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Express Annual Rainfall Contest is back! News, Page 4
including tax
#ThatWintersVibe photo picks showcase Winters from your perspective
News, Page 6
Welcome TO
Volume 137, Number 31 — Locally owned since 1884
The hometown paper of Bev Petersen
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, August 26, 2020
K O E! LO SID IN
Winters
SPECIAL EDITION Crews gain ground on LNU Lightning Complex fires
Gunby to fill in as interim city manager By Rodney Orosco Staff Writer The Winters City Council at their Aug. 18 meeting unanimously voted to make Shelly Gunby, the city’s Director of Financial Management, the interim City Manager. Gunby has immediately taken over the city manger duties until a permanent city manager can be hired. “Shelly is exceptionally experienced and is the best person to help us as we search
for a new city manager,” city attorney Ethan Walsh said. Gunby will get some help in her new duties: the City Council also unanimously approved hiring the city’s outgoing city manager, John W. Donlevy Jr., as a part time employee. Donlevy will serve no longer than the end of 2020, Walsh reported to the council. Walsh explained it was wise to re-hire Donlevy in order to let the former city man-
See INTERIM, Page 5
Future subscriber: Noah Michael Weber
By Lauren Keene McNaughton Media
Many Winters businesses and organizations are pulling together in a community-wide effort to support residents who lost their homes. The Greater Winters Fire Relief Fund is a local collaborative effort to collect monetary donations (cash, check or gift cards) and basic necessities (clothing, toiletries, and more) to distribute to residents living in the greater Winters area who were impacted by the LNU Lightening Complex fire that
Features ........................ B-1 Classifieds ................... B-4 Community .................. A-3 Eventos hispanos ....... A-5 Opinion ......................... B-3 Real Estate ................... B-2 Athlete of the Week..... B-3
Date
Rain High Low
Aug. 19
.00
104˚ 75˚
Aug. 20
.00
97˚ 61˚ 86˚ 60˚
Aug. 21
.00
Aug. 22
.00
91˚ 67˚
Aug. 23
.00
97˚ 67˚
Aug. 24 TRACE 100˚ 66˚ Aug. 25
.00
96˚ 66˚
Rain for week: TRACE Season’s total: 0.01 in. Last sn. to date: 0.00 in.
ENTER OUR CONTEST! Winters rainfall season began 7/1/20. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m.
blazed through the area last week. Winters Parent Nursery School held a donation drop off on Monday to collect items (clothing, toiletries, blankets, diapers, and more) at their schoolhouse. Their Board of Directors are leading shifts of community volunteers to help sort through the items so that families in need can shop through the items. WPNS Director Ciara Hapworth-Eldridge said they launched the opportunity so that they could gather resources, and give back to
the community that is always there to support us. “Winters has had wildfires almost every summer the last five summers, but this fire is on a whole other level. So many structures, and homes have been destroyed. Families had such little time to evacuate that many only left with the clothes on their backs,” said Hapworth-Eldridge. “Two of our three teachers were evacuated from their homes, and during that time the sense of
See SUPPORT, Page 7
Public input sought on location of ballot drop-off boxes, voter assistance centers Press Release
Weather
See FIRE, Page 7
Community collaborating to support greater Winters area
Yolo County
I ndex
See INPUT, Page 5
WPNS Director Ciara Hapworth-Eldridge sorts through items donated by the Yolo Food Bank and other community member donations on Monday, Aug. 24.
Editor-in-chief
Matthew and Samantha Weber of Newbury Park are happy to announce the birth of their son, Noah Michael Weber, born Monday, June 15, 2:44 p.m. at Los Robles Hospital in Thousands Oaks. He weighed 7 pounds and was 19.5 inches at birth. Maternal grandparents are Peter and Robin Stoll of Oak Park, greatgrandparents Adrian and Sonny Harris of Thousands Oaks, Elisabeth (Omi) Stoll of Westlake Village and the late Karl Stoll. Paternal grandparents are Miles and Diane Weber of Rocklin, great-grandparents Carmen Rubio of Winters and the late Joe Rubio, Edmund and Mary Weber. Firsttime uncles are Alec Stoll of Thousand Oaks and Mark Weber of Sacramento.
jurisdictions and the education community have secured optimal in-person voting locations throughout the community. “Thanks to these partnerships, education facilities throughout the region are being used to help promote our democracy at a level we have never seen before,” says Jesse Salinas, Yolo County Assessor/Clerk-Recorder/Registrar of Voters. “We are also providing ballot drop-off box loca-
Crystal Apilado/Winters Express
By Crystal Apilado
Courtesy photo
Mother Nature dealt firefighters a break this week, holding back on lightning strikes and strong winds that promised to worsen conditions for crews battling the LNU Lightning Complex wildfires. Instead, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reported gaining some ground on those blazes, which combined spanned nearly 353,000 acres in size with 27 percent containment as of about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. “I’m feeling very confident about where we’re moving,” Cal Fire Incident Commander Sean Kavanaugh said at a news briefing Monday at the Napa County Fairgrounds. One of the incidents, the 2,360-acre Meyers Fire north of Jenner, stood at 97 percent containment as of Tuesday morning. “That’s what we’re calling a win,” Kavanaugh said. In Yolo County, crews have secured blackline conditions — where no combustible fuels remain between the fire line and the main fire — north from where Cache Creek enters the Capay Valley to the city of Winters to the south, Cal Fire Battalion Chief Chris Waters said during an operational update. Mop-up patrols remain underway. From Winters south to Vacaville, crews are performing “heavy mop-up” duty, particularly along Pleasants Valley Road, and “we’re trying to get that area secure so we can start to move people in during the repopulation phase,” Waters said. Yolo County has no current evacuation orders. Meanwhile, Cal Fire
The Yolo County Elections Office, in accordance with guidance provided by the California Secretary of State Office and the recently signed Senate Bill SB 423, is directed to identify and make public the proposed Voter Assistance Centers (VACs) and Ballot Drop-off Box (BDB) locations to be used in the upcoming Nov. 3 General Election. Yolo County will have 12 VACs and
12 BDB located throughout the county. The Yolo County Elections Office has worked in partnership with local jurisdictions and school districts to ensure voting locations that allow for secure, socially distant in-person voting in Yolo County. The VACs are spread out throughout each community for ease of accessibility. The elections office, with the help of county leadership and through partnerships with local
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