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Celebrating 70 years of marriage News, Page 3
Summer Home & Garden resources Features, Page 8
Volume 137, Number 22 — Locally owned since 1884
Tensions spark in response to school district’s fall reopening plan By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief Parents and Trustees expressed frustration in response to a set of school reopening plans presented at the June 18 Winters Joint Unified School Board meeting. Director of Innovation and Technology Nicole Reyherme presented an informational update to Trustees for the planning for the 2020-21 school year. It included three options that would allow the district to pivot between ever-changing guidelines and recommendations from Yolo County and state health officials. “As a district we need to be prepared
to move in a variety of directions,” Reyherme said. The three school reopening options included: 1.Full time on campus five days a week. 2.Full on distance learning five days a week. 3.Hybrid model of an AA/BB Schedule. The Hybrid AA/BB Schedule would work to reduce the number of students physically on each school site at one time in order to meet the current recommended guidelines. The AA/BB Schedule would look like: ~Mondays/Tuesdays: Group A attends school. ~Wednesday would
give time for office hours, professional development, intervention opportunity and teacher prep between cohorts. ~Thursdays/Fridays: Group B attends school. School day schedules would run as: ~Transitional Kinder/Kindergarten: 8:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. ~First/Second Grades: 8:30 a.m.-1:05 p.m. ~Third-Fifth Grades: 8:20 a.m.-1:05 p.m. ~Middle/High Schools: 8 a.m.-1:15 p.m. Reyherme said these were the first solid steps in preparing plans for the upcoming school year.
She said the AA/ BB Schedule would result in smoother transitions and provide an opportunity for deep cleaning between cohorts. It would also give the district the ability to assign siblings to the same group so families would not have to juggle between different school days. She said on an academic front seeing the same students two days in a row would make things easier to front load content that can be done in the off days, and would make it easier for staff and students to know where the precious day ended. According to
See PLAN, Page 5
Staff Writer After enduring months of closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some Winters businesses and restaurants are beginning to open their doors to the public. The litany of new health regulations, however, has made the reopening process anything but easy. Although gyms are thought to be a haven for sweat, germs and all sorts of icky, sanitation has always been a staple for Anytime Fitness. Now, they’ve reopened with reinforced sanitation standards to keep members healthy and safe. “Every other cardio machine is off, we have social-distancing stickers on the ground and requesting everyone cleaning equipment before and after use,” said gym manager Gwen Pisani. “It’s a personal decision to come in and we respect
Index Calendar ....................... B-1 Classifieds ................... B-4 Community .................. A-3 Opinion ......................... B-1 Real Estate ................... B-2 Athlete of the Week.... B-3
people’s decision to freeze or cancel their membership.” Closed from March 16 to June 12, Anytime Fitness has adapted to the society’s new norms. “There’s a lot more sanitizer and it’s an overall more cautious environment,” said Pisani. “We still have day passes and we’re operating as usual under precautions and mandates.” While masks are mandated elsewhere, exercising with one on presents health risks and are optional at the gym. A few blocks away at Preserve, co-owners Cole and Sara Ogando have been firing on all cylinders to keep their bar and eatery COVID-compliant. “We created a threephase plan to mirror what we thought the guidelines would be for reopening,” Cole Ogando said about their reopening tactics. “We started doing curbside takeout on May 8 as our first
By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief Winters City Manager John W. Donlevy, Jr. announced on Tuesday morning that he has accepted the City Manager’s position in Auburn, effective Aug. 10. On Monday evening the Auburn City Council selected Donlevy as their next city manager, and approved his contract beginning in August through December 2025. His appointment comes after the current Auburn City Manager, Bob Richardson, announced his retirement scheduled for early August. Donlevy has served as the Winters City Manager for 19 years, working with 17 dif-
Rain
High
Low
June 17 .00
83˚
60˚
June 18 .00
87˚
62˚
June 19 .00
95˚
60˚
June 20 .00
98˚
58˚
June 21 .00
92˚
59˚
June 22 .00
96˚
60˚
June 23 .00
100˚
63˚
Rain for week: 0.00 in. Season’s total: 13.37 in. Last sn. to date: 39.26 in. Winters rainfall season began 7/1/19. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m.
By Rodney Orosco Staff Writer
Aaron Geerts/Winters Express
Anytime Fitness has closed off every other exercise machine and placed social distancing signage to operate within Yolo County’s safety guidelines. phase. Our second phase, counter service and outside patio seating, started June 19. Third phase will be inside dining with lowered occupancy.” Changes are to be expected for any reopening business. And although Pre-
serve’s full-service dining room is not open yet, their revamped outdoor area is a casual space with counter service offering food and drinks. “This has been a very rough road for the
See OPEN, Page 3
The Winters City Council agreed to a balanced budget at its June 16 meeting that included no staff layoffs, no staff overtime—except police and fire—and the closure of the community center and the community pool. The $5.4 million budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 received unanimous support and unanimous frustrated resolve. “This is the best possible budget under the circumstances,” council member Pierre Neu said. His sentiment summarized what other council members said about the budget in these unprecedented times. However, balancing the budget became much easier when a $250,000 litigation expense was removed and that money put back into the budget.
By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief Work has begun on the next Winters history mural project set to adorn the east wall of the Rogers Building along Russell Boulevard. A crew from Josh Colter Painting power washed and primed the wall last Friday, while students continued working on the mural design plans. The goal is to com-
plete the mural by August 2020. Winters High School art teacher Kate Humphrey said there are currently 18 students signed up to work on the 2020 Winters Historical Mural Project. The students will design the mural with facilitation from Humphrey. They will then implement the painting design under the guidance of the same two professional muralists,
Jaime Montiel and Celestino Galabasa Jr., who both worked on last year’s Winters Laundryworks mural project. She hinted that the theme of this mural will be focusing on the history of the building itself. “The theme focuses on Winters History, specifically the John Rogers building and the uses that this building has had over its lifetime,” said
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John W. Donlevy, Jr. ferent councilmembers and oversaw many changes in city services, facilities and within the downtown business community. He will begin his new position in Auburn starting in early August, and will transition out of his current role in Winters by the end of September.
While there is no current litigation against the city, the expense was written into previous budget projections as a prudent thing to plan for, City Manager John W. Donlevy, Jr. said. In her presentation to the board, Director of Financial Management Shelly Gunby reported the budget with the litigation expenditures removed resulted in employees not having to suffer a 5 percent pay cut, $25,000 being restored to the library budget and some funding returned to the police and fire departments. The budget does defer a 2.5 percent employee cost of living allowance until July 2021. While the Community Center will stay closed until the state reaches Phase IV on its recovery plan, that’s the phase al-
See BUDGET, Page 3
Fundraiser supports Winters history murals
Weather Date
Donlevy selected as new Auburn City Manager
Council approves budget keeping employee pay, closes city facilities
Overcoming challenges to reopen for business By Aaron Geerts
The hometown paper of Anita Lopez
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, June 24, 2020
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Humphrey. With challenges of following the COVID-19 safety guidelines of the CDC, Yolo County and state health department officials, Humphrey said they are very limited in their ability to accommodate late joining participants this year. “We have already had to limit the number of
See MURAL, Page 5
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