{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"KZYX News","title":"Measure B Committee takes up Old Howard Hospital again, drops it","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":389,"description":"Jan 29, 2021 — A renewed interest in using the old Howard Hospital in Willits as a psychiatric health facility revived community outcry and intimations of NIMBYism.\r\nThe half-cent mental health sales tax enacted by Measure B has been in effect for about three of its five years. So far, a little over twenty one and a half million dollars have been collected. Some of the money has been used to purchase a training center in Redwood Valley and hire a contractor to remodel it. The architect Nacht and Lewis, which is also designing a new jail for the county, is almost finished with architectural plans for a Crisis Residential Treatment facility in Ukiah. \r\nThe sheriff and the Ukiah Police Department are recruiting mental health workers to accompany law enforcement on calls involving psychiatric crises.\r\nBut specialists to run the facilities that were the original goal of the measure have not been identified. Negotiations with a potential operator for the Ukiah facility are underway, and there’s a request for proposals from contractors to run a puff.\r\n\r\nWhen Old Howard Hospital was first considered as a site for the puff, the city was not enthusiastic about the idea. The Willits City Council passed an ordinance with recitals noting that the county had failed to provide the city any information about the project; that the Council believed the building does not conform to seismic and safety standards; and that the proposed use of the site does not comply with the city’s zoning requirements. The upshot of the ordinance was essentially a public records act request to the county, enfolded in a declaration of the city’s desire to be involved and informed in the decision-making process about the use of the property.\r\nBut at this week’s meeting of the Measure B Citizens Oversight Committee, a sub-committee tasked with taking up the recommendations of a $30,000 report on how it should proceed brought up the issue again. The Kemper report, which was commissioned early in the...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/xZpAumwbhFUpJUYcwaQ1-q6snzOyqAm13l7cW6AWPCM/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mMzkz/NjAwNjc2OWMyZmFk/YWY2YTdmYjI5M2Mz/YWMxNy5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}