Tonight is the night… The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors hosting a second special meeting on Cannabis cultivation permits. It comes about a week after a group of concerned citizens sent around a flyer saying if the county allows more permits it will threaten agriculture, rangeland and the environment. Plus they say it’s already threatening the water supply and fire safety. The vote tonight by the Board to open up rural lands and open spaces to more commercial cannabis cultivating. The concerned citizens say the board should vote it down after citizens voted Measure AF down in 2016. The board is allowing public comments then will vote tonight. They expect a large turnout so not everyone who wants to comment will be able to, the comments will be first come, first served.
After a Mendocino Deputy on patrol did a routine traffic stop on the 101 in Willits, and smelled marijuana in the car, 4 people were arrested. The Deputy speaking to the driver, Tomas Valencia and three passengers, Camilo Valencia, Ali Khan and Alvin Valliaril and noticed loose weed in the car. The Deputy searched and found twenty-four (24) one (1) pound bags of processed marijuana and packaging material to ship it through the United States Postal Service. They had no invoices or a shipping manifest so they were arrested and taken to jail. Due to the pandemic though, they were all released on zero bail with a promise to appear in court at a later date.
A man from Willits has been arrested for a domestic violence incident. Police say a 19 year old woman had been attacked by her boyfriend, 21 year old Steven White after a mutual argument. They say though that White grabbed the woman and she was afraid so she punched the man. He then drove her to the hospital because he injured her hand before she slugged him. He left the hospital so deputies put out a BOLO alert and found him later, arresting him for Domestic Violence Battery and held him on $25,000.00 bail.
Cases of coronavirus are low in Lake County allowing the county to be in the Orange Tier in the state’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy”. The Public Health Office reports 40% of the county’s residents are at least partially vaccinated, the goal is 70%. The health office reports 60% of Lake County’s population is not vaccinated at all. They say the county’s moving in the right direction, but we’ve got to continue to be vigilant, wear masks, socially distance and practice appropriate hygiene. The county also has a vaccine surplus. They remind that there are appointments available for anyone over the age of 16, by registering with the state. Teens 16 and 17 need parental consent. You can call the health dept. if you can’t get an appointment online.
Parts of Lake County are under Elevated Fire Weather Conditions due to dry fuel conditions not usually seen this early in the year. The Lake County Risk Reduction Authority is reminding hardening homes and communities against wildfire is urgent. The Authority says the last six years there have been fires and evacuations, member and District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska says pretty much all of Lake County has been personally affected by wildfire. She and District 1 Supervisor, Moke Simon, the County of Lake and the Lake County Risk Reduction Authority are hosting “Preparing for Fire Season” an online Town Hall Meeting. It’s happening next Thursday, April 29th at 6pm.
FEMA is providing money for funerals that happened from January of 2020 to present times. The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provide money to help. To be eligible the death had to have happened here in the United States, a death certificate must indicate the death was attributed to COVID-19, you must be a U.S. citizen, non-citizen national, or qualified alien who had COVID-19 related funeral expenses. They will not duplicate benefits received from burial or funeral insurance, financial assistance received from voluntary agencies, government agencies, or other sources.
COVID-19 Funeral Assistance Line Number Applications began April 12, 2021, call 844-684-6333 | TTY: 800-462-7585, Monday – Friday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time to get help with the application from FEMA’s representatives. Multilingual services will be available.
Early in the season and we have our first fire in Mendocino County. The Turnout Fire started yesterday and grew to 50 acres, but scanner reports last night said fire activity was dying down and the wind was calm. The fire in the 9000 block of the 253 and not near any town or structures. It’s near to Boonville and Ukiah but not a threat to either. The fire is zero percent contained, with not a lot forward movement. There was no word yet how the fire may have started.
After a witness called the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, a man from Ukiah’s arrested for domestic violence battery. Last Friday Derrick Ridenour was accused of attacking a woman he had been dating. He was on probation for a previous domestic violence incident and was not allowed contact with the woman and had a restraining order against him. But was apparently driving her to a family member’s home and they got into an argument, where the woman says he wouldn’t let her out of the car and grabbed her by her hair. He also took her phone away so she could not call 911 and choked while they were outside the vehicle. That’s where the witness comes in, they were jogging by and saw the incident and called 911 and tried to get Ridenour to stop, so he did, but also took off. Deputies say the victim had visible injuries to her neck and face. Ridenour was found soon after and arrested for domestic violence battery, kidnapping, false imprisonment, violation of probation, and violation of a restraining order and booked into jail on $110,000.00 bail.
