Top Ten News Stories for 2009

Because of a fourth-place tie, 11 stories were rated as the South County's Top 10 News Events or Stories by the Valley Post editorial staff. The stories were ranked according to headline play, news value and long-term significance by five Valley Post staff members. The combined score of each story or grouping of stories determined the story's priority ranking.

Anderson fire chief controversy

From mid-May through the end of December, the saga of Anderson Fire Chief Joe Piccinini grabbed top headline space and attracted more readership comments on the Valley Post Web site than any other story tackled this year.

Piccinini was placed on administrative leave in mid-May by the Anderson fire board with vague accusations of mismanagement. Retired Anderson Police Chief Neil Purcell, Jr., a resident of Big Sky, Mont., was subsequently hired by the district's board of directors, three of whom served on the Anderson City Council when Purcell was chief of police.

A grass-roots community group objected to Purcell's hiring and formed a watchdog committee that sent dozens of letters supporting Piccinini and made numerous comments on the Valley Post Web site accusing fire board members and firefighters alike of misusing fire district equipment. Following a nearly five-week investigation, Purcell submitted a massive report to the fire board in closed session and charged the fire district nearly $40,000.

After canceling one meeting that may have been in violation of California's open meetings law, also known as the Ralph M. Brown Act, the fire board discussed the report with its attorney, Michael Fitzpatrick and ordered Fitzpatrick to negotiate a deal with the fire chief.

However, Fire Chief Joe Piccinini resigned his post July 7 and the fire board produced a past-dated letter effective July 1 citing "different professional and personal opportunities" as the reason for Piccinini's sudden departure.

Meanwhile, the fire board's investigation stirred up interest from the Shasta County Grand Jury, which is currently investigating the Anderson Fire Protection District. Despite several Freedom Of Information Act requests made by the Valley Post and the Record Searchlight, the fire board sealed Purcell's investigative report in Piccinini's personnel file until early December when a Shasta County Superior Court judge ruled that a copy of the report must be surrendered to the Shasta County Grand Jury, the Record Searchlight and, with some redactions, to the Redding Police Department and Shasta County District Attorney Jerry Benito for a possible criminal investigation involving Piccinini and/or the Anderson Fire Protection District. As of our Dec. 28 publication deadline, a copy of the investigator's report still had not been delivered to the Record Searchlight.

Medical marijuana clinic prompts debate, moratorium

In June, Gina Munday started a furor when she asked openly at an Anderson City Council meeting what she had to do to open a medical marijuana cooperative dispensary within city limits.

Since passage of Proposition 215 in 1996, California law has allowed the compassionate use of marijuana to treat a variety of medical symptoms if the user is able to obtain a doctor's recommendation. Medical marijuana users in California and a growing number of states can legally use and possess small amounts of the drug-laden herb despite a complete ban on its use by the federal government. California is one of the few states so far that also allows the formation of cannabis cooperatives so that medi-pot users don't have to purchase it from illegal dealers.

Gina Munday opened her Anderson cooperative, The Green Heart, in mid-July, just two days before the Anderson City Council unanimously passed an emergency moratorium halting just such businesses. Shortly after, similar clinics started popping up like weeds all around the north state including one in Cottonwood. Shasta County officials, attempting to work with their counterparts in Anderson, Redding and City of Shasta Lake, spent much of the summer and fall struggling between trying to ban medical marijuana outright to looking as if they condone its use.

The American Civil Liberties Union has sent a letter to Redding warning the city that its proposed ordinance regulating medical marijuana cooperatives may be in violation of state law and threatening a lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Gina Munday reported at subsequent Anderson City Council meetings that her business is booming. She and her husband, Joe, have opened similar clinics in Shasta Lake City and Mount Shasta. In Redding, the number of medical marijuana dispensaries went from four clinics in June to nearly 40 in October.

Anderson's city council has meanwhile extended its medical marijuana clinic moratorium three times and is attempting, via zoning, to regulate where, when and how pot can be grown and exchanges of the controlled substance transacted by medi-pot users.

Shasta County is also weighing a similar ordinance that would affect unincorporated areas of the South County such as Cottonwood and Happy Valley.

Meanwhile, Jim Drake of Anderson has announced that he would like to start a "delivery only" medi-pot business in Anderson as a way to circumvent any land use or zoning regulations.

State budget problems impact local economy

In the number three spot on our Top 10 stories poll, South County school districts were among the first to feel the pain when state legislators, unable to pass a balanced budget, approved cuts in many state programs including education.

