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LAKEPORT, Calif. – One of the Lakeport Senior Activity Center's big fundraising events of the year will take place later this week.
The Hot August Nights dinner-dance will be held from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 23, at the center, 527 Konocti Ave.
This event benefits Meals on Wheels and the Lakeport Senior Activity Center's services.
Doors open at 5 p.m., with a no-host bar. Dinner, which includes a choice of pork loin or chicken, starts at 5:30 p.m. Music, provided by the LC Diamonds, and dancing begin at 6 p.m.
The evening will include raffle prizes and a cool and funky sock contest, so dig out your poodle skirts, denims, and blue suede shoes and join the fun.
Tickets, which are still available, cost $30 each or $35 each for VIP seating. To reserve a VIP table for eight, which includes two bottles of wine, the cost is $280. All VIP tables are up front and right next to the dance floor.
Tickets can be purchased at the Meals on Wheels Thrift Store, 120 Main St. in Lakeport, or at the Lakeport Senior Activity Center, 527 Konocti Ave.
For more information, call the center at 707-263-4218.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake Transit Authority reported Monday that transit services that were curtailed due to a strike are being restored at an accelerated pace, but workers who chose to return to the job still haven't been called back at work.
Last week Teamsters Local 665 said the 28 striking Lake Transit workers it represents had voted to return to work to help bring services back online.
The strike began on July 29, with the union citing a breakdown in negotiations with Paratransit Services – Lake Transit's operator – over wage step increases.
Paratransit Services moved forward with hiring permanent replacement workers and last week Lake Transit began the first phase of a plan to restore services that had been rolled back after the strike began.
Lake Transit Authority General Manager Mark Wall said Monday that about 60 percent of Lake Transit weekday schedules were in operation.
By this Thursday, Wall said all routes would be in operation and 88 percent of weekday schedules will be operating, including the following:
- Route 1: North Shore, Clearlake to Lakeport via Highway 20, all schedules operating.
- Route 2: Middletown to Kit's Corner via Cobb Mountain, all schedules operating.
- Route 3: Clearlake to Middletown, Calistoga, St. Helena, nine of 11 schedules.
- Route 4: South Shore, Clearlake to Lakeport via Highway 29, 13 of 16 schedules.
- Route 4A: Kit's Corner to Lakeport, all schedules operating.
- Route 5: City of Clearlake-Clearlake Park, operates 7 a.m.-5 p.m., 10 of 14 schedules.
- Route 6: City of Clearlake-Lower Lake, operates 7 a.m.-5 p.m., 10 of 11 schedules.
- Route 7: Lakeport to Ukiah, six of eight schedules including connections to Greyhound and Amtrak.
- Route 8: City of Lakeport, all schedules operating.
Wall said services will be fully restored by Sept. 3.
Just who will be driving the buses is still being determined, according to the union and Paratransit Services, Lake Transit's operator.
As to putting back to work the union members who voted to return to the job, Christie Scheffer, chief operating officer and executive vice president of Paratransit Services, said Monday that the process of recalling staff is under way.
“We are still working to insure the recall list takes into account all employment categories and circumstances,” she said in an email message. “Both Paratransit Services and the union's attorney are in communication on these matters. Once a decision is reached, those employees who are recalled will report for work as agreed.”
Ralph Miranda, president of Teamsters Local 665, said Paratransit Services told the union that they've replaced everyone but that they have one full-time driver position and one part-time dispatcher position, with the possibility that another driver spot may also be available.
He believes that Paratransit Services is trying to qualify all of its new drivers so that they don't have responsibility to their union employees.
The union has maintained that the new drivers cannot be qualified in such a short period of time to replace the more experienced workers and that they have had safety issues, including jumping curbs and not taking proper turns.
He said the union and Paratransit Services are meeting at 2 p.m. Tuesday, at which time they will make arrangements for recalling some of the workers who had been on strike and the details about what jobs are available also will be finalized.
“The parties have agreed that they'll be called back by seniority,” Miranda said of the Teamsters members who had been on the picket line.
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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – A man was flown to a regional trauma center on Saturday after being seriously injured in a boating accident near Kelseyville.
The accident occurred at about 1:45 p.m. on Clear Lake, according to Kelseyville Fire Chief Mike Stone.
Stone said the man – whose name was not available – fell off the back of his boat into the lake.
