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UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Community organizers have come together to make the site of Upper Lake’s old feed mill accessible for use as a community garden for Lake County residents.
When Bernie and Lynne Butcher, owners of the Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Café in Upper Lake, first bought the property in 2005, their intention was to build more affordable housing for the town's residents.
That changed, however, when the Great Recession hit.
“The economy went to hell, and we put that project on hold,” said Bernie Butcher.
Since then, the site of the old feed mill has sat empty and purposeless.
However, since last year, when the couple was approached by a member of the community about the possibility of turning the historic space into a garden for all, its potential has grown exponentially.
“The original plan was to just donate the property,” Bernie Butcher said. “But as we’ve gotten into it, it seems like we’re facilitating it more and more.”
The couple contacted members of the Lake County Hunger Task Force and North Coast Opportunities for support and they came through.
The Lake County Hunger Task Force works with several organizations, groups, gardens and individuals to bring food to the most vulnerable – namely, the elderly and the county’s youngest citizens.
Task force board members Lorrie Gray and Mary Beth Woodward have piloted a backpack program that focuses on making sure children have enough food to eat during the school year, specifically over the weekends when school lunches on which many students depend are no longer available.
According to Gray, the need for access to healthy food is greater than ever since the closure of many of the county’s summer school programs.
Gray hopes that some of the food harvested from the garden during the spring and summer months can be given as fresh food to the program’s beneficiaries. Most of the food donated to the program is nonperishable but also lacks the nutritional value found in fresh fruits and vegetables.
North Coast Opportunities has been serving Mendocino and Lake Counties for 45 years and works extensively to promote community involvement and the advocacy of disadvantaged groups.
They have recently been awarded grants to launch two programs by the US Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which will increase the amount of locally grown food served in school cafeterias.
Last June, Tammy Alakszay, community action coordinator of North Coast Opportunities, and Upper Lake High School students who are members of Upward Bound, removed invasive blackberries and weeds from the plot.
Upward Bound is a federally funded program that encourages high academic performance and prepares first-generation college students to attend and graduate from a university of their choice.
Through the combined efforts of the Butchers, NCO and the Lake County Hunger Task Force, the unused space on the feed mill site has become a vision, not just for people to come and put their hands in the soil, but to help bring fresh healthy food to a growing number of hungry, and to mobilize at-risk youth into giving back.
“I don’t know how many people we will be serving. We don't yet have all the details lined out,” said Gray. “But if we build it they will come. That’s what we’re hoping anyway.”
According to the Public Policy Institute of California, more than 25 percent of Lake County residents live below the poverty line, with Lake County consistently ranking in the bottom 10 of the state's 58 counties.
Data provided by the California Department of Education revealed that in the 2013-14 school year – the most recent available year for reporting – 72.7 percent of Lake County's children qualify for free or reduced price lunches, compared to the state average of 59.4 percent.
In Upper Lake, the elementary and high school districts have 81.1 percent and 84.5 percent of students qualifying for the free or reduced meals programs, respectively, while just down the road in Lucerne, it's 87.4 percent.
After working with NCO and the Lake County Hunger Task Force to erect several dozen elevated planting bins at the beginning of March, the Butchers are ready for the property to open for public use.
The Butchers and other organizers decided to use elevated beds on top of the concrete foundation of the old feed mill, which was left in place after it was demolished.
Woodward praised the idea. “The elevated beds are so much better anyway. These beds eliminate one of our major problems: Gophers! Gophers cannot get in. They are also much better for our backs. It makes gardening much easier. It requires less weeding and another great plus now with the drought is that it does not use as much water as in ground gardens.”
Most community gardens sell shares or smaller plots of the space to members of the community for a minimal price. Members can tend their plot, as they like, taking home whatever produce they have successfully grown by their own hand.
The Upper Lake Community Garden will be different. “Volunteers work in the garden,” said Butcher. “Produce will be distributed by the Hunger Task Force.”
Anyone can be involved in the garden’s development. The hope is that people from all over Lake County will be a part of the garden and that all who participate will benefit from the garden as a whole instead of from individual plots.
“We will donate to the senior centers and food pantries,” Gray said. “All food is weighed as it is harvested, and we keep track of how many pounds we produce over a season.”
