Beautiful valley
Today is the 5th day of Spring!
Overcast skies and no oak leaves in the valley, but trees have leafed out on the Ridgewood grade, for instance.
It’s still t-shirt weather this afternoon and maybe cool enough for long sleeves in the shade.
Thursday, March 24, 2022
NEWSBOY contents
Willits post-meeting
Birds, birds and squirrels
Gov’t Calendar
Presidential quote
Willits
Post-meeting report
Willits city council met last night.
Council members renewed remote meetings for another 30-days.
It sounds like the city will not move to a hybrid style meeting held in person that would integrate in-person and remote attendance.
“We do not want to do a hybrid, we looked into it and it is expensive,” City Manager Brian Bender said.
Councilmember Madge Strong and Vice Mayor Greta Kanne stated they were hesitant to return to full-on in person meetings.
REACH, the air ambulance provider that flies from the Willits Airport will continue on with plans to build a private hangar to support their helicopter.
A revised tobacco ordinance that would include a flavored tobacco ban is in the works.
At the moment, City Hall is waiting to see what Mendocino County Board of Supervisors approves when it considers a similar change to county regulations.
The city feels that a document in-step with the county is best for purposes of enforcing tobacco regulations.
“We really depend on the county to be the arm of enforcement,” Mayor Saprina Rodriguez said.
Budget amendments presented by Finance Director Manuel Orozco were approved.
Strong asked Orozco about the annualized cost of splitting the positions of city clerk and assistant city manager positions.
Orozco stated that the number was about $150,000.
Council members approved the division of responsibility and a new assistant city manager job description at their last meeting.
Phase 1 of a project to remake Blosser Lane will go out to bid soon.
The project is estimated at about $900,000.
A rough driving surface will soon be no more on a busy street that serves an elementary school and Sherwood Valley Band of Pomo Indians.
Traffic will be slowed near the school with construction of a chicane, and the city is in talks with the Skunk Train to make the railroad crossing ADA compliant.
“The sidewalk will continue the full length of the project on the east side,” Project Manager Jeremy Ronco said.
—See NEWSBOY pre-meeting coverage for more information on these items.
Birds, birds and squirrels
The weather these days–sunny, moist soil and birds of all species everywhere.
Just the other day I listened to two Barred owls singing in the clear crisp night air.
You can tell them by the way they call. Their voice is different from the Spotted owl and their markings are easy to tell apart with obvious bars or spots, respectively.
Never before had I heard them sing together almost like the way that robins sing in the mornings of late spring.
Not a singular call, but a back and forth exchange of owl song, echoing around the nearby forested mountain slopes.
It was out-of-this-world. Was I listening to owls or an extraterrestrial being?
We all have our own ecosystems be it a neighborhood in town or a forested place farther out of town.
In the forested areas many birds have been active in recent days.
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