Yosemite Photos, Video and News

Daily Report - Yosemite National Park

Monday, July 26, 2010

Weather

Yosemite Valley

Today: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy,

with a high near 90. Calm wind becoming south southwest between 10 and 13

mph.

Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm.

Partly cloudy, with a low around 58. Southwest wind 5 to 11 mph becoming

east northeast.

Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 89. East southeast wind 5 to 15 mph

becoming south southwest. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph.

El Portal

Today: Scattered showers and thunderstorms before 11am. Mostly sunny and

hot, with a high near 96. Northeast wind at 11 mph becoming west southwest.

Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 57. West southwest wind 6 to 10

mph becoming northeast.

Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 93. Calm wind becoming southwest between 8

and 11 mph.

Wawona

Today: Scattered showers and thunderstorms before 11am. Partly cloudy, with

a high near 91. Calm wind becoming southwest between 8 and 11 mph. Chance

of precipitation is 30%.

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 51. Southwest wind 6 to 10 mph

becoming east northeast.

Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 90. East southeast wind 5 to 13 mph

becoming south southwest.

Tuolumne Area

Today: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy,

with a high near 71. Calm wind becoming south between 8 and 11 mph.

Tonight: A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11pm.

Partly cloudy, with a low around 44. South southwest wind between 8 and 11

mph becoming calm.

Tuesday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 71. South wind 6 to 9 mph

increasing to between 14 and 17 mph. Winds could gust as high as 23 mph.

Happening Today (see Community News below for other events happening today)

Emerging Leaders Workshop - Applications Due Today: The Yosemite National

Park Executive Leadership Team is sponsoring a one full day Emerging

Leaders workshop on August 27 from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm at the Cliff Room at

the Lodge in Yosemite Valley. This training is one more step in our

overall plan in taking Yosemite to a position of leadership; how we as a

national park can go from good to great. As I said in my July 1 email

that vision of excellence cannot be our future unless we involve the entire

park staff. Our approach in steering the park to its full potential must

include staff at all levels and across all park divisions.

This training will be available to any Yosemite National Park permanent or

term employee who is currently in payroll status, and did not attend the

Leadership training on July 21. There will be no class charge to

individual work units associated with this training. Employees who are

interested in attending will need to apply by filling out the one page

application (available on Share Point, Superintendent's page) and Division

Chiefs will rank their employee's applications. There will be a

proportional number of slots per division based on overall divisional total

of permanent and term staff members. Selected class attendees will be

getting materials for pre-work in advance of the training.

This leadership training will be facilitated by Lyn Travis. Ms. Travis has

more than fifteen years experience as a facilitator, executive coach, and

consultant in individual, team, and organization transformation and

alignment. Her work is based on a collaborative, experiential, and

integrated approach, linking behavior, mindset, and performance. She has

expertise in the design and facilitation of highly interactive and engaging

meetings and workshops, executive presence development, customer/partner

advisory council strategy and facilitation, top team alignment and peak

performance teaming, culture shift/transformation, and skill development

for trust-based, high impact relationships.

Please submit your application to Karen Dera (Karen_Dera@nps.gov), by

today, Monday, July 26, Close of Business and copy your Division Chief. We

will let participants know if they have been selected by the beginning of

August. (Superintendent's Office - 7/26/10)

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Tioga Road Work: The Mather road crew will be performing road maintenance

on theTioga Road starting at the Tenaya Lake area and working east. Expect

short traffic delays. Thanks for your cooperation. (B. Brantley - 7/23/10)

Construction Update

UPDATE - Hwy. 120 (East of Tioga Pass)

Paving Work: The contractor will grind bumps on the new pavement at 3

locations between Ellery Lake & Blue Slide, remove remaining signs,

equipment, etc.on Hwy. 120 Wednesday, 7/28/10, using traffic control with

flaggers from Tioga Pass/Yosemite National Park Entrance to 5.5 miles east.

Delays are not to exceed 20 minutes. It is anticipated this work will be

done in the morning, after which, all work for the paving project will be

complete.

Guardrail work will resume today, Monday 7/26/10 starting at Warren Creek

& continue east. This work is expected to be completed by Fri 7/30/10 and

may cause minimal delays. (M. Ortiz - 7/26/10)

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Soda Springs Bridge Intermittent Closure: The Soda Springs Bridge (near the

Parson's lodge) will be closed periodically from July 12 - August 5 for

repairs. Sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause. (C. Hime -

7/12/10)

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El Portal Complex Photovoltaic System (July 22, 2010 - December 2010)

Paragon Industrial Applications (PIA) [contractor] started moving material

and equipment into the El Portal Complex area on July 22, 2010.

