Sarah Reith

The Board of Supervisors wants to raise the transient occupancy tax on short term rentals by 2% to bring caregivers’ wages up to $20 an hour. They also agreed to research how to pay all county workers a livable wage, which, according to the MIT living wage calculator, is $23 an hour for a single adult living in Mendocino County.

The outcome of tight races is still uncertain as the ballot count continues.

The California Coastal Commission is swinging hard on a federal declaration that the Mendocino Railway’s plans to rebuild a collapsed tunnel and rehabilitate the line between Willits and Fort Bragg are exempt from environmental review. At a hearing on Thursday, March 14, the Commission will discuss a letter it plans to convey to the US Department of Transportation, objecting strongly to a process it calls “highly unusual (and) not provided for under the regulations” that govern the management of coastal zones.

The city of Ukiah is poised to join others in calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. At its regular March 6 meeting, the council voted 3-1 with Mayor Josefina Duenas abstaining and Council Member Doug Crane opposing a motion to bring the resolution forward at a future meeting. Crane said he was not necessarily opposed to agendizing the resolution, but he wanted to first have a discussion about the council’s policy of voting on things that do not come directly under the local body’s purview.

In what one Ukiah Valley water leader calls “the next big era of major water decisions,” the City of Ukiah has joined up with Redwood Valley and the Millview water district to form a new water authority. The aim is to qualify for state infrastructure grants to create a more reliable water supply for small communities. The new authority has around 8500 to 9000 water users, with about half of them in the city of Ukiah. That’s pretty small by state standards, but First District Supervisor Glenn McGourty, who is retiring this year, thinks the water authority will help smaller districts comply with ever-increasing state requirements.

Voter turnout at 14% shortly after midnight on Super Tuesday.

Today is the last day to vote in the presidential primary election, which includes supervisors races in the first, second, and fourth districts. It also includes Measure R, renewal of the abandoned vehicle abatement program. That will result in a one dollar fee for every vehicle registered to an owner with an address in the county. There will be an additional two or maybe three dollars for certain commercial vehicles, depending on whether the impartial analysis or the text of the ballot measure is correct. Presumably, if it passes, whatever the fee is will be renewed for another ten years.

A firefighter was late to the fire at the Leggett post office on Friday night — because he rolled his truck on the way to fight the blaze.22-year-old Brian Lewis caught a ride from the crash site to the fire, where he helped with the mopping-up effort. He’s borrowing a friend’s vehicle until he can replace the one that was most likely totaled after he hit a patch of hail.Snow fell even at lower elevations over the weekend, and as of Sunday afternoon, Highway 101 at the top of the grade was down to one lane from the Haehl Creek bridge to Highway 20, due to snow. And snow accumulated on 175 between Hopland and LakeportThe Leggett Valley Fire Department reported that at around 5:40 pm on Friday night, lightning struck a large redwood tree just outside the post office. “The tree was shattered and fell through the building,” according to a Facebook post by the department. Half an hour later, the post office was fully engulfed. It was a total loss, but the local market was saved.The seven-member Leggett Volunteer Fire Department did have help from the neighbors. Caltrans personnel and firefighters from Piercy, Laytonville, and CalFire assisted at the scene.As for Lewis, he spent Sunday morning driving around in a borrowed truck to make sure the neighbors were okay.Friends have set up a Gofundme account to help Lewis replace his truck. It’s up to a little over half of the $10,000 goal as of Monday.

Seven inmates appear to have overdosed on narcotics at the Mendocino County at jail this afternoon. Sheriff Matt Kendall reported that five of them were taken to the hospital, and one of them passed away. Kendall spoke to kzyx late in the afternoon on March first.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on February 27 to offer a hiring bonus to entice an Ag Commissioner to head up the ag department. The county has been without an ag commissioner since 2022. This puts farmers and customers of any business that uses scales or other measuring devices at a disadvantage, because the Ag Commissioner also serves as the sealer of weights and measures.