February 11 — At their February 5 meeting, the Board of Supervisors agreed to use Measure B funds to look into developing three different kinds of psychiatric facilities, including the possibility of buying property to build them.
Measure B is the 2017 voter initiative to raise the county sales tax by a half cent for five years to fund mental health services. An 11-member citizens oversight committee is charged with making recommendations to the Board of Supervisors about how to spend that money, which is now more than four and a half million dollars. Sheriff Tom Allman told the board that about $700,000 a month is coming into the fund.
With the board’s go-ahead, it’s up to the committee to find out what it would take to get facilities for crisis stabilization, crisis residential and 24-hour psychiatric treatment facilities off the ground in Mendocino County.
Measure B funds are the only local public monies that are specifically allocated to fund mental health care. All other funding for this purpose comes from state and federal sources.
In another item, the board approved an application for a little over two million dollars in Community Development Block Grants, or CDBG, for three non-profits building affordable housing and furthering the local economy.
Rural Communities Housing and Development Corporation (RCHDC), the non-profit developer, would use their portion of the money ($1,420,931) to build roads, sidewalks, curbs and gutters for the first phase of Orr Creek Commons, an affordable housing complex planned for the corners of Bush and Orr streets just outside Ukiah city limits. If all goes according to plan, this will be an 80-unit complex. But this particular grant, if won, will be used only for the infrastructure supporting the first forty units. The county and RCHDC are working to secure funding from several sources, many of which have slightly different requirements and deadlines.
The Economic Development and Financing Corporation wants $75,000 to figure out the best way to bring broadband to low and moderate income neighborhoods. It’s the next step towards implementing the county’s digital infrastructure plan. And Mary Anne Petrillo, CEO of West Company, told the board she'd use the $500,000 to provide training to small-scale entrepreneurs in the unincorporated areas of the county.
A recent economic summit emphasized the importance of small local businesses to the region’s economy. CDBG is a federal program, administered by the state on behalf of rural jurisdictions. Applicants should find out by the summer if they won any funding.