Mendo Local Weekly Roundup — July 25, 2026
Supervisors nix county road tax, the trail to Caspar Pond opens to the public, and deputies arrest three suspects connected to the murder of a Covelo mom
🏛️ Mendocino County
Supervisors Reject Permanent Road Sales Tax in Split Vote
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 24
Mendocino County supervisors voted 3-2 on July 21 against placing a permanent 1% road-repair sales tax on the November ballot, one vote short of the four needed to advance it. The measure would have raised about $5.5 million a year — far below the $220 million officials estimate is needed over the next decade to restore county roads.
Read more: https://www.mendolocal.news/p/supervisors-reject-permanent-road-tax
Grand Jury Faults County on Fire-Safe Rules
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 24
The Board of Supervisors appointed a two-member committee on July 21 to respond to a civil grand jury report criticizing its oversight of Planning and Building Services. A resident noted the county still has not fully implemented fire-safety regulations required under Public Resources Code Section 4290, an issue flagged in the prior year’s grand jury report.
Read more: https://www.mendolocal.news/p/grand-jury-faults-county-on-fire-safety-rules
Sheriff Warns Vacancy Rate Is Near 45%
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 24
Sheriff Matt Kendall told supervisors on July 21 that his department’s effective vacancy rate approaches 45% once employees on leave are counted. The board responded by unanimously funding five previously unfunded positions at an estimated cost of just over $1 million a year from the general fund.
Read more: https://www.mendolocal.news/p/sheriff-warns-vacancy-rate-is-near-45-percent
Mendocino County Missed $3 Billion in Taxable Property Value Over Five Years, Records Show
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 23
The county Assessor’s Office failed to timely assess roughly $3 billion in property value over tax years 2021 through 2025, delaying about $33 million a year in tax revenue, records show. Most was recovered through late corrections, but some assessments fell outside California’s four-year statute of limitations and could not be recouped.
Read more: https://www.mendolocal.news/p/mendocino-county-missed-3-billion
District 3 Candidate Eric Hart Lives in a House in District 3
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 23
District 3 supervisor candidate Eric Hart moved his primary residence from a District 4 cabin to a home on Williams Ranch Road inside District 3 in 2025, making him eligible to represent District 3 on the board of supervisors. County counsel declined to pause certification of the June 2 Primary Election in response to a resident’s complaint about his residency status.
Read more: https://www.mendolocal.news/p/d3-candidate-eric-hart-lives-in-d3
Six Months After State Audit, County Departments Report Uneven Progress on Reforms
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 22
Six months after the December 2025 state audit, Mendocino County departments reported mixed progress on required reforms, with two department heads submitting written updates but the Assessor’s office missing the deadline entirely. The state auditor has yet to verify the responses.
Read more: https://www.mendolocal.news/p/county-offers-updates-six-months-after-audit
🚒 Boonville
PG&E Crew Sparks Gowan Fire in Anderson Valley; Volunteers Stop It Quick
By Frank Hartzell, Mendocino Coast News · July 20
A PG&E crew accidentally ignited a grass fire in Anderson Valley when a hot bolt they were cutting fell into dry grass across from Don Gowan’s farm. Volunteer firefighters, including a father-and-son team, contained the blaze in under an hour using water and retardant.
Read more: https://mendocinocoast.news/your-monday-paper-7-20-26-willits-senior-housing-project-sells-for-10-8-million-what-happened-at-the-gowan-fire-stop-that-sticker-sticking/
🌲 Caspar
Caspar Pond Trail opens Saturday with help from grant and landowner
By Savana Robinson, The Mendocino Voice · July 21
The new Caspar Pond Trail opens to the public Saturday, July 25, made possible by a $55,000 grant from the Mendocino Coast Audubon Society and a public-access easement donated by landowner Michael St. John. The Mendocino Land Trust will maintain the birding trail, and a ribbon-cutting and informal bird walk are set for 11 a.m.
Read more: https://mendovoice.com/2026/07/caspar-pond-trail-opens-saturday-with-help-from-grant-and-landowner/
⛰️ Covelo
Father and Son Arrested in Killing of Covelo Mom; Teenage Brother Still Sought
By Elise Cox, MendoLocal.News · July 24
Two brothers are accused of fatally shooting 31-year-old Covelo mother Josepha Littlewolf Basurto at an illegal marijuana grow on July 9, and their father allegedly helped them flee. Authorities are still searching for the 17-year-old, who was not with the others when they were taken into custody.
Read more: https://www.mendolocal.news/p/father-and-son-arrested-in-covelo-homicide
🌊 Fort Bragg
Woman Swimming the Coast of California to Stop in Fort Bragg Sunday
By Justine Frederiksen, Ukiah Daily Journal · July 24
Long-distance swimmer Catherine Breed, who set out July 1 to swim all 900 miles of California’s coastline, will make her second of 10 planned stops at the Noyo Center in Fort Bragg on Sunday, July 26, weather permitting. A support vessel backing her swim pulled into Noyo Harbor on Thursday.
Read more: https://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/2026/07/24/woman-swimming-the-coast-of-california-to-stop-in-fort-bragg-sunday/ (Subscription to the Ukiah Daily Journal required)
What Will Tomorrow’s Redwood Forest Look Like?
