Sacramento police were called in Thursday morning after a body with multiple gunshot wounds was discovered near the American River according to Sacramento police spokesperson Doug Morse and Sacramento officer Traci Trapani.
Police received the call around 10:24 a.m. in the 7900 block of La Riviera Drive. Morse said they had enough information gathered to initiate a call to homicide detectives.
More at News10.net >>>
California State Parks is performing brush removal along the American River Parkway Trail between Beals Point and Negro Bar in the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area from Feb. 17 through early March. The trail will remain open during the work, but there may be brief delays to trail traffic as crews remove trees and larger limbs that lean across the trail.
This project will im-prove the safety of park visitors by increasing sight distances and cleaning up trail shoulders which provides a wider trail surface and an alternative to the paved surface for pedestrians and equestrians.
“This heavily used section of trail is enjoyed by pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians and we understand that this work may result in a slight inconvenience for many of our park visitors,” said Superintendent Rich Preston. “We ask for the public’s cooperation by slowing down when approaching the work areas and follow the directions of the staff on site.”
The California Conservation Corps will be assisting State Parks in this project by removing brush and other vegetation that is growing adjacent to and in some cases encroaching on the paved trail.
The Folsom Lake State Recreation Area administers approximately 15 miles of the paved American River Parkway trail between Hazel Bridge and Beals Point, including both the north and south sides of Lake Natoma.
More at FolsomTelegraph.com >>>
You’ve probably seen them while jogging or biking along the American River Parkway. Old, battered, barely readable signs posted along the 23-mile stretch. Many of those signs are now planned to be replaced or just taken down all together.
It is part of an effort by Sacramento County to declutter the parkway and make signs easier to read and understandable.
There are over 1,500 signs saying everything from where it’s okay to bike to making sure you pick up after your dog. However, over the years, many of them are left scratched, worn out or even knocked down.
The plan is to have the signs grouped together near parkway access areas and recreational sites within the parkway.
More at KFBK.com >>>
Nonprofit leaders concerned about the decline of the American River Parkway and other Sacramento County amenities made a pitch Wednesday for a portion of $4 million in hotel tax revenue.
In the past seven years, the county’s “transient occupancy tax,” a 12 percent fee on hotel rooms, has declined from almost $7 million to just under $4 million. The recession reduced other county funds, which led county supervisors to tap the hotel tax for services once funded by other means.
Some supervisors would like to see a dedicated amount of the hotel tax revenue set aside for specific uses, such as civic amenities and economic development. The board held a workshop Wednesday to discuss funding possibilities but could not agree on how much should be dedicated for specific uses.
Most organizations seeking funding Wednesday are connected to the American River Parkway or advocate for its improvement. They also emphasized the need to improve existing county resources, instead of spending money on developing new amenities.
Specifically, the Save the American River Association and other groups criticized the county for dedicating $100,000 a year for the Powerhouse Science Center. The county plans to pay that amount over 20 years for the museum planned for Sacramento’s riverfront.
SARA representatives want the county to spend more money maintaining the parkway, “the crown jewel of Sacramento.” While the organization did not submit a spending proposal, representatives said it was a good use of hotel tax revenue.
Two nonprofits running county property also asked for assistance. Shawn Harrison, founder and co-director of Soil Born Farms, said the organization needs help maintaining the American River Ranch. The urban farming organization is based on the historic 55-acre ranch owned by the county and located on the parkway in Rancho Cordova.
More at SacBee.com >>>
Park officials are asking the public to go slow along a heavily-used American River Parkway trail between the town of Folsom and Folsom Lake during tree and brush removal.
California State Parks crews will be tidying up the trail between Negro Bar and Beals Point from Feb. 17 through early March.
During that time, crews will be removing trees and larger limbs that lean across the trail and cutting back brush along the bike trail. The project will increase the distance a rider or walker can see down the trail and make a wider trail for pedestrians and equestrians.
The trail will remain open during the work but there may be brief delays during the removal of big limbs.
Reservoirs in Northern California are expected to rise as much as 10 percent during a wet and powerful storm that began impacting the state Thursday, state officials said.
As dark clouds rolled over Lake Oroville, people pulling their boats from the water said they were hopeful about the storm’s effect on the reservoir.
“If it comes up a little more, that would be great. It would be great. It would be great,” said Salley Rainey, of Yuba City. “We need more rain.”
Officials at the California Department of Water Resources said unfortunately, the storm is expected to be quite warm and will drop more rain than snow.
However, it is hitting a region where the state is most equipped to capture the runoff.
“On the positive side, we’re receiving rain at our biggest reservoir in the state,” said Boone Lek, a state hydrologist. “That’s Lake Shasta.”
Lek said Shasta is expected to rise from 44 percent to 53 percent of capacity.
