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KELSEYVLLE, Calif. – Children and their parents will find many free activities designed just for them at this year’s Heron Festival on Saturday, April 30, and Sunday, May 1, at Clear Lake State Park.
Although both days offer many kids activities, Sunday is considered Family Day because of two free special events.
“We want to encourage families to spend fun time together outdoors with nature, and the festival is a great time to do that,” said Joyce Anderson, education chair for Redbud Audubon Society.
Returning for the fourth year is the very popular “Raptor Speak” with live owls and birds of prey.
This show offers an opportunity to see raptor behavior up close. Learn about these lively non-releasable birds in a fun and informative talk and bird demonstration.
More than 200 people in all attended this show last year, which again will be at 1 p.m. Sunday in the big tent outside the visitor center. Because of its popularity, the show is repeated at 2 p.m.
The singalong puppet show “Salty’s Search for a Habitat” was new to the festival last year and was so popular it’s back again this year.
Enjoy watching how Salty the salt marsh harvest mouse tries to find a good home.
A San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge ranger brings to life the critters that live in marshes, and leads an interactive Mucky Marsh Music sing-along.
This show for kids (and for grown-ups if they promise to sing!) is at 11:30 a.m. and repeated at 3:15 p.m. on Sunday.
On both Saturday and Sunday during a one-hour family nature walk at noon, kids can learn from park docents about the birds, animals and plants in the park. Susie Kaplar leads the Saturday walk, and Tom and Val Nixon lead it on Sunday.
All weekend at the Children’s Activities Area near the big tent, children can make small bird feeders by spreading peanut butter and seeds on mini-bagels, create owl masks to wear and take home a window decal to discourage birds from flying into glass windows. They also can create their own art designs by gluing assorted beans on paper.
Volunteers working with the children are from Redbud Audubon Society and the Children’s Museum of Art and Science (CMAS).
A children’s My Audubon Bird Journal will be available for kids to record the birds they see as they walk around the park. Those who bring back a completed journal will be awarded bird stickers for their booklets.
Children’s artwork from several local public schools will be displayed in the Children’s Activities area. The creative drawings feature herons and local birds.
Besides all these special children’s activities, the Heron Festival offers pontoon boat tours on Clear Lake, an omelet brunch, nature walks, speakers, and more.
To see the full schedule of activities, go to www.heronfestival.org or call 707.263.8030.
Except for the Wildflower Brunch and the pontoon boat tours, all other activities are free, as is entrance to the park for festival attendees.
This 17th annual Heron Festival is co-sponsored by Redbud Audubon Society and Clear Lake State Park Interpretive Association.
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KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Lake County’s second annual Wildfire Safety Expo will be held on Saturday, April 30.
The expo will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Kelseyville Lumber Home Improvement Center, 3555 N. Main St. in Kelseyville.
Presented by the Lake County Fire Safe Council, this free community event will provide information to homeowners to help them prepare for a wildfire.
“We hope to provide helpful information so citizens will be better prepared in the event of wildfire,” said project coordinator Linda Juntunen. “Along with fire safety information, we have quite a few activities lined-up that we think both adults and children will enjoy.”
Partners for this event include all of Lake County's Fire Protection Districts – Kelseyville, Lake County, Lake Pillsbury, Lakeport, Northshore and South Lake; the Lake County Fire Chiefs’ Association; Cal Fire; the Bureau of Land Management; and U. S. Forest Service.
A vendor fair will focus on fuel reduction methods, fire-resistant building materials, home fire safety information and fire safe landscaping tips. Home fire protection products also will be demonstrated.
Representatives from Lake County’s Animal Care and Control will be on hand to answer homeowners’ questions and provide information on their large animal evacuation project.
The Master Gardeners and Pacific Gas & Electric also will be there with tips on fire safe landscaping. Information for the National Fire Protection Association's Firewise Communities program will also be available.
Smokey Bear and Sparky the Fire Dog will be on hand for the kids, along with the Kid’s Fire Safety House, children’s games, and drawings for free prizes throughout the day.
Firefighting-training demonstrations will be conducted, and present-day and antique fire equipment will be on display.
“This event is for Lake County residents and will provide ‘one stop shopping’ for homeowners to take responsibility for their own safety and protection during the upcoming fire season,” said Jeff Tunnell, fire mitigation and education specialist for the Bureau of Land Management.
