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NORTH COAST, Calif. – The Fort Bragg Center for Arts' Coast Chamber Concerts will host pianist Carolyn Steinbuck on Sunday, Jan. 15.
The concert will take place at 3 p.m. at Preston Hall, 44867 Main St. in Mendocino.
Steinbuck will perform the Schubert “B flat Sonata.”
She will be joined by cellist Marcia Sloane and clarinetist Eric Kritz for two trios: “Fantasy Trio” by Muczynski and the “Brahms Trio in A minor.”
Tickets are $20 in advance at Harvest Market, Fort Bragg, and at Out of this World, Mendocino. They are also available at the the door for $25.
For additional information call 707937-1018 or e-mail
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On the early morning of Dec. 29, 2016, Denis passed away after a two-year battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his wife Dara, his son Ross, and his lifelong friend Lorna, and died bathed in their love. He was 59 years old at the time of his death.
Denis was a native of San Francisco, Calif., born there on Feb. 28, 1957, at 6:05 a.m. He was the first child of Rita Ross Cashman and Michael Denis Cashman, and was born on his mother’s birthday.
Denis was raised in the Catholic faith, and attended parochial schools his whole life. He attended St. Finn Barr Grammar School and graduated from St. Ignatius High School in 1975. He then went on to obtain a Bachelors of Arts from USF College, and proceeded to attend USF Law School. He received his Juris Doctorate from USF Law School in 1983.
Denis devoted his life to public service, first as a San Francisco Police officer, where he worked for eight years including as an undercover vice officer, then as a district attorney in Marin and San Francisco counties.
After spending over 20 years protecting the public as a district attorney, he retired and opened a private practice defending the accused. He was known universally as a fair, compassionate attorney, who really understood people and what justice truly meant. Denis won the respect of his fellow district attorneys, the defense bar, the bench and the civil attorneys alike.
Denis was also passionate about keeping himself informed, and kept abreast of current events. He spent hours listening to political talk shows, with no particular slant, wanting to hear both sides on any issue before taking a position.
Due in part to his interest in politics, and in part to his thirst for justice, Denis became involved in the association for county attorneys. He was a tireless union advocate and spent hours in negotiations, fighting to, and succeeding in, gaining better wages and benefits for his fellow prosecutors.
Denis had a razor sharp mind, and was known for his incredible grasp of trivia. Rarely was he stumped by any trivia questions, and won many a Trivial Pursuit game, a beloved pastime. He also was a fierce bocce ball player, and played competitively for years. He even installed a bocce ball court at his home in Lake County.
Denis was preceded in death by his parents, Rita Ross Cashman and Michael Denis Cashman.
Denis is survived by his devoted and devastated wife of 31 years, Dara Cashman, and his equally devoted and devastated son Ross Tyler Cashman. He is also survived by his brother and sister-in-law Kevin and Melissa Cashman, his sister and brother-in-law Mary and Patrick Daniels, and his nieces and nephews Allie Cashman, Katie Cashman, Dylan Cashman, Gabrielle Daniels, Joey Daniels, and Jilly Daniels. He is also survived by his in-laws, Bill and Lorna Lawver, who were his partners in so many ventures and adventures.
A funeral service will be held at Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary on Friday, Jan. 6, at 11 a.m. with interment to follow at Upper Lake Cemetery.
Denis had a special fondness for the work that the Guide Dogs For the Blind Foundation do, so donations to that foundation in his name would be appreciated. In addition, cancer has devastated Denis’ family, so donations in his name to the American Cancer Society would also be welcomed.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Gene H. Hughes passed away peacefully at home in Kelseyville on Dec. 31, 2016.
Gene is survived by his wife of 46 years, June "Gunn" Hughes; stepchildren, Marketta Kent, Margo Jay, Mark Olsen, Marn Olsen, Marr Olsen and Mart Clupper; niece, Lorrie Behrens; nephews, Paul Hughes, Bob Hughes, Jeff Hughes, Don Hughes and Steve Hughes; grandchildren, Julie Olsen, Ashley Olsen, Amber Olsen, Amanda Olsen, Ryan Jay, Tonya Jay, Jodi Heilman, Heidi Jay, Gunner Olsen, Tanner Olsen, Skyler Olsen, Chad Roughton and Chelsey Tonoai.
