4 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JANUARY 12-18, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com THE BUZZ FREE SPEECH Part of the Monterey County Office of Emergency Services’ storm response in recent days involved pre-storm outreach, encouraging residents to sign up for alerts and to obey evacuation orders. For the first time, those public service announcements included not just English and Spanish but also the Mexican indigenous language of Mixteco. On Jan. 4, the county released video PSAs about storm preparedness in two Mixteco dialects, Mixteco Guerro and Mixteco San Martin Peras. The medium was selected to reach a larger audience among Mixteco speakers, who are less likely than other Monterey County communities to know how to read. At a press conference on Sunday, Jan. 8, officials from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties convened in the North County community of Pajaro to reiterate their message about evacuations and preparedness, and they were joined by a Mixteco interpreter. With Mixteco interpretation, the county joins the city of Greenfield, which has worked with the Centro Binacional Para El Desarrollo Indígena Oaxaqueño to provide video PSAs during past emergencies, including during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Good: In recent years, Monterey Peninsula Unified School District has been developing innovative ways to serve students who struggle to find stable housing. These innovations include MPUSD’s agreement with Motel 6 to provide short-term emergency housing for students and their families, connecting them to resources such as long-term housing and food, and collaborating with other organizations including Monterey County Office of Education, the National Center for Youth Law and the Coalition of Homeless Service Providers. The latest development is that MPUSD obtained a $500,000, two-year grant from the California Department of Education to further help homeless students. “We have a very innovative program showing a lot of success,” Donnie Everett, MPUSD’s assistant superintendent, says of the multi-tiered systems of support. “This two-year grant tasks us to take our model and create a digestible toolkit for other districts to learn from.” GREAT: Great news for highway safety comes in the form of a $1 million federal earmark to the Transportation Agency for Monterey County for an auxiliary lane on Highway 101. The project is meant to address safety concerns and improve traffic flow between Airport Boulevard in South Salinas and the Main Street overcrossing in Chualar. The auxiliary lane will provide space for cars and trucks to accelerate when entering the 101 at Spence Road and to decelerate when exiting onto Eckhardt Road. The $1 million from the federal Appropriations Act joins $1.9 million in state funding and $317,000 from Measure X, approved in 2016. “The $1 million earmark is another example of TAMC’s ability to leverage Measure X funds using state and federal funds to deliver important transportation projects in Monterey County,” said Todd Muck, executive director of TAMC. Construction on the $3.3 million project is set to start this year and be completed in 2024. GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK THE WEEKLY TALLY The percent to which Lake Nacimiento has filled after recent rains, as of Jan 10. On Dec. 31, the reservoir was only at 27-percent capacity. Source: Monterey County Water Resources Agency 69 QUOTE OF THE WEEK “We’ve lived here 11 years and this is the worst flooding we’ve seen.” -Carmel resident Simon Bull, speaking on Jan. 5 about flooding in the Carmel River Lagoon (see story, mcweekly. com). ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES Stop By To Shop And Find Your Vintage Treasure OVER 100 DEALERS 21,000 SQUARE FEET The Largest Antiques and Collectibles Mall on the Central Coast 471 WAVE STREET MONTEREY (831) 655-0264 P M canneryrowantiquemall.com Open Daily 11am-6pm ’22 Voted Monterey County's Best Antique Shop SEASIDE’S FINEST THIN CRUST PIZZA SOURDOUGH PIZZA SALADS & CALZONES DINE IN OR TAKE OUT Tues – Sat 11am – 9pm Sunday 11am – 8pm 720 BROADWAY AVE. SEASIDE Phone 831-899-1762 DELIVERY AVAILABLE Pacific Grove Hardware 229 Forest Avenue • 646-9144 Locally Owned and Operated BEST Hardware Store THANKS FOR YOUR VOTES! Your Hometown Hardware Store ’09-’22 take $5 OFF ANY $25 or more regular items With this ad. Exp 1/31/23 One discount per transaction We’re Open! Mon-Sun 8am-5pm Martin Luther King Jr. Day March & Program Monday, Jan 16, 11 - 3 pm March with the Peace Coalition of Monterey County Assemble at Noche Buena St. and Broadway Ave. in Seaside. PEACE JUSTICE EQUALITY COMPASSION COMMUNITY NONVIOLENCE The march to Oldemeyer Center begins at 11 am Peace signs provided.
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