“One of our themes is ‘Help them (firefighters) help you,'” said Tunnell. “Make it possible for the fire agencies to protect your homes safely and effectively”
Take responsibility by learning how to protect your home and create the defensible space. Be fire wise and fire safe this season – attend the Wildfire Safety Expo.
For more information contact Juntunen at 707-263-4180, Extension 106.
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Blame the professionalism of a volunteer force that is able, into a tenth straight year, to wage war against enemies far from the homeland.
The uncomfortable reality is that only one percent of U.S. adults serve in our military, and an even smaller number does most of the fighting. They’re trained for it, they’re good at it and they do it willingly.
But sustained warfare using only volunteers, we now know, results in multiple deployments and a pace of operations unimagined when conscripts filled the ranks.
That has led to long and frequent separations from home, unprecedented levels of stress, higher rates of divorce and suicide, and higher levels of anxiety among military children.
Don’t feel, however, that there’s nothing you can do about it.
Whether you’re a neighbor, business owner, corporate executive, community leader or ordinary citizen, you can help close the sacrifice gap by showing military families and veterans that you appreciate their service.
That’s the purpose behind of a new nationwide initiative, “Joining Forces,” launched this month by First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden, the vice president’s wife.
“It’s our hope,” said Mrs. Obama during the White House kickoff ceremony, “that what we’re launching today becomes part of the fabric of the country.”
“This campaign,” she said, “is about all of us joining together, as Americans, to give back to the extraordinary military families who serve and sacrifice so much, every day, so that we can live in freedom and security.”
In an interview later that day with Mrs. Obama and Dr. Biden, the First Lady explained that, until four years ago, she had no understanding of the strain felt by military families.
Then she began hearing their stories first hand while campaigning for her husband in his run for the presidency.
Unlike the Bidens whose son Beau serves in the National Guard and deployed to Iraq in 2008, Mrs. Obama said, “we’re not a military family.”
Her father served in the Army before she was born. Besides photos of him in uniform, the military had no role in her life on the south side of Chicago
“I’m sure I have cousins who have served. But is there anyone in my life today who is being deployed? Do I know anyone who’s been deployed? And the answer is no,” she said.
That’s also true of most Americans.
Inspired by “the amazing military spouses and children who we’ve met all across the country, Michelle Obama said she became committed to raising awareness of what families and veterans contribute, so public support stays strong or even deepens.
As one military mom recently wrote to her, Mrs. Obama said, “Please don’t let Americans forget or ignore what we live with.”
“Jill and I have spent the last two years listening, learning, developing the relationships, building credibility within the military community so people actually believe we mean what we say,” the First Lady explained.
In January the administration announced that for the first time ever the well being of military families would become a priority throughout the federal government, not just at departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.
For example, the department of Health and Human Services has partnered with DoD to help lower suicides across military and veteran populations; the department of Housing and Urban Development is working with VA and Labor to end veterans’ homelessness by 2015; DoD, Labor, Commerce and the Small Business Administration are encouraging corporate America to expand career opportunities for military spouses.
A total of 50 such commitments by federal departments are being implemented.
“Joining Forces,” said Mrs. Obama, is to get “the rest of the country” involved in lifting whatever burdens they can off of military families.
Neighbors can offer to their lawns, shovel snow or take more turns with the kids’ carpool while service members are deployed.
Teachers identify military children in their classrooms and strive to recognize signals of stress and learn how to deal it. Employers can enhance job opportunities for military spouses.
Those with no clue how to reach out to military families can find ideas, local contact information on a new website, www.joiningforces.gov.
Forces deployed today include tens of thousands of Reserve and National Guard members. So families and vets needing support can be found in any town in the country, said Mrs. Biden.
“We always knew we wanted to create a broad, national awareness program,” she said. “But, boy, we were amazed at the nonprofits … and the businesses who said, ‘We want to help.’ And it just grew and grew and grew. And we expect it to grow even more.”
The campaign will have more famous faces behind it, including Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks, and some large employers like Walmart and Sears. Key goals will be to enhance spouse employment, children’s education and the overall “wellness” of military families. But the motto of the movement is that “everyone can do something,” said Mrs. Obama.
