Community The CRIME ROUNDUP sports digest Commerce File Sheriff’s Office reports .............Page 6 ..............Page 5 ..................................Page 2 INSIDE Mendocino County’s World briefly The Ukiah local newspaper ..........Page 2 Tomorrow: Sunshine H 74; L 40 7 58551 69301 0 WEDNESDAY Oct. 24, 2007 50 cents tax included DAILY JOURNAL ukiahdailyjournal.com 16 pages, Volume 149 Number 198 email: [email protected] Local firefighters battling S. Cal blazes By BEN BROWN Also in the area Southern California, ranging from north The Daily Journal are two fire engines of Santa Barbara to the US-Mexico bor- As fires continue to burn hotter and from the Ukiah der. The fires have burned a combined wider in the southern part of the state, Valley Fire District area of 240,000 acres or nearly 347 firefighters from Mendocino County as well as UVFD square miles. have been dispatched to help. Chief Dan Grebil, More than 500,000 people have been Ukiah Fire Chief Tony Clarabut said acting as strike team four engines, including the Office of leader for the See FIRES, Page 16 Emergency Services fire engine, left Mendocino County around 2 a.m. Monday on their way to a firefighters sent to fire in Fallbrook. help. Andy Holzman/MediaNews Group All three firefighters on the OES Clarabut said he Grebil Firefighter Jay Sartoris douses engine are from UFD; the other engines doesn’t know when hotspots inside a burned struc- are from the Fort Bragg Fire Depart- the engines will be ture on Carbon Canyon Road in ment, the Laytonville Fire Department back in the county. “It’s fire dependent,” Malibu on Tuesday. Many wind-dri- and one from Anderson Valley Fire he said. ven fires continue to burn across Department. There are currently 16 fires burning in Southern California. ONE OF UKIAH’S ‘BEST KEPT SECRETS’ Blood bank in final days Airport a beehive of activity in Ukiah By K.C. MEADOWS By ZACK SAMPSEL The Daily Journal The Daily Journal ith two inches of A lack of funding at the Blood Centers rainfall behind us of the Pacific Ukiah Center is forcing the Wand wildfires doors to close Nov. 1. The typical, day-to- blazing in Southern Cali- day operations at the center are expected fornia, the tankers and to cease Nov. 1 with three additional one- other CalFire aircraft at the day-only opportunities to donate at the Ukiah Municipal Airport center later in November and December. are gone, and probably The Ukiah Center has been at its loca- won’t be back this season. tion of 620 Kings Court for the past six But that doesn’t mean years. Before becoming part of the Blood there isn’t plenty going on Centers of the Pacific, blood collection at at the airport. that location was taken care of by the On any given day you’ll Ukiah Valley Blood Bank. Pat Coe, head find Calstar crews working nurse at the center, explained that eco- on their medivac heli- nomic concerns and the county’s rural copter, private aircraft nature forced the situation. coming and going, freight “Mendocino County doesn’t have the haulers waiting for pack- concentration of population that enables ages and a number of the center to remain open with enough interesting businesses staff in a cost-effective way,” Coe said. under way. “They’re having to spend too much on Paul Richey, airport output. Unless someone can make this manager, has been work- work with a lot less outlay, there won’t be ing at the airport for more than 30 years, the last four a center in Ukiah. as manager. He’s an admit- “It’s so highly-regulated and very dif- ted flying nut and says he ficult to run blood collection in an area doesn’t get up in the sky as whose population is so widely scattered. Mendocino County is huge. It makes it much as he used to, partly MacLeod Pappidas/The Daily Journal because airplane fuel is up Bart Hanger, base mechanic for Calstar, puts the lid back on one of two rescue helicopters at See BLOOD, Page 16 to $4.25 a gallon. the Ukiah Municipal Airport. Hanger was performing routine maintenance on the machine. Private pilots every- where are seeing their pas- sion get more expensive needed, the bills must still Registration with each hike in oil be paid, so they allow non- prices, and Richey says aviation businesses in. requirements there’s a joke about the One longtime non-avia- “$100 hamburger” you can tion business is Oak Valley get at a fly-in diner at Wil- Nursery, which is officially for voter ID on airport land and has lows. The burger is cheap, The Daily Journal it’s the flying that’ll cost been there since