By Mary Rose Kaczorowski, The Mendocino Voice · July 19
CAL FIRE has launched the Coastal Adaptive Management Experiment at Jackson Demonstration State Forest to test three strategies — resistance, resilience and transition — for helping coast redwoods adapt to climate change. Run with the University of Nevada, Reno, the study will monitor 245 plots across about 500 acres for at least 20 years.
Read more: https://mendovoice.com/2026/07/what-will-tomorrows-redwood-forest-look-like/
🛼 Gualala
Long-distance Skater Stops in Gualala
By David Torres, Independent Coast Observer · July 23
Eric Baldwin, 33, of Santee, is a little more than halfway through a journey from Vancouver to San Diego, having started skating on June 22. Baldwin, a hockey coach, is raising money to purchase hockey equipment for under-privileged children.
Read more: https://www.mendonoma.com (Subscription to the Independent Coast Observer required)
🦈 Mendocino
Mendocino Teacher Bitten by Shark Returns to Surf
By Savana Robinson, The Mendocino Voice · July 19
Mendocino High School English teacher James Eastman, who survived shark attack at Big River Beach in March, returned to surf the same spot in July after two surgeries and four months of recovery. A GoFundMe for his care raised $13,806, with surplus funds going to a nonprofit he and his wife created to place bleeding-control kits at high-traffic beaches.
Read more: https://mendovoice.com/2026/07/mendocino-teacher-bit-by-shark-returns-to-surf-same-spot-he-was-attacked/
💡 Point Arena
The Point Arena City Council Approves Three Coastal Development Permits
By Chelsea Randall, Independent Coast Observer · July 23
The Point Arena City Council approved three coastal development permits at its July 21 meeting, advancing upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment system, the Caltrans Main Street repaving and sidewalk replacement project, and the proposed Rockwall campground.
Read more: https://www.mendonoma.com (Subscription to the Independent Coast Observer required)
💧 Potter Valley
Federal regulators extend Potter Valley comment deadline to September
By Roger Coryell, The Mendocino Voice · July 24
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission pushed back the public comment deadline on PG&E’s Potter Valley Project decommissioning plan from July 24 to September 18, adding nearly two months for input.
Read more: https://mendovoice.com/2026/07/federal-regulators-extend-potter-valley-comment-deadline-to-september/
🏙️ Ukiah
City of Ukiah Responds to Concerns Regarding Flock Safety Cameras
By Justine Frederiksen, Ukiah Daily Journal · July 23
Ukiah residents have repeatedly pressed the City Council over its network of Flock Safety cameras that scan license plates at the city limits, with speakers at the July 15 meeting warning of mass surveillance. City officials have defended the cameras as a net public-safety benefit.
Read more: https://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/2026/07/23/city-of-ukiah-responds-to-concerns-regarding-flock-safety-cameras/ (Subscription to the Ukiah Daily Journal required)
Ukiah Gigabit Fiber Project Progresses to Activation Phase
By Justine Frederiksen, Ukiah Daily Journal · July 21
Ukiah’s high-speed fiber project began activating service in July, with crews having installed nearly 50,000 linear feet of fiber — about 45% of Phase 1 — and 85% of underground construction complete. The network aims to improve connectivity for city facilities and hundreds of previously “unserved” households.
Read more: https://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/2026/07/21/ukiah-gigabit-fiber-project-progresses-to-activation-phase/ (Subscription to the Ukiah Daily Journal required)
🚂 Willits
Grocery Outlet Donates Food to Willits Community Services
By Willits Weekly · July 23
Grocery Outlet donated nine pallets of food to the Willits Food Bank even as the store remained closed for repairs caused by the earthquake. “The good news is we’ve got a lot of good stuff going over to the Food Bank, the bad news is we’re still a few weeks away [from reopening],” said David McKinney of the Willits Grocery Outlet.
Read more: https://www.willitsweekly.com
Willits Senior Housing project sells for $10.8 million
By Frank Hartzell, Mendocino Coast News · July 20
Redwood Meadows Senior Apartments, a roughly 140-resident complex for people over 55 at 1475 Baechtel Road in Willits, sold for $10.8 million on June 18, with the deal recorded the following week. Echelon Properties LLC bought the property from firms tied to Theodore Caldwell.
Read more: https://mendocinocoast.news/your-monday-paper-7-20-26-willits-senior-housing-project-sells-for-10-8-million-what-happened-at-the-gowan-fire-stop-that-sticker-sticking/
🐻 CalMatters
California Can’t Replant Its Forests as Fast as Wildfires Are Destroying Them
By Rachel Becker, CalMatters · July 24
High-severity wildfires have burned 2.3 million acres of California forestland over the past 25 years, and projections show half the state’s forest area could disappear by 2071 as replanting falls behind. Closing the gap would require expanding seed-bank capacity by roughly 300% and rebuilding a badly depleted federal reforestation workforce.
Read more: https://calmatters.org/environment/wildfires/2026/07/wildfires-california-forest-reforestation-seed/
California weighs bringing back the grizzly bear, a century after it vanished
By Ryan Sabalow, CalMatters · July 23
Democrats are advancing Senate Bill 1305 to study whether California should reintroduce grizzly bears, extinct in the state since the 1920s. At least 40 groups including tribes and environmental advocates back the measure, while ranchers, rural communities and Republicans oppose it, citing existing predator conflicts and the state’s capacity to manage another apex predator.
Read more: https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/07/california-grizzly-bear-reintroduction-bill/