[PM News Update]
]It was ten years ago that the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands were added to the California Coastal National Monument. It remains some of the beautifully rugged bluffs along the Pacific Ocean in Mendocino County. And now you can celebrate with others as the Bureau of Land Management is hosting an event that will allow all of us to mark that 10 year anniversary. It’s set for May 18 between 10 and 3:30pm and is in partnership with Friends of the Point Arena-Stornetta Lands, Point Arena Lighthouse, City of Point Arena and Mendocino College. There will be a special “celebration of the grassroots efforts expanding the Monument to include these coastal bluffs, tide pools, dunes, coastal prairies, riverbanks, and the mouth and estuary of the Garcia River will be held at 1 p.m. at the Point Arena Lighthouse.” It’s all free and open to everyone and will take place along that coastal trail between City Hall and the Lighthouse.
Wednesday night, 36-year old Jorge Sanchez Rodriguez of Sonoma, was arrested after he stole a Sonoma County Fire District ambulance with an EMT still inside the vehicle. Santa Rosa Police had to use spike strips after chasing him through the city. The ambulance finally came to a stop at Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Once he was detained he was put into a police car where he hit his head against a security screen and kicked at the window. He is suspected of vehicle theft, recklessly evading police officers, kidnapping, resisting an executive officer and of being under the influence of a controlled substance.
For over 100 years, you could walk by Mulas Dairy on the farm near San Pablo Bay and soak in the sights of cows being milked twice a day and the sounds of mooing, tractors, delivery trucks and the clang of heavy steel gates. Nowadays it’s more of a ghost town with empty barns and corrals and the only cows left are a couple of marble statues at the driveway off Carneros Highway. The North Bay’s struggling farms have been fighting environmental groups, attorneys, consultants and more until finally, as part of the settlement, they agreed to cease operations and go out of business last October. Lots of dairies are shutting down. In their heyday, there were around 300 dairies in Sonoma County. Today there are only 50.
President Biden has expanded two national monuments here in California, and those include one in Lake Mendocino county. Tribal nation leaders, indigenous community leaders and others have called for the permanent protection of around 120,000 acres of important cultural and environmental land. Federal and state goals are to conserve 30% of public lands by 2030. In Pasadena, the president expanded the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, following calls from Indigenous peoples including the Band of Mission Indians.
Riviera Elementary School Principal Paul McGuire has announced his retirement at the end of this school year and Kelseyville Unified School District has decided on doing an “admin shuffle”. Next year, Kelseyville Elementary School Principal Tavis Perkins will return to Riviera Elementary, and moving to Kelseyville Elementary will be Mountain Vista Middle School Principal Scott Conrad. His position as Principal at Mountain Vista will be filled by Kelseyville High School Vice Principal Adriana Rodriguez Macias. But there IS on Principal who will not be relocating and that is Principal Mike Jones who will remain at Kelseyville High School. To learn more about Kelseyville Unified, visit https://kvusd.org/.
This week, Governor Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation declaring May 2024, as “Small Business Month” here in the State of California. That proclamation will honor the millions of small businesses that are all necessary and key for our state’s economy. They also drive innovation and global competition and in today’s world create most of California’s new jobs.