When the man fell into the lake, the boat's propeller hit him in the back, Stone said.
Stone said the sheriff's patrol picked the man up and transported him to Braito's Marina, where Kelseyville Fire crews met them.
By the time firefighters saw the man, he already was bandaged up, so Stone could not offer additional details about his injuries.
A landing zone was set up for an air ambulance at Buckingham, and the victim was flown to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, Stone said.
Correction: This story previously incorrectly stated the landing zone was set up at Kelseyville High School. It was in fact set up at Buckingham.
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State Controller John Chiang has updated his public employee compensation Web site with the latest wage and benefit data for State and California State University (CSU) employees.
The site – www.publicpay.ca.gov – offers maps, search functions and custom report-building tools. It also allows users to download raw data for their own research.
This update covers calendar year 2012, the fourth full year of data for State and CSU employees available on the site.
“Government works best when its citizens are well-informed and vigilant over how public resources are being spent,” said Chiang. “Bringing the public sector into the digital age, my office is driving to make compensation data for virtually every public employee in California available with a keystroke.”
This latest update adds wage and benefit data for 341,475 positions, with more than $17.5 billion in wages paid in 2012.
Since the site's launch in 2010, it has registered more than 6.6 million page views online.
The controller completed an overhaul of the public Web site in late 2012, adding additional search, browse and mapping functions.
Those visiting www.publicpay.ca.gov can:
- View compensation levels on map graphics, and search for compensation by region;
- Develop charts, trend-line and trend graphs;
- Quickly see lists of top earners at cities, counties and other local governments;
- Generate side-by-side comparisons of local government payrolls;
- Create local agency summaries;
- Export custom reports or raw data from the site.
A series of video tutorials also are available to guide users through the new site's interface.
The site currently includes annual compensation data for positions at cities, counties, higher education institutions, special districts and state departments.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Police have arrested a Lucerne man who is alleged to have crashed into a Lakeport business early Sunday morning.
Christopher Don Coffer, 25, was arrested a short after he allegedly hit the building housing Hillside Honda, according to Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen.
Rasmussen said that Lakeport Police officers were dispatched to Hillside Honda, located at 460 S. Main St., at approximately 5:56 a.m. Sunday to investigate a report of a vehicle having just crashed into the building.
He said dispatch advised responding officers that witnesses reported the driver and two passengers were fleeing the scene on foot.
However, the driver returned and began efforts to pull his vehicle free from the wreckage. He rammed the building before finally pulling free and fleeing north on S. Main Street at a high rate of speed, Rasmussen said.
Officers arrived on scene and immediately began looking for the vehicle but did not initially locate it, according to Rasmussen.
He said officers interviewed four witnesses in the area and learned that just prior to the collision the suspect vehicle, a 2013 Toyota Scion, ran a stop sign from westbound Esplanade Street onto southbound S. Main Street and nearly collided with a motorist heading southbound on S. Main Street.
The Scion continued across S. Main Street, hitting the west curb and then traveling southeast across all lanes of S. Main Street before crashing into the west wall and window of the Hillside Honda store, Rasmussen said.
Officers continued to search the area for the Scion and driver, and located a trail of glass approximately 10 blocks north to Seventh Street, Rasmussen reported.
At approximately 6:57 a.m., witnesses advised police that the Scion was in the area of S. Main and Martin streets. Rasmussen said officers responded and located the Scion and the driver – who was identified as Coffer – at C and S. Main streets.
Through the witness statements and physical evidence located at the crash scene and on the Scion, Rasmussen said officers determined that Coffer was the driver of the vehicle both before and after the crash.
Coffer was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and for hit and run causing property damage. Rasmussen said no injuries were reported.
Rasmussen and his department thanked the numerous witnesses who provided detailed information to assist them with identifying and arresting Coffer.
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – After two days of work, firefighters were able to fully contain a wildland fire along Highway 20 on Sunday evening.
The Double Fire, burning off of the highway at Mule Skinner Road east of Clearlake Oaks since Friday night, was 100-percent contained at 70 acres, Cal Fire said Sunday.
The fire had burned primarily in grass and oak woodland, and no structures were reported threatened or damaged.
A total of 10 engines, two fire crews, four bulldozers and five water tenders remained on scene Sunday, Cal Fire said.
Officials said the cause remains under investigation.
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