News

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – The annual North Bay Stand Down, an outreach event for veterans in need, will take place this October.

This year the dates are Tuesday, Oct. 15, through Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Dixon-May Fairgrounds in Solano County.

The Stand Down event is a community effort to bring services, support and dental, medical and mental health care to veterans who are homeless or at risk of being homeless.

The area of operation for the North Bay Stand Down includes the counties of Lake, Mendocino, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties.

The “stand down” concept comes from the military. The term designates a specific status – when a combat unit in the field has been withdrawn and moved back to a base camp for rest, recuperation, training and reequipping.

In some ways, homeless veterans are comparable to combat soldiers in a war zone – living exposed in the field, surviving by their wit with limited rations, enduring extreme conditions.

Life on the street is both dangerous and debilitating and for many veterans leads to a self-generating cycle of despair and isolation.

Begun in 1988 by Vietnam veterans in San Diego, Stand Down was conceived as an intervention to bring a wide range of essential services to homeless veterans, while raising their morale and awakening their motivation.

The goal was to break the cycle of homelessness and change the lives of many of the veterans who attend the Stand Down.

Homeless veterans need the same things as the vast majority of our society enjoys such as dental care, medical and mental health care, eye care, hot showers, a clean, safe and secure place to sleep, hot food and new clothing.

The US Department of Veterans Affairs supports stand downs events all across the nation with medical and mental health care.

The state of California allows the use of many of the fairgrounds across the state for stand downs. But the event could not exist without the involvement of the surrounding communities.

Local communities – businesses, community organizations, veterans’ service organizations – provide the greatest amount of support for a local stand down.

You can help our veterans return to a normal life in our society by participating in any of the following ways: make a tax-deductible donation, volunteer to help where needed, sponsor a meal, donate professional services and donate food, clothing or other items.

Veterans also can help by talking to our homeless and at-risk veterans.

If you want to help our veterans, you may call 707-344-3743, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit www.nbstanddown.org .

COBB, Calif. – The Lake County Land Trust will present a fun and educational fundraiser to benefit the Boggs Lake Reserve on Mt. Hannah on Sunday, Aug. 25.

The event will start at 5 p.m. at the Moore Family Winery, also on Mt. Hannah off of Bottle Rock Road.

The fundraiser is $30 per person, with reservations required by calling 707-262-0707 or emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Featured speaker for the event will be Carol Witham, vernal pool ecologist and management specialist.

Witham will present a virtual tour of the wonders of vernal pools, and discuss answers to questions such as: “what makes a vernal pool?” and “why are they found almost nowhere but California?”

A special feature of this event will be a short field trip at Boggs Lake, led by Witham. The field trip will start at 3:30 p.m. and is only open to those supporting the fundraiser.

Boggs Lake, currently owned by The Nature Conservancy and being co-managed by the Lake County Land Trust and the conservancy, is a vernal pool featuring some of the most unique native plants in the state of California.

“Vernal pools provide a kaleidoscope of brilliant life as the pools progress through seasonal transitions from wet to dry,” said Lake County Land Trust Executive Director Cathy Koehler.

She explained that vernal pools support a short-lived, weird-looking, fascinating fauna that evolved millions of years ago, and dazzling swaths of tens of thousands of tiny flowers that change from week to week through a two to three month “season.”

The ticket price includes delicious appetizers and a glass of wine from the Moore Family Winery. The winery is located at 11990 Bottle Rock Road, Kelseyville.

The Lake County Land Trust is a private, local, nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the natural habitats of Lake County.

For more information about the Land Trust, go to www.lakecountylandtrust.org or “like” the Lake County Land Trust page on Facebook.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Lake County Office of Education has announced the new vision for its Southshore campus.

The campus, located at 6945 Old Highway 53 in Clearlake, formerly housed the Lake County Office of Education's alternative education programs.

Those programs were relocated to the Hance Education Center on Argonaut Road in Lakeport last year in an effort to consolidate programs and spending.

The Clearlake campus is now home to two exciting programs: The Creativity School and the Career Technical Education/College-Going Initiative Department.

“These programs enable us to fully utilize this facility,” said LCOE Senior Director Brock Falkenberg. “We are pleased to be able to provide additional jobs and services in our Southshore communities.”

