By Ron MosherSports EditorREDDING – Last Wednesday night

things got ugly after the Oakland at Enterprise girls state basketball playoff game. As the referee’s were leaving the court, a fan attacked a female referee and Redding Police are looking for the woman responsible for the attack.

The referee assaulted was former Burney girls sports coach Susan Ayers, who with her husband Mark lived in Burney for many years, and their three children, Angie, Chase and Aimee all graduated from Burney Jr/Sr High. She has been a highly respected referee for more than a decade working out of Red Bluff, her current home.

According to reports, a woman as-sumed to be a parent or fan from Oak-land High school assaulted a referee immediately after the game while play-ers were celebrating and fans were tak-ing photo’s in other parts of the gym. The fan was apparently upset after host Enterprise (ranked No. 1 in Division III) narrowly defeated Oakland High Wildcats (ranked 16th), 67-63.

Enterprise personnel and security tried to pull the attacker off the ref, but found themselves on the receiving end of swings by the woman. The woman escaped before she could be arrested.

According to Ayers, “The CIF is working with Redding Police to find the woman.”

Susan Ayers

“The CIF is working with Red-ding Police to find the woman.”

Susan Ayers

A Redding police spokesperson is reported to have said the woman could be arrested under suspicion of assault of a referee which has its own charge. The California Penal Code shows that an attack on a referee can land you in jail for one year or up to $2,000 in fines or both.

Ayers reported Saturday that she is home, “and recovering and doing OK.”

Woodland Hills, CA — Colene Hickman has been selected as the 2018 Treasurer for the Cali-fornia State Rural Health Association (CSRHA). This will be Colene’s sec-ond year serving on the Board of Directors for CSRHA who represents all of the varied constit-uency groups in rural health care in the state of California. Their mission is to “improve the quality and length of life of rural Califor-nian’s through advocacy, collaboration and educa-tion.”

With over 15 years of health care industry experience and the last eight years as Mayers Memorial Hospital’s, Patient Financial Coun-selor. Colene Hickman brings a diverse back-ground to this position.

In 2017, Colene gradu-ated with her Bachelors in Health Care Admin-istration and a minors in Organizational Man-agement from Ashford University. She is also a registered Health In-surance Counseling and Advocacy Program (HI-CAP) Counselor through the State of California, in addition to being a Cer-tified Covered California Counselor. Through as-sisting patients and com-munity members with their concerns about health care and the costs associated with it, Co-lene understands the importance of advocacy and education.

With living and work-ing in rural California for all of her life, she is no stranger to the chal-lenges that rural com-munities face, especial-

ly in regards to health care. Having the great opportunity to serve the CSRHA board, she along with fellow board mem-bers are committed to representing the needs and interests of all rural communities throughout the state.

FALL RIVER MILLS — Thursday morning, a faint odor and lingering of smoke was detected in the Fall River Elementary School Cafeteria. The fire alarm was immediately sounded and the Principal announced this was not a drill (the school had just practiced a fire drill on Tuesday).

Following procedures, students were immediately evacuated and relo-cated at the Fall River Veteran’s Hall/community field area. Due to weather conditions, student were then trans-ported by bus to the Fall River High School gymnasium.

During this time. Principal Chris Knoch made an “All Call” to parents of elementary school children, letting them know school would be canceled for the remainder of the day and par-ents could pick up their children at

the high school. Once at the high school, parents arrived, and after all students were accounted for, parents “signed out” their students and took them home. Amazingly enough, Fall River Joint Unified School District Su-perintendent Greg Hawkins said, “only two students needed to be transported home via district transportation!”

Both McArthur and Fall River fire departments, district maintenance personnel, and a professional certified electrician have fully inspected the area. It was determined that it was a problem with a motor and has been fixed. School resume Friday.

Greg Hawkins thanked Knoch and her staff, as well as all other district personnel, for their actions. “All con-sidered, things worked out well.” He said.

The Modoc and Lassen National For-est reported the snow surveys for the end of February.

• The Thousand Lakes Survey taken on February 27 showed 27.5 inches of snow with 7.5 inches of wa-ter content. The av-erage for this time of year is 73.4 inches of snow with 27.6 inches of water content.