Blue Star Families, a support group of military families to support military families, conducted a survey of spouses in 2010. It found that 92 percent feel the “country doesn’t care or isn’t aware of their challenges,” Mrs. Obama said. “I’d love to see that number go down.”
Before she and Jill Biden embarked on a three-day tour of military bases to spotlight Joining Forces, we asked Mrs. Obama if she has detected raised anxiety among military families over Libya and the prospect of deeper U.S. involvement in one more war in the Middle East.
“You know families don’t say that. Soldiers don’t say that,” she said. “They say ‘Where am I needed? What do I need to do? I’m ready to go.’
“That’s the beauty of these families,” she continued. “They’re proud to serve and they’re trained to serve. Now that doesn’t mean we can take advantage of that [or] ignore the ramifications of long deployments.”
All Americans need to be more aware, she added, that when conflict happens and troops respond, there are families impacted who need support.
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SACRAMENTO – Upon learning that millions of dollars in employee salary and travel advances are going uncollected, Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. on Tuesday issued an executive order to ensure state agencies and departments recover taxpayer dollars and improve internal accounting.
“It’s shocking that the state has apparently failed to collect millions of dollars in salary and travel advances owed by state employees,” Brown said. “This situation reinforces the worst stereotype of ineffective and inefficient government, and I have ordered state agencies to immediately investigate the backlog of uncollected debts and find every penny owed to taxpayers. State agencies must regain control of this program.”
Audits from the California State Controller’s Office have uncovered serious collection and internal accounting lapses at state agencies tied to salary and travel advances.
An audit conducted by the Controller’s Office in 2009, for example, found that $13.3 million in advances had not been collected at eleven state agencies.
This total included more than $500,000 in advances outstanding more than three years after they were issued. In most cases, employees were granted advances and agencies were either slow to collect funds or failed to collect at all.
“The state’s poor debt collection and accounting practices are fleecing public coffers at a time when vital public programs are being decimated by unprecedented budget cuts,” California State Controller John Chiang said. “I applaud Governor Brown’s commitment to making every dollar count.”
The controller is continuing to examine these programs at state agencies, including the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), and the audits may uncover millions more in uncollected salary and travel advances.
State law allows for advances under certain circumstances including when there are delays in issuing checks, when an employee separates and needs a final check, when an employee travels, when a hardship request is made or when a vendor requires immediate payment.
The longer a debt goes uncollected, the more likely it will not be recovered. If the employee’s agency or department does not initiate collection proceedings within three years, the agency or department cannot collect the debt without the employee’s consent.
The Governor’s Executive Order seeks to recover taxpayer dollars by directing state agencies and departments to clear salary and travel advances within 30 days through an expense claim. If advances are not cleared, agencies and departments will be expected to deduct what’s owed from the employee’s next paycheck. The Executive Order also calls for improvements in record keeping, oversight, training and collection practices.
Since taking office, Brown has issued executive orders to freeze hiring across state government and cut state cell phones and the passenger vehicle fleet in half and has directed state agencies and departments to stop spending taxpayer dollars on free giveaway and gift items.
These actions are part of Brown’s efforts to save money this fiscal year and to cut millions in operational costs next fiscal year.
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HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE, Calif. – A 20-year-old Hidden Valley Lake man has been arrested on multiple charges of rape and other unlawful acts involving two 14-year-old girls at the Coyote Valley Elementary School on Monday.
Frank Joseph Vivero was booked into the Hill Road Correctional Facility early Tuesday morning on charges of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, rape of a drugged victim, rape of a victim incapable of giving consent, oral copulation with a minor, and annoying or molesting a child under the age of 18, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
Vivero remained in the custody on Tuesday with an enhanced bail of $300,000, Bauman said.
On Monday, April 18, at approximately 5:20 p.m., sheriff’s deputies responded to the Coyote Valley Elementary School in Hidden Valley Lake on a report that several juveniles were drinking alcohol on school grounds, Bauman reported.
As deputies arrived in the area it was further reported that a 14-year-old girl was lying unconscious near the rear of the school. Bauman said Cal Fire rescue personnel were dispatched to the area for the unconscious girl.
Bauman said the deputies detained Vivero, who had been seen walking away from the school with several juveniles, and who was determined to be under the influence of alcohol.
