News

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – It was a night of celebration as the winners of the 2018 Early Childhood Educators awards were announced on Friday.

The Lake County Child Care Planning Council, administered through the Lake County Office of Education, coordinates the annual awards. This year’s ceremony was held at the Mt. Konocti Winery in Kelseyville.

Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, Lake County Supervisor Tina Scott and Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg were on hand in the packed house to acknowledge the good work of all 61 nominees.

"I am very grateful to all of the educators and advocates in Lake County that have dedicated their lives to our kids," said Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters). "They are there for us at the very start of our children's and grandchildren's lives."

“I am excited to see our Early Childhood Educators being recognized for all the hard work they do supporting our youth,” said Scott. “The children they are serving are the future of Lake County.”

Scott and Falkenberg also serve as commissioners of Lake County’s First 5, which focuses on the well-being of Lake County children ages 0 to 5.

Falkenberg is a strong advocate for strong early childhood education in Lake County. “Research shows that quality early childhood education is associated with higher measures of early language and math development. Congratulation to all of the nominees who work so hard to provide that quality experience to the youngest members of Lake County.”

This year’s winners are:

Inspiring the Field Award: Rachel Cumpston, Lake County Office of Education Lower Lake Preschool.

Making A Difference Award: Cindi Kaup, California Preschool Instruction Network.

Preschool Teacher of the Year: Maria de la Luz Garcia, Lake County Office of Education Kelseyville Preschool.

Outstanding Program Support: Crystal Davis, North Coast Opportunities Pearl Head Start.

Advocate of the Year (award sponsored by Adventist Health Clear Lake): Martyna Blissky, Easter Seals Bay Area Lakeport.

Infant/Toddler Teacher of the Year: Erika Cacho, Early Head Start.

Inclusion Award (Award sponsored by First 5 Lake County): Alana Bowman, North Coast Opportunities Pearl Head Start.

Leading the Field Award – Katrina Hickey, Big Valley Rancheria Preschool.

Family Child Care Provider of the Year (award sponsored by First 5 Lake County) – Heather Wichlaz, Little People Daycare.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Connie Hodges, Alphabet Soup Children's Learning Center.

Angela Cuellar-Marroquin, Lake County Child Care Planning Council Coordinator, explained the importance of these awards. “Early education is the foundation of a successful academic career. It’s a time that we recognize the hard work that the early educators do each and every day.”

The Lake County Child Care Planning Council thanked those organizations and agencies who helped make this year’s event possible with their generous donations: Lake County Department of Social Services, First 5 of Lake County, Adventist Health Clear Lake, the Lake County Office of Education, and the hard work of the LPC members.

A complete list of all 2018 nominees can be found at www.lakecoe.org/news/details/2018_ece_nominations.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – This week the Board of Supervisors will discuss matters regarding a sales tax measure that goes before voters in June.

The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 8, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8 and online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.

In an untimed item, the board will consider, discuss and direct staff regarding the Measure G sales tax oversight committee and formation of the new committee.

The 1.5-percent sales tax measure goes before voters on the June 5 ballot. The measure, which would sunset after 10 years, is forecast to generate $4.5 million annually, as Lake County News has reported.

In other business, the board will consider continuing local emergency proclamations due to the Sulphur, Rocky, Jerusalem, Valley and Clayton fires, as well as the atmospheric river. Those items are timed from 9:15 to 9:18 a.m.

The full agenda follows.

CONSENT AGENDA

7.1: Approve letter of support for AB 2727, as amended April 10, 2018, providing a personal income tax credit for firefighters and authorize the chair to sign.

7.2: Approve letter of support for AB 2208, an act to amend Sections 399.15 and 399.30 of the Public Utilities Code, related to energy and authorize the chair to sign.

7.3: Approve letter of support for AB 2518, an act to add Article 10 (commencing with Section 4630) to Chapter 8 of Part 2 of Division 4 to the Public Resources Code, related to forestry and authorize the chair to sign.

7.4: Adopt proclamation designating the month of May 2018 as Military Appreciation Month in Lake County.