The city of Anderson and Shasta County, among others, were certainly not immune to state budget cuts either.

Anticipating further cuts in government grant funding and shortages of donated food as the national recession continues to ripple through the local economy, Anderson-Cottonwood Christian Assistance started the year by starting a community garden program and hiring a master gardener.

The Anderson City Council did what it could to keep contractors working while also taking advantage of an extremely competitive market due to few construction projects moving forward and approved several million dollars worth of street repairs. A set of banner poles across North Street that allows non-profit organizations and service clubs to advertise their fund-raising events to passing motorists was also erected.

Anderson High School's FFA students and parents protested large cuts in agriculture education programs at Anderson High.

Regionally, unemployment rates as reported by the state were the highest seen in 16 years by mid-March, and the rates climbed even higher as the year dragged on without any relief.

Anderson council continued to trim its work force through attrition and with a hiring freeze to preserve its 16 percent budget reserve.

In June, fewer buyers attended the Junior Livestock Auction at the Shasta District Fair, but prices remained strong and the youths went home with money in their pockets.

Like most other school districts, Anderson Union High School District was forced to make additional budget cuts in June. The Cascade Union Elementary School District serving grade school students in Anderson allowed its budget to go into the red for the remainder of the school year and authorities said they would tap the district's reserves to remain solvent.

By September, things were so desperate that Anderson Union High School District had to cut the district's athletic activity buses.

Citing budget problems, the Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference announced in September that the organization's annual trade show and convention would consolidate in Redding in February of 2010, leaving Anderson without a major venue to attract motel and restaurant visitors.

By the holidays, the need for emergency food was so great that the Anderson-Cottonwood Christian Assistance distributed 478 food boxes for Thanksgiving and another 320 food boxes at Christmas, both distributions were up significantly from last year, an agency official said.

Meanwhile, large, privately-funded construction projects such as the Regency II, a second phase of low-income housing for the elderly that had been approved in 2008 still had not started moving any dirt.

Anderson invests in infrastructure, amenities

In a tie for the fourth spot on the Top 10 Stories list, Anderson city staffers and council members made a concerted effort to maximize grant funding and redevelopment tax increment bond funds to complete a boat load of public works projects while contractors were the hungriest and the bidding on public construction jobs stayed well below engineering estimates.

At just under $24 million, replacement of the North Street/Airport Road bridge and the resulting road widening certainly took first place among the largest of such projects.

One of the most popular, however, proved to be the completion of the first phase upgrades to the amphitheater in Anderson River Park. Those improvements were completed primarily with grants.

Anderson sales tax revenues continued to beat other county entities although they did start to fall as the year progressed. On the down side, Anderson's City Council nixed as too expensive and too controversial a regionally-funded plan to provide a fix for future congestion of Interstate 5.

Instead, Anderson's downtown core area received a further $817,000 face-lift in the form of landscaping, asphalt, sidewalks, decorative fencing and lighting. The city celebrated its completion with an outdoor street fair in mid-September. The city also applied for grant to assist first-time, low-income home buyers.

Late in the year, the California Department of Transportation issued a grant of nearly $560,000 to build 1.6 miles of bike- and walk-way along Highway 273, a pedestrian-heavy section of state highway leading from low-income housing to the city's shopping and services center. Finally, the council ended up the year by considering plans to construct a round-about for Deschutes Road and I-5 off-ramp at the Shasta Outlets shopping center.

Anderson Fire District

Also tied for fourth place was the coming of age and independence of the Anderson Fire Protection District.

The year started with the commissioning of a study on equipment and personnel needs. That study recommended the district seek further autonomy and independence. Even though three of Anderson's five city council members sat on the fire board for much of the year, the council wisely backed away from further efforts on its part to consolidate with the fire district.

When it finally came time for the 100+-year-old district to elect its own board members instead of having the Anderson City Council or Shasta County appoint them, 11 candidates opted to run for the fire board's five seats. Voters wisely chose to return two long-time incumbents - Marsha Kelly and Paul Bosetti - as well as former fire chief Don Matheson. Voters also elected two new faces to the board.

The district's first elected board took office in early December with briefings on legal matters by attorney Michael Fitzpatrick as well as a drawing of playing cards to determine who would serve four-year terms and who would serve two-year terms at the outset.

All subsequent board members will serve four-year terms.

Economic activity continues in spite of national recession

Rounding out the first half of the Top 10 Story list, economic activity continued in Anderson in spite of one of the worst economic recessions the state and nation had experienced in many years.

