Appliance Repair in Modesto, CA

MODESTO, Calif. —

Stricter watering restrictions are now in effect in the city of Modesto. Ongoing water waste may lead to fines of up to $500 per incident, as the state copes with an ongoing drought.

A city spokeswoman told KCRA 3 the restrictions which were implemented on Friday are due to 30% cutbacks to treated surface water in Modesto. This means odd-numbered addresses water on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Even-numbered addresses water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Under the restrictions, no one is allowed to water Monday and daily from 12 to 7 pm.

The restrictions also impact washing vehicles.

“Car washing will be permitted during outside of the prohibited hours with a positive shutoff nozzle. Hosing of the sidewalks will be permitted if done for health reasons, for maintenance or for construction. Residents are encouraged to reduce the amount of runoff,” the city said in an email.

Modesto resident Brittany Duran said it makes sense, but wonders why much of the region’s water is continually sent to Southern California.

“It makes sense because I think we are in a drought, I get it, we haven't had a lot of rain like we used to that we need,” Duran said. “But also we send water elsewhere that we probably shouldn't because it's our water, we need it here."

The restrictions come the same day that officials trekked into remote survey sites across the Sierra to record the snow depth, and more importantly, the water content of the Sierra snowpack – where California gets a large majority of its water. New readings showed the water in the snowpack sat at 38% of average. That’s the lowest mark since the end of the last drought in 2015; only twice since 1988 has the level been lower.

The city spokeswoman said Modesto strives to educate the community so more water may be saved. There are also “robust water conservation rebate program” for residents who opt-in to install water conservation measures at their home and property.

However, for anyone who waters outside hours, a warning will be first given. Then, if restrictions are continuously ignored, that’s when the citations will be issued.

Lodi and Tracy also have restrictions in place. Stockton does not.

The Modesto city spokeswoman added that if the drought continues then stricter restrictions may be added.

-The Associated Press contributed to this report.

One of the first recreational cannabis dispensaries to be approved to open in Modesto was evicted this week.

Doctor’s Choice was evicted Monday from its strip mall location on the 2000 block of Yosemite Boulevard, said property manager Raj Kumar. He said the business was ordered to vacate the property, sandwiched between a smoke shop and billiard hall, after failing to pay rent for several months.

Kumar also alleges the tenant caused damages to the building before leaving.

But the Ceres family that owns the dispensary said the eviction and closure was due to failed lease renegotiation and denies any claims of property damage.

Kumar, whose wife, Amar Kumar, owns the building, said the pot dispensary had not paid its $4,000 a month rent since October. The Modesto couple began the eviction process on the business in November, he said.

The business was given a Monday morning deadline to vacate. Kumar said the building security cameras showed staff clearing out the space after closing for business Sunday night.

He said when he arrived to inspect the property the following morning, he found extensive damage. That includes four missing doors, holes and cuts in the door frames and drywall, and electrical wiring issues.

Doctor’s Choice operator Shan Bal, whose mother owns the dispensary, said they removed and took only the doors they had installed themselves. He denied claims of additional property damage.

Bal said the three-year lease on the building ran out in November 2021 and his family had tried to renegotiate with the landlord.

He claims Kumar tried to charge them almost nine times their current rent to start a new long-term contract and then refused to negotiate. He alleges they were offered a 20-year lease where the rent would average out to more than $100,000 per month.

“We tried to reach out to the landlord to renew the lease more than six months ago and he refused to negotiate at that time,” Bal said. “He tried to take advantage of us.”

But Kumar said the new lease amounts were incorrect, and they were willing to negotiate a new long-term contract. But he said Bal refused to pay the month-to-month rent due after the original contract lapsed.

“We sent a notice, they never respond. Each time we try to call them, they never respond. So we had to go this route,” Kumar said. “You give people a place to establish their business, but when they leave, they destroy the building. That hurts.”

The dispensary’s closure was news to many of its customers as a steady steam of people arrived at the front door only to find it locked and the inside emptied out Monday afternoon. The pot shop had been operating normally until closing Sunday night.

Bal said they plan to move to a new location and will be “opening soon” but would not comment on where or when that might be. As of Monday evening, there was no information on the cannabis shop’s Instagram, Facebook or Weedmaps pages about its closure or possible new location.

Kumar said he is now left with about $50,000 in damages to repair the approximately 3,200-square-foot space. He said he is also due the last four months rent of $16,000. He said he plans to pursue legal action against his former tenant to recoup costs.

Doctor’s Choice was among eight cannabis businesses approved by the Modesto City Council in December 2018 to operate as the first legal recreational marijuana dispensaries in the city. The shop beat out a half dozen other applicants, who underwent an extensive multi-step vetting process at the time.

