Archive
July 1st, 2011
Reds Meadow and Devils Postpile Roads opened Wednesday and the shuttle buses are running. Yeah! But there’s a lot of water down there, and the Middle Fork of the San Joaquin River is flooding. Plus, a lot of trails are damaged or under water. So, be careful, be very, very careful. ...
June 28th
A 65-year-old Placerville woman died June 23 after trying to lead her horse across a snow bridge in the Cottonwood Lakes Wilderness area southwest of Lone Pine.
Deborah Behrendt died after a snow bridge gave way as she was trying to lead her horse across it, according to the Inyo County Sheriff's Department. A snow bridge forms across streams or small rivulets durign spring runoff conditions and is hollow underneath a covering of snow. Behrendt's horse reacted when the bridge gave way, causing the horse behind her horse to rear up and come down on Behrendt's chest.
June 27th
Mono Basin Historical Society Vice President David Dore will be coordinating a work party to repair the roof of the Upside Down House, wall of the Old Schoolhouse, and hopefully the handicapped access ramp if time, labor and materials allow this Thursday, June 30.
Meet at the Museum at 9:00 a.m. if you can help. Dore hopes to have a good turnout to accomplish the repairs.
Please direct questions to Dave, 760-647-1055.
June 24th
By
George Shirk - Times Senior Writer
Whitmore Pool’s fate came right down to the wire on Wednesday.
It came as the Mammoth Lakes Town Council struggled to balance its 2011-12 budget.
If it was not a last-second reprieve, it was certainly a last-hour reprieve for advocates of the pool.
They will find the pool’s hours of operation the same; the water comfortable and inviting, just as swimmers there have known for many years.
By
Wendilyn Grasseschi - Times Staff Writer
As a neighborhood, a community, a county, who are we?
That question is at the heart of the work that a group of local residents is doing right now.
Their answers have the potential to redefine the question.
Couched in the term “redistricting”, these residents have been working for the past several weeks to come up with ways to re-draw Mono County’s five supervisorial districts.
Redistricting is necessary in the county because the 2010 Census revealed that the districts are now lopsided in terms of population. They must be made equal.
Interim Town Manager Marianna Marysheva-Martinez’s contract runs out at the end of June, but don’t count on it sticking, say Town Hall insiders. Once the Hot Creek judgment lands, the town staff is going to need a whole lot of help, and there’s no help like MMM’s ...
Hoidy-toidy Grinnell College in Iowa put Bishop’s Drew Blumberg on the Dean’s List for the spring semester, and that’s a big darned deal in academic circles. He’s majoring in Biological Chemistry. Parents Stephen and Sandra Blumberg are proud as punch. ...
A record snowfall and resulting damage has delayed the opening of the Reds Meadow Road to Wednesday, June 29. The target date of June 24 was not met due to the time required to remove hazards and debris, and to make repairs along the roadway as a result of winter avalanches and harsh conditions. The road, with access to the Devils Postpile National Monument, will open at 8:00 am on June 29 with shuttle bus services beginning immediately.
June 22nd
By
Wendilyn Grasseschi - Times Staff Writer
Jim Arkens has been named the Mono County administrator, or CAO.
Arkens has served the county as the director for the Human Resources department for the past year. He takes the place of former CAO Dave Wilbrecht, who left the county to become the new Town manager for the Town of Mammoth Lakes last month.
Arkens, 58, was chosen by the county board of supervisors after a closed session Tuesday.
June 21st
The Bureau of Land Management’s Bishop Field Office will conduct a open-to-the public field exam and two public scoping meetings for the Ewind Farm and ENEL (Padoma) wind monitoring project areas within the Black Lake, Adobe Valley, and Granite Mountain areas west of Benton in eastern California.
June 20th
If there are any dreamers out there who may have thought that Meb-the K has lost a step or two, they didn’t see him win the San Diego half -marathon two weekends ago in his home town. ...
In other running news, Deena Kastor finished 25th in the New York Road Runners half-marathon earlier this months, just three months after giving birth to her first child. Linat Masai ran away from a field that featured 12 Olympians to win in 31:40, 29 seconds ahead of Aheza Kiros of Ethiopia, to win her second straight Mini 10k. ...
On Saturday, June 18, as Mammoth Monster Motocross got under way, Ryan Hughes #4 (Temecula, Calif.) won the first moto in the Vet Pro 30+, but Jeremy Mcgrath (#2) (Encinitas, Calif.) Â went on to win the finals. Sunday, it all belonged to Hughes.
The search continues in Yosemite National Park for missing hiker George Penca, who was last seen at the top of Yosemite Falls on Friday, June 17. Due to the fact that the area has been thoroughly searched by personnel and dogs, the terrain is rugged and steep, and no clues have been found, search efforts are being scaled back.
June 17th
By
George Shirk, Times Senior Writer
For more than three decades, the “Motocross Mom” had a dual love affair.
It is now broken in half. Gale Webb, whom Mammoth Motocross organizer Laurey Carlson characterized as “the face of the Motocross,” lost her beloved husband Jim just three weeks ago.
But Webb is here for this year’s event because her love affair with Mammoth still goes on.
“Someday I will join Jim and we will be up here together.
By
Diane Eagle, Times Editor
ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?
It’s a blue sky day.
In Mammoth that means mountains in clear relief against a cobalt sky, lakes and rivers that sparkle and rush.
And it’s Saturday: Day 2 of the Blue Sky Fest, spread out around and adjacent to the grounds of Cerro Coso College.
The newest facet of this festival is the Blue Sky Experience – a cooking competition; seminars on wine and food pairings, complete with demonstrations; 20 wineries pouring exquisite tastings; and a live auction – all wrapped up in music by City Folk, Strunz and Farah, Vance Gilbert and the Tito Puente, Jr. Orchestra.
By
George Shirk, Times Senior Writer
Grim work on Town
finances cuts, and cuts, and cuts
There may as well have been blood in the streets.
The Mammoth Lakes Town Council, facing a shortfall budget of more than $2 million and a deadline of June 22 for a reckoning, took out its machetes on Wednesday night and got to work on the finances.
Three police officers will have to go. Any improvements to the town’s dilapidated police station are a ha-ha-ha.
At least one staffer – maybe more – will have to leave Public Works.
