Have you seen the Sacramento River lately? It’s wide, it’s roaring and, as always, it’s very cold. No one needs to tell me to stay the heck out of the water.
I guess not everyone has as much respect for the river’s power, though. Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko has ordered the river closed to recreational boating through March 27. Anyone who violates the order will be subject to citation or arrest.
The Bureau of Reclamation has been increasing flows in the river to ensure Shasta Dam provides adequate flood storage, and flows in the river hit 50,000 cubic feet per second on Monday. That’s a lot of water, enough to inundate a few sections of the Sacramento River bike path.
UPDATE: The restriction on recreational boating in the Sacramento River was lifted at noon on Thursday, March 24, because flows have receded. However, the sheriff’s office warns boaters to watch for floating debris.
When the river is flowing like it is now, you can count on several things. First, the City of Redding will close Park Marina Drive under the Cypress Avenue Bridge, which is just what happened on Monday. The closure means that a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new bridge that had been scheduled for Thursday, March 24, has been postponed indefinitely. Park Marina Drive under the bridge was going to be the ceremony’s location. (Thankfully, the city, Kiewit West Infrastructure and PB Americas finished construction of the $62 million span in February.) We’ll let you know when the official festivities are rescheduled.
Second, eyes and emergency services will focus on the town of Tehama, where flooding is a regular threat. The National Weather Service has issued a flood warning for Tehama from Wednesday “until further notice.” The river is expected to get high enough to put a couple feet of water into the small mobile home parks on the east side of the river. If the river rises much higher than forecast, it could get into some structures.
Think I better bring in more firewood before the heavy stuff starts falling again.
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• Hail Cesar … An annual march in honor of civil rights leader Cesar Chavez is scheduled for 1 p.m. this Sunday, March 27, starting and ending at Anderson City Hall. After the march and a short tribute to Chavez, the Northern Hispanic Latino Coalition will hand out Latino graduate scholarship awards. This event always has a nice collection of educational displays, music, dance and food. Call the coalition for details at (530) 380-2199.
• Hail Cesar, part two … The national service organization AmeriCorps makes a point of recognizing Chavez every year. Caitlin O’Hara, an AmeriCorps worker for Shasta Land Trust, is organizing a volunteer work day at the Shasta College’s Community Teaching Garden on April 5 to honor Chavez. She could use about 10 volunteers to help with weeding, building beds, composting and other tasks. If you’d like to assist, give her a call at the land trust office, (530) 241-7886.
• March for Meals … Shasta Lake Mayor Rod Lindsay and Anderson Councilwoman Debe Hopkins are scheduled to deliver meals packaged by volunteers from Macy’s on Wednesday, March 23, for the Shasta Senior Nutrition Program. This is part of an effort to raise the profile of the “Meals on Wheels” program and to focus attention on the issue of senior citizen hunger. For more information about program eligibility, contact SSNP in Shasta Lake at (530) 275-2506, or in Anderson at (530) 365-7061.
Paul Shigley is senior editor of California Planning & Development Report, a frequent contributor to Planning magazine and is trying to keep his firewood dry in Centerville. Paul Shigley may be reached at pauls.anewscafe@gmail.com.
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