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MARYSVILLE, Calif. – The Yuba Community College District will soon be looking for a new chancellor.
Dr. Nicki Harrington announced Wednesday that she will retire at the end of the academic year, June 30, after more than 35 years of experience in higher education.
“My tenure at YCCD has been quite rewarding and I will always look back at my years here with fond memories,” Dr. Harrington said. “Retiring at the end of this academic year is bitter sweet. I’m sad to leave but at the same time I leave with peace of mind knowing that the district is in sound financial shape and headed in the right direction.”
Dr. Harrington has led YCCD, a multi-college district consisting of Yuba College and Woodland Community College, since February 2002. The district serves southern Lake County through its Clear Lake campus.
“She successfully transitioned us from a single college district to a multi-college district with the accreditation of Woodland Community College as the 110th college in the state, led us through a successful facilities bond campaign, the first in our district’s 84 year history, and strengthened our strategic direction and financial position in a time of economic downturn,” said Xavier Tafoya, chair of the YCCD Board of Trustees. “She will be hard to replace.”
Harrington presided over a time that saw districts struggle with budget cuts and some job losses.
Both she and the district's board of trustees came under fire early last year after the board granted her a more than $29,000 annual raise at the time it was discussing layoffs and other cost-cutting measures.
Harrington said she originally had planned to retire in June 2012, but decided –after extensive review and reflection on the status of the district, its upcoming activities, “and what is best for both the district and me, both personally and professionally” – to retire earlier.
She said this all would be an “opportune time” to pass the baton to a new chancellor, who she said will have a strong executive team and a new board with whom to work to lead the district as it enters its next era.
There are projects under way throughout the district, said Harrington, including at the Clear Lake Campus, where the district last year purchased a property from the Konocti Unified School District to expand the facilities.
Harrington began her career in higher education as a faculty member, and subsequently served in dean, vice president, superintendent/president and chancellor positions.
She has held faculty and administrative positions in both two and four year colleges and universities, and has served in three chief executive officer positions in the past 14 years.
In 2008-09 Harrington served as the 0resident of the Chief Executive Officers of the California Community Colleges, and in 2009 as the chair of the Economic Development Program Advisory Committee for the State of California.
She also sits on the Board of the Sacramento Area Commerce and Trade Organization (SACTO), and the Sacramento Region’s Linking Education and Economic Development (LEED) Board.
The district – which spans eight counties and some 4,200 square miles of territory in rural, north-central California – reported that it will begin a national search for the next chancellor immediately, with an expected start date of this summer.
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“Since the recession began, California and the rest of the nation have seen an increase in homelessness,” Boxer said. “These federal investments will help us combat the epidemic of homelessness so people can get back on their feet and off the streets.”
The HUD Continuum of Care grants support homeless programs that provide permanent and transitional housing to homeless people and offer services such as job training, health care, mental health counseling, substance abuse treatment and child care.
The grants are funded through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
In all, 801 California homeless assistance programs – including efforts in neighboring Mendocino, Sonoma, Napa and Colusa counties – will receive about 16 percent of the total $1.4 billion in HUD grants announced Wednesday.
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THE LAKE COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT HAS ORDERED THE REMOVAL OF PREVIOUSLY APPROVED VIDEO CLIPS THAT WERE POSTED ON THIS STORY. A SPECIAL HEARING WEDNESDAY RESULTED IN THE DECISION.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A man facing two murder charges for the deaths of a Maine couple early last year appeared for the first day of his preliminary hearing Tuesday, when the main witness was his co-defendant in the case, who took the stand to testify against him.
Robby Alan Beasley, 30, sat beside his attorney Stephen Carter during a day of testimony in which 28-year-old Elijah Bae McKay recounted the events that led to the January 2010 shooting deaths of Yvette and Frank Maddox of Maine, as well as the gruesome circumstances of their deaths on the side of Morgan Valley Road near Lower Lake.
Beasley and McKay are each charged with two counts of murder, along with special allegations of committing multiple murders in the first or second degree, committing the offenses with the intent to inflict great bodily injury on the victims and using a 9 millimeter firearm. Beasley also is alleged to have had a felony conviction in Maine for criminal threatening with a firearm.
McKay – clad, like Beasley, in a black and white jail jumpsuit – remained handcuffed throughout his nearly two hours on the witness stand, as Deputy District Attorney Art Grothe and Carter took turns questioning him.
