Doug Clark, 65, of Sonora, has been a volunteer firefighter with the Tuolumne County Fire District for 32 years. Maggie Beck / Union Democrat, Copyright 2013.

“I was helping put it out until the fire department got there,” Clark recalled. “I just got to talking to those guys and they said, ‘Why don’t you be a volunteer?’ ”

With only weeks left in the public comment period for a controversial management plan for the Yosemite Valley, public feedback is already having an impact.

Kathleen Morse, Yosemite National Park’s chief of planning, told attendees at a public meeting in Groveland on Wednesday that the National Park Service is looking at possibly changing a handful of proposals in the latest draft of the Merced Wild and Scenic River Plan.

Wednesday marked the 10-year anniversary of the day the United States led the invasion into Iraq that has left more than 100,000 Iraqis and nearly 4,500 Americans dead. 

A decade after Operation Iraqi Freedom began and more than a year after the withdrawal of U.S. troops, the war remains a contentious topic among Americans who argue whether U.S. troops should have been there at all. 

Construction of a new campground and other improvements beginning next month at Beardsley Reservoir will result in some closures and construction delays through May 2014 in the Summit Ranger District of the Stanislaus National Forest.

The Stanislaus National Forest and the Tri-Dam Project of the Oakdale and South San Joaquin irrigation districts are overseeing the work. Work is scheduled to avoid heavy impact to most forest visitors during the 2013 recreation season, according to Forest Service planners.

The 2013 Tuolumne County Science Fair wrapped up Wednesday, with two students winning top honors and four chosen to enter a state competition in April. 

Sixth-grader Bailee Ankrom from the Sierra Waldorf School won the Karen Bakerville Smith award for her project, the impressively titled “Determining the Antioxidant Effects of Beta Carotene and Vitamin C on Agrobacterium Tumefaciens Tumors as Seen on Mammoth Sunflowers.”

Eberardo Rodriguez, of Moreno Valley holds up the gold coin he found Tuesday in downtown Sonora. Derek Rosen / Union Democrat, Copyright 2013.

Eberardo Rodriguez, of Moreno Valley, was trenching the asphalt at Green and Bradford streets, shoveling dirt with his digging bar, when he made the find: a dime-sized gold coin predating the Gold Rush and California statehood.

Two burned-out downtown Sonora buildings, eyesores for more than a year, are finally coming down.

The City of Sonora issued demolition permits this month to property owners of Bombay Indian Cuisine on Washington Street and an apartment complex on Stewart Street. 

After focusing its efforts on retaining and helping local businesses, the Tuolumne County Economic Development Authority is shifting some focus. 

TCEDA Executive Director Larry Cope told the Tuolumne County 

Years-old discontent about a policy long chided as Calaveras’ “40 acres and a mule” and planning for the Valley Springs area were voiced at a public hearing Tuesday on the latest draft land use map in the ongoing update of the county’s General Plan land use guide document.

In 2007, the county Board of Supervisors voted to enact a policy strongly disfavoring subdivisions leaving parcels of less than 40 acres without public water and sewer connections.

The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved contracts for design or environmental work on projects to replace vehicle bridges that county officials say are not up to standard.

The projects are primarily funded with federal dollars, with some local matches, according to the county’s Community Resources Agency.