FireWise Gathering: Sept. 11 in Soquel

COMMUNITY NEWS FireWise Gathering: Sept. 11 in Soquel

Worried about wildfires? Learn how to protect your homes, keep your fire insurance, and get advice on emergency plans.

Susan Tatsui-D’Arcy will host an informational session for North Rodeo Gulch FireWise USA from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept 11, at 2390 North Rodeo Gulch Road, Soquel. Meet and greet starts at 9:30 a.m. with bagels and spreads.

The agenda for the first hour will be: First District Supervisor Manu Koenig; North Rodeo Gulch 3-year plan (Susan TatsuiD’Arcy; FireWise leader); address signs (Central Deputy Fire Marshal Marco Mack); Ham/MURS radio communication (Dawn Mackey, Bonny Doon community coordinator); Community Emergency Response Team (Rosemary Anderson, deputy director for CERT Auxiliary); CODE Red (Deputy Fire Marshal Marco Mack; Go Bags (Susan Tatsui-D’Arcy).

The agenda for the second hour will be: Home hardening (Tony Akin, Central Fire defensible space/ wildland fire hazard specialist); limbing trees and chipping (Matt Abernathy, Resource Conservation District); products NOT to use (Anush Anand, Replace Vinyl, Save Your House); innovative products and solutions: F.A.C.E. fire-activated canister extinguisher funded in one day on Kickstarter (Arul Mathur, CEO and inventor) and FireFree. com; fire insurance and wildfire defense systems (Cindy Weigelt, State Farm), ending with Q&A.

North Rodeo Gulch FireWise 3-Year Plan

Year One: Address signs on

Arul Mathur homes and driveways; home

Inventor of a fire- hardening 5 feet around houses activated extinguisher and structures; establish micro communities with leaders; where to put a fire break (CalFire & Central/Aptos Fire); work with neighbors to clear 10 feet on your private road.

Year Two: Add road signage and improve access on narrow private roads; promote guidance to voluntarily improve driveway access and water supply; remove dead and dying fuels within 30 feet of homes & structures; coordinate with CalFire & Central Fire to improve fire breaks; reduce hazardous vegetation within 10 feet on your private road; all micro community leaders (MURS to ham).

Year Three: Remove dead and dying fuels within 100 feet of homes & structures; work with neighbors to clear 10 feet on your private road; all micro community leaders CERT certified; voluntarily improve driveway access and water supply; continue coordinating with CalFire & Central Fire to improve fire breaks. n

“COVID Update” from page 8

Hours are Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. to 6:45 p.m., with closures from 11 a.m.noon and 4-5 p.m.

Walk-ins will be accommodated if possible, but to guarantee your test, make an appointment at lhi.care/covidtesting/.

On Sept. 1, a second lane was added at the Ramsay Park OptumServe testing site in Watsonville, boosting daily testing capacity to 396.

Hours are Wednesday-Sunday from 7 a.m. to 6:45 p.m., and closed from 11 a.m.noon and 4-5 p.m. Make an appointments at https://lhi.care/covidtesting/

Starting Sept. 10, County Public Health will open a mobile testing bus which can handle 84 tests per day, at Community Bridges’ Mountain Community Resource Center in Felton. Hours will be Friday-Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for the foreseeable future.

For information on rapid-turnaround tests see www.santacruzhealth.org/ coronavirus under “Get Tested” link. Some sites may charge a fee.

For local information on COVID-19, call (831) 454-4242 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The OptumServe mass vaccination site at 250 Main St., Watsonville, which closed Aug. 29 to transfer operations to County Public Health, will reopen Thursday, Sept. 9, and The site wprovide Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Hours will be Thursdays, 9 a.m. –1 p.m., Fridays, 2–6 p.m., Saturdays, 9 a.m. –1 p.m. and Sundays, 2–6 p.m.

Once reopened, appointments may be made at www.MyTurn.ca.gov.Walk-ins will be accommodated when possible.

For other vaccine locations, see www. santacruzhealth.org/coronavirusvaccine

Indoor Mask Mandate

On Aug. 21, the Santa Cruz County Health Officer mandate for face coverings to be worn indoors regardless of vaccination status took effect.

“While vaccination remains the best and most effective tool in preventing COVID-19, the Delta variant spreads quickly among the unvaccinated and may even be passed between vaccinated persons, although their symptoms are usually mild, said Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel. “Face coverings will provide added protection until everyone is able to be vaccinated, especially children.”

The order is to sunset once community transmission levels return to “moderate” (Yellow level), as determined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. See https://covid.cdc.gov/ covid-data-tracker/#county-view).

San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties had already ordered face coverings indoors to stop the spread.

The state reported 65,430 COVID-19 deaths, a number that has been rising, with 80 percent of Californians receiving at least one dose of vaccine and 22.6 million fully vaccinated.

The indoor mask mandate applies to all businesses and governmental entities, which must require employees to wear masks and post signs that are clearly visible and easy-to-read at all entry points for indoor settings informing the public.

The state’s mandate for full vaccination or weekly testing of all teachers and support staff is to be fully implemented by Oct. 15.

In a case highlighted by the federal Centers for Disease Control, an unvaccinated Marin County elementary school teacher tested positive in May, with 22 of the 24 students, all ineligible for vaccine, getting positive test results.

For those in the two rows seated closest to the teacher’s desk, eight of 10 were positive compared to four of 14 in the three back rows. The outbreak “highlights the importance of vaccinating school staff members who are in close indoor contact with children ineligible for vaccination as schools reopen,” according to health officials who investigated.

Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Education Faris Sabbah said all unvaccinated school employees are being tested at least weekly in compliance with the recent statewide order. n

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•••

COVID Cases by Town

As of Aug. 30 Aptos: 988 • Ben Lomond: 192

Boulder Creek: 256 • Capitola: 542 Felton: 214 • Freedom: 1,058

Santa Cruz: 4,809 • Scotts Valley: 578 Soquel: 444 • Watsonville: 8,626 Unincorporated: 317 Under investigation: 316 Total: 18,340 ••• County COVID Deaths: 210 As of Aug. 30 Age 90 and up: 56 • 80 to 89: 63 • 70 to 79: 46 60 to 69: 27 • 50 to 59: 5 • 40 to 49: 8 30 to 39: 5 Race/Ethnicity

White: 116 • Latinx: 75 • Asian: 15 Black: 1 • Amer. Indian/Alaskan Native: 1 Unknown: 2 Underlying Conditions Yes: 164 • No: 46 Gender Male: 105 • Female: 105

Source: Santa Cruz County Public Health