[PM News Update]
Last night was a special meeting of the Kelsey Unified School District Board of Trustees and it went for a few hours. The main topic was to address healing and reconciliation with Lake County’s tribes. Much of the crowd last night was members of the Indigenous community who spoke to their desire to be seen, acknowledged, and included. One of the key items on the document that was being discussed was to establish a land acknowledgement at major school events such as graduation. That discussion will go forward and responded to concerns of Indigenous speakers that they be recognized. In the end, the school board chose to table the resolution and not to move ahead with the resolution for the time being. Another big issue underway right now is to change Kelseyville’s name.
The month of May is “CalFresh Awareness Month”. It’s an entire month of public outreach to increase awareness and enrollment in the CalFresh program. If you’re not familiar with CalFresh, it is known federally as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP and provides monthly food benefits to individuals and families with low-income and also provides economic benefits to communities. EBT is the automated system that allows CalFresh recipients to use a card, much like a debit card, to access their food benefits for purchases at grocers. There are over 17-thousand individuals in Lake County currently receiving CalFresh benefits totaling over $3 million per month. Every $1 in CalFresh generates $1.79 in local economic activity. To get help putting healthy, nutritious food on your table. Go to www.benefitscal.
Watching the Kentucky Derby last weekend, we can really appreciate the beauty of horses. Even one that is 25-years old, as is Ember, a rescue horse. She was found lying on her side a couple of weeks ago and apparently, she had been there for over a day. Ember had trouble getting up and some thought she was dying. The founder and owner of Heart of Gold Sanctuary in Forestville called the fire department who has a large animal rescue team with an arsenal of equipment, and they used that to get Ember back on her feet. The latest word is that she is doing well and it’s a happy ending for the horse named Ember.
For a year and a half the building at the corner of Maine and Perkins sat empty. It looked like Redwood Credit Union was putting a branch in downtown Ukiah. They applied for a permit and they received it, but just last month, RCU decided to pull out of that opportunity and they have withdrawn their permit application for the former savings bank site. The reason being it was going to be too costly to tear down the old building and put up something brand new, something that would bring it up to their standards and make it an asset to the community. Redwood Credit Union says they still want to invest in and serve the Ukai community, but as for now, the building at the corner of Perkinson Main Streets, the old Dragon’s Lair building still sits empty.
