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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Blood Centers of the Pacific announced the winner of the eighth annual Bucket Brigade Challenge, in which participating fire departments and their communities donate blood in an effort to boost the local blood supply, earn the coveted title for their department and carry the Bucket Trophy for the year.
This year, the Geyserville Fire Protection District won the trophy with Windsor Fire Protection District and Lakeport Fire Department close behind.
Participating fire departments recruited almost 800 blood donors who gave close to 700 pints of blood during a time of critical shortages.
Nineteen fire departments across Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties vied for the winner’s title and the popular Bucket Brigade Trophy.
“Northern California has been experiencing a serious blood shortage, as bad weather in other parts of the country hampers our ability to get our much-needed imports,” commented Lisa Bloch, director of communications for BCP. “But having these Bucket Brigade blood drives makes all the difference for us and for the hospitals we serve.”
The eighth annual Bucket Brigade Awards Luncheon scheduled on Feb. 12th will honor all participating fire departments for their valuable contribution and present the trophy to this season’s Bucket Brigade Challenge winner.
The idea of the Bucket Brigade originally came from the Great London Fire of 1666 that found community members in “brigades” as they passed buckets of water from the city’s water supply to the blaze that threatened their city.
The contemporary Bucket Brigade Challenge brings communities together in the same way – not to fight fire, but to save lives through blood donations.
The need for blood is constant and BCP needs more than 500 donors every day to meet the needs of our community.
To find a drive near you and to make an appointment, visit www.bloodheroes.com or call 888-393-GIVE (4483).
California Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin on Wednesday welcomed an “all-in” federal effort to help California cope with extreme drought.
“The effects of this widespread drought are clearly beyond the control of local personnel, services, and facilities in nearly every corner of California,” said Director Cowin. “It will require the combined efforts of all of our agencies to address the public health, economic, and environmental ramifications of this drought.”
Cowin joined U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Michael L. Connor and administrators from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, National Integrated Drought Information System and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wednesday at a Sacramento press conference to demonstrate a united and coordinated federal response to record-breaking drought conditions in California.
Reclamation and NRCS announced the availability of up to $14 million in funding for water districts and farmers to build resilience to drought with projects that improve water management.
The announcement follows action Tuesday by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to make $20 million available for agricultural water conservation efforts throughout California.
Federal officials also committed to accelerate water transfers and exchanges and provide operational flexibility as necessary to support projects that might help stretch California’s water supplies.
Reclamation released its 2014 Central Valley Project Water Plan, which outlines numerous specific actions to help water users better manage their supplies through drought.
As California enters a third dry year, the state’s major reservoirs are diminished and the crucial Sierra Nevada snowpack – which melts to supply roughly a third of the water used statewide – was recently measured at a scant 12 percent of statewide average water content for this time of year.
The California Department of Water Resources operates the State Water Project, which captures snowmelt runoff in Northern California to supply 25 million Californians and roughly 750,000 acres of irrigated farmland.
On Jan. 31, Cowin announced that the 29 water districts that buy water from the State Water Project could expect no deliveries in 2014 beyond those needed to meet critical health and safety needs or that involved water banked from previous years by the water districts.
The across-the-board zero allocation – the first of its kind in the 54-year history of the State Water Project – is intended to preserve reservoir storage in case conditions remain dry.
The allocation may change, but it would take near-record levels of rain and snow in the remaining few months of winter to bring statewide conditions even to average.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – A Federal Bureau of Investigation dive team this week recovered skeletal remains from Lake Sonoma.
The remains were first located on Dec. 9, according to Lt. Carlos Basurto of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office Investigations Bureau.
On that day, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office received a report that possible skeletal remains had been located in the lake at a depth of 100 feet by a recreational diver, according to Basurto.
On Dec. 10 and again on Dec. 12, the Marin County Sheriff’s Department Dive Team made several attempts to retrieve the remains, Basurto said.
The depth of the dive and poor visibility made the retrieval extremely difficult. However, Basurto said the dive team was able to confirm the presence of skeletal remains and retrieved several large bones from an area underneath the bridge at Lake Sonoma.
Because of the complexity of the dive, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office requested the assistance of the FBI Technical Dive Team, Basurto said.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the FBI dive team was able to retrieve the majority of the skeletal remains, according to Basurto.
At this time the remains are unidentified and the case is being investigated by the Sonoma County Coroner’s Office, he said.
Anyone with possible information regarding these remains is asked to contact the Sonoma County Coroner’s Office at 707-565-5070.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A Lakeport man found to be driving on a suspended license was taken into custody for child endangerment.
George James Watchman, 49, was arrested on Tuesday morning, according to Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen.
At 10 a.m. Tuesday a Lakeport Police officer on patrol observed Watchman driving a Ford minivan in the area of N. Forbes Street and Clearlake Avenue, Rasmussen said. The officer was familiar with Watchman and knew that his driver's license was suspended.