He said Lake Oroville will rise from 41 percent to 48 percent full and Folsom Lake from 46 percent to 53 percent full.
“We’ll take what we can,” Lek said. “We went through such a dry January. This is going to be a good start to the month of February.”
However, people in the Butte County town of Palermo said they are worried the storm could be a repeat of one they saw in December.
Heavy rain caused a creek to spill over its banks and flooded the town center, including a post office and a convenience store.
“It was fast,” resident Shari Atkison said. “I was here (at the store) and then I went up to the fire station. And some guys helped me load some (sand)bags and came back. And it was over my boots.”
At the post office, sandbags are still piled near the front door.
More at KCRA.com >>>
Hundreds of volunteers joined members of Sacramento Steps Forward on Wednesday night to conduct the area’s biannual “Homeless Count.”
About 400 people, including John Foley of Sacramento Self-Help Housing fanned out across the county to count and learn more about those living without shelter.
“One thing that we found over the last several years were that there were a lot of people who had been homeless for a long time and had various disabilities, particularly mental health issues and substance abuse,” Foley said.
Like 52-year-old Hannah, who’s been homeless for nearly a year. She suffers from ADHD and bi-polar disorder.
“If someone just holds my hand and gets me through my appointments and helps me complete things, that would be a life-changing event for me. Plus psychiatry, because I have to work on the behavior modification,” she said.
She told surveyors she’s grateful for the organizations that provide showers and laundry services.
More at KFBK.com >>>
State Parks officials say traffic and pedestrian safety is an emerging issue at one of the last free parking areas at the American River confluence in the Auburn State Recreation area.
But Caltrans has looked into concerns and is citing a lack of crashes or pedestrian injuries along Highway 49, just past the American Riverbridge on the El Dorado County side, as reason enough not to change current parking conditions.
The right-hand shoulder leading out of the canyon toward Cool fills with vehicles on weekends and holidays, if the weather is good, for outdoor recreation.
Even on a coolish, winter day like Tuesday, about a dozen were parked there while areas on thePlacer County side, where parking costs $10, were nearly empty. There are no signs directing parking or pedestrians and some vehicles were backed in while others were parallel parked.
Supervising Ranger Scott Liske said that more and more autos are parking along Highway 49 up from the bridge heading south for about 250 yards. On busy days, it’s not unusual to see 70 cars parked there, he said.
More at AuburnJournal.com >>>
Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Carmichael is launching a series of classes next week to help people identify birds that frequent the Sacramento area in winter.
While many of the area’s resident birds fly south for the winter, many other birds make the Sacramento region their winter destination. The classes focus on identifying many of these birds by sight and sound, including songbirds, waterfowl and shorebirds.
The series includes three Wednesday evening classroom sessions, starting Jan. 7, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.; and three field sessions on Saturdays, starting Jan. 10, each lasting starting at 8 a.m. and lasting at least four hours.
The classroom sessions will be held at Effie Yeaw Nature Center, located at Sacramento County’s Ancil Hoffman Park along the American River, at 2850 San Lorenzo Way, in Carmichael. The first field session is at Ancil Hoffman Park, and the others will require driving to different locations.
More at SacBee.com >>>
Sacramento County officials pledged to do more to enforce campfire laws in light of a KCRA 3 investigation that found only a handful of citations were issued this year.
A KCRA 3 investigation found only six illegal campfire citations have been issued on Sacramento’s parkway this year, despite an unprecedented number of fires — and drought conditions across the state.
Despite a continuing statewide drought and an unprecedented number of wildfires along the American River Parkway this summer, a review of citations found only six were written for open campfires.
KCRA 3 captured video of open fires burning along the American River Parkway and spotted smoldering fire pits remnants.
“As long as nobody does anything about it and makes them move or finds somewhere for them to be, preferably not here, they’re going to continue to illegally camp along the river — and they are destroying it,” Cathe Torgerson said at a homeowners meeting in the Woodlake neighborhood recently.
Jeff Leatherman, the director of the county’s Regional Parks Department, said officials are now reviewing how the county is enforcing campfire laws.
“We need to do an increase in enforcement — not only on the campfires, but then we have new ordinances in place that deal with barbecues on the parkway, as well,” Leatherman said.
The fires are indicative of a larger issue, the sheer number of homeless people camping along the river.
The parks department has beefed up its force of 21 park rangers, including a task force dedicated to illegal camping.
When officials find people in the tents, they get a citation.
“You are going to get a ticket today,” a ranger told two campers after waking them in their tents. “It’s an infraction. All right. Make sure you guys take care of it or it will turn into a warrant.”
Through September of this year, rangers have cited 485 people for illegal camping.
More at KCRA.com >>>