KZYX News

October 28, 2020 — As the summer of the pandemic fades into fall, the loneliness is getting acute, especially for kids and elderly people. Online platforms and handwritten cards have to take the place of in-person gatherings, especially since the two age groups tend to respond so differently to the virus. Meyo Marrufo, the environmental director for Guidiville Rancheria, has been heavily involved in the online curriculum at the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center in Santa Rosa, which put a lot of work into getting elders on zoom so they could take classes. Bonnie Lockhart is a member of the Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo, where she runs the tribal youth diversion program. She’s using multiple platforms to connect with young people and come up with healthy activities. Recently, the two women got a grant from the North Coast Opportunities Mask Awareness Program to design a card and distribute it, along with packages of masks, to people in Native American communities. We’ll hear them talk about connecting with lonely friends and family, staying safe, and continuing to do the work that’s important to them.

October 27, 2020 — For most of the pandemic, the county has been able to send hundreds of surveillance tests every week to a lab at UCSF, free of charge. The community health clinics in Fort Bragg, the south coast, Anderson Valley and Long Valley have offered these tests for months to people who can’t get to the OptumServ site in Ukiah. The contract with UCSF was supposed to last until the end of the calendar year. But just last week, UCSF terminated that contract, based on unspecified legal advice, according to Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren. Now the clinics and the county are scrambling to come up with another way to test asymptomatic people outside of Ukiah.

October 26, 2020 — As the US, along with much of the Western world sees surges in covid-19 numbers, local organizations like the chambers of commerce and non-profits are working to distribute masks and information about the virus. Lucy Kramer is a community wellness coordinator and the program manager for the mask awareness program at North Coast Opportunities, which has made more than a dozen mini-grants to organizations and individuals with ideas about how to spread the word. NCO itself received a grant of a little over $150,000 from the county of Mendocino over the summer, to target young people and Hispanic and Native American communities. Some of the grants it disbursed from that money were matched by another organization, Emergency Preparedness in Communities, which doubled some of the awards, so fourteen of the grantees could get a limit of $6,000. One grantee is the covid response network, which has put out a bilingual survey to find out what people already know about the virus. Questions include basic queries about safety practices and what kind of messaging people find most compelling about the virus. Some of the answers double as suggestions for safe ways to handle holiday celebrations, while others seek information about people’s feelings regarding free testing if they’re asymptomatic or getting the vaccine if it becomes available. Kramer also coordinates the Gardens Project, and says the gardens have become distribution points for masks, along with with bilingual information about the virus. As of the middle of last week, she had 40,000 masks remaining from a shipment of 115,000. “They’re going like hotcakes,” she reported.

In this episode, you will hear from Patrick Higgins, managing director of the Eel River Recovery Project, and Andrew Ryple, a UC Davis scientist who specializes in cold water fish ecology. Ryple says that considering climate change, the poor river conditions Higgins witnessed are not surprising.

October 22, 2020 — The Board of Supervisors unanimously denied an appeal to block a cell phone tower on Pine Mountain about five miles from the Willits city center on Tuesday. And the second reading of an ordinance regulating a pilot program for growing industrial hemp passed along the same lines as the first reading, though it still meets with opposition from cannabis farmers.

October 21, 2020 — The Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed to purchase a Best Western Motel on South Orchard Avenue in Ukiah yesterday, after Senator Mike McGuire assured the board that the state has expanded program funding to support Project Homekey, a statewide program to purchase motels for homeless housing. And Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren said he’s cautiously optimistic about the county’s prospects of slipping into a less restrictive tier, which would allow schools to open and gyms and houses of worship to commence indoor operations. The recent fires have been declared eligible for FEMA assistance, and the county will host Local Assistance Centers in Covelo and Willits next week. FEMA reps will be at the Willits Library from 8am to 5pm October 26-29. From 2-6 pm on Monday the 26th, county reps from planning and building, HHSA, disaster recovery, the cannabis program and environmental health will also be at the Willits Library. On Wednesday the 28th, the county staff will be at the Round Valley Elementary School from 2-6 to help fire survivors figure out what they need.

October 19, 2020 — The second district supervisorial race took an unexpected turn earlier this month, when Mari Rodin canceled a candidate’s forum for health reasons. In an interview earlier today, Rodin disclosed that she was having an exploratory surgery in San Francisco that day, and that she found out the next day, October 6, that she has cancer. Rodin says her campaign for supervisor is still active, and according to Katrina Bartolomie, the county registrar of voters, as of this morning, 1,914 of the 9,491 voters in the second district had already mailed in their ballots.

October 19, 2020 — On Saturday afternoon, seventeen days before the election, about fifty people gathered in Alex Thomas Plaza in Ukiah to rally in memory of Breonna Taylor, to encourage people to vote, and to put out the word that the public safety board is still looking for representatives.

Oct 15, 2020 — Last week’s approval of an industrial hemp pilot program has some cannabis farmers worried about the possibility of pollen drift, pesticides, and pests that specialize in Cannabaceae. And this week, the board agreed unanimously to make administrative revisions to the manual for the cannabis local equity program grant, which must be disbursed by August of 2021.

October 14, 2020 — The Board of Supervisors began hammering out directions for a new cannabis cultivation ordinance for Phase III, which they hope to roll out by April of 2021. This is not an amendment of the existing ordinance. It will be a standalone ordinance, which will get its own chapter in the county code and which, board members hope, will make it easier for the next batch of applicants to align with state regulations.

Rich Molinari, Director of Mendocino County's Animal Shelter, and veterinarian Charlotte Burns talk about how their jobs have changed during the coronavirus pandemic and fire evacuations.

Jim Culp interview Pastor Matt Davis of the Mendocino Presbyterian Church about his Holy Goats, who eat their way through landowners' pesky weeds and invasive species.