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Front Page
this week:
July 1st,
2008
Full
stories available in current issue
Photos by Walt Caldwell
A bulldozer cuts a firebreak just off the road to the sand pit above
the Hat Creek Park last Tuesday as threat of Venture Fire dwindled
Firefighters have handle on Peterson
Fire
McARTHUR - The Peterson Complex, including the
Peterson and Popcorn Fires, was considered 95% contained Sunday in
spite of gusty winds. Full containment was expected by 6 p.m. Monday.
The fire is managed by the Southern Area Red Team and CAL FIRE under
unified command.
Crews were reported to have made great strides in containing the
fire. Control lines held
The fire is located 6 miles southwest of McArthur.
As of Sunday the two fires combined had burned 7,824 acres..
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Fireworks snuffed out
By Ron Mosher
Mountain Echo reporter
BURNEY - With fire conditions at a hazardous level in northern
California, the Burney Rotary Club was faced with a monumental decision
to make regarding their Burney Basin Days Fireworks show set for this
Saturday night.
The club decided to heed the request of Governor Arnold Schwarzeneger,
and postponed the annual pyrotechnic display - and the family fun night
that was set to precede the fireworks at the Burney high football field.
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Forclosures hit
home
By Sue Edmondson
Mountain Echo reporter
Earl and Billie Rainwater can imagine only one thing worse than going
public about possibly losing their home to foreclosure, and that would
be actually losing it. So Earl, who refuses to use his walker in public
because he doesn't want people to know how bad he hurts, and Billie,
who never asks for help with anything, did what they've never
done-they're talking about their situation.
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Residents react
to evacuation orders
By Sue Edmondson
Mountain Echo reporter
Dan and Sharon Harney moved to the Sand Pit subdivision 23 years ago.
Their home is where they've made their lives and they had no intention
of letting it go up in flames. When the lightening storm sparked fires
nearby on the 21st, they pulled out the hoses and wet down the woodpile
and the roof. And when the call for mandatory evacuation came, they
stayed put. "We were going to save our home," says Sharon.
They were ready to go if the time came. "You're susceptible to nature
when you live out here, "she says. "That's just the way it is. So you
prepare. We've got defensible space all around our home."
Despite living in the woods, this is the first time a fire has come so
close. "We've been called on to evacuate one other time, but we've
never seen anything like this before."
Down the road in Big Eddy Estates, smoke suggested to John and Phyllis
Funk that the fire was nearby. The fact was confirmed when they
received the "prepare to evacuate" reverse 911 call. "If you were
talking to John, you'd hear a completely different version of the
events," says Phyllis. "He was completely calm, and I was running
around in a frenzy."
In the background John calls out, "I wasn't going anywhere."
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Want your
hospital? Write your legislator!
By Sue Edmondson
Mountain Echo reporter
Hospital finances are like a house of cards-if you take off the top
layer, it stays intact. But when you pull a card from the bottom, the
whole thing collapses. If Medi-cal cuts force Mayers Memorial Hospital
to limit services such as obstetrics, or to close one or both of its
skilled nursing facilities, hospital operations and the entire
community face repercussions.
That's the reason that Mayers CEO Katharine Ann Campbell is asking area
residents to contact legislators and request that they take action to
exclude rural hospitals from the upcoming cuts. "People don't
understand the seriousness of what's going on," she says. "The fabric
of the health care system in California is unraveling and becoming so
shredded that it can't be rewoven."
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Midge attacking
Fountain Fire planting
By Walt Caldwell
Mountain Echo editor
HATCHET MOUNTAIN - The Fountain Fire was in 1992 and the trees
that were planted over much of the 64,000 acres of burned timberland
are at the right age to attract the Guty Itch Midge, which they have.
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Temperatures
soar over therapy pool
By Walt Caldwell
Mountain Echo editor
BURNEY - The Burney Water District's small board room was packed with
unhappy pool customers last Wednesday.
What started out as a heated discussion over the oscillating
temperatures of the therapy pool ended with an impasse between the
reality of customer's pocketbooks and that of operating the facility.
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Hatchery’s
worst fears may be realized
CASSSEL - When
Leilani Tracy, 40, Bryan Bower, 39, Justin Noel, 17, Josh Rose
16, and Mathew Tracy, 13, reportedly were involved in vandalizing
the Crystal Lake Fish Hatchery, and illegally taking fish earlier this
month, two of the boys who waded in the hatchery's tanks to net the
prize German Brown had been in the water at Baum Lake. They may have,
according to authorities, transferred a parasite, deadly to the
Hatchery's fish to the ponds.
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