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MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – Fire crews continue to work on a number of lightning-caused fires across the Mendocino National Forest after thunderstorms on Tuesday.
The largest incidents are the Skeleton fire and the Slides fire, located on the Upper Lake Ranger District, according to forest spokeswoman Sandra Moore.
Moore said there are several other small fires in other areas of the forest.
The Slides fire is approximately four miles west of Lake Pillsbury. It is estimated at 40 acres and 20 percent contained, Moore said Wednesday night.
She said there are 65 personnel at the incident, two dozers, 11 engines, and one water tender. There is private property in proximity to the fire.
On Wednesday, the very large air tanker, or VLAT, DC-10 was used to drop several loads of retardant on the fire, Moore said.
Moore explained that the VLAT can drop a little over 11,000 gallons of retardant per load. Water scoopers are also on order. Steep terrain is hampering suppression efforts.
The Skeleton fire is about five miles east of Lake Pillsbury, adjacent to the Snow Mountain Wilderness. It is estimated at 200 acres and 40 percent contained, Moore said.
She said crews are reporting creeping and smoldering fire activity. Approximately 120 resources are on scene including three crews, two dozers, eight engines and four water tenders.
Three additional lightning-caused fires – the Penny, Pan and Harvey – are located in the Yolla Bolly Middle Eel Wilderness, Moore said.
Smokejumpers are assigned to the Penny fire, the other fires remain unstaffed, according to Moore’s report.
The largest incidents are the Skeleton fire and the Slides fire, located on the Upper Lake Ranger District, according to forest spokeswoman Sandra Moore.
Moore said there are several other small fires in other areas of the forest.
The Slides fire is approximately four miles west of Lake Pillsbury. It is estimated at 40 acres and 20 percent contained, Moore said Wednesday night.
She said there are 65 personnel at the incident, two dozers, 11 engines, and one water tender. There is private property in proximity to the fire.
On Wednesday, the very large air tanker, or VLAT, DC-10 was used to drop several loads of retardant on the fire, Moore said.
Moore explained that the VLAT can drop a little over 11,000 gallons of retardant per load. Water scoopers are also on order. Steep terrain is hampering suppression efforts.
The Skeleton fire is about five miles east of Lake Pillsbury, adjacent to the Snow Mountain Wilderness. It is estimated at 200 acres and 40 percent contained, Moore said.
She said crews are reporting creeping and smoldering fire activity. Approximately 120 resources are on scene including three crews, two dozers, eight engines and four water tenders.
Three additional lightning-caused fires – the Penny, Pan and Harvey – are located in the Yolla Bolly Middle Eel Wilderness, Moore said.
Smokejumpers are assigned to the Penny fire, the other fires remain unstaffed, according to Moore’s report.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and the Mendocino County Office of Emergency Services will be conducting a countywide emergency notification exercise as part of a regional tsunami warning communications test on Oct. 18.
The exercise will take place from 11 a.m. to noon, according to Emergency Services Coordinator Rick Ehlert.
Ehlert said community members who have not already registered for the Mendocino County Alert and Notification System are urged to do so before the Oct. 18 test date to participate in the exercise and ensure they can receive the county’s emergency notifications.
Community members can register for the Alert and Notification System at the OES Web site at www.MendocinoCounty.org/OES and click on the registration link at the bottom of the page, Ehlert said.
He said residents must register and opt-in to receive emergency notifications to their cell phones and other devices. Some landline phone numbers are automatically imputed into the system, but to ensure emergency notifications are received all residents are urged to register.
This is the primary system which is used to communicate with the public during times of emergency. Ehlert said it is vital residents register to ensure they get important time sensitive information.
Ehlert said the Oct. 18 alert and notification test will send a test notification to all registered community members countywide via their preferred communication method (text message, voice phone call, or email) and to most land lines. This message will clearly state that the notification is only a test and not a real emergency.
Additionally, on Oct. 18 between 11 a.m. and noon the National Weather Service office in Eureka will be conducting a Tsunami Warning Communications Test in Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties, according to Ehlert.
If you are listening to the radio, you may hear alerting tones followed by a voice announcing that the test is occurring. Ehlert said if you have a NOAA weather radio with the Public Alert feature, the radio will automatically turn on and you will hear the same message as broadcast on radios.
