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MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The 81st quilt block on the Lake County Quilt Trail has been installed at the Middletown Library.
Titled “Middletown Library,” the block was designed and donated by the Friends of the Middletown Library, and shows the spines of books on a shelf.
Middletown’s new library is in the same complex as the new Middletown Senior Center, located at 21267 Washington St.
Middletown Library is one of the four main libraries in Lake County. Groundbreaking for the Middletown Library and Senior Center took place in September of 2011, with the library opening in April of 2013.
The building is owned by the county of Lake. Hours are Tuesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is closed Sunday and Monday, and holidays. For more information visit http://library.co.lake.ca.us/ .
The Lake County Quilt Trail is an agricultural and tourism project designed to promote community pride.
The 4-foot by 4-foot quilt block was drawn and painted by the Lake County Quilt Trail team.
The Lake County Quilt Trail is a group of dedicated volunteer quilters, graphic artists, painters, writers, carpenters and a videographer.
For more information about the Lake County Quilt Trail visit www.lakecountyquilttrail.com or check out the group's Facebook page.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has three cats available for adoption at the week's beginning.
The three young cats are all males and ready to leave the shelter behind.
In addition to spaying or neutering, cats that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are microchipped before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets there, hoping you'll choose them.
In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .
The following cats at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (other cats pictured on the animal control Web site that are not listed here are still “on hold”).
Male gray tabby
This young male gray tabby has a short coat.
He's in cat room kennel No. 80a, ID no. 4362.
Male gray tabby
This young male gray tabby has a medium-length coat.
He's in cat room kennel No. 80b, ID No. 4364.
Domestic short hair
This young male domestic short hair has a white coat with gray tabby markings.
He's in cat room kennel No. 80c, ID No. 4366.
Adoptable cats also can be seen at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Cats_and_Kittens.htm or at www.petfinder.com .
To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – One of the key economic indicators in Lake County – real estate values – showed a big improvement in 2015, according to the Lake County Association of Realtors.
LCAOR reported that the median sales price of single family residences for Lake County rose from $169,000 in 2014 to $208,500 for 2015, a 23.4-percent increase.
The number of units selling in 2015 increased by 19.4 percent, rising from 732 units in 2014 to 874 units in 2015, the association reported.
In 2006 the median sales price in Lake County peaked at $310,000 before falling to a low of $107,000 in 2011 during the great recession, according to the report.
Since 2011, the median sales price has increased in each of the subsequent years, LCAOR said.
Distressed property sales accounted for 14.65 percent of the 2015 sales, which LCAOR said is down from 26.4 percent of the sales in 2014.
While this number has been on the decrease over the last few years, LCAOR said the percentage is still high when compared to the statewide median.
In 2011 more than 72 percent of the single family residential sales were considered distressed, the association said.
On a year-to-year basis, financing of property sales remained relatively the same. In 2015 32.2 percent of the sales were financed with cash; in 2014, 32.4 percent of the transactions were cash financed, LCAOR said.
Conventional loans were used in 36.2 percent of the 2015 deals and 35 percent of the 2014 deals. FHA loan financing dropped from 12.7 percent of the transactions in 2014 to 11.4 percent in 2015, according to the report.
LCAOR said land sales in the county had a total dollar sales volume of $18.5 million on 235 sales. This was up from 2014 land sales of $14.3 million and 221 sales.
Of the last 10 years, the year that had the highest volume and number of sales was 2006, when $53.2 million was the dollar volume and 563 sales were recorded, LCAOR said.
The dollar volume for reported commercial sales was $8.5 million, down from $11.8 million in 2014. The number of sales in 2015 was 23 compared to 21 sales in 2014.
One sale was at the $1,000,000 mark in 2015, LCAOR reported.
LCAOR President Erin Woodward said 2015 was an excellent year for Lake County real estate values.
“Statewide inventories have been tight and housing affordability continues to be a concern,” Woodward said. “This normally bodes well for the Lake County market as buyers seek more affordable solutions.”
NUMBERS AT A GLANCE
Lake County – 2015
Median price: $208,500
Median days to sell: 87
Units sold: 874
Lake County – 2014
Median price: $169,000
Median days to sell: 76
Units sold: 732
Lake County – land sales 2015
Sales dollar volume: $18.5 million
Median days to sell: 142
Units sold: 235
Lake County – land sales 2014
Sales dollar volume: $14.3 million
Median days to sell: 102
Units sold: 221
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – The Upper Lake Unified School District Board will meet this week to discuss the next steps in hiring new key staff positions.