the 1970s. On a wall near Richey’s Those registering or reregistering to you. vote must provide their driver’s license or But this time of year, desk is an architect’s draw- ing of a new expanded air- state ID number on their voter registra- Richey says, the “bird’s tion form, according to Mendocino eye view” of this valley is port terminal with a two- story glass front and a roof County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder spectacular. Marsha Wharff. “All of us who are bit- line representing an air- plane body. If voters do not have a driver’s license ten by the flying bug, it’s Airport manager or state ID, they must provide the last ... the freedom,” he says It’s never gotten off the A FedEx plane is docked at the Ukiah airport. Paul Richey ground. four digits of their Social Security num- wistfully. “Every time I go ber or be contacted to obtain the informa- flying it’s a rush.” Budget considerations But Richey thinks per- But that’s a ways into tion or verify that they have neither of Richey spends a lot of Airport is a place where squelched it, but even so, haps a new expanded ter- the future. these numbers. All voter registration data time at the airport, but not lots happens that no one expanded air service seems minal could dovetail with For now, Richey says is transmitted to the state daily, and all at Hangar 9 where his own seems to know about, unlikely in Ukiah. the needs of Homeland the airport, as is, remains driver’s license/state ID numbers must be plane is parked. No, he’s in Richey muses. Besides the Since the 9/11 terrorist Security if it is couched as one of Ukiah’s best kept validated through DMV before they will the airport office getting CDF tankers and FedEx attack, Richey explained, improvements for emer- secrets. be loaded into the statewide database. ready to start a storm drain delivery routes, there’s also federal Homeland Security gency situations. He worries a little about If the information given by the voter DHL freight coming and requirements for airports repair and replacement Richey sees the airport encroaching development does not match DMV files, the voter must project that will cost $1.7 going and another hauler have become overwhelm- near the airport, something be contacted to verify the information. called Ameriflight. In addi- ing for a lot of small air- as the perfect place to cen- million and close the run- tralize efforts to house all airport managers worry Voters will not be on the index list at the ways off and on for peri- tion, there’s flight school, ports. Having regular air about. polls unless and until their voter registra- ods of time next year while rental car agencies and air service into Ukiah would refugees in hangars or tents after an earthquake, In a perfect world, you tion has been validated by the state. storm drains are dug up charter service at the air- require the city to install “wouldn’t have Mrs. Voters not on the index at the polls will be and replaced. He keeps a port. the same airport security flood or other natural dis- aster. McGillicutty’s cow within allowed to vote a provisional ballot, rusted out pitted piece of There are also an air- measures any major airport a two-mile circle” around which will only be counted if their regis- storm drain under his desk craft sheet metal business has. It would also require And even if the runway the airport. tration data can be validated. which he uses for show- and aircraft parts manufac- the city to cut off public is damaged, helicopters But he sees nothing on According to a press release issued by and-tell whenever he’s turer on the premises. access to the runways and could come and go, deliv- the horizon locally he feels Wharff, voter registration has declined asking for money for the Richey said the airport hangars. It would be ering needed supplies, and would be a serious con- with all precincts with fewer than 250 project. tries to lease land or expensive and, it would the airport could have its cern. voters being declared all-mail precincts. It seems to work every hangars to businesses deal- seem, unlikely to result in own power supply for run- If only he could see that This has reduced the number of polling time. ing with aviation, but if a return on investment for way lights and other emer- horizon from the air more places in the county to 34. In addition, 31 The Ukiah Municipal they can’t find one when the city’s costs. gency needs. often. percent of county voters are permanent See VOTE, Page 16 2 – WEDNESDAY, OCT.