In some areas, you may also hear the sounding of a tsunami siren, or an airplane testing its public address system. The tsunami sirens in Noyo Harbor, Pudding Creek, and Point Arena Cove are planned to be activated and will sound for approximately one to three minutes, Ehlert said.
To register or learn more about the Mendocino County Alert and Notification System, including a list of frequently asked questions, please visit www.MendocinoCounty.org/OES.
The exercise will take place from 11 a.m. to noon, according to Emergency Services Coordinator Rick Ehlert.
Ehlert said community members who have not already registered for the Mendocino County Alert and Notification System are urged to do so before the Oct. 18 test date to participate in the exercise and ensure they can receive the county’s emergency notifications.
Community members can register for the Alert and Notification System at the OES Web site at www.MendocinoCounty.org/OES and click on the registration link at the bottom of the page, Ehlert said.
He said residents must register and opt-in to receive emergency notifications to their cell phones and other devices. Some landline phone numbers are automatically imputed into the system, but to ensure emergency notifications are received all residents are urged to register.
This is the primary system which is used to communicate with the public during times of emergency. Ehlert said it is vital residents register to ensure they get important time sensitive information.
Ehlert said the Oct. 18 alert and notification test will send a test notification to all registered community members countywide via their preferred communication method (text message, voice phone call, or email) and to most land lines. This message will clearly state that the notification is only a test and not a real emergency.
Additionally, on Oct. 18 between 11 a.m. and noon the National Weather Service office in Eureka will be conducting a Tsunami Warning Communications Test in Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties, according to Ehlert.
If you are listening to the radio, you may hear alerting tones followed by a voice announcing that the test is occurring. Ehlert said if you have a NOAA weather radio with the Public Alert feature, the radio will automatically turn on and you will hear the same message as broadcast on radios.
In some areas, you may also hear the sounding of a tsunami siren, or an airplane testing its public address system. The tsunami sirens in Noyo Harbor, Pudding Creek, and Point Arena Cove are planned to be activated and will sound for approximately one to three minutes, Ehlert said.
To register or learn more about the Mendocino County Alert and Notification System, including a list of frequently asked questions, please visit www.MendocinoCounty.org/OES.
NASA's Cassini spacecraft is on final approach to Saturn, following confirmation by mission navigators that it is on course to dive into the planet’s atmosphere on Friday, Sept. 15.
The spacecraft's fateful dive is the final beat in the mission's Grand Finale, 22 weekly dives, which began in late April, through the gap between Saturn and its rings. No spacecraft has ever ventured so close to the planet before.
The mission’s final calculations predict loss of contact with the Cassini spacecraft will take place on Sept. 15 at 7:55 a.m. EDT (4:55 a.m. PDT).
Cassini will enter Saturn's atmosphere approximately one minute earlier, at an altitude of about 1,190 miles (1,915 kilometers) above the planet's estimated cloud tops (the altitude where the air pressure is 1-bar, equivalent to sea level on Earth).
During its dive into the atmosphere, the spacecraft's speed will be approximately 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) per hour.
The final plunge will take place on the day side of Saturn, near local noon, with the spacecraft entering the atmosphere around 10 degrees north latitude.
When Cassini first begins to encounter Saturn's atmosphere, the spacecraft's attitude control thrusters will begin firing in short bursts to work against the thin gas and keep Cassini's saucer-shaped high-gain antenna pointed at Earth to relay the mission's precious final data.
As the atmosphere thickens, the thrusters will be forced to ramp up their activity, going from 10 percent of their capacity to 100 percent in the span of about a minute.
Once they are firing at full capacity, the thrusters can do no more to keep Cassini stably pointed, and the spacecraft will begin to tumble.
When the antenna points just a few fractions of a degree away from Earth, communications will be severed permanently.
The predicted altitude for loss of signal is approximately 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) above Saturn's cloud tops. From that point, the spacecraft will begin to burn up like a meteor.
Within about 30 seconds following loss of signal, the spacecraft will begin to come apart; within a couple of minutes, all remnants of the spacecraft are expected to be completely consumed in the atmosphere of Saturn.
