The Salida Municipal Advisory Council meeting is Tuesday, September 24 at 7 p.m. in the Nick W. Blom Salida Regional Library 
Community Room located at 4835 Sisk Road, Salida. Featured speaker will be Andrew Malizia on “Stanislaus County Public Works”. Visit Salida MAC’s online newsletter for more information: http://salidamac.blogspot.com or e-mail salidamac@gmail.com for more info.
Just a reminder to attend the Salida Municipal Advisory Council’s (Salida MAC) meeting tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 7 pm at the Salida Library Community Room. Featured topic will be “Pathways to Jobs & Prosperity” presentation presented by the Modesto Chamber of Commerce. Their plan is an expansion upon the City of Modesto’s General Plan update and they’ve requested it be adopted by the Modesto City Council and Planning Commission. Modesto’s General Plan has included Salida since the 1990’s. A map of the plan can be viewed at the Salida MAC newsletter link below.
PLEASE NOTE: The parking lot may fill up so volunteers will be on hand to direct parking. Please consider carpooling or being dropped off too.
By Jim Bonetti
The people of Salida have had to fight to protect our land ans homes every time a current Modesto mayor takes a notion to annex us. We are aware of what you Chamber says of the mayors and councils. Every administration for the past 30 years has failed to do anything to improve business here because they did not know what to do or how to do it!
You did manage to steal some nice pieces of Salida for Kaiser Hospital, Costco, Lowes, and Save Mart….THROUGH EXTORTION! No Water without annexation! Mr. Mayor, you did play by LAFCO’s rules, you sent out notices to farmers within 300 feet of the property to be annexed. Not enough to get writers cramp, for sure. Most of Salida never knew what hit us! Salida shrank a little more that day to feed Modesto’s gluttonous appetite for more tax money to spend.
You say you’re doing it for JOBS, JOBS, JOB! That is crap and you know it. You don’t care about jobs, REAL, GOOD PAYING JOBS. You care about legacy, campaign donors, and what the people think of your progress and accomplishments! That’s what you care about. I’ve been hearing all about some 27,000 jobs you will create by developing all of that PRIME FARMLAND and ANNEXING SALIDA. There is little that can compete with the gross farm product from that land. You can’t develop ANYTHING that can compete with those farmers. THEY know what they’re doing! All of this speculation about commercial/industrial development in the greater “Beckwith Triangle”, which doesn’t much look like a triangle anymore, is your PIPE DREAM!
The jobs brought here will be lost somewhere else, but hey, why would companies want to move to Modesto anyway? Modesto according to statistics, is the 6th worst town to live in, and the 6th WORSE RUN city and they don’t want to move there because there are fewer educated people there to work in their businesses. I mentioned that fact at the “Transportation Workshop: meeting last year at city hall and was just ignored. They had an agenda to promote and couldn’t be bothered with statistics.
Now, you think it’s high time, Mr. Marsh and Council, to do something outstanding for the constituents so they think you’re doing Mayor’s job for once. You can pump up your tax base and developers can line their pockets!! Something to pull Modesto out of the hole. You’ll get a lot of tax money out of the people of Salida by annexing our town or cherry picking pieces of Salida because you think it’s the answer to what ails Modesto! You figure to cure Modesto’s problem on the backs of the good people of Salida. WHAT A DESPICABLE ACT OF OPPRESSION!! There is nothing you or your council can do or will do for Salida that we can’t do for ourselves with incorporation. Water or no water , the people of Salida will make it happen.
You have been told EVERY TIME we DON”T WANT TO BE ANNEXED!! WHAT PART DON”T YOU UNDERSTAND??!!
By Jim Bonetti
Salida CA.
