News

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – On Saturday, April 28, the city of Clearlake – in coordination with the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce, Clearlake Waste Solution and Citizens Caring 4 Clearlake – is sponsoring the annual Clearlake Clean-up Day event.

The event will begin at 8 a.m. at Austin Park and will end at noon with hot dogs and refreshments.

Volunteers, including elected officials, service clubs, citizens and city staff, will spend the morning picking up trash and cleaning various areas in Clearlake.

”This event is a tradition in the City of Clearlake that has been going on for many years as a way to start off the tourist season,” said Clearlake Public Works Director Doug Herren.

Volunteers are needed to provide the maximum impact on eliminating trash in the community.

“I look forward to this event every year and seeing the dedication our citizens have to the community,” said Clearlake City Manager Greg Folsom. “Come out and show your pride in Clearlake by helping make Clearlake an even more beautiful place to live.”

Volunteers can register at the event. Bags and tools will be provided.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Tractor Supply Co. has begun construction on a retail store in Clearlake.

Construction on the store – located at 15930 Dam Road, Unit C, in the former Ray’s Food Place building – began earlier this month with a goal of opening in the summer.

The building also is set to house a new Big 5 Sporting Goods store, as Lake County News has reported.

Tractor Supply will serve as a one-stop shop for the Clearlake community’s farmers, livestock and pet owners, ranchers, part-time and hobby farmers, gardeners, homeowners, tradesmen and others.

“We’re not just building a store, we’re building a team that understands the needs of the Clearlake community,” said District Manager Toni Hernandez. “We know this community values living ‘Life Out Here’ just like us – with a focus on caring for their home, land, pets and animals. With the addition of our new location, we’re able to ensure the Clearlake community is fully equipped with the products they need.”

The Clearlake Tractor Supply plans to hire 12 to 15 employees with firsthand knowledge and expertise in caring for pets, livestock and land.

At the store, customers will be able to shop a wide selection of products at a great value including workwear and boots, tractor and trailer parts and accessories, lawn and garden supplies, sprinkler and irrigation parts, power tools, fencing, welding and pump supplies, riding mowers and more.

The Clearlake store will also carry a wide variety of food and supplies for pets, equine and livestock, as well as a pet wash station where customers will have access to professional grade wash bays, grooming tables and tools.

The Tractor Supply team will also seek to support pet adoption initiatives, area 4-H clubs and FFA chapters, county fairs and livestock shows.

Lakeview Construction will construct the 21,862-square-foot retail space. The store plans include a sales floor, external support service area and pet wash station.

The store opening, which is expected to occur in the summer, will kick off with a four-day grand opening celebration, during which customers can sign up for Tractor Supply’s loyalty program, Neighbor’s Club.

By registering, customers will receive member-only offers, birthday offers, personal purchase summaries and receipt-free returns.

To learn more about Tractor Supply Company, visit www.TractorSupply.com. For additional information on the Neighbor's Club program, please visit www.NeighborsClub.com.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Police arrested a Clearlake man on Monday after he was found in possession of 140 movies that had been reported stolen at his workplace earlier this month.

Jason Paul Mifsud, 35, was arrested for felony possession of stolen property, according to Sgt. Tim Hobbs of the Clearlake Police Department.

Hobbs said that on April 10 the Redbox Movie and Game rental machine located at the Carl’s Jr. restaurant at 15885 Dam Road Extension in Clearlake was broken into and about 200 movies were stolen from inside the machine.

On Tuesday at 9:45 a.m. Clearlake Police Officer. Steven Hobb responded to a residence in the 15800 block of 30th Avenue for a disturbance call. During the call, Hobb contacted Mifsud, who was involved in the disturbance and reported to be in possession of a firearm, according to Hobbs’ report.

Hobbs said during the investigation it was discovered that Mifsud was illegally camping in a tent on the property.

During a search of the tent, Hobb located 140 of the stolen movies. Mifsud denied stealing the movies, but admitted he knew they were stolen and that he painted over the barcodes and a majority of the cases in an attempt to disguise them, Hobbs said.

Hobbs said the value of the stolen movies that were recovered was $3,570.