Looking on from the gallery was his attorney, Richard Petersen of Ukiah. Peterson watched but didn't interject in any of the proceedings.
McKay stated during his testimony that he was not offered a deal in exchange for his testimony and only was receiving limited immunity for his statements.
He said he had decided to testify in recent weeks after investigators showed Petersen an arrest warrant for McKay's fiancee. McKay also was told that his young son would be taken away.
The story McKay shared with the court Tuesday was one set against the background of an old friendship with Beasley, with marijuana growing and the large amounts of money it brought leading to tensions and, allegedly, the deaths of the couple, who Beasley had invited to come west to work for him trimming marijuana.
However, Beasley later came to believe they had been responsible for stealing from him several pounds of marijuana, which McKay testified led to Beasley planning to kill them.
Before McKay took the stand later in the morning, Grothe called to the stand two witnesses, Elvin Sikes and Tyreshia Celestin-Willis. Grothe had filed a motion regarding his intent to put on both witnesses, who offered certain amounts of hearsay testimony, which normally is not allowed in the evidence code.
However, Grothe said a new law allows the use of hearsay against a subject who was attempting to make a witness unavailable. In this case, he suggested Beasley had done so by killing the Maddoxes, who had made statements about Beasley to Sikes and Celestin-Willis.
Grothe noted the information could be stricken, and Carter agreed to go forward with the testimony.
Sikes recalled allowing the couple to stay with him after Yvette Maddox came to him in early December 2009, crying because they had no place to stay. “They wanted to go back home so I told them they could stay there for a little bit, until they got the means to go back home.”
Yvette Maddox told Sikes about mailing “packages” back to Maine, and Frank Maddox mentioned his plans to take Beasley to the airport, which Sikes advised against. Sikes said Yvette Maddox told him that she had her husband go get “the stuff that was owed to them,” meaning marijuana, but he didn't take it to mean they were stealing.
After Sikes was off the stand, Carter withdrew his support of going forward with the use of the hearsay, saying it would result in a potentially large body of information that would have to be stricken.
Judge Richard Martin said he wanted to hear all of the evidence before deciding whether or not it should be considered.
Grothe then called to the stand Celestin-Willis, who got to know the Maddoxes in late 2009.
She recalled an extremely upset Yvette Maddox coming to her house and telling her that Beasley had stated, “You're in my town, I'll make you come up missing,” and that her husband didn't protect her. Shortly afterward, Frank Maddox drove up to Celestin-Willis' house and Yvette Maddox ran and hid in the closet while Celestin-Willis told Maddox that his wife was not there.
Celestin-Willis said she had seen the couple with as much as a pound of marijuana, and was aware they were trimming it, noting that marijuana wasn't her “scene.”
Old friendship, new trouble
McKay followed Celestin-Willis to the stand, offering the information that set the stage for the couple's arrival in Lake County.
He recounted meeting Beasley about 15 years ago while they were in grade school and remaining friends throughout the years.
About five years ago McKay came to California, getting into construction in San Jose before trading in his apartment to live in tent and grow marijuana in Mendocino County. He later made two trips to Maine to sell some of his marijuana.
Last year he said he didn't go to the East Coast to sell marijuana, as he had 35 pounds to sell – at $2,500 per pound for product grown outdoors – and it was safer to stay in California and sell it.
He said Beasley was continuing to get in trouble with the law in Maine, and he invited him to come west and work with him about two and a half years ago, which Beasley eventually did. “He's a smart, hard worker,” McKay said of Beasley.
Beasley later split off and began doing his own indoor growing operation in Clearlake, and in 2009 – not long before McKay was set to go to New York state on a fishing trip – Beasley told him he wanted to have the Maddoxes come out and work for him.
“He discussed bringing them out to help them get on their feet,” said McKay, who had never met the couple before their arrival.
He said that Beasley vouched for the two, and told him he had been in prison with Frank Maddox and thought he was a good guy.
But when McKay returned from his trip and began working with the couple, he said he wasn't pleased with their work. He said Frank Maddox tried to claim he was trimming more marijuana than he did, they bickered with other trimmers and were asking McKay to help them get drugs.
McKay said he didn't find them very smart, and following an argument with Frank Maddox he fired them.
He said he told Beasley, “I didn't think they were working out and they should go home. He let them stay in his apartment instead.” Previously, they had been staying in a tent on an outdoor grow site McKay had.