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Salida CA Town Meeting 2013 April smac-4-13-tree-update-wmv–2h15min http://vimeo.com/65049928 “Salida CA Town Meeting Stanislaus County Parks Dept reports back to us regarding replanting the ‘bad trees’ that will be cut down due to breaking up the sidewalk and getting into the pools of backyards with root systems its still clear that the county has no plan to select the tree that will be best for the community and is stuck in a corporate frame of mind to use the cheap trees and the low bid contractors meeting runs 2 hours 15 minutes produced by Brad Johnson at the local public radio station 104.9 FM http://www.kgig.org”; |
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By Emerson Drake
We had a room full of City of Modesto Staff and of course Mayor Marsh and Councilman Codgill. The County was out in
A montage I (Valente Q.C.) made with pictures that I took for the Infobox in the Modesto, California Article. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
force With Supervisors Terry Withrow and Board Chairman Supervisor Vito Chiesa along with CEO Monica Nino and staff. The Ad Hoc Committee is led by Thomas Reeves but the meeting was dominated by Katherine Borges. Because of the research she has done she challenged the Goodwin Report’s numbers and quite honestly the report was found lacking in accuracy. Despite being paid $60,000 by the city and county the Goodwin representative was forced to admit the “costing figures” were estimates not grounded in fact but estimates created by using fuzzy numbers. Ms. Borges rightly pointed on the vast difference between the amounts charges to contract cities and those “allotted” to Salida for the Sheriff’s Department.
Mayor Marsh admitted he might have jumped the gun by talking about the possible annexation of Salida last year by not quietly consulting with Salida first and Ms. Borges underlined his comment and placed an exclamation point after it. She repeatedly said Salida does NOT want to be annexed by Modesto. She set off the short fused Modesto Councilman Dave Cogdill. How a man with such a short temper ever made it into politics is a wonder. Of course it might have something to do with riding his daddy’s coattails and the silver spoon of entitlement he was born with.
He basically said “why should Modesto be at these meetings since you aren’t going to believe a word we say.” Here is where I believe an opportunity was lost. If someone would have taken him up on his offer to walk away I really think he would have left just as he started to at a Salida MAC meeting. Supervisor Chiesa talked him down from the ledge that night but since the Supervisor was under the weather today maybe he would have let Cogdill walk. Believe me it would have been no loss because of his my way or the highway attitude.
They Mayor offered to help by using Modesto staff and his experience to assist Salida in exploring incorporation. My real thoughts are, if Salida has difficulty early on in the conversation in securing the financial wherewithal to stand alone the County will try to push the Salida MAC into a shotgun wedding with Modesto.
As usual the topic came around to jobs and shovel ready land. It appeared both the County and Modesto’s leaders thought the EIR or environmental impact reports had been done on the 1,000 of business park in the Salida plan. But Matt Machado threw ice water on their warm and fuzzy moment. NO EIR has been completed according to Mr. Machado. So what no one said until AFTER the meeting, because the public wasn’t allowed to speak was the question, “Who controls the county’s largest business Park?” The County does…its name is WestPark.
So now we know the Salida business park ISN’T shovel ready. Will Modesto still thirst for the annexation?
You better believe it. There are too many on the Council who see that land as being good for THEIR own pocketbooks. And for my two cents that starts with Councilmen Dave Cogdill and Joe Muratore.
The Ad Hoc meetings will continue in the future but sadly no one on the Ad Hoc Committee suggested the public be allowed to contribute in the future. If we go the taxpaying public be forced to sit quietly and watch.
Topics include Salida Annexation, Salida Ad Hoc Committee, the Salida MAC meeting, the General Plan Amendment for
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Modesto, Modesto’s Ag mitigation policy decision, Campaign Donation limits, Safety worker overtime, Golfing locally, these and more so tune in at 6:30 PM Wednesday and find out the things you really need to know.
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Last Months Salida MAC Minutes courtesy of http://salidamac.blogspot.com/
English: Map of the Stanislaus River, a major tributary of the San Joaquin River, CA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Salida Annexation Report – Salida Municipal Advisory Council Chairman, Thomas Reeves, moved the annexation agenda item up to be discussed and voted upon first. Chairman Reeves read a statement and then asked the other MAC council members for their comments. He then opened the topic for public comment and discussion. The MAC council voted 4-0 against annexation with the public’s support. The Salida MAC council and members of the community requested that Stanislaus County District 3 Supervisor, Terry Withrow, support the position. Salida MAC’s vote and Supervisor Withrow’s decision to support the Salida MAC vote were covered by several local media outlets:
“Salida leaders vote against annexation plans” – KCRA 3 – Feb 27, 2013
“Salida advisory council rejects Modesto annexation plan” – The Modesto Bee – Feb 27, 2013
“Modesto’s Salida annexation proposal gains a foe in Supervisor Withrow” – The Modesto Bee – Mar 1, 2013
Salida Postmaster Report – Salida Postmaster, John Paul Cabral, reported that there had been 90 mailboxes broken into in the area, 14 of which are in Salida. Postmaster Cabral asked that Salida residents please pull their mail from the mailboxes because there are gangs coming in from Modesto targeting Salida’s mailboxes. The Stanislaus County Sheriff has made two arrests so far. Thanks to an alert postal clerk at the Salida Post Office, a man was arrested who had been robbing post offices.
