Mendocino County is reportedly one of the most vulnerable counties in the state when faced with the prospect of long-term drought. This is according to the team tasked with understanding the scope of the problem and how to tackle it. The team working on Mendocino County’s Drought Resilience Plan is set to present their findings to the Board of Supervisors next Wednesday. The Mendocino Voice reports at a public hearing earlier this month, those working on the plan said part of Mendocino’s vulnerability is due to the high number of residents that depend on wells or springs for household and agricultural water, which are typically the first to go dry. The task force says of the 42 small water systems around the County, 88 percent show a high vulnerability to drought.
You can learn more about the six candidates running for the Lakeport City Council in the November 5 election with a candidate’s forum next week. The forum is set for Monday September 23 from 6pm-8pm at Lakeport City Hall. The six running are incumbents Kim Costa, Brandon Disney, Michael Froio and Kenny Parlet, and challengers Carl Porter and Christina Price. Lake County News editor and publisher Elizabeth Larson will be the moderator and if you have a question you would like her to ask, send her an email at elarson. If you can’t attend, it will be recorded for a future broadcast.
Ukiah will soon be a lot greener with the city getting a state grant of more than a million dollars to plant more trees. The grant was announced at this week’s Ukiah City Council meeting. It comes from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection with the goal of increasing the city’s shade canopy by planting hundreds of new trees on public and private property over the next three years. Ukiah’s Chief Resilience Officer says the grant will be an estimated $1.4 million to plant 722 trees. It will also include removing about 2,000 square feet of concrete across the city and some incentives to help homeowners and small businesses with ways to increase shade.
The governor has signed an historic piece of tribal legislation authored by Lake and Mendocino County’s state senator Mike McGuire to address a lack of affordable housing. The Tribal Housing Reconstruction and Resiliency Act will create the first-ever dedicated tribal housing funding program to help build or rehabilitate affordable homes to buy or to rent. Lake County News reports homelessness among Indigenous Californians is more than twice the general population and of those who have homes, 9% of tribes in California have homes without fully plumbing and 7% lack complete kitchens. But McGuire says despite that need, most tribes in California have been unable to access existing state affordable housing funds because many of them are too restrictive to meet the requirements on tribal lands.
If you are a PG&E customer you’ve got another Climate Credit coming next month. Pacific Gas and Electric says residential and small business electric customers will get a credit of $55.17 and residential customers with a natural gas account will get $85.46. PG&E says the California Climate Credit is part of the state’s efforts to fight climate change because it comes from the Cap-and-Trade Program that requires polluters to pay for climate pollution and give some money back to utility customers.
