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LAKEPORT, Calif. – This week the Lakeport Planning Commission will discuss time limits for temporary commercial signs and the proposed abandonment of a portion of Ninth Street.
The commission will meet beginning at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
In a continuation of a discussion from a previous meeting, the commission will discuss enforcing time limits for temporary commercial signs, a matter that came up earlier this year due to the proliferation of feather flags in the city, according to Planning Service Manager Andrew Britton's report to the commission.
Britton notes in his report that at the Sept. 11 meeting the commissioners “discussed the issue of temporary signs, particularly the feather-style signs that are now popular and being used by numerous Lakeport businesses.”
At that time, the commission agreed that feather flags are a form of temporary signage as defined in a city resolution and are therefore subject to the display time limit of 30 days per calendar year set forth in the resolution, Britton reported. At that point, the discussion also was continued to this month.
Britton said Community Development Department staff canvassed the city earlier this month and found that a total of 83 businesses are displaying temporary signs, 24 businesses are using a temporary sign as a permanent sign, and 71 businesses appear to be displaying temporary signs on a long-term basis.
“Based on the total number of businesses that appear to be in violation of the display time limit, complete enforcement will be a significant challenge due to limited enforcement staff and other work assignments,” Britton said in his report.
Staff is therefore offering several options, including increasing the time limit from 30 day to 60 or 90 days, which Britton suggested will only delay the need for enforcement action; developing a form letter to businesses explaining the time limit and requesting voluntary compliance beginning next year, which he said is the most “business friendly” option; preparing letters to individual businesses detailing the existing sign ordinance violations and requesting compliance, which would require a lot of staff time but also may be the most effective option; preparing letters to businesses displaying feather flags in excess of the 30-day limit and request compliance with the 30-day display limit beginning in 2014; or enforcing the temporary sign regulations only if the city receives a citizen complaint regarding the signs appearance or the length of the display.
Britton's report stated, “the Lake County Chamber of Commerce has provided input suggesting that some businesses credit the use of feather flags and banners for increasing their sales.”
While the city is sensitive to the needs of local businesses, “the long-term display of signs intended to be displayed on a temporary basis or the use of temporary signs as permanent signs is an aesthetic issue and can detract from the City’s overall appearance,” Britton wrote.
On Monday evening, the chamber sent out an email urging members to attend the Wednesday commission meeting.
Also on Wednesday, the commission will consider a request from Gary and Jane Leonard of Ukiah, who own parcels at 875 and 879 Pool St. and are looking to abandon a portion of the unimproved Ninth Street public right-of-way west of Pool Street, according to staff reports for the meeting.
The city documents indicate that the city of Lakeport also is proposing the abandonment of an additional portion of the unimproved Ninth Street right-of-way as well as the entire portion of the unimproved Harlie Street right-of-way, which is a short extension south of Ninth Street.
As part of the consideration, the commission must decide if the abandonment conforms with the city's general plan, which the staff report suggests it does.
The commission also will discuss and schedule its next meeting for Wednesday, Dec. 11.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
111313 Lakeport Planning Commission - Temporary signage discussion
The California Natural Resources Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Food and Agriculture have released a detailed draft action plan to help guide state efforts and resources on one of California’s most important resources, water.
The California Water Action Plan will focus on the reliability of the water supply, the needed ecosystem restoration to bring the water system back into balance, and the resilience of the state's infrastructure.
In May, Gov. Jerry Brown directed the agencies to identify key actions for the next one to five years that address urgent needs and provide the foundation for sustainable management of California’s water resources.
Each entity will work with affiliated and interested parties and individuals in the next month to gain additional input and provide guidance on future actions.
It is anticipated that a final form of the plan will be released in early December.
“Over a century ago, California leaders began the development of one of the most complex water systems in the world,” said Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird. “Now, with 38 million people and the threat of climate change, we more fully understand the need to strike a balance with the environment. This comprehensive water blueprint for the future will help us find that balance and address long standing water issues in California.”
The challenges facing California are many: uncertain water supplies; water scarcity/drought; declining groundwater basins; poor water quality; declining native fish species and loss of wildlife habitat; flood risks; and, supply disruptions.
“California has not kept pace with some of the significant water challenges that face us, including providing safe drinking water for all our communities. And these challenges will only become more serious with a growing population and a changing climate,” said Cal/EPA Secretary Matt Rodriquez. “This draft plan offers a practical set of actions that will begin to address these urgent challenges and set us on a course of sustainable water management in the coming decades.”
California’s nearly $45 billion agricultural industry remains one of the state’s largest and most important economic sectors. A reliable supply of water is a key element of this thriving industry.
