Mardi Boettcher's Blog

This event is a good example of the unique character of Mendocino County and it’s residents: 

Global Day of Climate Action celebrated in Willits By JAY GORDON
Updated: 10/27/2009 02:12:10 PM PDT
Special for the Ukiah Daily Journal

The city of Willits is a walkable community. It’s easy for residents and visitors to explore the town on their own or as part of an organized group.

Painted footprints at intersections guide the curious around downtown and the nearby areas. This includes locally owned shops, charming cottages, public parks, museums, art galleries and a state of the art skatepark for kids.

Most walks begin at J D Redhouse mercantile, not simply because it is in the center of town but also because it’s a place to fortify yourself with pastries and specialty coffees before your walk — and snacks and ice cream afterward.

Head north toward Commercial Street, where painted footprints on the sidewalk will direct you to turn left and begin whatever part of the 5-mile excursion suits your interests and energy level. There are organized walks about four times a year.  This is a great way to meet local people and other visitors who share your enthusiasm for walking.

Normally, a hundred or so walkers participate. However, attendance for the Sunday, Oct. 24 event was sizable since it was in conjunction with the Global Day of Climate Action. Groups around the world planned activities for this day to focus on ways to protect the planet by reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

At the time walk organizer Jed Diamond said, “The goal is to have 350 walkers to represent the 350 parts per million that scientists, climate experts, and many national governments say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We are now almost at 390. Our walk will be one of thousands of events going on throughout the world (including one in Laytonville) on Oct. 24 co-sponsored by the group 350.org.”  The final tally of walkers in Willits of Oct. 24 was 377.  Impressive for a town of 5,000 people. 
There were  free cotton T-shirts for the first 350 people to sign in and take the walk. The T-shirts have a net zero carbon footprint and are made from 69 percent pre-consumer recycled cotton.

The local organization spearheading the walks is WHAT (Willits Healthy Action Team).  Cofounder Jed Diamond is a longtime resident, perhaps best known for his seminal best-selling books on men’s issues, including Male Menopause and The Irritable Male Syndrome.  Contact Jed for more information about future walks.  Phone 459-5505 or e-mail jed@MenAlive.com.

Ever wonder what Mendocino County is up to?

Discover www.gomendo.org  An Insider’s Guide to County Promotional Activities.

Check out the new and improved www.gomendo.org.  An in-county website designed to keep the community abreast of Visit Mendocino County activities and updates. 
 
Look at meeting agendas & minutes, quarterly reports on the marketing plan, communicate with staff, meet the current board of directors, check out the visitors guide and much more…
 
 goMendo.org site and learn about all that is happening to promote our county, communities and businesses.  Great things are happening and we want you to know about it!
 
Thanks to Scott Schneider
President & CEO
Visit Mendocino County, Inc.
T 707.964.9010 | F 866.836.7557 | E scott@gomendo.com

The Ukiah Daily Journal has been doing a great series about people in our local government.   I know this information will be interesting to local residents as well as those of you who may be considering relocating here.  Enjoy!

“Prior to becoming Ukiah’s city manager in May of 2008, Jane Chambers received her bachelor of arts degree from Cal State Northridge and her master of arts degree from UCLA and worked for city governments in California and Minnesota. She is the chief executive officer of a multifaceted and multimillion dollar organization that provides full services for the city of Ukiah. She oversees the police, fire, parks and public works, water, sewer and electrical and the internal support services that include resources, finance and information.

It is her job to insure the decisions of the City Council become a reality by working with her seven member executive team to manage the administrative components of research, planning and operational procedures to reach the determined goals. She enjoys working with both City Council members and department heads and believes they all share a common vision in wisely using resources to create a community that meets the needs of its residents. She supervises 174 full time employees and earns $150,000 per year.

The financial downturn for the city has been her greatest challenge. The city lost more than $1,700,000 in the last year-and-a-half because of decreased income from sales taxes, property taxes and other revenues. The revenue from the ‘08-’09 budget looked more like that of ‘05-’06 and she said residents can expect the same if not worse for the next two years.

In reorganizing to keep within budget restrictions, most services have been protected and offices will remain open five days a week. However, 22 full-time positions have been eliminated, including the front desk receptionist position, resulting in less help for people seeking services from other agencies and a longer wait time for people requesting certain information.

Other current challenges include water availability, water usage, upgrade of utilities and an increasing demand for police and fire services with a significant decrease in revenue. Communication has become more difficult as inadequate resources lead to fewer personnel, limiting effective communication between the city government and residents, Chambers said, adding that it is becoming more and more challenging to stay connected in a meaningful way to help people understand the complexities of local government.