Last year at this time they measured 117.5 inches of snow with 50 inches of wa-ter content.

The highest record-ed was in 1952 with 150.4 inches of snow and 67.1 inches of wa-ter content.

The lowest was in 2014 with 6.93 inches of snow, and 2.9 inches of water content.

• The Adin Moun-tain Sweagert Flat snow survey on Wednesday Febru-ary 28 showed a snow depth of 16.65 inches compared to the long-term average of 33.65 inches. Water content

was 4.3 inches com-pared to the long-term average of 10.8 inches.

Based on that mea-surement, the area was at 49 percent aver-age snow depth and 40 percent average water content.

“The numbers for the survey were not great, but the survey was done before this last storm which has dropped an addition-al six inches of snow based on SNOTEL readings,” said Modoc National Forest Ser-vice Hydrologist Nick Semenza.

“For the remainder of the month the there is a 75 percent chance of below normal tem-peratures and 60 per-cent chance of above average precipita-tion. We will see what spring weather brings for us.”

• The Lassen Na-tional Forest report-ed that on February 28 the average snow depth on the Chester Flat was 1.9 inches. The water content was

3/10 of an inch.Last year the av-

erage depth was 22.9 inches with water con-tent of 7.2 inches.

• Lower Pine Creek had 2.2 inches this year with 2 tenths of an inch water content.

Last year the depth was 20.6 inches, .9 inches water content.

The highest mea-surement was in 2004 with 47 inches of snow with 16.1 inches.

The lowest was 2014 with zero snow.

• Upper Pine Creek had a March 1 mea-surement of 8.5 inches of snow and 1.3 inches of water content.

Last year there was 54.5 inches of snow at the time of the survey with 19.5% water con-tent.

The highest year was 2004 at 74.5 inches. There was 24.5 inches of water content mea-sured .The average was 173%.

The lowest was in 2014 with 6.3 inches of snow, 1.2 inches of wa-ter content.

REDDING — For many students attending Shasta College this Fall their tuition will be free for their first year as long as they are first-time, full-time students.

A new program, called The Shasta College Promise Program, is provid-ing students who previously may have avoided going to school due to finan-cial considerations, another chance at obtaining a college education.

To qualify for the program, first-time Shasta College students who are California residents need to apply for financial aid, register for 12 units or more, and complete a new student orientation and education plan at the college. Students who completed dual enrollment at their high schools or concurrent or summer enrollment at the college while in high school would still qualify for the Shasta College Promise Program.

“This new program changes the conversation many families have these

days when faced with the prospect of paying for college,” said Dr. Joe Wyse, Shasta College Superintendent/Pres-ident. “Now, more students will be able learn a trade, complete a career program or transfer to the university independent of how much family in-come they may have. At a time of es-calating college costs for attending a 4-year university, this program helps remove financial barriers for all first-time students as they pursue their ed-ucational and career goals.”

The Shasta College Promise Pro-gram is designed to support the needs of the region by helping every local high school student who wants to go to college and gain the skills to succeed in the 21st century economy. “This program will encourage more stu-dents to attend college and ultimately contribute to the workforce and the local economy in Shasta, Tehama and Trinity counties,” said Eva Jimenez, Associate Vice President, Economic and Workforce Development.

See Mountain Echo on the web at MountainEcho.com Published every Tuesday Vol. 42, No 11 March 13, 2018

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Mountain Echo graphic

Smoking motor gives students the day off

Colene Hickman is State Association treasurer

Shasta College offers first time, full time, students the first year free

Area’s dismal snow pack measured

Referee Susan Ayersphysically attackedFormer Burney Coach Susan Ayers was attacked following a state playoff game

Photo by Ron MosherMarissa Leighton protects the ball from Rincon Valley Christian defenders in Saturday’s win in McArthur. The Lady Bulldogs host Redding Christian of Palo Cedro for the NorCal Regional State title tonight (Tuesday) at 7p.m. in a rematch of the section title game won by Fall River last week.SEES SPORTS SECTION