Juan Mean Burrito, mascot of Burrito Bandito, joined the local lexicon when the fast-food Mexican eatery opened at the south end of Anderson's demonstration block in early February. It was followed shortly after in the same building by Top-ings frozen yogurt shop.

On the more distant horizon, a 92-acre commercial development was once again proposed for Knighton Road despite immediate assertions by the surrounding residential land-owners that they would fight that development project as hard as they have fought any other proposal for the freeway interchange midway between Anderson and Redding.

At the end of February, Joe Martinez completed the nine-month rebirth of his popular Koffee Korner, although he named the new business Vittles Restaurant.

Anderson High celebrates

In the sixth spot for Top 10 Stories for 2009, Anderson Union High School boosters and alumni spent nearly 18 months planning and then staging a three-day centennial celebration during the Labor Day weekend that honored the school's 100-year history, brought classmates back to campus from all over the country and kicked off with a student-alumni concert in Anderson River Park's newly-enhanced amphitheater that was well attended.

The celebration ended with a giant dinner and dance that took nearly the entire fairgrounds to accommodate. A golf tournament earlier in the summer helped raise some initial funding, but ticket sales from alumni did the rest. When it was all over, a gift of $17,000 in the form of display cabinets, as well as a new street sign for the school, were donated to the hill-top campus.

The Valley Post put together a special edition, sold advertising and helped provide hundreds of attendees with a meaningful souvenir of the grand event.

Cottonwood teachers settle

After nearly two years of impasse, teachers launched a public forum and finally both sides were willing to sit down and negotiate a settlement - a four-year pact - in mid-March to take the No. 7 slot on the Valley Post's Top 10 Story list.

The League of Women Voters hosted a candidates forum to discuss issues in late October, but by then the district's voters had grown tired of the constant rancor and voted to return all of the incumbents to the Cottonwood Elementary School District's governing board.

Patriotism is a priority

Early January saw the long-awaited return of Happy Valley's own Mitchell Bottema from a 20+ year career in the U.S. Navy. He was greeted with a phalanx of flags and saluting veterans. It was the first of many showings of patriotism and support that launched this story into the No. 8 spot on the Valley Post's Top 10 Story list for 2009.

Former Cottonwood resident and West Valley football standout Wes Gray, now an Iraq War Veteran, wrote a book in which he attributed some of his considerable success to his roots and upbringing.

The Missing in America Project volunteers escorted the cremains of a Cottonwood Silver Star recipient to Arlington National Cemetery where he was inurned with full military honors. At well over six miles long, the procession was one of the longest processions recorded.

Two more Cottonwood residents had the honor of escorting several veterans to the various monuments and military museums in the nation's capital during the region's second Honor Flight.

Helicopter pilot Chuck Kinney revisited areas of Vietnam to quiet his personal wartime ghosts and helped locate the identifiable remains of a downed helicopter that had previously been listed only as missing in action.

Anderson's long-time honor guard bugler, Bob Peterson, was laid to rest as Taps were played in his honor.

In October, Korean War veterans and members of the Korean-American community raised more than $6,000 to erect the north state's first memorial to the Korean War.

Despite a theft of most of their goods to be donated, Stand Down organizers were hardly deterred from helping homeless and destitute veterans obtain the medical assistance, military paperwork, blankets, winter coats and other clothing they needed to survive another northern California winter.

Several hundred people turned out in a mid-December drizzle to decorate 900+ graves with holiday wreaths and red ribbons as a way to honor the dead and teach youths about patriotism and service to country.

Locals seek 15 minutes of fame

The combined efforts of dozens of South County residents to make their mark boosted this story into the ninth spot on the Valley Post's Top 10 List of stories for 2009.

In March, Liam Twight, 12, of Happy Valley represented northern California at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. He was far from the only South County resident seeking a turn in the local, regional or even national spotlight, however.

Susan Baugh was appointed in early February to a spot on the Anderson Planning Commission, Frank Muse of Happy Valley was named the 2008 Logger of the Year during the 60th annual Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference, and Anderson transplant Raymond Randle, Jr., published his autobiography with the help of ghost writer Paul Robeson.

The Munns of Anderson continued to seek answers to the kidnapping and execution of their son at the hands of Muslim terrorists in Iraq.

A meteor or piece of space junk fell out of the sky and blasted out the windshield and dashboard of a pickup in Cottonwood.

Meanwhile, Officer Michelle Lingenfelter was named Anderson Police Department's Top Cop.

