How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
News
NORTH COAST, Calif. – A couple of NCS Div. V football teams are looking especially strong this early season.
North Central League II/Bay Football teams Calistoga and Tomales rolled to easy victories Friday night, Calistoga beating South Fork, 61-28, and Tomales clubbing Elsie Allen, 68-14.
For Tomales (1-0), a strong Div. V program, the big win over Elsie Allen (0-2) was exactly big news.
But Calistoga, which defeated Cloverdale in its opener the week prior, is suddenly 2-0 – after going 0-10 last year and opening the season as the lowest-ranked Div. V team in the NCS.
In other Friday games, Arroyo defeated Ukiah, 10-6, Fortuna beat Healdsburg, 37-0, and Justin-Siena rolled over El Molino, 53-0.
NORTH COAST, Calif. – A Clearlake man and two Ukiah residents were cited earlier this week for allegedly purchasing alcohol for minors.
Aristeo Lares-Gonzalez, 36, of Clearlake was cited along with Ukiah residents Jeffrey Murray, 29, and Christopher Knowles, 46, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office.
On Sunday, Aug. 26, Mendocino County Sheriff's deputies conducted an Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) decoy shoulder tap operation in the Calpella and Ukiah areas, according to Capt. Kurt Smallcomb.
Smallcomb said the Decoy Shoulder Tap Program is an enforcement program ABC and or local law enforcement agencies use to detect and deter shoulder tap activity.
During the program, a minor decoy – a person under 21 – under the direct supervision of law enforcement officers solicits adults – 21 years of age or older – outside ABC licensed stores to buy the minor alcohol beverages, he explained.
Any person observed furnishing alcohol to the minor decoy is arrested and either cited or incarcerated at the county jail for providing alcohol to a minor, Smallcomb said.
During the operation, the minor decoys were deployed outside ABC licensed stores in the Calpella and Ukiah areas, Smallcomb said.
The decoys contacted several people during the operation, Smallcomb said. Most of the people contacted properly dismissed the minor decoys requests.
In the Calpella area, Lares-Gonzales was observed purchasing and furnishing alcohol beverages to the minor decoys and he was cited, Smallcomb said.
In the Ukiah area, both Jeffrey Murray and Christopher Knowles were observed purchasing and providing alcohol beverages to the minor decoys. Smallcomb said both men were cited.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown coach Bill Foltmer was sitting in his office on Friday afternoon, a few hours before his team kicked off its season against Salesian, when someone asked him what his Mustangs had to do to have a shot at upsetting the visitors from Richmond, who were pulling into town with a 22-game win streak and a No. 2 North Coast Section Div IV ranking.
“We have to score points,” he said, meaning they’d have to score a bunch of points to keep pace with The Pride’s high-octane offense.
“In the past, whenever we’ve played them, we had to score points,” Foltmer said. “It’s never a defensive battle with them.”
Until later that evening, at least, when the large crowd that came to see some offensive fireworks instead witnessed a battle between two defenses that surrendered plenty of yards, but precious few points.
Trailing 3-0 at the half, Salesian finally got into the end zone on Michael Page’s 1-yard run in the third quarter, which held up for a very strange 7-3 victory.
Strange because Page finished with 340 yards rushing in 27 carries as Salesian piled up the yardage in posting its 23rd straight win, but when it came to scoring points, they didn’t add up to much.
But one touchdown was all The Pride needed on a night when the Mustangs were held to a second-quarter Tyler Drew field goal of 22 yards.
“We had a few opportunities on offense, but we just couldn’t take advantage of them,” Foltmer said after the game, sitting in the same chair he occupied a few hours earlier.
As for the Mustangs’ defense, who would have figured it could hold Salesian to a single touchdown?
Here’s a team that out-scored opponents by an average of 30 points a game last year en route to its second straight NCS Div. IV title, and opened last week with a 39-6 win over De Anza.
“I thought our defense played very well. They gained some yards on us but a lot of them were at the end of the half, and they turned the ball over to us on a couple of fumbles, which helped,” Foltmer said.
Middletown also had some success moving the ball, but its 201 yards of offense was less than half of Salesian’s total.
Ben Pike completed 13 of 23 passes for 88 yards and the Mustangs added 102 yards on the ground, led by Drew’s 59 yards in nine carries. But Salesian protected its end zone whenever the Mustangs got within striking distance.
Foltmer was left wondering what it all meant.
“It takes a few games before you get a sense of how good you are or how good your opponent was,” he said. “We’ll know a lot more after a couple of more games.”
Rich Mellott can be reached at
LAKEPORT, Calif. – An inaugural food drive held at the Lake County Fair on Friday brought in nearly two tons of food.
The drive, undertaken by the fair and Lake County CAN, will benefit the county’s seven food pantries.
The food was gathered during a three-hour period late Friday afternoon and into the evening. Every person who brought four cans of food or four nonperishable food items gained free entry to the fair.
Fair Chief Executive Officer Richard Persons said approximately 1,949 people donated 7,796 cans or other nonperishable items.
They filled all 10 of the pear bins that had been set aside for the drive, plus enough for about half of another bin, Persons said.
At an average weight of 8 ounces per food item, Persons estimated that they received donations totaling 3,898 pounds, just under the two-ton goal.
However, he said he hadn’t been able to decide if the 8-ounce weight per can is a valid average; it might be low, in which case Persons said the tonnage could be a lot higher.
