Track takes top spots in season opener

By Sydney Andrade

Express staff writer

On Friday, March 31 the Winters High School track team was finally able to participate in its first meet of the season. Being at the mercy of mother nature, the WHS track team has had several meets canceled and has had to get creative with ways to practice.

While the Warriors haven’t had the best of luck in terms of weather conditions, they didn’t let that hold them back from achieving excellent results with two athletes placing first, two placing second, one placing third and two placing fourth.

Madeline McMahon, a senior on the varsity team, placed first overall in the high jump with a mark of 4 feet 7 inches, almost clearing 4 feet 8 inches.

“I am very proud of Madeline getting that personal record and especially her support for other athletes she was competing against. She provided positive feedback to other competitors which is a reflection of

Kalyssa Grinbergs

Kalyssa Grinbergs, a Winters High School senior, is Pisani’s Athlete of the Week. Grinbergs has played for WHS softball since she was a freshman. Grinbergs is one of the starting pitchers for the Warriors and also performs well in the outfield. “Over the last three games, Kalyssa has led the team with a 500 batting average and 600 on-base percentage. She has also pitched nine solid innings striking out six,” said head coach Garret Garcia.

good sportsmanship. Performance-wise, I know she can get 4 feet, 9 inches this season with practice,” said head coach Chris Kays.

Ava Muir-Vickery, a freshman on the junior varsity team, placed first place in the girls’ long jump with a mark of 13 feet 3 inches and second in the junior varsity girls’ 100 meters (100m) with a time of 14.86.

Viridiana Reyes placed second overall in the 100m with a time of 14.25, just barely missing the first place slot which was timed at 14.24.

Violet Tuel placed fourth in the 100m with a time of 15.09 and seventh in long jump with a mark of 12 feet exactly.

Mikenzie Harpworth-Eldridge placed seventh overall in discus with a throw of 73 feet 4 inches. Evelyn Frazier fin- ished eighth overall in the junior varsity girls 200 meters with a time of 33.64 and Ismene Taylor placed 10th in the junior varsity girls 100m with a time of 15.64.

While the boys didn’t have any first-place athletes this time, they still performed very well and earned excellent results. Christian Hernandez, a senior on the varsity team, finished second in the varsity boys 800 meters with a time of 2:17.03.

Ramon Lopez placed third overall in the discus for the junior varsity boys with a throw of 79 feet 3 inches. Lopez also placed seventh in the shot put with a throw of 30 feet 6 inches.

Sanders Clark also placed in the 800m with a time of 2:19.01, putting him in fourth place for the varsity boys’ team. Clark also finished sixth overall in the varsity 3,200

Express seeks Athlete of the Week nominations

The Express is looking to the Winters community to reach out and nominate an Athlete of the Week or to tell us about an exciting happening in the world of sports.

Cheer, swim, horse competitions, travel teams — if they are rocking it, we want to hear about it.

To be considered for the Pisani’s Athlete of the Week, nominations and supporting content must be submitted by Monday at Noon.

How to nominate

Nominate a local athlete for consider- ation as Pisani’s Athlete of the Week at tinyurl.com/4f78a6y2.

Include as many details and points of contact so our staff can reach out to coaches for comments about the athlete.

Community members are also encouraged to draft their Athlete of the Week write-up and submit them through the same form.

If including a hi-resolution photo of the athlete, make sure it is a profile photo of the individual facing the camera from at least the waist up.

Individuals should not be too far away or the photo may not print clearly.

Nominate: tinyurl.com/ 4f78a6y2 meters with a time of 12:06.49.

Jayden Clifford finished sixth overall in the 110 meters hurdles with a time of 21.79.

Jesus Cruz finished seventh overall in the varsity high jump with a mark of 5 feet. Luzangely Martin finished seventh overall in the junior varsity 400m with a time of 75.6 seconds and Ahvin Willims finished seventh overall in the junior varsity boys’ long jump with a mark of 15 feet 7.5 inches.

“I am so proud of their patience with the delays we have faced this season due to the weather. It can be easy to lose morale without the competition aspect of track but I am proud of them all for pushing through the anxiety and nerves of a first meet, especially when other teams have had six meets more than us at this time,” said Kays.

Lake Levels up over a foot this year will be revenue adjustments.

The water level of Lake Berryessa is up by 1.87 feet during the past week, with an increase in storage of 33,334 acre-feet of water, according to Ken Emigh of the Solano Irrigation District. On the morning of Tuesday, April 4 the lake level was 429.64 feet above sea level, with storage computed at 1,361,304 acre-feet of water. Evaporation on the lake averaged 103 acrefeet of water per day. The SID is diverting 50 feet per second of water in the Putah South Canal, with 77 feet per second flowing at the Diversion Dam.

“The biggest adjustments” Trepa explained “are Transient Occupancy Tax and Sales Tax.”

“On the Transient Occupancy Tax, we were optimistically hoping that Fairfield Inn would open Oct. 1, they didn’t open until the end of December, so there’s a reduction of about three months there, and we’re seeing some reductions with Hotel Winters… overall, we’re antici-

PARK

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Manager Kathleen Salguero Trepa, explained some of the remaining details about the park to the councilmembers.

She first noted that the parkway strips on the perimeter will be part of the yet-to-bestarted Phase Three, which Trepa said she “readily admit(s) is not logical” and that the City will clean it up before the park is opened. This third lot will be completed at a later date, as the originally negotiated cost cap was $3.2 million for the entire park, but

HOTEL

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Construction crews finally broke ground in January 2020.

