Pre-meeting
City Council 6:30 PM Wednesday
Country roses
Basic advice: stop and smell flowers.
Monday, May 23, 2022
NEWSBOY contents
City business
Goodbye Jack Frost?
Presidential quote
A break from County gov’t this edition! Read on to find your briefing of what is happening this week at the City of Willits.
City business
WHAT: Willits City Council
WHEN: Wednesday at 6:30 PM
WHERE: https://meet.goto.com/511816717 or 1 (224) 501-3412 Code: 511-816-717
Looks like public art continues to win.
Council members will consider a formal policy for handling the business of accepting public art proposals.
If approved, the policy provides an application process and clarifies some other business pertaining to management of the art itself.
The key components of the policy include the following:
• A committee (Art in Public Spaces Committee) responsible to review proposed artwork against the selection criteria (Section #5.0). The committee consists of three members of the public appointed by the Council. The committee will provide their recommendation to the Council via a report including any comments submitted during a thirty-day, public viewing period (Section #6.0).
• Prohibits any artwork exceeding $50,000 in value (Section #3.0). • Permissible locations for artwork (Section #4.0). • City staff has the responsibility to maintain the donated artwork. The Council has the discretion to assigned maintenance of loaned artwork to the lender (Section #7.0).
• The removal of artwork (Section #8.0).--City of Willits
This proposed policy shows a willingness to have more art around town.
Street medians, public trails and City Hall, for example, are among the numerous places where the city would now be willing to display art.
A letter urging the county to continue funding the County Museum is also on the agenda.
County budget hearings happen in June and as far back as May 3 the county was speaking publicly about closing museum doors.
It looks as though the city and Trout Unlimited will join forces on a new program to help the fish with water released from the city’s reservoirs on Davis Creek.
This MOU sets forth a framework for developing and implementing a voluntary project for the release of up to 75 acre-feet of water from Morris Lake into Davis Creek between the months of June and October for the years 2022-2025. The goals of this project are:
a. To increase streamflow downstream of Morris Reservoir to improve habitat and survival conditions for rearing salmonids during the dry seasons of 2022-2025.
b. To determine how far downstream, and how late into the year, such instream benefits can be maintained.
c. To monitor and document the instream benefits of the project
d. To explore the feasibility of a potential longer-term arrangement in which the City would make future releases of water on an annual basis, potentially supported by funding from state, federal, and/ or private sources.--City of Willits
A report from Finance Director Manuel Orozco asks council members to add a full-time employee who can handle payroll duties.
Starting salary for the position would be $43,701 to $53,119 annually. Human Resources does City Hall payroll at the moment.
By assigning payroll to Finance, the Department can assume a greater involvement on a variety of functions dependent on the completion of payroll duties such as project tracking for staff costs, grant cost accounting, cost allocation, fund balance and cost recovery opportunities.--City of Willits
Council members will be asked to approve parameters of the Fiscal Year 22-23 Streets and Roads Program.
The city expects about $104, 391 in state funding for this endeavor. But the report from the city also says that amount could decrease–
Over the last several years, the City has not met the MOE (Maintenance of Effort) requirement of a minimum expenditure amount of $291,473.67 for street maintenance from the General Fund. It is anticipated that at some point the California Transportation Commission (CTC) may reduce the City’s funding from this program if the MOE continues to not be met.--City of Willits
Saying goodbye to Jack Frost
Is it safe to plant your garden? NEWSBOY cannot recommend trying to beat Jack Frost, but it is May 23rd!
Do as you see fit, but I have gardened steadily in the past and last week I was saying to wait another week for when it truly feels warm.
On the frost question, let’s look at the local online weather stations to see how cold the nights are.
-Zack Cinek
WEATHER: Goodbye Jack Frost?
Lowest temperatures—
May 16 to May 22 from local “online” weather stations.
*highest **lowest
Station…..Temperature
South Main…..38
Brooktrails…..40
Northbrook…..37
South Willits…..41
ValleyView…..41
Ridgewood FSC…..41
Tranquility…..37
Howard Forest…..39
Pine Mountain…..39
High Horse…..33**(tie)
Valleyview Willits…..39
The Shop…..37
WVF Weather…..33**(tie)
Canyon Rd…..40
Camp and Sons…..42*
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