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Winters Express
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Congratulations

Germaine Hupe (above, left) applauds Barbara Thomas upon officially being honored as the 2011 Citizen of the Year at the annual Winters Chamber of Commerce’s Year in Review celebration, held at the Community Center on Jan. 21. Hupe and her husband Howard served as Masters of Ceremony for the event.
At right, Leticia Quirarte gets a congratulatory hug from Ana Kormos, who presented her with the Theodore Winters Award for outstanding volunteer service to the community. Kormos is a member of the Chamber’s board of directors.
Also honored at the event were Betty Davis, Senior Citizen of the Year, Leticia Quirarte, Theodore Winters Award for outstanding volunteer service to the community, and Berryessa Gap, Business of the Year. Nearly 200 people were in attendance, including U.S. Congressman John Garamendi, who recently took over the Winters area in his district.

Photo by Debra DeAngelo

City becomes ‘successor agency’
for remaining redevelopment obligations

By DEBRA DeANGELO
Express editor
The very last decision made by the City of Winters’ Community Development Agency (CDA) was turn over the duties of overseeing the remainder of its financial obligations to the city last week. CDA chairman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry brought the gavel down on the portion of the Jan. 17 council meeting devoted to CDA activity and commented, “Reluctantly, I am now closing the last meeting of the CDA. It’s a sad day. It’s history in the making.”
The Community Development Agency was responsible for making decisions about how redevelopment funds would be spent in Winters. The State Supreme Court ruled on Dec. 29 that the state has the authority to eliminate redevelopment programs, which dissolved redevelopment agencies like Winters’ CDA statewide, effective Feb. 1.
Much of the Jan. 17 meeting was devoted to the approval of the city and city council as the “successor agency,” which will distribute payments on bonds and loans that were already under contract. The Supreme Court’s ruling applies to new redevelopment programs, but allows existing financial obligations to be met.
The approval by the CDA mirrored an identical resolution approved by the city council at the meeting, and was unanimous in both instances. The city council additionally unanimously approved a resolution to retain the CDA’s housing assets and functions.
City Manager John Donlevy explained that the city of Winters, acting as the successor agency, will now be responsible for “winding down all of the business affairs of the CDA, including bonded indebtedness, contracts and dissolution of agreements. . . .