1: The original Rotary Club of Woodland, the Noon Club, founded in 1926, recently held its annual senior citizens BBQ at the Yolo County Fairgrounds, where 325 seniors enjoyed a flavorful lunch.

2: The Woodland Chamber of Commerce announced this year’s recipient of the 2024 Agribusiness of the Year Award: Bullseye Farms.

3: In what was deemed to be a long time coming, Woodland City Council members recently voted to change the name of Squaw Valley Drive — located on the southeastern part of the city — to Patwin Valley Drive.

4: Woodland Joint Unified School District Trustee and current Vice President Deborah Bautista Zavala is among several regional education leaders recognized by the Yolo County School Boards Association (YCSBA) for Excellence in Education.

5: Local nonprofit Make It Happen for Yolo County received a grant of $5,000 from the Teichert Foundation to provide under resourced young adults with furniture, safe appliances and household items needed to care for their home.

6: Reporter Taylor Heeden Larkins went on a tour of West Sacramento and Clarksburg with Yolo County Supervisor Oscar Villegas and his assistants, Jack and Viviana. The goal of our car ride through the two towns: to learn about what each community encompasses and what resources are available to residents.

7: Woodland Joint Unified School District (WJUSD) administration invited representatives from local organizations, elected officials and others to climb into a classic yellow school bus earlier this week for a ride across the district’s elementary schools. The purpose of the tour: to showcase the vision for future facilities and remind the community of the upgrades the schools desperately need.

8: Norma Vega, a payroll and benefits technician, was named the Classified Employee of the Year for WJUSD and was also selected as the Yolo County Classified Employee of the Year for Clerical and Administrative Services.

9: The Yolo County Board of Supervisors appointed former Yolo County Assistant County Administrator Dirk Brazil as the interim county administrative officer and started on Oct. 14. Previous administrator Gerardo Pinedo stepped down in late September after being appointed to the position of Los Angeles County’s assistant sheriff, administration, and will serve as Sheriff Robert G. Luna’s chief financial officer.

10: Despite the last intense heatwave of the year bearing down Woodland with triple-digit temperatures, thousands of local and visiting residents packed downtown Main Street for the third annual Yolo Farmworkers Festival this past weekend.

11: The Yolo Community Foundation has announced the honorees for the annual Yolo Philanthropy Awards, recognizing the individuals and organizations making a significant impact in Yolo County.

12: The Yolo County Board of Supervisors honored Concilio of Yolo for 50 years of service to the county. The nonprofit was founded by Rev. Daniel Casey of Holy Rosary Catholic Church and Ricardo Gonzales Sr., along with other community members. Concilio of Yolo was founded to help provide support to the county’s Latino population through various services and advocacy.

13: The Winters Police Department had a leadership change following the announcement Chief John Miller would step down and accept a posting with the Antioch Police Department.

14: Some tales of Yolo’s past — such as one from the Wintu people involving the rolling head of a young woman or rumors of the only firefighter in Woodland to die in the line of duty haunting the Woodland Opera House — continue to be shared across generations, continuing a tradition of local lore surrounding the unexplained. The Daily Democrat curated a collection of some of the legends and alleged haunts throughout Yolo County, with each of these stories acting as a thread weaved into the culture of Woodland, Davis, West Sacramento, Winters, Kings Landing and other communities across the county.

15: The U.S. Small Business Administration has recognized California’s Sacramento and North San Joaquin Valley region as a Regional Innovation Cluster for AgriFood technologies.

16: Over 450 community members gathered to celebrate and attend the 5th annual Dia de Muertos event hosted by CommuniCare+OLE. The event took place at the Hansen Family Health Center in Woodland.

17: An Elk Grove man was sentenced to nearly 230 years behind bars after a Yolo County jury found him guilty on two counts of attempted murder, two counts of shooting into an occupied vehicle, two counts of assault with an assault weapon or machine gun, two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of a machine gun, possession of an assault weapon and four counts of being a felon in possession of ammunition.

18: Bagpipes and drums rang through the halls of Creekside Church in Elk Grove as men clad in plaid kilts marched into the worship space filled with hundreds of community members and firefighters from the West Sacramento Fire Department. Firefighters stood at attention as the family of fallen West Sacramento Fire Engineer Tim Hall processed into the church to honor the life of a man who had a deep passion for serving his community.

19: Bobby Dazzler’s Pumpkin Patch, located at 23300 County Road 99D in Woodland, opened to the public in late September.

20: The city of Davis Police Department (DPD) posted the footage onto the agency’s Facebook page, which shows what appears to be a white male walking past a Harris/Walz 2024 sign up to the rainbow flag hoisted in front of the home. Cameras also capture him approaching the flag then jumping up to grab it, ripping the rainbow banner down so violently the Ring camera a few feet away and above the perpetrator captured the sound.

21: Woodland Community College students had the opportunity to share their top concerns this election with the candidates themselves at the League of Women Voters’ candidate forum. It was held from noon to 1 p.m. in the 900 building on Woodland Community College’s campus, where candidates for the races across Woodland’s ballots were able to meet with residents and hear about the issues impacting them.

22: After a rough start to their first season in the Monticello Empire League, the Pioneer High School varsity football team found its league legs with two straight wins after taking down Wood, allowing them to celebrate their homecoming in style thanks to a crisp 23-6 win that Friday night.

23: Every school and program in the Woodland Joint Unified School District and the district office participated in a serendipitously timed earthquake and evacuation drill as a part of the national Great ShakeOut drill. Following FEMA’s “National Preparedness Month” in September, the Great ShakeOut drill is traditionally held every year on the third Thursday of October.

24: In what was deemed a long time coming, the Woodland City Council recently approved conditional-use permits for three retail cannabis dispensaries to be located in the city. Three dispensaries will soon be able to call Woodland home after members approve 3-of-4 permits recommended by the city of Woodland Planning Commission.

25: The Woodland Police Department swore in Maria Roa as a full-time community services officer. Roa was welcomed aboard full-time during a Tuesday afternoon ceremony inside the Woodland Police Department community room, located at 1000 Lincoln Ave.

26: When a team is committed and fully buys in, losing a game is supposed to hurt. It means everyone associated with the program cares. That was certainly the case Friday night as the Pioneer High School varsity football team lost a heartbreaker on their senior night to the class of the Monticello Empire League, Rodrigez, by the tight score of 7-12.

27: FIRA USA is the national chapter of FIRA — an international effort to highlight advancements in agricultural technology, showcasing the latest developments to streamline the farming processes. This year’s national conference was held in Woodland, at the Yolo County Fairgrounds, from Oct. 22 through Oct. 24. It brought the latest in autonomous agricultural technology to U.S. soil and emphasized innovation in farm robotics and sustainable practices

30: Main Street was overtaken by ghosts with sunglasses, miniature velociraptors contained to wagons converted into makeshift cages, wild Pokémon along with Team Rocket themselves, and even Sonic the Hedgehog were even spotted in the heart of town. Their reason for overtaking Main Street: the annual tradition of trick-or-treating. Nearly 3,000 costumed residents filled the sidewalks running along Woodland’s local businesses while the owners of said establishments passed out candy and other goodies to excited trick-or-treaters.

31: Members of the Superintendent’s Youth Advisory Council kicked off their first meeting of the school year with Woodland Joint Unified School District Superintendent Elodia Ortega-Lampkin at the district office. Additionally, five Pioneer High School students kicked off the school year in August by co-facilitating a leadership camp for district students with the superintendent.