Siskiyou County

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that work to dismantle four dams on the Klamath River is complete, opening the way to restoring the river to its natural state.

All firefighters and ambulance workers were laid off, effective February, in the Plumas County community of Chester. Also, a new CUSD policy change has prohibited the use of campus facilities for non-school groups until after 6 p.m. on weekdays. This means some local organizations have not been able to serve as many students as they once did, and today the Butte County Board of Supervisors will look at the results of a polling and research campaign designed to find out if residents would approve of a tax increase to fund county libraries and rural fire stations.

Butte County supervisors are looking at allowing disaster and drought areas to use delivered or hauled water kept in storage tanks more permanently. Also, Siskiyou County supervisors recently voted to eliminate costly public records fees, and the California Farm Bureau has elected its first woman president and she lives in Orland.

Governor Gavin Newsom this month declared another state of emergency for mudslides and flash flooding in Siskiyou County. Those floods were particularly large and fast in the burn scar of the McKinney Fire.

The town of Paradise is getting new road signs that tell people which evacuation zones they’re driving through. Also, California State University trustees voted yesterday to approve a proposal to increase tuition by 6% annually over the next five years, and Shasta County supervisors will discuss suing California if Newsom signs a measure passed by the legislature last week that would ban hand-counting ballots in most elections.

A month after forcibly removing unhoused people from a large encampment at Depot Park, the city of Chico issued notices of enforcement to those camping along sections of Big Chico Creek and the Lindo Channel. Also, a major sweep of 24 unlicensed grows in Siskiyou County netted more than 8,000 pounds of marijuana with a street value exceeding $68 million earlier this summer, and Cal Fire will conduct a controlled burn today in Redding, Igo and Cottonwood.

At least one person has been confirmed dead in the Head Fire burning in the Klamath National Forest.

The Head Fire continues to prompt evacuations around Seiad Valley. Also, a health advisory was issued in Siskiyou County due to unhealthy air quality from the fires, and two years after the Dixie Fire six new homes are under construction in Plumas County.

Twenty fires are continuing to burn in the Klamath National Forest in Siskiyou County after a lightning storm Tuesday.

Butte County announced its first case of West Nile Virus this year, which is one of eight cases of the virus in the state so far. Also, this morning the city of Chico is scheduled to clear half of a large homeless encampment at Depot Park, and kids are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat days, which are expected to increase in many North State communities.