Due to the travel time for radio signals from Saturn, which changes as both Earth and the ringed planet travel around the Sun, events currently take place there 83 minutes before they are observed on Earth.
This means that, although the spacecraft will begin to tumble and go out of communication at 6:31 a.m. EDT (3:31 a.m. PDT) at Saturn, the signal from that event will not be received at Earth until 83 minutes later.
"The spacecraft's final signal will be like an echo. It will radiate across the solar system for nearly an hour and a half after Cassini itself has gone," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Even though we'll know that, at Saturn, Cassini has already met its fate, its mission isn't truly over for us on Earth as long as we're still receiving its signal."
Cassini's last transmissions will be received by antennas at NASA's Deep Space Network complex in Canberra, Australia.
Cassini is set to make groundbreaking scientific observations of Saturn, using eight of its 12 science instruments. All of the mission's magnetosphere and plasma science instruments, plus the spacecraft’s radio science system, and its infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers will collect data during the final plunge.
Chief among the observations being made as Cassini dives into Saturn are those of the Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer.
The instrument will directly sample the composition and structure of the atmosphere, which cannot be done from orbit.
The spacecraft will be oriented so that INMS is pointed in the direction of motion, to allow it the best possible access to oncoming atmospheric gases.
For the next couple of days, as Saturn looms ever larger, Cassini expects to take a last look around the Saturn system, snapping a few final images of the planet, features in its rings, and the moons Enceladus and Titan.
The final set of views from Cassini's imaging cameras is scheduled to be taken and transmitted to Earth on Thursday, Sept. 14. If all goes as planned, images will be posted to the Cassini mission website beginning around 11 p.m. EDT (8 p.m. PDT).
The unprocessed images will be available at https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/galleries/raw-images.
Live mission commentary and video from JPL Mission Control will air on NASA Television and the agency’s Web site from 7 to 8:30 a.m. EDT (4 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. PDT) on Sept. 15. A post-mission news briefing from JPL is currently scheduled for 9:30 a.m. EDT (6:30 a.m. PDT), also on NASA TV.
A new NASA e-book, The Saturn System Through the Eyes of Cassini, showcasing compelling images and key science discoveries from the mission, is available for free download in multiple formats at https://www.nasa.gov/ebooks.
An online toolkit of information and resources about Cassini's Grand Finale and final plunge into Saturn is available at https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/grandfinale.
Follow the Cassini spacecraft’s plunge on social media using #GrandFinale, or visit https://twitter.com/CassiniSaturn and https://www.facebook.com/NASACassini.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.
MENDOCINO NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – Mendocino National Forest fire personnel are managing several fires across the forest after thunderstorms on Tuesday.
The largest incidents are the Skeleton fire and the Slides fire, located on the Upper Lake Ranger District.
The Slides fire is approximately four miles west of Lake Pillsbury and is estimated at 50 acres, according to a Wednesday report from forest spokeswoman Sandra Moore.
Moore said resources ordered for this incident include smokejumpers, airtankers and helicopters. There is private property in proximity to the fire.
The Mendocino Emergency Communication Center reports it is having difficulty filling resource orders, Moore said.
The Skeleton fire is approximately four miles east of Lake Pillsbury near the boundary of the Snow Mountain Wilderness after a location correction that originally placed it within the wilderness, Moore said.
Moore said that fire is estimated at 200 acres with two crews assigned. It is growing at a moderate rate of spread in chaparral, timber and grass.
There are several other new fires across the forest and information about these will be provided as it becomes available, Moore said.
Moore said the forecast for Wednesday shows a slight chance of thunderstorms, temperatures 87 to 92 degrees, partly cloudy with light variable winds.
The largest incidents are the Skeleton fire and the Slides fire, located on the Upper Lake Ranger District.
The Slides fire is approximately four miles west of Lake Pillsbury and is estimated at 50 acres, according to a Wednesday report from forest spokeswoman Sandra Moore.
Moore said resources ordered for this incident include smokejumpers, airtankers and helicopters. There is private property in proximity to the fire.
The Mendocino Emergency Communication Center reports it is having difficulty filling resource orders, Moore said.