The board will meet in open session at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9, in the student center/library at Upper Lake High School, 675 Clover Valley Road.
All documents for the meeting can be found at http://www.ulhs.k12.ca.us/parents/?id=123 .
At its last meeting at the end of January, the board took action to hire Upper Lake Union High School District Principal/Superintendent Patrick Iaccino to also act as interim superintendent of the new district, as Lake County News has reported.
The boards of both the new unified district and the soon-to-be-dissolved high school district approved a memorandum of understanding to allow Iaccino to act as superintendent for both districts, work he agreed to do with no additional pay.
Similarly, on Tuesday the board will consider a memorandum of understanding with the Upper Lake Union High School District to have Dina McCrea, Iaccino's administrative assistant at the high school, provide administrative secretarial support to the new district.
A second memorandum of understanding between the new district and Upper Lake Union Elementary School District is to allow for Becky Jeffries, the elementary district's chief business official, to be the chief business official of the unified district.
McCrea and Jeffries, like Iaccino, will not receive additional compensation, according to the proposed contracts, which will be in effect from the time of acceptance until June 30, the day when the elementary and high school districts will formally dissolve in order for the unification to become final.
In other business, the board will consider approving the job description and salary schedule for the elementary school principal job, and new agreements and bylaws.
Also on the agenda are special reports from Wally Holbrook and Richard Smith of Education Leadership Solutions, the consulting firm hired to help with educating the new board, on the board work study; a special report from Iaccino on the new district's organization structure as well as his regular informational update; and a report from Jeffries.
Board members include President Mel O'Meara, Clerk Diane Plante, and members Keith Austin, Don Meri and Claudine Pedroncelli.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Upper Lake High School brought home the trophy at Saturday's Lake County Academic Decathlon, giving a dominating performance that unseated last year's winning team.
Upper Lake, which last took home the trophy in the 2011-12 school year, beat out Clear Lake High School, the defending champion, and Kelseyville High School.
Upper Lake's head coach, Anna Sabalone, an alumna of the school and a former academic decathlete herself, savored bringing the trophy back to her school after a three-year absence.
“I'm still in shock,” she said afterward the competition, in between sharing hugs with excited students.
She said of her students, “I'm so proud of them. They wanted it.”
Academic Decathlon teams include three members each from three academic levels: Honors, with a grade point average of 3.75 to 4.00; Scholastic, 3.00 to 3.74 GPA; and Varsity, GPA of 2.99 or below.
Those teams compete in 10 academic disciplines – arts, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, mathematics, music, science, social science and speech.
The competition also includes the Super Quiz, plus the unscored poster and poetry contests.
This year's competition topic is India.
“It takes a lot of hard work to be a decathlete,” Tammy Serpa, education specialist with Career and College Readiness Department of the Lake County Office of Education, said during the competition.
Serpa and Academic Decathlon Coordinator Norma Cromwell oversaw the organization of this year's competition.
The essay, speech and interview portions of the competition had taken place in January, with the rest of the subject tests taken by the more than 50 participating students on Saturday morning.
The community was able to attend the Super Quiz portion, held in Kelseyville High School's cafeteria, which was followed by the awards presentation.
“What a terrific event,” said Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg, who introduced the Saturday afternoon Super Quiz, the portion of the competition open to the competition.
Falkenberg said it's rewarding to honor student achievements. Later in the afternoon, he helped hand out the awards, in so doing getting to put several medals around the necks of his twin sons, Cord and Nate.
Cord and Nate Falkenberg were first and second, respectively, in the total number of points they earned for their Clear Lake High School team, with Cord Falkenberg also the overall top-scoring student of the event.
During the awards presentation, Upper Lake High students David Becerra-Lopez and Mercedes De Los Santos gave their winning speeches.
Becerra-Lopez spoke about engaging and socializing with others.
“Every person is an opportunity to discover something new,” he said.
De Los Santos discussed the stresses young people her age face in meeting their obligations at school and at home.
Later, after the winning team was announced and the suspense was over, De Los Santos had a chance to celebrate.
De Los Santos, a first-year academic decathlete, summed up the experience as “crazy” but great.
“It was hard and stressful and also absolutely, positively worth it,” she said.
