MOUNTAIN AREA — Even local insurance agents are calling it a “crisis” — the sky high price tag attached these days to homeowners insurance in large parts of eastern Madera County. Many area residents have recently been notified their homeowners insurance is going up — for some, by as much as 450 to 500 percent. And lately, according to local ...

MOUNTAIN AREAS — Two separate power outages knocked out electricity to more than 16,000 PG&E customers in eastern Madera County on Tuesday afternoon. The dual shutdowns happened just before 2 p.m. and reportedly impacted utility customers in the Coarsegold, Ahwahnee, Oakhurst and Wawona areas. Shortly after 3 p.m., PG&E confirmed that power had been restored to 14,000 customers in the ...

MARIPOSA COUNTY — Caltrans recently completed a $5.4 million project rehabilitating eastbound and westbound Highway 140 (SR-140) in the area of the Ferguson Fire scar. Caltrans says the work was needed after the Ferguson Fire burned through the region during the summer of 2018. The project included replacing 17 culverts (underwater drainage systems) and performing 12 miles worth of hazardous ...

MADERA COUNTY — A local hero was recognized by the Madera County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) as George Stillman retired from Madera County Search and Rescue last week after 18 years of volunteer service. “Affectionately known as ‘SAR George’ by other team members, he has served in a variety of capacities throughout the years,” said MCSO in a public statement. “He ...

MADERA — What can a mountain area property owner do when a neighbor’s grass grows head high or a rusty old junker has been parked out front since the 1990s? Call the Madera County code enforcement department — or better yet, file a complaint online. Madera County receives hundreds of citizen-generated complaints a year, according to Joe Trujillo, the County’s ...

UPDATED: At the July 16 meeting, this project was pulled from the board of supervisors’ agenda to allow county officials to make some slight changes in project funding details. Madera County Deputy CAO Joel Bugey said Tuesday, July 16, that he expects the project to be back up for supervisor approval in early August. MADERA — The second and third ...

MADERA — A court date has been set for Robert Moye, the 46-year-old North Fork man charged with murder in the July 6 shooting death of prominent Mono tribal elder Gaylen Lee. According to the Madera County District Attorney’s Office, Moye will go before Madera County Superior Court Judge Dale Blea in Department 22 on Aug. 8 at 8:30 a.m. ...

MADERA — The county’s newest fire station had its formal grand opening celebration Thursday, July 11. But Madera County Station #7 — already nicknamed “Lucky 7” — officially went online last fall. Located at 4150 Town Center Blvd., just off Highway 41 and Tesoro Viejo Blvd. via the development’s roundabout, it’s the first new fire station to be built in ...

NORTH FORK — Gaylen D. Lee, one of North Fork’s most prominent and well-respected residents and an Elder in the Mono Indian Tribe, died Saturday night after being shot at his home just off Cascadel Drive (Road 233). The Madera County Sheriff’s Communications Center received a call Saturday night, July 6, at around 9:23 p.m. regarding a family disturbance in ...

OAKHURST — While officials from Madera County and Cal Trans continue to work out the details of a formal plan to connect the town’s three new hotels to the main sewer line beneath Highway 41, negotiations are currently taking place that could allow one of the hotels to open later this year using the existing sewer system infrastructure. “We’re doing ...