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COBB, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff's Office is investigating a report of an attempted robbery that occurred early Tuesday morning in Cobb.
Lt. Steve Brooks said sheriff's deputies were dispatched shortly after 3:30 a.m. to a Lema Lane home where an elderly woman reported that a male subject attacked and attempted to rob her.
The 69-year-old victim told deputies that she woke up a few minutes prior to her 911 call and walked into the living room, Brooks said.
While standing in the living room, she noticed her cat was focused on a door which leads to the garage. Brooks said the woman thought her cat’s behavior was out of the ordinary, so she walked toward the door.
The door suddenly opened and a male subject rushed into the woman's living room. Brooks said the woman described the man as being approximately 5 feet, 5 inches tall, with an average build. His face was covered with some type of clothing.
The victim said the male subject knocked her to the floor and proceeded to kick her three or four times. He then dragged her into the garage and told her that he was going to tie her hands, Brooks said.
Brooks said the woman began to violently resist the man's attempt to subdue her and explained she thought the suspect was going to kill her.
The attacker then suddenly walked out of the garage into the living room and exited the residence through the front door, Brooks said.
The victim told authorities that she was able to make her way to the front door and watched the suspect get into the passenger side of a vehicle, which drove away. She told deputies that she immediately called 911 after the vehicle left, Brooks said.
The woman was unable to provide any additional identifying information concerning the suspect or the suspect vehicle, according to Brooks.
Brooks said the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information pertinent to this case is asked to contact the Lake County Sheriff’s Office at 707-263-2690.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Police said a fight in Lakeport last week resulted in two arrests.
Bulmaro Mendez Flores, 18, and a juvenile from Finley – whose name was not released due to his age – were taken into custody as a result of a fight last Tuesday, Nov. 26, according to Lt. Jason Ferguson of the Lakeport Police Department.
At 10 p.m. Nov. 26 Lakeport Police officers responded to a reported physical altercation involving several subjects in the 800 block of Armstrong Street, Ferguson said.
Ferguson said that when officers arrived on scene they found a Lakeport juvenile lying in the street as other subjects began fleeing on foot into a neighboring residence.
The juvenile was determined to be under the influence of alcohol and the apparent victim of assault, Ferguson said.
As officers continued their investigation, they gained entry into a residence in the 800 block of Armstrong Street, where Ferguson said several subjects had fled.
Located inside the residence were Flores and Santiago Ballesteros, 26, also of Lakeport, as well as the Finley juvenile. Ferguson said Flores had blood on his clothing and blood on his right knuckles.
During the investigation officers learned that Flores and the juvenile from Finley were on searchable probation and both were determined to be under the influence of alcohol, Ferguson said.
As part of the probation terms of the juvenile, he was prohibited from consuming alcohol. Ferguson said the juvenile was placed under arrest for violation of probation.
During a search of Flores, officers located a pair of “brass knuckles,” which is considered a dangerous weapon and illegal to possess. Ferguson said they also found marijuana and hash on Flores.
Flores was placed under arrest for violation of probation and possession of a dangerous weapon, Ferguson said.
The juvenile assault victim was cleared by medical personnel at the scene and transported to his residence, according to Ferguson.
The Finley juvenile was transported to Juvenile Hall where he was booked, Ferguson said. Flores was transported to the Hill Road Jail where his bail was set at $30,000. He remained in custody on Tuesday, according to jail records.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A vehicle stop early Monday morning led to a Clearlake man's arrest on drug charges.
Jeffrey John Robone, 50, was taken into custody following the stop, according to Lt. Jason Ferguson of the Lakeport Police Department.
Just before 12:30 a.m. Monday Lakeport Police Officer Gary Basor conducted a vehicle stop on a suspicious vehicle in the area of Clearlake Avenue and Forbes Street, Ferguson said.
When Basor contacted the driver, identified as Robone, he learned that Robone had a suspended driver’s license and an outstanding warrant for his arrest, according to Ferguson. Officer Basor placed Robone under arrest and secured him in his patrol vehicle.
Located inside the middle console of the vehicle was a small amount of marijuana. Ferguson said a further search of the vehicle revealed a glass jar and two plastic bags containing 197.5 grams of marijuana.
Based on the marijuana located in the vehicle, Ferguson said Officer Basor additionally charged Robone with possession and transportation of marijuana.
Officer Basor transported Robone to the Hill Road Jail, where during a custodial search of his person, a glass pipe and white rock substance, believed to be crystal methamphetamine were located on his person, Ferguson said.
As a result, Ferguson said Basor additionally charged Robone with possession of a controlled substance, possession of paraphernalia, bringing a controlled substance into a jail and unauthorized possession of a controlled substance in a jail.
Jeffrey Robone was booked at the jail where his bail was set at $25,000, Ferguson said.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A vehicle stop conducted Saturday night has resulted in one arrest and the seizure of methamphetamine.
