Grand Jury reports on Hwy 171

The grand jury is saying the government is too slow to act to improve our roads. Our Town and District 5 Supervisor should bring the fire assessment district back for public discussion soon.

I don't think that anybody seriously believed that all 18,000 residents would choose that route to evacuate. A lot would still head down Skyway/Clark/Pentz and the evacuation centers are still available. I'd hate to be on Doe Mill if the fire blew up through that canyon.

Kim Yamaguchi has been really hypocritical, dishonest, and useless on this issue. He and Herger were quick to take credit for getting the funds for that 171 road, and they claimed they'd fought for it as an evacuation route, but that was true at all. Yamaguchi did precisely nothing, though he did want credit for it. Later, he said that 171 was never intended as an escape route, though he'd been saying it was at public meetings when the fires were hot last summer. And he's also been playing with the idea of changing contracts with Cal-Fire, and has had the audacity to say that people in Magalia should have known they were moving to a high fire danger area.
Rd. 171 was basically proposed to further the possibilities of real estate development up toward Inskip, and Yamaguchi's indifference to the health and safety of his constituents is surpassed only by his lack of truthfulness. Yami is one of those so-called "conservatives" who feels better about things when government doesn't work. People in this district must have taken leave of their senses to vote for such a man to serve their interests.

jaime wrote:

Kim Yamaguchi has been really hypocritical, dishonest, and useless on this issue. He and Herger were quick to take credit for getting the funds for that 171 road, and they claimed they'd fought for it as an evacuation route, but that was true at all. Yamaguchi did precisely nothing, though he did want credit for it. Later, he said that 171 was never intended as an escape route, though he'd been saying it was at public meetings when the fires were hot last summer. And he's also been playing with the idea of changing contracts with Cal-Fire, and has had the audacity to say that people in Magalia should have known they were moving to a high fire danger area.
Rd. 171 was basically proposed to further the possibilities of real estate development up toward Inskip, and Yamaguchi's indifference to the health and safety of his constituents is surpassed only by his lack of truthfulness. Yami is one of those so-called "conservatives" who feels better about things when government doesn't work. People in this district must have taken leave of their senses to vote for such a man to serve their interests.

Yes sir you have nailed it herger and guchi should remember what they write and say the citizens should really rehash the interests of the ridge.

With all of the construction and traffic that is being imposed upon the Skyway, it will, in the very near future, no longer be an escape route. The traffic exiting both sides (east and west)of Skyway parking lots will clog the traffic exiting from Paradise and Magalia. There will and should be blood on the hands of the Grand Jury, supervisors and town council if they allow massive construction on the Skyway since the Skyway is considered to be an escape route.

Seems the grand jury is finally getting closer to reality. Not a single traffic study has been done on this project, at least on the whole route from Magalia to Inskip and then on. BCAG informed me, 'the money is not for the existing paved portion'. Traffic studies are easy. I, with the help of my CSUC Civil Engineering friends, did a simple one two years ago. It shows that the real problem with that road is not the dirt road beyond Inskip, but the switchbacks between Stirling city and Inskip. That is the bottleneck that slows traffic to 20mph or less. If money were spent to fix that, and prohibit single occupancy cars, RV's, and fire trucks coming the other way from Butte Meadows, then paving the section from Inskip to Butte Meadows does have a fairly significant affect on traffic flow, especially in hours 2 through 6 and on. But almost no benefit (for the $22M) unless the existing problem is addressed.

there are way too many problems with this proposed project to even mention here. The fact that it was passed off with a very poorly written, cut and paste job, of a mitigated neg-dec would be a good place to start though. This is a project that screams for an EIR. The neg-dec barely discusses impacts to special status species, does not even recognize the impacts to the migratory deer herd, barely mentions traffic, does not mention potential for build out and is so poorly written that in one place it mentions impacts to the Yuba River. Heck of a job.

Why is it that the town manager would put 2.3 mil. for a park when the park wont mean squat if the fires come and take more tax revenue from the town mismanagement by him and the other cronies have not looked out for the town. Since they are running our schools in the ground not looking out for the citizens or the childen why are they there? We need to fire the ppd and town attorney, c.rough then run these special interest groups in the council. The writing is on the wall how long can the lies and coveups and mismanagement rein?

citizen wrote:

Why is it that the town manager would put 2.3 mil. for a park when the park wont mean squat if the fires come and take more tax revenue from the town mismanagement by him and the other cronies have not looked out for the town. Since they are running our schools in the ground not looking out for the citizens or the childen why are they there? We need to fire the ppd and town attorney, c.rough then run these special interest groups in the council. The writing is on the wall how long can the lies and coveups and mismanagement rein?