Lake County CAN will distribute the donations to food pantries at Methodist churches in Clearlake, Clearlake Oaks, Kelseyville, Lakeport, Lower Lake, Middletown and Upper Lake.
The fair continues through Sunday. Visit www.lakecountyfair.com for more information.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
NORTH COAST, Calif. – Two wildland fires sparked by lightning two weeks ago in northern Mendocino County continued to burn aggressively on Friday, increasing in size by more than 5,100 acres, causing more injuries and destroying another structure.
The North Pass Fires – two fires burning in the Williams Valley area 10 miles northeast of Covelo since Saturday, Aug. 18 – had burned 39,493 acres by Friday night, up from the morning size estimate given by Cal Fire and the US Forest Service by approximately 5,185 acres. Containment was reported to have increased by 48 percent.
Two more injuries occurred, bringing the total to seven, and another residence was burned, with the fires having destroyed five homes and seven outbuildings so far, officials reported.
More than 60 structures remain threatened, but officials have lifted evacuations for the majority of the Bauer Ranch Subdivision.
Evacuations are still in effect for all areas of Indian Dick Road (Forest Road M-1) north of the Forest Service gate at Boardman Ridge Campground, and Mendocino Pass Road (Forest Highway 7) in all areas east of Benchmark 2444 to Forest Road M-4.
The Mendocino National Forest has issued a closure order that continues to cover all areas of the Covelo Ranger District north of Mendocino Pass Road to the Six Rivers and Shasta-Trinity National Forest boundaries.
Cal Fire and the Forest Service’s Friday evening report said the fires are continuing to spread north within the Yolla Bolly Middle Eel Wilderness toward the Middle Eel River, Hammerhorn Lake, Foster Glade and Asa Bean.
Fire personnel assigned to the incident had decreased by about 300 to 1,832 by Friday night, with 154 engines, 23 fire crews, two air tankers, 11 helicopters, 18 bulldozers and 31 water tenders working the fires.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office reported that a Cal Fire firefighter was threatened by a Santa Rosa man in the fire area on Thursday afternoon.
Veda Bennett-Swank, 21, was arrested for brandishing a firearm in a rude, angry or threatening manner; interfering with emergency personnel or a firefighter at a fire; and criminal threats, according to Capt. Kurt Smallcomb.
Smallcomb said the firefighter had been working on a vacant lot in the Blands Cove area – which has remained under mandatory evacuation – when he came across a small marijuana garden. A vehicle pulled up to him and Bennett-Swank allegedly told the firefighter he needed to leave the area.
When the firefighter attempted to explain to the Bennett-Swank that he was involved in fighting the fires, Bennett-Swank again told him that he needed to leave immediately and then looked down at an object that was between his legs on the floor board of the vehicle, according to Smallcomb.
Smallcomb said that as the firefighter looked into the vehicle he could see that a shotgun was between Bennett-Swank’s legs, and that the barrel was pointed directly at him. In fear for his life, the firefighter left the area immediately.
Responding Mendocino County Sheriff’s deputies located a residence and the vehicle, Smallcomb said, and when they contacted Bennett-Swank he allegedly admitted to confronting the firefighter, growing marijuana and remaining in an mandatory fire evacuation area.
Smallcomb said Bennett-Swank was booked at the Mendocino County Jail, with bail set at $20,000.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
SACRAMENTO – On Thursday the state Senate approved AB 1478, a trailer bill on state park operations that will direct funding to parks previously slated for closure, provide a moratorium on park closures and strengthen the oversight of the department through the Parks and Recreation Commission.
The bill is co-authored by Sens. Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) and Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto), and Assemblymen Rich Gordon (D-Menlo Park) and Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) and goes next to the Assembly Floor for concurrence before being presented to the governor.
The bill passed the Senate 25-12.
Leno said Evans’ effort “led the drum beat” on protecting California State Parks.
“The public cherishes our state parks and wants a funding commitment and management structure that keeps them open,” said Evans. “This bill amounts to a renewed social contract with the people of California and the parks we are obligated and impassioned to protect.”
Evans’ Second District – which covers Lake as well as all or portions of Humboldt, Mendocino, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties – includes 20 parks that where slated for closure, including Anderson Marsh State Historic Park.
That park, located in Lower Lake, will stay open thanks to the Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association, which is finalizing negotiations with the state to operate the park, which just celebrated its 30th anniversary.
AB 1478 provides assurances that money intended for parks goes to keep parks open, that parks will not face closures for at least two years and that the citizen-led Parks and Recreation Commission will be empowered to provide needed oversight to guide parks decisions and regain public trust.
Through this bill, the commission, in an amendment sponsored by Evans, would be provided the authority to review all issues relating to parks, with specific authority to review the departments’ budget and infrastructure projects.
The bill provides for $30 million to keep all parks open and operating; $20 million of that amount comes from the more than $50 million “found” in the Parks and Recreation Fund, which will allocate $10 million to keeping parks open and $10 million to match private and nonprofit donations.
Another $10 million will come from the Proposition 84 fund to be allocated towards the $1.2 billion in differed maintenance projects that have stymied the operations of parks throughout the state for decades.
“This is a plan to ‘right’ a ‘wrong,’” said Evans. “As a representative of this government, it’s my job to find a solution to the problems that have plagued parks. The issues that have surrounded parks for the last few months have hurt a lot of people and broken a lot of promises. This is our opportunity to begin to rectify a bad situation and prevent any future reoccurrence.”