Aron Fulwood, 58, of Glenhaven was arrested following the stop, according to Lt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
At 9 p.m. Nov. 30 a patrol deputy observed a white four door sedan traveling southbound on Highway 53 near Polk Avenue in Clearlake, Brooks said.
The deputy noticed the vehicles right side headlight was not operational and conducted an enforcement stop in the area of Highway 53, just south of 40th Avenue, according to Brooks.
Brooks said the deputy recognized Fulwood from several previous contacts and knew his driver’s license was suspended or revoked.
Fulwood said he had just received a citation on Nov. 29 for driving while his license was suspended and for speeding. He said he did not have anything illegal in his vehicle and gave the deputy permission to conduct a search, Brooks said.
While searching the vehicle, the deputy located a cigarette wrapper underneath the vehicle's shifter boot, Brooks said. Inside the wrapper were four small plastic bindles, which contained a clear crystalline substance.
Brooks said the deputy also located another small bindle containing a clear crystalline substance, which was concealed in the driver’s door handle. The deputy recognized the contents of the bindles to be methamphetamine.
Fulwood admitted that the small bindle located in the door handle was his, but denied knowing about the others. He explained several people had been inside his vehicle and did not know who would have hidden the other bindles under the shifter boot, according to Brooks.
Fulwood was arrested for possession of a controlled substance, transportation of a controlled substance and for driving while his license was suspended. Brooks said Fulwood was transported to the Lake County Hill Road Correctional Facility and booked.
Fulwood’s vehicle was towed and impounded for 30 days, due to operating the vehicle with a suspended/revoked license, Brooks said.
The Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force can be reached through its anonymous tip line at 707-263-3663.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released its latest national estimate of homelessness, noting reductions in every major category or sub-population since 2010, the year the federal government established a strategic plan to end homelessness.
HUD’s 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress finds significant and measureable progress to reduce the scale of long-term or “chronic” homelessness as well as homelessness experienced by Veterans and families.
Meanwhile, local homeless housing and service providers in California reported that the number of sheltered and unsheltered persons increased by 3,895 individuals since 2010.
The report showed that the number of homeless persons in California increased from 132,931 in 2010 to 136,826 this year, a 2.9-percent increase.
Lake County’s first comprehensive “point-in-time” count on Jan. 25 found approximately 188 homeless individuals countywide, as Lake County News has reported.
“We’re making real and significant progress to reduce homelessness in this country and now is not the time to retreat from doing what we know works,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan. “If we’re going to end homelessness as we know it, we need a continued bipartisan commitment from Congress to break the cycle trapping our most vulnerable citizens between living in a shelter or a life on the streets. I understand these are tough budget times but these are proven strategies that are making a real difference. We simply can’t balance our budget on the backs of those living on the margins.”
Ophelia Basgal, HUD’s Regional Administrator for California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii, added, “Local housing and service providers are on the front lines of helping us battle homelessness and they need our help if we’re going to prevail. Not only is there a moral imperative to tackle this problem head on, it makes fiscal sense to invest in solutions that work.”
Nearly 20 percent of homeless people were counted in either Los Angeles (nine percent of total or 53,798) or New York City (11 percent of total or 64,060). Los Angeles experienced the largest increase among major cities, reporting 11,445 more homeless people (or 27 percent) in 2013 compared to 2012. New York City reported 7,388 more homeless people (or 13 percent).
HUD’s annual “point-in-time” estimates measure the scope of homelessness on a single night in January of each year.
Based on data reported by more than 3,000 cities and counties, last January’s one-night estimate reveals an 8 percent drop in homelessness among veterans and a seven percent reduction among those experiencing long-term or chronic homelessness.
During one night in late January of 2013, local planning organizations or “continuums of care” across the nation and in California conducted a one-night count of their sheltered and unsheltered homeless populations.
Yearly changes to a state’s housing and economic conditions as well as adjustments in local data collection methods can produce significant differences when attempting to compare one year to the next.
Still, HUD continues to offer significant guidance and technical support to these continuums of care to continually improve the confidence level in these state and local reports as they are incorporated into the annual national homeless estimate.
The Obama Administration’s strategic plan to end homelessness is called Opening Doors – a roadmap by 19 federal member agencies of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness along with local and state partners in the public and private sectors.
The plan puts the country on a path to end veterans and chronic homelessness by 2015; and to ending homelessness among children, family, and youth by 2020. It also presents strategies building upon the lesson that mainstream housing, health, education, and human service programs must be fully engaged and coordinated to prevent and end homelessness.
The decline in veteran homelessness across the country is largely attributed to the close collaboration between HUD and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on a joint program called HUD-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH).
