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C a l i f o r n i a ’ s O l d e s t N e w s pa p e r – E s t. 18 51
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Volume 170 • Issue 116 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
Monday, October 4, 2021
County asks President Biden to keep promise Eric Jaramishian Staff writer
county Chief Administrative Officer Don Ashton, verbally promising to assist the county and its residents. The letter addresses the California Office of Emergency Services working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help process the county’s request for FEMA’s Individual Assistance Program, which provides recovery assistance after a disaster. The letter also bids the president do everything in his power to move along the
El Dorado County sent a letter to President Joe Biden last week requesting him to keep his promise on providing assistance to victims of the Caldor Fire. Biden came to California Sept. 13 to tour the blaze after declaring it a major disaster and ordering federal assistance for state and local recovery efforts. The president met with
“FEMA has been very quiet about it and the silence has us all worried.” —John D’Agostini, El Dorado County sheriff process. “In conversations I’ve had with congressmen (Tom) McClintock’s office and as well as Cal OES, they are in complete support of the county taking the action at this time simply to make the request of the president but to also remind the president of
his verbal commitment to El Dorado County,” Ashton said. There has been no confirmation from FEMA as of Thursday, Sept. 30. The president has the authority to override FEMA’s decision should they decline the support to the county, said Ashton.
“This letter is to encourage the president to get FEMA to sign off on it,” El Dorado County Sheriff John D’Agostini said. “That seems to be the missing link here. FEMA has been very quiet about it and the silence has us all worried.” The Board of Supervisors voted to approve sending the letter. “This is all FEMA right now … If they deny this, there really is no appeal other than the president, hence the purpose of the letter,” D’Agostini said.
Caldor fire
Courtesy photo
NorCal Air Operations gets ready to take off from the Lake Tahoe Airport to work the Caldor Fire Thursday morning.
Mountain Democrat photo by Thomas Frey
El Dorado High School students were challenged by science teacher Kim Somer, front, sporting her newly pink curls, to raise money for victims of the Caldor Fire. Somer’s 8:30 a.m. class raised the most money and their reward was getting to pick what color to dye their teacher’s hair.
Every dollar adds up at El Dorado Thomas Frey Staff writer
A
dollar here, a quarter there, even pennies were welcomed with glee in Kim Somer’s El Dorado High School classroom to help people who lost their homes in the Caldor Fire, one of the largest wildfires recorded in the state. Somer, a longtime science teacher at the school, said she saw how the fire ravaged PLACE ADDRESS LABEL HERE
areas and decided to set up a competition. Whichever one of her classes collected the most money would get to decide what color she had to dye her hair. “It meant we could help people who lost their homes,” said freshman Alicen Klith. For two weeks, each of Somer’s classes passed around a bucket where students dropped coins and bills — whatever they could — to help victims of the fire. “If my house burned down, I
would really appreciate it if other people donated,” said freshman Cory Heagy. Freshman Sophia Abuzov said it was extremely competitive between the classes. In total, all of Somer’s classes raised $1,247. Her winning 8:30 a.m. class of freshmen and sophomores tallied $498 to get to pick a new color for Somer’s curls. n
See Pink, page 3
Highland Hills to connect Sel Richard Staff writer Relief is in sight to the tune of $100,000 for internet challenged Highland Hills residents who have had a particularly rough time during COVID-19 shutdowns. El Dorado Hills Community Services District board members recently voted to approve installation of a Comcast broadband infrastructure in the area. Resident Tim White reported that Comcast hopes to begin work by Nov. 30 with an expected completion date of Dec. 15. “We all, in Highland Hills,
look forward to the day we have good reliable high speed internet,” he said. “It’s been a big struggle for all of us,” insisted resident Dr. Seth Thomas. “The only way that we could reach out to patients was via telemedicine. And unfortunately with technology that was based in the ’90s with 6-megabit connections that are unreliable at best, it is really difficult to care for people with good advice or to intervene with a condition that is potentially life threatening.” “I’m extremely grateful that this n
Firefighters ‘search and destroy’ n PG&E rebuild challenged by
steep, rocky terrain Krysten Kellum Associate editor
As containment of the Caldor Fire is nearly complete at 91%, PG&E personnel are experiencing an array of challenges in restoring power for residents of fire-ravaged areas. PG&E spokeswoman Pam Purdue gave an update on electricity restoration efforts “I know (Sierraat Thursday at-Tahoe ski evening’s Caldor Fire community meeting. resort’s) plans “We are definitely are to operate facing some significant challenges but they’ve been with our repairs, pretty heavily restoration and impacted by the rebuild,” said Purdue. “Between the Grizzly Caldor Fire.” Flat area and the — Jon Regelbrugge, work we have going Eldorado National Forest on on Highway 50 spokesman we have several challenges we are dealing with, which is going to (require) some patience. It’s going to take a little time to get everybody restored.” She said PG&E crews are having to work on steep, loose terrain. In areas heavy equipment can’t access crews hand-dig holes to rebuild distribution lines. “As you can imagine, hand-digging holes in rock takes a little bit of time. Being able to reset poles and string conductors is going to take a
See Highland hills, page 2
n
See Caldor, page 6
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