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UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Cleanup and repairs are under way at Upper Lake Elementary and Upper Lake Middle School, where vandals did damage this past weekend.
Becky Jeffries, Upper Lake Union Elementary School District's chief business official, said both schools were extensively tagged with what appeared to be gang graffiti.
School let out for the holidays last Friday, Dec. 19, at which time the tagging hadn't occurred, she said.
However, when staff came in on Monday, they discovered the tagging. She said a custodian who lives nearby believes the damage was done sometime Saturday or Sunday night.
Jeffries said the elementary school had graffiti up and down the sidewalks, on walls and on windows, while the back of the middle school's gymnasium and storage sheds were tagged.
She said that the district's head of maintenance said no damage of this magnitude has been done to the schools in about a decade.
Last year a small amount of graffiti was left on a wall at the elementary school, but Jeffries added, “It was nothing like this.”
Nothing similar was reported at the nearby high school, she said.
Sheriff's deputies came out to the schools on Monday and took a full report, with Jeffries noting that they promised to conduct extra patrol in the area.
She did not have a damage estimate available on Tuesday, explaining that the costs to the district include dedicating all four maintenance staff to the cleanup, along with paying for paint and cleaning supplies.
With the students off on vacation – they return on Monday, Jan. 5 – maintenance staff had planned to spend the time making repairs around the campus sites, Jeffries said.
Instead, Jeffries said they've been focusing all of their attention on cleaning up the graffiti, with plans to paint the walls.
“Our maintenance crew has been able to scrape it off the glass,” she said.
The district now may end up considering surveillance cameras, something they've never felt the need to have before, Jeffries said.
“It’s just unfortunate and sad that it’s come to that,” she said.
Anyone with information about the vandalism is encouraged to call the Lake County Sheriff's Office at 707-262-4200.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
Despite recent wet weather, many Californians are still suffering from the effects of the state's drought – some even have wells that are going dry.
USDA Rural Development recently provided Rural Community Assistance Corp., RCAC, with a $254,000 grant to help low-income homeowners repair or replace their domestic wells.
“This drought has been devastating to folks all across the state,” said USDA Rural Development California State Director Glenda Humiston. “These funds are just one step USDA is taking to help ensure those living in our rural communities have the resources they need to access to clean, safe drinking water.”
RCAC will use the grant to provide low-interest loans to homeowners living in rural areas with populations up to 50,000 and earning $62,883 or less.
Funding from USDA Rural Development was made available through the Household Water Well System Grant program.
“The drought has had a huge impact on folks with private wells. We are very pleased to work with USDA to finance the replacement of failed wells and help mitigate the drought’s impact,” said Stanley Keasling, RCAC’s chief executive officer.
Interested applicants should contact Cyndy Elliott with RCAC at
USDA, through its Rural Development mission area, offers programs designed to improve the economic stability of rural communities, businesses, residents, farmers and ranchers and improve the quality of life in rural America.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – California’s hopes for ending one of its worst droughts in more than a century of recordkeeping hinge on the state receiving much more precipitation than normal in 2015.
After three consecutive years of below-average snow and rainfall, surface and groundwater reservoirs are depleted.
Surface reservoirs are unlikely to be recharged to normal levels unless precipitation and snowpack this water year are both well above historical averages.
Abundant snowfall in the mountains would be an important component of a drought-ending scenario.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has scheduled the winter’s first manual measurement of the snowpack on Dec. 30.
Generally, California’s snowpack supplies about a third of the water needed by the state’s residents, agriculture and industry as it melts in the late spring and summer.
Due to several December storms, rainfall in Northern California so far this water year has been more than normal, but this precipitation has not generated greater-than-normal snowfall in the Sierra Nevada.
The largest storm blew in from the south, and its warm temperatures resulted in less snowfall than might have been delivered by a colder storm.
Electronic readings of the snowpack show that its water equivalent is only 54 percent of average statewide for Dec. 23.
