Distance learning to continue at Mendocino College thru the spring semester. The Superintendent/President Tim Karas announced earlier this week that after multiple discussions with staff, faculty, and administrative leadership, the evaluation of guidelines by local and state health agencies, and recommendations from the State Chancellor’s Office, they’ve decided that most classes would be remote next term. Karas says it’s to protect the health and safety of students, employees, and the community. There will however be some in person courses and others with hybrid instruction. Karas also says he hopes as spring nears that they can add more in person classes.
The incident team working on the August Complex West Zone has updated the acreage for that portion of the fire, which does not include the massive Doe Fire. The West Zone has burned over 80,000 acres and is 7% contained. They have firefighters on the incident from Montana, Idaho, Texas, and New Jersey. The fire was active yesterday and fire officials reported they expected it to stay active through the night. The August Complex was split into 3 zones, the West, North and South. The entire Complex has burned 809,135 acres. There’s been one fatality and 18 structures destroyed.
Crime numbers in Sonoma County way off, but it has nothing to do with the pandemic. From 2010-2019, crime statistics showed a drop of 22% and the state of California also had its lowest crime level in recorded history last year. The info comes from the state and was published by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco. It shows 10 other counties with lower crime rates than Sonoma County, but 41 counties reported crime rates were down the last decade.
Due to the historic fires and erratic fire behavior Yosemite National Park is closing to all visitors. The smoke from the fires is closing the park. There are notices up at all of the park entrances and roads after they closed indefinitely yesterday afternoon. The park says there’s hazardous air quality and they’ll reopen when conditions are safe. It comes after Sequoia National Park closed earlier this week. But Kings Canyon National Park is staying open with poor air quality.
A preschooler in Kelseyville has reportedly contracted coronavirus. The Kelseyville Unified Superintendent says they were informed a student at Kelseyville Elementary School tested positive, but no school staff were in contact with the student. Lake Co News reports the Lake County Superintendent of Schools posted a message on the Office of Education website yesterday saying the school had sent notice to parents and guardians at the school, which is not named. The preschool will close for 2 weeks after the date of last known exposure and the building is being closed for deep cleaning and disinfecting. The student apparently had no symptoms. In the latest demographics from the Lake County Public Health Dept. it shows 40 children from birth to age 12 have tested positive for COVID-19.
A big thumbs up at a couple of school districts in the North Shore of Lake County. Lake Co News reports after just about a month in class, the superintendents of both school districts, Lucerne and Upper Lake – say there have been no issues. The schools have new restrictions in place, smaller classes, hand sanitizer stations around the schools, regular playground disinfection, more bus runs, shorter school days, plexiglass cubicles and teaching stations, mask wearing, staggered lunch hours and more outdoor learning. Upper Lake schools got a new HVAC system. There’s no sports happening in either district. All of the county’s other school districts are still doing online learning.
The Lake County Board of Supervisors has approved the latest budget. They had their final budget hearing Wednesday, going thru each county department, one by one over two days’ time. The county approved a temporary hiring freeze. The cannabis industry is making good money for the county. A staff report says the code enforcement division has been kept busy with new cannabis businesses after nine years of pretty stagnant business. The proposed budget was just over $210,300,000 the same as last year.
A new fire in the Clearlake area. The Wolf incident burning northeast of the city and last night was pegged at 15-20 acres, burning at a moderate rate of speed in grass. There were reports of multiple explosions, power lines down and structures threatened. There were no evacuations ordered by last night. Dispatch reports say a resident reported a propane tank explosion around the start of the fire. So firefighters who reported to the fire had left soon after and were going back to work on the August Complex.
Scientists say smoke from the fires ravaging Calif. and other Western states are now reaching Northern Europe. The fires that started a month ago in California, Oregon and Washington billowing unhealthy smoke affecting millions. Now scientists from CAMS, part of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts says while using satellite observations to track wildfire activity around the world they could detect the smoke. They say fire activity this year in the US has been “tens to hundreds of times more intense” than on average from 2003 to 2019 across the country as a whole.
Several more cases of coronavirus in Mendocino County. The county had some good news though, that it reached the next tier of the new system on reopening businesses in the state. There were 5 new cases yesterday and 9 on Wednesday. But the state has Mendocino County in the Red Tier for daily positive cases. The Red Tier is several weeks in a row with less than 7 daily positive cases. The public health office reports getting to the Red Tier is because of the work residents in the county are doing, practicing social distancing and consistent mask wearing. As of yesterday there had been 822 positive cases and 18 deaths.
CAL FIRE and the Mendocino County Sheriff put out a statement to thank community members for donating items, but they’re asking for any more donations to be directed to charities. Due to safety precautions because of the pandemic, the Sheriff and the CAL FIRE August Complex West Zone team ask that any volunteer efforts or donations go to local charities instead to help people displaced due to the fire. They also warn to be careful if you use an online donation platform.
Fort Bragg schools offering free meals to all children under 18. 5 days of meals and snacks can be picked up each Wednesday between 2 and 3 pm at Redwood Elementary and Dana Gray Elementary. Children must be 18 years of age or younger regardless of which school they attend, or whether or not they are enrolled in school at all. The meals provided weekly until either December, or the meals run out.
A man from Covelo’s been found guilty of two burglaries in the spring. The jury convicted Neil Waldron yesterday afternoon for two counts of commercial burglary in downtown Covelo in April. The burglaries at The Village Hearth and Keith’s Market. The man had spent time in prison on a similar crime in 2019 at Mina Burger and had just gotten out of prison when he committed the two new crimes. The case has been sent now to the Adult Probation Department for a background investigation and sentencing recommendation. He’s set for sentencing October 9th and is in custody until that time.
PM UPDATE
In the West Zone of the August Complex Fire, an Evacuation order in Mendocino County has been downgraded to a Warning. These are Orders we told you about this week in 4 zones covering areas South of the County Line. And road closures are reopened on Hearst Willits Road at the Eel River Bridge and FH-7 at M1 – Eel River. We’ve been here before, but the sheriff’s office is reminding to stay vigilant during the current fire conditions.
Zone S: South of the County Line, East of Bell Springs Rd, North of Bell Springs Creek and West of the North Fork of the Eel River.
Zone Q: South of the County Line, West and North of the North Fork of the Eel River, North and East of Bald Mountain Road.
Zone D: South and East of the Eel River, North of Bentley Basin and West of the National Forest Boundary.
Zone N: North of the Middle Fork of the Eel River including the Eel River Ranger Station and Black Butte Store, West and South of the National Forest Boundary, East of Williams Creek.
A US Forest Service firefighter has been killed on the El Dorado Fire. Now 26 people have died in the fire that was sparked by a device at a gender reveal party in Southern Calif.
The Forest Service reports almost all of the eastern section of the south zone of the August Complex is nearly fully contained. They say there are only a few locations of uncontained line remaining. They’re conducting mop up operations in some locations, but most of the eastern area is progressing to a patrol and monitor status. The evacuation for Glenn County in the Mendocino National Forest was lifted this morning. This area of the fire is active on the southwest perimeter and north of Lake Pillsbury. They report extremely dry fuels and fast winds are carrying the fire south. More humidity carried by a cold front onshore with more cloud cover and some showers should help firefighters on the August Complex. The fire as a whole has now burned 824,118 acres and is still only 30% contained.
