Downstroke

Bring on the botanists
Folks at Chico State University are gearing up for Botany 2006, a July 28-Aug. 3 conference that will bring an anticipated 1,000 scientists and students to Chico for a week. It will be the biggest conference at the university since the evolution conference of 2003, which drew 1,200 people, and attendees’ spending is expected to drop more than $700,000 into the local economy. The event is doubly a coup for Chico State because the conference will also celebrate the centennial of the Botanical Association of America, one of the sponsoring groups. Chico is an ideal location for the conference, said university spokesman Joe Wills, because of its central location in botanically diverse Northern California. Plus it’s a fun town for such events, he added.

Watch out for rate hikes
Have you seen those TV ads warning you that your car insurance costs will go up if Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has his way? You should pay attention to them. Garamendi’s plan is to reduce the influence location carries in the formula used when insurers calculate auto rates. The beneficiaries would be drivers in urban areas, where the risk of accident is greater, who would pay less than they currently do. Drivers in rural areas like Butte County, where the risk is less, would pay more. Overall, rates would go up—by as much as 12 percent—in 52 of the 58 counties and for more than 60 percent of drivers statewide. See www.stopunfairrates.com for more.

100 percent, bar none
Bars in Butte County have completely adapted to the state’s no-smoking law and are now 100 percent in compliance, the county Public Health Department announced June 8. Random inspections have shown that even the 5 percent of bars that a couple of years ago were in violation of the law have come around, said Byron Brace, health education specialist for the department. “Bar owners have found that complying with the law has resulted in increased profits with the added benefit of lowering cleaning costs and staffing expenses,” he explained.

City nabs Butte College ace
Chico City Manager Greg Jones announced this week that he has hired Martha Wescoat-Andes (pictured), the Butte College Vice President of Administration, to be the city’s new economic development/redevelopment manager. Wescoat-Andes organized the campaign for Measure A, the successful bond measure that enabled construction of the college’s Chico Center and two other new buildings, which she also implemented. She’s also led the effort to keep construction dollars in the community and lower the bond-debt services by about 15 years.

“My approach has always been to be innovative in the public sector, looking for opportunities, minimizing risk, achieving stated outcomes and thereby maintaining the public trust,” Wescoat-Andes said in a news release.

“The city is very fortunate to have attracted a candidate of such caliber and experience,” Jones said.