She said it has been a long stretch without an Academic Decathlon championship for Upper Lake High, which has won more championships over the past 15 years than any other local high school team.
“I felt we brought back our honor,” De Los Santos said.
While other teams have dropped out of the competition in recent years – Middletown and Lower Lake high schools are not currently taking part – Upper Lake High School has maintained its Academic Decathlon class, even when budgets were tight.
Upper Lake Union High School Principal/Superintendent Patrick Iaccino, who was on hand for the Saturday competition, said the event shows why it was important to maintain.
“I'm a firm believer in kids having opportunities,” Iaccino said.
He said it's educators' responsibility to keep offerings like the Academic Decathlon, Mock Trial and engaging coursework like robotics available. Iaccino added that it's amazing to see how many different activities the students are taking on at his school.
“I wish more people could see this,” he said of the students' performance at the Academic Decathlon.
Upper Lake High School's team now advances to the California Academic Decathlon competition in Sacramento March 17 to 20.
Sabalone said she'll give the students a few days of rest before buckling down for a final month of study. Students like De Los Santos also will be preparing for the Lake County Mock Trial competition in Lakeport Feb. 12.
The Lake County Friends of Mendocino College is giving $250 to Upper Lake High School to help pay for the trip to the state Academic Decathlon competition.
Team rosters and full competition results are listed below.
TEAM ROSTERS
Clear Lake High School
Superintendent: Erin Smith-Hagberg
Principal: Marty Wilkes
Coach: Kristi Tripp
Jessica Beall, Miah Bullard, Berenise Cortez, Cord Falkenberg, Nate Falkenberg, Chris Griffith, Nikki Hanson, Ethan Jones, Subhagya Joshi, Haley Lindley, Jessica Moreno, Antonio Perez, Sarah Pope, Andrew Scott, Iris Vasquez
Kelseyville High School
Superintendent: Dave McQueen
Principal: Matt Cockerton
Coaches: Erick Larsen and Heather Koschik
Andreas Aceves, Kristen Amendola, Madison Boyd, Summer Brown, Kelsie Engle, Garrett Grossner, Cassidy Holmes, Wyatt Mascolina, Cassidy McCoy, Samantha Nugent, Kallianne Otte, Anna Pak, Nidhi Patel, Megan Petersen, Nolan Rae, Tiara Richards, Merin Rixen, Sarah Sheridan, Nichole Stevens, Makenzee Taylor, Kaylie Williams
Upper Lake High School
Superintendent/Principal: Patrick Iaccino
Coaches: Anna Sabalone, Angel Hayenga and Christal Coatney
David Becerra-Lopez, Mercedes De Los Santos, Daniela Estrada-Flores, Eduardo Eufracio-Duran, Katie Foster, Megan Franco, Casey Herman, Kenneth Hodges, Miranda Huntley, Anisha Kalan, Kehlani McKelvey, Tyler Mendenhall, Wroehnyn Milks, Cristal Nieves, Travis Rife, Elizabeth Rosas-Moreno, Brenna Sanchez, Steven Stump, Rosemary Su, Edgar Valencia, Sarah Williams
AWARDS
Team placement
First place: Upper Lake High School
Second place: Clear Lake High School
Third place: Kelseyville High School
Poster contest
First place: Kristen Amendola, KHS
Second place: Jessica Moreno, CLHS
Third place: Ethan Jones, CLHS
The Lake County Arts Council sponsored the poster contest.
Poetry contest
First place: Steven Stump, ULHS
Second place: Jessica Moreno, CLHS
Third place: Nate Falkenberg, CLHS
The Lake County Arts Council sponsored the poetry contest.