One Dec. 30 manual measurement will be at the Phillips Station snow course off Highway 50 near Echo Summit. Results of the 11 a.m. survey should be publicly available by early afternoon.
Water year 2014 ended on Sept. 30 as the third driest such period on record; only 1924 and 1977 recorded less statewide precipitation. It was the driest year ever in the San Joaquin Valley, Central Coast and South Coast.
This year also was the warmest year on record in California, according to the California Climate Tracker.
These extraordinarily dry and warm conditions strengthened the drought’s hold on California, and reservoir storage continued to fall through most of 2014.
Shasta Lake, the state’s largest reservoir, normally holds nearly 2.8 million acre-feet (AF) of water in late December but today has only 62 percent of that average amount, 1.723 million AF.
Due to the recent storms, Shasta’s storage has risen since Nov. 29, when it held only 1.046 million AF, its lowest amount of the past quarter century.
Similarly, Lake Oroville, a key reservoir of the State Water Project that normally holds more than 2 million AF in late December, today contains 1.267 million AF, only 59 percent of the average amount.
The lake’s storage had fallen before the recent rains to 898,221 AF on Nov. 21, its lowest storage since 1986.
DWR’s initial water allocation to the SWP’s 29 customers for 2015 was announced on Dec. 1 as 10 percent, an increase from the five percent allocated for 2014. This winter’s precipitation will determine whether the allocation is changed in the months ahead.
The 29 water contractors have requested 4,172,686 AF for 2015. One acre-foot is enough water to cover one acre to a depth of one foot; it can meet the needs of a typical California family of four for a year.
The final SWP allocation for calendar year 2013 was 35 percent of the slightly more than the 4 million AF requested.
In 2012, the final allocation was 65 percent. It was 80 percent in 2011 after an initial allocation of 25 percent. The final allocation was 50 percent in 2010, 40 percent in 2009, 35 percent in 2008 and 60 percent in 2007. The most recent 100-percent allocation was in 2006.
SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday reappointed Michael Picker to the California Public Utilities Commission, where he has served since January 2014, and designated him president of the commission.
Gov. Brown also announced the appointment of Liane Randolph, who has served as deputy secretary and general counsel of the California Natural Resources Agency, to the commission.
“Michael Picker’s deep experience and sound judgment make him uniquely qualified to take on this role,” said Gov. Brown. “Liane Randolph has handled very difficult issues with insight and balance and will be a real asset to the commission. Most importantly, both appointees share a commitment to seeing California achieve its ambitious renewable energy goals.”
Before serving on the commission, Michael Picker, 62, of Sacramento, was senior advisor for renewable energy in the Office of the Governor from 2009 to 2014.
Picker was principal at Lincoln Crow Strategic Communications from 2000 to 2009 and a consultant at Kaufman Campaign Consultants from 2000 to 2002.
He served as deputy treasurer at the California State Treasurer’s Office from 1998 to 1999 and chief of staff to Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna Jr. from 1992 to 1999.
Picker served as deputy assistant for toxic substance control in the Office of the Governor from 1981 to 1982 and was a stop environmental cancer organizer at the Campaign for Economic Democracy from 1978 to 1982. He was a member of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District Board of Directors from 2012 to 2014.
Picker earned a master of business administration degree from the University of California, Davis Graduate School of Management.
This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $138,867. Picker is a Democrat.
“I’m honored by the governor’s trust and confidence, and take his charge to heart – reduce greenhouse gas emissions, strengthen safety programs and modernize the agency,” said Picker. “I look forward to continuing this important work with my fellow commissioners and I welcome Liane Randolph to the commission.”
Liane Randolph, 49, of Sacramento, has served in several positions at the California Natural Resources Agency since 2011, including deputy secretary and general counsel.
At the agency, she advised the secretary and has worked on numerous policy, regulatory and legal issues, including: the California Environmental Quality Act, timber harvest plans, renewable energy, well stimulation regulations, Klamath River restoration and dam removal, State Parks, the California Coastal Commission and the Electric Program Investment Charge Program.