But McKay testified that the relationship between the couple and Beasley started going bad. The couple were fighting and appeared to have become hooked on methamphetamine, causing Beasley to throw them out. But they didn't want to return to Maine and ended up living with another friend – Sikes had testified to taking them in.
On Christmas Day of 2009, Yvette Maddox was arrested for public intoxication. McKay said that the pair was angering people, with a woman pulling a gun on them at one point.
“They were making enemies as well as friends with the locals,” McKay said.
He said it was his policy not to get involved with local residents. “I kept it as a rule to stay out of everybody's business.”
McKay was on a trip to Boston in early January 2010 when Beasley called to tell him that the Clearlake apartment where Beasley grew marijuana had been robbed.
Someone small had used a screwdriver to force open a window, remove an air conditioning unit and crawl through, leaving small, muddy footprints that appeared to belong to a woman. Those footprints led to a sliding door where it appeared that it had been opened for two larger people, who also left muddy footprints.
The kind of indoor pot that was stolen from Beasley sold for about $3,500 a pound, McKay said.
When Beasley told McKay he planned to stay at the apartment to guard his marijuana, McKay told him to go to his home and get an unregistered, black 9 millimeter handgun that McKay had purchased in San Francisco. It had a 15-round clip and, in McKay's opinion, would be better for Beasley to use to defend himself than the six-shot .357 he had.
During his testimony McKay stated that the gun in question was one he carried with him in the marijuana grow because a mountain lion stalked him as he watered the plants.
He testified that the couple had held the gun that killed them, as he had left it with them for protection against the mountain lion, too.
McKay returned home on Jan. 19, at which time Beasley told him he had dug a hole and planned to kill the couple, who he suspected were responsible for the theft of his marijuana.
It was a plan McKay said he didn't think Beasley would carry out. “We talked about killing people before and never done it.”
Beasley also had talked about pulling out all of their teeth to prevent identification. McKay said he had commented to Beasley that it would be easier to cut their heads off. He also noted during testimony that Beasley offered him $20,000 to kill the couple during a lengthy and heated discussion. McKay turned the offer down.
He said Beasley planned to ask the couple to drive him to the airport on the pretense that he had to fly to see his family because his grandmother's death. McKay said Beasley acted out how he would tell the story, even making himself cry.
McKay said he tried to talk Beasley out of the plan. “They're from Maine, I'm from Maine. Everything seemed bad about it to me.”
He continued, “He told me he had dug a hole and was going to kill them, I figured anything was better than that.” McKay said he suggested that Beasley instead shake the couple down and get them to confess that they had stolen his marijuana.
Then on the night of Jan. 22, while he was at his brother's birthday party, McKay received a call from Beasley asking for him to come pick him up. McKay found him walking along Morgan Valley Road, near where the couple's pickup was parked.
“He had blood on his clothes,” said McKay.
Later in testimony, as McKay recounted picking Beasley up, he said his friend “looked really distressed and said he was going to hell.” When McKay asked where the gun was, Beasley responded that no one would ever find it.
McKay took Beasley back to his home, let him shower, burned Beasley's clothes and backpack, and both of their phones, before taking Beasley back to his own home. Afterward McKay returned to his brother's birthday party, trying to pretend nothing had happened and having birthday cake.
“It was probably the hardest piece of cake I ever ate,” McKay said.
The next day Beasley showed up with two new cell phones, one for each of them. Beasley was dressed in a full set of rain gear so he wouldn't leave traces, and they took the Maddoxes' truck and left it on Jerusalem Grade Road near Middletown, with a full tank of gas and the keys in it. McKay said they hoped someone would take the vehicle.
In the days after the murders, McKay said Beasley recounted that he had asked them to take him to the airport, but they didn't realize that going down Morgan Valley Road wouldn't take them there.
At one point Beasley asked them to pull over in a turnout so he could urinate, and Frank Maddox got out with him to do the same, McKay said.
While the two men were out of the truck, McKay testified that Beasley allegedly pulled the 9 millimeter out and cocked it, holding Frank Maddox at gunpoint and pulling Yvette Maddox from the truck.
During the confrontation that ensued, the couple wouldn't admit to stealing the marijuana, and McKay said that Beasley shot Frank Maddox in the leg, and Yvette Maddox fainted or was “playing opossum.” Frank Maddox then reportedly told Beasley he had better finish him off because he was going to kill him if he didn't.