Research demonstrates that for those who have been homeless the longest, often living on our streets for years at a time, permanent supportive housing – housing coupled with supportive services to address mental illness, substance addiction, and other challenges – not only ends homelessness for these vulnerable individuals, but also saves the taxpayer money by interrupting a costly cycle of emergency room visits, detoxes, and even jail terms.
Since 2008, a total of 58,250 rental vouchers have been awarded and 43,371 formerly homeless veterans are currently in homes of their own because of HUD-VASH.
Chronic homelessness among individuals is declining and has done so quite substantially since 2007. This decline is partially attributable to a long-standing push to develop more permanent supportive housing opportunities for those struggling with long-term homelessness who otherwise continually cycle from shelters to the streets.
Read HUD’s 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, including state and community-level data, at https://www.onecpd.info/resource/3300/2013-ahar-part-1-pit-estimates-of-homelessness/ .
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The city of Lakeport is poised to move forward on the next phase of its Downtown Improvement Project.
The project's first phase was completed but the next phase was put on hold while the state's shuttering of redevelopment – a source of funding for the plan – took place.
City Engineer Scott Harter updated the council on the second, and next, phase of the plan at the council's most recent meeting on Nov. 19.
The city began working on the project several years ago. Harter said redevelopment agency funding for the project dated back to 2007, with the city also having used some redevelopment bonds from 2004.
Following multiple public workshops held in 2008 and 2009 to gather community input, the city settled on a design concept and in early 2010 selected a design team with Rau and Associates based on a competitive process, according to Harter's report to the council.
He said the design process was about 80 percent complete when, in September 2011, then-Redevelopment Director Richard Knoll approached the council – sitting jointly as the redevelopment agency's directors – to ask that it consider reducing the project's scope.
Harter said that was because of a number of factors, including legislative action that was threatening the continuation of redevelopment, as well as flat redevelopment revenues and internal budget adjustments.
In November 2011, the council directed staff to reduce the scope of the project which, Harter noted, had at one point been “pretty all encompassing” of the downtown area.
The city has received the go-ahead from the state to use the bond redevelopment funds for the project, so Harter said they are gearing back up to continue the project.
That funding had appeared uncertain following the governor and Legislature's action to eliminate redevelopment agencies in 2011, an action that was upheld by the California Supreme Court late that same year.
The city has about $2 million for the project's engineering and construction, with Harter noting that the council had set aside $100,000 for docks.
To reduce costs, the project area has been reduced by several blocks, and now calls for the scope to include N. Main Street from First to Fourth streets, with improvements previously planned on Park, First and Second streets now dropped.
Project features will include widening the sidewalks by 2 feet, which will be accomplished by reducing Main Street's lanes from 14 feet to 12 feet, and the turn lane from 12 feet to 11 feet, according to Cathy McKeon, a civil engineer with Rau and Associates who serves as the project's design consultant.
McKeon said the extended sidewalks will make it more comfortable for pedestrians and offer more room for street furniture – including planters, benches and newspaper racks – and trees and tree grates.
The city's decorative lampposts – a project that began in 2002 – also will need to be moved to facilitate the wider sidewalks, she said.
There also will be patterned intersections and crosswalks along with reconstruction of Main Street, she said.
The plan offers decorative paving treatments and more simplified curb improvements, cutting out bulbouts at the downtown intersections, which also will reduce the cost for drainage improvements but will make ramps necessary to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act more challenging, McKeon said.
McKeon said the first phase of the project, which covered a block each on Third and Park streets, included extending the sidewalk, sidewalk treatments and improving the city hall parking lot.
The project originally was estimated to cost $1,850 a lineal foot, which has been reduced to $1,535 – or a total updated cost of about $1.7 million – due to removing the bulbouts and other changes to the plan, she said.
Councilman Kenny Parlet asked if there was any way to get around moving the lampposts. McKeon said leaving them in their current locations would cramp the pedestrian thoroughfare.
“When can we do this?” asked Council member Stacey Mattina, which got a round of laughter.
Lakeport resident Terri Persons, a Lakeport Main Street Association committee member and transportation planner supported the plan.
“I think this is a great project,” she said. “I'd really encourage the city to move forward with it.”
Council members asked when the project could start. Harter said he would present an update at the next council meeting on a timeline.
He told Lake County News in a followup interview that the city hasn't started discussing schedules on the downtown project. First, staff had wanted to reintroduce the project to the council to see whether or not council members had other priorities.
He said the previous agreement with Rau and Associates also needs to be revisited because of the project's significant scope change.
Harter said a lot of the survey and topographic work previously done can be used on the project's next phase; however there was work on alignments and drainage profiles performed on the full scale project which will have to be redesigned for the reduced scope.
Once those changes are in place, Harter said the city will begin looking at schedules and time lines.
He said he plans to take information on anticipated schedules to the council at its Dec. 17 meeting.
Email Elizabeth Larson at