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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – One of Lake County's retired judges had his portrait officially unveiled in a special ceremony last week.
Judge Richard Freeborn was the honoree at the afternoon event, held last Thursday, Oct. 3, at the Lake County Superior Court's Clearlake division.
Nearly all of Lake County's current and retired judges were on hand to honor Freeborn for his service to the county and celebrate his career.
The full ceremony can be seen in the video above.
Video by John Jensen.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Nominations are beginning to arrive for the 16th annual Stars of Lake County Community Awards Program.
As a reminder, anyone can write a nomination for people, organizations and businesses they feel are contributing to the communities throughout Lake County.
Deadline for nominations is Wednesday, Oct. 23; they must either be delivered in person to the Lake County Chamber of Commerce office at 875 Lakeport Blvd. in Lakeport by the end of the business day, or postmarked with that date.
Nomination information can be found at www.lakecochamber.com .
The Stars of Lake County event will take place at 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 16, at the Soper-Reese Community Theatre in Lakeport.
Stars of Lake County is a production of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce and it is through the generosity of many businesses in Lake County that they are able to continue this very heartwarming community awards program.
More than 1,600 entities have been recognized during the first 15 years of the program.
If anyone has a question concerning writing a nomination, please contact the chamber office at 707-263-5092.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Wells Fargo Bank has awarded Habitat for Humanity Lake County a grant of $5,000 for the Brush of Kindness Home Repair Program.
Lorine D’Agostino, store manager of the Wells Fargo Clearlake office, presented the check to Habitat President Richard Birk on Friday, Oct. 4.
“Habitat for Humanity’s work benefits this county and we are pleased to be a part of that effort,” said D’Agostino.
Such donations and grants go directly back into the community to help better the lives of Lake County residents, according to Habitat for Humanity.
“Our organization thrives on the generosity of organizations such as Wells Fargo Bank. We appreciate their willingness to contribute to our work here in Lake County,” said Birk.
For more information about Habitat for Humanity Lake County, contact the office at 707-994-1100.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Congressman Mike Thompson announced that he has co-authored a bill to reform the country's immigration system.
H.R. 15, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act, is the House version of the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the Senate.
“Not only is passing this bill the right thing to do for our country and in line with our nation’s most fundamental principles, it will boost our economy and lower our debt,” said Thompson. “The Senate has passed a tough, fair, bipartisan comprehensive reform bill that strengthens our borders and offers an earned pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants already living, working and raising families here. It’s time the House did the same.”
This House bill contains the same provisions from the bipartisan Senate-passed bill (S. 744) that protect workers, unite families, and offer immigrants an earned pathway to citizenship.
It also contains the same provisions from the bipartisan Senate-passed bill that reform our visa programs and the enforcement of immigration laws.
The only difference between the House and Senate bills is that the House bill replaces the Senate’s border security provision with a provision unanimously passed by the House Committee on Homeland Security in May.
While the Senate bill spelled out a specific border security plan, the House legislation simply directs the Department of Homeland Security to develop a strategic plan to secure the border which will then be approved by Congress.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), enactment of the bipartisan Senate-passed comprehensive immigration reform bill would reduce the deficit by $850 billion.
The CBO also estimates that the Senate-passed bill would increase economic growth by 3.3 percent in 2023 and 5.4 percent in 2033.
The legislation has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Thompson represents California’s 5th Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – A parent's concerns about changes in a school bus route will be a topic of discussion at this week's Upper Lake High School Board meeting.
The meeting will take place beginning at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9, in the Upper Lake high School library, 675 Clover Valley Road.
The bus route item is set for discussion only; no action is agendized.
Parent Kevin Gross will ask the board to reconsider eliminating parts of school bus route one.
“I'm the parent that's going to throw the fit,” said Gross.
Last month, representatives from the elementary and high school districts met and decided to make changes to school bus route one, according to district Superintendent/Principal Patrick Iaccino.
Iaccino said Upper Lake High School provides transportation services to the elementary and middle school district, and bills them for the services, so the changes impacted students in the lower grades as well.
School bus route one used to cover areas including Elk Mountain Road, Witter Springs, Bachelor Valley, Rancheria Road, Pitney Lane, Clover Drive, White Rock Canyon and Blue Lakes. Now, however, the bus only goes to Blue Lakes, said Don Boyd, Upper Lake High School District's assistant superintendent of student services, who oversees transportation.