Mifsud works at the Carl's Jr. where the Redbox machine that was broken into is located, Hobbs said.

Mifsud was arrested and booked into the Lake County Jail, with his bail set at $15,000.

Jail records showed that Mifsud remained in custody on Wednesday.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Interested community members are being invited to apply to be part of a new committee that is looking at the health of Clear Lake.

The California Natural Resources Agency is tasked by AB 707 (Aguiar-Curry, Chapter 842, Statues of 2017) with the creation of a Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear lake.  

The committee is responsible for identifying, and reporting on, potential solutions to water quality issues for Clear Lake. It also will make recommendations for potential funding sources for restoration activities.  

The Board of Supervisors is accepting applications for review prior to making their appointments to these spots:

– Expert in local economic development;
– Expert in agriculture;
– Expert in the environment; and
– Representative of a public water supplier that draws its drinking water supply from Clear Lake.

The committee, convened by CNRA, shall meet quarterly in Lake County for the purposes of discussion, reviewing research, planning, and providing oversight regarding the health of Clear Lake.  

The first meeting of the committee will take place in May. The committee will be subject to the requirements of the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act.

Application forms are available through and must be submitted by 5 p.m. Friday, April 27.

For more information visit http://www.lakecountyca.gov/Assets/Departments/BOS/docs/BoardApp.pdf.

For more information, please contact the County Administrative Office at 707-263-2580.

The California Department of Water Resources on Tuesday announced a statewide increase in State Water Project allocations for 2018.

SWP contractors can now expect to receive 30 percent of their requests, up from the initial 15 percent allocation in December and the 20 percent announced in January.

“Late precipitation and snow in March has brought us closer to an average year, however, this year has been anything but normal,” said Karla Nemeth, DWR director. “While our storage is in good shape, our snowpack is low. California’s highly variable weather reminds us that prudent planning and water conservation is a necessity and is the new norm.”

A 30 percent allocation amounts to 1,268,724 acre-feet of water, distributed among the 29 SWP contractors who serve more than 27 million Californians and about 750,000 acres of farmland.

A 100 percent allocation is rare even in wet years due to Delta pumping restrictions to protect threatened and endangered fish species. The last 100 percent allocation was in 2006.

One of the leading factors in determining allocations is snow water content. The statewide snow water content is currently 37 percent of average.

Despite the above-normal precipitation received in March and April, warm temperatures increased runoff and snowmelt in the Northern Sierra, resulting in diminished snowpack for this time of year.

The state’s major reservoirs continue to be well above their historical averages. San Luis Reservoir, the largest off-stream reservoir in the United States where water is stored for the SWP and Central Valley Project, or CVP), is at 89 percent of capacity.

Shasta Lake, the CVP’s largest reservoir, is at 92 percent of capacity. Lake Oroville is at 67 percent of capacity. New Melones Lake is at 86 percent of capacity.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Firefighters are investigating the cause of an early morning fire in Clearlake that burned several structures, destroying two of them.

Lake County Fire Chief Willie Sapeta said the fire was dispatched just after 7 a.m.

The fire originated in a vacant structure at 14537 Palmer Ave. where police officers recently had been chasing out squatters, Sapeta said.

He said the fire originally was reported as a fully involved structure. As fire personnel were on the way, they heard police radio traffic that indicated there also were other buildings on fire.

Sapeta said the fire destroyed the structure of origin. It spread to a house on the east side, doing minimal damage there, and then to a converted studio off of Emory to the south, which he said was 75-percent damaged.

To the west of the main structure was a small structure that was destroyed. In that building firefighters found an illegal marijuana grow, Sapeta said.

Lake County Fire was joined by Northshore Fire in working the incident, with a total of five engines, a water tender, three medic units and two company officers committed to the incident, according to Sapeta.

Sometime between 8:30 and 8:45 a.m. the fire was fully contained, but Sapeta said several hours of overhaul were required.

There were no injuries, he said.

On Tuesday afternoon Sapeta said the fire’s cause remained under investigation.

“We’re not sure how that got so well involved without anybody seeing it,” he said.

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.