Red light camera mounted in YC?

Q: I recently noticed a camera mounted over the intersection of Highways 20 and 99 in Yuba City. It seems to be pointing toward traffic headed south on Highway 99. Is this a red light camera or what?

A: Yuba City police are thinking about installing red light cameras like the one that recently went into operation at Third and F streets in Marysville, but that's not one of them at Highways 20 and 99, according to Shelly Chernicki, spokeswoman for District 3 of the California Department of Transportation.

Caltrans was working on pavement at the intersection a few weeks ago and had to remove a "detection loop" beneath the pavement that regulates traffic signals, said Chernicki.

The loop will be reinstalled. In the meantime, the camera is being used to regulate lights at the intersection, she said.

Q: Our family places silk flowers on the graves of my mother and other relatives in Sierra View Memorial Park in Olivehurst. Sierra View has a new manager who has plants purged the second and fourth Wednesday of each month through September to clean out dried flowers and fake flowers in bad shape. But decent-looking flowers are also being taken.

A: Sierra View General Manager Jim Carper said the cemetery "purges" flowers once a month until the mowing season ends in September. Some cemeteries even do so once a week, he said.

Only dead natural flowers are purged. Silk flowers in vases on grave makers are not removed, according to Carper.

Carper said he recently erected a new sign outlining the rules. But the rules themselves have not changed, he said.

Since You Asked is written by reporter Rob Young. Questions can be sent to him in care of the Appeal-Democrat, P.O. Box 431, Marysville, CA 95901.