The Career Technical Education/College-Going Initiative Department is working to bring expanded opportunities for learning to Lake County with future programs such as a certified nursing assistant course, medical assistant course and a phlebotomy course.

The Clearlake campus is also home to the new Community Computer Lab. High school students and adults can take classes on computer programs and tutorials on basic skills.

The lab also offers practice exams and customizable lessons for a variety of assessments, including GED, SAT, CBEST and more.

Students may choose to take scheduled classes or work independently for a flat fee of $25 per month.

Starting in January, this facility will become the sole testing site for the GED as it converts to a computer-based exam.

WorkForce Lake also is offering services out of the Clearlake campus and will be working with LCOE to help local communities with their educational and employment needs.

For more information on any of these opportunities, contact Tammy Serpa at 707-995-9523.

The Creativity School provides educational opportunities for students who have emotional difficulties and struggle in school, helping them build upon their strengths that often lie in areas that are not typically emphasized in the classroom.

Robotics, growing a garden, raising chickens and selling eggs are among the activities planned.

“Our new school draws on the universal strength of creativity through project-based learning, the arts, and technology to re-engage students in academic and entrepreneurial experiences in creative, meaningful ways,” according to Dr. Ruth Aldrich, LCOE senior director of SELPA & Student Services.

“For example, for this summer’s Ocean Odyssey thematic unit, our students took on the roles of project manager, architect, engineer, carpenter, and accountant and designed and built bridges out of toothpicks and full-size boats using only duct tape, cardboard and plastic bottles,” Aldrich said.

She added, “Ultimately, our vision for the Creativity School is for students to gain the skills they need to make positive, healthy choices and successfully return to their home school with a renewed love of learning.”

For more information on the Creativity School, contact Principal Melissa Webb at 707-995-9523.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A fire first reported near Indian Valley Reservoir early Wednesday afternoon was contained by evening, according to fire officials.

Firefighters were dispatched to the Indian Fire at 12:35 p.m., according to Cal Fire.

The blaze was located off of Bartlett Springs Road near Indian Valley Reservoir, 10 miles northeast of Clearlake Oaks, the agency said.

Local and state firefighters worked on the incident from the ground as well as the air, with Cal Fire aircraft assisting with knocking it down, according to radio reports.

It was reported 100-percent contained at 38 acres at 6:30 p.m.

No cause for the fire was immediately reported.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Randy Ridgel sometimes spoke in the patois of the Louisiana Bayou Country where he spent his early years as the son of a sharecropper. So "Crawfish," as intimates occasionally called him, was an appropriate nickname. 

But, given his sagacious maneuverings in the halls and offices of local and state government, "Kingfish" would have been just as suitable for Ridgel, who succumbed to a seizure at the age of 82 on Friday, July 26.

For Ridgel, war and politics were inseparable terms. Whether it was a cause or a candidate he favored, Ridgel was a tenacious adversary, who armed himself for battle with truth, hard work at the grassroots level and chutzpah.

"Dad approached a campaign the way the military would approach some kind of battle," said his son Pat, the Lake County Republican Central Committee chairman. "He organized (campaigns) and believed they were a battle to win hearts and minds, which is the way of politics in the country.

"He campaigned to put the candidate into office who was going to do the right thing according to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, which were the documents he loved. He believed that if he presented the truth and the facts to people goodness would overcome. That's why he was into politics the way he was," Pat added.

"You could always count on Randy to tell you the truth and he would tell it in a completely unvarnished way," said insurance agent Tom Lincoln, whose friendship with Ridgel has existed for 30 years.

"Unfortunately there aren't too many people who communicate like that anymore," Lincoln added.

"No question, the gloves would come off. He declared political war. ‘You wanna win or not,' he'd say," recalled Lake County District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown. 

Brown, for one, will be among the first to assert that Ridgel, a lifelong conservative Republican, influenced his political career in its beginning.

"He helped me with several campaigns from the time I was first elected to the school board," said Brown who was a Kelseyville High School classmate of Ridgel's son Jeff.

Did Brown ever disagree with Ridgel?

"Oh, of course," he replied. "It wasn't so much political philosophy. There were times that he expected hard work (campaigning) and I'd say 'I can't do that. I've got a wife and small kids. I need to be home with them,' and he said, 'No, you've got to be out on the campaign trail.' He was very adamant about it – if you're going to be a candidate that was your job."

