A glimpse at some of the more significant stories in the region over the last year
January
Jan. 3 - “NIHD board seeks to find and fix financial problems” – The Northern Inyo Hospital District Board of Directors have committed to “turning over every stone” to find the problems that have led to the district’s “deteriorating financial status” and will be working to identify solutions and taking “corrective actions” that will put the district on more stable financial footing.
The board at its December meeting directed Interim Chief Executive Officer Chad Chadwick to immediately focus on the district’s finances. In addition, Chadwick will be making public presentations during the first week of January 2023 to the Bishop City Council and the Inyo County Board of Supervisors to discuss the district’s financial situation.
Board Chairperson Mary Mae Kilpatrick added a “statement” in the board’s packet that addressed the recent revelations that instead of a fairly minor budget deficit projected for the 2022-23 fiscal year, the district is already $9 million in the red and had to cover an additional $3 million deficit from the previous year.
The restated financial statements and the large deficits were revealed by the district’s new chief financial officer, Stephen DelRossi at the November board meeting. He added NIHD has a strong balance sheet and ample reserves that have been tapped to cover the red ink.
Jan. 6 - “County officially dedicates building to honor former chief administrator” – Friends and family packed the conference room of Inyo County’s Clint G. Quilter Consolidated Office Building Wednesday for an unveiling of a plaque officially dedicating the building to the former county chief administrator.
Quilter was first hired by Inyo County as its Public Works director in 2013 and became CAO in November of 2018.
During his tenure with the county, Quilter is credited with laying the groundwork that would eventually bring commercial air service to the Bishop Airport as well as seeing the completion of the consolidated office building shortly before his death in July 2021 due to cancer, among other accomplishments.
The Inyo County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to dedicate the building, located at 1360 N. Main St., Bishop, in Quilter’s honor in November 2021.
Jan. 17 - “Rain showers pummel Bishop and Inyo for two days” – A two-day storm first delivered punishing rain and swirling winds and then wrapped up its stay
The Inyo County Consolidated Office Building in January was officially dedicated in honor of former Inyo County Chief Administrator Clint G. Quilter. Quilter was first hired by Inyo County as its Public Works director in 2013 and became CAO in November, 2018. Quilter passed away from cancer in July 2021 but not before completing several major projects for the county, including seeing the completion of the building that now bears his name.
INDEX
with a quick snowstorm.
Rain pelted Inyo
County on Monday and Tuesday, at one point coming down for 13 straight hours, and delivered about 4 inches of the wet stuff. Hours of heavy rains sent streams of water down street gutters and overwhelmed several street drains in Bishop, causing numerous flooded intersections and shutting down one flooded lane of U.S. Highway 395 on Monday. Dirt roads and county roads throughout Inyo County from Rovana to Lone Pine were washed over with runoff, endured big puddles of standing water and, in a number of cases were closed to traffic due to flooding or washouts.
The extensive canal and ditch system in and around Bishop could not carry all the rainwater and stormwater flowing into the system. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power on
File photos National Park Service photo
A new mural was unveiled in downtown Bishop in February. The artwork is on the south wall of building housing the Meat House and is visible to motorists heading north on U.S. Highway 395. It was designed and painted last year by Bishop Paiute artist Weston Maddox, who was assisted on the project by Andrew Thomas.
Monday night closed all the access roads leading to its canals and ditches due to excess water and washouts.
Jan. 14 - “City council votes to discontinue invocations” – The Bishop City Council on Monday narrowly voted to end a policy calling for invocations at the beginning of every city council meeting, a policy that had been formally in place since 2013.
Bishop City Administrator Deston Dishion, in introducing the resolution Monday, said the council adopted a resolution regarding having invocations at city council meetings in 2013, which included a selection process for who would be offering the invocation. Last year the council requested the issue and resolution be revisited due to potential legal liability.
The council at
Monday’s meeting received public comment for about an hour, most of it in favor of keeping meeting invocations, before voting on a resolution rescinding the policy 3-2, with Bishop Mayor
Jim Ellis and Mayor Pro Tem Jose Garcia voting against the resolution while council members Karen Kong, Stephen Muchovej and Karen Schwartz voted in favor of the resolution.
Jan. 17 – “County moratorium on short-term rentals extended” – The Inyo County Board of Supervisors at its meeting last week adopted an ordinance extending a temporary moratorium on new short-term rentals as county staff continues to work on a new policy based on impacts short-term rentals might have on the county’s overall housing inventory.
Inyo County, as well as much of the rest of the state of California, is struggling
Jan. 28
February
Feb. 4 - “Snowpack compares to record ‘wet’ years” – The mountains of snow parked in the Sierra have prompted some comparisons to epic snow years of the past.
After a series of atmospheric river storms deluged most of the state and all of the Sierra with rain and snow in January, residents are digging out and ski areas are loading up happy snow lovers. Water managers are starting to analyze the impacts of the storms. For the most part, they are happy with what they find.
The state Department of Water Resources conducted its Feb. 1 snow survey and found the