Alex S. Maclean

1 week ago | uniondemocrat.com | Alex MacLean |Alex S. Maclean

Years of behind-the-scenes negotiations between Tuolumne Utilities District and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation over a long-sought contract for water out of New Melones Reservoir are about to go public. The bureau announced public negotiation sessions in Folsom next month over the proposed terms and conditions of a contract that would allow TUD to take and store up to 6,000 acre-feet of water per year from the reservoir, which has a maximum capacity of 2.4 million acre-feet.

1 week ago | uniondemocrat.com | Alex MacLean |Alex S. Maclean

Smoke will be visible Friday morning near the roundabout on Highway 108 by the new Chicken Ranch Casino Resort in Jamestown due to a 5-acre cultural burn on tribal land being conducted by the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of California. The burn is set to be ignited at 7:30 a.m. Friday and will be overseen by the new Chicken Ranch Rancheria Fire Department, the Tuolumne Band of Me-Wuk Indians’ Tuolumne Rancheria Fire Department, and the Southern Sierra Miwuk Meh-Su Fire Crew.

1 week ago | uniondemocrat.com | Alex MacLean |Alex S. Maclean

A Sonora man who died Monday morning in a solo rollover crash on Highway 4 between Farmington and Copperopolis has been identified by the Stanislaus County Coroner’s Office as 28-year-old Noah McCafferty. The California Highway Patrol’s Modesto-area office said a preliminary investigation determined that McCafferty was driving a Toyota SUV east on Highway 4 at an unspecified speed east of Dunton Road when he made an unsafe turn to the left for an unknown reason.

1 week ago | uniondemocrat.com | Alex MacLean |Alex S. Maclean

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation officials are investigating the alleged murder of an inmate at Kern Valley State Prison last week involving William “Willie” Nesler, a convicted murderer from Sonora whose mother was the central figure in one of the most publicized trials in Tuolumne County history. A news release from CDCR stated that Timothy Whelan, 56, died at the prison on May 21 following an alleged attack by fellow inmates Nesler, 43, and Edward Robert Holden III, 35.

1 week ago | uniondemocrat.com | Alex MacLean |Alex S. Maclean

A Coulterville man died Saturday night in a solo vehicle crash on a storm-damaged section of Wards Ferry Road north of Big Oak Flat that’s been closed for more than two years, the California Highway Patrol stated in a news release. The release stated that the wreck took place about 8:30 p.m. Saturday and wasn’t discovered until nearly a full day later, about 6:40 p.m. Sunday, by a passing boater in the Tuolumne River Canyon below Wards Ferry Road.