BREAKING NEWS

Broadband

The Westport MAC has advocated for broadband in its geographic region and will continue to explore grants and other options for bringing this service to residents of the northern Mendocino coast. Please refer to this article by Freriks for additional information about local consortiums that the WMAC is cooperating with to achieve this objective.

National Ocean Policy

Under the direction of the National Ocean Commission promoted by President Obama, a National Policy is being developed to integrate management of federal and state offshore waters, as well as terrestrial policies that impact the ocean. State waters extend 3 miles offshore, while federal waters encompass the 3-200 mile zone. Nine principles have been proposed to guide the effert and a local meeting will be held in San Francisco June 30 to take initial input. Visit the NOP web site for additional information. Strategic Action Plan Outlines were published on June 2, 2011 to guide the policy development process. Regional planning will occur later under the direction of regional committees that have not yet been organized.

Highway 1 Safety Issues

Public concern has been expressed to the WMAC on several occasions about safety on Highway due to the mixture of large vehicles (trucks, RVs), bicycles, narrow roads, slow moving traffic, and related matters. The WMAC commented on this issue to the Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG) before it was granted authority to comment directly to Caltrans. MCOG prepared a Response on 1-29-2011 and arranged a meeting among MCOG, Caltrans and the WMAC. Notes on that 5-5-2011 meeting were taken by the WMAC to document outcomes. Caltrans also supplied Highway 1 accident data. Another joint meeting is planned for the Fall of 2011 after the Westport Coastal Trail Plan is finalized and Caltrans completes some additional evaluation of issues raised by the WMAC.