge our firefighters and give them experiences they will face here,” Johnson explained, adding that opportunities like this are not available at other area training facilities. n
See Training center, page A9
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