Further investigation revealed that Vivero had been drinking with the unconscious girl and another 14-year-old girl since mid-afternoon at the school. Bauman said Vivero was arrested for public intoxication and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
As Vivero was transported to the Hill Road Correctional Facility for booking, the unconscious juvenile was transported to the St. Helena Hospital Clearlake, Bauman said.
He reported that deputies continued their investigation of the incident into the night and eventually developed information that Vivero had sexually assaulted the unconscious victim and the other 14-year-old girl while they were all drinking at the school.
Deputies also learned that the second victim had since been taken to the St. Helena Hospital in Napa County by her mother. Bauman said a Napa County sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to the hospital to interview the second victim.
By the time deputies had developed information to charge Vivero with the additional crimes, he had already posted his $3,000 bail and been released from custody, Bauman said.
The investigation continued into the early morning hours of Tuesday and sheriff’s detectives were called in to assist. Bauman said sheriff’s deputies were tasked with locating Vivero again and at approximately 3 a.m. Tuesday he was apprehended at his Hidden Valley Lake home and arrested for the additional charges.
Vivero's booking sheet indicated he is set to appear in Lake County Superior Court for arraignment on Thursday.
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CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – The public is invited to help celebrate “Earth Day in the Oaks” on Saturday, April 23, when the Clarks Island Sustainability Initiative will be launching a living dock kayak launch at Clarks Island in downtown Clearlake Oaks.
A day full of varying festivities and activities is planned, from Highway 20 Cleanup, free Shannon Ridge wine tasting, shoreline cleanup, paddlefest, a community potluck, the Clarks Island “Living Dock Kayak” launch and planting, natural building demonstrations, informational booths and the grand opening of the Clearlake Oaks Visitor Center.
Beginning at 9 a.m. until noon, volunteers can help clean up debris along Highway 20 in Clearlake Oaks.
The cleanup is organized by the Clearlake Oaks/Glenhaven Business Association. Refreshments and snacks will be provided, and the first 20 kids to pitch in get free t-shirts!
At noon is the grand opening/ribbon cutting of the new Clearlake Oaks Visitor Center, which is operated with volunteers under the direction of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce. The Visitor Center is located next to Nylander Park on Highway 20.
Beginning at 12:30 p.m., Clarks Island – located on Highway 20 between the Tower Mart and the Clearlake Oaks Boat Launch – will be the host to a number of activities.
Massey Burke will continue with natural building demonstrations. Volunteers can help finish plastering the bench, make up adobe bricks, or watch Massey create a “fish lantern” sculpture.
From 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. there will be a plant and launch of the newly built “living dock” kayak launch.
Paddlers of all ages and types are invited to bring their vessel of choice – kayaks, canoes, pedal boats, rafts, floats, paddle boards, dinghies and dragon boats – and celebrate the day by paddling around Clarks Island during the launch and plant or paddle the four mile loop Rattlesnake Island Water Trail; trail maps will be available.
Paddlers (and landlubbers) also are encouraged to help with the planting, trim back cattails on the current floating island, and help pick up “winter flotsam.”
Representatives from Floating Island West and Lakeport’s The Dock Factory – who both have donated much of the design time and production of the kayak launch – will be available.
The Dock Factory will be placing the living dock into position on Clarks Island, and volunteers can help plant the floating side panels with a variety of plants picked for their water cleaning power, color and habitat provision.
There will be informational displays on floating islands, a proposed Science Island project, natural building, Lake County Water Trails, lake ecology, the environment and more. Supervisor Denise Rushing will hold a solar cooking demonstration, weather permitting.
Also from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Shannon Ridge will be offering free wine tasting on select wines in their outdoor picnic area. The tasting room is located in downtown Clearlake Oaks across the street from Nylander Park, and is also available via water from the Short Street ramp.
To finish the day, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., Transition Lake County will hold their monthly community potluck on Clarks Island. The public is welcome – bring some food to share. Music, conversation, information exchange and a complimentary glass of Shannon Ridge wine, which was donated to the event.
Clarks Island is located on Highway 20 in between the Tower Mart and Clearlake Oaks Boat Launch.
Organizations, businesses, community groups and others are invited to set up informational booths or demonstrations – it’s free, but please contact 707-998-0135 or
For more information visit the website at www.konoctitrails.com/clarks-island and the Clarks Island Sustainability Initiative Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Clarks-Island-Sustainability-Initiative/131571996892818 .
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