Coate Tales: Inside Sports: For a free, four-week subscription to Soldier Coyotes The Madera Tribune, witnessed an get win over just email [email protected] execution Panther The Madera Tribune | 2591 Mitchell Ct. See Page 4 See Page 12 Open 8am-5pm | 559-674-2424 Weekend Edition, Saturday, January 23, 2021 | VOL 129 - ISSUE 84 | 50 Cents The Madera Tribune Visit us online: www.maderatribune.com Public Health Dept. cancels vaccine clinics, temporarily For The Madera Tribune Kisses is more comfortable after being FOR THE MADERA TRIBUNE nations. However, they will re- them of the cancellations. efforts. Currently over 400 ap- trapped in a pipe for more than four hours Due to a shortage of vaccine sume to provide appointments Each person receiving a can- plications to volunteer have been Wednesday. supply, all planned vaccination when vaccinations are received. cellation call will receive priority received and are being processed. clinics at the Social Services The MCDPH advises people scheduling as soon as the vaccine Second doses have been re- Building are cancelled for the interested in the vaccine to call supply from the state permits. served for all those who have re- Forces combine remainder of the week of Janu- back next week or visit the web- Those whose appointments were ary 22nd. ceived their first dose, so far. No According to the Madera site to see if the department will cancelled can expect a phone call one who received their initial dose to save puppy County Department of Public be accepting appointments. and email notification to resched- at MCDPH is in jeopardy of miss- health, they don’t have an es- MCDPH staff, Madera Coun- ule. They will be allowed oppor- ing their required second dose. stuck in pipe timated date when the situation ty 311 Operators, and Madera tunity to reschedule before vacci- “Madera County department - nation appointments are opened of Public Health and our health- would be resolved or know County Sheriff’s Office Volun By Tyler A. Takeda when they will get their ship- teers have been contacting every to others eligible. care partners are ready to sched- THE MADERA TRIBUNE ule and provide mass vaccina- ment. Because of the shortage, person scheduled to receive the Earlier this month, MCDPH With the combined efforts of the officers they aren’t able to schedule any COVID-19 vaccine at the So- asked the community to volun- tion to our community as soon as of the Madera County Animal Shelter and more appointments for vacci- cial Services Building to advise teer to assist with vaccination SEE VACCINES, PAGE 2 Bass & Sons Septic Tank Company, a pup- py was saved after falling more than 100 feet in an uncovered pipe. For The Madera Tribune The Madera County Animal Shelter re- aboVe and beLoW — A semi truck and trail- ceived a call at about 10:30 a.m. about a er overturned Thursday puppy that fell into a hole behind a resi- morning on northbound dence at Austin Avenue and Ellis Street State Route 99, block- on Wednesday. “it was a derelict well hill and the top was ing both lanes of traffic just north of Robertson off of it,” said Bonnie hill, animal services boulevard, forcing traffic supervising officer. “One of the children at onto the shoulder of the the residence called us asking for help. It busy roadway for sev- was their dog. We went out with flashlights eral hours according to and once we got there, we realized it was a the California Highway well hole. It had an old cover on it that had been removed for some reason.” Patrol. Hill went back to the office to retrieve supplies from her own vehicle, including a 100-foot rope. “Once we dropped the rope down the Semi overturns, snarls SR99 traffic hole and it continued to go the entire length, plus some, we realized we were in for a big- By DJ Becker Community Hospital. ger fix than we were capable of handling,” THE MADERA TRIBUNE All factors such as me- Hill said. The driver of a semi truck chanical failure, medical In the meantime, director Cindy Avila sustained unknown injuries issues, distracted driving, contacted Bass & Sons to help with the after the truck and trailer he fatigue or other impairment rescue. was operating crashed and are being reviewed in the in- “Timothy Bass stepped up to the plate overturned on State Route cident, Rodriguez said. and brought his camera,” hill said. “We 99, just north of Robertson The crash snarled and dropped it down and saw the puppy was Boulevard. backed up northbound traf- there still breathing and crying. We were The wrecked cab and trying to finagle some rope to get its feet. trailer blocked both lanes of fic for over four hours as emergency crews worked