The changes to the routes began on Sept. 30, Boyd said.
Boyd said the changes were necessary due to cuts to transportation, which over the last several years have reduced the district's buses from six to four, with the same number of students to serve.
The changes also addressed a number of challenges in the mornings, when the drivers had not been able to pick up all of the children, Boyd said.
Iaccino said that adding to the student load was Upper Lake Elementary's new all-day kindergarten, which began this school year and added 60 children to the busing schedule.
After the first four weeks of school they reviewed daily counts and realized that route one, which accounts for 25 percent of their busing capacity, was being used to move 10 percent of the students, Boyd said.
Boyd said Iaccino came to him and asked him for solutions, and Boyd said there were two quick ways to do it – provide more buses or redirect the resources they had.
His solution was to have route one only make a stop in Blue Lakes before heading back toward Nice.
The areas covered by route one previously had been covered by two buses, but was consolidated due to funding cuts, Boyd said.
He said notification about the route changes went out to parents on Sept. 10, ahead of the bus route decision by the board.
Boyd said overall he's fielded four phone calls about the changes. Most people understand the issue once he explains it.
Gross, however, said he only received the notice about the route change the day after the governing board meeting took place.
He has a 9 year old son who is among 24 children who are impacted by the change, Gross said.
In Gross' case, his son now isn't being picked up in the mornings or dropped off at his daycare on Pitney Lane after school by the bus.
In the mornings, Gross and his wife leave early for work, and he said they can't simply drop their son off at school before 7 a.m.
Gross' wife has to take an hour off from work in the afternoons to pick up their son from school and take him to daycare, he said.
“I don't feel that it's fair,” said Gross.
Gross said he hopes parents will show up to the meeting.
“I'm just going in there to try to get more parents involved,” he said.
Other items on the Wednesday agenda include a Title I Parent Involvement Policy for 2013-14, a memorandum of understanding between Upper Lake Union High School District and the Lake County Sheriff’s Office for a campus school resource officer, reinstatement of senior off-campus lunch privileges for the 2013-14 school year, and consideration of the 2013-14 student board member.
Correction: The story originally stated that the Upper Lake High School Governing Board had voted on the bus route change. The board did not vote on it; it was instead a group of representatives from the elementary and high school districts that made the decision.
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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – A crash on Sunday morning that involved four vehicles sent a Kelseyville woman to a regional trauma center.
Thirty-year-old Melanie Bucher sustained moderate injuries in the crash, which occurred at 9 a.m. Sunday at the Kit's Corner intersection, located at the junction of Highway 29 at Highway 281, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The CHP said 33-year-old Ukiah resident Keith Quigley was traveling northbound on Highway 29 in a 2006 Toyota Tundra pickup when he failed to stop for a red light at the intersection. Instead, he applied the brakes and turned the vehicle to the right.
Bucher was headed southbound on Highway 29 in a 2001 Toyota Corolla and had stopped in the left turn lane to Highway 281, the CHP said.
The light turned green for Bucher to make a left turn, which she proceeded to do. The CHP said while she was making the turn Quigley failed to stop for the red light, went through the intersection and hit the right side of Bucher's vehicle.
The impact pushed Bucher's vehicle into a 2004 Jeep Wrangler driven by Natalie Levchenko, 52, of Kelseyville, who the CHP said was stopped for a red light, facing west, on Highway 281.
Quigley's pickup continued forward and hit Levchenko's Jeep, with the Jeep being pushed out of its traffic lane in a northeast direction, the CHP said. Bucher's Corolla came to rest next to the Jeep.
The CHP said Quigley continued forward and hit the front of a fourth vehicle, a 2013 Toyota Prius, driven by 26-year-old Alisha Hazelton of Hayward. Hazelton had been stopped behind Levchenko on Highway 281.
All four vehicles required a tow truck due to the extent of damage to each one, the CHP said.
Quigley, Levchenko and Hazelton were not injured, the CHP said.
Bucher was flown to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital due to facial cuts and for further evaluation by medical personnel, according to the CHP.
The report from responding CHP officers Dan Frederick and Greg Buchholz concluded that alcohol was not a factor in this collision.
All four drivers were wearing their seat belts, the report stated.
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