The Skeleton fire is approximately four miles east of Lake Pillsbury near the boundary of the Snow Mountain Wilderness after a location correction that originally placed it within the wilderness, Moore said.
Moore said that fire is estimated at 200 acres with two crews assigned. It is growing at a moderate rate of spread in chaparral, timber and grass.
There are several other new fires across the forest and information about these will be provided as it becomes available, Moore said.
Moore said the forecast for Wednesday shows a slight chance of thunderstorms, temperatures 87 to 92 degrees, partly cloudy with light variable winds.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – While Lake County continues to face enormous fiscal challenges, the county of Lake’s administrative officer told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that there also is reason for optimism as staff considers new ways of doing business and improving operations.
The supervisors unanimously approved the county’s 2017-18 final recommended budget, which County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson presented at the board’s Tuesday morning meeting.
The budget’s appropriations total approximately $230,395,789, based on the resolution the board approved.
That total breaks down as follows, according to the resolution:
- Salaries and benefits: $78,263,474;
- Services and supplies: $74,395,443;
- Other charges: $34,428,739;
- Fixed assets: $3,615,005;
- Construction in progress: $41,624,650;
- Other financing uses: ($3,593,160);
- contingencies: $1,661,638.
This year’s budget is nearly $11 million more than the final recommended budget the board approved for fiscal year 2016-17.
Budget narratives and documents for the meeting can be found under the meeting date at budget item at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3144840&GUID=B84A1B0D-507A-4DCF-8FE7-D91086266A47.
Over the years, it’s been common practice for the board to hold its most substantive budget hearings in September, when the final recommended budget is presented.
However, this year, Huchingson rearranged the process, with the board having an extended hearing in June in which there were presentations by each of the county’s department heads.
It’s that process that Huchingson indicated on Tuesday would be used going forward, as she said it made more sense to hold the longer hearings at the start of the fiscal year, not a few months in as has traditionally been done.
With the significant hearing held in June, on Tuesday Huchingson said she saw no need to hold another lengthy hearing. As such, her presentation and the board’s brief discussion took up only about 20 minutes of the hour-and-a-half-long meeting.
Huchingson’s presentation was both realistic and optimistic, sizing up challenges and emphasizing that the budget will take on those challenges in new ways.
“While the state and most other counties are fully recovered or actively recovering from the dip that hit all of us in the recession, we here in Lake County continue to face many financial challenges,” Huchingson said.
In particular, the county continues to face the many fiscal impacts resulting from the wildfire disasters of 2015 and 2016.
Tuesday was the second anniversary of the beginning of the most devastating of those fires, the Valley fire, which burned from Sept. 12 into early October of 2015.
The Valley fire resulted in four confirmed deaths, destroyed more than 1,950 structures – about 1,300 of them homes – and scorched more than 76,000 acres across the south county. It continues to be listed by the state as the third-most destructive fire in California’s history.
The Clayton fire, which occurred in Lower Lake in August 2016, burned more than 3,900 acres and 300 structures, 200 of them homes.
In addition to the fires, Huchingson said the county had costs increases in its labor agreements with safety employees in 2016 and 2017 that it is still working to cover.
There also have been retirement contribution increases for the workforce, although the county always had had a very modest version of the CalPERS retirement program compared to other jurisdictions, she said.
She also thanked the county’s department heads for their support and cooperation in bringing forward the budget, which included a new approach to budget narratives meant not just to present numbers but also to give a fuller picture of what each department does.
“This final recommended budget poses many solutions to these challenging fiscal times, both budgetarily and in terms of staffing,” with the document looking both at new revenue streams and operational efficiencies, she said.
Even though the financial picture is not as exciting as county officials would like it to be, "It's a time of opportunity to reinvent the way we do business, and so it is really an exciting time,” Huchingson said.
In terms of revenues, Huchingson said the 2017-18 budget includes the assumption of an update to the master fee schedule, which staff will be bringing back to the board on Sept. 19. The schedule was updated last year and the staff is now in a regular cycle of updating it, which she said will help the county’s revenues in years to come.
"As a whole, if we're going to meet our revenue needs in the future, we must focus on economic development in the county. We have to grow our tax base. Our property tax revenue is among the lowest of California counties and it was low even before the wildfire disasters decimated 22 percent of our land mass here in Lake County,” Huchingson said.