to After several attempts of not getting the northbound traffic on State rope to open to catch a foot, Timothy said Route 99 at about 11:30 investigate the scene, upright the semi truck and trailer and the next thing was to try the pump truck.” Thursday morning, bringing The pump truck was used to send a pipe traffic to a halt on the busy then clear the roadway. A jack knife and then rotate to a south Fortunately there were no secondary small amount of diesel fuel down to the pup and try to suction the pup roadway, according to the to the pipe to bring it out. California Highway Patrol. facing direction with the flatbed trail- crashes. Traffic was (self) detouring and oil was spilled off the “We did not know what would happen - er loaded with cardboard coming to onto the right hand shoulder. The roadway, on the shoulder and CHP officer Gregg Rodri with the pump truck, if it would be too guez said witnesses driving rest across both of the northbound crash was witnessed, but the investi- into the center divide. behind saw the truck sudden- lanes. gation into the cause of the crash is Officers recommend that much suction,” hill said. “if we didn’t do ly veer from the right hand “it appears to be a solo vehicle ongoing.” rodriguez said. drivers slow down, always something, the puppy was going to die. slow lane all the way across crash, with the cause unknown at this The male driver was able to extri- wear their seat belts and be We explained everything to one of the faster moving traffic, hit the time. Speed does not appear to be a cate himself shortly after the truck aware of other traffic on any daughters of the residence who spoke guardrail at highway speed, factor. All traffic came to a standstill. overturned. He was taken to Madera roadway. Spanish only. We let the know we were going to do whatever we can and may not be able to save the puppy. We told them once we retrieve the puppy, it will be- Group urges public safety, awareness amid COVID-19 scams come property of Madera County and go to the vet. They all agreed to that.” By Nugesse Ghebrendrias The public should be county of Madera and Fres- Bass was able to get the puppy by its THE MADERA TRIBUNE aware of various potential no. hind legs and create a good suction. “We are the voice of Se- indicators of COVID-19 HICAP staff are trained, “Once we started pulling it up, we could niors. We stand up for fraud, including requests experienced counselors who see the puppy was on the hose,” hill said. them..” — Claire Pisching asking you to pay out of are registered with the Cali- “We pulled up 100 feet of three-inch pipe. The COVID-19 pandemic pocket to obtain the vaccine fornia Department of Aging. The pipe was on the suction pump on the has changed all aspects of life. or to put your name on a “To hear the relief in their truck. It was a heavy load. It took all of us Seeing family has become COVID-19 vaccine waiting voices, to know that there to get the hose down there. We had Tim non-existent for many. En- list and individuals contact- is a place to call and re- Bass and Chris Martinez help out with joying the simple things, ing you in person, by phone, ceive help when everything that.” like eating indoors or going or by email to tell you the seems to be closed is huge,” Hill was grateful for the team effort and to the movies, is now for- government or government HICAP Program Manager knows that waiting any longer could have bidden. But one thing that officials require you to- re Jennifer Webb said. “it goes caused the puppy to die. seemingly hasn’t changed is ceive a COVID-19 vaccine. really far right now.” “it was a team effort,” she said. “it the constant threat of scams Fortunately for Maderans, Tips include consulting came out really good. The puppy came aimed at elder citizens. the Health Insurance Coun- your state’s health depart- out well. It had some cuts, bruises and a In the form of false seling and Advocacy Pro- ment website for up-to-date distorted head. She was inverted in the hole. it wouldn’t have been too much lon- COVID-19 vaccine access gram (HICAP) at VCRC is NUGESSE GHEBRENDRIAS/THE MADERA TRIBUNE information about autho- and Medicare fraud, senior there to not only help with California Senior Medical Patrol liaison rized vaccine distribution ger that she would have perished.” citizens, both in Madera and COVID-19 related scams, Claire Pisching puts together a packet of in- channels and only obtaining Once out of her entrapment, the puppy Fresno counties, are suscep- but also advocate for Medi- formation at the Valley Caregiver Resource a vaccine through such chan- thanked each of her rescuers and that’s tible.