Randolph was an attorney at Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw, Pittman from 2007 to 2011 and served as chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission from 2003 to 2007, where she also served as a staff attorney from 1996 to 1997.
She served as San Leandro city attorney and was a principal at Meyers Nave from 2000 to 2003, where she was an associate from 1997 to 2000.
Randolph was an attorney at Remcho, Johansen and Purcell from 1994 to 1996 and an associate attorney at Manatt, Phelps and Phillips from 1993 to 1994.
She earned a juris doctor degree from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $134,591. Randolph is a Democrat.
Picker’s reappointment and designation as president and Randolph’s appointment are all effective Jan. 1, 2015.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – While rain and snow is forecast to fall across much of the nation in the coming days, Lake County can expect some rain Christmas Eve and mostly clear conditions on Christmas Day.
The National Weather Service is forecasting a holiday week for the county with more temperate weather.
The only rain meteorologists predict for this week is expected during the day and night on Wednesday, when up to a 60 percent chance of rain is forecast.
Rainfall totaling a tenth of an inch or less is expected Wednesday, the National Weather Service reported.
Winds of up to 15 miles per hour – with gusts as high as 20 miles per hour – also are forecast on Wednesday.
Christmas – which falls on Thursday – is expected to be sunny, clear and cool across the county, with daytime highs in the low 50s and nighttime lows in the high 30s.
Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday are expected to be mostly sunny during the day, with cloudy conditions at night.
Temperatures the rest of this week are expected to drop into the high 30s at night, ranging up to the high 50s during the daytime hours, according to the forecast.
In other weather-related news, Clear Lake has continued to steadily rise in recent days due to rainfall.
The lake was at 2.58 feet on the Rumsey gauge late Monday, according to the US Geological Survey.
For comparison, Clear Lake's depth on Dec. 21, 2013, was 0.62 feet Rumsey, and 3.78 feet Rumsey on Dec. 21, 2012, based on county records.
A full lake is 7.56 feet Rumsey, a depth not normally seen until the spring months.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – On Monday Gov. Jerry Brown issued the first state of emergency proclamation for four counties as the results of a severe rainstorm that hit the state earlier this month.
The storm – which hit Dec. 11 – resulted in heavy rainfall, which in turn caused damage to roads and highways throughout the state as a result of mudflows, debris, flooding and erosion.
The Monday state of emergency proclamation is for Marin, Mendocino, San Mateo and Ventura counties, the Governor's Office reported.
The proclamation directs Caltrans to formally request immediate assistance through the Federal Highway Administration's Emergency Relief Program.
Officials said the Governor's Office of Emergency Services continues to work with other impacted counties to complete damage assessments and evaluate the need for additional action to help communities respond to and recover from the effects of these storms.
Lake is among the counties continuing to wait for an emergency declaration due to the rainfall, flooding and associated damage resulting from the several inches of rain that fell in the county.
On Dec. 11, the county of Lake, along with the cities of Clearlake and Lakeport all declared states of emergency because of the storm's impacts, as Lake County News has reported.
Lake County's members of the state Legislature, Assemblyman Bill Dodd and Sen. Mike McGuire, along with fellow North Coast legislators asked Gov. Brown on Dec. 16 for a disaster declaration for Sonoma, Marin and Lake counties due to the severe flooding in those areas.
At that point, the damage total for the three counties was estimated at more than $20 million and expected to climb much higher as assessments are completed.
The Lake County Office of Emergency Services reported that it is working to compile local damage information.
County residents are asked to report damages to their respective municipalities – within the city of Clearlake, contact 707-994-8201; within the city of Lakeport, contact (707) 263-5615; and within the unincorporated areas of Lake County, contact (707) 263-2382.
Those reporting damages should include quotes/estimates/receipts for repairs, name, home address, location of the damaged property and contact information.
Follow the Lake OES Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-OES/307452049434603 for more information and updates.
Email Elizabeth Larson at