7.5: Adopt proclamation designating the month of May 2018 as Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month in Lake County.

7.6 : Adopt proclamation designating the week of May 6 to 12 as National Travel and Tourism Week in Lake County.

7.7: Adopt proclamation designating the week of May 19 to 25 as National Safe Boating Week in Lake County.

7.8: Adopt proclamation designating the week of May 6-12, 2018 as Correctional Officers Week in Lake County.

7.9: Adopt proclamation designating the week of May 13-19, 2018 as Law Enforcement Week in Lake County.

7.10: Approve order and agreement of services with LexisNexis Coplogic Solutions Inc. for an online incident reporting program and authorize the sheriff to sign.

TIMED ITEMS

8.2, 9:06 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation designating the month of May 2018 as Military Appreciation Month in Lake County; presentation of proclamation designating the month of May 2018 as Maternal Mental Health Awareness Month in Lake County; presentation of proclamation designating the week of May 6 to 12 as National Travel and Tourism Week in Lake County; presentation of proclamation designating the week of May 19 to 25 as National Safe Boating Week in Lake County; presentation of proclamation designating the week of May 6 to 12 as Correctional Officers Week in Lake County; and presentation of proclamation designating the week of May 13 to 19 as Law Enforcement Week in Lake County.

8.3, 9:15 a.m.: Consideration of continuing a proclamation of a local emergency due to the Sulphur fire incident.

8.4, 9:16 a.m.: Consideration of Continuing a proclamation of a local emergency due to wildfire conditions, pertaining to the Rocky, Jerusalem and Valley fires.

8.5, 9:17 a.m.: Consideration of continuing a proclamation of a local emergency due to Clayton fire.

8.6, 9:18 a.m.: Consideration of continuing a proclamation of a local emergency due to the atmospheric river storm.

8.7, 9:20 a.m.: Consideration of (a) property tax revenue exchange agreement with Cobb Area County Water District resulting from annexation of water service areas; and (b) resolution providing for the exchange of property tax revenues as a result of annexation of County Services Area 7, Bonanza Springs; County Service Area 18, Starview; County Service Area 22, Mount Hannah; Adams Spring Water District, Alpine Meadows Water System, Pine Grove Water System, Hill 9 and 10 Mutual Water Association, and Branding Iron Mutual Water Co., and to facilitate the reorganization of Cobb Area County Water District (LAFCO File 2017-0001, Cobb Area Reorganization).

8.8, 9:30 a.m.: Presentation to the Board of Supervisors by California Forensic Medical Group.

8.9, 9:45 a.m.: Consideration of resolution adopting emergency operations plan for the county of Lake and the Lake County Operational Area.

8.10, 10 a.m.: Sitting as Lake County Sanitation District, Board of Directors, (a) consideration of proposals for Middletown Sewer Force Main Realignment project; and (b) authorize chair to award the design contract to Oscar Larson & Associates of Eureka for an amount not to exceed $36,200.

UNTIMED ITEM

9.2: Consideration, discussion and direction to staff regarding: (a) the structure of the sales tax oversight committee; (b) formation of the sales tax oversight committee.

CLOSED SESSION

10.1: Public Employee evaluations title: Social Services director.

10.2: Conference with legal counsel: Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54956.9 (d)(2) (e)(3): Claim of Simmons.

10.3: Conference with legal counsel: Significant Exposure to Litigation Pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54956.9(d)(2) (e)(1): One potential case.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – A forum for the District 3 supervisorial candidates will take place on Wednesday, May 9.

The forum will begin at 6 p.m. in the Board of Supervisors chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport.

EJ Crandell and Denise Loustalot will participate in the event.

Crandell and Loustalot will answer a round of at least 10 questions in a timed, rotational format.

Community members may submit questions at the event or by emailing moderator Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The forum also will be recorded and posted online.

A forum for district attorney candidates Steven Brown and Susan Krones will be held on Monday, May 14, also in the Board of Supervisors chambers.

This year’s forums are sponsored by the Lake County Bar Association, Lake County Economic Development Corp. and Lake County News.