She was happy to report that the three-year wastewater treatment plant project, the largest project ever undertaken by the city, was completed on time and on budget.”

The ‘Ukiah Gleaners’, a project of the Mendocino Environmental Center doing its great work again this fall.  Many gardens have been visited and local people have signed up to help picking the fruitful bounty of Ukiah.  Apples, pears, grapes, figs and plums, which otherwise may have gone to waste, have all been picked and sent to the Food Bank, Plowshares and the Ukiah Senior Center.

This is an inspiring example of what makes the Ukiah Valley community so special.  There is a widespread commitment to taking care of the members of the communtiy and to enjoying the beauty and bounty our natural resources.

The biggest gleaning events were two pickings at the Alex Thomas Orchards on Perkins Street.  More than 100 people turned up for the two events which more than 1,500 pounds of pears to the food bank.

Hannah Bird, co-coordinator of the Ukiah Gleaners said, “They were such lovely events with young and old present to do the picking.  One ‘gleaner’ in particular came up to tell me that not only did he think it was a great idea, but he also felt that he was actually part of something’.  The sense of community spirit really glowed.  I want to thank the Thomas family for allowing us to pick these delicious pears, it was sad to think these orchards may not be here in the future.”

The final gleanings of the season are set to take place over the next few weeks.  To get involved call Hannah at 391-0044 or e-mail  hannah.bird at gmail.com

Visit Mendocino County, Inc., in partnership with Sunset Magazine, are offering a special advertising opportunity in the October issue of Sunset Magazine.
The advertisements in the magazine will invite Sunset readers to learn about and visit destinations in Mendocino County.  Sunset will offers a great editorial and it will be a great opportunity to \grow Businesses here!

Visit Mendocino County and Sunset Magazine have agreed to publish a Full-Page, 4-Color Co-Op Ad in the October Northern California Travel Planner.

Keep and eye out for it!

Thanks to Visit Mendocino County!  Great work!

Check out their website at www.gomendo.com

For those of us who participated in the Charrette process to envision and plan the future of the downtown area, this is exciting news.  See: http://www.hallalminana.com/projects/downtown-ukiah/downtown-ukiah.html   The updated draft of the Downtown Zoning Code (form based code) will be reviewed by Planning Commission in a series of public workshops that will be held at the regularly scheduled Planning Commission meetings.  At each workshop, specific sections of the draft Downtown Zoning Code (DZC) will be reviewed.  The notice for the first workshop which will be held on July 8^th  is attached. The notice includes the draft schedule that identifies the sections to be reviewed at each workshop.  workshop-notice-with-boundary-map-7-8-2009

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me or you can go to http://www.cityofukiah.com/pageserver/?page=hot_topics 

As of July 1st, the Mendocino County Lodging Association (MCLA) in partnership with the Mendocino County Promotional Alliance (MCPA) will be pooling their resources under the Visit Mendocino County organization to better promote and market the County.

This is a giant leap forward and much time, dedication, and energy have been devoted to getting to this point.  The Visit Mendocino County team will function as the county’s official Tourism Bureau, and is focused on growing visitors in order to increase the economic impact of travel in the County. From visitor guides to the County website to working with members and businesses, the Visit Mendocino County team will direct and implement the entire marketing campaign.

Visit their great website:  www.gomendo.com  and see all the community information there.

Great news for the long-awaited Skate Park project!

The Ukiah Planning Commission has approved a site development permit for the Skate Parks new location at Low Gap Park between the tennis courts and the Ukiah Player Theater.

The skate park was foremerly scheduled to be constructed on a parcel on Leslie Street, but there were issues with soil remediation.

The Skate Park Committee has raised more than $789,481 with fundraisers and grants.  The 20,000 sq. ft. design is ready to go out to bid, and the estimated cost to complete Phase 1 is $998,000.  With just $208,519, they can break ground. The intention is to start building this year. 

This project is going to be such an asset to our community and I’m very grateful to see it finally getting underway.  I think that once it starts to move forward in a tangible way, people will be more likely to help by contributing money to finish it.  Kudos to everyone who has held the vision and worked so diligently to make it happen.

The California Association of Realtors has reminded me that Installing faucet aerators and low-flow shower heads will cut water heating costs by 50 percent and save up to $300 per year.

It occurred to me that even more important for the Ukiah Valley, is the savings on water itself.  Mill View Water District folks have been given limits for consumption and are really watching their usage now.  The city of Ukiah has not come up with limits yet but we have all been asked to conserve.  I read in the Ukiah Daily Journal that the water level in Lake Mendocino is up due to our spring rains last month so that is some good news.

With everyone’s cooperation and our renowned community spirit, we will get through this drought situation this just fine.