“There is no issue more important than water for food production and agriculture,” said Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross. “This plan is a critical pathway that will lead to a long-term, sustainable future for water management in the 21st century.”
This report identifies actions that, in the next five years, will move California toward more sustainable water management by providing reliable water supply for our farms and communities, restoring important wildlife habitat and species, and helping the state’s water systems and environment become more resilient.
Some of the actions are new proposals, such as a greater focus on water recycling for potable reuse. Water recycling is a key part of a broader strategy to make regions more self-reliant by developing new or underused water resources.
Locally developed water will relieve pressure on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and other imported sources and make communities more resilient against drought and climate change.
Other actions reflect work that state agencies are already planning or engaged in, such as enhanced conservation measures for urban and agricultural water users, accelerated habitat restoration efforts, and adding water storage capacity.
Together, these actions address the most pressing water issues that California faces while laying the groundwork for a sustainable and resilient future. All of these actions require cooperation and collaboration among many partners.
The plan focuses on 10 key actions:
- Make conservation a California way of life;
- Increase local and regional self-reliance;
- Achieve co-equal goals for the Delta;
- Protect and restore important ecosystems;
- Manage and prepare for dry periods;
- Expand water storage capacity;
- Provide safe drinking water for all communities;
- Improve flood protection;
- Increase operational and regulatory efficiency;
- Identify sustainable and integrated financing opportunities.
From this effort, they also hope to drive participation in the many venues the state of California has for policy development and regulation for water.
Read the water action below.
To submit comments and questions about the plan email
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Middletown Area Town Hall will hold a special town hall meeting with state Assembly member Mariko Yamada on Thursday, Nov. 14.
The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the new Middletown Community Center, located at 21256 Washington St.
The public is invited to attend.
Yamada, who represents Lake County in the Assembly, will give opening marks and then take questions from the audience.
For more information contact MATH at
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Firefighters contained two vegetation fires reported within minutes of each other early Monday afternoon.
The fires, which were separate incidents, occurred behind the Clearlake Post Office and off of Burns Valley Road, and burned a total of two acres, according to Lake County Fire Protection District Chief Willie Sapeta.
The fire behind the post office began as a small debris pile, Sapeta said. The larger fire was in an orchard off of Burns Valley Road.
Cal Fire and Lake County Fire sent resources to the two fires, which were reported initially at around 12:30 p.m., according to radio reports.
Sapeta said there were a total of six engines, a water tender, a medic unit, dozers, a Cal Fire helicopter and two hand crews making up the response.
The fires were contained, and mop up was taking place at about 2:30 p.m., according to Sapeta. Radio traffic indicated at that point that Cal Fire units were being released.
He said stumps in the orchard off of Burns Valley Road were expected to continue to burn and smolder through the night.
Sapeta said both fires are under investigation.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – At some time before the end of this year, the Lake County Military Funeral Honors Team will preside over its 1,000th funeral.
But on Monday the team's members from all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces also will honor the county's living veterans at a Veterans Day ceremony at Konocti Vista Casino Resort Marina & RV Park.
Based on previous years, an estimated 500 Lake Countians are expected for the annual event, which will begin at precisely 11 a.m. on the 11th day of the 11th month – commemorating the exact time that Germany and the Allies signed an armistice ending World War I.
The honors team was launched in May 2001. Its framers were Rich Feiro, the honor team's commander; Griff Ratterree, a charter member of the United Veterans Council of Lake County; and A.J. Adams, its eldest member who was among the first to storm the beach at Okinawa during World War II and will celebrate his 90th birthday next month.
At the time, Feiro was four years into his retirement from a distinguished 33-year Air Force career as a Chief Master Sergeant, the highest Air Force enlisted rank attainable.
The three men concluded an honors team was necessary after observing veterans performing honor ceremonies.
At the time military burials in Lake County were accomplished by VFW Post 2015 and the American Legion in Kelseyville. The honors team today functions under the auspices of the latter organization.
“Everybody had different-colored uniforms,” Feiro recalled. “One rifle pointed one way and one rifle pointed the other. They never practiced together or anything else and I thought if I ever get the opportunity I'm going to form a team.”
Since its May 2001 formation, the honors team has honed itself into a well respected and welcome unit of about two dozen men and a woman that performs in a way that indeed honors a fallen comrade in arms.
The retired military team members rank as high as a navy captain and an army colonel, although, said Ratterree, military rank has no significance on the honors team.
“Rich put us all in one unit, so there's no distinction over rank,” Ratterree explained. “He did a marvelous job of putting the team together and making us a viable unit. It's a very sentimental, touchy thing with me.
