Salida MAC Newsletter - April 2015

LIKE “Salida MAC” on Facebook and follow on Twitter https://twitter.com/SalidaMAC
and sign up to receive our newsletter via e-mail. ~ Katherine Borges, Editor

Stanislaus County Sheriff Dept
Deputy Scott Block reported that seventeen new deputies will be graduating the academy in April. He also shared that he was aware that there were two areas of concern on either side of the freeway. He asked that residents continue to call and report issues.

California Highway Patrol
Officer AJ Palazuelos shared that the CHP has received complaints about speeding on Wallasey Way and Pirrone. Residents shared many concerns regarding speeding and school traffic issues.

Salida Fire Department
Salida Fire Chief Dale Skiles asked residents to bring people by the fire station or stop by if they have programs. Salida Fire will be co-sponsoring the "Every 15 Minutes Program" with Gregori High School. Salida Fire Department is averaging 120 emergency calls per month and many of the calls are overlapping calls. To research recommendations for better service, the Salida Fire District asked citizens of Salida, Del Rio, and Wood Colony to serve on a Citizens Advisory Committee which has been meeting since September. The Salida Fire Board will hold a public workshop at the fire station on Salida Blvd and Broadway on Thursday, April 2 at 7 pm to discuss recommendations for Salida Fire.

Chief Skiles also asked that citizens pull over if they see a fire engine with their sirens and lights on. He also asked that if any residents had tall weeds to please cut them down.

Salida Sanitary District
Salida Sanitary District board member Brad Johnson reported that the loan for the solar dryers is almost paid off and the director has suggested that the Sanitary District take out another loan for capital improvement costs. Board member Johnson invited the public to attend the meetings which are held on the 2nd Thursday of every month at 6:30 pm at the Sanitary District's headquarters off of Pirrone Rd.

Salida Chamber of Commerce
Amanda Sorenson shared the Salida Chamber of Commerce's project for Love Salida on Saturday, April 18 at 9 am will be care packages for Salida firefighters (including volunteers), sheriff deputies and CHP officers. Salida Chamber welcomes donations of the following items: Starbucks gift cards and/or coffee, Girl Scout cookies, Energy bars/granola bars, sunflower seeds, eye drops, razors, (travel sizes of the following) shaving cream wet wipes/hand sanitizer, Gold Bond powder, shoe polish, sunscreen lip balm, or cash donations. Please feel free to call Amanda at (209) 232-5022 or contact her through the Salida Chamber's website at www.salidacachamber.com

Nick W. Blom Salida Regional Library
Salida Library Director Carol Blomquist shared there will be no preschool or Wiggle-worms storytimes, or stay-n-play this month; these programs will resume in May. Tuesday's for Family Day programs "Wee Move and Play" for 5-yr olds is on April 14th @ 4pm. Lego day is on April 28 @ 4pm and children under age 4 need to have any adult with them. Dance exercise continues on Mondays at 6 pm, Modesto Money Mavens couponing class is Saturday, April 11th at 3:30. Money Smart Week for Kids is April 21 @ 4 pm ages 9-15 only. On April 25th at 1 pm is an identity theft program hosted by Bank of the West. Visit the website for more upcoming events. Ms. Blomquist also announced that after 10 years at the Salida Library, Barb will be retiring.

Modesto Irrigation District
MID Director Jake Wenger gave an update on the Prop 218 process that the district is involved in. Director Wenger said that this year will be the most difficult one in the history of MID, they are looking at a 16 inch allocation per acre. Last year was the largest reduction with 24 inches in allotment.  The district is looking at different drought programs to make water available, like farmers selling water they don't use back to the district. Director Wenger also addressed the recent letter to the editor in the Modesto Bee asking why there is water in the canals. He stated that its groundwater, there's no water coming out of the reservoirs right now. MID owns about 100 wells and farmers are renting those pumps and wells in certain sections. April 5th will be the start of the irrigation season.