Super Quiz
First place: Upper Lake High School
Second place: Clear Lake High School
Third place: Kelseyville High School
Language and literature
First place: (two-way tie) Katie Foster, ULHS; Mercedes De Los Santos, ULHS
Second place: (two-way tie) Anisha Kalan, ULHS; Nate Falkenberg, CLHS
Third place: (two-way tie) Steven Stump, ULHS; Casey Herman, ULHS
Art
First place: Casey Herman, ULHS
Second place: Edgar Valencia, ULHS
Third place: Travis Rife, ULHS
Social science
First place: Casey Herman, ULHS
Second place: Steven Stump, ULHS
Third place: (three-way tie) Travis Rife, ULHS; Katie Foster, ULHS: Mercedes De Los Santos, ULHS
Math
First place: Cord Falkenberg, CLHS
Second place: Ethan Jones, CLHS
Third place: Cassidy Holmes, KHS
Music
First place: Steven Stump, ULHS
Second place: (two-way tie) Mercedes De Los Santos, ULHS; Casey Herman, ULHS
Third place: (two-way tie) Cord Falkenberg, CLHS; Brenna Sanchez, ULHS
Economics
First place: Travis Rife, ULHS
Second place: Nate Falkenberg, CLHS
Third place: Katie Foster, ULHS
Science
First place: Katie Foster, ULHS
Second place: (two-way tie) Cord Falkenberg, CLHS; Nate Falkenberg, CLHS
Third place: Anna Pak, KHS
Essay
First place: Cord Falkenberg, CLHS
Second place: Jessica Beall, CLHS
Third place: Kaylie Williams, KHS
Speech
First place: Mercedes De Los Santos, ULHS
Second place: David Becerra-Lopez, ULHS
Third place: Anisha Kalan, ULHS
The Lakeport Lions Club sponsored the speech contest, with awards of $125, $75 and $50 for the first, second and third place finishers, respectively.
Interview
First place: David Becerra-Lopez, ULHS
Second place: Mercedes De Los Santos, ULHS
Third place: Antonio Perez, CLHS
Mendo Lake Credit Union sponsored the interview contest, with awards of $125, $75 and $50 for the first, second and third place finishers, respectively.
TOP FINISHERS FOR EACH ACADEMIC LEVEL
Honors category (3.75-4.00 grade point average)
First place: Casey Herman, ULHS
Second place: Steven Stump, ULHS
Third place: Anisha Kalan, ULHS
Scholastic category (3.00-3.74 GPA)
First place: Cord Falkenberg, CLHS
Second place: Mercedes De Los Santos, ULHS
Third place: Katie Foster, ULHS
Varsity category (2.99 GPA or below)
First place: Travis Rife, ULHS
Second place: Edgar Valencia, ULHS
Third place: Haley Lindley, CLHS
SECOND HIGHEST SCORING STUDENTS, PER SCHOOL
Clear Lake High: Nate Falkenberg
Kelseyville High: Kristen Amendola
Upper Lake High School: Mercedes De Los Santos
HIGHEST SCORING STUDENTS, PER SCHOOL
Clear Lake High: Cord Falkenberg (also the overall top scorer of all students)
Kelseyville High: Cassidy Holmes
Upper Lake High School: Casey Herman
The Lodge at Blue Lakes provided $100 scholarships for each of the schools' top-scoring students.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Stones in the Field
by Kathleen Scavone
Fifty-two Ford tractor works
The field, churning up
The past
Chert, obsidian, serpentine, and
Cinnabar are
Brought up for air
Harvested like so many grand potatoes
Their presence speaks volumes
A dusty tome of time gone by
It’s official- it’s a ground-breaking.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Once upon a time, in Lake County – and throughout the American countryside – a reliable workhorse called the Ford 8N tractor could be seen tilling fields and orchards far and wide.
The most popular farm tractor in America turned out to be the Ford 8N model tractor, which was introduced in 1947.
The N-series tractors – including the 9N, 2N and 8N models – were all manufactured in America between 1939 and 1952.
Of course, our Lake County farming history starts quite some time before those dates.
The agricultural statistics of 1880 show that there were 5,520 acres devoted to wheat-growing, 3,547 acres of barley and 386 acres of oats grown in Lake County.
Corn, potatoes, hay and hops also were very viable and popular crops as were apples, pears and plums.
Counties in California began forming Farm Bureaus in the early 1900s, and as soon as 1919 California had 32 county Farm Bureaus operating, with Lake County's own Farm Bureau taking shape in 1924.
The humble farm tractor allowed for food production in a much grander scale than its predecessor the plow horse.
There were pioneer tractors such as the John Froelich gas tractor of 1892 which required skill and money to operate.
In 1910 tractor designs with a smaller size came into being and became even more popular in American fields.
These "motor plows" had two wheels and an engine, and could utilize attachments of previously owned horse-drawn implements to the devices.
Before Henry Ford's Model Ts were popular modes of transportation for the general public, Ford – who grew up on a farm – knew the value of these back-saving devices called tractors.
So, in 1917 Ford instigated the Fordson Model F tractor which could be purchased for $230.
Thank goodness for good old American know-how.
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.
