4 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JULY 11-17, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com THE BUZZ FREE SPEECH The New York Times reported July 6 that Deb Gruver, a former reporter at The Marion County Record, a weekly newspaper in Kansas, reached a $235,000 settlement from the county stemming from a lawsuit she filed over a raid last August by law enforcement officials—local police and sheriff’s deputies—on the newsroom, and the homes of a city councilwoman and the paper’s publisher, Eric Meyer, whose 98-year-old mother was living there at the time. She died two days later, the Times reports, “in part because of the distress caused by the raid on her home, Mr. Meyer said.” Gruver resigned from the Record last fall, and in her resignation letter wrote, “I no longer wanted to work in a town where the majority of ‘leaders’ clearly don’t respect the Fourth Estate or the U.S. Constitution.” Gruver’s suit alleged that then-Marion police chief Gideon Cody injured her fingers when he grabbed her cell phone out of her hand during the raid, and then reportedly told the sheriff that taking the phone “made my day.” Four other employees at the Record also filed lawsuits in federal court; they remain pending. Good: Major road work always causes short-term headaches, but commuters who frequent Alisal Road in Salinas will look back later this year on Monday, July 8 as the beginning of a good week. Work to reconstruct the crumbled road between Sconberg Parkway to Hartnell Road adjacent to agricultural fields began this week. According to the County of Monterey, the road will be rebuilt using a method known as “fulldepth recycle/reclamation.” The existing pavement and road base will be pulverized, mixed with cement and compacted/ graded in place. Officials say it eliminates the need to haul material on- and off-site. An asphalt concrete layer will be placed on top, and is expected to last for 20 years. The $3.8 million project, awarded to Watsonville-based Graniterock and funded by the 2016 voter-approved Measure X, is expected to wrap up by the end of September. GREAT: A project to restore the floodplain on the Carmel River got a major boost in funding. Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, announced the Rancho Cañada Floodplain Restoration Project was awarded $35 million in grant funding from federal, state and local sources. The project calls for widening and restoring the riverbed and banks where the river flows through a 40-acre, mile-long stretch of Palo Corona Regional Park through the section that was reclaimed from part of the Rancho Cañada Golf Course in a purchase facilitated by the Trust for Public Land, Trout Unlimited, the Santa Lucia Conservancy and the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2025. Panetta and others are scheduled to highlight the funds during a tour of the river on Friday, July 12. GOOD WEEK / GREAT WEEK THE WEEKLY TALLY That’s how many fluffy pancakes were served during the July 4 Charity Pancake Breakfast at Fire Station 11 in Monterey. The event, which benefited MY Museum, drew record numbers of attendees. Source: Matt Murphy, Monterey Firefighters Community Foundation 2,000 QUOTE OF THE WEEK “People are advised to leave the dead fish alone.” -A notice from the County of Monterey on Saturday, July 6, advising of a large-scale fish dieoff at Lake San Antonio due to the heat (see story, montereycountynow.com). 2024 ASSESSED VALUE NOTICES Property owners may view their value notices this year at: www.countyofmonterey.gov/assessor Owners can also request an electronic version of their notice by emailing assessor@countyofmonterey.gov with the subject as “VALUE NOTICE REQUEST”. Please allow 48hrs to receive your notice. Tax bills will be mailed in mid-October and property owners will have until December 2, 2024 to file an assessment appeal. For more information, contact the County of Monterey, Office of the Assessor (831) 755-5035 AVISO DE VALORES 2024 Las Notificaciones de valores estarán disponibles por Internet, www.countyofmonterey.gov/assessor Propietarios sin acceso a una computadora, favor de llamar a (831) 755-5035, oprima opción 3 para dejar su información. Propietarios también pueden solicitar una versión electrónica de su aviso enviando un correo electrónico a assessor@countyofmonterey.gov con el sujeto “SOLICITUD DE AVISO DE VALOR”. Por favor permita 48 horas para recibir su aviso. Facturas de impuestos serán enviadas al propietario a mediados de Octubre y los propietarios tendrán hasta el 2 de Diciembre 2024 para presentar una apelación. Para mas información, llame al Condado de Monterey Oficina del Assessor (831) 755-5035
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