Special Presentation - "Focus on Prevention - Quality of Life Initiative" Program 
presented by Aaron Farnon

Aaron Farnon shared Stanislaus County's new initiative called "Focus on Prevention" which includes nine sectors of our community: Arts, Sports & Entertainment; Business, Education, Faith-based, Government, Media, Neighborhoods, Non-profits, Philanthropy. There are four quality of life areas to be addressed and the first one is Homelessness which will convene on October 1st at Modesto Centre Plaza. Mr. Farnon said they are close to starting "Action Councils" which he is hoping to have some representation from towns within our county like Salida. The goal is to have membership within a community to oversee and develop action plans, and work with the community to see where there are gaps in our services. They are looking specifically for someone in the community who has a passion for prevention. He gave an example of an overlapping gap in service when different housing providers didn't coordinate efforts and when people apply at one group, they can lose out on permanent housing at another group. Mr. Farnon stated that beginning at the end of May, they will be reaching out to people who wish to be on the action council. Citizens who serve on the action council will be lending their voice and be a set of eyes for our community. For questions or to volunteer for an action council, please contact Aaron Farnon at farnona@stancounty.com

Click here for a copy of the Focus on Prevention handout

Stanislaus County Supervisor's Report
Supervisor Terry Withrow stated that the county has finalized their mid-year budget. The budget is recovering from the recession and revenues are coming in higher than expected. The Board of Supervisors' priority is for increasing public safety, hiring more sheriff deputies, etc. The goal right now is for 172 deputies, including one designated for Salida. Supervisor Withrow also shared how the county wishes to partner with the court system to reduce costs.

Announcements:

Salida Town and Country Festival - Salida Civic Association needs volunteers to help with putting on this year's Town & Country Festival. Contact Kathy Paioni at (209) 545-0601 if you can help.

Love Salida - Love Salida will be held on Saturday, April 18 with meet-up at Salida Park at 9 am. As mentioned above, the Salida Chamber of Commerce will be compiling care packages for local safety personnel and running a freeway clean-up along the Hammett Road exit ramp. The Rotary Club of Salida project is to clean and weed the center median on Broadway. Other Love Salida Projects include: graffiti removal, alleyway clean-up, Salida Food Bank donations, clothing donations, and cleaning up illegal dump sites in Wood Colony. For more information and/or volunteer, please contact Dan Miceli at micelit@juno.com or show up at Salida Park at 9 am. Event ends at 1 pm.

Salida MAC's website - visit: http://salidamac.weebly.com/

Next Salida MAC Meeting:

Tuesday, April 28, 2015 at 7 pm @ Salida Library Community Room

4835 Sisk Rd. - Salida

Presentation:"Gangs in Stanislaus County"
presented by Sheriff Dept Detective Frank Soria

Salida MAC Newsletter - May 2013

LIKE “Salida MAC” on Facebook, follow on Twitter https://twitter.com/SalidaMAC
and sign up to receive our newsletter via e-mail. ~ Katherine Borges, Editor

Nick W. Blom Salida Regional Library Report - Library Branch Manager, Diane Bartlett shared that April 24 is the last day of "Read to a Dog" for "...children to read to dogs who are good listeners." Saturday, April 27 is "Love Salida" day and there will be opportunities to volunteer and help out at the library. Storytime for pre-schoolers starts again on Thursday, May 2nd for ages 3-5. "Wiggle-worms" reading time up to age 3 begins on Wednesday, May 1 with two sessions, one at 10 am and then repeated at 11 am. More theater is coming, SF Shakes will present "Julius Caesar" later in the year and our local community is starting a "Reader's Theater" - no acting experience is required. Call 543-7353 for more info.

Salida Fire (Station 12) Admin bldg demolition

Salida Fire District Report - Vince Bowman, 'A' Shift Captain at Station 12 reported that fire calls have stayed about the same as the previous month. As the weather warms up, there will be more grassland and wildland fires. Water rescue training will begin very soon. A new group of recruit firefighters will be starting in the first few weeks of May. Training will be held at Station 14 on Ciccarelli Road. Also, the administration building at Station 12 will be demolished. On Wednesday, May 22, Modesto Regional Fire Authority is holding a FREE "Compression-only" CPR training. One of the locations where the training will be held is at Salida's Station 12. Call 552-3600 to sign up or for more info.

Stanislaus County Sheriff Report - Salida Community Deputy Lloyd MacKinnon shared some burglary stats - two days that are the most prevalent for burglaries in Salida are Sundays and Tuesdays. Since December 12, there have been 33 reported residential burglaries in Salida. Time frame is 8 am - noon. Door kicks and window smashes are the most common forms of entry. Deputy MacKinnon is still out patrolling and there are two sheriff cars in the area. He started a "Block-watch" program on Oxbow Ct. and about 20 people showed up. Deputy MacKinnon introduced the "Next Door" website and explained how it works as a form of communication. He asked that residents not set up separate ones until he knows more about it. By the next Salida MAC meeting, he can share more about it and additionally, a new program with an emergency text message system.

