If you haven’t heard, the Mendocino County Public Health Office is reminding you can get four free at home COVID-19 tests. The federal government has made the tests available that will be sent to your home for free. Orders usually ship in 7-12 days. They are rapid antigen at-home tests, not PCR, are also referred to as self-tests or over-the-counter (OTC) test. You will get the results within a half hour at home, you don’t need to take it anyway. To order the tests, please visit: https://www.covidtests.gov/ If you test positive, it is important to isolate for 10 days from the day of the test or the day of your first symptom. You may end isolation after 5 days if you test negative and have no symptoms on the 5th day of isolation.
The property swap agreement that’s been the subject of ongoing discussions in Clearlake for a new Sheriff’s headquarters and affordable housing project is done. Sen. Mike McGuire made the announcement yesterday, the same day he was announced as the new State Senate majority leader. He and others, from the city, county and state gathered to discuss the land swap. The board of supervisors approved the agreement last year. It’s for 15.5-acres of county owned property in Clearlake and for 7 acres of the Lakeport Armory property, owned by the state next to the Lake County Jail. The Governor signed an Executive Order so the state would identify and prioritize any extra state-owned property because of the affordable housing crisis.
State Senator Mike McGuire is the new Majority Leader of the Senate. He was appointed by Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins. So McGuire’s now in a power position, the second highest ranking member of the State Senate. McGuire said he was grateful for the position, after serving the last three years as the Assistant Majority Leader. He says his top priority has always been the North Coast which has been challenged over the last several years with “multiple wildfires, floods, extreme drought and this pandemic”.
Congressman Jared Huffman has announced nearly $7 million dollars from the Infrastructure deal for long needed operations and maintenance work. Huffman says waterways, dams, and jetties are vital parts of communities and the economy on the North Coast, but many are in disrepair. He says the $7 million will be for three projects: $20,000 for Jetty Monitoring in Bodega Bay, nearly $3 million for new emergency and service gates in Lake and Channel, and about $4 million for the Coyote Valley Dam for bridge repainting, replacing bathrooms or repairing them, and cleaning, demolishing and rebuilding areas destroyed by the Hopkins Fire. The money will come from the Infrastructure Act and from stimulus money associated with the pandemic.
Rumors have been circulating on social media platforms that there’s a serial killer after women in Mendocino, Sonoma, and Napa Counties. Mendo Fever reports speaking to the Sheriff who says it’s unfounded hearsay. Posts on Facebook Northern Calif. groups that the two first deaths were serial killer victims, both women from Mendocino County, then the alleged suspect added two other women, one from Sonoma County, and another from Napa County. The news site reports law enforcement from each county said there was no indication any of the deaths were related.
A company from Mendocino County is going to be the interim operator of a new North Bay passenger rail agency. Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit officials say they need more time to form their own in house operation as they take over the Northwestern Pacific Railroad Co. So, in the meantime, they’ve hired Summit Signal at nearly $400,000/month. The company will start to run freight cars March 1st with a three month contract. Right now Northwestern has four freight customers, carrying mostly grain and feed in Petaluma. They also store tanker cars for oil refineries and others.
Some safety complaints have prompted the Lakeport City Council to review again. After the Traffic Safety Advisory Committee was formed in 2015, they started to go over traffic trends at that time. The City Manager, Kevin Ingram told the City Council they were working on a Local Road Safety Plan after traffic complaints were expressed at a council meeting about a year ago. Ingram says there have not been more complaints that were worthy of spending time on, that they had not already heard about. At the same meeting, the council has approved an application for the Small Community Drought Relief Program.
The federal government has a new internet affordability program coming to certain households. And Mediacom Communications has announced they’re taking part in it: the Affordable Connectivity Program. It’s so more Americans get access to lower costs associated with home internet service. The FCC manages the program giving certain households up to $30 off their monthly internet service. It’s for households with income less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines or who participate in government programs like SNAP, Medicaid, WIC, and Lifeline. It will replace a temporary Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program which Mediacom says they enrolled over 13,000 households in last year. For more information, call: 855-330-6918 or visit www.fcc.gov/acp https://www.mediacomcable. com/acp
An ER Doc is reporting Ukiah hospital rooms are filled, and that’s not all. The Daily Journal reports Adventist Health Ukiah Valley ER physician Dr. Drew Colfax said he was challenged to find a bed in the entire state for one of his patients. He says he believes the state is at the peak of omicron COVID cases, but maybe not so much in Mendocino County. He says it does seem that there is an improvement though. There were over 500 new cases in the county over the last week for a total of over 10,000 cases since the pandemic surfaced.
Schools are still being challenged to staff up as the spike of COVID cases is still an issue. Public health experts statewide say they think the omicron surge should be behind up by March, but it’s caused quite the school staffing crisis which could go past that. The state shows students and staff members in various school districts are getting infected at all-time highs. Apparently waste water testing is showing less case numbers, but schools have been dealing with this nearly two years. Last year K-12 schools had nearly 20% of all workplace outbreaks in the state, and more than health care facilities last fall.