He is predeceased by his parents, Orville and Belva Hughes; brothers, Maynard Hughes, Jim Hughes, Foster Hughes and Don Hughes; and his son, Phil Hughes.
Gene was born in Kelseyville on May 4, 1927, and attended Kelseyville Elementary School before his family moved to Napa, where he graduated from Napa High School.
He was a Merchant Marine during World War II. After the war, he became a carpenter and later a building contractor. He finished his career as an accomplished builder of fine homes in Lake County.
Gene was an avid fisherman and hunter. He traveled most of the country and many parts of the world. He lived a fulfilled life with many lifelong friends and family who loved him dearly.
Visitation will be held at Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary, 1625 N. High St. in Lakeport, on Thursday, Jan. 5, from 4 to 7 p.m.
A graveside funeral service will be held at Kelseyville Cemetery on Friday, Jan. 6, at 2 p.m. with a reception to follow at the family home.
For more information please contact Chapel of the Lakes Mortuary at 707-263-0357 or 707-994-5611, or visit www.chapelofthelakes.com .
NORTH COAST, Calif. – South Lake County Fire and Cal Fire personnel offered key assistance to Mendocino County officials on Tuesday during a snow rescue operation.
Early Tuesday afternoon, Cal Fire and the South Lake County Fire Protection District received a call for mutual aid assistance from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue, according to Mike Wilson, information officer for Cal Fire's Sonoma Lake Napa unit.
Wilson said sheriff's officials at that time were making a plan to reach three young adults who had spent Monday night in the Hull Mountain area of the Mendocino National Forest.
The heavy snow conditions in that area had unexpectedly stranded the three young men approximately 10 miles north of the Gravelly Airstrip near Lake Pillsbury in Mendocino County, Wilson said.
South Lake County Fire has a Snowcat, a tracked vehicle that Wilson said is the appropriate resource for these types of rescues.
He said two rescue and operator trained firefighters from Cal Fire and South Lake County Fire loaded up the Snowcat and headed out to assist the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office. Lake County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue resources also were at the scene.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue commander traveled with the two Snowcat rescuers making their way through white out conditions and snow drifts using only GPS navigation to reach the three young adults, Wilson said.
He said the sheriff’s office had pinpointed the location of the three and had plotted a course to follow on forest roads.
Wilson said it took approximately three hours for the rescuers and the Snowcat to reach the men, climbing up to around the 7,000 foot elevation.
The snow was halfway up the windshield of the stranded vehicle when the rescuers arrived, with the GPS taking them to their exact location in the dark and snowy conditions, Wilson said.
With the heavy snow conditions, Wilson said it is unlikely that the vehicle the men were traveling in will be visible on Wednesday.
Wilson said early Wednesday morning that the three adults and the rescuers made it down to the snow line and everyone was at that point headed home.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Only a few drunk driving arrests were made in Lake County over the Christmas holiday, with no major crashes reported, according to the California Highway Patrol.
As it does each year, the CHP conducted a maximum enforcement period during the Christmas holiday, from Friday, Dec. 23, through the night of Monday, Dec. 26.
The enforcement puts all available officers on local roads, where they focus on impaired drivers and look for speeding, seat belt violations, distracted drivers and motorists needing help.
Sgt. Steve Krul of the CHP's Clear Lake Area office said there were two drunk driving arrests made in Lake County during the Christmas enforcement period, compared with two in 2015 and four in 2014.
Across the CHP's Northern Division – which covers 13 Northern California counties and 17 area units – there were 30 total DUI arrests during the Christmas holiday, Krul said.
There were a total of two crash fatalities reported in the Northern Division during that enforcement period, occurring in the Willows Area, according to Krul.
Another maximum enforcement period was held from the evening of Friday, Dec. 30, through late Monday, Jan. 2.
However, with Monday having been a state holiday, Krul said he did not yet have the statistics for the New Year's holiday enforcement period.
