SOLEDAD — Covid-19 continues to be an ongoing concern in Monterey County, and Soledad City Council heard updates during its Aug. 19 meeting about combatting the pandemic within the city, not only about testing, but also containing an outbreak inside the city’s nursing facility.
Soledad Community Health Care District (SCHCD) CEO Ida Chan gave what she said was planned to be the first of monthly updates to the council regarding both points.
“We have been doing traditional Covid testing, nose swabs, since the beginning of the Covid pandemic,” Chan said. “Nose swabs would take about three to five days turnaround. Starting in early September, we’re going to have what’s called rapid testing, which will give you the results within hours.”
Chan explained Soledad Medical Clinic, which operates under SCHCD, will soon have large tents in its driveway to facilitate drive-through Covid-19 testing.
“That’s because the rainy season is about to come, in addition to the flu season,” Chan said.
She also commented on Covid-19 infections within Eden Valley Care Center, the nursing facility operated by SCHCD.
“Unfortunately, our center here at Eden Valley was not immune to Covid,” Chan said. “We did have some cases, but as of yesterday, all of the Covid cases that existed, all the residents went back into their rooms. We are officially rid of Covid at the moment. I say at the moment because things can change.”
The wildfires to the west have been a region-wide concern, but on Aug. 18 a small brush fire was extinguished in the Salinas River just south of Soledad. Damon Wasson, the city’s chief of police, gave a report to the council about that incident.
“It was a pretty good sized fire, the flames were probably 20 to 30 feet high,” Wasson said about the fire, which was spotted in the riverbed.
He explained officers began evacuating people, not only from area homes, but also construction workers from the nearby theater site, as well as homeless people living in the riverbed, all in response to the blaze that began at about 5:30 p.m.
The city called for backup, reaching out as far as Fort Hunter Liggett, Wasson said. Six fire trucks showed up in total to put out the fire.
“What happened was one of our homeless folks down there was having an issue with another homeless folk and tried to light her area on fire,” Wasson said. “The fire jumped across the field, started a second fire.”
With the combined resources of six fire trucks, he said the city was able to battle the blaze, even with it being split into two sites. After that came the investigation and criminal proceedings.
“Our detective made an arrest yesterday and the person is now sitting in jail on a $2.1 million bail for starting those arson fires down in our riverbed yesterday,” Wasson said.
The council also approved a contract for construction services with Pueblo Construction Inc. not to exceed $288,285 for the re-roofing of the Community Center.
The council also considered a proposal from the Astoria Logistic Group to provide operations and maintenance services for the city-owned live fire shooting range on the city’s northeast side.
Wasson explained the history of the shooting range and how it had been in use by the police and a private club since the 1960s, but ongoing conflicts with the club, as well as insurance and liability issues, caused the lease to be revoked. He said since that time the police officers have used the prison’s shooting range, which requires packing up gear and hauling it to a non-city site for every session.
Junior Nuno spoke on behalf of Astoria about new management plans for the 14-acre range property.
According to Nuno, there would be no construction, keeping the range open-air and putting focus on safe and profitable operation. He said the main points would be cleaning up and rearranging the property, as well as putting an emphasis on local city resident use of the property.
