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On Wednesday evening Dr. Noemi Doohan confirmed six new COVID-19 cases in the Ukiah Valley region. Four of those cases are teenagers.
Doohan said the new cases reported Wednesday bring Mendocino County’s case count to 53; those include 19 who are isolated, one hospitalized in the ICU and 33 recovered.
She said eight of the county’s recently confirmed cases have been traced back to two end-of-school-year or graduation-related gatherings in Ukiah.
In addition, four cases over the past week have been linked to in-person church services in the Ukiah area, Doohan said.
In response to this spike in positive cases, Doohan said Mendocino County Public Health will be doing outbreak testing. That testing began on Wednesday and is continuing on Thursday at the Public Health Building at 1120 South Dora St. in Ukiah.
Doohan said Mendocino County is experiencing a spike in cases for individuals under the age of 35, which now make up 43 percent of the county’s cases.
She said a case that was recently in the ICU was in the 19 to 35 age group.
The end of the school year, graduation and the start of summer is often a time to celebrate and hold large gatherings. However, Doohan said all gatherings including those in homes, parks and community spaces are not allowed and are high-risk for the spread of COVID-19.
Group activities are limited to members of the same household or a social bubble which means a stable group of 12 individuals who form either a household support unit, a childcare unit, or a children’s extracurricular activity unit.
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Following more than two hours of discussion between board members, with numerous community members weighing in during the virtual meeting, none of the supervisors were willing to make a motion to bring the draft ordinance to a vote.
As an urgency ordinance, it needed four of five supervisors to approve it.
The proposal had emerged during last week’s board meeting, when it was added as a special item, ultimately leading to the board’s direction to County Counsel Anita Grant that a draft ordinance be brought back.
The document’s key provisions included assigning county Code Enforcement Division staff to assist Public Health staff in education and outreach to businesses and the public and, if necessary, to administer fines for noncompliance.
The document can be seen below.
“This is a very rough draft ordinance,” Grant told the board, explaining that it was meant to use Code Enforcement to educate business and public to ensure compliance and provide a procedure for administrative fines.
During the meeting, there were sharp disagreements between board members, in particular, Board Chair Moke Simon, who asked that the matter be agendized, and Rob Brown, who listed his own objections with the proposal, from entering private property to what the actual fine amounts could be.
Brown has been vocal in his concerns over the ongoing negative impacts of county actions on local businesses.
He said the county is kicking people when they’re down. “They’ve been down for months because of our actions,” which he said were illegitimate in the first place.
Supervisor Bruno Sabatier said he’s gotten a lot of emails about the proposal, more for it than against. He said the county needed to find more ways to support business rather than knocking them down when they’re trying to get back up.
He said he felt Code Enforcement had more important duties – including vegetation management – and pointed out that some of the complaints about businesses the county has received have been bogus.
The county’s COVID-19 case numbers – at 34 on Tuesday – was for Sabatier a sign that the county is doing a good job in controlling the virus’ spread.
“Until those numbers reflect something more concerning, I just don’t think this is a viable option for us,” he said.
Supervisor Tina Scott said the draft ordinance was an attempt to keep ahead of a case surge.
“It’s looking like we’re going to have to have an outbreak in our community for people to wake up and maybe want to come back to this ordinance to be able to do the right thing. Maybe it’s just not real for people,” Scott said.
She said her husband has lost two family members who live on the East Coast to COVID-19. “It’s real to me.”
However, she said she didn’t want to vote on it Tuesday, explaining that she visited Mendocino County over the weekend and was shocked to see how differently people are behaving there than in Lake County.
“It’s just almost like we just don’t get it here, and it’s sad to see that,” Scott said.
Sabatier agreed that the timing wasn’t right, and that he would feel otherwise if the county had out-of-control deaths and hospitalizations.
“We have been led by being afraid of what could happen,” Sabatier said, adding that what is happening in New York isn’t what is happening in Lake County.
Brown, on the other hand, pushed for the board to vote on the document. “We need to make damn sure we kill this thing today.”
Simon, in response, said the proposed urgency ordinance was brought forward to protect public health and safety.
He said that over the next six to nine months the county will see the real impact of the pandemic. “Time will tell on the direction we’re moving.”
Simon added, “The ultimate goal is to be open and to stay open.”
Public divided over proposed ordinance
The board received numerous letters from the public in response to the draft documents. In addition, during public comment, the board heard input from people with a range of experiences, including those in the medical field to business people, arguing for and against the urgency ordinance.
Stephanie Pawha, a respiratory care practitioner, told the board, “The simplest damn thing is wearing a mask,” explaining the protective equipment she needs to wear every day to protect herself.
Lakeport resident Michael Green said by not approving the ordinance the board would be trampling on the rights of at-risk people and rewarding scofflaws, and that a reasonable enforcement process is needed.
Teresa Harborth said at her business, Pasquinelli’s Italian Deli and Coffee Shop in Lower Lake, they’re constantly washing their hands and using proper protocols, but they don’t require masking. She said that such punitive measures are economic sabotage and pushing the economy backward.