It didn’t take long for Theodore Judah’s dream to suffocate under the greed of his colleagues.

In their defense, they never gave Judah the impression that they were anything but what they were: capitalists. Money, and the making of it, was their one and only goal. How else do you get three merchants and a grocer to risk their fortunes on such a crazy scheme as building a railroad across the country?

Of course, that’s not to say it was a sure thing. In fact, it was completely bonkers. None of them had the faintest idea of how to build a railroad. All they had ever built themselves were shops in Sacramento and their own prestige.

But, that’s where Theodore Judah, the engineer, was to play his part.

Judah had long dreamt of a railroad that would connect California with the rest of America; one that would span from sea to sea. Sure, people scoffed and laughed at “Crazy Judah” but he didn’t mind. He had a dream and soon, he had proof of his serious intentions to follow up on that dream.

In 1856, after much planning, Judah and a group of investors finished work on the Sacramento Valley Line – the first railroad west of the Missouri River. In 1859 he was nominated by the California Pacific Railroad Convention to take his plans of a transcontinental railroad to Washington D.C.

He took his dream with him, eager to share the brilliance of it with those who had the ability to make it happen. Even back then, D.C. had a reputation for devouring the innocent, and within no time, Judah realized he was in over his head.

To be fair, his timing was off.

The Civil War loomed over the horizon and sectionalism paralyzed Congress. The plans he proposed to the politicians fell atop a heap of other equally ambitious projects that were looking for federal funding. It was a large heap.

You see, already the federal government was proving itself a lucrative source of money for businessmen. All a budding entrepreneur had to do was figure out a way of dovetailing his own personal interests with something the government wanted.

Heck, some even didn’t even try to mask what they were doing – they didn’t need to. After all, this was the time of the ambitious and completely daft plan to outfit American cavalrymen in the arid southwest with camels instead of horses (a project pushed for by soon-to-be Confederate President Jefferson Davis in 1858). If Uncle Sam paid for imported camels, he clearly didn’t scrutinize the federal funding package very closely.

Even still, it looked as if Judah’s plans had fallen on deaf ears. He returned to California with another plan in mind. He needed private investors to put money into the project first. That would convince the politicians back east of the feasibility of his plan. Because no one in 1860s America would put good money on a bad project, right?

All Judah had to do was pop his head outside the window in his office in Sacramento to find four likely investors. By now, their names are well known. The Big Four they would be called: Huntington, Crocker, Stanford, Hopkins. They would grow to become giants of American capitalism, but when Judah first approached them in the early 1860s, they were nothing but four well-to-do local businessmen. But they were businessmen willing to take a risk on a crazy plan.

With a new set of investors in hand, Judah made the long journey back to Washington D.C.– a journey by boat to the isthmus of Central America, then by riverboat down the snaking rapids until reaching the far coast and boarding yet another boat, this one bound for the east coast.

By the time he returned to D.C., the war had finally broken loose and Congress – which had suffered from entrenched gridlock between Republicans and Democrats before – now found itself ruled by a single party. And that party liked the idea of consolidating its far-off states by connecting them with a railroad. And so the Pacific Railroad Act passed through the halls of power in 1862. Theodore Judah was about to realize his dream.

But this isn’t a fairytale and life is tough. It certainly was for Theodore Judah.

After returning to California with the good news, he had a falling out with his business partners. The Big Four had plans of their own, plans to squeeze this federal deal for all the money it was worth. The efficiency and quality of the resulting railroad didn’t matter to them at the time. Their vision for the company diverged greatly from that of Theodore Judah.

Disenchanted, Judah boarded a ship once more, this time for New York, where he hoped to find better partners. Unfortunately, his luck failed him and he contracted yellow fever from an infected mosquito during his journey across Central America. He died soon after.

Six years later, on May 10, 1869, the final spike for the new transcontinental railroad was driven home, the memory of the man who first envisioned it far from everyone’s mind.

