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CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clear Lake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club will meet at noon, Tuesday, Oct. 18.
The group will gather at the Scotts Valley Women's Club House at 2298 Hendricks Road, near Lakeport. A light lunch will be served.
Colleen Rentsch will speak on the Lake County Farm to School program.
This program works with school food service staff in Lake County to link their meals with farmers in the region.
The club also will finalize the details on this year's mum show, titled “Flower Friends With Mum.” It will be held at the Lakeport Yacht Club on Nov. 4 from 1 to 4 p.m. This event is free to the public.
The club welcomes new members and information can be found by visiting www.clttgc.org .
For more information please call Dana at 707-275-3500.
The Clear Lake Trowel & Trellis Garden Club is a member of the Mendo-Lake District of the California Garden Club Inc.-Pacific Region and National Garden Clubs Inc.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown's monthly Movies in the Park event will present “Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey” on Saturday, Oct. 15.
The free movie, which begins at dusk, will be moved indoors at the Middletown Community Center, 21256 Washington St., due to the inclement weather
“The Incredible Journey” is sponsored by Star Gardens Nursery, with host Lovie's Garden Supply. Middletown Area Merchants Association and Hardester's Markets present the movies.
This month, Middletown Boy Scouts Troop 215 will be the refreshments vendor.
For more information, visit www.middletownareamerchants.com or call 707-987-0998.
I was pleasantly surprised to read in the S.F. Chronicle that its editors are recommending yes on Proposition 56, the Tobacco Tax Initiative.
Prop 56, if approved, will add an additional $2 tax on a package of cigarettes.
Research has confirmed that heavy taxation on tobacco products is the most effective means to stop smoking. It also confirms that smoking is the most addictive of all risky health behaviors.
Cessation is important because providing public health care for those addicted to nicotine costs us, the taxpayers, on average, $18.29 per package of cigarettes sold!
Prop 56 will also apply the tax to e-cigarettes. This is equally important because the tobacco industry, the prime manufacturer of e-cigarettes, is targeting our youth in its marketing campaigns.
This is easily demonstrated by the “cutesy” packaging and the multiple sweet flavors that can be used in an e-cigarette. Of course each flavor contains nicotine and we all know this is the additive that creates the addiction.
The funding generated from the additional tax will primarily go to fund the health care costs paid by public health. It will also pay for research and public education programs to raise greater awareness of the devastation of tobacco products and in particular the tobacco industry’s marketing strategy to “hook” our children on e-cigarettes much like its “Joe Camel” strategy.
Radio and TV ads are already trying to convince you to vote no on Prop 56, by linking the proposition to a diversion of funds for education.
Do not be deceived. The only education funded by tobacco taxes is to increase awareness of the detrimental health caused by smoking. These ads are entirely paid for by the tobacco industry. They are spending millions to kill this “We the People” initiative.
At the same time this industry is silent on Prop 64, the Marijuana Recreational Use Initiative. This is because they are quietly buying up acres of land to position itself to become the major marijuana producer, thereby putting our small entrepreneurs out of business. I think it should be clear to all what this industry’s motive is: Profit.
Don’t let big money win. Vote Yes on Prop 56.
Tom Jordan is the former executive director of First 5 Lake. He lives in Lakeport, Calif.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A system coming into Northern California from the eastern Pacific Ocean is expected to bring with it rain to Lake County and other parts of the region starting on Thursday evening.
The National Weather Service issued an updated special weather statement for Northern California on Thursday afternoon calling for wet and windy weather through Monday.
The agency's forecast said a significant stream of moisture “will continue to interact with a series of fronts through the weekend” to bring widespread rain from Washington southward to Northern California.
Two primary waves of precipitation are expected, according to forecasters.
The first wave is expected to arrive Thursday night and continue through Friday, while the second wave will occur from Saturday afternoon through early Monday.
On Thursday night, the forecast calls for close to an inch of rain across Lake County with wind gust into the 20-mile-per-hour range. More than half an inch of rain is anticipated on Friday, with wind gusts into the mid-teens.
The specific forecast does not include potential rainfall totals for Saturday and Sunday. However, wind gusts into the 20s are again expected on Saturday.
The National Weather Service is forecasting rainfall totals for the two storm waves through Tuesday of between one and two inches in southern Lake County, and ranging up to six inches of rain in the far northern portion of Lake County.
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NICE, Calif. – The Lake County Public Services Department will host a grand opening later this month to celebrate the completion of new facilities – including a new sports field – at Hammond Avenue Park in Nice.
The grand opening will take place at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 21, at the park, located at 6935 Hammond Ave.
The park's new offerings include a professionally designed, multi-use sports field, parking area, bleachers and a new restroom.
Public Services is touting the park as “an excellent example of the achievements that can be realized when people work together for the betterment of our communities,” and one that will provide another venue for physical activity and community building.
The county acquired the 12-acre property that now makes up the park – located at the corner of Hammond Avenue and Lakeshore Boulevard – in 2005, according to Public Services Deputy Director Kati Galvani.
To date, Public Services has spent approximately $265,000 on the sports field, bleachers, back stop, parking lot, well, landscaping and signage, and $150,000 on the new restroom facility, Galvani said.
Galvani said the sources of those funds were the Quimby Act, which are park development fees that come from new development and help mitigate property improvement impacts; the Indian Gaming Special Distribution Fund; and some county general fund monies.
There is one more major improvement planned for the park, according to Galvani.
“Eventually, there will be a trail along the outside of it,” she said.
That proposed trail will extend 1,600 linear feet along the wetlands around Hammond Park, and will be built with state grant funds, Galvani said.
In 2014, the California Department of Parks and Recreation's Habitat Conservation Fund Program – which had previously given the county funds for Mt. Konocti County Park – awarded the county $108,450 for the trail and habitat restoration. The grant requires a dollar-for-dollar match from county funds.
Galvani said the county has until 2021 to complete the trail project, under the grant's requirements.
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UPPER LAKE, Calif. – A Ukiah man died of his injuries after being hit by a vehicle on Tuesday night while walking across Highway 20 near Upper Lake.
In its Wednesday report, the California Highway Patrol did not release the name of the 46-year-old man who was mortally injured in the crash, pending notification of family.
At approximately 7:08 p.m. Tuesday the pedestrian was crossing Highway 20 from Main Street to Bridge Arbor North, the CHP said.
At the same time, Randy James Vess, 61, of Clearlake Oaks was driving his 2015 Dodge Ram 2500 pickup eastbound on Highway 20, approaching the intersection with Main Street/Bridge Arbor North at approximately 45 miles per hour, the CHP said.
The CHP said Vess' pickup hit the pedestrian, who later died of his injuries. Vess was not injured.
Investigators determined that Vess was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the collision, while the CHP said it did not yet know what level of impairment, if any, the pedestrian had at the time he was hit.
The CHP said the cause of the collision remains under investigation.
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