A Family Support Center is opening compliments of Lake County Behavioral Health Services. The announcement of the latest Peer Support Center in Middletown was named by students at Middletown High. There will be resources, referrals, and support for families in the County mental health system or if they need more information on available community resources. They have various support groups beginning including their Art Group, Homework Clubs for kids and Parent Partner groups to support parents and be their advocates. The official grand opening was on Valentines Day. The other Peer Support Group centers are in Clearlake Oaks, Lakeport and Clearlake.
State Sen. Bill Dodd says he’s working with a member of the Assembly to improve maternity care for women in the state. Dodd and Assemblymember Autumn Burke of Inglewood have announced legislation to expand access to maternity care and authorizing midwives to perform routine services. The proposal is sponsored by the California Nurse-Midwives Association and Black Women for Wellness. Dodd says women in California should not have to go without top-notch maternity care and increasing access to nurse-midwives could curtail that by improving outcomes especially for women in rural or inner-city settings.
Cleanup continues at the Bushay and Kyen Campgrounds at Lake Mendocino. The Army Corps of Engineers says they want the campgrounds open by Memorial Day for public use. A crew of temporary workers from a nonprofit out of Ukiah has been working with the Corps to get the Lake Mendocino campground sites in shape. They’re paid through a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor related to 2019 storm damage repairs. They’re clearing downed trees, conducting vegetation management, and bringing roads and sites into a usable form again. Pricing will probably be going up at the campsites now though as FEMA upgraded some of the campsites so there’s now power, water, and sewer.
An update for the Ukiah Planning Commission on operations at the new Homeless Services Day Center on South State Street. The Daily Journal reports city staff is required to get a report twice a year for the first couple of years connected to the permit granted to Redwood Community Services. The report will show since last August to now, there were no complaints about the shelter or those frequenting the services there. So staff has not recommended any changes to the operations. In December they recorded nearly 90 people there using the services daily for a total of almost 2,800 visits that month. They recorded about seven people being turned away daily since the shelter opened.
Someone who tested positive in Calif. for the coronavirus who was a passenger on a cruise ship in Japan is in Sonoma County. Public Health officials say the unidentified person was taken from Travis Air Force Base in Solano County to a local hospital on Monday. There was a whole group of international travelers at the base last week. They were all quarantined due to their possible exposure to the virus. Apparently the patient who had a confirmed case of the virus wasn’t showing any symptoms. They are being monitored in isolation and they say there are no risks to public health.
Two legislators from the North Coast are trying to fight FEMA getting any disaster money back from victims. It comes after the agency threatened to try to get paid back by fire victims if money is found to have been distributed in error. Congressmen Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson are co-sponsoring the bill which was introduced this week by Republican Congressman of Missouri Sam Graves. Huffman and Thompson signed on to the bill which says the federal government cannot demand victims return aid, if it’s found later to have been issued in error, and when there’s no evidence of fraud. Huffman says FEMA shouldn’t be “clawing back disaster relief funds from victims who have gone through terrible hardships”.
The PG&E CEO Bill Johnson says the company was indeed negligent after several disasters and catastrophes that killed almost 140 people but that was before and they’re better now. Johnson was talking to California regulators Tuesday saying poor management before his time was to blame and they’re safer now than they were a year ago. The remarks after the company filed for its second bankruptcy in two decades. Johnson told the California Public Utilities Commission, there would be no more catastrophes and no more deaths. There have been demands for the board to be replaced and new management before the utility company can emerge from its latest bankruptcy filing.
The City of Lakeport has been awarded a multimillion-dollar grant for a new park at the old Natural High School site. The Lakeside park will be built with nearly $6 million dollars on almost 7 acres at 800 N. Main St. It will include a new skate park, splash pad, basketball court, amphitheater, exercise circuit, five picnic areas with shade, concessions, a restroom building, parking lot, public art and landscaping and lighting. Plus there will be a facelift for a boat ramp that’s already there. It’s one of more than 60 projects being paid for by Proposition 68, a Statewide Park Program which is distributing its third round of awards. There were 478 applications for $2.3 billion for the $255 million available this time.
