Opening Do
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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
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020
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VOLUME 169 • ISSUE 100 | 75¢
Upper Main Ditch piping gets OK’d
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Work on $15.4 million project to begin September n
Dawn Hodson Staff writer Despite opposing views among board members and objections from the public, on a 3-2 vote the El Dorado Irrigation District Board of Directors voted Monday to approve piping the Upper Main Ditch, also known as the El Dorado Canal. A 3-mile ditch that runs through Pollock Pines transporting water from Forebay Reservoir to the Reservoir 1 Water Treatment Plant, the ditch conveys onethird of EID's water supply, providing water to customers from Pollock Pines to El Dorado Hills. A part of the area’s Gold Rush era history, local residents prize the canal as a community recreational and ecological resource, as a fire break and a source of water for wildlife, ground vegetation and surrounding trees. EID officials, on the other hand, views the open ditch as a potential liability. During a presentation Engineering Director Brian Mueller explained the open ditch is a source of contaminants such as coliform (microorganisms), e-coli (bacteria) and turbidity (cloudiness), which increase the cost of treatment. Other potential sources of contamination are the septic systems and leaching fields of adjacent homes. In the past items found in the ditch have included dead human and animal bodies, batteries, bikes and, in one case, an unknown substance pumped into it from a rental truck. Piping is expected to eliminate those sources of contamination and the extra chlorine needed to treat them — something customers sometimes complain about tasting or smelling in their water. n
See EID, page A3
EDC’s sales tax revenue down 15.9% News release Auditor-Controller Joe Harn recently posted to the county’s website the El Dorado County Sales Tax update for the quarter ending March 2020. The report indicates the county’s sales tax revenues dropped by 15.9% compared to the same time period in 2019 on a cash basis. This decrease is attributed to late or nonexistent payments by approximately 400 businesses. The state authorized many, but not all, of these 400 businesses to pay and report up to 90 days late. Further, in March 2020, the county issued a shelter-in-place directive that caused gasoline sales and restaurant sales to decline. On the bright side, revenues from online shopping increased significantly. The county’s sales and use tax consultant, the HDL Companies, estimates that when all the late-filing businesses do pay, the revenue drop for the quarter will be approximately 2.1%. It is important to remember that a number of the 400 businesses that did not file on time have closed permanently and will probably not pay the sales tax that is due for the second quarter. Further, the state’s mandated restrictions on economic activity have adversely affected sales tax collection in the second and third quarters of 2020. The report can be found at edcgov. us/Government/Auditor-Controller/ Documents/Sales%20Tax/Sales%20 Tax%20Report%202020-Q1.pdf.
1 DENTIST!
Mountain Democrat photos by Sel Richard
Marina Village Middle School band students are socially distanced as the study music in Ben Cain’s class. While students can’t play instruments at this time they were given the option to return to school for in-person learning.
FIRST
week back at
Rescue students return to campus in hybrid model Sel Richard Staff writer
A
s Friday marked the end of an unprecedented first week of school, an unusual sight started the morning. Every single student arriving at Marina Village Middle School is masked. “Learning incoming sixth-graders’ names is hard when all you see is their eyes,” admitted Principal Levi Cambridge. “I’m relying a lot on hairstyles right now.” It is Cambridge’s third year at the middle school, but in his 20 years in education he said he has never seen anything like what’s happening now. Marina Village is one middle school within the Rescue Union School District, which has opened up this school year offering both distance learning and a hybrid option for students. “It’s been a big shift but our staff has such a desire to provide an excellent program and to support students that they’re working really hard and doing a great job,” Cambridge said. “They’re being innovative and creative and our students are happy to be here.” Only 25% of Marina’s students chose the distance learning option with the bulk of the school population spearheading the program that has the students broken into a morning and an afternoon group, keeping classes small to allow for social distancing. P.E. and band classes have larger numbers as there is more room for kids to spread out. Students spend half a day in school only going to half their classes, alternating daily with another half-day going to the rest of
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the classes. The other half of their day students are at home learning online. “There are certain things you can’t do,” explained Cambridge. “You can’t do the collaborative work that kids are used to. The students don’t have all their friends here because we’ve split them up into two groups so they miss out on some of that.” But it’s not all bad, according to the principal. “What’s interesting is that there are a number of advantages that I see with this program,” he continued. “We’ve got smaller classes so there’s a little more one-on-one time for teachers to address issues. It’s a pretty cool silver lining to be able to say that. You can get more specific to a student’s needs because you’re not dealing with as many students in a room.” Band teacher Ben Cain is thrilled to be back. Although playing most instruments is disallowed at school, he encourages his kids to play as n
11 STUDENTS AND TEACHER QUARANTINED A Lakeview Elementary School fifth-grader who attended in-person class at the El Dorado Hills school last week has tested positive for COVID-19, resulting in the student, 10 classmates and the teacher being quarantined and expected to return Sept. 2. Lakeview is one of seven schools within the Rescue Union School District, which currently has 2,700 students enrolled in its hybrid learning program. With half the students attending in the morning and half in the afternoon, each class is no larger than 15 students. The other 800 students in the district attend a fully remote curriculum. Parents informed the district Sunday that
See SCHOOL, page A6
n
See QUARANTINED, page A6
Lisa Thoms’ firstgraders, above, stay socially distanced in their Lakeview Elementary School classroom. Lakeview Elementary School students, left, line up to wash their hands before heading to their classrooms.
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