Several state politicians in Paradise after a bill is passed to allow Feather River Hospital’s standalone emergency room to operate even though there’s no hospital nearby. The Chico Enterprise Record reports that’s a first in the state. The hospital was severely damaged in the Camp Fire last year, but the ER was operable. Senator Jim Nielsen working with U.S. Congressman Doug LaMalfa and state Assemblyman James Gallagher to pass the legislation to allow the ER to operate without the adjoining hospital. Adventist Health is the operating company. Officials say they’ll start to restore infrastructure and other services to the ER since the bill was signed by the Governor. No word when the ER will open back up to the public.
A fire sparks evacuations near Hidden Valley Lake. The Sheriff of Lake County reports no injuries or homes lost in the Grove Fire. Fast moving winds and dry conditions didn’t stop firefighters who made quick work of the fire. The fire was reported about 8 p.m. last night in the area of Spruce Grove Road South at Highway 29. After firefighters got to the scene part of the highway had to be closed and evacuations were announced. But an hour later they were lifted. Lake Co News reports the fire burned about ten acres.
The superintendent of Middletown schools has been fired. Lake Co News reports the Middletown Unified School District Board of Trustees has terminated Catherine Stone, one year before her contract expires. She’s been with the district about four years. The news site reports the board president says they handled the performance evaluation in closed session, then announced their decision in open session directly afterward. There was a unanimous agreement about the termination. The board thanking her publicly for her service and leadership, especially during the Valley Fire. The board says it’s now working with the Lake County Office of Education to find Stone’s replacement.
Major damage to a donut shop in Clearlake. Police report a black Jeep crashed into Castle Donuts yesterday morning. The driver reportedly crashed into the front of the shop after missing the brake. He was not injured, but there was a customer in a seat inside who’s chair was bumped. The building is seriously damaged and power was shut down after the crash.
The latest report by Caltrans on efficiencies has been released. Lake Co News reports the SB 1 Annual Efficiencies Report for fiscal year 2018-2019 has been released to the California Transportation Commission showing a savings of almost $233 million which is reported to be double the goal of $100 million a year. The rest to be reinvested to maintain and rehabilitate state highways.
The US Forest Service is being sued by an environmental nonprofit group saying the federal agency allowed thousands of acres of timber sales on the Ranch Fire scar without an environmental review in the Mendocino National Forest. The Environmental Protection Information Center filed the suit earlier this week against the Mendocino National Forest Supervisor who they say gave the green light for the sale of seven logging projects amounting to 7,000 acres on hundreds of miles of roadway where the Ranch Fire burned. The largest wildfire in Calif. history burned at the end of last summer. The area closed for cleanup and maintenance, but the lawsuit cites the forest service overstepped federal regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act.
More housing could be coming to Ukiah thanks to a state grant. The Daily Journal reports the City of Ukiah has announced getting the grant to “accelerate housing production in Ukiah.” $160,000 coming from the California Department of Housing and Community Development to revise the zoning code, streamline housing production, allowing housing “by-right” and coming up with a design style along with development standards for new housing. The grant will be part of the city’s new Housing Element set for adoption by the City Council next week and implementation next year.
Legislators are taking vaping seriously. Lawmakers holding an informational hearing Wednesday to learn about health issues that could arise with the use of vape pens. It comes after a rising number of complaints about respiratory problems related to vaping and e-cigarettes. They’re also looking into the number of youth who utilize the smoking devices for cannabis and tobacco. The acting director of the state Department of Public Health reporting almost 1,300 illnesses in the country and 26 deaths related to the devices. And in California, there were 133 cases and three deaths.
Lawmakers are investigating PG&E and their public safety power shutoffs last week. The Senate President requesting a committee look further into the decision by the utility to shut off power. Senate President Pro Tempore Toni Atkins says there will be an oversight hearing in the next few weeks. As you probably know PG&E ordered the power off for more than 700,000 customers last week in red flag conditions. It reportedly affected more than 2 million people. But PG&E had problems from the start, their website crashing and some customers saying they didn’t have enough of a warning. The PG&E president said the utility was “not adequately prepared.”
An emergency meeting called of top executives of PG&E with the Calif. Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco to answer questions on last week’s public safety power shutoffs. More than 2 million people impacted by the shutoff, something the Commission President Marybel Batjer is calling unacceptable. She’s ordered several corrective actions from the utility as we reported earlier this week. Some of the mileposts include restoring power within 12 hours, not the current 48-hour goal. The Governor also called for the utility to credit customers for the outage at $100 and $250 for small businesses.
PG&E’s making a promise to do better at improve communications. The utility company at the same time telling state regulators they made a difficult decision to shut off power to more than 2 million people to prevent wildfires. The CEO of PG&E says they understand the hardship they created, but also asked customers to remember there were no catastrophic wildfires. He did agree the utility needs major improvement on communicating with customers, some of whom said they didn’t have enough notice and couldn’t get in touch with the utility because of jammed up call centers and a crashing website.
More than two dozen home insurance companies are extending their monthly temporary living expenses for some 2017 North Bay fire survivors. The homes for the survivors are not yet complete. The state insurance commissioner reportedly sent a letter to all of the insurance companies over the summer and asked for the help voluntarily from the companies, but three of the largest, State Farm, Allstate and Nationwide, along with a handful of others, said nope. The request by the commissioner as part of a new state law that went into effect last year. There are many fire survivors who have had to deal with construction delays because of a labor shortage, permitting obstacles and environmental issues. The insurance commissioner released the final list today of the insurers who said yes to continue paying monthly housing expenses.
A fire in Hidden Valley Lake has been put out after hundreds had to evacuate. The Grove Fire burned 25 acres along Highway 29 last night. There were no reported injuries and no damage. A Cal Fire spokesperson says part of the highway was closed in both directions immediately after they arrived. 300 people in Hidden Valley Lake were evacuated in about four minutes after the fire was reported. Lake County Sheriff’s office sent deputies out with sirens blaring from patrol cars and knocked on doors ordering people out. They got to go home in less than 2 hours though. The fire was fully contained overnight with some Cal Fire crews staying back for mop up operations.