Dancer Alyssa Banwarth, 11, of Cottonwood, placed 5th overall in an international dance competition in Germany in November. Country singer Summer Schappell, 15, performed solo at the Shasta District Fair while the Anderson Chamber applauded the community work of Keith Webster, Carole Bartels and Janet Applegarth-Yarborough, among others. Webster took a second turn, albeit reluctantly, when he was accused by a former business partner of a conflict of interest in working for a restaurant development company while serving on the Anderson City Council. The Fair Political Practices Commission has yet to weigh in with its decision as to whether any rules were broken since Webster failed to claim as income the $15,000 he earned as secretary on the development company's board of directors

Anderson's Public Works Director Rich Barchus decided to retire, leaving the position vacant for Jeff Kiser of Omni-Means to step in and take over. But there were other changes afoot at city hall as well.

After 12 years at the helm, Anderson City Manager Scott Morgan moved his family to New Melbourne, Florida, to be closer to his wife's aging parents, leaving a vacancy quickly filled by his assistant City Manager, Dana Shigley.

Anderson teenager Danielle Perry launched a professional modeling career while Cody Mahrt, 14, used the family jet boat and his newly-acquired boat driving skills to rescue a youth from possibly drowning in the Sacramento River and return the youth's buddies to the correct side of the quickly-flowing and very cold waterway.

No stranger to the publicity spotlight, Anderson City Council member Melissa Hunt learned a few basic dance steps from her former fourth-grade student and went on to win the championship of "Dancing With the Stars, Shasta County Style."

Pete Stiglich of Cottonwood, a retired Air Force Colonel, proposed re-furbishing Reading Island Park as a gateway destination for Cottonwood residents, then turned his attention to taking on long-time incumbent U.S. Congressman Wally Herger in the race for a seat in the House of Representatives from California's second Congressional district.

Civil Engineer John Sharrah, 78, one of Anderson's early Public Works Directors, was recognized with a giant granite boulder and a commemorative plaque thanking him for helping establish Anderson River Park.

Anderson's Trinity Methodist Church celebrated its 150th birthday in mid-September.

West Valley High School alumna Jamie Horner-Jarman, 22, took on 12 semi-finalists in the U.S. Armed Forces version of "American Idol" during November to win third place in the military's live television reality competition labeled "Operation Rising Star."

Her exploits on the show during two weeks of competition were recounted by fellow classmate and best friend Renee Young, formerly of Anderson.

Cascade ESD superintendent Wes Smith deserted his native North State and took a similar position at the helm of the joint unified school district in Morgan Hill, which has 16 schools and more than six times the enrollment.

Anderson Rotary Club turned 65.

Finally, a civil suit stemming from a 2007 automobile accident involving Anderson Police Chief Dale Webb was settled.

Proposal stirs controversy

At the ninth slot on the Top 10 Story list for 2009, Scott Morgan and the Anderson City Council stirred up a hornets' nest when they made a serious proposal - some argue it was the best offer made - for a free parcel of nearly 7.5 acres on which the state could construct a $211 million courts facility for Shasta County.

The property overlooks the Sacramento River at Interstate 5 near the Gaia Hotel and is part of a larger parcel owned by developer Sam Tumino, who hoped to build ancillary office buildings, parking spaces and restaurants on the remaining 6.3 acres so that courts employees, judges, attorneys and jurors could be amply served on the spot.

State court officials labeled the proposal a "nice alternative" in October and promptly shoved it to the bottom of the pile since the plan all along was to build near the existing courthouse in Redding, even if the state has to close streets and disrupt dozens of property owners to put such an ownership deal together.

Anderson officials, led by Mayor Butch Schaefer and City Manager Dana Shigley, have yet to abandon all hope of seeing their proposal become reality, but the chances of seeing Superior Court judges fishing along the river bank in Anderson are looking more and more remote with each passing week.

Junior rescued from abusers

Finally, in the last spot on our Top 10 Story list, a female caretaker whose alleged motive was revenge was accused by Shasta County Child Protective Service workers and Sheriff's Detectives of attempted murder, aggravated mayhem, torture and willful abuse of a child in early December when a boy, 7, was taken from her Cottonwood mobile home.

The woman's brother was also arrested on charges of attempting to mislead and obstruct a peace officer, among other charges.

Meanwhile, local residents rushed to donate more than 1,000 cards, letters and gifts to the young boy, who remains hospitalized and is still recovering from a life-threatening array of injuries including six broken ribs, a collapsed lung, numerous internal injuries, burns and external bruises.

Known to family members as Junior, the young boy was quickly christened "Christmas Boy" by those who simply wanted to give him a better Christmas after the ordeal he had recently suffered at the hands of an adult.