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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The next chapter in Lake County's story of higher education got started on Thursday afternoon with hard hats, ceremonial shovels and a tomato.
The hard hats and shovels were the more traditional parts of the groundbreaking for the new Mendocino College Lake Center, to be built on 31 acres at 2565 Parallel Drive in Lakeport.
The tomato was, according to Kelseyville businessman Gary Olson, a tradition from his Spanish ancestors, who buried a tomato at the start of a project for good luck.
Olson gave the bright yellow tomato to Mike Adams, another Kelseyville resident and Mendocino College's director of facilities planning, who has been with the college for nearly 30 years and helped draft its master plan, which included the new college for Lake County.
After several people in the large crowd of several dozen community members and local officials began to chant, “Tomato, tomato,” Adams dutifully turned some earth over the tomato to get the project rolling.
Mendocino College President and Superintendent Kathy Lehner explained that Measure W, passed in November 2006 had made the new campus possible in this time of difficult financial pictures.
College officials have stated that the new facility will be ready for students in January 2013.
“I've been waiting for 23 years for this to happen,” Mark Rawitsch, dean of the Lake Center as well as Mendocino College's center in Willits, told the group.
He said when he was hired 23 years ago, he was told that construction on a new Lake Center was set to start within 18 months.
Rawitsch thanked voters, community members, the private sector, the city of Lakeport, public servants and students for making it possible.
“For those of us who may think our best days are behind us, look at the Lake Center and think again,” he said.
Adams said he and his wife came to Lake County 30 years ago and began farming. He said he never dreamed he actually would be growing an institution.
He said he felt he was helping to plant the last seed of the college's master plan for Lake County.
Wilda Shock, a member of the new Lake County Friends of Mendocino College Governing Council, said the project was “all about teamwork.”
She said the Lake County Friends of Mendocino College was composed of “your friends and neighbors,” and she guaranteed the community would be hearing more from the group as it worked to support the college's work in Lake County.
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On Oct. 6, detectives secured a search warrant for a large scale outdoor marijuana cultivation operation on Daly Place in Jerusalem Valley after several large marijuana gardens had been observed during an aerial overflight, according to Capt. James Bauman.
On Oct. 11, the Marijuana Suppression Unit executed the warrant with the assistance of the Sheriff’s Narcotics Task Force and the Sheriff’s Special Enforcement Detail, Bauman said.
When detectives entered the property, they immediately detained 47-year-old Odalys Angeles Lopez of Middletown and 55-year-old Alfredo Eugenio Fernandez of Castro Valley. Bauman said both subjects were located near a dwelling on the property and Fernandez was found actively processing marijuana at the time.
Detectives located a locked barn on the property, which appeared to be occupied. Upon forcing entry into the barn, detectives located and detained 23-year-old Osvaldo Gamalier Negronaponte, a transient; 27-year-old Pablo Andres Garcia Hernandez of Lower Lake; 19-year-old Rafael Ortiz Chavez of Middletown; and a 17-year-old juvenile transient from Pomona, Bauman said.
He said the barn contained large quantities of processed marijuana and the four men were actively processing more marijuana when detectives entered the structure.
As a search of the property continued, detectives located two large grow sites and a large outdoor marijuana processing “station.” Bauman said the partially harvested grow sites appeared to have been the source of all the processed marijuana found inside of the barn and at the outdoor processing station.
During the search of the Daly Place property, detectives identified another active marijuana cultivation operation on an adjacent property on Jerusalem Grade Road, Bauman said. Upon further investigation of the second cultivation operation, detectives located a garage that also appeared to be occupied.
After announcing their presence, detectives entered the garage and discovered it contained several more subjects actively manicuring large amounts of processed marijuana, he said.
Those detained were 33-year-old Toribio Raygoza Andrade of Kelseyville, 26-year-old Alfonso Hernandez Guzman of Kelseyville, 25-year-old Juan Manuel Raygoza of Kelseyville and 53-year-old Efren Medina Andrade of Kelseyville.
While checking the property for additional suspects, detectives located another structure near the garage that also contained another large quantity of processed marijuana. Bauman said detectives held the Jerusalem Grade property for several hours while a second search warrant was secured for further investigation.
During a search of the dwelling on Daly Place, detectives located a semi-automatic SKS assault rifle with a high-capacity detachable magazine concealed beneath a bed, Bauman said. In that same bedroom, detectives located a briefcase containing $6,967 in US currency and several documents belonging to Odalys Lopez and Alfredo Fernandez.
Bauman said the assault rifle was seized as a banned weapon in California and the currency was seized as the suspected profits of drug trafficking.
When detectives returned with the second search warrant for the property on Jerusalem Grade Road, they located and seized more than 200 marijuana plants and large quantities of processed marijuana from two indoor cultivation operations and another outdoor grow, Bauman said.
Some medical marijuana recommendations were found posted among the grow sites on both properties. However, Bauman said the recommendations were found to be either insufficient for the amount of marijuana located or were not issued to any of the subjects detained on either property.
A total of 10 felony arrests resulted from the 11-hour warrant execution and eradication operation, Bauman said.
He said Lopez was arrested for cultivation of marijuana, possession of marijuana for sales, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and possession of an assault weapon. Andrade, Hernandez Guzman, Raygoza, Garcia Hernandez, Fernandez, Negronaponte, Chavez, Medina Andrade, and the 17-year old juvenile were all arrested for cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana for sales.