Rasmussen said the officer followed Watchman in an effort to catch up to him to make an enforcement stop.
Watchman, who the officer believed to be attempting to elude police, began making quick and abrupt turns onto and off of side streets in the area, Rasmussen said.
The officer continued to attempt to catch up to Watchman and was able to get him to pull over in the 900 block of N. Main Street, according to Rasmussen.
Upon contacting Watchman in the driver's seat, Rasmussen said the officer found a 3-year-old boy, who was not visible to him before the stop, unrestrained in the front passenger seat.
Based on the fact that the boy was in the front seat, not in a car seat, and because of Watchman’s driving, the officer believed that Watchman willfully endangered the boy by placing him in a situation that exposed him to injury, Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen said the officer arrested Watchman for child endangerment and driving on a suspended driver’s license, and transported him to the Lake County Jail, where bail was set at $5,000. Jail records indicated he later posted bail and was released.
Watchman was arrested by the Lakeport Police Department on March 1, 2011, for willful cruelty to a child, later was convicted of a felony for the charge and sentenced to probation, Rasmussen said.
This investigation is being forwarded to the Lake County District Attorney's Office for review in regards to the current charges and to the Lake County Probation Department regarding a probation violation charge, Rasmussen said.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Police Department has arrested a local man on charges of child abuse and domestic violence.
Joseph Allen-Lee Peters, 25, of Clearlake was arrested in the case, according to Sgt. Nick Bennett.
Bennett said Clearlake Police officer Andrew Adams responded to Burns Valley School on Monday to assist Child Protective Services on a report of possible child abuse.
The 8-year-old child stated he had been struck in the face by Peters, who was known to the family as “Uncle Hose,” Bennett said.
Bennett said the child had obvious signs of recent and prior trauma to his body.
Further investigation revealed that Peters had physically abused other family members as well, Bennett said.
Peters was booked into Lake County Jail for charges relating to the child abuse and domestic violence assault charges. Bail was set at $75,000. He remained in custody on Wednesday, according to jail records.
Investigation into these charges and possibly others are continuing between Child Protective Services and Clearlake Police Department, Bennett said.
Anyone with information on this case is encouraged to contact Officer Adams at 707-994-8251, Extension 501.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Richard Allen, a Jago Bay resident, reported seeing the silhouettes of three mountain lions on a recent morning in the area of Thurston Lake.
“My property is right across from Thurston Lake and I think a lot of animals live in the lake area because there is no human population,” said Allen. “There's only one house on the whole lake. It's pretty hilly and we see raccoons and things like that.
“But the night in question, just before daybreak, my dog was going crazy. I couldn't get him to stop barking. We got the big flashlight out so we could see what it was he was barking at,” Allen continued. “It looked like three different cats on the side of a hill.”
Allen estimated that the three animals he saw were the size of a small deer or large shepherd dog.
“They were bigger than cats I normally see,” he said. “Just before dawn you couldn't see their colors as much as the outline and the way they were moving.”
It was the second mountain lion sighting reported to Lake County News in south Lake County in recent months.
An earlier report was made in December from Hidden Valley Lake. But investigation by Hidden Valley Lake and California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials did not turn up any evidence of a mountain lion's presence.
But Allen said the presence of mountain lions has been established from time to time in the Lower Lake area.
“I see them in the summer a lot,” he said. “I think they go down to the water at Thurston Lake. They come down from a small mountain, where I think a lot of animals live because there is no (human) population. A friend of mine shot a mountain lion right under his porch that was attacking his personal cat. That was a few years ago, but don't kid yourself. They come down here.”
Joshua Bush, a biologist for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said what Allen probably saw was a female with two juveniles.
Bush gave no credence to Allen's suggestion that the mountain lions ventured closer to an area of greater human density was linked to the winter drought conditions in Northern California.
“They don't look at people as a source for food,” he said.
“They might just as well have been tracking deer which is their primary prey,” said Kyle Orr, a Fish and Wildlife warden.
The Fish and Wildlife officials generally agree that there is “nothing to worry about” with regard to mountain lions attacking humans during a drought year.
Orr said that at present there is only one mountain lion attack being investigated in Northern California, which occurred in July 2012 in Nevada County.
Presently, Orr said Fish and Wildlife is attempting to verify an attack that reportedly occurred in the past week in Southern California.
But each of the officials contacted say that mountain lion attacks are “extremely rare” and point out that there have been only 15 verified mountain lion attacks on humans since 1890.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife estimates the population of mountain lions in the state of California at 4,000 to 6,000.
“Our department receives many, many reports of mountain lion sightings and we don't respond to every report of a sighting,” said Lt. Loren Freeman, a Fish and Wildlife warden based in Clearlake Oaks.
Orr said that Allen's sighting of three mountain lions “is not in and of itself a reason for concern.”
With regard to mountain lions becoming more of a threat because of drought conditions, Orr added, “Conditions at this juncture would not cause the mountain lions to venture further than they already do.”
Email John Lindblom at