The Sacramento Bee from Sacramento, California • G1

OUTPUT: 092005 15:52 USER: DHART NEIGHBROAD MASTER 03-04-01 The Sacramento Bee ANTELOPE North Sacramento THURSDAY September 22, 2005 NATO MAS RIO LINDA ELVERTA DEL PASO HEIGHTS NORTH SACRAMENTO NORTH HIGHLANDS FOOTHILL FARMS ANTELOPE ROB LA POLICEFIRE LOG G3 SPORTS G4 CALENDAR G5 www.sacbee.comantelope mm NEW PILOT AT THE Controls Julia Bussinger, executive director of the McClellan Aviation Museum, stands inside a World War ll-era troop carrier at the museum. She is taking over as a major fundraising campaign is set to get under way. Auto dealer to stay in city Downtown Ford will move but agrees to delay building complex. By Dirk Werkman BEE STAFF WRITER Downtown Ford, one of the top sales tax producers in Sacramento, will remain in the city as the result of a unanimous City Council vote. Council members 3 Arco Arena Arena Blvd.

A 12 mile Mf-Jjff voted 9-0 on Sept. 13 to permit Downtown Ford, 525 N. 16th to move to 20 acres near West El Camino Avenue and Orchard Lane in west Natomas. As part of the approval agreement, however, Downtown Ford officials won't build a proposed auto dealership on the site for two years. That will give city officials more time to put together a plan for an auto mall, possibly along Interstate 80 near Interstate 5.

Ss'ngDr. New location of Downtown Ford 80 Sacramento W. El Camino Ave. Sacramento BeeMitchell Brooks Sacramento BeeAndy Alfaro Visitors walk near the vintage military aircraft on display at the McClellan Aviation Museum at McClellan Park. The facility is set to undergo major changes.

McClellan Aviation Museum hires a director Several auto mall plans have been proposed in the past few years, but none have gone anywhere. MOVE, Page G2 Volunteer Bill Drotar of Natomas sands the wing of a PT-26 airplane during restoration work at the McClellan Aviation Museum. Aircraft displayed at the museum include aC-119G Flying Boxcar and an EC-1 21 Warning Star. A new exhibit building is planned at the museum. By Dirk Werkman BEE STAFF WRITER Military and civilian employees were about the only people who visited the McClellan Aviation Museum when the Air Force operated the base.

Most people in the Sacramento area didn't even know there was a museum on the North Highlands base, now a business complex called McClellan Park. But Julia Bussinger and members of the private McClellan Aviation Museum Foundation that operates the museum plan to change all that. Bussinger was selected by the foundation board following a nationwide search to become the executive director of the museum. She has more than 20 years of museum management experience and is the first person with extensive professional experience to head the facility. "We have taken a giant step to the next level by hiring Julia," said Tim Pinkney, a member of the foundation board.

Her goal, Bussinger said, is no less than to transform the museum into "one of the greatest museums in California. When the Air Force vacated the base in July 2001, the blanket of federal support for the museum was removed. The foundation board and scores of skilled volunteers who log countless hours at the MUSEUM, back page, G6 Fire district approves a record budget By Dirk Werkman BEE STAFF WRITER Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District board members last week approved a record $143 million budget, reflecting both increased emergency service demands and boosts in property tax revenues. Passed on a 9-0 vote, the budget for the fiscal year that began July 1 is more than $22 million higher than last year's nearly $121 million budget. "We are in flush times as long as people keep selling homes and prices keep going up," Drew R.

Houghton, director of finance, told the board. Questions were raised, however, about whether the district will have enough money to build eight fire stations in the coming years. Houghton said the district expects to spend $12 million on station construction and remodeling in the coming year. "Do we have a money tree?" board member Ray Trujillo asked. Houghton said a fee on new homes will bring in an estimated $5 million in the coming year for fire station construction, adding that those dollars DISTRICT, Page G3 Volunteers are voice of old planes By Dirk Werkman BEE STAFF WRITER If airplanes could talk, many of the 30 aircraft in the McClellan Aviation Museum collection could tell some compelling stories.

