Tacking in runs
Public opinions wanted
Oak Ridge advances to section semis after big fifth inning.
ARC invites a dialogue about the future of Okei’s gravestone.
Sports, A6
News, etc., B1
171
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Volume 171 • Issue 58 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
Monday, May 16, 2022
LAFCO reports county fire agencies ‘limited’ Eric Jaramishian Staff writer
area and as long as we can get the red engines out there, it will be the same for them,” Miller said. Meek’s Bay district, ranging from Emerald Bay to Tahoma in the Tahoe Basin, gets ambulance services from North Tahoe Fire and will have access to five battalion chiefs and other beneficial services and resources once annexed. The annexation is made possible after El Dorado County’s Local Agency Formation Commission voted to reduce the Meek’s
Meek’s Bay Fire Protection District is set to be annexed by North Tahoe Fire Protection District in Placer County. After considering staffing issues and rising costs of expenses, Meek’s Bay Fire Protection District Chief Edward Miller told the Mountain Democrat the move will be beneficial to both El Dorado and Placer counties. “We have a very supportive and loyal citizenship in this
County’s first cannabis farm OK’d to sprout n Planning Commission’s approval
comes with conditions Eric Jaramishian Staff writer
Cybele Holdings became the first cannabis cultivation farm to be approved in El Dorado County May 12. After months waiting to get his application recommended by the El Dorado County Sheriff ’s Office, Cybele Holdings CEO Lee Tannenbaum got the green light by a unanimous Planning Commission for his cannabis cultivation business. “I am still feeling the weight come off my shoulders,” Tannenbaum told the Mountain Democrat. “We are pleased that the Planning Commission passed us and we are extremely pleased to be the first legal cultivators granted a conditional use permit in El Dorado County.” Even though county cannabis operation was approved by voters in 2018, it took Cybele Holdings more than two years to get through a countyimplemented interim background check process, which caused controversy among prospective growers, who said it was too invasive and extensive. Now, the business can grow up to 2 acres of legal cannabis on the Freshwater Lane property in South County. But for Tannenbaum, there is still work to be done. During the hearing, Tannenbaum recommended reinstating the cannabis Ad Hoc Committee or sitting down with county counsel to go over the county cannabis ordinance to make the cultivation approval process simpler. “I know these are things which we would like to make simpler and I want to help,” Tannenbaum n
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See Cannabis farm, page A2
“If you look at the financial stability and abilities that most of the fire districts have, although the county is dealing with it, it is pretty limited and most of us are hanging on.” — Tim Cordero, chief of El Dorado County Fire Protection District be “limited” or “deficient.” Fallen Leaf Lake Community Services District is the sole agency ranked “deficient.” LAFCO commissioners recommended keeping the spheres of influence for all other fire districts the same at their April 27 meeting. Six fire agencies on the West Slope were determined
Bay Fire’s sphere of influence to zero in preparation for the mutually agreed upon consolidation. Based on a study conducted by South Fork Consulting, Meek’s Bay Fire’s fiscal and deployment conditions were found, along with seven other El Dorado County fire districts out of 13, to
to be “limited” — El Dorado County, Diamond Springs-El Dorado, Garden Valley, Mosquito, Georgetown and Rescue fire protection districts. Planning for an annexation of Rescue by El Dorado Hills came to a halt last month. The El Dorado Hills Fire n
See Fire study, page A3
From homeless to Texas Thomas Frey Staff writer
After being addicted to methamphetamine and homeless in Placerville for about 15 years 51-year-old Chuck Boyer says he has turned his life around. A little more than two years ago Boyer’s brother called from Cleveland, Texas, offering to help. His brother provided him a one-way ticket from Sacramento to Texas so he could live with him. Boyer’s life changed forever. “It basically saved my life because I was heavily on drugs and I knew I was going downhill and I didn’t really have enough motivation to bring myself out of it on my own,” Boyer said. “That was like a great escape.” Boyer worked at a Pizza Hut his first year in Texas and then for a lighting manufacturer, where he has worked the past year. “I feel a lot better, like way better,” Boyer said. “I’ve got a job, my own car and a place to live.” After serving in the Army from 1998-2006 — including a year in Iraq — Boyer found work at a convenience
Mountain Democrat photo by Thomas Frey
For years Chuck Boyer was homeless living down the street from the Upper Room Dining Hall. Now he lives in Texas and has a job and a home. Earlier this month he returned to the Upper Room to see the people who helped him and he arrived in a car he rented. store in El Dorado Hills. “I did some wrong things at my job, which caused me to get fired,” Boyer recalled. “Once I got fired I only had a month or two left of money saved up before that ran out. Then I basically had to go to the street. I was pretty much going in blind.” First he lived in Lumsden Park for about seven years before moving to the
or layers added comfort. He made a couple bucks a day digging in dumpsters and collecting cans and every once in a while he would get small jobs. In 2019 everything became too much for Boyer. “I attempted to (take my life) but it didn’t work,” Boyer said. “I took a bunch of pills because I was done.
homeless camp on upper Broadway where he stayed about eight years. He compared homelessness to being like a broken toy nobody wants. “So you’ve got to try and fit in wherever you can,” Boyer said. “Most of us just turn to drugs to fit in.” He said he was hopeless. The winter nights were so cold that no amount of blankets
See Boyer, page A6
n
Sierra-at-Tahoe looks to future post-Caldor Claire McArthur Tahoe Daily Tribune TWIN BRIDGES — Fire crews were stationed at SierraAt-Tahoe as the Caldor Fire grew closer while the ski resort’s employees blasted buildings with snowmaking equipment and the resort’s insurance company covered the lodge and other offices with fire retardant. “When the fire came through I was one of the last people there before we were told we had to leave,” said John Rice, general manager of Sierra-at-
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Tahoe. “With a heavy heart, I knew something was going to happen.” More than 70% of the vegetation spanning the resort’s 2,000 acres were burned, along with the maintenance facility, containing expensive snow equipment and tools. Five of the nine ski lifts and a magic carpet were damaged. Assessment of the fire’s destruction at Sierraat-Tahoe is still under way, but it’s estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars. n
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See sierra-at-tahoe, page A3
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