Since its opening in 2019, the dispensary has sold recreational and medicinal marijuana products from its storefront. The California Department of Cannabis Control lists the shop’s license as valid until May 2022.

This story was originally published March 15, 2022 11:26 AM.

The Church of Jesus of Latter-day Saints is building a temple in Modesto.

It is one of 17 new temples that will be built around the world.

Once it is built, it will become the closest temple to more than 4,000 church members in the Manteca, Ripon, Lathrop and Tracy area.

President Russell M. Nelson made the announcement Sunday at the conclusion of the church’s general conference conducted in Salt Lake City. The Modesto temple will be the 10th in California.

It is a nod to the growing ranks of the church in the Northern San Joaquin Valley that includes a stake center in Manteca that serves various wards in Manteca, Ripon, and Tracy.

An exact location of the temple was not revealed but the fact it is in the region has historical significance to the church.

Modesto is within miles of the site west of Ripon and south of Manteca along the northern banks of the Stanislaus River near the present-day Caswell State Park where the church attempted to establish its first West Coast colony.

Sam Brannan — under the direction of Brigham Young — led a party of 200 men to Yerba Buena now known as San Francisco in 1846.

William Stout was selected by Brannan to lead 20 into California’s interior. Using the launch, they dubbed “Comet” they sailed up the San Joaquin River — the first indigenous people believed to have done so — and landed near what is today Mossdale Crossing in Lathrop.

From there they continued up river and then into the Lower Stanislaus about a half mile above where it empties into the San Joaquin River. After selecting a site and building a central house, the group planted wheat. They had roughly 80 acres plowed and planted by mid-January 1847.

The winter rains that started shorty thereafter ended up being the undoing of the effort to establish a colony.

The rains overflowed the river and flooded the countryside for miles.

It was the second known attempt by non-indigenous people to try and establish a settlement in what is today San Joaquin County.

In 1826 the French-Canadian Hudson Bay Company established a settlement on the south bank of what was to become known as the French Camp Slough just north of where French Camp is today.

They were brought not to this section of California by faith but to capitalize on the abundance of wildlife for the highly profitable fur trade. An agent for a company remained in French Camp through 1845 until trapping had depleted the area population of mink, beavers, bears and other fur-bearing animals.

California has more than 755,000 Latter-day Saints in over 1,200 congregations. Other temples in California are the Feather River, Fresno, Los Angeles, Newport Beach, Oakland, Redlands, Sacramento, San Diego and Yorba Linda temples.

President Nelson has announced 100 new temples since he became leader of the Church in 2018. With this latest announcement, the Church now has 282 total temples worldwide in operation, under construction or renovation, or announced.

There are more than 16.8 million members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints worldwide.

“Positive spiritual momentum increases as we worship in the temple and grow in our understanding of the magnificent breadth and depth of blessings we receive there,” Nelson was quoted as saying in a press release. “I plead with you to counter worldly ways by focusing on the eternal blessings of the temple. Your time there brings blessings for eternity.”

The locations of the other 16 temples that will be built are Wellington, New Zealand; Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo; Barcelona, Spain; Birmingham, United Kingdom; Cusco, Peru; Maceió, Brazil; Santos, Brazil; San Luis Potosí, Mexico; Mexico City Benemérito, Mexico; Tampa, Florida; Knoxville, Tennessee; Cleveland, Ohio; Wichita, Kansas; Austin, Texas; Missoula, Montana; and Montpelier, Idaho.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com

Modesto won’t be getting a $1 million Caltrans grant to reduce the dumping of broken furniture, busted appliances and other junk throughout the city.

The city applied for funding through Caltrans’ Clean California Local Grant Program. The program helps cities, counties and other jurisdictions reduce waste and debris in public spaces, beautify public spaces, improve public spaces for walking and recreation and advance equity for underserved communities.

Caltrans had $296 million to award and announced this month it had awarded funding to 105 grant applications, including $2.87 million to Ceres for improvements at Smyrna Park. A Caltrans spokesman said his agency received more than 300 applications, seeking $758 million.

Modesto had planned to use its grant for two projects: launching a bulky item pickup program for apartment complexes and other multi-family housing and beautifying a bare strip of land it owns in west Modesto that children use on their way to and from school and that other people use as a dumping ground.

The bulky item pickup program for apartments and multi-family housing would be similar to the program the city provides residents of single-family homes.

These residents can put out old furniture, appliances and similar items along their curbs twice a year and a city trash hauler will pick them up. The cost of the service is included in residents’ monthly garbage bills. More information can be found at www.modestogov.com/373/Bulky-Item-Pick-Up.

