The Davis Enterprise Sunday, October 4, 2020

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enterprise THE DAVIS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2020

UCD testing vents, sewage for coronavirus

Voters can deposit their vote-by-mail ballots in a drop box located in the parking lot of City Hall or three other drop boxes inside grocery stores in Davis. No neighborhood polling places will be available this year; rather, voters will have access to ballot drop-off boxes and voter assistance centers, as well as the postal service for voting.

BY ANNE TERNUS-BELLAMY Enterprise staff writer

return ballots, given regular polling places will not be used this year. In addition to the drop-off boxes, voters will also be able to take advantage of voter assistance centers that will open on Saturday, Oct. 31, in four Davis locations and remain open through Election Day. Hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 and 2, and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Nov. 3 (Election Day). At those locations, residents can drop off vote-by-mail ballots, receive replacement ballots or envelopes and cast early live

The joint effort between the city of Davis and UC Davis to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among all community members has been focused on the key public health components that have become familiar to just about everyone in the last six months: testing, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation and messaging about face coverings and social distancing. But the university is also focused on environmental monitoring. One aspect of that — testing raw sewage for the presence of the virus — is something universities around the nation have been doing, with the goal being to quickly identify the presence of the novel coronavirus, possibly in a specific building on campus, then testing all the occupants. That’s something UC Davis is doing and hopes to expand into the city of Davis. But there’s another component of the environmental monitoring being done by the university that’s less well known. “The other thing that we’re doing that’s unique and I’m not aware of anybody doing this yet, is we’re also sampling air filters,” said Tod Stoltz, director of business and development and international affiliations for UC Davis. Speaking to a joint meeting of city officials and business leaders on Monday, Stoltz noted that, “we’ve probably all heard about sewage

SEE VOTING, PAGE A4

SEE TESTING, BACK PAGE

ANNE TERNUS-BELLAMY/ ENTERPRISE PHOTO

Voting will begin this week BY ANNE TERNUS-BELLAMY Enterprise staff writer The Yolo County elections office will begin sending out vote-by-mail ballots on Monday and voters will be able to fill them out and turn them in immediately. All active registered voters will receive a ballot, whether they requested one or not, under state law. Ballots may be returned via the postal service or deposited in drop-boxes located at four sites in Davis (and multiple other sites throughout the county). The ballot drop-off box in the

parking lot at Davis City Hall, 23 Russell Blvd. is accessible 24 hours a day, while the boxes located inside three grocery stores in town are available during store business hours.

If boxes fill more rapidly than that, “we told the stores… we can make an urgent pick-up earlier,” Salinas said during a recent League of Women Voters forum.

Those locations are the two Nugget Markets — 409 Mace Blvd. and 1414 E. Covell Blvd — and Westlake Market, 1260 Lake Blvd.

Two elections staff members will be present every time a box is emptied and the ballots returned to the elections office in Woodland, Salinas said.

The ballot drop-off boxes will be in place through 8 p.m. on Election Day and will be emptied by elections office staff every 48 hours, according to Jesse Salinas, the county’s clerkrecorder/assessor/registrar of voters.

As the head of elections in Yolo County for the last four years, Salinas has experience with the use of ballot drop-off boxes — they’ve been located in county libraries for previous elections. Now, however, they will be a key spot for voters to

Former coach convicted at sex-assault trial BY LAUREN KEENE Enterprise staff writer WOODLAND — A former youth softball coach is facing a possible life sentence in prison after a Yolo County jury convicted him Thursday of sexually assaulting two of his former teenage clients. Jurors declared Jack “Buck” Maldonado Thomas guilty of forcible sexual assault of a minor, sexual battery on a minor and first-degree burglary in connection with his offenses, which prosecutors said occurred in West Sacramento during the summer of 2018 as he trained the 15- and 16-year-old girls whose parents paid thousands of dollars

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for private lessons. “Mr. Thomas used his notoriety as a hitting coach to gain the trust of the parents and the minor victims in order to accomplish THOMAS his sexual assaults,” Guilty District Attorney Jeff Reisig said in a news release. “We are grateful this trial gave these brave victims a voice and glad that the jury did justice in this case.” Thomas’ public defender, Emily Fisher, declined to comment on the verdict Friday. Thomas’ sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 30 before Yolo

INDEX

Superior Court Judge Paul Richardson, who presided over the nearly month-long trial. Prosecutor Rachel Raymond told the jury during opening statements last month that Thomas, 43, sexually battered and assaulted the victims while giving them sports massages and positioning their bodies during batting instruction. The older girl told authorities the assaults escalated when she traveled to Thomas’ Arizona home for additional training. Fisher, who acknowledged in her opening remarks that her client could be “crass,” “vulgar” and “rough

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Business . . . . . A5 Forum . . . . . . . .B2 Op-Ed . . . . . . . .B3 Classifieds . . . .B7 Living . . . . . . . . A6 Sports . . . . . . .B1 Comics . . . . . . .B5 Obituary . . . . . . A4 The Wary I . . . . A2

HAZE

Toda Hazy. Today: Hi High 90. Low 55. More, Page B6 Mo

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Meals on Wheels eyes return to a 5-meal, 3-day service BY BRUCE GALLAUDET Enterprise staff writer With a keen eye on how Yolo County manages public health protocols during the pandemic, Meals on Wheels Executive Director Christi Skibbins hopes her local organization will soon be able to return to extended service. When the county moves restriction forward (from its “purple” tier to “red”), “two weeks after that, Meal on Wheels sites will transition to opening on

Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays,” Skibbins said in a prepared statement. Shortly after COVID-19 struck, the group scaled back home delivery from five days to only Tuesdays and Fridays and scrapped community lunches, such as those served at the Davis Senior Center. Skibbins said the return to traditional delivery dates means seniors will get three hot meals and two frozen

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