This week the contractors will be moving people on site to begin

trenching and structure work. PIA will be moving into their staging

area (by the Wastewater Treatment Plant) with material, equipment and

tools.

Next month: Trenching for the new PV systems and work on the carports

will begin in August. Work to begin setting the Photovoltaic panels

will most likely not start for another month.

To minimize potential traffic and parking problems, PIA has agreed to work

Thursday - Sunday. Park Management encourages El Portal Complex employees

to carpool, use the bus, ride your bike or walk to work during construction

days as there will be a decrease in parking during construction. More

information will follow as to the specific locations of work and alternate

parking throughout the project. (M. Ortiz - 7/26/10)

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Wawona Road Rehabilitation (June 1 - November 2010):

**Please use caution when driving along the Wawona Road - there are

numerous unpaved surfaces.

Paving work has begun on the Wawona Road. Last night they continued paving

the northbound lane from where they left off on Thursday evening/Friday

morning near Mosquito Creek (approximately 7 miles north of Wawona). They

added another 1.97 miles of paved roadway. They also continued the

Chinquapin waterline project.

*Today's work: Today, contractors will continue to pour more concrete

curb in areas between Wawona and the South Entrance as well as between

Chinquapin (Glacier Point Road intersection) and the Wawona Tunnel.

*Tonight's work: Night work will consist of working on the Chinquapin

waterline project and paving. The contractor will continue to pave in

the northbound lane between the Wawona Campground and Chinquapin.

(Please see the Wawona Tunnel work below for additional delays).

*Tomorrow's work: Tomorrow, contractors will continue to pour more

concrete curb in areas between Wawona and the South Entrance.

-For all Yosemite road construction information and updates, visit the

park's website: http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/roadwork.htm

-For daily traffic control updates, call the park information line at (209)

372-0200 (then press 1, and 1 again). (M. Ortiz - 7/26/10)

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Integrated Utility Master Plan [IUMP] (to be completed by the end of 2010)

Mozingo Construction (contractor) is currently working on the new sewer

lift station at the Ahwahnee Hotel as well as some of the fire hydrants and

valving on Ahwahnee Drive. Further work on the abandonment of old utilities

has been put on hold.

Allison Sierra (ASI) was recently awarded the contract for the new North

Pines sewer lift station project that is to start shortly after the

campground closes for the season. (M. Ortiz - 7/26/10)

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Wawona Tunnel (ongoing)

Candelaria Construction (contractor) will be controlling traffic in the

Wawona Tunnel tonight and the rest of the week for installation of a new

fire alarm system in the Wawona Tunnel. The traffic control will be

between 10:00 pm and 6:00 am. Candelaria will be using a pilot car for

traffic movement through the tunnel.(M. Ortiz - 7/26/10)

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Tecoya Housing (to be completed by October 1, 2010)

Allison Sierra (ASI) [contractor] will be working in the Lower Tecoya area

to replace old and failing water, sewer, and power lines and remove them

from sensitive ecological areas. This contractor (ASI) was also awarded the

contract for the new North Pines sewer lift station project that is to

start shortly. (M. Ortiz - 7/26/10)

Park and Partner News

Yosemite Fire Status:

Two new fires were found yesterday (7/25/10) during a reconnaissance flight

by Helicopter 551 after a thunderstorm:

The Slope Fire, is approximately 1 mile north/west of Harden Lake

with low to moderate rate fire activity.

The other found fire is the Olmsted Fire. It is a single tree

burning in rock. It is approximately ½ mile south of Olmsted Point on

a ridge.

The Wildcat 2 and Tuolumne fires continue to slowly grow.

Other fires may be found in the park due to the continuing thunderstorms.

Helicopter 551 will be conducting fire observation flights today. (G.

Wuchner - 7/26/10)

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Hazard Tree Work Continues

Contractors plan to complete tree hazard cleanup along the Big Oak Flat

Road in the Rattlesnake Creek area Tuesday and Wednesday. Intermittent

one-lane traffic control is anticipated with brief delays. (B. Mattos -

7/26/10)

Acting Designations

Jim Bacon will be the Acting Division Chief for the Planning Division July

26th. Jim may be reached by phone at 379-1375 in El Portal. If

unavailable you may leave a message with Doyle Harrison at 379-1110.