At the time, Ali told the Express that the 72room hotel had been touted as an important element to economic development goals outlined by the City of Winters. The hotel, located near the 505 highway, is expected to draw in outof-towners to Winters businesses. Ali said attracting travelers visiting Lake Berryessa, Cache Creek Casino and nearby towns

CHANGES

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COVID-19 infections should wear a mask in public for 10 days after their infection began.

Masking: Beginning April 3, masking is no longer required of everyone in healthcare, correctional and shelter settings. Rather, masking will be recommended in these settings based on COVID-19 community levels published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with masking of all staff, patients and visitors strongly recommended in high community levels; recommended in medium; and considered in low community levels. Yolo County is currently in the low COVID-19 community level. Facilities are encouraged to develop their own policies related to masking.

Vaccination: Beginning April 3, California no longer requires healthcare and adult care workers to be vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19. However, the federal government continues to require healthcare workers in many settings to be vaccinated against COVID-19 with a primary series.

“With effective treatments, vaccines and tests widely available for COVID-19, it is appropriate to pating the reduction in TOT (Transient Occupancy Tax) of about $136,000. Sales Tax, we are seeing a reduction in Sales Tax, and we’re forecasting that will be about $144,000 below,” Trepa said.

Trepa said as she conclude revenue adjustments, overall, “It’s a pretty large reduction of about $380,000 in revenue for those categories” but continued that “in positive news, our Property Tax is actually up $270,000” owing to pandemic-era property prices, which, along with building permits and the Mu-

Trepa notes that as of now “approximately $400,000 is remaining after the construction of lots one and two, which…is not going to build us the third phase.” Thus the city has negotiated the reallocation of $1.1 million in flood fees for the third lot, as when the plan was first developed the lots were in a FEMA floodplain, but after the floodplain maps were updated the lots were no longer in that area, making the flood fees no longer necessary.

Leaving HBT and the city with about $1.5 million, Trepa says staff worked with the Three Oaks archi- like Vacaville, Davis and Sacramento will increase business and much-needed tax revenue for City Hall. nicipal Services Tax, comes out to around $349,396, bringing the

Trepa clarified that this report represents about “eight months expenditures by city staff. Mayor Bill Biasi also noted that the City does not anticipate filling any of the vacancies before the end of the fiscal year at the end of June, leaving that area of funding predictable for now. incredible job get- ting us here.” She also noted that vacancies don’t mean work isn’t getting done “It means that people are doing extra.”

In a statement to the Express, Mohan noted the challenges of getting the hotel to this point but also the excitement of having the hotel open now.

“It took four years to build because of loosen previous requirements and bring our response to COVID-19 in line with our response to other infectious diseases,” said Yolo County Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson.

“Shifting from masking requirements to masking recommendations in healthcare settings is an important step into a post-emergency world. If the COVID-19 situation changes, we will revisit masking and other policies as needed.”

While masking will no longer be required of everyone in healthcare settings, protective policies and upgraded ventilation systems remain in place, according net difference in revenues to only $30,268, “which, all things considered, is actually pretty good.” tect to draw up some plans of what could be done on lot three with that money. Trepa described the designs as a lot of turf and several trees, of which the number can be cut back on from lots One and Two and “a perimeter sidewalk, and a couple concrete paths and walkways through to the other side, that’s all that we anticipate we would be able to fund with the remaining balance.” Trepa also stated that there was a possibility the City may agree to relieve HBT of building this third lot and have the City take on the responsibility, though that decision would

COVID” Mohan said explaining it was an unusually lengthy timeline in his experience because “normally it only takes around 14 months to build a hotel.”

“But now that the hotel is open, we welcome our guests,” Mohan said.

Mohan said a number of the amenities to Sisson. Before the pandemic, healthcare settings had policies and procedures in place to provide masks to persons with respiratory illnesses or weakened immune systems, and for staff to wear masks around patients with respiratory illnesses. These policies will be reinstated.

Additionally, during flu season, workers in healthcare settings in Yolo County are required to wear a mask if they aren’t vaccinated against influenza through April 30.

Winters JUSD

On March 13, Winters Joint Unified School District released changes to its COVID-related of activities” from July 2022, but does include calculations and predictions with likely funding and be made by the council at a later date.

Trepa also addressed concerns about the lack of restrooms and said the city was allocating utility funds to purchase and set up some.

Chris Dickinson, a representative from HBT, thanked city staff and expressed the company’s excitement to see this project completed. When asked by Trepa when the fences would come down around the park, Dickinson said “we were thinking April 3, as long as we got all the paperwork done.” of the hotel, including some that Winters residents may find especially useful. protocols, including that school districts are no longer required to notify families when there is a COVID exposure on campus.

The resolution was passed unanimously by Councilmembers.

“We have some great complimentary breakfasts, from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. daily, we have a spa and a pool available,” said Mohan, as well as “a great conference room and meeting rooms, we have meeting rooms up to 12 people and a conference room available for up to 150 people, one of the very few places that have such a big conference room,” providing large space that residents can reserve for events and other gatherings.

After testing positive or at the onset of symptoms of COVID-19, to return to school, students must: isolate for 5 days, have improving symptoms and be fever free for 24 hours. Students are not required to provide a negative test to return to school on Day Six.

Masking continues to be recommended for those two years and older in indoor settings in Yolo County based on the ongoing circulation of multiple respiratory viruses.

Councilmember Jesse Loren commended the work of city staff, noting the achievement, saying “Bill and I are in our seventh year” on the council “we haven’t had years in the black. We’ve had a lot of years in the red, so I just wanted to acknowledge that staff has done an

Biasi agreed and noted that while the vacancies can be helpful for budgets “it’s definitely not sustainable” and that the City must “get people in here to fill those positions as soon as we can” to alleviate the workload of the current staff.

The council approved putting the extra revenue into the reserve balance unanimously.