How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Due to the current and forecast weather, the Bureau of Land Management is canceling the guided bald eagle hike scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 21.
Additional hikes will be held on Saturdays through Feb. 18.
Amanda L. Hinnen
Nov. 12, 1962 – Jan. 15, 2017
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Traditional Native American services will start with visitation at Big Valley Gymnasium on Friday, Jan. 20, at noon and continue until her funeral service at Big Valley Gymnasium on Sunday, Jan. 22, at 11 a.m.
For further information please contact Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary, 707-263-0357 or 707-994-5611, or visit www.chapelofthelakes.com .
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Area Town Hall elected new board members and determined its slate of 2017 officers at its meeting last week.
The group held its usual monthly meeting on Thursday at the Middletown Senior and Community Center.
On the agenda was the election of this year's board.
Nominated over the last two meetings of 2016 were then-Chair Fletcher Thornton, Marlene Elder and Lisa Kaplan.
At the Thursday meeting, Thornton was reelected, and Kaplan, the executive director of the Middletown Art Center, was elected to the board for the first time.
The board's leadership also was determined at the Thursday meeting.
Last year's vice chair, Claude Brown, will serve as chair in the coming year, with Linda Diehl-Darms elected vice chair and Thornton to act as secretary. The fifth board member is Gregg Van Oss.
The Middletown Area Town Hall, which marked its 10th anniversary in December, meets on the second Thursday of every month.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
COBB, Calif. – When it meets this week the Cobb Area Council will consider its plans for the coming year, discuss plans for a rebuild workshop and volunteer opportunities.
The council will meet from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19, at the Little Red Schoolhouse, 15780 Bottle Rock Road.
On Thursday the group will discuss a proposal to hold the Cobb Rebuild Workshop on Saturday, Feb. 18.
The group also will approve its 2017 Action Agenda and establish a Cobb Area Plan working group.
In other business, there will be a presentation from the Red Cross on volunteer opportunities to support its programs in Lake County including pillowcase, local disaster responses and home fire safety campaigns.
There also will be reports from the council's treasurer and committees for Neighborhood Watch, abatement monitoring, case management monitoring, emergency communications and emergency preparedness, and an update from Supervisor Rob Brown.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – State Sen. Mike McGuire, one of the only Democrats in the State Senate to represent a rural district, has seen first-hand how one-size-fits-all approaches to statewide issues negatively impact rural regions of California.
He has successfully fought for rural set asides to be included in statewide programs that benefit rural counties and small communities and advocated for rural California to get their fair share of state grants and funding.
Last year, Sen. Mike McGuire – whose district includes Lake County – authored a bill that would have greatly benefited rural counties by requiring the state to fund payment in lieu of taxes, or PILT, reimbursements to counties.
This bill was passed in both legislative houses without any votes in opposition, but still did not receive Gov. Brown’s signature.
Sen. McGuire has vowed to ensure rural counties receive this payment in perpetuity, so he reintroduced the bill for the 2017 legislative session.
“The state needs to step up and follow through on a promise and advance Fish and Wildlife PILT payments to rural counties,” McGuire said. “Since 2001, California has been depositing millions of PILT dollars into the General Fund. Those dollars should have been going to help rural communities thrive and it’s time the State steps up and invests those PILT dollars locally.”
PILT payments were established in 1949 to offset adverse impacts to county property tax revenues that result when the State acquires private property within a county for wildlife management areas.
Currently, the State Department of Fish and Wildlife owes nearly $8 million in payments to California’s 36 rural counties and a change in 2015 to the Fish and Game Code makes it even easier for the state to forgo making these payments.
Holding back these payments to counties on the North Coast has had a detrimental impact on the counties and their bottom line.
For example, in PILT payments alone, Del Norte is owed more than $220,000, Humboldt County is owed more than $160,000, Lake County is owed $93,000, Sonoma County is owed $116,000 and Marin County is owed over $150,000.
“Small communities and rural counties desperately need these dollars to keep our neighborhoods safe, fund local fire and emergency services and invest in crumbling roads and streets,” McGuire said.
In a minor victory, in the Governor’s recommended budget, $644,000 in one time PILT funds will be distributed to rural counties in the 2017-18 Fiscal Year.
McGuire's office said there remains a desperate need for ongoing funds which could be invested in keeping rural communities safe, fixing dilapidated roads and delivering health care services.
SB 58 is a bipartisan effort to make PILT payments to counties a requirement and if passed, will take effect in 2018.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Sunday morning at 6:15 a.m. quietly Gladys Alice Hammack slipped into the arms of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Celebrating her life are her children, Donavon (Maureen) Hammack of Fremont, Susan (Mike) Henson of Clearlake, Amy Hammack of Sacramento, Derhonda Gleason-Hammack of Hidden Valley, Dale (Jennifer) Hammack of Clearlake, Tommy (Beth-Anne) Hammack of Placerville, Dona Simpson of Newport, Ore., Ashley Hammock of Santa Clara and Wendy (John) Newsome of Clearlake.
Gladys raised nine children, was grandmother to 17 and great-grandmother to 17 and great-great grandmother to one. She is predeceased in 2002 by her loving husband of 42 years, Paul LeRoy Hammack.
Gladys was born on May 8, 1939, in Bath, New York and moved to California where she met Paul L. Hammack in Concord, Calif. Paul was widowed with six children, two still infants. Gladys took on the responsibility of maintaining the household and sharing in the raising of six children. Paul and Gladys married and together had three children, making a family of nine children.
The act of parenting nine children was not without challenges, but Gladys was there to be the woman of the house. She raised her children the best she could and provided a home that saw all enter adulthood and become productive God-fearing adults, a credit to her and Paul’s love and effort.
Gladys read her bible everyday, prayed about everything and loved the Lord with all of her heart. She will be greatly missed by all that knew and loved her, but her imprint on the lives she helped shape will live on as a testament to her unalterable spirit and love for her family.
A memorial service will be held at Assembly of God Church, 4472 Snook Ave. in Clearlake, on Saturday, Jan. 21, at 3 p.m.
All those who knew Gladys are invited to come and join in the celebration honoring her life, her person and her promotion to Heaven as its newest member of God’s Great Kingdom.
Arrangements by Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary, 707-263-0357 or 707-994-5611, or visit www.chapelofthelakes.com .