Food banks are reportedly preparing for a spike in need because of inflation… but also because pandemic food aid is ending soon. CalFresh recipients are getting added benefits for one more month, but then the federal government is ending “emergency allotments” of food for those in need three years later. It’s an extra $200 or so a month for many. So someone receiving about $280 a month will end up with around $23 in April. The pandemic additions have added up to over $500 million a month for low-income Californians.
The online learning that children had to deal with due to COVID lockdowns has continued to keep some children out of public schools. Ed Source reports as many as 152,000 children in Calif. are still not back in public school classrooms. Stanford research shows enrollment was off the first two years of the pandemic, and the youngest children were the ones who were least likely to come back. The report by Stanford with Big Local News and the Associated Press, tracked 240,000 students who remain unaccounted-for in public schools nationwide. California had the most missing students, with most in grades six to eight.
There’s been an exodus out of Sonoma County. The Press Democrat reports over 3,000 residents left between 2021 and 2022. The newspaper reports more people are leaving, than moving in, and there are more people passing away, than being born. So the population dropped again. This has been continuing for five years since the 2017 Tubbs and Nuns fires. The population before the fires was at 503,500. Now it’s at around 480,260. A 4.5% loss.
A national cohort has chosen a local doctor to join from Mendocino County. Dr. Jenine Miller will be one of thirty leaders in the National Association of Counties (NACo) Opioid Solutions Leadership Network. The group looks for innovative and evidence-based solutions to spend opioid settlement funds on. The money to save lives and help folks with substance use disorders. The cohort allows the leaders to share their knowledge and support their counterparts nationwide.
The public is invited to share ideas to help improve off-highway vehicle (OHV) trail safety and maintenance on public lands. It’s for Central California with the Ukiah office taking part. Those who want to participate can go to a virtual town hall Thursday at 5 p.m. But you have to register with the BLM office to get a link to the meeting. They will be giving off-highway vehicle users a chance to ask questions of BLM staff and talk about changes or improvements to enhance outdoor recreation. The division meeting distributes over $30 million a year that’s collected from the gas tax, entrance fees and OHV sticker registrations.
Comments may also be emailed to the BLM at BLM_CA_UK_OHV_Grants@blm.gov.
Threats to a local elementary school brought out deputies from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. On Friday afternoon around the time school was letting out, Kelseyville Elementary was placed on lockdown after someone threatened to shoot up the school. All local schools were on lockdown with deputies, detectives, members of the California Highway Patrol, Lake County Probation and California State Parks also responding. Detectives from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit took over and a juvenile suspect was arrested. Turns out the suspect made a prank call and had no weapons. They were booked into the Lake County Probation Department.
During a meeting at the Redwood Valley Grange a discussion on the recent storms and grants available from FEMA and the Calif. Office of Emergency Services. Also at the meeting, a discussion on the possible expansion of Meals on Wheels service to Redwood Valley. They discussed a grant recently announced by the Mendocino Council of Governments to install 25 electric vehicle charging stations, an update on the Calpella Russian River Bridge Replacement project by Caltrans and the county budget with Supervisor Glenn McGourty. There’s apparently a $2 million dollar surplus which can be used to offset an expected $6 million deficit. The Sheriff was also on hand giving an update on 2022 and the early warning siren system.
Point Arena is the first city in Mendocino County to be 100 percent renewable energy. The city switched last week to all geothermal and solar. According to their city manager, their wastewater treatment plant, City Hall, the Coastal Seniors programs, city streetlights and the hoist at the Point Arena pier are all operating on clean energy through a program dubbed EverGreen, with provider Sonoma Clean Power. There are under 500 permanent residents in Point Arena, as of the last US Census. The city is paying $6,000 a year for 100 percent carbon-free electricity available 24/7.
The Calif. Water Commission is taking up drought preparedness at their next meeting with a local water expert. The meeting on Wednesday will have a panel of experts on long-term drought preparedness and response. Department of Water Resources staff will discuss operational flexibility of the State Water Project, in particular with response to the ongoing drought, but also adding in flooding, this time around. They will consider system flexibility challenges as well as how operators reduce the flexibility.
The Mendocino City Community Services District Board of Directors has given the greenlight to codify raises for some hourly staff. They’re working to pay a competitive salary in alignment with other local agencies including Fort Bragg, Westport, Willits, and Cloverdale. Employees approved the pay at a meeting before. The pay for Treatment Plant Operator, for example, will jump nearly 3 dollars/hour. This is because they had few applicants after an operator retired last year. There had been no record that a step salary was ever agreed to, so now they’ve agreed all meetings will be recorded and made available to the public.
The Lake County Board of Supervisors is taking up indigent defense services. At their meeting tomorrow, the Board will look at ways they can potentially improve services to be sure the constitutional rights are met for those who are arrested and face trials in the Lake County Superior Court. The report “The Right to Counsel in Lake County, California” which was done by the Sixth Amendment Center will be considered in the morning at the regular Supervisor meeting. They had approved of the analysis last summer. The report shows about 170 court dates for indigent representation with an overall lack of accountability and oversight in Lake County’s public defender services and funding.
As you may have heard, the Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG) is working with nationwide EV charging station company ChargePoint to put in more than 2 dozen chargers, including some fast chargers. The Council won a “Rural Electric Vehicle” grant from the California Energy Commission and is looking for community input about where the sites should be located. They’ll be placed in the Ukiah/Redwood Valley/Hopland area at five sites, including a fast-charging hub in central Ukiah. County residents are encouraged to attend the townhall this Thursday from 5:30 -6:30 p.m. There will be representatives from the Council and ChargePoint. You can also check out the Council’s website to take an interactive survey and see the map where you can pin your preferred charging location and provide comment.
Comments may also be mailed to the MCOG office at 525 S. Main Street, Suite G; Ukiah, CA 95482, or emailed to lellard@dbcteam.net. Topic: Rural EV Charging Station Locations – Community Workshop Time: Feb 16, 2023 05:30 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
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