Directors of the Placer County Transportation Planning Agency have made it official: Placer voters won’t be asked next year to approve or reject a half-cent hike in the sales tax.
Instead, the PCTPA board members will consider taking the tax increase proposal to the voters in 2010.
Recent polling conducted for the PCTPA’s steering committee showed that while the proposal appeared popular with a majority of Placerans, its chances of receiving two-thirds voter approval were iffy.
Raising the sales tax by a half cent for 30 years would provide upward of $1 billion for the county’s transportation needs.
Placer County Water Agency customers will be paying higher water rates, fees and charges in 2008.
The increases were approved at last week’s meeting of the PCWA Board of Directors.
Finance Chief Joe Parker said the rate adjustments will allow the agency to keep up with increasing costs for providing water service and rebuilding the aging water system infrastructure.
Customer Services Director John Kingsbury said the rate hikes will total about $1.40 per month for a residential water customer using low amounts of water; $5.31 per month for the “average” water user; and $6.75 per month for a high water user.
Sitting as Auburn’s redevelopment agency, the city council this week took a giant stride toward putting the ambitious Streetscape project in motion.
On a unanimous vote, the council/agency board gave City Manager Bob Richardson authorization to contract with Foothill Associates for the preparation of plans for Streetscape’s first major undertaking — the realignment of the Central Square intersection at High Street, Lewis Street and Lincoln Way and the creation of a new public plaza in the northwest corner of the intersection.
The contract calls for a “not to exceed” fee of $245,795, a cost that Engineering Division Chief Bernie Schroeder said in a memo is justified since the project’s cost has been pegged at $3 million.
Veronica Martinez Salcedo, 36, will be retried in Auburn next April on a charge of shaking a 15-month-old girl in such a manner that the baby died from brain injuries.
Salcedo’s first trial ended in late October in a mistrial, with 10 jurors reportedly favoring conviction and two for acquittal.
She is accused of causing the death of Hannah Rose Juceum of Roseville, for whom she was babysitting, in May of 2006. She is being held in the county jail in Auburn in lieu of $1 million bail.
Michael L. McNelly, a registered sex offender, has been sentenced to a life prison term with the possibility of parole for admittedly kidnapping a woman in June and trying to rape her in a field near Roseville.
Placer County Supervisor Court Judge Robert McElhany pronounced the sentence last week after the 36-year-old McNelly pleaded guilty to the two felonies.
McNelly is expected to serve at least 10 years in prison before being eligible for parole consideration.
In its final meeting of the year, the Placer County Board of Supervisors approved a wish list of what the county wants from the federal and state governments in 2008, and then rehired a battery of lobbyists to try to make the wishes come true.
The list is much the same as those submitted in past years.
From the federal government the county wants things like continued funding for the regional wastewater treatment/water reclamation project, the Children’s Health Center/Emergency Shelter, and the county’s public safety radio system.
Alta Vista School will be closed at the end of the current school year, a majority of Auburn Union Elementary School District trustees decreed this week.
A marked decline in district enrollment — and the resultant drop in district revenue — was the reason trustees Shana Fain McDonald (the board president and an Alta Vista grad), Linda Beasley and Lynn Hargrove voted to close the hilltop school off East Lincoln Way at Oak Street in the city. Trustees Clark Gehlbach and Chuck Heisleman cast nay votes.
Accused wife murderer Paul Kovacich will spend this Christmas and New Year’s with loved ones while Placer County prosecutors work to make sure he spends all of his future holiday seasons behind bars.
Nothing notable occurred during a brief court session in Auburn last week, although Superior Court Judge Larry Gaddis set the retired sheriff’s sergeant’s jury trial for March 3, with another one of those “case status” hearings to be held February 29 in case Kovacich wants to change his plea.
Francisco Evangelista will be arraigned in Placer County Superior Court next week on a felony charge of packing a BB gun on the campus of Placer High School nearly three and a half months ago.
The 19-year-old Evangelista has been a prisoner in the Placer County Jail since his arrest by Auburn police two days after the August 27 incident.
I appreciate that there have been opinions expressed in the Sentinel on the topic of the Auburn Freemasons donation to Auburn Police Department for the purchase of Tasers, commonly known as stun guns. Not because I agree with the “opinion piece” written by the “columnist” (Gary Moffat), but because we live in a country that has a constitution allowing freedoms such as free speech, and anyone can espouse their opinion, however misguided. But most would agree that freedom isn’t free, it comes with a costly price; and so my sincere respect and appreciation goes to those who defend our country and our constitution. This includes the law enforcement professionals of our Auburn Police Department, who unselfishly dedicate their service to our community and do a great job doing so!
