The Sheriff of Tehama County says they won’t be patrolling during daytime hours. Sheriff Dave Hencratt is actually leaving his position next month. As we reported last month, Hencratt announced due to a “catastrophic staffing shortage ”deputies would no longer patrol during the day”. In a recent news story on the matter locals who were interviewed said they weren’t getting much help from the Sheriff’s office anyway. But the story goes onto say, it’s not new in the country. Many law enforcement agencies nationwide say they’ve been challenged to find enough qualified new recruits in smaller, rural areas. Plus they don’t pay well enough. Meanwhile Hencratt says local police departments were picking off his officers and new recruits left quick.
There’s money if you need it from Cal Fire for Wildfire Prevention and Forest Health projects. $120 million dollars has been made available for local projects near communities that are at higher risk and need to protect people and structures. The applications are being accepted now for hazardous fuels reduction work, wildfire prevention planning and wildfire prevention education, emphasizing improving public health and safety while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. There’s also $120 million more for landscape scale forest restoration projects. Those projects include forest fuels reduction, fire reintroduction, reforestation, and utilization of forest biomass. Another $50 million is for post fire reforestation and restoration and yet $19 million more is on hand for Tribal Wildfire Resilience planning and implementation projects.
Tree trimming is scheduled around the Ukiah Courthouse. Weather permitting the work is set for trimming the magnolia tree in front of the Courthouse tomorrow. An arborist reported the tree had severe cracking on its base and should be trimmed because it weighs so much. The County will be monitoring the work and says they will try to minimize further deterioration of the tree. Until now the County’s been watering and measuring the tree and watching for any more damage to the tree or cracking. They ask residents to steer clear of the area for safety reasons.
DUI patrols are being conducted in Clear Lake. The checkpoint tomorrow will also be looking for folks driving without a license. The CHP says it’s to make sure people are driving safely and say their sobriety/driver license checkpoints are an effective tool and send a message to drivers not to drive and mix alcohol or drugs, or drive when unlicensed. If you’re caught, your vehicle will be towed away. There is no location noted.
Ukiah Unified is moving forward with charging Developer Fees once again. After a Justification Study, the decision to start charging developers in case they’re building nearby, to protect from impacts to school facilities. The last study was almost 9 years ago. At that time the school board decided to stop collecting the fees, but it was supposed to be temporary. Then last year they started to rethink that. A consulting company has reportedly come up with various drafts of the study. There were also several public meetings on the matter, 2 in August, one in September and another last month. They’ve decided to start charging for the fees again in February, 60 days after they adopted the resolution.
A man connected to a marijuana robbery 5 years ago in Mendocino County is being tried in federal court. In December of 2017, it’s alleged a pair of men said they were ATF agents and stopped a former Texas undercover cop near Frog Woman Rock, robbing him of a large quantity of cannabis. One of the men, a former Rohnert Park police officer, Joseph Huffaker, now faces 90 years behind bars for continuing to say he’s not guilty. The victim, Zeke Flatten, says he knew the men were not real ATF agents, and he complied, but remembered their license plate was non-exempt and the suspects might be real-life cops. One of the men has already pleaded guilty to tax evasion, making a false report and conspiracy to commit extortion under the color of law. But Huffaker says he’s not guilty.
After a man in Mendocino County court pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges, he’s getting some prison time. William Larry Hill, or ‘Willy’ had been charged with sexually violent crimes in May of 2021. And the Advocate reports he has a history of violent crimes, having set fire to Chapel by the Sea in Fort Bragg in 2019, an old funeral home, gutting it. This week Willy accepted a plea deal admitting felony attempted sexual penetration with a foreign object and assault with intent to commit rape and got three years in state prison. He also has to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. The former CAL FIRE firefighter was charged with victimizing a woman and almost 3 weeks after making bail, he was found with weapons and ammo and sent to jail, where he sat for months.
Thinking about getting solar panels. You’re going to get less from rebates after California regulators voted to lower how much utility companies have to pay homeowners with rooftop solar panels. The California Public Utilities Commission decided the payments currently being made to homeowners as part of the net metering program was excessively generous and was no longer needed to encourage folks to use solar panels. The proposal was quickly adopted this week so that compensation for energy sent to the state grid from rooftop panels is reduced by as much as 75% starting in April.
California could be peaking in its latest surge of COVID cases. Ahead of the really cold months of winter where folks congregate indoors, especially for the holidays, the state reports coronavirus cases and hospitalizations look to be slowing down. The State Public Health Dept says they’re still feeling cautious as holidays approach, especially with the other respiratory viruses we’ve been seeing, including the flu and RSV. In the agency’s weekly update, they said the COVID daily case rate was about 21.6 per 100,000 residents, up 7% compared to last week, but the testing positivity rate was down about a half point from 11.5% last week to 11.1% this week. Currently the two variants of concern are called BQ.1 and BQ.1.1.
Lake County Supervisors have taken a look at the renewal of their Tourism Improvement District and the Homeless Housing Assistance and Prevention grant. It was a busy week ahead of the end of the year for the Supes. The discussion around the Tourism Improvement District was that there’s still a year for the current contract, but since it could take some time to renew, it was started early. Their goal is to get more people to visit the county. So far, they’ve grown their social media following, built a new website and advertised with various billboards. The county is looking at a 2.5% assessment which is just under $390,000. And the discussion about the homeless grant included talk of the unexpected closure of the last homeless shelter, which apparently was not the end of the discussion, as they intend to pick it up next week.
They’ve chosen a new superintendent for the Kelseyville Unified School District (KVUSD). The Board of Trustees all voted for unanimously voted for Dr. Nicki Thomas to take over after Dr. David McQueen retired. Dr. Thomas is a native of Lake County and has worked in the district for nearly a decade. She’s been serving as the assistant superintendent until now. She has been a school counselor and reading specialist, middle school administrator and elementary school principal too. She will start in her new role next July as Dr. McQueen will work until the end of the school year.
Congressman Jared Huffman is one of more than 2 dozen lawmakers who’ve sent a letter to the USDA Secretary to get immediate aid to struggling dairy and poultry farmers. 27 Congressional members sent the letter to Secy Vilsack saying due to inflation, the war in Ukraine, a short supply of grain, the drought and international trade issues, the price of feed for livestock has gone up too high to be afforded. And they go on to say, it’s creating a challenge for farmers to keep their animals fed, calling the situation “dire”, and requires immediate attention. Huffman’s office says they’ve heard from several dairy producers on the North Coast urging him to do something
