26 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY december 19-25, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com located; their fast response saved neighboring buildings but the historic inn was lost. “It’s been many things besides the bakery and it will be many things again,” property owner Hillary Lipman said. “It was an inn and a cafe, and I built it as a restaurant. It was a beautiful old building.” May 7 The newly formed Monterey County Media Literacy Coalition hosts its first event, bringing 100 high school students together for “Misinfo Day.” The event includes exercises and discussions about how to discern fact from misinformation and disinformation. The group (of which the Weekly is a member) later hosts an event for the general public for National Media Literacy Week in October. May 9 In 2021, a developer that works with Amazon proposed a massive warehouse in Salinas, yet a year later tabled the project indefinitely. By late 2023, however, the project was back on the board, and in May, Amazon confirmed its plans. By September, groundwork began for the 3-million-square-foot facility at the corner of Abbott Street and Harris Road, prompting questions by residents and others over the city’s approval process, as well as traffic concerns, among other issues. May 9 After Seaside resident Etienne Constable got dinged with a code violation from the city for leaving a boat parked in his driveway visible from the street, Constable hired his neighbor, artist Hanif Panni, to paint the exact image of the boat on a fence he put in front of the boat, making it look like the boat is still visible. Photos of the mural go viral, drawing national attention to the mural. By June, Acting City Manager Nick Borges was so inspired by the creative act of resistance that he reforms the way the city handles code violations, making it less adversarial. May 9 The Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency presents a bombshell report about the state of the Deep Aquifer, which is about 900 feet underground and has received no recharge from surface water since at least 1953. Growers, and the cities of Marina and Salinas, all tap into the aquifer as overpumping of groundwater has caused seawater intrusion in the overlying aquifers to continue marching inland toward Salinas. The report notes that well installations continued despite falling groundwater levels, and that “seawater intrusion and subsidence pose severe economic risk if declining groundwater elevation trends are not reversed.” May 18 The Monterey County Historical Society opens its stunning GumperCastro Memorial Library, an authentic recreation of a Victorian reading room built with recovered materials from the 19th century, many of which came from the former mansion of Jesse Carr, a founding father of Salinas. Among the highlights of the new room are two windows Salinas artist and MCHS volunteer Gail Spencer painted—one a painting of the Boronda Adobe, the other a historical depiction of the coastline at Carmel River State Beach— that spill brilliant light into the room. June June 6 Seaside City Council fires Jaime Fontes, the city manager, closing a tumultuous chapter in City Hall that saw resignations and firings of numerous top officials in the city. Among the points of contention were wide-ranging personnel investigations launched earlier in the year that Fontes did not authorize, as is required by city code. Fontes later sued the city in September, alleging retaliation. June 7 Dr. Allen Radner is named president/CEO of Salinas Valley Health after a nationwide search. Radner served for several months before that as the interim and before that as Chief Medical Officer of the institution he first joined in 1994. “The board feels confident about the selection process and our final decision, determining Dr. Radner the most qualified leader to meet our ambitious goals moving forward,” said Victor Rey, SVH board president. June 10 In another major hospital announcement, Dr. Steven Packer said he would be stepping down in spring 2025 as president/CEO of Montage Health after 25 years in the position. Under Packer’s leadership, Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula was expanded to include 120 new patient rooms and the Carol Hatton Breast Care Center was constructed, along with the Ohana Center for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health. Montage Medical Group was formed, three Moxi robots joined the hospital team, and the county’s first Medicare Advantage program, Aspire Health Plan, was launched with SVH, among other accomplishments. In December, Montage announces the new CEO starting next spring will be Dr. Michael McDermott, CEO of Mary Washington Health in Fredericksburg, Virginia. July July 10 The County of Monterey announces Lake San Antonio is closed to visitors due to a massive fish die-off in the lake. Authorities wanted to test the water and dead fish to ensure the water was safe before reopening, which happened on July 24. The cause of the die-off remained unknown after the lab test results came back—the water wasn’t toxic in any way. It’s suspected it might be related to a heat wave-caused algal bloom that sucked oxygen out of the water column. July 13 The two-week-long Carmel Bach Festival begins, without its executive director of 10 years at the helm. Stephen Friedler died on March 1, 2024, at age 73. Nathan Lutz, the new executive director of the Carmel Bach Festival—which started in 1935—ran the 2024 event. July 18 The Weekly reports that the U.S. Veterans Administration declined to add the former Fort Ord to a list of U.S. bases contaminated with Agent Orange in the 1950s-1970s, despite strong evidence presented by an ad hoc group showing the toxic herbicide was used on the base. The group uncovered four documents detailing the chemical’s usage, including that it was stored at Fort Ord until at least 1973. By not adding Fort Ord to the list, veterans who claim they were exposed to Agent Orange and later developed cancers and other ailments cannot be considered for treatment by the VA. July 26 Monterey County Sheriff Tina Nieto made headlines when videos are released to the public showing her getting pulled over for speeding— at 95mph in a 65mph vote—by the California Highway Patrol three times over a span of eight months. All three instances were on Highway 101 in South County. Nieto acknowledged she made a mistake, but many criticized her for breaking the law as someone who is meant to enforce it. No citations were issued. July 26 The California Marine Sanctuary Foundation is awarded a $71.1 million federal grant to go toward projects aimed to make the Central Coast more resilient to climate change. In Monterey County, that includes projects from Pajaro to Carmel Valley, from everything like flood management programs to marsh adaptation to wildfire risk prevention. The grant will span five years—“a really big deal for this community,” says Robert Mazurek, executive director of the foundation. August Aug. 1 From the time bulldozers carved the outlines of a race track on Fort Ord property in 1957, management of WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca Dr. David Craig Wright, whose biotech research company D4 Labs is based in Pacific Grove, invented a new Covid-19 vaccine delivery system and patented his creation in February. year in news
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