Huchingson said this budget also provides for consulting services to help look at other revenue enhancements and operational efficiencies.
“We're really at a time in which we need to reinvent ourselves,” she said.
Huchingson said staff also is recommending the establishment of “a technology modernization reserve.”
They’re proposing to put $500,000 of one-time funds into a reserve and then establish a committee that will compile recommendations for the board’s future consideration regarding technology advancements.
Huchingson said the county also must take action to address increases in the county’s retirement program which, while modest, is still expected to see costs rise “tremendously.”
She said staff has established a pension stabilization fund as part of its planning for those increases. Over the next seven years, the county’s general fund is anticipated to have increases to the tune of $18 million due to those growing retirement costs.
Absent new revenue, the county has to use one-time fund balance carryover to balance the budget, which Huchingson said comes at the expensive of one-time projects and building maintenance.
However, Huchingson noted of the budget document that it’s far from all negative.
The positives include maintaining service levels to the sheriff’s office, fully funding a sidewalk project in Clearlake Oaks and increasing funds for roads by almost $1 million, she said.
She said the budget is balanced, which means it has sufficient revenue to support its appropriations, although because of the use of one-time funds to support ongoing operations it’s not structurally balanced, which has been the case for the last couple of years.
Huchingson said the amount of one-time funds proposed to be used in the 2017-18 budget is less than the previous year.
Deputy County Administrative Officer Jeff Rein, one of the staffers who Huchingson cited as being key in preparing the budget, told Lake County News after the meeting that the county’s 2016-17 budget had used $1.5 million in one-time funds to balance, while the amount in this new fiscal year is smaller, coming in at $1.1 million.
He said the goal is that the use of those one-time funds will be eliminated after three years.
Huchingson told the board that despite the continuing pressure of diminishing funds and staffing challenges, the county’s departments continue to provide quality services.
Salary and benefits are as much factors as keeping up with volume of recruitments that the county needs, said Huchingson.
Filling jobs is such a concern that earlier in the meeting on Tuesday a new standing agenda item debuted in which staff reports on current job openings and recruitments.
Huchingson said the county’s compensation plan has lagged behind the other counties to which Lake typically is compared, and on average the county government’s salaries are considerably lower than other counties, which is why Lake serves as a training county.
“So we are facing many challenges,” said Huchingson. “It’s a strange time because at the same time I tell you I'm excited about the prospect of reinventing the way we do business, through the engagement of your board and with the dedication of department heads I believe that we can confront this budget year with positive momentum. It's really a time of opportunity where we look for new ways of doing business.”
“It always amazes me how we can do so much with so little,” said Supervisor Rob Brown.
He said the county hasn’t laid off people, which is something that would normally have to be done in tough budget times. “Our employees are our most valuable asset,” he said, adding that the county is fortunate in its department heads.
Board Chair Jeff Smith said this is the 19th budget he’s been part of, and recalled the many ups and downs the county has faced.
He said that he hopes a solar project to benefit the county’s senior centers will be done eventually. “I’m still hoping that’ll get some legs and move on after I’m gone,” said Smith, who intends to retire after his fifth four-year term is up.
In finalizing the budget, the board unanimously approved four items – including three resolutions to adopt the final recommended budget, approve position allocations and cancel general reserves, and the continuation of a hiring freeze, delegating authority to Huchingson to waive the freeze as appropriate.
Email Elizabeth Larson atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
The supervisors unanimously approved the county’s 2017-18 final recommended budget, which County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson presented at the board’s Tuesday morning meeting.
The budget’s appropriations total approximately $230,395,789, based on the resolution the board approved.
That total breaks down as follows, according to the resolution:
- Salaries and benefits: $78,263,474;
- Services and supplies: $74,395,443;
- Other charges: $34,428,739;
- Fixed assets: $3,615,005;
- Construction in progress: $41,624,650;
- Other financing uses: ($3,593,160);
- contingencies: $1,661,638.
This year’s budget is nearly $11 million more than the final recommended budget the board approved for fiscal year 2016-17.
Budget narratives and documents for the meeting can be found under the meeting date at budget item at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3144840&GUID=B84A1B0D-507A-4DCF-8FE7-D91086266A47.
