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Volume 169 • Issue 49 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
Monday, April 27, 2020
“A lot of them have been mentioning ‘Victory Gardens’ that they’re working on ... the kind you saw during World War II.” — Juliet Voigtlander, owner of El Dorado Nursery
COVID-19 case count at 40 with 5 still active Dylan Svoboda Staff writer
Democrat photo by Krysten Kellum
With calls coming in nonstop, Juliet Voigtlander, owner of El Dorado Nursery in Shingle Springs, helps a customer on the phone select from a fresh delivery of edibles. The nursery has been selling out of much of its inventory like never before, especially veggies.
Beating the‘bad’ bug, up picking the ‘good’ one
Coronavirus fears lead to huge boost in nursery customers Pat Lakey Staff writer
family. Voigtlander had just finished with the third f the latest phone call in five indications minutes, and even prove as she stepped out accurate, of her office to COVID-19 may talk, the insistent be heading back ringing provided to whatever background music hell spawned to her entrance, its global reign stage left. — but one local Shaking her woman hopes head — but the bug sticks smiling — the around, forever. nursery owner No, not the said, “This is coronavirus, crazy — just crazy which Juliet — I’ve never seen Voigtlander it like this in 20 despises as El Dorado Nursery customers browse tables of vegetable starts to fill their spring gardens. years.” much as the next That’s how person — what long the lifelong the 57-year-old owner of El Dorado Nursery in Shingle gardener has owned El Dorado Nursery, an undertaking Springs hopes will take root and grow in El Dorado of passion by a woman whose heart beats with the County is the gardening bug. And she is hopeful that rhythm of the Earth in springtime. What Voigtlander another such bug, the one that spreads a love of the enjoys just as much as outdoors and fosters working and shaping “Edible plants are the new toilet paper.” a rash of nurturing soil, pampering dirt to the earth, will remain the point where it's glad — Sylvia Janowiak, El Dorado Nursery staff contagious, causing to be its best, is sharing youngsters to set aside her knowledge of how to their electronic devices because they are itching instead coax the utmost from nature. to pick up a trowel. Toward that end, she always has offered “home visits” Or a rake or a hoe — or anything that’s still in stock to show customers what, where and how to plant at the only nursery on the west slope of the county, a edibles and ornamentals — but she never dreamed the location off Durock Road that has been teeming with days since mid-March would be like this. customers since the COVID-19 pandemic led to Gov. “I had four home visits yesterday; that's after I got up Gavin Newsom and local health authorities declaring at 4 in the morning and didn't get to bed until 11 the everyone should stay at home. night before,” said the woman whose energy seemed “Oh my goodness,” were the first words uttered by boundless, nonetheless. “The minute the lockdown Voigtlander when the Mountain Democrat dropped by orders were given, every vegetable, every seed they to see whether the rumors were true, that customers could find — people have been coming in to the tune were coming in droves to purchase vegetable seeds, of 300 a day,” marveled Voigtlander. “And that was fruit trees, seedlings of both — anything that will burst forth in private gardens, providing sustenance to the n See Nursery, page 11
I
ue Boutiq NOW ! e On-Lin
Coronavirus cases in El Dorado County hit 40 Thursday as the tally of those infected crept up once again, according to the county Public Health Department. Those having survived the virus now far outnumber active cases, with 35 individuals recovered and just five still sick. No residents are known to have died from COVID-19 El Dorado County. The South Lake Tahoe area ticked up to 14 infected residents with one new case reported there Thursday evening. El Dorado Hills has the most cases with 15. The greater Placerville area remains at five cases. Three cases have been found in the Cameron Park/Shingle Springs/Rescue area and two cases have been found in the north county. On April 17 the county reported its first case of COVID-19 in the Pollock Pines/ Camino/Kyburz area. No cases in Diamond Springs, El Dorado or the south county areas have been reported as of Thursday evening. There have been about 1,700 tests conducted on county residents, according to the data. Men and women each make up 20 of n
See Covid-19, page 5
Planners OK commercial cannabis for Meyers area Dawn Hodson Staff writer Amendments to the El Dorado County’s ordinance governing the commercial production of cannabis specific to the Meyers area were unanimously approved by the planning commission at its April 23 meeting. The proposed amendments allow for commercial cannabis distribution facilities, retail sales and limited manufacturing facilities in the Meyers Community Center District as well as for commercial cannabis indoor cultivation, distribution facilities, delivery facilities, testing laboratories and limited manufacturing facilities in the Meyers Industrial District, subject to specific regulations. Another amendment eliminated the required 500-feet of distance from a residential zoned district in Meyers, due to the mixed-use nature of the parcel structure in Meyers where residences are in close proximity to commercial land uses. A last amendment added another retail storefront within the Meyers Area Plan boundary making a total of eight potential cannabis retail storefront facilities. Brendan Ferry, planning manager in the county’s Tahoe office, explained the
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See Cannabis, page 3