Mendocino County Board of Supervisors will hold their next regular meeting on Tuesday. The meeting is scheduled for 9am in the Board Chambers on Low Gap Road in Ukiah. Agenda items include a discussion of the 3rd Quarter budget, and discussion of the Mendocino County Lodging Business Improvement District Annual Report. The meeting is open to the public in-person and over Zoom. Find the full agenda and Zoom link at MendocinoCounty.gov
It looks like electric cars are all the rage here in California. The two best-selling vehicles last year were Teslas. The Model Y SUV tops the list with 132,636 registered in the state. That’s 50 thousand more than the Model Three sedan coming in second. Governor Newsom sees this as critical progress in the fight against climate change, saying it’s easier and cheaper than ever for people to transition to clean cars.
The Sonoma County Department of Health Services is suddenly in charge of two homeless housing sites. That’s after DEMA employees vacated the sites, which were being managed by the company, on Wednesday and Thursday. Sonoma County Health Services Director Tina Rivera confirms DEMA staff have stopped working at Mickey Zane Place, which is a former hotel converted into homeless housing. They have also left the county’s emergency shelter site on the county administrative campus. Last month, the county Board of Supervisors told the health department to find a way to replace DEMA, after an investigation showed the company didn’t provide proper supporting documentation for millions of dollars it had charged to the county.
Ukiah Police were able to catch a felon thanks to the FLOCK license plate reading system. A stolen utility trailer sent the FLOCK alert yesterday morning just after 9. The pickup truck that was hauling the trailer was pulled over by police on East Perkins Street. Brett Tucker, who was driving, was arrested without incident. He was booked into the Mendocino County Jail on multiple charges including possession of stolen property, and felony probation violation. There were 2 other adults and three children in the truck with Tucker, according to police, they were all released at the scene. The trailer was reportedly stolen from Laytonville in 2020.
Work continues on the Downtown Streetscape Project. Next week, you can expect delays while crews continue working on the south side of the project. Concrete crews are hard at work on new curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and driveways. They’ve also removed old streetlights in order to put up new ones. Ukiah city officials remind you to be careful in the area, as it will be darker than usual. Over on the north side, between Norton and Henry, crews continue to install the brick band along the edge of the sidewalk. Officials said they hope to start removing the existing street in the next three weeks. On Main Street, potholing will also continue next week, part of the Urban Core project. Crews will also be doing some tree removal in the area. Crews will be working Monday through Friday from 7am to 6pm as the weather permits.
The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council has handed out this year’s Micro-Grants. The money will benefit 17 local fire departments and Neighborhood Fire Safe Councils. Grants totaling over 130 thousand dollars have been awarded. Some of the fire departments who received awards include the Hopland FPD who will use the money to buy two water tanks to be placed at McNab Ranch. The South Coast FPD will use their micro grant to pay for equipment to support planned prescribed burn projects. And Covelo FPD will spend the grant money on a new water bladder and equipment that will help them increase the capacity of their water tender. The grants ranged from $4,500 to $10,000 and were partially funded by PG & E who donated $50,000 to the program, nearly doubling this year’s available money.