Salida Fire Department Report – Capt. Greg Bragg reported January’s numbers for Station 12 which ran 164 calls serving two fire management areas: from Dale Road to Ladd comes back in on Kiernan and down the Sisk Road corridor and then everything out to the river. 60% of the 164 calls were for EMS. They also provide services in other station areas.
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| Salida Fire Administration building used for training and scheduled to be demolished. |
The old Salida Fire Administration building has been sold for demolition due to the widening of the Kiernan interchange and is being utilized for training.
Stansilaus County Sheriff Report – Stansilaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson reported that the Sheriff’s Department is not facing any more cuts and is hiring for the first time in more than three and a half years. There are sixteen recruits in the academy and the Sheriff is building jail bed infrastructure and a Coroner’s facility. Sheriff Christianson introduced Deputy Lloyd McKinnon from the Crime Reduction Team who said, “The Team would be in Salida a lot this week, but you’re not going to see us.” Deputy McKinnon also reported that robberies are down 33%, aggravated assaults are up 67%, burgulary is up 8%, larceny is up 12%, auto theft is a big zero, homicide zero and rape is zero.
Salida Sanitary Report – Salida Sanitary Board member Brad Johnson shared a photo of one of the two robots at the Sanitary District.
City of Modesto Water Division Report – Dennis Turner, Director of Public Works for the City of Modesto stated that the water well that had been shut down for contamination was well #281 which is right across the street from the Salida Library. On December 5, 2012, a routine yearly sample was taken on well #281 and the sample showed higher than acceptable nitrate levels. The results were conveyed to city staff on December 6 and the procedure should have been to resample the well immediately, and that was not done. Staff discovered the error when they did a monthly report on January 8, 2013 and promptly shut the well down which is procedure. From December 5 to January 8th, well #281 ran for one hour a day contributing water into the Salida system. The department collects 585 samples in the Salida system every year. Well #281 contributed about 11% during that time period. Well #281 is the smallest well of the eight wells that serve the community of Salida and its water mixes with other sources to meet all of the demands for the Salida community. The City of Modesto is working with the State Department of Health to ensure this never happens again. New procedures have been put in place. Well #281 will remain offline until a treatment is decided upon to remove the nitrates.
Following are answers to some of the questions asked during the Q&A. Answers were provided by Dennis Turner.
The allowable limit for nitrates is 45 ppm (parts per million) and the well tested at 68 ppm.
Modesto plans to install water lines on the new Highway 99 overcrossings and large water storage tanks in North Modesto which will also serve Salida’s water system. The water tanks will not be installed until hydraulic models demonstrate the need.
The City of Modesto is required at all times to maintain a certain water pressure to maintain fire services. The system that monitors the pressure is not manned 24 hours a day so residents should call the City of Modesto Water Department if they detect a dramatic drop in water pressure, or detect any odd colors or smell in the water.
Public Works Department Report – Gary Hayward submitted an announcement about the work on the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Broadway will be closed for this work on March 4. The Kiernan RR crossing is tentatively scheduled for closure Mar 18-21.
The rough section of road on north Pirrone is scheduled for resurfacing and work should be completed in late April/early May.
Public Works is co-oping with the Parks Department on budgeting for a fix on the mile section of sidewalks on Pirrone west of Sisk. When the plan is determined, Salida MAC will view it.
The sound wall that was run into by a vehicle on Whitestone Way has been repaired.
Nick W. Blom Salida Regional Library Report – Branch Manager Diane Bartlett reported that on Saturday, March 1, 2013 there will be a celebration of Dr. Suess’ birthday and “Read Across America” with story and craft in the Storytime Room. On March 23, ‘Paver Painting’ will be at the Salida Library where you can paint stone paver ladybugs, turtles, and bunnies. This program will be held from 1-3 pm and is open to all ages.