“Rich was also instrumental in putting together the Veterans Circle in Lakeport's Hartley Cemetery,” Ratterree added. “There were about 12 or 14 of us involved in developing that circle and maintaining it. Right now I think we have about 40 burials in that area.”
The team's mission, said Feiro, “is to provide dignified military funerals to veterans of Lake County. If you ask the guys why they come out and do this they'll say, 'Just because it's the right thing to do.'”
What they do at each funeral ceremony is a standard three-volley salute by five to eight riflemen. A chaplain presides, American flags taken from atop the coffins of the veterans are presented to wives or next of kin, and two buglers play “Taps.”
The buglers, Bill Vann and Boyd Green, incidentally, will travel to Arlington Cemetery on Nov. 15 for a “Buglers Across America” event, joining thousands of other buglers.
A federal law adopted in the year 2000 mandates that military last rites must be conducted for any deceased veteran of the Armed Forces whose family requests it.
In an amendment to Section 578 of Public Law 106-65 of the “National Defense Authorization Act” it is decreed that all veterans – irrespective of length of service and when they served – are eligible for a military funeral, with the exception of those who were dishonorably discharged.
In keeping with that law's mandate to honor veterans of all eras, last month the team performed honors at a ceremony honoring Civil War veteran Lorenzo T. Adams, a Union soldier who served in the 37th Regiment of the Wisconsin Infantry, as Lake County News has reported.
Adams, whose grave recently was rediscovered at the Middletown Cemetery, is one of an estimated 164 Civil War veterans who have been laid to rest in Lake County.
In March of 2011, the team also took part in reuniting a veteran with the dog tags he lost while serving in Italy during World War II.
A souvenir hunter found the dog tags on the faraway Italian battlefield, and 60 years later they made their way to the man, who Feiro said received them back the day he died.
“When we buried him in Veterans Circle, we buried the dog tags with him,” Feiro said.
Monday's Veterans Day event is one of two annual major outings for the Lake County Honors Team.
On Memorial Day, the team honors all deceased members of the Armed Forces in Lake County in a far more comprehensive undertaking.
The team on Memorial Day makes a circuit of each cemetery in Lake County, beginning at Middletown, then moving around the lake to Lower Lake, Upper Lake, Kelseyville and finally to Hartley Cemetery in Lakeport.
“We start at 8:30 a.m. and get home at 4:30 p.m. and everybody's exhausted,” said Feiro.
The team also makes annual appearances at the Pearl Harbor commemoration event in Lakeport on Dec. 7.
But, given the 1,000 appearances the team has made, its schedule is fairly busy all year.
“We've had three burials in a day,” said Feiro.
Although most of the honor team's members have reached retirement age, they perform their solemn duties with infallible military precision.
Feiro protects the privacy of team members and would not divulge the names of the aforementioned Navy captain and Army colonel in the organization. He also withheld the names of two combat flyers who piloted P40 fighters when World War II broke out.
“They were in the South Pacific and they knew they were going to die there because they were outnumbered,” Feiro said.
It was a reasonable assumption. The Japanese Zeros in the early stages of World War II gained a legendary reputation as dogfighters, achieving the outstanding kill ratio of 12 to 1.
But, said Feiro of the two Lake County combat pilots in his story, “We buried one who lived to be 95. The other lived to be 96.”
Email John Lindblom at
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Veterans Affairs Clinic has received a grant that will assist in making sure veterans around Lake County can get to the facility for medical services.
At a ceremony held last Friday at the clinic – located at 15145 Lakeshore Drive – a $5,000 grant was presented to clinic officials.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. donated the funds through the American Red Cross of Sonoma, Mendocino & Lake Counties, according to Red Cross spokesperson Kristie Fry.
The assistance is being offered as part of the Red Cross' Service to Armed Forces initiative, the organization reported.
“We have a very storied history with veterans, starting back with Clara Barton and the Civil War,” Fry said of the Red Cross.
Red Cross has had a successful program in Santa Rosa that assists veterans in getting to medical care, and they were looking to offer similar assistance in Lake County, she said.
Fry said the Red Cross contacted the Clearlake VA Clinic and found that a transportation assistance program would be helpful in Lake County, as some veterans have difficulty getting to the clinic. PG&E wanted to be a part of the effort, and donated the $5,000.
Bus passes and taxi vouchers will be offered to qualifying veterans to help them get to the Clearlake clinic, Fry said. Social workers at the clinic will screen vets to determine financial need and eligibility.
“That's one way that we're bridging a gap,” said Fry.
As the need presents itself and continues, the Red Cross and PG&E want to continue to offer help. As such, the hope is that the grant can be made annually, Fry said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at