A man from Nice has been arrested in Calpella after a high speed chase with police. The guy nearly got away but police finally caught up to Mark Andrew Nielsen early Saturday morning on various charges after a BOLO was put out for him a week and a half earlier. It all started when a deputy saw a man alone in a car duck down when they passed. The deputy noticed code violations on the car and tried to contact Nielsen with no luck as he took off. Nielsen was finally arrested Saturday for multiple crimes including reckless driving while evading a peace officer, armed in the commission of a felony, carrying an unregistered, loaded handgun and possession of both ammo and a firearm by a prohibited person. He was held on $125,000.00 bail.
A report from the Mendocino County Sheriff saying 2020 was a “bad year” for crime in the unincorporated areas of the county. There was an uptick in the most violent crimes including murder but unlike many other areas of the country, during the pandemic, domestic violence was down. But the Sheriff says it could just be due to underreporting. Kendall’s report says there were 467 deaths in 2020, up from 333 from a year before. There were 14 murders last year, ten the Sheriff’s Office handled. Not unlike many other areas of the country during 2020, suicides were up. Overdoses were way up, but some may have been “accidental”. The Sheriff says coronavirus only accounted for a small percentage of the deaths, 35, in 2020. But so far 47 people have died from COVID19.
A Deputy DA in the Mendocino County DA’s office has been sworn in as Officer in the Air Force Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG Corps). Deputy DA Joshua Raines was sworn in Friday afternoon at the Ukiah courthouse as a First Lieutenant in the United States Air Force Reserve Judge Advocate General Corps. The DA’s office posted the news on their Facebook page. Judge Advocates are legal advisors to their command and can be a personal legal advisor to their commander. Raines enlisted in the Air Force just out of high school, after the 9/11 terrorist attack. He did 4 years active duty and was in the Air Force Reserve 8 more years. He was hired by the Mendocino County DA’s office last year.
The Mendocino County Health Officer says the county should be getting more Moderna and Pfizer coronavirus vaccine doses after the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was put on hold due to rare complications. In his Friday press briefing Dr. Andy Coren said there were no complications locally and the ones that did happen nationally were less than one case per million vaccines. The blood clots were in women, one of which died. He says if anyone who did get the vaccine here and has a “severe headache, stomach or leg pain, and easy bruising within a month afterward should see their doctor. He did say that some positive cases have popped up in people who were fully vaccinated, 18 of them, representing less than one percent of those vaccinated and not unexpected.
The Lake County Board of Supervisors is getting members lined up for their visioning forum committee. At their meeting tomorrow they will also start the interviewing process for a new Public Health Officer as Dr. Gary Pace is leaving at the end of the month. For the visioning committee they’ve already lined up the Clearlake Mayor and one city councilmember from Lakeport. They will fill in the rest tomorrow from a list of applicants including tribal representatives and general members of the public. The committee, you may recall is to help promote tolerance, respect, equity and inclusion in Lake County. One last bit at tomorrow’s meeting is for the board to consider a use permit for a new cell phone tower project in Kelseyville.
The state is still moving along with the anticipation of a full reopening by June 15th. It does however depend on whether the vaccine supply is ample enough so that anyone over 16 who wants a shot can get it; and hospitalization rates stay low and stable. The Gov. says masks will still need to be worn, social distancing will have to be followed and other common sense protocols. It means businesses would be able to open at full capacity, depending on circumstances of individual counties; schools would be encouraged to reopen for full-time in-person learning, but individual school districts will maintain control. For reopening of higher risk events, testing or vaccination proof would be required to attend.
A presentation by PG&E for the Cobb Area Council showed what the utility company has been doing to prevent wildfires ahead of the 2021 fire season. The liaison who came to the local meeting says they installed certain devices to separate the electric grid to smaller parts so they could reduce the amount of Public Safety Power Shutoffs. They are also thinning fuels, taking down trees and taking feedback from each county’s Office of Emergency Services. They are also joining forces with more than 250 community organizations to hand out info in various languages and will offer food replacement working with partner food banks and Meals on Wheels organizations.
