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New Winters library curbside days added News, Page 7
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Aquatic hiking adventures Features, Page 1
Volume 137, Number 32 — Locally owned since 1884
The hometown paper of Carla Centers
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, September 2, 2020
School district will continue to provide free meals to youth By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief
Crystal Apilado/Winters Express
Mayor Wade Cowan and his wife Kathy drove to Fremont on Wednesday, Aug. 27 to pick up 100 portable power units and 50 solar panels from Jackery, Inc. The donated units are intended for individuals impacted by the fire.
Fire relief efforts available for Greater Winters area residents By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief Residents living in the greater Winters area who were impacted by the LNU Lightening Complex fire can now request funding assistance and pick up essential and non-essential items at no cost. The Greater Winters Fire Relief Fund is a local collaborative effort created to raise and distribute monetary donations and basic necessities (clothing, toiletries, and more) for community members who lost their homes or who were displaced by the fire last month due to evacuations of their areas. The Rotary Club of Winters led the financial side of the local efforts. They teamed
up with the City of Winters and the Winters Chamber of Commerce to collect cash, checks and gift card donations at First Northern Bank and at a variety of local businesses. Tamsen Schultz, the Winters Rotary President, said as of Tuesday morning they had collected about $61K. She said they still had to collect donation amounts from the local businesses and their P.O. Box.
Request Support
Financial
Residents who seek to request financial help to cover their immediate needs should send the request in an email to WintersRotary@gmail.com. They will need to include the following
Crystal Apilado/Winters Express
Clothes for women, men, youth and babies are available for not cost at the Winters Parent Nursery School. information: • First and Last Name • Address in greater Winters (in the 95694 zip code) impacted by the fire • Do you have insurance that covers your losses? • Number of members in the family liv-
LNU wildfire now 69 percent contained; Yolo evacuations modified By Lauren Keene McNaughton Media Yolo County began the process of re-populating two rural areas ordered evacuated last week after wildfire jumped Highway 16 and threatened residences there. Zone 1, in the coun-
I ndex Features ........................ B-1
ty’s northwestern corner, was moved Monday from a mandatory to advisory evacuation east of the fire’s edge and south of County Road 41, county officials announced on social media. Zone 2, which lies directly to the east, moved to an advisory evacuation
Weather Date
Rain High Low
Aug. 26
.00
96˚ 62˚
Aug. 27
.00
95˚ 55˚
Aug. 28
.00
91˚ 60˚
Community .................. A-7
Aug. 29
.00
96˚ 62˚
Aug. 30
.00
94˚ 61˚
Opinion ......................... B-2
Aug. 31
.00
92˚ 61˚
Sept. 01
.00
97˚ 60˚
Classifieds ................... B-4
Real Estate ................... B-7 Athlete of the Week..... B-3
Rain for week: 0.00 in. Season’s total: 0.01 in. Last sn. to date: 0.00 in. Winters rainfall season began 7/1/20. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m.
east of Highway 16 and east of Rumsey Canyon Road. Zone 3, east of Zone 2, saw its advisory evacuation order fully lifted. Officials had issued the evacuation orders last Wednesday, Aug. 19, after the Hennessey Fire, part of the larger LNU Lightning Complex Fire, jumped the highway despite several days of favorable weather conditions that helped reign in the fire’s spread. The LNU blaze stood at just over 375,200 acres in size with 69 percent containment as of 7 a.m. Tuesday. The blaze also continues to send smoke drifting into Yolo County and beyond, keeping local air quality levels moderate to unhealthy. Residents are advised to remain indoors with their windows closed to avoid exposure.
ing at that address. (Note how many adults and minors and, include information about any medical needs or disabilities.) • List of items needed (Rotary will be providing cash or cards, but they need an
See SUPPORT, Page 5
When students in the Winters Joint Unified School District returned back to school on Wednesday, Aug. 26, the Director of Food Service, Cathy Olsen, was still trying to navigate the plan of how to provide food for local youth. She patiently waited to hear from the state and the federal government on if they would continue to operate in an Emergency SOS (and provide free meals for all children 18 and under) or if they would have to work out a process to create a card scanning system. As of Monday morning, Olsen was working to finish the process of distributing cards for each student in the district. The drive-up meal distribution would allow families who were eligible for free or reduced lunch to sign in, and for other families to pay for lunch using their EZ School Pay account. On Monday Olsen received an update that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had announced the extension of critical waivers to allow the continued operation of the Summer Food Service Program and Seamless Summer Option through Dec. 31. What this meant for
By Anne Ternus-Bellamy McNaughton Media Hair salons and barbershops in Yolo County were given the go to resume indoor services on Monday, but other business reopenings are at least a couple of weeks away. That was the upshot of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement on Friday introducing what he called a new blueprint for safely reopening the state’s economy. “We’ve learned a lot over the last number of months on how this virus spreads,” Newsom said. And now, he said, “We want to make adjustments based upon the input we’ve received from county health officers, input we’ve received from experts, our own ex-
perience here in California.” That included giving hair salons and barbershops throughout the state permission to resume indoor services beginning Monday provided the health officer in that county gives the OK. On Friday, Yolo County’s health officer did exactly that. “It’s gratifying to see small businesses which have adopted strong protections for their customers be able to re-open,” said Yolo County Supervisor Gary Sandy of Woodland, who chairs the Board of Supervisors. “Most hair salons and barbershops are individually owned and operated and are a vital part of our local economy,” Sandy said.
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District Distribution
Meal
Meals will continue to be distributed at Waggoner Elementary School, in a drive-thru system, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Tuesday meal distribution will include two lunches and two breakfasts. The Thursday meal distribution will include three lunches and three breakfasts. All meals come with an accompanying milk and/or juice container. Families are still encouraged to fill out the Meal Eligibility Form provided at the beginning of school. After Dec. 31, the regular lunch rates will apply. Regular student meal rates are lunch for $3.50 and breakfast for $2. Reduced-price rates are lunch for $0.41 and breakfast for $0.31.
Hair salons, barbershops opened Monday; other businesses must wait
WINTERS AGGREGATE
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Winters JUSD is they would be able to continue to provide free meals for all children ages 18 and under until Dec. 31. In addition to the free meals, families will continue to receive a produce box through the USDA Farmers to Families Food Box program. In addition, the Winters Farm to School nonprofit will continue to provide produce to families direct from local farms.
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Additionally, shopping malls, including indoor malls, destination shopping centers, strip and outlet malls and swap meets, may also reopen in Yolo County beginning Monday. But any further business reopenings, as well as a return to in-person classroom instruction, will require continued reduction of the spread of COVID-19 locally.
New system
The new framework introduced Friday essentially jettisons the old “monitoring list” and replaces it with a four-tiered, color-coded system. Tier 1 — or the purple tier — is where counties with widespread coronavirus activity, including all
See UPDATE, Page 5
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