The 13.5 billion settlement PG&E has agreed to pay to victims of wildfires but several thousand people have filed to get a piece of the pie. Letters to the bankruptcy judge in the case complain that victims are at the bottom of the barrel in who gets paid out first. A hearing was set for today in the case to see if any federal or state agencies should get any money from the $4 billion they paid out after wildfires in 2017 and 18. Adventist Health is also trying to get about $1 billion due to its hospital in Paradise nearly destroyed in the Camp Fire. Plus, none of that even includes all of the legal fees. Victims are also complaining that half of the money to be paid out, is actually stock in PG&E.
A fire burning in the Covelo Ranger District is reported at 60 acres. The Baseball fire started yesterday from a pile burning 15 miles southeast of the city of Covelo near Atchison campground. The fire is reported at 5% containment with additional fire crews ordered yesterday. Fire officials say the conditions yesterday were a little windy and 70 degrees with a moderate rate of spread. No property or structures were being threatened.
There’s a new executive director now for the Lake County Fair. The Board of Directors has chosen Sheli Wright who takes over for Courtny Conkle who resigned last fall to go work in Wyoming as the State Fair manager. Lake Co News reports Wright takes over as the Lake County Fair CEO March 16th. She’s got experience too as an attendee who also grew up showing animals and participating at the Fair. There are other events besides the Fair too, year round events take place including car racing, the Lake County Rodeo and the soon to be happening, Lake County Ag & Natural Resource Day on March 28th.
A drive by shooting reported in Lower Lake and a suspect is arrested. The Lake County Sheriff’s Dept. reports arresting Don West of Clearlake after the Sunday morning drive-by. Lake Co News reports there were actually two separate incidents West was connected to. Police say he also assaulted someone he was dating, broke thru the front door of their house and caused property damage to the tune of $500 then ran away. Then someone driving says West pulled a black semiautomatic handgun on them from his driver’s side window. They reported hearing two gunshots. Deputies pulled West over soon after but didn’t find evidence of a gun. But the car that reported it did have a gunshot hole in it. West was arrested on several charges including suspicion of burglary, assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at an occupied vehicle and assault on a person with a semiautomatic firearm. He was held on $300,000 bail.
The Baseball Fire has grown some, but the containment is a lot greater too. Fire crews say the fire on the Covelo Ranger District is now at 40 percent in the Mendocino National Forest. The fire is believed to have started from a pile fire in prescribed burn just before. It’s now blackened 68 acres and is located about 15 miles southeast of Covelo near the Atchison campground. The fire is burning in grass, brush and timber and is not threatening any property or structures. The forecast calls for dry weather with light wind and temps in the high-60s.
PM NEWS:
FEMA and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services are reportedly trying to separate claims with Pacific Gas and Electric from money that’s been promised to wildfire victims, $13.5 billion dollars. Right now victims, lawyers and some governmental agencies would share in the pot of cash. The government agencies say they are trying to get a separate deal and did not agree to the one already set aside. The governments are asking the giant utility to pay back costs they put forward to pay for damage caused by the company’s faulty equipment. FEMA wants nearly $4 billion and could go to victims to get paid back. And the state of Calif. is trying to get about $2.6 billion. Cal Fire also has a claim.
The elections office in Ukiah says they’re in desperate need of a Poll Inspector and Poll worker as someone has bowed out a week ahead of Super Tuesday and Calif.’s Presidential Primary. The inspector needed at Saint Mary’s Polling Place. There’s a training this Friday at the election’s office. There’s a small stipend for whoever is hired. Polls are open 7 am to 8 pm Tuesday. They’re recommending the training session which is about 2 hours long to learn the ropes. Please call 707 234-6808 if you can help out. They’re touting it as a great community involvement day for service organizations throughout the County.