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Tag: Richard Kniesel

  • 400-year-old oak tree crashes to ground behind historic Citrus Heights home

    400-year-old oak tree crashes to ground behind historic Citrus Heights home

    Citrus Heights, Scott Ruiz, Richard Kniesel
    Scott Ruiz, and his son Garret, stand in front of a large tree that fell behind their home Friday. // CH Sentinel

    A massive oak tree, estimated to be nearly 400 years old and 19 feet around, came crashing to the ground Friday behind a historic Citrus Heights home on Sunrise Boulevard.

    “It sounded like a bomb went off,” said renter Scott Ruiz, recalling when the tree came down around noon on Friday. Knowing his son was in the backyard at the time, he said his first instinct was to call out his son’s name to make sure he was okay.

    “My heart was in my throat,” recalled Ruiz, who was quickly relieved when he found out his son had been able to run out of the way of the tree.

    “It happened right in front of me,” his son Garret told The Sentinel. “I heard it cracking and I started running.”

    No one was injured in the incident, but two of the Ruiz family vehicles had their front windshields smashed by branches and one vehicle sustained damage to the hood.

    The elder Ruiz said plans to remove the tree are still to be decided, but said the issue had been discussed with property owner Richard Kniesel, whose family runs Kniesel’s Auto Service.

    Reached by phone Friday, Kniesel called the tree a beautiful “focal point of the whole back yard,” but said the tree also had a history of breaking off large branches.

    “In a way I’m really sad because it’s 400 years old, supposedly,” said Kniesel. “But in a way I’m happy I don’t have to worry about it any more, the danger of people walking around under the tree.”

    Kniesel said the historic home on the 8200 block of Sunrise Boulevard was built in 1868. He said in the 1970’s, an arborist with Sacramento County had first told him about the age of the tree being around 400 years old.

    Related: Local arborist shares 6 warning signs your tree could uproot, fall in a storm

    Regina Cave, a management analyst with the city’s general services department, told The Sentinel the city had estimated the tree to be 372 years old when an attempt to calculate the age was made in 2013.

    Another oak tree estimated to be around 400 years old is located in front of the new memory care facility at 6825 Sunrise Blvd., near Woodmore Oaks Drive, in Citrus Heights.

    If estimates are correct, the trees would have begun to grow around the same time the Pilgrims arrived in America on the Mayflower in the year 1620.

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  • Video: Mayor reflects on fight to make Citrus Heights a city

    Jeannie Bruins reflects on fight for cityhood, webinet media
    Citrus Heights Mayor Jeannie Bruins reflects on the fight for cityhood, in this screenshot from a short video posted on Vimeo by Webinet Media.

    Next year marks the 20th anniversary of Citrus Heights becoming a city, and a new video published online earlier this month for a local historic society features current Mayor Jeannie Bruins recalling the “David and Goliath” fight to turn Citrus Heights from County governance into the self-governing city it is today.

    “I’ve been here over 30 years, so this is home,” says Bruins at the beginning of the short video, seated in a chair, with soft music added in the background. She recalls her move to Citrus Heights from Southern California in 1984 and warmly describes a few distinctives about the area, before detailing early cityhood efforts in the mid-80’s.

    [See video below story]

    Upon arrival to Citrus Heights — which was then an unincorporated part of Sacramento County, like Orangevale and Antelope — Bruins describes the formation of the Citrus Heights Incorporation Project (CHIP), spearheaded by business owners and residents who she says were “really dissatisfied” with County governance and were seeking more local control through cityhood.

    “We felt that we weren’t getting the services and the representation for the tax dollars we were contributing to the County coffers,” Bruins says in the interview, which was filmed by Webinet Media last year when Bruins was then serving a term as vice mayor of Citrus Heights.

    Specific issues listed as reasons for incorporation are detailed on the City’s website, which cites a desire from residents and community leaders for “increased land use controls and public services,” in light of “spiraling” population growth. Growing problems with auto theft, burglaries and vandalism, and a limited number of sheriff’s deputies patrolling the area were also a key issue.

    The cityhood effort was met with opposition from Sacramento County leaders, however, who Bruins says “technically broke the law” to keep the incorporation issue off the ballot in 1986.
    With no money to fight the County, Bruins says the “rag-tag” grassroots effort had to accept the loss, describing the fight as a continual “David and Goliath story” between cityhood advocates and the County. The edited three-minute video does not cover the cityhood effort through the 90's, but concludes with Bruins saying “it's so important that this history not be lost, because we fought hard to be what we are today.” [follow text="Follow local news:"] The cityhood effort finally won on Nov. 5, 1996, when voters approved of Measure R, which officially made Citrus Heights a city on Jan. 2, 1997. The “Yes on Measure R” campaign was co-chaired by Bruins, with 62.4 percent of voters approving of the measure. In the video's description posted on Vimeo, Webinet Media says it was hired by the Citrus Heights Historic Society to capture and preserve local history by interviewing significant members of the local community. [Read more about Mayor Bruins: Council votes in Jeannie Bruins as new Citrus Heights mayor] Other short interview videos published online this month by the Webinet include Richard Kniesel, of Kniesel's Collision Centers, and several other long-time residents of Citrus Heights. Want more stories on the history of Citrus Heights? Click here to take our one-minute survey and let us know. https://vimeo.com/150962193