(D.Harrison - 7/22/10)

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Until further notice, Brenna Lissoway (379-1283) will be the Acting Park

Archivist while Paul Rogers is on a detail as the Acting Regional Archivist

(PWR). If you have need to access the Archives, or have archive related

questions, you can also try calling at 379-1282 or 379-1104. (J. Bayless -

6/3/10)

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Until further notice, Lorene Schafer (379-1873) will be the Acting Chief

for Contracting and Procurement . If you have contracting related questions

and don't already have a point of contact, please call Helli Tucker at

379-1368. Please continue to route purchase request (PR) packages to Lorene

for Acquisition Approval in IDEAS.

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Until further notice, Ed Dunlavey will be the acting Operations Branch

Chief and Deputy Chief Ranger.

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Until further notice, Cindy Whitten will be the acting Human Resources

Officer - 209/379-1878.

Employee News

Employee Awards:

Excellence In Service

Donald Ramsey . . . accomplishing several new duties in addition to his

current workload in support of the audits.

Leonor Perez . . . taking on many extra "day-to-day" duties to keep the

office running during the audits.

Tami Barton, Amanda Burnham, Trudy Hawkins, Cindy Whitten, Roxanne Zirkle,

Burcu Hinchberger, Irma Keheley, Jennifer Rudesil, Andrea Summerlin . . .

your awesome effort keeping up with the huge hiring workload this spring.

Justin Radanovich, Dan Benitag, Fred Grin, Pete Campstrom, Katie Brown,

Katie Bablitch, Shawnessy Gaynor, Jessica Clingenpeel, Jeremy Day, Tara

Hawksley, Tammy Lawhon, Brian Martin. . . in addition to their regular

duties, all of these employees were key team members in the ARRA Energy

Audit.

Lynn Galloway . . .your efforts cleaning and repairing stone and wood walls

around Valley Visitor Center.

Wesley Wills . . . your significant contributions as the lead archeologist

for the RMS Wilderness restoration Program.

Time Off Award

Rodney Raines, Mike Robarge, Susan Krause, Bonnie Foster, Jim Fredle,

Graham Guizar, Jason Sherrell, Ricky Mooneyham, Randy Rust, Ronald Parkey

. . .no lost time accidents for calendar year 2009 in Wawona Utilities.

Korwin Kirk, Shawn Zumbrunnen, Joseph Fitzgerald, John Heth, Bob McMichael,

Kyle Harders . . .no lost time accidents for calendar year 2009 in

Backcountry Utilities.

Diane Mansker . . .your efforts coordinating for the Park Service Wide

Energy Audit. (C. Mattiuzzi - 7/23/10)

Community News

Come for a Knit and Chat!

What: A chance to catch up with old friends and meet new ones and learn

from other people in the craft.

When: Wednesday, July 28 - 7:30pm

Where: 9766 Riverview Road (Rancheria)

To Bring: A blanket or a chair and the crafts of your choice.

Look forward to seeing you there! (K. Miller - 7/26/10)

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Farewell Potluck for Brindeiros: The Brindeiros are leaving Yosemite and

going to Pinnacles National Monument! Come and say “Goodbye” or “See you

later”

WHEN: Tuesday August 10, 2010

WHERE: Wawona Community Center

TIME: 6:00 PM

POTLUCK SANDWICHES PROVIDED, BYOB (M. Brindeiro - 7/26/10)

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El Portal Music Festival

Saturday, August 14

El Portal Community Hall

Doors open at 5:30. Music starts at 6:30.

Mark your calendars for the “(not quite) 10th Annual El Portal Music

Festival” with special guests The Heavy Guilt, a San Diego-based roots band

featuring El Portal favorite Al Howard. After the band, DJ 5Min_Crush

(Dylan Macintosh) will be filling the dance floor with his unique blend of

electro dance rock.

Tickets will be available at the door for $10. A delicious Mexican meal

will be available for purchase from Angel and Norma at the event from 5:30

– 8:30. Cash bar provided by YEA. No outside alcohol permitted. If you

would like to volunteer in exchange for entrance, contact the El Portal

Community Association at epcommunityhall@gmail.com.

Sponsored by ElPortalLive and the El Portal Community Association (M. Carr

- 7/26/10)