Friends of the Library Annual Book Sale held March 7 from 10 am – 5 pm and March 9 from 10 am – 3 pm.
March 22 & 23 – the Stanislaus County will hold a mobile hazardous waste collection in the library’s parking lot from 9-1 pm.
“Love Salida“will be held April 27. Geary Oreglia at Salida’s Kountry Kitchen is looking for opportunities within the community. One of the project’s will be held at the library from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm.
Supervisor District 3 Report – Supervisor Withrow shared that the ‘DRC’ (Day Reporting Center) for probationers located on Broadway will be out of Salida by the end of March. The DRC is moving to downtown Modesto.
NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 7 pm at the Nick W. Blom Salida Regional Library Community Room, 4835 Sisk Road, Salida. Featured presenters are Stanislaus Council of Governments (StanCOG) and Stanislaus County Parks Division.
Emerson Drake
The attached report is Modesto’s Crime Statistics for the month of December 2012 and year to date
through December 2012. This report is presented to the Safety and Communities
Committee as an informational item on crime statistics within the City of Modesto.
2011 2012 % of change
Homicide 14 20 +43%
Rape 67 59 -12%
Robbery 425 450 +6%
Aggravated Assault 907 1061 +17%
Burglary 2121 2571 +21%
Larceny/shoplifting 5410 6906 +26%
Auto Theft 1363 1799 +32%
Part One Crimes, with the exception of rape increased as compared to 2011. There were six more criminal homicides reported in 2012 than in 2011. In addition to the 20 murders in 2012, there were 4 justifiable homicides. Of the 20 murders, 7 were gang-related. Sixteen of the murders involved firearms.
Property crimes (burglary, larceny, auto theft) increased 26.78% while violent crime (murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assaults) increased 12.52%. The nationwide average for the first six months of 2012 indicates cities with similar population (100,000 – 249,000) saw an increase in property crimes as 1.9% and an increase in violent crime of 2.2%.
Part Two Offenses (forgery/fraud, stolen property, vandalism, weapons violations, vice crimes, sex offenses, drug violations, offenses against family, disorderly conduct, and other miscellaneous offenses) are up 4.17%.
The Modesto Police Department continues to monitor and address the effects of AB109 Prison Realignment.
It’s hard to believe after reading this Mayor Marsh actually suggested Modesto can provide better police protection for Salida than the Sheriff can.
Is it fuzzy math or fuzzy thinking? You decide.
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Topics include Modesto’s Cover-up of the Contaminated well in Salida, last night’s Salida MAC meeting, a discussion regarding “All Politics are Local,” MID Games, the animal cruelty ordinance, LAFCO vs Salida vs Beard Industrial Park, this and more so tune in at ourNEW starting time Broadcast LIVE on 140.9 at 6:30 PM Wednesday and find out the things you really need to know.
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A montage I (Valente Q.C.) made with pictures that I took for the Infobox in the Modesto, California Article. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
By Emerson Drake
Tonight in front of one hundred Salidans, twenty-five being admitted first time attendees, the Salida Municipal Advisory Council or Salida MAC officially voted against being annexed by Modesto. County Supervisor Withrow took notice of, what was once again, an overwhelming majority of the crowd (none for, two had questions, and the balance against annexation) and so did the Salida MAC.
The MAC’s Chairman Thomas Reeves spoke, saying he, the MAC and the Ad Hoc Committee had read both versions of the Goodwin Report and found nothing to persuade him or others to be in favor of annexation. The public had an opportunity to voice their opinion and once again no one spoke for annexation.
The Salida MAC vote was unanimous. MAC member Brad Johnson pointed out it was democracy at its finest.
Modesto Councilman David Geer and City Manager Greg Nyhoff were in attendance as were Stanislaus County CEO Monica Nino and Sheriff Christianson. The Sheriff received a long round of applause for his departments efforts in keeping Salida’s crime level much lower than Modesto’s. Will having Modesto officials watching the meeting and seeing the result have an effect on Modesto’s Mayor’s drive for annexation? Only time will tell.
MAC Chairman Thomas Reeves accepted the responsibility to write Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh a letter detailing Salida’s decision.
Eye On Modesto 