Briefly
Animal control seeks pesky pooch
Who let the dog out? Chico’s Animal Control officers are looking for a dog that bit a woman on the bike path between Rio Lindo Avenue and East Avenue on April 30.
The dog in question is described as a large brown and tan German shepherd with a white blaze. It was wearing a collar and has a medium length tail. Apparently, the dog has to be quarantined to make sure it doesn’t have rabies.
So round up the usual (canine) suspects.
Police: drug overdose killed woman found in creek
A toxicology report released by the county confirmed Chico police detectives’ suspicions this week.
The report concluded that Royce Lavelle Gear, a 39-year-old Magalia resident, died of “acute poisoning from a high dosage of methamphetamine.” She was found April 17 floating face down in shallow water in Big Chico Creek in Hooker Oak Park.
In their investigation of her death, police learned that Gear was a longtime drug user and was known to be use needles. She was last seen alive in the park with two of her daughters the day before she was found dead.
County digs in
A bunch of county officials donned hard hats and held gold-colored shovels at the May 8 groundbreaking ceremony for the new Juvenile Hall.
As media events go, it was just about as staged as they get. The county supervisors stood in front of the television news cameras and, on cue, each scooped some of the pre-loosened dirt from the ground. The cameras rolled as a virtual list of names of county employees who helped organize the construction was read.
After about five minutes, the ceremony was over, and the three dozen or so county employees who attended it mingled and nibbled cookies, juice and coffee supplied by Sheriff Scott Mackenzie.
The new Juvenile Hall will eventually house 120 juvenile offenders. It’s scheduled to be completed in about 13 months and—at a total cost of $12 million—is the largest construction project ever undertaken by Butte County.
We got the signal
The traffic signal that the Chico Unified School District had to fight to get has gotten the near-final go-ahead from the California Department of Transportation.
CalTrans originally refused to allow a signal at the intersection of El Monte and Highway 32, near Marsh Junior High School, saying there hadn’t been nearly enough accidents there—yet. When the CUSD agreed to raise the $250,000 for the signal from other sources, CalTrans said OK and issued a negative declaration, finding that with only a few mitigation measures—like limiting dust and replacing five trees—the installation of the signal could happen without hurting the environment.
At the May 2 CUSD Board of Trustees meeting, Mike Weissenborn, the district’s facilities director, reported that construction on the signal will begin this summer and the lights should be flashing by the time school starts again in the fall.
