STORIES TO TELL
Into the woods
Wartime tales and memorabilia shared on Veterans Day.
High school students learn about our forests and how to keep them healthy.
Inside, A5
News, etc., B1
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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
mtdemocrat.com
Monday, November 15, 2021
Volume 170 • Issue 134 | 75¢
‘We did it ladies’
CPCSD hears Rasmussen Pond concerns Sherri Bergmann Mountain Democrat correspondent Last Monday evening the Cameron Park Community Services District Parks and Recreation Committee provided an open floor for residents to let their voices be heard about the sale of Rasmussen Pond. In a packed meeting room of more than 100 people, residents gave heart-felt speeches that brought many to tears. For more than 40 years residents have enjoyed a gem hidden in Cameron Park encased by oak and pine trees across a seasonal creek from Rasmussen Park — a secluded pond teeming with birds and wildlife. Although the 104 acres of land is privately owned, the owner has allowed visitors to enjoy the scenic and rare beauty. The area contains walking trails through a meadow, an open oak forest and seasonal creeks rush through it. The land borders the Pine Hill Preserve where plants found nowhere else in the world grow. Native American grinding rocks are scattered throughout the property. More than 60 bird species have been sighted. The combination provides a unique haven for plants and wildlife to thrive and has captured the hearts of those who have visited it and grown up cherishing it. Retired geophysicist Rob Harris co-founded the group Rescue Rasmussen Pond, a team of residents that formed when they found out the land was for sale. Harris provided a presentation to appeal to the CPCSD to help protect one of the largest remaining natural open parcels of land in Cameron Park. CPCSD General Manager Jill Ritzman, Chair Director Felicity Carlson and Vice Chair Sidney Bazett facilitated the meeting and after the Harris’ presentation provided three-minute opportunities for residents to respond. And respond they did. One resident brought in a large canvas picture of a tree on the property with a hawk flying above it. He explained that for 14 years he has watched a family of hawks grow up in the tree and cherishes the wildlife and beauty that exists there. Another said being born and raised in the area, because of the impact the land had on him, he went to college and studied to become a naturalist. A schoolteacher read from cue cards her life through years of visiting the land, from being single n
“We did it ladies,” says MSgt. Jennifer Newman, CAANG-Ret., above, holding up an image of Rosie the riveter as El Dorado County Veterans Alliance President Gary Campbell names her Veteran of the Year during Veterans Day ceremonies at the El Dorado County Veterans Monument Thursday. Newman was selected for her volunteer service in the community. Newman is the first woman and first California Air National Guard veteran to receive the honor. In addition to Veterans Day ceremonies and honors, World War II warbirds flew over the Veterans Monument, right, in a missing man formation. Pilots are led by flight leader Chuck Wahl of Cameron Park. Photos by John Poimiroo
n See more photos on page 8
See Rasmussen Pond, page A6
Kingsbury to step down from the bench Thomas Frey Staff witer Twenty-five years after Suzanne Kingsbury was voted in as the first female judge in El PLACE ADDRESS LABEL HERE
Dorado County, she step out of her chambers a final time when 2021 comes to a close. “The women judges have climbed up on Judge Kingsbury’s shoulders,” said fellow county Superior Court Judge Dylan Sullivan. “She was a pioneer in El Dorado County courts.” In 1996 Kingsbury was one of six candidates — and the only female — running for a vacant El Dorado County Superior Court Department 3 judge seat. And she didn’t even see her campaign through to the primary polls. Kingsbury said she stopped campaigning after her mother-in-law was diagnosed with lung cancer. “We were coming
up on the March primary and family is more important so I just pulled the plug,” Kingsbury said. “… my name was already going to be on the ballot at that point but I just felt like it was important to be with family.” Her mother-in-law passed away a month before the primary. As results of the March 1996 primary election began to roll in Kingbury and her family went over to a friend’s house. They settled in and tasked the friend’s son to go on something fairly new at the time, the internet, to find election updates. “This was probably the first election where n
See Kingsbury, page A7
Mountain Democrat photo by Thomas Frey
El Dorado County Superior Court Presiding Judge Suzanne Kingsbury, pictured in the chambers of Department 3 in South Lake Tahoe, has announced her retirement at the end of this year.
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