There are many visions for the garden. Gray mentioned an orchard of fruit trees in a patch left uncovered by concrete. Woodward pointed to the edge of the foundation where she can imagine a line of tomato plants this summer.
Butcher has his own ideas. “It would be nice to have a garden shed where tools and things could be stored,” he said.
And while many things remain uncertain, one thing is clear: the Upper Lake Community Garden is and will be different from the others.
The plot that once served a historic purpose in the past, now serves a new purpose for the future.
For more information about future plans for the garden contact Tammy Alakszay, community action coordinator, North Coast Opportunities,
Email Shari Shepard at
LAKEPORT, Calif. – It's time to get out the brooms and dustpans.
The annual Downtown Lakeport Clean Up Day is planned for Saturday, April 25.
Help keep the town looking bright and clean by joining fellow residents, and property and business owners for a morning of scrubbing, weeding and cobweb dusting.
The cleanup effort will take place from 7 to 11 a.m. Meet at Museum Park on Main Street.
Bring weeding tools, brooms, dustpans, long-handled cobweb dusters and ladders.
There will be complimentary donuts, water and hot beverages for all volunteers, as well as community service certificates for those who need them.
The cleanup is sponsored by the Lakeport Main Street Association.
For more information call the association at 707-263-8843.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The 70th quilt block on the Lake County Quilt Trail is “Crossed Canoes.”
The location of this quilt block is on the corner of Fourth and Forbes streets in Lakeport at 225 Fourth St.
Professor John Overholser established the Lakeport Academy in 1884 at this site.
Previously used as Lakeport Grammar School, this building was moved from up the hill down to the corner of Fourth and Forbes so a new grammar school could be built up the hill.
Joseph F. Edmunds had a harness shop in the lower story of the first academy.
The new academy had four pupils on opening day, but 16 before the year was over.
Professor Overholser taught alone for two years. Later his assistants were Miss Rooney, Miss Eloise Boone and Miss Sara Haycock.
In 1890 Overholser built a two-story academy west of what is now Del Lago.
The Lakeport Academy continued until the formation of the Clear Lake Union High School District.
In the 1900-01 school year the Lakeport Academy ended and the building was leased to the new school district. Professor Overholser became the science instructor in the new high school.
This building, now owned by Carole and Alexander McGeogh, is a private residence.
Their son, who lives on the property, helped renovate the house. He bought a canoe and enjoys the
benefits of living by the lake.
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, a group of dedicated quilters, graphic artists, painters, writers, carpenters and a videographer.
For more information about the Lake County Quilt Trail visit www.lakecountyquilttrail.com or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-Quilt-Trail/187014251326163?fref=ts .
California Secretary of State Alex Padilla on Monday released the 2015 Report of Registration that shows a drop in the number of registered voters in Lake County and across the state.
The report shows that 72.7 percent of eligible Californians were registered to vote as of Feb. 10, 2015.
A total of 17,717,936 Californians are currently registered to vote – down 337,847 since the last off-year report, but up 531,405 from two years earlier, Padilla's office reported.
“While registration rates fluctuate year-to-year, the stubborn truth remains that more than a quarter of otherwise eligible California citizens are not registered to vote,” Padilla said. “If we are serious about increasing voter turnout in California, we must do more to increase voter registration in California.”
Secretary Padilla is calling for a new motor voter law that would seamlessly register voters when they get a driver's license or renew one. Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed into law a similar measure earlier this month.
Padilla called the Oregon law “a model for California.”
In the last two years, the percentage of voters registered statewide with the Democratic Party decreased by 0.7 percent and voters registered with the Republican Party decreased by 0.9 percent.
The number of registered voters with no party preference has increased by 2.7 percent.
In Lake County, the report also showed a decrease in the number of registered voters from February 2013 to 2015, despite an increase in the number of people eligible for voter registration.
In February 2013, out of 46,896 eligible voters, there were 35,132 registered voters, or 74.91 percent, the report showed.
That compares to February 2015, when there were 49,108 eligible voters and 32,965 registered voters, or 67.13 percent voter registration, according to the report.
In Lake County there were voter registration decreases across the major parties, but slight growth amongst the Libertarian and Peace and Freedom parties, with the largest increase in the “no party preference” category.