CHP Report - CHP Officer Chuck DeLeon reported that Salida had 8 traffic collisions (3 of which were on Freeway 99) and 3 were DUI related and 2 were hit and run. One of the hit and run suspects was caught. 6 DUI arrests last month, 3 different drug arrests, 8 stolen vehicles, 1 toy-hauler and 1 license plate theft. One of those vehicle thefts was from someone who started their car, went back inside their house, and came out to their car being gone. Officer DeLeon recommended that residents do not do that. He also recommended not to leave anything inside the cars to prevent smash and grabs. 

Salida Sanitary Report - Salida Sanitary Board member Brad Johnson asked that residents attend the meetings. Meetings are held on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m. Mr. Johnson is encouraging solar requirements for new development. There's a photo of the Sanitary District's robot on the back table.

Stanislaus County Parks and Recreation Department - Jami Aggers, Director of Stanislaus County Parks and Recreation brought handouts and stated that they wish to move forward with the Pirrone & Finney Sidewalks and Trees replacement project. Because CSA 10 is a fixed assessment and cannot be increased without a vote approving it, the county has found different ways like not outsourcing the landscape maintenance and installing no-potable irrigation wells in parks to keep costs down. 

Ms. Aggers stated that they have revised their proposal because Salida residents want to keep the trees. There's an update in the proposal regarding a root control system, to not remove trees that are not causing a problem at the moment and could perhaps be spared.  When they sent out the initial notices, they only sent out 475 to the property owners in the immediate vicinity and based on feedback from last month's Salida MAC meeting, they sent out notices to all 2,700 residents in the CSA 10 district. 

Stanislaus County Parks & Recreation Director Jami Aggers
addresses Salida residents about the sidewalks & trees issue.

Stanislaus County of Public Works - PowerPoint handouts from the last meeting are on the back table.  There are 139 trees in the project areas proposed to be organized into two phases. They are grouped in the two phases based on practicality and cost reasons. 97 trees are proposed to be removed as ones that are already causing damage to the sidewalk or ones that will cause damage in the near future. 47 trees are in phase 1 and 50 trees are in phase 2. Public works would like to begin phase 1 this summer and phase 2 will be in 5 years because they need to build funds. Only 9 of the 47 trees could be spared in phase 1. From an engineer's perspective, they feel it would be more cost-effective to remove all of the trees now. The two pictures in the handout do not represent the trees they wish to put in but they do represent the size. They feel the best option is to go with 15 gal trees which cost $475 per tree (estimates are from Grover Nursery but will go out to competitive bid). The cost breakdown is $165 per tree and additional expenses go to root barriers and deep-well watering systems. An additional $102 goes to contingencies and inspections. 

Vice-Chairman Johnson requested that the County bring a list of acceptable trees and a list of banned

Bacon & Royal Windsor
lifted sidewalk - before picture

trees. During the Q&A, a resident complained that there was a big drop in the sidewalk at Royal Windsor and Bacon and asked for it to be repaired. (Salida MAC councilmember Katherine Borges took the photos and Salida Chamber of Commerce Vice-President Jim Bonetti submitted them to Stanislaus County Public Works which grounded down, patched the sidewalk, and removed the tree.)

Bacon & Royal Windsor
sidewalk repaired - after pic

Jami Aggers clarified that the costs presented are just ballpark estimates and they needed to evaluate how much of the project can be done at a time.

Love Salida Report - Councilmember Katherine Borges had this item added to the agenda per the recommendation of Stanislaus County Public Works Director Matt Machado for a proposal to paint murals on the canal walls along Finney Road. Lorenzo Oreglia is heading up the organization of artwork and he commented on it along with plans for teens to help paint the murals. Councilmember Borges also mentioned that Salida Rotary would begin work on the center landscaping strip along Broadway at 8 am and would be accepting donations of mobility equipment. And the new Salida Chamber of Commerce will have a booth at Salida Park and will be accepting new membership sign-ups that day. 

Supervisor District 3 Report - Supervisor Terry Withrow reported that the probation DRC (Day Reporting Center) on Salida Blvd is now closed and has been moved downtown.

NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, May 28, 2013 at 7 pm at the Nick W. Blom Salida Regional Library Community Room, 4835 Sisk Road, Salida. Featured topic is the Pirrone & Finney sidewalks and trees issue. (For more info, read Ken Carlson's Modesto Bee article, "Salida trees are awaiting the ax")

Salida MAC meetings are broadcast on government cable channel 19 in Salida.

Be sure to "LIKE" Salida MAC on Facebook and follow on Twitter to keep apprised of the latest information about Salida.