Why does any gov't agency get away with what they do? Because they can. Taxpayers don't get involved; they only sit back and gripe, particularly in Paradise. Talk about special interest... The local council is concerned more about growth and increased population than safety. Why? One owns the only movie theatre in town, another is a contractor/landlord, and another owns the heavy equipment rental. Now with the growth comes more people to attend movies, rent homes, build houses and rent heavy equipment. See where I'm going with this?

Funny you should ask wrote:

<quoted text>
Why does any gov't agency get away with what they do? Because they can. Taxpayers don't get involved; they only sit back and gripe, particularly in Paradise. Talk about special interest... The local council is concerned more about growth and increased population than safety. Why? One owns the only movie theatre in town, another is a contractor/landlord, and another owns the heavy equipment rental. Now with the growth comes more people to attend movies, rent homes, build houses and rent heavy equipment. See where I'm going with this?

Sir you are a genius it is funny how these so called public servants are filling their pockets and the taxpayer is footing the bill for their misguildance.

The councilman who owns the theatre could pay for a road for the amount of the cost of popcorn & soda drinks he charges. It's an outrage. 3 small boxes of popcorn=$7.50 Figure out what you pay for a bag of popcorn, you pop in a skillet w/lid. The theatres soda comes out of a tank. Then they wonder why families cannot afford to go to the movies. Spend a dollar at SaveMart for a movie, buy a bag of shelled popcorn, a liter of soda, sit back w/the whole family for less than $5.00 You can't even buy 1 ticket for that.

Funny you should ask wrote:

<quoted text>
Why does any gov't agency get away with what they do? Because they can. Taxpayers don't get involved; they only sit back and gripe, particularly in Paradise. Talk about special interest... The local council is concerned more about growth and increased population than safety. Why? One owns the only movie theatre in town, another is a contractor/landlord, and another owns the heavy equipment rental. Now with the growth comes more people to attend movies, rent homes, build houses and rent heavy equipment. See where I'm going with this?

I asked some friends in Paradise, and they confirmed this to be true. What line of bull could the coucil possibly have given the voters in order to get people to vote for them. Sounds like its time to get those recall petitions started and put the good old boy connections to rest.

I want to know when Yamacui will be exposed as the criminal that he is....Mr. Kickback we should call him.

Unbelievably Shameful wrote:

<quoted text>
I asked some friends in Paradise, and they confirmed this to be true. What line of bull could the coucil possibly have given the voters in order to get people to vote for them. Sounds like its time to get those recall petitions started and put the good old boy connections to rest.

the mayor was appointed by the council and has been this way for sometime they keep the ones they can munipulate in this seat so the taxpayers have no say. When problems occur they just shift to a new mayor which is in the realm of their control. The out going never have to answer to the public concerns.

figure this out wrote:

<quoted text> the mayor was appointed by the council and has been this way for sometime they keep the ones they can munipulate in this seat so the taxpayers have no say. When problems occur they just shift to a new mayor which is in the realm of their control. The out going never have to answer to the public concerns.

They are all chummy chummy, patting each other on the back for doing just about nothing. They are each embarrASSments to the Town of Paradise.

Inactive Council wrote:

<quoted text>
They are all chummy chummy, patting each other on the back for doing just about nothing. They are each embarrASSments to the Town of Paradise.

yes all chummy they are. Yet when the smoke clears these chumps will hopefully not be allowed to be in a position of power to better their positions in our community. If they would have stood for the people there would be a true respect, they chose to play the coverup game and sooner or later the lies will catch up with them.

I have a Paradise Post from 1955, and there is a front page story about the County receiving state/federal funds to go ahead with Hwy 171. The stated purpose was as an evacuation route. The Army Corps of Engineers had completed their studies and drawings.

George in Paradise wrote:

I have a Paradise Post from 1955, and there is a front page story about the County receiving state/federal funds to go ahead with Hwy 171. The stated purpose was as an evacuation route. The Army Corps of Engineers had completed their studies and drawings.

What's the month and day on that 1955 Paradise Post?