Firefighter volunteers needed in Ukiah. The Daily Journal reports the interim chief of the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority says even if they were fully staffed, they’d always need volunteers due to funding constraints. He told the city council they’re actively looking for volunteers and says they had about 271 calls in June, but zero structure fires. There were 96 emergency medical calls, but there were more grass or wildland fires. The chief also thanked the council for passing the city’s latest budget including the preliminary fire dept. budget.
The Mendocino County Sheriff announcing a new campaign to go after illegal marijuana gardens. Sheriff Tom Allman told the Board of Supervisors meeting this week they have to reel in the free reign of pot. He told the panel, trespassing and diverting water were big problems, and he said outsiders trying to get Native American tribes to rent land to grow weed is also a problem, that land, of course is federally owned.
There’s still need a need for an agricultural representative on the Ukiah Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency. The Exec. Director for the Mendocino County Farm Bureau says they’re actively looking for people who are qualified in the Ukiah Valley. He says you have to be a resident of the county, have a job in a commercial agricultural production operation in the Ukiah Valley ground water basin, or use groundwater for frost protection or irrigation. There are three nominees so far. The matter to be considered at the meeting tomorrow afternoon in the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors chambers in the county administration building at 1:30 p.m.
A woman in Lucerne’s has been in court for her taser assault. Police sayPatricia Dail used a taser gun on two women at a park in Lucerne. Police say when they got to the park there were several people holding on to Dail so she couldn’t leave. Then two victims told cops she used the taser on them, and they say they noticed faint marks on one of the women that looked to be like a taser strike. Witnesses say Dail also made threats that she would have someone kill them. But she told police she was called to the park and the group threatened her, so she activated the devise but accidentally hit people with it. She pleaded no contest and will be sentenced at the end of the month.
It’s a hot summer and since there was so much rain, allowing for more growth and fuel for fires, firefighters are at the ready. The Lake County Fire Protection District chief says the grass crop is the biggest it’s been in 15 years. Fire officials reminding dry grass ignites quickly and can quickly spread faster than someone can run. There’s been some calls recently for folks not considering the fuel, like someone mowing dry grass on a hot day, starting a small fire, or afternoon weedeater work that turned into a fire. Across the state fires were burning with Cal Fire out at 2,900 fires so far this year that have charred more than 106 square miles. A spokesperson for the agency says they’re well above average for this time of year, the numbers way up over the last week especially.
Volunteers needed at the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue. The team looking for folks interested in helping to provide life saving services for folks who may be stuck in the wilderness or elsewhere. Volunteers go to weekly trainings and monthly meetings so they learn skills of technical rescue, ground searches, using 4x4s and ATVs. They are trained by the Sheriff’s office. For more info, call Sgt. Gavin Wells at the Sheriff’s office.
Updates on a proposed resort and wildfire debris cleanup at the Middletown Area Town Hall. The meeting tomorrow night at 7 is open to the community, where residents are encouraged to speak up about the issues at hand. The Lake County Community Development Director will be at the meeting with a monthly report on the Guenoc (Gwen-ock) Valley project. The resort is proposed by a development company in San Francisco looking to put up hotels, sporting and cultural facilities, and residential units. The Town Hall is also talking social media tomorrow and collecting wildland fire cleanup fees. For more information email mathtownhall.
An expansion project at the Konocti Vista Casino Resort is done. The ribbon cutting ceremony a couple weeks ago for the updated hotel with 77 rooms on Clear Lake south of Lakeport. The $2 million project including gutting some rooms, then sound proofing the walls, putting in new flooring and bathroom fixtures, beds, new bedding, flat screen HDTVs and new art on the walls from local photographers. The outside of the hotel also got a facelift, with new paint with nature and Native American themes. There are also a couple of new jacuzzi suites and American Disability Act compliant rooms. The casino resort now working on another phase of building for a new casino to connect the newly remodeled hotel to the entire casino facility.
Still no word on the suspects who attacked and robbed rescuers on their way to help a Mendocino man on the Pacific Crest Trail who became ill. The two robbers were reportedly armed and took radios from Kern County search and rescue volunteers who then had to circle back for help, leaving the dehydrated hiker to wait longer. SWAT teams were sent in to search the area which was closed yesterday, then reopened later in the day. The dehydrated hiker, Charles Brandenburg out during the scorching heat of the day, activating his rescue device which sent text messages to authorities. Other hikers helped him, while they all waited for the rescuers to get there Saturday.
A man in New Jersey gives a speech at his daughter’s wedding and gets struck by lightning… but continues. JP Nadeau at his daughter’s wedding last weekend in his backyard apple orchard in Lower Woodstock when storm clouds hovered and he was hit by a strike just behind his back. He says since he was holding a microphone, the bolt shot into the sound system and lit up his hand and sparked. He says it was amazing… but his family apparently didn’t think so, until they realized he wasn’t hurt. And the wedding continued on.
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