The Mendocino County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office reaching out to the public for help identifying a young man hit by a car and killed. The Sheriff’s office says a Hispanic man between 18 and 25 years old was hit on the 101 last Sunday night between ReTech and Ukiah, in Mendocino County. The man is further described as about 5′ foot 2″ to 5′ 5″, about 140 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. They’ve posted pictures of the clothing the young man was wearing to see if anyone could recognize them and help identify who he is. The pictures are posted on Lake Co News website.
A new Cannabis Program Manager has been named for Mendocino County. Yesterday the Mendocino County Planning and Building Services Director announced Megan Dukett as the Acting Cannabis Program Manager. She was the County’s Cultural Services Agency Program Administrator for the County Parks and County Museum and before that had worked for different historic sites, museums, and parks as a program manager and has worked for years in project management. In her new position, Dukett will be coordinating the implementation of County policies, getting the Cannabis Program implemented and help the public in the application and permitting process.
After the deadliest fire in history in Calif, Camp Fire survivors are still regularly visiting a food bank. The Contra Costa and Solano County Food Bank reports still supplying local food banks and helping survivors impacted by the fire. The food bank reports serving about 1 in 9 residents in both counties as part of an arrangement to help Northern California food banks after a natural disaster. It’s all part of a membership with Feeding America which is a national network of food banks. They started right after the Camp Fire in November of 2018, saying they’ve served more 2.5 million pounds of food to Camp Fire survivors last year.
The Ukiah Valley Sanitation District and City of Ukiah are reportedly working to pay off upgrades made to the Wastewater Treatment Plant back in 2006. The Daily Journal reports the City Manager saying the two are trying to make deals with banks and others and have gotten some offers to lower the interest rates on the debt. The City Manager says the refi won’t take down the principal, but the interest rates would be lower, something they’ve been working to for a few years. A special meeting set for Monday by the Sanitation District on the refinancing of the bonds.
Cybersecurity on the agenda at the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors meeting. Earlier this week the Board heard about ways to protect against cyberattacks and something to be improved over the long-term. Staffers told the board the number of threats last year went up drastically and the attacks will continue. With that staff told the board the county needs more protection. And that more portable and mobile devices have increased the threat levels. So staff told the Board, more trainings are in the works, up-dated tools are needed and more awareness from employees is also needed.
The City of Willits has a bunch of job openings needing to be filled. At the City Council meeting this week, Council members and staffers talked about future goals, but they say it may be limited because there’s a lack of qualified staff in place. The City is looking for an assistant engineer, two accountants, some police officers and dispatchers and a new police chief. The City Manager says the city’s asking for help from nearby cities for shift coverage until more police officers can be hired. The City has placed all of the jobs on the website with descriptions and requirements.
A man from Lakeport who was arrested last fall for the murder of another man had the charges dropped. Daniel Ford was being held for the murder of Nicky Dale Smith of Lucerne, but the DA announced the charges were dismissed, but that they’re still investigating and charges could be brought again in the future. The murder November 23rd and Ford arrested the same day. Another man, Michael Shaffer of Upper Lake was also arrested for the murder. Smith died from blunt force trauma and gunshot wounds. There’s still forensic testing going on of evidence found after the murder. The DA says she’s dropping the charges against the men because there’s not enough evidence, even though they’re the prime suspects.
Logging can continue in the Mendocino National Forest. A federal judge said no to an argument by an environmental advocacy group to stop logging on thousands of acres so that more environmental impacts could be studied. But the judge said no to the nonprofit Environmental Protection Information Center’s preliminary injunction for the logging on the Ranch Fire burn scar. So the projects can move forward. The Director of the nonprofit told the Record Bee they’ll continue trying to get the National Forest to follow the law.
Clearlake city officials still working to get thousands of tax-defaulted properties sold at auction. Lake Co News reports the City Manager gave the City Council an update regarding the Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office at the Board of Supervisors’ Jan. 14 meeting. At the meeting the Board stood by the Treasurer-Tax Collector Barbara Ringen and said she needed more support. But the City Manager said the discussion at the board meeting was “particularly frustrating.” The City Manager says they have a 25 percent rate of all properties being at some level of tax delinquency.
A green light’s been given to a new transportation hub in Clearlake. The Lake County Board of Supervisors is supporting the new hub and approved selling a piece of land the city owns to Lake Transit for the project. Last week the board unanimously approved the county property being declared as surplus and to sell part of the surplus land to the Lake County Transit Authority. The Board also approved sending a letter of support for a grant application for the project. A report to the board says there’s currently a bus depot in a parking lot between a couple of big box stores, which is unsafe. And that the land to be declared surplus was surveyed and split. Besides the depot, there will be office space for Lake Transit.
