Trepa announces retirement plans

By Crystal Apilado Editor-in-Chief

The City of Winters will soon begin a search for a new City Manager.

In her Friday, April 28 update, City Manager Kathleen Salguero Trepa announced her intentions to retire.

“I have decided to retire in the Fall, upon the completion of my contract term to spend more time with family who are scattered around the country and in Spain,” Trepa said.

Winters City Council held a closed session to discuss succession planning for the City Manager position.

Trepa said the goal is to create “as little disruption as possible to the organization and by extension the community” by creating a soft landing as part of the transition to whomever is hired to

By Crystal Apilado

Editor-in-Chief

Winters Police Department and Winters Joint Unified School District issued messages to the community on Tuesday afternoon following concerns regarding public safety after the City of Davis’ third stabbing incident in five days — the most recent one late Monday night left a female victim in critical condition.

Police Chief John

P. Miller told the Express that multiple agencies across Yolo County are providing assistance to Davis Police Department, including Winters PD.

Miller said, there is “no reason whatsoever to believe that people in Winters are in any danger” and advised concerned residents to “be aware of their

Planning Commission approves Grocery Outlet sign amendment

By Jacob Hoffman Express staff writer

The Winters Planning Commission held a public hearing to discuss approving a new monument sign for the Grocery Outlet store on Grant Avenue.

with a brick veneer matching the brick veneer approved for the store.” the City Manager role. Plans and details for the upcoming search for a new City Manager will be shared at a future City Council meeting.

Councilmembers appointed Trepa as the Winters City Manager in October 2020 and her official start date was Nov. 9, 2020.

At the time, Trepa came to the City of Winters with nearly 25 years of experience in local government surroundings.”

On Tuesday, Winters PD posted a social media message releasing information about the suspect, who remains at large, is described as a light-complected male with curly hair, 5–foot-6 to 5-foot-9 ,with a thin build, wearing a black or blue sweatshirt, white striped black Adidas pants, black shoes and carrying a brown backpack.

“Like others in our community, we are closely monitoring the information that is being released about the incidents that have occurred in Davis. There is no indication there is any connection or threat to public safety in Winters,” the post stated.

Winters JUSD also posted a message on Tuesday to families in response to

See CRIME, Page 5 as well as six years in the private sector. She had served as Assistant City Manager with the City of Concord for over three years and had previously served the cities of Goleta, Claremont, San Marcos and San Juan Capistrano.

Trepa was hired following the resignation of John W. Donlevy, Jr., who announced he had accepted the City Manager’s position in Auburn in June 2020.

Grocery Outlet requested an amendment to the Site Plan/ Design Review and Sign Permit previously approved by the Planning Commission on Sept. 27, 2022. In the staff report attached to the meeting, the amendment was “to include a new monument sign” that would “be located perpendicular to Grant Avenue near the plaza” with the size being “proposed to be five feet high by five feet wide and would be finished

Senior City Planner Kirk Skierski told Planning Commissioners that, “in evaluating design review and sign permit requests, the primary focus is compliance with the sign regulations in the city’s design guidelines.” Two of those guidelines, one stating that signs should be made of material “in harmony” with the rest of the exterior and the other stating the size of the sign, are met by the proposed sign. Skierksi said the sign is similar to one already in use by the Yolo Federal Credit Union building, and added that staff recommends “a new condition requir- ing the design of the proposed monument sign be modified to include adding brick veneer columns to hide the sides.”

In the public comment session, resident Kate Laddish sought clarification on how the sign differed from the kind of “canned sign” that the city prohibits.

The Grant Avenue Design Guidelines prohibits “canned signs” described as an “internally illuminated plastic box” but allows for “individually illuminated channel letters.” Skierski notes that this proposed sign is “technically a canned sign but has additional facade treatments of these brick columns going up the side to further See SIGN, Page 5

Demographic study predicts moderate growth of student enrollment in near future

By Jacob Hoffman Express staff writer

Rob Murray, the Director of Demographics for King Consulting, presented to the Winters Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees a Demographic Analysis and Enrollment Projection Study regarding the predictable near future of Winters JUSD’s enrollment numbers.

The April 20 presentation’s overview stated that “Winters JUSD enrollment is positioned to decrease based only on demographic trends. However, other factors will offset what would oth- erwise be decreased enrollments, leading to enrollment gains in the coming years. Increasing transitional kindergarten (TK) enrollment eligibility. Additional students moving to Winters due to residential development.”

“Those factors together,” Murray said, “are enough to more than offset what would otherwise look like a modest decrease.”

Regarding historical enrollment trends, Murray says Winters JUSD has been “remarkably steady” with enrollment since 2014 staying between 1,520 and 1,570 students. Looking more particularly at the numbers, Murray presented the kindergarten and transitional kindergarten enrollment numbers as “one of the biggest engines that drives how a school district’s total enrollment is going to rise and fall is what’s the difference of those new cohorts coming in, and how do they compare to the older cohorts that are moving out.”

Murray noted that since the 2019–2020 school year, kindergarten enrollment numbers have been slightly lower than their previous numbers, but that the addition of transition- al kindergarten has mitigated or even surpassed previous enrollment numbers. An important factor in enrollment that Murray highlighted is student generation rates, which he explains as “basically, a number of homes are going to be built, how many kids do you think you will actually see in terms of new enrollment from those new homes?” Looking at data used by King Consulting, Winters JUSD can expect that for single-family homes “for every 10 homes that are built… you would expect

See STUDY, Page 5