A YEAR OF QUILTS
WHAT A YEAR!
Images of Hope releases a 2022 calendar, showcasing some of the county’s finest quilters.
Laugh your way into 2021 with Dave Barry’s year in review.
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Christmas joy comes in the form of a check
VOLUME 170 • ISSUE 153 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2021
FEE REFUNDS
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WINTER HAVOC
Noel Stack Managing Editor Property owners who paid the public safety facility fee on El Dorado County’s western end finally have received their refunds. In mid-December the El Dorado County Auditor-Controller’s Office issued 1,800 refund checks as authorized by the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors earlier this year. Most of the checks are for around $230. Auditor-Controller Joe Harn and Sheriff John D’Agostini had requested that the fees be refunded in 2015 — they were charged to new development to fund a substation in El Dorado Hills but that plan was scrapped in favor of a new public safety facility in Placerville — however, Harn noted, it was a long and winding road to get board approval to actually refund the fees. This fee refund could be the first of several for county residents. The public safety facility fee is one of many impact fees included in the Austin vs. El Dorado County case still in litigation. In 2015 the Austins sued the county and a few special districts, alleging that the agencies violated California’s Mitigation Fee Act because they didn’t complete nexus studies on a timely basis as required by law yet continued to collect the fees. Harn informed the Board of Supervisors in writing in 2013, 2014 and 2015 of violations of the law in the levying of these building permit fees. In February of 2015 Harn and D’Agostini asked the county to stop collecting fees for a public safety facility in El Dorado Hills because the county had no plans to build such a facility and because the California Mitigation Fee Act had been violated. They also asked at that time that the fees collected be refunded. Early this year Supervisors Lori Parlin (District 4) and George Turnboo (District 2), along with Harn and D’Agostini, authored an agenda item seeking the Board of Supervisors’ authorization to send out refunds. “This took a lot longer than the sheriff and I expected, but we
Photo by Mark Bowen
A Caltrans worker turns drivers around at Highway 50 and Ridgeway Drive in Camino Saturday night as Highway 50 was shut down due to heavy snowfall, low visibility and avalanche danger.
Highway 50 reopened; power outages persist Mountain Democrat staff Traffic was flowing again on Highway 50 from Placerville to Meyers Monday night after all lanes were shut down early Sunday due to heavy snowfall. That winter weather also brought with it downed trees into power lines, knocking out PG&E service for thousands of El Dorado County residents. While some have had their power restored, countywide 21,124 electric customers were still without power as of press time. Some 6,650 of those were in Placerville, 5,444 in Camino, 4,774 in Pollock Pines and more than 900 in both Garden Valley and Georgetown, according to PG&E’s outage website, as PG&E crews make Mountain Democrat photo by Eric Jaramishian
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See REFUNDS, page A7
PLACE ADDRESS LABEL HERE
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See OUTAGES, page A6
Few drivers were on the road Monday morning with a blanket of snow laid over Placerville.
Crop report shows apples still top Eric Jaramishian Staff writer A recently released 2020 crop and livestock report for El Dorado County reveals the county’s gross crop value was $72,208,890, down 3% from $74,516,035 in 2019. The annual agriculture and livestock report, prepared by county Mountain Democrat file photo agriculture experts and Apples and apple-related products were the staff, shows a breakdown county’s biggest moneymaker in 2020 with a of acreage, production and gross values of agriculture value of more than $22 million.
in El Dorado County. According to the report, apples and apple-related products were the county’s biggest moneymaker in 2020. With a value of more than $22 million, that figure went up by more than $2 million from $18,996,472 in 2019, a 16% increase. Total production increased for fresh apples by 809 tons in 2020 from 4,826 tons in 2019, while value per unit went up $65. Apples were
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See APPLES, page A7
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PLACERVILLE • 4040 El Dorado Road • 622-1492 PLACERVILLE • (Downtown) 247 Main • 622-0833 ✓ No application fee W. PLACERVILLE • Placervil e Dr. & Ray Lawyer • 626-3400 ✓ No prepayment penalty DIAMOND SPRINGS • 694 Pleasant Valley Road • 626-5701 ✓ Local processing and servicing CAMERON PARK • 4060 Cameron Park Drive • 677-1601 POLLOCK PINES • 6462 Pony Express Trail • 644-2363 EL DORADO HILLS • 3963 Park Drive • 933-3002 Serving our local communities years GEORGETOWN • 6310 Hwy. 193 • 333-1101 Member Serving our local communitiesforforover over 61 54 years
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also the leading crop in 2019. Apples take up 835 acres of El Dorado County’s ag land. Even though production was up for timber, the harvest total crop value experienced another nosedive from $13,664,905 in 2019 to $11,410,257 in 2020. Timber total crop values decreased by 25% in 2019. Private and public forest production ended at
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