Big O Tires owner Denise Loustalot, the former mayor of Clearlake, told the board, “We have decisions to make because we have lives to save and business to save in our communities.”
Loustalot said she thought the ordinance is rough on businesses. While her business is enforcing masking and social distancing, she said some customers have pushed back and been rude. Getting fined for what customers won’t agree to do is “really, really tough.”
Brown pushed the board to vote on the ordinance, saying the public needed to know how the board felt about it. He suggested that Simon, who brought it to the board, could pass the gavel and make the motion himself.
But Simon demurred, saying he thought it was important for the board to have the discussion. “Do I think there needs to be some type of enforcement at some point? Yes.”
Supervisor EJ Crandell said passing the ordinance in rough draft form didn’t seem to be favorable and it would need a lot more work.
“Does that mean it’s coming back?” Brown asked.
Crandell said he would only be looking for changes to the rough draft as a deterrent to closing businesses, with no other board members offering additional comments on the topic before the discussion ended.
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Urgency Ordinance Covid-19 ... by LakeCoNews on Scribd
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The name of the 32-year-old man who died was not released by the California Highway Patrol’s Ukiah Area office in its Tuesday report on the wreck.
The CHP said that at approximately 11:36 a.m. Monday Justin Jimenez, 20, of Willits was driving eastbound on Highway 175 east of Harrison Street at an unknown speed in a 1999 Ford F-250 pickup.
The report said Jimenez let the Ford veer to the right shoulder, where it went out of control and crossed over the solid double yellow lines and collided with the Ukiah man’s 2002 Honda Civic, which was traveling westbound.
Following the crash, the Ford rolled over and came to rest on its wheels in the middle of Highway 175, facing an easterly direction. The CHP said the Honda also came to rest on its wheels, up against a grass embankment, facing a northwesterly direction.
The CHP said the driver of the Honda was pronounced dead at the scene.
His passenger, 34-year-old Ruben Tinajero of Ukiah, suffered major injuries and was airlifted to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, the CHP said.
Jimenez had moderate injuries and also was airlifted to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to the CHP’s report.
The CHP said the crash remains under investigation.
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Roadside litter cleanup has been limited since March due to the COVID-19 health crisis.
“Litter increases the risk of fire, pollutes our waterways, threatens wildlife and costs taxpayers millions of dollars to remove,” said Toks Omishakin, Caltrans director. “We ask all Californians to be part of the solution, dispose of trash responsibly and secure cargo loads before getting on the road.”
Caltrans maintenance workers and partnering programs are adhering to recommendations developed in consultation with licensed industrial hygienists to ensure safe working environments while conducting litter removal efforts during the current health crisis.
Crews will continue to wear personal protective equipment such as facemasks and gloves and practice physical distancing in accordance with guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
California needs your help to prevent trash from ever making it to the highways. Money spent on cleaning up trash diverts crews away from filling potholes, fixing guardrails, and performing other essential maintenance activities.
Motorists can be part of the solution by following a few basic travel behaviors:
– Stow a litter bag in your vehicle and always dispose of trash appropriately;
– Properly extinguish cigarettes and cigars; never throw any item, particularly one that is lit, from a vehicle.
– Always cover and properly secure cargo or materials hauled in passenger trucks and pick-ups to prevent items from falling off the vehicle.
– Volunteer to adopt a California highway and remove litter.
Litter removal was limited to protect the health and safety of Caltrans crews during the current health crisis.
Due to the accumulation of trash on the state highways with traffic beginning to increase as the state reopens, Caltrans crews and volunteers with the Adopt-A-Highway program are picking up garbage statewide and removing items abandoned on the side of the road.
The CHP actively enforces California’s anti-littering laws, ticketing motorists seen littering highways or driving with unsecured cargo loads.
Last year, CHP officers issued more than 3,100 citations for littering, and roughly one-third of those violations involved a lit cigarette.
“Not only is littering illegal, but there can be devastating consequences resulting from these senseless actions,” said CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley. “A lit cigarette carelessly tossed from a window can start a brush fire, an unsecured cargo load can result in a collision, and the safety of a highway worker cleaning up the mess is at great risk.”
Caltrans collected 287,000 cubic yards of litter in 2019 alone – enough to fill 18,000 garbage trucks.
Of that total, 35 percent resulted from efforts by the department’s community volunteer programs, saving California millions of dollars and untold associated environmental costs.
Caltrans collaborates with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and advocacy groups to provide occupational mentoring and temporary employment to parolees and veterans.
Participants are trained in litter abatement, and the program has grown from eight crews in 2009 to 55 crews operating in the state today.
The Adopt-A-Highway program provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations, and businesses to help maintain sections of the state highways.
Since its start in 1989, Adopt-a Highway volunteers have removed litter from more than 15,000 miles of roadway shoulders and helped maintain 36 acres of wildflowers, 1,540 acres of vegetation management, and 111 acres of tree planting.
More information on becoming an Adopt-a-Highway volunteer may be found on the Caltrans website at http://dot.ca.gov .