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Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS

Published: 16 October 2021

Created: 16 October 2021

Last Updated: 16 October 2021

NORTH COAST, Calif. — On Friday, Oct. 8, the Mendocino County Office of Education and Mendocino County Public Health Department hosted a meeting of local K-12 educators where Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren complimented educators, saying that schools have effectively “stopped COVID at the door.”

As education and public health leaders reviewed COVID transmission data, they noted that of the 33 COVID cases identified in schools, all were attributable to community spread — not transmission at school.

“This is important because people need to know schools are safe for students and staff,” said Mendocino County Superintendent of Schools Michelle Hutchins.

She explained that since the beginning of the current school year, the goal of the California Department of Education, or CDE, has been to assure that students have access to safe, full in-person instruction.

During the 2020-21 school year, state education and health officials mandated at least six feet of distancing between students, requiring schools to implement a hybrid model where only half of students were allowed on campus at any given time.

When COVID transmission rates did not increase, the minimum distance between students was reduced to four feet. Again, thanks to risk-mitigation strategies such as vaccines, screening, quarantines, masks and hand-washing, transmission rates did not increase.

This school year, there is no minimum physical distancing requirement, and again, transmission rates have not increased. Therefore, on Nov. 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom has agreed to revisit the mask requirement in schools.

Hutchins said, “No one expects the governor to remove the mask mandate immediately, but he is looking at the data and assessing the options. Even after events such as Homecoming at some of our biggest schools, we haven’t seen an uptick in cases. We appear to be transitioning from a world in the midst of a pandemic to a world where COVID-19 is endemic. As more and more people are vaccinated, the hope is that we will be able to return to life without masks, as long as we keep washing our hands and staying home when we’re sick.”

Hutchins hopes people will recognize how safe schools are and consider applying for the many positions currently available. As of Oct. 11, there were almost 200 education-related vacancies in Mendocino County.

“If you’re looking for work, whether you have a high school diploma, a college degree, or a teaching credential, there are jobs available. Go to www.edjoin.org for details,” she said.

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Written by: Lake County News reports

Published: 15 October 2021

Created: 15 October 2021

Last Updated: 15 October 2021

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation has partnered with the Sierra Club, Yolo County Farm Bureau, and local residents in a lawsuit to challenge a Yolo County cannabis ordinance.

Proponents said the lawsuit does not seek to stop cannabis cultivation and related businesses in Yolo County, or to prevent county residents from profiting from the cannabis industry.

Instead, they said it would simply require the county to comply with California environmental law by evaluating the full and real impacts of cannabis cultivation, and mitigate those impacts, before adopting an ordinance regulating it.

Adhering to this process is what the California Environmental Quality Act requires, and these same requirements apply to every other regulated land use.

“The cannabis industry has a place in Yolo County, just as cannabis has a place in the medicine cabinets of many people in California,” the Tribal Council of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation said in a statement on the lawsuit. “But sensible cannabis permitting can’t happen until the county is clear-eyed about the problems overconcentration creates, especially in sensitive areas around schools, near cultural heritage sites, and in smaller communities like those in the Capay Valley.”

The “green rush” to the Capay Valley — which is composed of rural communities west of Interstate 505 from Madison through Rumsey — created widespread blight and land uses incompatible with the organic farming practices and ecotourism for which the area is known.

Additionally, the Capay Valley’s location in the northernmost part of the county makes cannabis farms there difficult to reach and more expensive to regulate for inspectors and sheriff deputies, including deputies subsidized by the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.

With more than half of the grows concentrated in the Capay Valley, local residents have become unduly burdened, the lawsuit’s proponents said.

The suit stems from what the proponents said are flaws in the environmental review process that produced a cannabis land use ordinance the Yolo County Board of Supervisors adopted.

One key flaw cited by the groups who are suing is the county's refusal to compare the impacts of cannabis cultivation to Yolo County's rural environment and agricultural landscape before the grows existed.

By proceeding in this fashion, the county's environmental document necessarily missed significant cannabis industry impacts, the proponents said.

While the county agreed it made sense to protect the upper Capay Valley from an over concentration of grows, its ordinance allows cannabis grows to now concentrate in the lower Capay Valley, burdening small rural communities, schools and businesses, particularly in Madison and Esparto, the lawsuit proponents said.

These communities are among the poorest and most diverse in the county, with Esparto and Madison having the highest percentage of Latino residents (55.3% and 76%, respectively), and with Madison ranking as the most impoverished.

The groups bringing the suit said Yolo County’s rulemaking is unclear even on the issue of the Capay Valley’s boundaries, which is defined one way in some legal documents, and another way in the proposed ordinance.

The plaintiffs said cannabis cultivation poses adverse impacts for residential rural communities, also arguing that its production is fundamentally incompatible with traditional agriculture in Yolo County, and the county needs to account for that reality through appropriate mitigation.

The full extent of the increased costs and harms created by the industry cannot be known because the county refused to consider impacts of cannabis cultivation authorized as of 2017, without any environmental review. The lawsuit filed Thursday seeks to correct that error.

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Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS

Published: 14 October 2021

Created: 14 October 2021

Last Updated: 14 October 2021

BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. — Caltrans has installed a permanent advance warning system at the intersection of northbound State Highway 99 and Neal Road south of Chico.

Motorists will see an electronic board displaying the message “Caution Slow Traffic Ahead” when vehicle speed slows to 25 miles per hour or less at the traffic signal-controlled intersection.

The message will stay on until vehicles resume traveling above 25 miles per hour.

“Caltrans has worked with the California Highway Patrol and local partners to implement a series of safety measures on northbound Highway 99,” said Amarjeet S. Benipal, Caltrans District 3 director. “The new intersection advance warning system upholds our commitment to help motorists arrive safely to their destinations.”

Other safety countermeasures include the installation of two traffic signal warning signs with flashing beacons and rumble stripes placed across the two northbound traffic lanes.

These transverse rumble stripes are made of thermoplastic material which, when driven over, create noticeable sound and vibrations to warn drivers of an approaching intersection where they may be required to slow down or stop.

Caltrans District 3 maintains more than 4,385 lane miles of state highway in 11 Sacramento Valley and Northern Sierra counties.