Board of supervisors recognizes employees, welcomes new ones
County’s general plan stats reviewed
Inyo County Risk Manager Aaron Holmberg on Tuesday presented the annual Safety Awards for “Most Improved in Safety.”
The annual awards acknowledge continuous improvement in employee and facility site safety and help encourage such improvements throughout all county locations.
Two departments received recognition: Health & Human Services for improvements at the Wellness Center and the Agricultural Commissioner’s Office for improvements at the George L. Milovich Agricultural Maintenance Building. Wellness Center Program Supervisor Vanessa Ruggio and HHS Specialist Vivian DeLaRiva accepted the award from Holmberg and Inyo
County Safety Coordinator Tehauna Tiffany.
Doing the honors for the Ag Department were Ag Commissioner Nate Reade and Program Supervisor Rob Miller. The honorees all noted the teamwork involved and thanked their colleagues for their dedication.
A third safety award will be presented on
March 12 during the board’s annual meeting in Tecopa, which starts at 3 p.m. in the Tecopa Community Center.
New to the scene
The Inyo County Board of Supervisors officially welcomed several new employees to the county family on Tuesday.
Department heads introduced the following individuals, who each received a golden trout pin from Vice Chairperson Scott Marcellin: Assistant Chief Information Officer Abhilash Itharaju; Probation Rehabilitation Specialist Lora Terrasas and Probation Rehabilitation Specialist Jesus Garcia Martinez; and from HHS, Office Technician Malissa Creekmore, Prevention Specialist Caroline Hagopian, Office Clerk Sandra Garcia Hernandez, Program Services Assistant Barbara Southey, Residential Caregiver Adam Veenker, and Office Clerk Emma Williams.
General plan stats Inyo County Planning Director Cathreen Richards presented a General Plan Annual Progress Report to the Board of Supervisors for approval on Tuesday.
The annual report is required by law to record the County’s progress in implementing its General Plan. The County’s General Plan is a vision, Goals, and policy document that provides a sort of “roadmap” to land-use and development within the county.
The report showed some promising trends. A total of 494 building permits were received by the Building and Safety Department in 2023 – 27 of which were for new housing units.
According to Richards, that’s 11 more housing unit permits than in 2022 and the most the County has seen in the past 10
area because the communities are too small to provide a reliable return on investment that includes constructing infrastructure,” Armstrong explained. “With funding from this BTA grant, we plan to develop a design for the Furnace Creek area that will enable communitybased cooperatives to provide faster, more reliable Internet service to that area until the State’s middle-mile network is constructed in the region in 2025 or 2026.”
Armstrong added that once the network engineering designs are complete, the county will seek funding for the actual construction of the last-mile infrastructure to make it more feasible for Internet service providers to deliver services in the Furnace Creek area.
The Inyo County Board of Supervisors has made it a priority to support development, expansion, and implementation of regional broadband initiatives to provide residents and businesses with reliable, affordable high-speed Internet service and devices, and the training and skills to use them. The Board recognizes that providing these essentials to as many homes, schools, and businesses as possible can help create digital equity and make positive impacts on everything from education and healthcare, to workforce and economic development, to public safety.
The BTA grant does not include a cost share or matching requirement. The funds were appropriated under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2021.