McKay said Beasley then shot Frank Maddox in the head, doing the same to Yvette Maddox. Beasley then allegedly dragged their bodies down the nearby embankment. When the couple still showed signs of life, Beasley allegedly shot each of them in the head a second time.
As McKay left the stand, he looked toward Beasley and said testifying was “the last thing I ever wanted to do.”
After McKay left the stand the court heard briefly from Beasley's girlfriend, Kim Vanhorn, who said that during a jail visit he wrote on his hand, asking her if they found the gun.
Lake County Sheriff's Det. Tom Andrews also testified about computer and cell phone evidence extracted from equipment found at Beasley's apartment during service of a search warrant.
Grothe stated previously that the District Attorney's Office was waiting to make a decision about how to pursue the prosecution, whether it would be a death penalty case or life without the possibility of parole.
His new boss, District Attorney Don Anderson, will be involved in that ultimate decision. Anderson sat in on a portion of the afternoon portion of McKay's testimony.
The preliminary hearing will continue Wednesday morning, and is expected to last through Thursday afternoon.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A project to widen and improve a portion of Highway 29 is moving forward, state officials said Tuesday.
Caltrans reported that additional biological surveys will soon begin in order to complete the final environmental impact report (EIR) for the Lake 29 Improvement Project in Lake County.
This project proposes to widen an eight-mile segment of Route 29, from near Diener Drive to the
junction of Route 29/175 near Kelseyville, in order to accommodate projected growth, improve traffic flow, and increase overall safety by providing a four-lane highway that meets current design standards.
New environmental regulations have been enacted over the last few years which require additional biological surveys of wetlands and California Red-legged Frog habitat.
These new surveys will cover a larger area than previous surveys. They will begin soon and will take several winter seasons, resulting in a final EIR in the spring of 2015.
Caltrans has refined the project to address comments received at the public open house/public hearing held August of 2007, and has worked to reduce costs and environmental impacts.
Caltrans is also working to identify ways of constructing the project in smaller phases in order to more easily obtain funding.
Construction of the first phase could begin 2018.
Updates will also be posted to the project Web site, www.dot.ca.gov/dist1/d1projects/lake29/ .
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Chamber of Commerce reported that it is extending the deadline for Stars of Lake County nominations.
The nominations deadline has been moved to the close of business on Friday, Jan. 28. All postmarked nominations bearing that date will be honored.
For those writing nominations, please keep in mind that details about why your nominee deserves to be awarded a Star of Lake County are very important. The Stars Selection Committee depends upon and makes their final decisions on the details they are provided on each nominee.
The nomination form is available on line at www.lakecochamber.com.
The 14th annual Stars of Lake County Community Awards will be held on March 5 at Robinson Rancheria Resort & Casino.
Please contact the Lake County Chamber with any questions concerning the nomination process. The Chamber office is located at 875 Lakeport Blvd. at Vista Point, Lakeport, telephone 707-263-5092.
The list of current nominees is as follows.
Marla Ruzicka Humanitarian of the Year
1. Carolyn Wing Greenlee, Kelseyville
2. Ben Finneston, Clearlake
Senior of the Year
1. Edward McDonald, Lakeport
2. Ginger Frank, Lucerne
Volunteer of the Year
1. Gerald Morehouse, Lucerne
Student of the Year-Female
No nominations.
Student of the Year-Male
No nominations.
Youth Advocate of the Year-Volunteer
No nominations.
Youth Advocate of the Year-Professional
1. Michelle Meese, Kelseyville
Agriculture Award
1. Scully Packing Co., Finley
2. Annette Hopkins, AgVenture Program, Lake County
Organization of the Year, nonprofit
1. Lakeport Speedway, Lakeport
Organization of the Year, volunteer
No nominations.
Environmental Award
1. Terry Knight, Lakeport
New Business of the Year
1. Riviera Fitness, Kelseyville
2. Color Splash Photos, Lakeport
3. Common Grounds Coffee House, Kelseyville
Small Business of the Year
1. Lannette R. Huffman, DDS, Lakeport
2. Lake County Jazzercise, Middletown
3. Airport Auto Brokers, Lakeport
4. Lucerne Pharmacy & Alpine Café, Lucerne
Large Business of the Year
No nominations.