Ridgel's inestimable compatriots and confidantes will have a lot to talk about this coming Sunday, Aug. 11, at a 1 p. m. memorial service for him at the Lake County Fairgrounds' Little Theater. The gathering will salute a man who lived a storybook life that was actually a multiplicity of lives.

"He grew up in abject poverty in a family that had great love and worked their rears off," said Pat. "He grew up with a love for people and that's how he governed his political life."

A child of the Depression, Ridgel entered the U.S. Navy as a minor and retired as an officer after 30 years. He served on both submarines and surface ships and saw action in Vietnam.

His activism in the political arena began soon after he moved his family – wife Jackie and sons Jeff and Patrick – from San Diego to a 20-acre property in Kelseyville in 1974.

As chair of the Lake County Republican Party, he was the county's ranking Republican, but as a member of the state's Republican Board of Directors he also carried clout at the state government level – more than anyone from the county ever did and perhaps ever will.

"He approached everything in a systematic way, which enabled him to get where he got," said Pat. "Once he was into something he thought about it all the time, he was devoted to it and he surrounded himself with outstanding people who had like minds."

Among those people was Lake County Superior Court Judge Stephen Hedstrom, who in the mid-1980s tabbed Ridgel to run his campaign for Lake County district attorney, one of the rare times Ridgel agreed to run a campaign for someone who wasn’t a Republican. Ridgel, in turn, picked Lincoln as his media liaison.

Ridgel also would help David Herrick win election over opponent Peter Windrem in the Lake County Superior Court judge’s race in 1994.

Ridgel served two terms – eight years in all – as president of the Lake County Historical Society.

"He realized he couldn't fulfill his second term so he tried to recruit me. I was reluctant at first, but when I realized his term was almost up I thought I could be interim president for the last six months of the year," said Phil Smoley. "That was three and a half years ago and I'm still president."

The most notable occurrence on Ridgel's watch was the creation of the Ely Stagecoach Stop Museum, which by no means was a slam-dunk undertaking.

"Its grand opening occurred on my watch, so a lot of people give me credit for it, but I really had very little to do with it," Smoley demurred. "Randy understood there was a situation with Caltrans whose building used to be over on Highway 29. There was concern that expansion of the highway would impact its location.

"Then Randy started talking to different people and one by one folks materialized who donated money and land and got involved. Without any of those people (the museum) wouldn't have happened, but the first person who had the vision was Randy Ridgel,” Smoley said.

Randy and Jackie Ridgel would be on hand throughout the hot July day in 2007 when the stage stop building was moved from its original location on Highway 29 to where it now sits on Soda Bay Road. They patiently followed its slow overland trek over several hours, recording the move with photos and video.

Ridgel was a man of letters, the written kind. There were an untold number of them that he penned over a period of close to 40 years.

One of them triggered a story in the Los Angeles Times. The open letter was a withering retort to fellow state board member Shannon Reeves' public claim that the Republicans treated black Americans, such as himself, as "window dressing."

"I, for one, am getting bored with that kind of garbage," Ridgel wrote. "Let me offer this suggestion to Mr. Reeves: 'Get over it, bucko. You don't know squat about hardship.' "

He added: "I personally don't give a damn about your color . . . so stop parading it around. We need human beings of all human colors in our party to pull their weight, so get in without the whining or get out."

"Dad's letter writing was really a process," said Pat. "Something would strike his interest and he would turn to you and say 'That's my next letter to the editor.' . . . Then from out of the blue I'd get a phone call at home, at work, it could be the middle of the night and he'd say 'I've got it written. Check your email.'"

What Lake County has lost with the passing of Ridgel, said Brown, is "an era of campaign strategy."

"His political philosophies aside, his Conservative values will live on because they're deep," Brown added. "I don't like the way the Internet works with anonymous blogging and personal attacks on people by some anonymous blogging. The type of campaigns that Randy ran were knock-on-the door, talk to the person face-to-face and work hard. You never saw Randy post anything anonymously."

Said Pat: "We lost one of our movers and shakers . . . he was very passionate about his ideas and was very much a patriot."

Lake County "lost a lot of things," Lincoln concluded. "But to me it lost a truth teller."

Email John Lindblom at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .