Archive - Aug 2012 - News Article
August 24th
The saga of Southern California developer Terry Ballas and the Mammoth Yosemite Airport goes back through several Mammoth Lakes Town Councils and Town Managers to 1997.
That year, the Town Council signed a development agreement with Ballas allowing him to build condominiums and retail facilities at the airport.
By
George Shirk - Times News Editor
The Mammoth Huskies open their football season this evening at Gault/McClure Stadium, but the rah-rah has been taken out of them.
Their best player, their hardest worker, and the lifeblood of their defenseâMatt Graefâhas been undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer at a UC Davis hospital. As they fight to make themselves a football team, Graef is fighting for his life.
An unusual pattern has developed during this summerâs festival season.
The events start out under blue, beautiful skies, are interrupted by the usual thunderstorm and in the end, everyone has a fine time and goes home.
So it was last weekend when the Mammoth Festival opened with a wine walk in the Village on Friday night, and an evening of music at Samâs Woodsite on Saturday.
The star, Kenny Loggins, was just about the only star anyone could see as he strode on stage, what with the last vestiges of that afternoonâs rain clouds moving off.
Lost in the drama of the last-minute Town Council closed meetings dealing with MLLA was the tale of Councilman Michael Raimondo, who was airlifted to Reno after complaining of chest pains. The Docs cleared him, but not before he conferenced in to the meeting while hooked up to oxygen and whatever else they were giving him via IV. Turned out to be an enzyme reaction, not a heart attack. …
Yosemite National Park will celebrate the 96th birthday of the National Park Service (NPS) by holding a series of activities focused on âWhat NPS Rangers doâ on Saturday, Aug. 25.
The activities will be held at the Yosemite Valley Visitor Center from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and will include presentations on search and rescue, fire management, education, resource management and science, and the University of California at Merced Ranger Program.
Additionally, a youth-oriented service project will be led from the visitor center.
Beginning Sept. 7, a special personal use fuelwood cutting area in the June Lake Loop will be opened by the Inyo National Forest. This area is located on the north side of S.R. 158 opposite from the Fern Lake Trailhead.
You must have a valid 2012 personal use fuelwood permit to collect dead and down material only.
This area will be closed Oct. 31, or sooner, if the Forest Service has determined sufficient firewood has been removed to reduce hazardous fuel conditions.
Dog Sled Adventures owner Jim Ouimet got support from most of the Mono County Board of Supervisors Tuesday to work with county staff to find a âbare bonesâ way to give Ouimet a better living situation.Ouimetâs dog sled business is located on county land, under a county lease, off the Casa Diablo Road east of Mammoth Lakes and the S.R. 203/U.S. 395 junction.
Mono County holds its annual budget hearings next week, beginning on Monday, Aug. 27 and ending on Wednesday, Aug. 29.
The hearings will be held in Bridgeport on Aug. 27 and Aug. 29 at the Mono County Courthouse Board of Supervisors Chambers.
They will be held in Mammoth Lakes on Aug. 28 at the third floor of the Sierra Center Mall (Shogun mall).
The hearings begin at 9 a.m. each day.
June Lake residents gathered together this past weekend to assign volunteers to work on the coming winterâs plan to keep June alive in the face of the closure of the June Mountain Ski Area. The residents were given $100,000 from Mono County last week toward the effort, with the money funneled through the countyâs tourism department.
The California Public Utilities Commission voted Thursday to approve a $286,398 grant to Verizon California, Inc. to bring high-speed internet broadband service to Swall Meadows and Crowley Lake even before the Digital 395 project is completed, according to Steven Kalish.
Kalish is a Swall Meadows resident who has been working on the issue for several years.
The cable must be in place by Jan. 28, Kalish said.
âThey are under orders to get it done by then,â he said.
Car registration documents seem to be the primary target in a string of car break-ins over the past few months, according to Mammoth Lakes police officers.
Stolen car registrations (along with some low-value items like cell phone chargers and lipstick) concern Mammoth Lakes Police Detective Dan Casabian.
âYour address is on the registration,â he said. âIâm wondering if they might be using this to target other burglaries.â
He said what bothers him most is that all the cars were unlocked.
âI hear it all the time, âThis is Mammoth Lakes and nothing happens in Mammoth,ââ he said.
If Mono County doesnât grab the incoming wave of international tourists in the next decade or so, it will be stuck as it is nowâa weekend and holiday destination for drive-up visitors from the Bay Area and Southern California.
If it does, it will have the opportunity to sharply increase the number of visitors that come on weekdays, during the shoulder season andâmost criticallyâspend a lot of money while they are here, compared to domestic visitors, according to Mono Countyâs chief economic development manager, Alicia Vennos.
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Mammoth Lakes Tourism Director John Urdi came out of Tuesdayâs county supervisors meeting looking like a man at the end of his rope.
âI feel like Iâve failed,â he told the five supervisors Tuesday, as he made the case that the county should contribute at least $100,000 toward year-round air service subsidies next year. âIf you do not see the value of air service to you, to this county, to your constituents, after two years, Iâve failed.
It was supposed to be a hot, sunny week up here.
All week.
All the meteorological models showed relentless sun. None showed thunder, lightening, rain.
Yet at about 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Eastern Sierra residents sprang from their beds after a crash of thunder started off a spectacular lightning storm that lit the night sky for hours and dumped an inch of rain.
By 7 a.m., when the clouds had cleared, the White Mountains were cloaked in a thick, white blanket that looked very much like snow.
August 23rd
The body of Jacob Adams, 6, who was swept into the Merced River on Wednesday, August 15, was recovered on Thursday, Aug. 23.
Jacob was wading in the Merced River with his ten year old brother, Andres “Andy” Adams, near the Vernal Fall Footbridge on Aug. 15 when they were swept downstream. Andy was pulled from the river by a park visitor shortly after the incident but resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.
