The Lake County Parks, Recreation, and Trails Master Plan Draft has been completed, and now they want your feedback. You can look over the plan online, or you can see it in person at the Clearlake, Lakeport, and Middletown libraries. It’s also available at the Lake County Public Services Department office on Second Street in Lakeport. Comments and questions are being accepted now through the end of the month. The Lake County Board of Supervisors will see a presentation of the Master Plan Draft at their meeting on Tuesday, May 21st. It’s the first item on the agenda for the 10:30am meeting.
The County of Lake has appointed a new Director of Public Works. They announced Glen March will take the position effective Monday, June 29th. According to a news release, March will also serve as limited term Public Works Director from June 3rd through June 28th.
Voters will get to decide whether to make Sonoma County the first county in the nation to outlaw so-called factory farming. On Tuesday, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors sent a measure, known as Measure J, to the November ballot. If passed, it would ban larger animal farms, which are officially called Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. The county Agricultural Commissioner’s Office says the ordinance would lead to one-point-six-million-dollars in expenses to cover inspections and reporting. The Human Services Department says it will need to spend an additional one-point-five-million-dollars related to job assistance and retraining if the measure passes.
The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors is reporting a rise in HIV and syphilis cases. Two-dozen syphilis cases have been confirmed in the county in the past five months. The case rate is on pace to exceed that of 2023, when 53 syphilis cases were recorded. The number of HIV infections in Mendocino County has also increased 100 percent in the first five months of the year. Officials are not announcing the exact number of cases, due to privacy concerns.
The State of California and the Biden administration are being sued over EV truck rules. Governor Newsom has always believed the Golden State needs to be the nation’s EV leader and has allocated billions of tax-payer dollars towards zero-emission vehicle goals. A large group of Republican state attorneys general challenge the EPA’s new rule requiring 30% of heavy-duty trucks be fully emissions-free by 2032. They argue California’s truck emissions rules are actually a nationwide mandate because California’s ports are major way stations for shipping. They also claim the rules will devastate the trucking industry and raise prices for customers.
Governor Gavin Newsom is giving an update on California’s efforts to transform its mental health system. During Mental Health Awareness Month, the governor is touting the plan “Treatment Not Tents” which aims to revamp mental health funding. Newsom says California is getting the money out faster and implementing reforms sooner. The plan includes an over six-billion dollar bond to add more than 11-thousand new behavioral beds and supportive housing units. Newsom also announced a new website MentalHealth.ca.gov, which will serve as a resource for people in need of mental health support and includes information about the state’s ongoing behavioral health reform.
The summer travel season is kicking off with one of the busiest Memorial Day weekends since Triple-A began tracking travel data in 2000. Travel in California is expected to beat the previous record with over five-point-six million travelers compared to five-point-four million last year. Eighty-two percent of Californians will hit the road during the holiday weekend. About eleven percent will fly, and seven percent will spend their weekend travel plans on cruises, buses, or trains. According to Triple-A, nationwide, nearly 44 million people will go 50 miles or more from home.
A man out on probation was arrested again after crashing a stolen vehicle into a house in Ukiah. It happened on Monday, just before 10 pm when Ukiah Police got a report of a suspicious vehicle. Officers tried to pull the vehicle over on East Perkins Street, but he took off. The suspect, Daniel Risch, blew through several intersections and got up to 80 miles an hour through downtown Ukiah with police chasing him. When he got to West Perkins and Highland he crashed through a concrete retaining wall and into a house. He also caused damage to a parked car in the driveway. Risch had major injuries and was taken to the hospital, no one else was injured in the crash.
Officials in Lake County have announced plans to spend 700 thousand dollars on a study to find out the impact of removing the Potter Valley Scott Dam. The county wants to know how the removal of the dam will affect things like local infrastructure, the ecosystem, and the county’s ability to fight wildfires. The Press Democrat reports the Lake County Board of Supervisors says they have concerns that if the dam comes down, the upper Eel River could run dry for part of the year. That could make the area vulnerable in the case of a fire.