Over the years, it’s been common practice for the board to hold its most substantive budget hearings in September, when the final recommended budget is presented.
However, this year, Huchingson rearranged the process, with the board having an extended hearing in June in which there were presentations by each of the county’s department heads.
It’s that process that Huchingson indicated on Tuesday would be used going forward, as she said it made more sense to hold the longer hearings at the start of the fiscal year, not a few months in as has traditionally been done.
With the significant hearing held in June, on Tuesday Huchingson said she saw no need to hold another lengthy hearing. As such, her presentation and the board’s brief discussion took up only about 20 minutes of the hour-and-a-half-long meeting.
Huchingson’s presentation was both realistic and optimistic, sizing up challenges and emphasizing that the budget will take on those challenges in new ways.
“While the state and most other counties are fully recovered or actively recovering from the dip that hit all of us in the recession, we here in Lake County continue to face many financial challenges,” Huchingson said.
In particular, the county continues to face the many fiscal impacts resulting from the wildfire disasters of 2015 and 2016.
Tuesday was the second anniversary of the beginning of the most devastating of those fires, the Valley fire, which burned from Sept. 12 into early October of 2015.
The Valley fire resulted in four confirmed deaths, destroyed more than 1,950 structures – about 1,300 of them homes – and scorched more than 76,000 acres across the south county. It continues to be listed by the state as the third-most destructive fire in California’s history.
The Clayton fire, which occurred in Lower Lake in August 2016, burned more than 3,900 acres and 300 structures, 200 of them homes.
In addition to the fires, Huchingson said the county had costs increases in its labor agreements with safety employees in 2016 and 2017 that it is still working to cover.
There also have been retirement contribution increases for the workforce, although the county always had had a very modest version of the CalPERS retirement program compared to other jurisdictions, she said.
She also thanked the county’s department heads for their support and cooperation in bringing forward the budget, which included a new approach to budget narratives meant not just to present numbers but also to give a fuller picture of what each department does.
“This final recommended budget poses many solutions to these challenging fiscal times, both budgetarily and in terms of staffing,” with the document looking both at new revenue streams and operational efficiencies, she said.
Even though the financial picture is not as exciting as county officials would like it to be, "It's a time of opportunity to reinvent the way we do business, and so it is really an exciting time,” Huchingson said.
In terms of revenues, Huchingson said the 2017-18 budget includes the assumption of an update to the master fee schedule, which staff will be bringing back to the board on Sept. 19. The schedule was updated last year and the staff is now in a regular cycle of updating it, which she said will help the county’s revenues in years to come.
"As a whole, if we're going to meet our revenue needs in the future, we must focus on economic development in the county. We have to grow our tax base. Our property tax revenue is among the lowest of California counties and it was low even before the wildfire disasters decimated 22 percent of our land mass here in Lake County,” Huchingson said.
Huchingson said this budget also provides for consulting services to help look at other revenue enhancements and operational efficiencies.
“We're really at a time in which we need to reinvent ourselves,” she said.
Huchingson said staff also is recommending the establishment of “a technology modernization reserve.”
They’re proposing to put $500,000 of one-time funds into a reserve and then establish a committee that will compile recommendations for the board’s future consideration regarding technology advancements.
Huchingson said the county also must take action to address increases in the county’s retirement program which, while modest, is still expected to see costs rise “tremendously.”
She said staff has established a pension stabilization fund as part of its planning for those increases. Over the next seven years, the county’s general fund is anticipated to have increases to the tune of $18 million due to those growing retirement costs.
Absent new revenue, the county has to use one-time fund balance carryover to balance the budget, which Huchingson said comes at the expensive of one-time projects and building maintenance.
However, Huchingson noted of the budget document that it’s far from all negative.
The positives include maintaining service levels to the sheriff’s office, fully funding a sidewalk project in Clearlake Oaks and increasing funds for roads by almost $1 million, she said.
She said the budget is balanced, which means it has sufficient revenue to support its appropriations, although because of the use of one-time funds to support ongoing operations it’s not structurally balanced, which has been the case for the last couple of years.
Huchingson said the amount of one-time funds proposed to be used in the 2017-18 budget is less than the previous year.
