The City of Ukiah has annexed over 750 acres in the Western Hills to potentially build some houses as well as to preserve open space. The city says the area is mountainous, but has room for safe residential development near city services and by bringing the land into the City they can only only preserve more open space but also more effectively manage it for fire safety. Officials say for the past several decades, the Greater Ukiah Valley has suffered from uncoordinated development and urbanization so not everyone has reliable infrastructure. They say folding the Western Hills into the city gives that area more efficient access to utilities.
The Willow County Water District has voted to join the recently formed Ukiah Valley Water Authority which is becoming the regional entity for water services for 9,100 connections in the Greater Ukiah Valley. The Water Authority was formed earlier this year and already includes Millview County Water District, Redwood Valley County Water District, and the City of Ukiah. The Water Authority is currently assessing existing infrastructure for the member water districts to figure out where they might need new pipeline extensions, storage tanks, wells, or booster stations and officials say they plan to apply for grants to pay for some of them.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is asking your help in finding a missing man from Lower Lake who has dementia. Wilhelm “Bill” Hildebrandie was last seen Tuesday in the Sloan Ranch Road area. Bill is 88 years old, 5’5” tall and around 100 pounds. He has what the officials describe as a “unkempt” appearance with long gray hair and a full beard. He was last seen wearing a t-shirt, multiple jackets, red pants, and plastic “Dutch-style” clogs. You can see his picture on the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page. He could be in the Rocky Creek area of Morgan Valley and Lake County Search and Rescue has been activated and has been working to find him.
A Washington State man faces a long list of drug and weapons charges after Ukiah Police had to call in a bomb squad during his arrest. Ukiah Police say they stopped the guy on South Main around 130am after he ran a stop sign. They allege they saw a handgun and a meth pipe in plain sight so they got him out and arrested him. A search of the car then allegedly turned up cocaine, meth and several pills. But when officers came across a backpack containing large mortar-style explosive fireworks, they called in the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad to safely remove them.
The Mendocino Unified School District is reportedly thinking about selling its internet system. The City of Fort Bragg has reportedly offered to pay $500,000 to buy the service known as MCN and says they will keep all the employees in place. The Mendocino Voice reports a special informational meeting was being held by the district yesterday to talk about the proposal with the district possibly voting on it when they meet next month. MCN was founded back in 1994 as a school project as an offshoot of an educational internet system that was helped along by NASA. Fort Bragg recently got a $10.3 million grant to expand broadband access.
You could see some smoke today in Hopland where there’s a prescribed pile burn set. The Tribal EcoRestoration Alliance says they are doing the burn starting at 9am on land owned by the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians east of Highway 101. The alliance is partnering with the tribe and Cal Fire on the burn which is only scheduled for today but there may be some residual smoke overnight and into the weekend.