Best Idea of the Year
1. Lake County Quilt Trail, All Around Lake County
2. AgVenture, All Around Lake County
Local Hero of the Year
1. Aaron Wright and Rich Swaney, Cal-Trans Workers, Clearlake Oaks
The Arts Award of the Year-Amateur
No nominations.
The Arts Award of the Year-Professional
No nominations.
Woman of the Year
1. Stephanie Lilly, Kelseyville
Man of the Year
1. Brian Grey, DDS, MDS, Lakeport
Lifetime Achievement
1. Allen Gott, Clearlake
Stars of Lake County Sponsors to date are St. Helena Hospital-Clearlake, Jim Jonas Inc, North Lake Medical Pharmacy, Shannon Ridge Winery, Cliff and Nancy Ruzicka, Westamerica Bank, Strong Financial Network, Congressman Mike Thompson, John Tomkins, Lake County Record-Bee and Lake County Land Trust.
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The "ARkStorm Scenario," prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey and released at the ARkStorm Summit in Sacramento on Jan. 13 and 14, combines prehistoric geologic flood history in California with modern flood mapping and climate-change projections to produce a hypothetical, but plausible, scenario aimed at preparing the emergency response community for this type of hazard.
The USGS, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the California Emergency Management Agency convened the two-day summit to engage stakeholders from across California to take action as a result of the scenario's findings, which were developed over the last two years by more than 100 scientists and experts.
"The ARkStorm scenario is a complete picture of what that storm would do to the social and economic systems of California," said Lucy Jones, chief scientist of the USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project and architect of ARkStorm. "We think this event happens once every 100 or 200 years or so, which puts it in the same category as our big San Andreas earthquakes. The ARkStorm is essentially two historic storms (January 1969 and February 1986) put back to back in a scientifically plausible way. The model is not an extremely extreme event."
Jones noted that the largest damages would come from flooding – the models estimate that almost one-fourth of the houses in California would experience some flood damage from this storm.
"The time to begin taking action is now, before a devastating natural hazard event occurs," said USGS Director, Marcia McNutt. "This scenario demonstrates firsthand how science can be the foundation to help build safer communities. The ARkStorm scenario is a scientifically vetted tool that emergency responders, elected officials and the general public can use to plan for a major catastrophic event to help prevent a hazard from becoming a disaster."
To define impacts of the ARkStorm, the USGS, in partnership with the California Geological Survey, created the first statewide landslide susceptibility maps for California that are the most detailed landslide susceptibility maps ever created.
The project also resulted in the first physics-based coastal storm modeling system for analyzing severe storm impacts (predicting wave height and coastal erosion) under present-day scenarios and under various climate-change and sea-level-rise scenarios.
Because the scenario raised serious questions about existing national, state and local disaster policy and emergency management systems, ARkStorm became the theme of the 2010 Extreme Precipitation Symposium at U.C. Davis John Muir Institute of the Environment, attracting over 200 leaders in meteorology and flood management.
ARkStorm is part of the efforts to create a National Real-Time Flood Mapping initiative to improve flood management nationwide. ARkStorm also provided a platform for emergency managers, meteorologists and hydrologists to work together to develop a scaling system for west coast storms.
"Cal EMA is proud to partner with the USGS in this important work to protect California from disasters," said Cal EMA Acting Secretary Mike Dayton. "In order to have the most efficient and effective plans and response capabilities, we have to have the proper science to base it on. Californians are better protected because of the scientific efforts of the United States Geological Survey."
According to FEMA Region IX Director, Nancy Ward, "The ARkStorm report will prove to be another invaluable tool in engaging the whole of our community in addressing flood emergencies in California. It is entirely possible that flood control infrastructure and mitigation efforts could be overwhelmed by the USGS ARkStorm scenario, and the report suggests ways forward to limit the damage that is sure to result."
The two-day summit included professional flood managers, emergency mangers, first responders, business continuity managers, forecasters, hydrologists and decision makers. Many of the scientists responsible for coordinating the ARkStorm scenario presented the science behind the scenario, including meteorology, forecasting, flood modeling, landslides and physical and economic impacts.
The ARkStorm Scenario is the second scenario from the USGS Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project led by Jones, which earlier created the ShakeOut earthquake scenario. More information about the ARkStorm Summit is online. The ArkStorm Scenario, USGS Open-File Report 2010-1312, is also online. Visit www.usgs.gov.
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