One of the planes dropped paratroopers behind German lines during the D-Day invasion that turned the tide for the Allies in World War II. The same plane later participated in the famed Berlin Airlift. Another of the retired planes saw service recently in Afghanistan and was shot at over Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War, receiving 74 bullet holes. Because airplanes can't talk, people like Dick Updegraff and Bill Roughton do the talking for them. Updegraff and Roughton are among about 80 volunteers who give tours of the planes, maintain the aircraft, sell items at the museum gift store and do countless other chores needed to keep the museum going.

VOLUNTEERS, Page G6 Water bubbling up from Antelope sidewalk begs for attention a CARLOS ALCALA someone like that, we'd love to hear the stories. Nowadays, the area's quite different 40,000 to 45,000 residents, said Travis Totten, of the parks district. "It's getting bigger," he said. When the district has its 50th birthday party in November, it hopes to fete its senior residents as well. If you know of some real old-timers, call Totten or Carole Shannon at (916) We're history, too: As it comes around to the third anniversary of this column, we have plans to celebrate the matter in the usual way by taking a vacation.

Enjoy your week off and, at least as long as we're out there, please remember to share the road with bicycles. Reach Carlos Alcald at (916) 773-6847 or calcalasacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.comalcala. Water they waiting for: it's hardly a flood. It's more of a trickle that bubbles out of the ground like a spring or artesian well.

Not Katrina, by any means. Even so, it's water where it doesn't belong. For months according to neighbor Andy Hegenderfer water has been coming out of the sidewalk in front of 8431 Falcon View Drive in Antelope. This address looks like a tiny house, but you can tell it's not a regular home. There's a driveway, for example, but it goes next to the building, not up to the garage door.

It turns out to be a facility for California-American Water. The water, though, is coming through a metal trap door in the sidewalk that says "SMUD Electric." It spills into the gutter and drops into a nearby storm drain like a little waterfall. It seems like a waste. "It's a lot of water going down opened. Shades of Pandora.

Can't picture it: Sadly, our attempt last month to scare up historical photos of Rio Linda and Elverta didn't turn up much. The photos are for a photographic history book that Joyce Buck-land is organizing. Of the calls Buck-land got, only one resulted in a potentially usable photo she didn't already have access to. "All we can do is try," Buckland said. She has managed to find a photo of E.M.

Pitcher, who came around the Horn even before the Gold Rush and was in the Rio Linda area (not yet named that) in the 1850s. She would love, however, to have a picture of Pitcher's Star House a hotel located on what was the Nevada Road, almost in the middle of what is now Rio Linda. We're glad this column doesn't have to scrounge for photos. It's bad enough to carry that picture in the second col umn. If you have any Rio Linda Elverta history photos, let us know and we'll put you in touch with Buckland.

More old stuff: Maybe the North Highlands Recreation and Parks District will be more successful in its search for the past. As part of a 50th anniversary celebration, the district is looking for the community's oldest resident, and the resident who has been there the longest. An aerial photo of the McClellan area from 70 years ago shows not much in the way of houses. Just a few scattered farm buildings. It's doubtful anyone has been around that long.

North Highlands didn't even have its name then, although you can see the name Walerga on some maps. It was about 15 years later that development started in North Highlands. It'll be hard to find anyone who has lived here since then (about 55 years), but if there is the drain," said Hegenderfer, being rather literal in his choice of metaphor. After a few calls (including one in which we were directed to Cal-American's Florida call center), we found that repairs were to take place this week. Cal-American found out about the leak Aug.

19, a month ago, said spokesman Kevin Tilden. After noting it involved a SMUD pull box (and 25,000 volts), it took time to coordinate repairs and line up a crane to remove the box. Meanwhile, the flow continued. What caused the leak won't be known until the box is SACBEE NE NORTH 1 092205 BLACK MAGENTA PAGE: 1.