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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – As California undergoes a series of storms bringing snow and rain, the first snow survey of the year showed that the snowpack's water content remains below average.
The California Department of Water Resources, or DWR, conducted manual snow survey at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada range.
The survey found a snow water equivalence of 6 inches, which is 5.3 inches less than the average early-January snow water equivalence of 11.3 inches as measured at Phillips since 1964.
Snow water equivalence is the depth of water that theoretically would result if the entire snowpack melted instantaneously. That measurement is more important than depth in evaluating the status of the snowpack.
More telling than a survey at a single location, however, are DWR’s electronic readings Tuesday from 105 stations scattered throughout the Sierra Nevada.
The measurements indicate the water content of the northern Sierra snowpack is 7.2 inches, 68 percent of the multi-decade average for the date.
The central and southern Sierra readings are 7.4 inches (65 percent of average) and 6.6 inches (73 percent of average) respectively.
Statewide, the snowpack holds 7.2 inches of water equivalent, or 70 percent of the January 3 average.
January and February are two of California’s three historically wettest months, which means the readings taken Tuesday at Phillips during the winter’s first media-oriented snow survey are a key starting point of information but don’t shed much light on how wet the wet season ultimately will be.
The Phillips snow course, which is near the intersection of Highway 50 and Sierra-at-Tahoe Road, is one of hundreds that will be surveyed manually throughout the winter.
Manual measurements augment the electronic readings from about 100 snow pillows in the Sierra Nevada that provide a current snapshot of the water content in the snowpack.
Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program, conducted Tuesday’s survey at Phillips and reported that a water content there of only 53 percent of the early-January average “seems a little gloomy.”
“Keep in mind,” he continued, “we had pretty much bare ground here about a week ago, with a few patches of snow. Most of the snow we measured today came down in the last couple days and is continuing to come down.”
Gehrke said forecasters predict a series of wet cold storms stretching into next week. “That’s going to bolster the snowpack,” he said. “I can see us being potentially at average once that series of storms moves through. I think it’s a very encouraging start to the winter, and certainly we’ve had other winters when (Phillips) has been basically a bare field.”
State Climatologist Mike Anderson said about half of California’s annual rainfall occurs in December, January and February and about two-thirds of the annual total arrives during December through March.
Total precipitation so far this water year, which began Oct. 1, has been above average, but warm temperatures during storm events have tended to cause precipitation to fall as rain rather than snow in many mountain locations.
“We still have three historically wet months ahead of us,” Anderson said, “so there’s still time for the snowpack to build and improve before it begins to melt, which usually starts happening around April 1.”
Acting DWR Director Bill Croyle said above-average precipitation since the start of Water Year 2017 in October added significantly to storage in 154 reservoirs tracked by the Department.
Croyle said DWR has estimated total storage at the end of December at 21.5 million acre-feet (MAF), 98 percent of the reservoirs’ historical average of 21.9 MAF on Dec. 31.
Lake Shasta, California’s largest surface reservoir, now holds 118 percent of its historical average on Tuesday’s date. One year ago, Shasta’s storage was just 50 percent of its average.
Similarly, Lake Oroville, the State Water Project’s largest reservoir, held much more water on Tuesday than a year ago – 91 percent of its historical average compared to just 47 percent one year ago.
“Precipitation and storage are doing quite well compared to the past 5 years of historic drought conditions,” Croyle said, “and that makes us cautiously optimistic about water conditions, although some areas in California are still hit hard by the drought and require a response. The snowpack is clearly lagging below its early-January average, but we have many more snow courses to measure this winter before we’ll know whether this water year has had a significant positive effect on the drought.”
DWR conducts five media-oriented snow surveys each winter – near the first of January, February, March, April and May – at the Phillips Station plot in the Sierra Nevada range just off Highway 50 near Sierra-at-Tahoe Road 90 miles east of Sacramento.
On average, the snowpack supplies about 30 percent of California’s water needs as it melts in the spring and early summer.
The greater the snowpack water content, the greater the likelihood California’s reservoirs will receive ample runoff as the snowpack melts to meet the state’s water demand in the summer and fall.