All adult arrestees were booked at the Hill Road Correctional Facility and the juvenile was booked at the Lake County Juvenile Hall, Bauman said. Immigration holds were additionally placed on Andrade, Garcia Hernandez, and Chavez.
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On Wednesday afternoon, officers from the Lakeport Police Department and the California Highway Patrol conducted a public awareness driver education operation at the Clear Lake High School campus to raise teen driver awareness regarding the California Vehicle Code restrictions for new drivers during their first year of driving, according to Lakeport Police Sgt. Kevin Odom.
Odom said California law restricts new teenage drivers from transporting passengers under the age of 20 years for the first 12 months of driving.
Officers contacted more than 20 teenage drivers during the operation and provided educational information related to their driving restriction, he said.
The Lakeport Police Department will be taking enforcement action regarding teen driver restriction violation whenever it's discovered, Odom said.
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Earth is about to pass through a stream of debris from Halley's comet, source of the annual Orionid meteor shower.
Forecasters expect more than 15 meteors per hour to fly across the sky on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 22, when the shower peaks.
“Although this isn't the biggest meteor shower of the year, it's definitely worth waking up for,” said Bill Cooke of the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office. “The setting is dynamite.”
Orionids are framed by some of the brightest and most beautiful constellations in the night sky.
The meteors emerge from mighty Orion, the shower's glittering namesake.
From there they streak through Taurus the Bull, the twins of Gemini, Leo the Lion and Canis Major – home to Sirius, the most brilliant star of all.
This year, the Moon and Mars are part of the show. They'll form two vertices of a celestial triangle in the eastern sky on Saturday morning while the shower is most active; Regulus is the third vertex.
Blue Regulus and red Mars are both approximately of first magnitude, so they are easy to see alongside the 35-percent crescent Moon. Many Orionids will be diving through the triangle in the hours before dawn.
Cooke's team at the Meteoroid Environment Office will be watching for Orionids that actually hit the Moon.
Cometary debris streams like Halley's are so wide, the whole Earth-Moon system fits inside. So when there is a meteor shower on Earth, there's usually one on the Moon, too.
Unlike Earth, however, the Moon has no atmosphere to intercept meteoroids. Pieces of debris fall all the way to the surface and explode where they hit.
Flashes of light caused by thermal heating of lunar rocks and moondust are so bright, they can sometimes be seen through backyard-class telescopes.
“Since we began our monitoring program in 2005, our group has detected more than 250 lunar meteors,” said Cooke. “Some explode with energies exceeding hundreds of pounds of TNT.”
So far, they've seen 15 Orionids hitting the Moon – “two in 2007, four in 2008 and nine in 2009,” recalled Cooke.
This year they hope to add to the haul. About 25 percent of the Moon's dark terrain will be exposed to Halley's debris stream, giving the team millions of square miles to scan for explosions.
Watching meteoroids hit the Moon is a good way to learn about the structure of comet debris streams and the energy of the particles therein.
It also allows Cooke and colleagues to calculate risk factors for astronauts who, someday, will walk on the lunar surface again.
“Going outside to watch the Orionids might not be a good idea for a moonwalker,” said Cooke.
But it is a good idea for the rest of us.
Set your alarm for a few hours before dawn on Saturday morning and enjoy the show.
Dr. Tony Phillips works for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
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The US Geological Survey reported that the quakes – both of which were centered in Berkeley along the Hayward Fault – measured 4.0 and 3.8 in magnitude, and occurred at 2:41 p.m. and 8:16 p.m., respectively.
The 4.0-magnitude quake was measured at a depth of 5.1 miles two miles southeast of Berkeley and two miles northeast of Emeryville, the US Geological Survey reported.
By early Friday morning the US Geological Survey had received more than 18,000 shake reports across about 280 zip codes on that initial quake.
The second quake occurred six miles deep one mile east of Berkeley and three miles east southeast of Albany, according to the US Geological Survey, which received nearly 15,000 shake reports from more than 280 zip codes by early Friday morning.
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Included in those awards were more than $321,000 for Lake County schools.
“By improving safety, more children are encouraged to walk and bicycle to school, ultimately resulting in healthier children and less traffic congestion,” said acting Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty.
The funding was provided by the federal Safe Routes to School program. Since its inception in 2005, Caltrans has awarded $156 million for 356 Safe Routes to School projects.
In Lake County two schools in Clearlake – Burns Valley Elementary School and Clearlake Seventh-day Adventist Christian – will receive $321,400 to widen a roadway and install bike lanes and crosswalks on Old Highway 53 between Olympic and Lakeshore drives, and Old Highway 53 and Austin Avenue.
Other notable projects around the North Coast include $849,500 for Fort Bragg Middle School and Redwood Elementary School for the construction of sidewalks and other traffic calming and safety enhancements throughout the city of Fort Bragg, Caltrans reported.
In Humboldt County several elementary and middle schools in Eureka and Fortuna will receive $472,200 to develop a crossing guard program, and four Sonoma County schools will receive $284,400 for sidewalk improvements, bike storage lockers, bulbout and ramp construction and crosswalk upgrades, according to the project list.
Caltrans works closely with a diverse group of state, local, and regional stakeholders representing transportation, health, education, law enforcement, and bicycle/pedestrian advocates.
Go to www.dot.ca.gov/docs/SafeRoutestoSchoolProjectListOctober2011.pdf to view and download the entire list of Safe Routes to School projects that received funding, or see below.
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