In fact, the 9,027 Lake County voters – or 27.38 percent of overall registered voters – who chose no party preference placed the county No. 4 statewide for registration under that category, following much larger urban counties of San Francisco (31.46 percent), Santa Clara (30.18 percent) and San Diego (27.41).
The February 10, 2015, Report of Registration reflects updates to voter registration rolls in California’s 58 counties, including the removal of registrants who have passed away, moved out of state, or have been determined to be ineligible to vote, as well as the addition of new registrants.
The complete report is at www.sos.ca.gov/elections/voter-registration/voter-registration-statistics/ror-odd-year-2015 .
By law, statewide voter registration updates must occur 60 and 15 days before each general election, and 154, 60 and 15 days before each primary election.
One update is published in each odd-numbered year with no regularly scheduled statewide election.
The registration totals for the six qualified political parties and voters who have no party preference follow are shown in the chart below both for the state and for Lake County, specifically.
It's déjà vu all over again.
For the third time in less than a year, skywatchers in the United States can see a total eclipse of the moon.
The action begins at 3:16 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time on the morning of April 4 when the edge of the moon first enters the amber core of Earth’s shadow.
For the next hour and 45 minutes, Earth's shadow will move across the lunar disk, ultimately swallowing the entire Moon at 4:58 a.m. PDT.
East of the Mississippi River, the eclipse will be interrupted by sunrise. People can see only a partial eclipse. West of the Mississippi River, people can see the whole thing, including totality.
“Totality” is when the Moon is fully inside Earth's shadow. Some total eclipses last for more than an hour.
In this case, however, totality spans just 4 minutes and 43 seconds – a result of the fact that the Moon is skimming the outskirts of Earth's shadow rather than passing centrally through it.
The brevity of the eclipse highlights the importance of watching the clock: Be outside no later than 4:58 a.m. PDT to witness the red Moon!
Why red?
A quick trip to the Moon provides the answer: Imagine yourself standing on a dusty lunar plain looking up at the sky.
Overhead hangs Earth, nightside down, completely hiding the sun behind it. The eclipse is under way.
You might expect Earth seen in this way to be utterly dark, but it's not. The rim of the planet looks to be on fire.
As you scan your eye around Earth's circumference, you're seeing every sunrise and every sunset in the world, all of them, all at once. This incredible light beams into the heart of Earth's shadow, filling it with a coppery glow and transforming the Moon into a great red orb when viewed from Earth.
The total eclipse of April 4, 2015, is the third of four total lunar eclipses separated by approximately six months, a phenomenon astronomers call a “tetrad.”
Such a closely-spaced succession of eclipses is a fairly rare occurrence.
The complete list of dates is April 15th, 2014; Oct. 8th, 2014; April 4th, 2015; and Sept. 28th, 2015.
Set your alarm before sunrise on April 4th, and enjoy the show.
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – Sheriff's deputies have arrested two people for a Sunday afternoon stabbing.
Matthew Shaun Williams, 26, of Clearlake, along with a 15-year-old male – whose name was not released due to his age – were taken into custody on Sunday, according to a Monday report from Sgt. Corey Paulich of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Paulich said that at approximately 1:13 p.m. sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the area of Elem Drive in Clearlake Oaks for a reported brandishing of a knife.
While deputies were en route, a second caller reported a physical fight and a possible stabbing, Paulich said.
When deputies arrived they located a male subject who had a puncture wound to his left side. Paulich said the victim was transported by air ambulance to an out-of-county hospital for treatment.
As of Monday, the victim remained in the hospital in stable condition, Paulich said.
Paulich said deputies located several witnesses in the area who identified Williams as being responsible for stabbing the victim and also identified the juvenile as having been involved in the assault.
Deputies subsequently took both Williams and the teen into custody for felony assault with a deadly weapon, Paulich said.
Williams was booked into the Hill Road Correctional Facility, where he remained in custody on Monday afternoon, with his bail set at $25,000. Paulich said the teenager was booked into the Lake County Juvenile Hall.
Paulich said the motive for the attack is still unclear. Detectives from the Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit are continuing the investigation and interviewing additional people.
Paulich asked anyone with information regarding this incident to contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at 707-263-2690.