February 24, 2021 — The Board of Supervisors approved a $200,000 increase to a contract with an armed guard service to monitor people in quarantine at hotels or Whitmore Lane, the county-owned quarantine facility just outside Ukiah city limits.
The outbreak at Mountain View, a long-term care home in Ukiah, is up to 23 cases, with two people now deceased. Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren said the outbreak grew rapidly during the full week it took for a positive staff member’s test result to get back from a lab in Texas.
The eligible age for people to get the vaccine in the county has been lowered to 65, and starting in mid-March, people 16 and older with certain health conditions or disabilities will also be eligible.
And, in what CEO Carmel Angelo called the county’s last shot at trying to purchase Old Howard Hospital, the county submitted a three-month Memorandum of Understanding to the Howard Hospital Foundation, asking it to hold off on selling the property to another buyer for that length of time. When the question of whether to use the property as a psychiatric health facility came before the Measure B Citizens Oversight Commission last month, the commission decided to turn the matter over to ad hoc committees from the Board of Supervisors and the Willits City Council. There will be a virtual town hall on the subject at 4pm on Sunday, March 7.
Angelo also asked the board to create a five-year strategic plan by the end of the year, in preparation for her planned retirement in the fall of 2022. Her priorities are enhancing planning and building services, strategically investing the $22 million settlement from PG&E, and an organizational review, including whether the county should go back to a CAO model, or continue with the CEO model.