Men’s modeling
C a l i f o r n i a ’ s O l d e s t N e w s pa p e r – E s t. 18 51
Fashion fights violence. Volume 169 • Issue 96 | 75¢
mtdemocrat.com
Monday, August 17, 2020
Prospecting page 7
$5 million in CARES funds to help small businesses million of the county’s CARES Act funds to small businesses that have incurred COVID-19 related expenses. The program will disburse grants up to $30,000 to local small businesses. The El Dorado County Community Foundation will manage the grant process. Applications will be accepted through Sept. 3. El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce CEO Laurel Brent-Bumb said the program will be a boon for struggling storefront and restaurants as they weather the storm brought
n Applications will be
accepted through Sept. 3 Dylan Svoboda Staff writer While the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the local economy, more financial relief will soon be available for El Dorado County businesses. Last week the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors dedicated $5
on by the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent shutdowns. “We’re living in a brave new world,” Brent-Bumb said. “But the strength of El Dorado County’s pioneering spirit will carry us through.” Businesses that receive grants will have to spend the monies on COVID19 related expenses before Dec. 30. El Dorado County received a total of $19,737,000 under the CARES Act, which was signed by President Donald Trump in late March to help mitigate the economic impacts of the
coronavirus pandemic. Of the $19.7 million, about $6.5 million is going to county operating expenses, $5 million was allocated for education and child care and county emergency medical services are receiving $1 million. $100,000 will be allocated to miscellaneous causes, including $41,217 to the El Dorado Hills Community Services District, $6,776 to the Cameron Park Community Services District and $15,000 to n
See CAres funds, page 3
Blast from the past
Mountain Democrat photo by Kevin Christensen
The western wall of Confidence Hall in downtown Placerville is in need of repair as it is said to be leaning toward the nearby parking lot.
Old City Hall getting fixed up once again Pat Lakey Staff writer For the next couple years, at least, Confidence Hall and Emigrant Jane — popularly known as downtown Placerville’s ketchup and mustard buildings — will be propped up by scaffolding, their old and dilapidated parts disposed of to correct a bowing wall. City “It’s a fairly officials fear one of the simple and walls could straightforward topple on someone or project; the on vehicles west wall (of in the nearby parking lot. Confidence The Hall) is bowing westernmost wall of outward, Confidence toward the Hall, the brick and parking lot.” red-painted — Terry Zeller, of the pair of Placerville director of buildings at 487 and 489 Community Services Main St. in Placerville just west of the Courthouse, is said to be leaning toward the parking lot, the City Council gave the go-ahead last week to a $132,000 contract with NyeCon Inc. to prop it back up. It’s a temporary fix, made so more work can be done, including replacing the roof of the iconic, ivy-accented building. The approval did not come without some discussion and some discomfort expressed by members of the public who questioned the bidding process for the job and wondered whether the contractor understands how to work with historical treasures such as the two buildings that comprise what’s also known as Old City Hall. In fact, the city offices for decades were inside the venerable buildings, until the aches and pains brought on by their old age … and lack of modern amenities … dictated a move to City Hall’s current location in a four-story building at the Center Street parking lot. It’s not that far — and certainly not so far distant that city staff has forgotten the importance of the historical buildings, it was assured during Tuesday’s council meeting. “This is being brought forward because the City Council and staff do value these buildings,” said City n
Photo by Webb Canepa/FBI
After the casino corridor in South Lake Tahoe was evacuated technicians detonated a bomb left in Harvey’s Hotel Resort in an attempted extortion August 26, 1980.
40 years ago South Lake Tahoe casino bombing was biggest in U.S. history Ryan Hoffman Tahoe Daily Tribune The letter next to the faux copy machine at Harvey’s Resort Hotel on Aug. 26, 1980, started with a warning. “Do not move or tilt this bomb, because the mechanism controlling the detonators in it will set it off at a movement of less than .01 of the open end Ricter scale.” A bomb threat in Tahoe’s casino district was not unchartered territory in 1980. The marriage of money, booze, hope and loss would occasionally birth a third-rate extortion attempt that almost always ended with the discovery of a fake device or no bomb at all. But investigators would soon learn the 1,200-pound device on the second floor of Harvey’s — where about 600 people were staying ahead of Labor Day weekend — was anything but third-rate. “I just remember looking at that and thinking, ‘my gosh this is the biggest thing that I had ever seen,’” said Bill Jonkey, a then FBI special agent based in Carson City who was first on the scene for the Bureau. It was the beginning of a failed shakedown that triggered the most intense, 35-hour period in the lake’s modern history, thrusting Tahoe into the national media spotlight and forever altering how law enforcement dealt with threats of improvised
See city hall, page 11
Hot August Nights deserve Curbside Pickup!
explosives. No lives were lost but the blast blew a chasm through the building and initiated a year-long investigation that ended with the arrest of the bomb maker and his accomplices. The Harvey’s Resort bombing was considered the largest domestic bombing in the U.S. until the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which would later be outshadowed by the deadly Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. The successful outcome — as deemed by Jonkey and others involved — of the tense 35-hour period was a product of collaboration mixed with a hint of what so many people hope to find in Tahoe: luck.
Is it real?
Employees at the casino and hotel built by Harvey Gross were the first to discover the device in the early morning hours of Aug. 26. Men sporting white jumpsuits wheeled what, according to the FBI, appeared to be an IBM copy machine onto the second floor of the casino where the executive offices were housed. In addition to the direct warning and ensuing explanation of the bomb’s complexity, the three-page letter included a demand: $3 million in used, $100 bills. “I repeat do not try to move, disarm or enter this bomb. It will explode.” Security guards initiated an evacuation of the casino and hotel for what they
Photo courtesy of FBI
John Birges, a former steel worker and landscaping contractor, designed and built the bomb and masterminded the $3 million extortion plot. described as “a serious security problem,” according to a story published in the Tahoe Daily Tribune 10 years later. For some guests, the lack of information and direction fueled a frightful experience. “No one told us where to go, what to do,” Stockton resident and hotel guest Marjorie McComb told the newspaper. “It was frightening. We didn’t know what to do.” Ron Pierini had recently been promoted to the rank of captain in the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. He was a station commander at the lake and was at home that morning when he got the call. “You wonder if it’s really a bomb or what is it?” Pierini recalled. It did not take long to determine the bomb was not an empty threat. The intricate details described in the letter
Photo courtesy of FBI/Tahoe Douglas Bomb Squad
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office dusted the bomb for fingerprints and collected other forensic evidence before the bomb squad attempted to disarm it. signaled to investigators they were not dealing with a spontaneous swindler. The letter claimed the bomb had at least eight triggering mechanisms that would
LEES’ FEED
Largest selection of mens workwear and western wear. ARIAT denim, apparel and boots.
Shop locally!
Mountain
ue Boutiq NOW ! e On-Lin
Democrat 2019
530.677.4891 • 4110 Datsun Ct., Shingle Springs • leesfeed.net Call (530) 344-5000 for convenient home delivery and free online access to www.mtdemocrat.com
n
See Harvey’s, page 6