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Winters Express: Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Page 1

$1

including tax

Elder Day Council seeks local elders News, Page 2

Student finalist in art competition Features, Page 1

Volume 141, Number 16 — Locally-owned since 1884

The hometown paper of Albert Geerts

Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, May 22, 2024

Local News Briefs Express staff

Putah Creek virtual meeting

Logan Chrisp/Winters Express

Winters High School robotics team earned “The Think Award” at the 2024 VEX Robotics World Championship.

Robotics teams make impression at VEX World tournament By Logan Chrisp Express staff writer

EXPRESS

At the end of April, the Winters Robotics teams impressed at the 2024 VEX Robotics World Championship, with the high school team making it to the quarterfinals and bringing home the “Think Award.” The VEX Robotics World Championship is a huge annual event that takes place in Dallas, Texas, where teams from across the world compete against one another in various competitions. This year, 800 teams attended, competing in 10 different divisions. This year was the Winters High School team’s third appearance at Worlds and the Winters Middle School team’s first year as a competitor. The high school competition was from April 25 to 27. “We did really good. We did. So out of our division, which had 80 teams, we ranked first after our qualification matches. And then we lost in the quarterfi-

The Lower Putah Creek Coordinating Committee and Putah Creek Council invite the community to attend the Zoom meeting, Moving Downstream: Putah Creek Challenges and Opportunities on May 31, from 1 to 2 p.m. Access the meeting at https:// us06web.zoom. us/j/89933918832. Attendees: • Will learn about the Putah Creek water system focusing on downstream. • Will hear water users’ perspectives on water management in Putah Creek, like agriculture, fish and wildlife, and conservation. • Can ask questions about creek water management to be answered by the speaker panel. Join in on an engaging and informative virtual meet-

ing with a panel of speakers from agriculture, fish, wildlife and conservation organizations. At the meeting, presenters will delve into how different water users have been collaborating to more effectively manage creek water. They’ll also share about how the Putah Creek Water Management initiative is working to improve the creek.

WSW signups Winters Shakespeare Workshop is making a last call for teen actors and youth dancers to participate in this year’s production of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The public performances is on July 19 and 20, at 8 p.m. on the Park Playground Stage. Winters Joint Unified School District is once again

See LOCAL, Page 5

City Manager shares insight on budget By Amelia Biscardi Express staff writer Logan Chrisp/Winters Express

Winters Middle School representatives Jack Dennis, teacher Dianne Halsey, August Nelson and Bubba Hernandez are gearing up for the next robotics season. nals. But it was a super close match,” said WHS student Ben Nelson, a fourth-year Robotics Club member and driver and builder for the team. Team 39599B — The Farmbots, as the high school team named themselves, were awarded the very prestigious “Think Award,” of which only 10 were given out across the entire event. This award was given to teams that created a notebook or “engineering portfolio.” This portfolio consisted of several notebooks filled with technical details from

the creation process of the robot. It included entries describing the math, science, and programming involved as the robot was designed. Miles Mariani, a junior, was the lead for the creation of the portfolio, which included the team’s many concepts and designs for the machine. The notebook had pictures of code for the robot’s programming, CAD drawings from when the robot was designed, and handwritten notes detailing how the team could improve on their designs and

Index

We at he r

Features ........................ B-1

Date

Rain

High

May 15

.00

92˚

55˚

May 16

.00

95˚

56˚

May 17

.00

89˚

53˚

May 18

.00

85˚

55˚

Eventos hispanos ....... A-2

May 19

.00

87˚

51˚

May 20

.00

83˚

53˚

Opinion ......................... B-3

May 21

.00

82˚

58˚

Real Estate ................... B-2

Rain for week: 0.00 in. Season’s total: 23.29 in. Last sn. to date: 37.62 in.

Classifieds ................... B-4 Community .................. A-2

Sports ........................... B-7

Low

Winters rainfall season began 7/1/23. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m. daily by local weatherman Joe Bristow.

concepts. Senior Jack Tuel led the programming of the robot, starting from scratch rather than using a pre-made code that helped steer and control the robot. For this competition, the program had 900 lines of code to control the robot. “The program he created himself, he did all his own research. A lot of the other teams, they’ll use already pre-made templates and stuff. They use libraries. And libraries, but he made his own,” said

See VEX, Page 3

According to City Manager Jeremy Craig, this year’s city budget is around $7.5 million dollars. However most of that budget is accounted for due to the city’s need for paying staff, primarily public works and public safety departments. The Winters Fire and Police Departments need staffing 24/7 year round. As well, a unique thing about Winters is a lot of the departments are only one person departments. Allowing for less people and more opportunities to learn according to Craig, explaining they tend to keep the departments lean where they can.

The conversation of the city’s budget is expected to begin in June and will be due on July 1. Craig explained that while the city has some control over expenses, when it comes to revenue things can be challenging. One of the misconceptions, according to Craig, is that the city gets most of the property and sales taxes. Craig said that of the property tax — on Prop 13 — 1 percent property tax rate, about 21 percent of that 1 percent comes to the city (the majority goes toward education). For sales tax, the local rate is 7.25 percent. Six percent goes to the state,

See BUDGET, Page 5

County invites public to participate in inaugural food safety forum Express staff The Yolo County Department of Community Services’ Environmental Health Division is excited to announce the launch of the Food Safety Advisory Forum, which will guide Yolo County in fostering collaboration and dialogue among local food industry stakeholders,

academia and residents. The inaugural meeting will take place on Monday, June 10, from 2 to 3 p.m. at the Department of Community Services complex located at 292 W. Beamer St., in Woodland. The Food Safety Advisory Forum will provide a platform for En-

vironmental Health to engage with retail food facilities and the broader community to address food safety challenges and share upcoming program enhancements. These forums will be held semi-annually, offering both in-person and virtual participation

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See FOOD, Page 5

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