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Community blood drive honors Adam Davis News, Page 2
Winters FFA wins top awards Features, Page 1
Volume 140, Number 42 — Locally-owned since 1884
The hometown paper of Pat Calvert
Winters, Yolo County, California, Wednesday, November 15, 2023
Council members hear fire update, discuss unhoused population By Amelia Biscardi Express staff writer
Fire update
Courtesy photo
Teacher Dianne Halsey (center right) with Team 39599B members Miles Mariani, Ben Nelson, and Jack Tuel (right). They won the Championship and Excellence Awards
Winters Robotics team achieves highest tournament honors Team qualifies for state tournament By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief
EXPRESS
On Saturday, Nov. 4, three Winters Robotics high school teams competed in the Placer Robotics Over Under Tournament in Granite Bay. While all of the teams performed well, Team 39599B came out on top not only as the tournament champions but were recognized with the highest tournament honor. Team 39599B members junior Miles Mariani, senior Ben Nelson and senior Jack Tuel were awarded the Excellence Award, which designates them as the best of the best at the tournament. “It’s better than tournament champion. It means you had an excellent notebook, interview and you were ranked top 10 of the teams and top 10 of the skills It’s the best of everything,” said Nelson.
This tournament marked the first major win for Team 39599B, which is an accomplishment considering it is the first year the trio is competing as this team together. Nelson and Tuel have been competing with the Robotics Club for four years, and Mariani for three. The tournament was also the inaugural competition run for the first robot they built together. “We all helped to work on the new robot. It was the first time we drove it around. Everyone built the new robot and it worked out great. We did everything really well and consistently,” Nelson said. In the tournament, teams engage in multiple competitions starting with a set of qualification matches. Following the qualification rounds, teams get seeded for the playoff matches and earn points for demonstrating skills and interviews with judges. The team agreed the thing that made a difference in this
tournament was the addition of the team’s notebook. Throughout the year, the team updates its notebook and during tournaments reviews and takes into consideration the content to award further points. Judges are able to view the team’s growth and progression throughout the season. Tuel said a lot of photos of their progress and documentation of everything they do goes into the notebook. “If you don’t have a notebook you can’t win a lot of awards. At the start of this year, we decided we needed to have one so we could win the Excellence Award,” Mariani said. Nelson said receiving the Excellence Award helped them to qualify to compete in the state tournament. Qualifying awards and winning tournaments open the doors for teams to compete in state tournaments. Winning awards or ranking well in skills are the next steps to
See ROBOT, Page 3
Fire Chief Jack S. Snyder III brought light to the fire at the Winters Joint Unified School District office warehouse at the Nov. 7 City Council meeting. He confirmed that no one was hurt or injured in the Oct. 23 fire and staff evacuation was successful. Snyder explained that so far there has not been a cause of the fire found. However, considering that there were no sprinklers or smoke detectors in the building, Snyder believes the fire was occurring for some time before the 911 call was made. The 911 call happened at 8:39 and once Snyder was on scene he noted smoke from the warehouse building. “Myself and (Police Officer Thomas Letterman) did a quick dance inside the building to see if there really was a fire and to see if we could put it out,” Snyder said. “We tried to use
Features ........................ B-1
Date
Rain
High
Nov. 08
.00
90˚
58˚
Nov. 09
.00
97˚
69˚
Nov. 10
.00
100˚
69˚
Nov. 11
.00
100˚
62˚
Eventos hispanos ....... A-2
Nov. 12
.00
98˚
67˚
Nov. 13
.00
100˚
66˚
Opinion ......................... B-3
Nov. 14
.01”
101˚
65˚
Real Estate ................... B-2
Rain for week: 0.01 in. Season’s total: 0.84 in. Last sn. to date: 2.09 in.
Classifieds ................... B-4 Community .................. A-2
Sports ........................... B-5
Low
Winters rainfall season began 7/1/23. Weather readings are taken at 9 a.m. daily by local weatherman Joe Bristow.
Road 31 improvements
With the temporary fixes on the potholes along County Road 31 completed, Mayor Bill Biasi explained that there is potential for even more improvements. “They want to go in and overlay the whole thing,” Biasi said. “And widen it so we have more room for a bicycle path, and then do all the restriping.” While funding for the overlay is currently being worked on, according to Biasi
See CITY, Page 3
Tracey Matheson/Courtesy photo
Matheson replaces community stage for Capstone project Editor-in-Chief
We at he r
they could barely see their hand in front of their face. And they were encountering some high heat.” Additionally, Snyder commended the Winters Police Department in helping connect the fire hydrants and directing traffic. The Winters JUSD staff are hosting Board of Trustee meetings in the City Council chamber for the time being until the school district office building is available to inhabit.
Kenneth Matheson works to rebuild the stage behind the Winters Community Center with Noah Kinkaid, a fellow Scout from Troop 152, on Saturday. Matheson is rebuilding the stage as his Senior Capstone Project and Eagle Scout Service Project.
By Crystal Apilado
Index
a fire extinguisher on it, unfortunately, it did nothing but make the fire angrier.” Snyder and Police Officer Thomas Letterman both vacated the building after that, awaiting more assistance from the mutual aid request sent out. Snyder noted that commercial building fires can be a high risk to firefighters’ safety. So having a total of 38 responders between Winters Fire Department and mutual aid from nearby counties made a big difference. With all hands on deck, Snyder was able to direct crews to enter through two separate entrances. The fire mainly stuck to one portion of the warehouse. “That light smoke doesn’t look like it’s a very big fire but I can tell you when you have a room of that size, that kind of smoke, that little bit coming out means there is a lot of it inside,” Snyder said. “I can tell you when the guys got inside they had very very very very zero visibility conditions,
As the new school year begins, Winters High School seniors are tasked to select a Senior Capstone Project that brings an opportunity to experience personal growth, gain life and career skills, make an impact in the community, or focus on an act of service. Senior Kenneth Matheson chose to replace the debilitated stage behind the Winters Community Center. His intent is to re-
store the outdoor stage for theater productions as well as for the Winters community to utilize once again.
Project inspiration Matheson, who doubled his Capstone project with his Eagle Scout Service Project, began demolishing the old stage on Oct. 15 with the help of his father Jeff and older brothers Alec and Garrett (who are all Eagle Scouts). As of Saturday evening, with the help of his family and fellow
Scouts, he has built about one-third of the decking on the new stage. Matheson said he chose to rebuild following the last two Shakespeare Under the Stars performances. In the Summer 2022 production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” WTC company had to make minor repairs to the stage so it would be in working condition to hold the play. However, by this summer when it came time
See STAGE, Page 6
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