BEST AROUND:Evans,Pisulaaw arded top MLL honors MORE IN SPORTS:201 5All-MLL volleyball team selected; Warriors answer critics on the floor, IC1
AND INSIDE:Last-minute gift ideas, A5
1HE MOl HERLODE'8 LEADING INFORMATION GOURCE SINCE1854 • SONORA, CALIFORNIA
THURSDA Y
DECEMBER 10, 2015
Recordlow
TODAY'S RHLDiRBOA RD BRIEFING By GUY McCARTHY
elevation— 586.5 feet above sea level — is being billed as an all-time record low. In spite of the wetter winFloating pumps on Mcter season so far, Lake Mc- Clure are still providing waClure on the Merced River is ter for 3,200 people served by holding just 6 percent of its Lake Don PedroCommunity totalcapacity and its surface Services District, thanks to The Union Democrat
Renovations In progressUpgrades to Sonora High's cafeteria, funded by the $23 million Measure J bond passed in 2012, are underway.A2
an order &om the state allowing the district to draw water even though it's well below minimum pool. But barring a seriesof freak storms between now and Christmas, that order expires Dec. 31 and Lake Don
Pedro CSD is preparing to switch over to grant-funded emergency wells they' ve pursuedforthe pastyearto cope with this foreseeable crisis. That means Lake Don Pedro CSD could be one of the first water agencies in Califor-
FEMA $$
Drug policy-
sought for treatment facilities
POIe b%8k — Telephone, not electric, pole break cause of Tuesday power outage.A2
Filters would help with debris from Butte Fire
Vital Stats — A li~ of births, deaths and marriages recorded in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties.A3
By LACEY PETERSON The Union Democrat
A peer support group to help afnicted spouses and caregiversofveterans with
OPlnlOn — Union Democrat editorial: W atchful eyes on TUD after rate hike. Harrop: Dems could pick off some Trump supporters. A4
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By JASON COWAN
f'
The Union Democrat
a controversial issue called
secondary PTSD is forming in Sonora. It isthe second of its kind in the nation. Numerous studies have found that partners of vet erans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are more likely to develop their own mental health problems. Many people don't know they have it, said Nina Schloffel, the co-founder of thegroup, a specialprogram ofthe Associates of Vietnam Veterans in California. A pilot group has been meeting in Fresno for three years. It was during her first marriage that she was exposed to PTSD and developed what she realizes now was secondary PTSD. Schloff el, 67, married her high school sweetheart when he returned from serving in Vietnam. "I knew he was different somehow," she said. ''He was demonstrating behaviorsthat were difficult to understand including physical and emotional
News elsewhere — Education law rewrite passes Congress; FBI: CA Shooters radicalized at least 2 years ago.AS
HEALTH
• DENTAL BARRIERS: Some seniors challenged to keep teeth healthy.B1 • NEW DOCTOR: Surgeon Kenichi Miyata joins Sonora Regional Medical Center.B1 • DR. OZ:Home cookin' can rock your world. B1 • HOSPITAL AWARDED:SRMC received several awards from The Joint Commission and the Collaborative Alliance for Nursing Outcomes.B2
Joel Metzger was driving adjacent to the North Fork Calaveras River along Jesus Maria Road after the most recent storm and witnessed water conditions he considered devastating. The water, known to show minor discoloration following a largestorm from time to time, resembled nothing like what is seen today — chocolate milk with a pulp-like sediment floating along the top, running downstream. It is because of the Butte Fire that conditions have deteriorated. But the consternation is not just isolated to that specific location within the burn footprint. "The concern is that we had a huge amount ofthe Calaveras watershed burned by the Butte Fire and that has left these bare, denuded landscapes that are covered in ash," said Metzger, a public information officer with the Calaveras County Water District. "Some of them are hydrophobic so the water is going right over them, but some are starting to erode and the water is carrying
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abuse."
But in those days, she was convinced she could change him. It was later on, during her second marSee GROUP /Back Page
ash, soils,organic matter
and in some cases some toxic chemicals from house sites that burned that m aybe
Maggie Beck /Union Democrat
Purchasephotos online at www.uniondemocrat.corn
Nina and Barry Schloffel, of Sonora, are active in Tuolumne County veterans organizations.
See CCWD/Back Page
TCTC to pay $540K for unanticipated bypass work
NEWS TIPS?
tive director, said the money will come &om proceeds generated by the sale of excessright-of-way parcels along The Tuolumne CountyTransporta- Highway 108 and won't affect the tion Council will be required to cover TCTC's regular funding streams. "Change orders and cost overruns ... about $540,000 of a contractor's unanticipated costs for work completed on are not uncommon in the construction the second phase of the East Sonora world," he said."You try to avoid them, Bypass project. but at some point you' ve got to pay the Darin Grossi, the council's execu- bill."
PHONE: 770-7153,5884534
By ALEK MacLEAN
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The Union Democrat
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See LAKE /Back Page
CCWD
SECONDARY PTSD
Hospital sees increase in patients seeking pain meds, prompts policy reminder.A2
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nia forced to cut itself off &om itsprimary water source. McClure is an example of how regulations contribute to what state water officials describeasa historicdrought.
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Meet Dr. Singhal. An expert in cancer. And kindness.
cured through the Proposition 1B-created Corridor Mobility Improvement Account and a 2006 voter-approved transportation bond measure. The project was contracted to Teichert/MCM Construction in 2012. Construction was completed a year ahead of schedule, providing about
The $53.4 million bypass, which opened todrivers in late 2013, extendedthe Kghway 108 thoroughfare &om Peaceful Oak Road, where the first phase ended, to Via Este. A third phase will eventually complete the bypass from Sanguinetti Road in Sonora to the four-lane stretch in Soulsbyville. After decades of planning, funding forthe project's second phase was se-
Q l g
See BYPASS / Back Page
TodaYHigh 53, Low da Friday:High 51, Low 29
satu rday: High 53, Low 41
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