Antone Pierucci is curator of history at the Riverside County Park and Open Space District and a freelance writer whose work has been featured in such magazines as Archaeology and Wild West as well as regional California newspapers.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month and the California Highway Patrol, along with the California Office of Traffic Safety, will work together to help reduce the number of fatal and injury collisions involving motorcyclists by encouraging roadway safety through education and awareness.
 
“Vehicle drivers and motorcyclists share equal responsibility for roadway safety,” said CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley. “It is important for drivers to understand the safety challenges faced by motorcyclists. Look twice for motorcyclists and leave plenty of space between your vehicle and the rider.”
 
Recent data from the California Department of Motor Vehicles shows there are more than 900,000 registered motorcycles in the state and more than 1.4 million licensed riders.

According to preliminary data from the CHP’s Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System, last year 466 motorcyclists were killed in traffic collisions, and more than 14,000 motorcyclists were injured. In 2016, there were 560 motorcyclists killed and more than 14,400 injured.
 
Motorists can do their part by sharing the road. The majority of multi-vehicle motorcycle collisions are caused when other drivers simply did not see the motorcyclist.

Staying alert, sharing the road, and looking twice for riders will help reduce the number of injuries and deaths on our roadways.
 
“As the weather begins to warm, we’ll start to see more motorcyclists out on our roads, and we want to make sure other motorists see them too,” said Office of Traffic Safety Director Rhonda Craft. “It can be easy to overlook a motorcycle due to their smaller size. For this reason, it’s all the more vital we put forth extra effort in keeping watch. We encourage all motorists to remember to share the road.”
 
Motorcyclists can also help protect themselves by always wearing the proper safety gear, including a U.S. Department of Transportation-compliant helmet, obeying the speed limit, riding defensively, and always riding sober.
 
The CHP administers the California Motorcyclist Safety Program, or CMSP, and strongly encourages all riders, new and experienced, to enroll.

The CMSP was developed in July 1987 and has training sites throughout the state. The CMSP trains approximately 60,000 motorcyclists per year and has trained more than 1.1 million motorcycle riders.

For more information, or to find a training site near you, visit www.californiamotorcyclist.com.
 
In 2017, the CHP was awarded a grant from the Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to develop the Have A Good Ride IV, or HAGR IV, program, promoting motorcycle safety and awareness.

The HAGR IV program’s goals are to reduce the number of motorcycle-involved collisions and victims of these collisions, statewide.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a new group of dogs waiting for forever homes this week.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of border collie, Chihuahua, chow chow, German Shepherd, Great Pyrenees, hound, Labrador Retriever, pit bull and shepherd.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

‘Emma’

“Emma” is a very sweet senior female German Shepherd.

She has a short black and tan coat and already has been spayed.

She is available for a $30 adoption ($10 re-registration on microchip and $20 license fee), with all other costs paid.

Animal control said she has heartworm and is being treated for it. They will ask the adopter for a donation towards the treatment.

She’s in kennel No. 5, ID No. 9657.

‘Rocky’

“Rocky” is a young male German Shepherd with a medium-length black and tan coat.

He’s in kennel No. 17, ID No. 9934.

‘Sadie’

“Sadie” is a female Chihuahua with a short black and gray coat.

She’s in kennel No. 18c, ID No. 9879.

Border collie-pit bull mix

This female border collie-pit bull mix has a short gray and white coat.

She’s in kennel No. 22, ID No. 9922.

Female chow chow

This female chow chow has a long black coat.

She’s in kennel No. 23, ID No. 9810.

Female German Shepherd

This female German Shepherd has a medium-length tan and black coat.

She’s in kennel No. 28, ID No. 9710.

Female German Shepherd

This female German Shepherd has a short black and tan coat.

She’s in kennel No. 29, ID No. 9709.

‘Bella’

“Bella” is a female Great Pyrenees with a long white coat.

She’s in kennel No. 30, ID No. 9901.

Hound-Labrador Retriever mix

This female hound-Labrador Retriever mix has a short black and white coat.

She’s in kennel No. 32, ID No. 9933.

Male Chihuahua

This male Chihuahua has a long black and tan coat.

He’s in kennel No. 34, ID No. 9932.

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.