Volunteers are needed to help the Mendocino County Homeless Services Continuum of Care do their annual Point-In-Time Count of the unhoused. The count is mandated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and is used by many state and federal departments to figure out how to allocate funding for homeless services. The Continuum of Care is a group of agencies including non-profits, Tribal Governments, faith-based organizations, concerned community members, and Mendocino County staff. But the count requires a lot of people doing a lot of different tasks. Volunteers are needed to count along the coast as well as inland Mendocino County.
A former Fort Bragg Community Services Officer is now a full-fledged Fort Bragg Police Officer. The Department says Amanda Pacheco successfully completed the College of the Redwoods Police Academy sponsored by the Fort Bragg Police Department and on December 23 was officially sworn in as an officer. This week, Officer Pacheco embarks on her first week of field training.
The Round Valley Indian Tribes are getting some long-awaited help from Mendocino County to clean up some of the illegal dump sites on their land. Swaths of land in Covelo have become littered over the years by abandoned marijuana grow sites and people who simply stashed old RVs and appliances on empty lots. RVIT Executive Director James Russ tells the Mendocino Voice the tribes have done a lot of cleanup themselves over the years including hundreds of old vehicles but it’s only a dent and he’s been trying since 2021 to get some financial help from the county. Within the last few months though they were awarded a Community Development Block Grant of around $500,000 which will help fund contractors to clean up two of the larger sites.
Clearlake City Hall reopens for business on Monday January 6. City staff have sent out a thank you on social media to outgoing Mayor David Claffey, Vice Mayor Joyce Overton and Councilmember Russ Perdock for their huge contributions. New Councilmembers are Tara Downey, Jessica Hooten and Mary Wilson who will serve the next four years. Continuing council members Russ Cremer will serve as Clearlake’s mayor and Dirk Slooten will serve as vice mayor. Mayor Cremer says he is honored to step into the role and continue building on the incredible progress Clearlake has made.
If you’ve got antiques or family heirlooms you think may be worth something, or at least have a good story behind them, the Grace Hudson Museum is hosting an Evaluation Day. Something like the PBS show “Antiques RoadShow”, you can bring up to three items to be evaluated and appraised by professional appraisers from Witherell Auctions of Sacramento. A fee will be charged for each assessment: $5 per item for Grace Hudson museum members and $8 for non-members. And the team from Witherell is donating their time, so all proceeds go to the Grace Hudson Museum. Evaluation Day is Friday, January 10 10am to 2pm at the Museum which is on Main Street in Ukiah.
The E Center has announced the January appointment schedule and details for the Women, Infants and Children program. WIC is a nutrition program that provides nutrition education and support as well as help with breastfeeding, healthcare referrals, and supplemental food benefits. The program is for eligible pregnant women, new moms, postpartum women, and those children under the age of five. Single fathers, foster parents and guardians of kids under age five are also eligible to enroll. The E Center says WIC has generous income guidelines with a family of four allowed a monthly income of up to $4,810 and still be eligible for WIC. Get details at https://ecenter.org.
