Madison News

Environmental Planner Jennifer Clark talks to Guinda resident Marsha Garry about the proposed plans for the State Route 16 improvements.

A Caltrans open house to discuss a $58 million project for Highway 16 in Yolo County is scheduled today.

The Yolo County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to kill construction of a proposed rural state re-entry prison.

Two grandmothers sat at a kitchen table in the little town of Madison last September and wondered how they could take on the combined might of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Yolo County Board of Supervisors.

Yolo County's pursuit of jail expansion funding by way of giving the state a rural site for prison construction might be dropped Tuesday with the availability of the money becoming increasingly uncertain.

A number of "Save Rural Yolo County" signs have been defaced in recent weeks. The group is now offering a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the vandals.

One person was taken to a hospital by helicopter after a three-car crash near Madison.

Yolo County Supervisor Duane Chamberlain and several other county residents spoke in opposition to a plan to build a prison in Madison during a meeting of state corrections officials in Sacramento.

It's too bad the Capay Valley Almond Festival has become so commercialized over the last few years.

Madison Prison Opponents Urge Attendance at State Corrections Meeting State corrections officials who will decide whether or not to build a prison in Madison plan to meet in Sacramento on Thursday, March 19, at 10 a.m. “The Madison prison is still on the table and there is no indication it will be removed from consideration any time soon,” said Leo Refsland, chairman of Save Rural Yolo County. The grassroots organization opposes the construction of a prison in Madison or any other area of rural Yolo County. The Madison prison opponents plan to attend the meeting of the Corrections Standards Authority, and urge others to attend. The CSA is a division of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Last month, state legislation (Senate Bill X3-14) was passed that makes funding more readily available for construction of “secure re-entry facilities” throughout California, in order to provide up to 10,000 new beds for inmates. Despite a misperception that state funding for prison construction is unavailable, members of Save Rural Yolo County note that plans to build a prison in Madison are moving forward. Meanwhile, two lawsuits filed against the county by Save Rural Yolo County and the Yolo County Farm Bureau continue to move forward. The lawsuits claim that the county violated its General Plan and environmental and farmland-preservation laws. The 15-acre site, which is part of a 175-acre parcel owned by developer John Kaufman, is currently planted to alfalfa.

State corrections officials who will decide whether or not to build a prison in Madison plan to meet in Sacramento on Thursday, March 19, at 10 a.m. “The Madison prison is still on the table and there is no indication it will be removed from consideration any time soon,” said Leo Refsland, chairman of Save Rural Yolo County. The grassroots organization opposes the construction of a prison in Madison or any other area of rural Yolo County. The Madison prison opponents plan to attend the meeting of the Corrections Standards Authority, and urge others to attend. The CSA is a division of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Last month, state legislation (Senate Bill X3-14) was passed that makes funding more readily available for construction of “secure re-entry facilities” throughout California, in order to provide up to 10,000 new beds for inmates. Despite a misperception that state funding for prison construction is unavailable, members of Save Rural Yolo County note that plans to build a prison in Madison are moving forward. Meanwhile, two lawsuits filed against the county by Save Rural Yolo County and the Yolo County Farm Bureau continue to move forward. The lawsuits claim that the county violated its General Plan and environmental and farmland-preservation laws. The 15-acre site, which is part of a 175-acre parcel owned by developer John Kaufman, is currently planted to alfalfa. ...

I can appreciate that the county supervisors want to protect us, however, they are abandoning or stopping the maintenance of some of our roads with no apparent plan in place to do so, they want to monitor our wells, give us garbage cans we do not want or need and, of course, they want to place a prison in a unwanted location with absolutely no infrastructure or access. If they were our parents they might be charged with abuse. I hope that they can represent us in good faith and give the money back to the community. WYATT S. CLINE, Woodland ....

Capay Valley residents were told some time ago by Supervisor Helen Thomsen that all of the tribal mitigation money belongs to the county and not the Capay Valley.

During the two-day workshop, supervisors heard from the public. Carla Phillips of Madison asked how a state re-entry prison proposed near Madison would fit with the supervisor's vision of bucolic farmland. She also took issue with plans for hotels along Highway 16, which she described as a flood-prone area that falls under a state farmland-protection act.

About a dozen people spoke in opposition to the proposed Madison prison at a meeting of state prison officials, including Yolo County Supervisor Duane Chamberlain.

The proposed Madison prison will not be openly discussed at this week's meeting of the Correction Standards Authority, according to state prison officials.

Protesters of a proposed "re-entry" prison facility near Madison collected donations to help their cause at the intersection of County Road 89 and Highway 16 in Madison in mid-2008. Now, due to statewide budget ...

A 42-year-old San Francisco resident died early Thanksgiving morning in a fatal car crash on Highway 505, just south of Madison.