Deputy County Administrative Officer Jeff Rein, one of the staffers who Huchingson cited as being key in preparing the budget, told Lake County News after the meeting that the county’s 2016-17 budget had used $1.5 million in one-time funds to balance, while the amount in this new fiscal year is smaller, coming in at $1.1 million.
He said the goal is that the use of those one-time funds will be eliminated after three years.
Huchingson told the board that despite the continuing pressure of diminishing funds and staffing challenges, the county’s departments continue to provide quality services.
Salary and benefits are as much factors as keeping up with volume of recruitments that the county needs, said Huchingson.
Filling jobs is such a concern that earlier in the meeting on Tuesday a new standing agenda item debuted in which staff reports on current job openings and recruitments.
Huchingson said the county’s compensation plan has lagged behind the other counties to which Lake typically is compared, and on average the county government’s salaries are considerably lower than other counties, which is why Lake serves as a training county.
“So we are facing many challenges,” said Huchingson. “It’s a strange time because at the same time I tell you I'm excited about the prospect of reinventing the way we do business, through the engagement of your board and with the dedication of department heads I believe that we can confront this budget year with positive momentum. It's really a time of opportunity where we look for new ways of doing business.”
“It always amazes me how we can do so much with so little,” said Supervisor Rob Brown.
He said the county hasn’t laid off people, which is something that would normally have to be done in tough budget times. “Our employees are our most valuable asset,” he said, adding that the county is fortunate in its department heads.
Board Chair Jeff Smith said this is the 19th budget he’s been part of, and recalled the many ups and downs the county has faced.
He said that he hopes a solar project to benefit the county’s senior centers will be done eventually. “I’m still hoping that’ll get some legs and move on after I’m gone,” said Smith, who intends to retire after his fifth four-year term is up.
In finalizing the budget, the board unanimously approved four items – including three resolutions to adopt the final recommended budget, approve position allocations and cancel general reserves, and the continuation of a hiring freeze, delegating authority to Huchingson to waive the freeze as appropriate.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Area Town Hall this week is set to get updates on a number of new projects in southern Lake County.
MATH will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, at the Middletown Community Center, 21256 Washington St.
Meetings are open to the community, and offer the opportunity for additional public input on items not included on the agenda.
Items on the agenda include information on the Montesol Park project on the border of Lake and Napa counties; Huttopia at Six Sigma; the Guenoc Valley resort and residential project; and the design of a traffic circle Caltrans proposes to build at Highway 29 and Hartmann Road.
There also will be updates on oak tree protections, the Middletown Quick Lube and Dollar General projects, a proposed retail development at Highway 29 and Butts Canyon Road and a Valley fire memorial.
The MATH Board includes Chair Claude Brown, Vice Chair Linda Diehl-Darms, Secretary Fletcher Thornton, and members Lisa Kaplan and Gregg Van Oss.
MATH – established by resolution of the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 12, 2006 – is a municipal advisory council serving the residents of Anderson Springs, Cobb, Coyote Valley (including Hidden Valley Lake), Long Valley and Middletown.
Meetings are subject to videotaping.
For more information emailThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Email Elizabeth Larson atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
MATH will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 14, at the Middletown Community Center, 21256 Washington St.
Meetings are open to the community, and offer the opportunity for additional public input on items not included on the agenda.
Items on the agenda include information on the Montesol Park project on the border of Lake and Napa counties; Huttopia at Six Sigma; the Guenoc Valley resort and residential project; and the design of a traffic circle Caltrans proposes to build at Highway 29 and Hartmann Road.
There also will be updates on oak tree protections, the Middletown Quick Lube and Dollar General projects, a proposed retail development at Highway 29 and Butts Canyon Road and a Valley fire memorial.
The MATH Board includes Chair Claude Brown, Vice Chair Linda Diehl-Darms, Secretary Fletcher Thornton, and members Lisa Kaplan and Gregg Van Oss.
MATH – established by resolution of the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 12, 2006 – is a municipal advisory council serving the residents of Anderson Springs, Cobb, Coyote Valley (including Hidden Valley Lake), Long Valley and Middletown.
Meetings are subject to videotaping.
For more information email
Email Elizabeth Larson at