Public Works Director Bill Sandhu said in a February story that he estimates roughly half of the 300 tons of illegal dumping in the city each year is related to apartments and multi-family housing.

He said the city would use $200,000 to $300,000 from the grant to start the bulky item pickup program. That would cover the cost of developing the program and subsidizing it for the first year. The cost then would become part of a property’s garbage bill.

Asked why Modesto couldn’t start a bulky item pickup without the grant, Sandhu said in February that the city does not have the funding. He said if the city was not awarded funding, it would continue to look at its options to start a program and to beautify the land it owns in west Modesto.

Modesto officials did not respond by deadline to a request for an update on its efforts to fund these two projects.

The city property is a roughly 12-yard-wide, 100-yard-long stretch of dirt that connects Rouse Avenue with Yellow Pine Drive. It also connects neighborhoods to elementary schools, shopping, parks and bus stops. But it also is a prime example of blight that requires the city to often respond to reports of graffiti, litter and dumping.

Caltrans spokesman Anthony Presto said while there is no more money for Clean California projects, Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed an additional $100 million for another round of grants as part of his 2022-23 budget proposal.

Does food taste better when you’ve worked for it?

Modesto’s newest seafood restaurant puts that theory to the test with tasty results. Akitaca Crab opened on Prescott Road in mid-January and already has happy return customers.

The restaurant specializes in seafood boils, hearty mixes of crab, shrimp, crawfish and more cooked in their shells with potatoes, corn and sausage and then served either in a bag or dumped onto butcher paper on your table. That’s when the real work begins.

Seafood boils originated in the South and on the East Coast and have become a popular dining trend across the country. Akitaca Crab joins a handful of restaurants in Stanislaus County that offer seafood boils, including Turlock’s Shrimpy’s, Modesto’s Crawfish Noodle & Grill and the newly opened Bag O’ Crab in north Modesto’s former Tahoe Joe’s space.

Modesto restaurateur Kevin Lin spent the last two years renovating the former home of the Four Seasons Buffet, which moved across the street. Now the 5,400-square-foot building has a new kitchen, bar and dining room design with nautical touches. The open, contemporary space can seat about 250, and a private party room is under construction.

Lin is no stranger to the Modesto restaurant scene. He opened Kobe Sushi Buffet in the McHenry Village shopping center in 2012 and has owned the Asian-inspired restaurant with a sushi conveyor belt ever since.

But Akitaca manager Eden Rodriguez said he wanted to bring more seafood boil options to the Valley so people didn’t need to drive to the Bay Area or Sacramento to get their fix. The restaurant was named after the Japanese city and prefecture Akita, with “ca” added at the end to denote California, he said.

“It’s an experience we brought to Modesto. You get the experience a family meal that you put out in a bag or on paper on the table,” Rodriguez said. “(Lin) wanted to bring this kind of food to Modesto, something new like he did with Kobe Sushi.”

The menu features a variety of seafood boil and shellfish options. You can build your own mix, picking from shrimp, clams, crawfish, mussels, baby octopus, calamari, scallops, lobster tail and a variety of crab (snow, king and Dungeness) served by the half or full pound. Then you pick your spice level and sauce: Cajun, garlic butter, lemon pepper or the Akitaca Special (all three sauces combined). Next it’s boiling time.

Akitaca also has premixed boil bag combos, which range from $24 to $65. For a less saucy option, the restaurant has dry rub family-style specials, which are poured onto the table instead of served in a bag. Those run $75 for a party of two to $219 for a party of four.

Both options require you don’t mind getting your hands dirty and are prepared for a whole lot of cracking. The restaurant provides shelling tools, bibs and hand wipes — and you’ll need all of them. There even are gloves, which depending on how spicy you made your mix are also highly recommended. The top heat level uses the scorpion pepper, which ranks just below the feared Carolina Reaper as the hottest pepper in the world.

For those interested in less of a mess for dinner, Akitaca also offers fried seafood, soups and salads, appetizers and po boy sandwiches in seafood or nonseafood varieties, which run $4 to $13. The restaurant has a full bar, so you can pair your seafood bonanza with a cocktail or bucket of beer and more.

Akitaca currently offers dine-in and takeout, but within the next month or so should also be available on the DoorDash delivery app.

Akitaca Crab Seafood Restaurant, at 1800 Prescott Road, Suite C, is open noon to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday to Monday, closed Tuesdays. For more information, call 209-238-9518 or visit its page on Facebook.

This story was originally published March 19, 2022 7:00 AM.