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Supervisor Jim Comstock has organized the meeting with Caltrans' District 1 Director Charlie Fielder and his staff, which will take place from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12, at the Calpine Visitor Center, 15500 Central Park Road, Middletown.
“We want to get Caltrans' attention,” Comstock said. “We just weren't getting any answers that fit right.”
This summer, Caltrans completed two rubberized chip seal projects, one along 12 miles of Highway 29 from the Lake/Napa County lines to the Coyote Creek Bridge, and the second along 8.5 miles on Highway 175 from Cobb to Middletown, as Lake County News has reported. Pavement striping was just finished on the Highway 29 portion last Friday.
Caltrans reported that the total combined cost of the two projects – completed by International Surfacing Systems of West Sacramento – was about $2.1 million.
Caltrans reported that the rubberized chip seal strategy was intended to seal and preserve the existing pavement while providing increased winter traction and a good binding surface for future paving projects, Frisbie explained.
The chip seals in Lake County were the first in the district to use half-inch aggregate rather than the more common 3/8-inch aggregate, Caltrans said.
The agency said such chip seals allow the treatment of three times more pavement than an asphalt thin blanket overlay could. Caltrans said it's also a green technology, using 40,000 recycled tires just for the Lake County projects alone.
But south county residents are none too pleased with the outcome of the projects, said Comstock.
He took a road trip around the county with Fielder and some of his staff to look at the work, and Comstock said Fielder agreed that there were issues.
Comstock said several years ago Caltrans did an open grade asphalt project, which provided a good road surface but failed sooner than expected.
“There are areas where it's completely worn through,” said Comstock.
However, he was told a grinder was broken which resulted in no asphalt grinding to prepare the road surface before the chip seal projects began. Instead the contractor put the chip seal over the areas where the pavement was worn through.
That, coupled with the larger aggregate, provided what Comstock said is not an ideal driving surface.
“It is dangerous to drive on. It does throw you around a little bit,” he said, adding that it's worse if you're pulling a trailer.
Comstock said the chip sealed was put over brand new pavement done in front of the Hidden Valley Lake and Twin Pine Casino entrances.
“We went from some bad to some good to all bad,” he said.
Frisbie said Caltrans has received complaints about the road work. He said the larger, half-inch rock isn't the kind of finish that Caltrans wants to be on the road for a long time, and they plan to repave.
He said people have expressed concern that the projects have been a waste of money. However, he said the chip seal does a good job of sealing little cracks in the pavement and waterproofing it. It also will help new asphalt bind to the old. Because of that, they often will put down a chip seal and then immediately pave over it.
Repaving a portion of Highway 175 – which also will include a section of the highway at Highway 101 in Mendocino County and another section of Highway 175 bounded by Highway 29 – won't take place until next summer's construction season, he said.
The repaving on Highway 29, however, is probably two or three years down the road, Frisbie said.
Comstock said Fielder indicated to him that they're making an effort to get funds to redo the highway sooner.
Comstock said people are not happy.
“Two to three years, that's just not acceptable,” he said.
Comstock pointed out that Caltrans was able to quickly get funds to repave an eight-mile portion of Highway 29 outside of Lakeport earlier this year.
Middletown businesswoman Linda Diehl-Darms started a petition for area residents to express their concern, said Comstock.
They've collected more than 1,000 signatures, with the petitions gathered up around Sept. 15, he said.
“I told the folks in Middletown I would hand deliver them to Caltrans,” Comstock said of the petitions.
He said he plans to hand the petitions over to Caltrans on Tuesday.
If anyone hasn't signed the petition and wants to, Comstock said he'll make sure they get the chance at the Tuesday meeting.
He said Caltrans will present information on the projects and what they're going to do about the situation. Community members also will have the chance to ask questions.
Comstock said Middletown's streets are county maintained roads that until recently were in “atrocious” shape, and he's worked with county Road Superintendent Steve Stangland and Public Works Director Brent Siemer to address the problem.
The county put $50,000 for asphalt toward a paving project, and county workers assisted by inmate laborers did the work. Comstock said they've been able to get many of the town's streets repaved that way.
“They're way better than the highway now, which isn't much of a standard to go by,” he said.
Comstock said the Caltrans chip seal projects hadn't looked good to him, even before they started. “The finished product seems to have borne out my concerns.”
All state jobs are supposed to have an inspector on site during such projects, and Comstock wondered why the chip seal work continued.
“We haven't gotten an answer to that yet,” he said.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – A driver escaped injury when his vehicle overturned on Sunday.
The single vehicle collision occurred shortly before 1 p.m. Sunday on Scotts Valley Road just south of Highway 20, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The late model Ford pickup with a camper shell rolled over but the driver was able to get out on his own, based on reports from the scene.
Along with the CHP Northshore Fire Protection District sent a battalion chief, an engine, ambulance and a medic unit.
Additional information about the crash's cause wasn't immediately available late Sunday.
Gary McAuley contributed to this report.
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The meeting will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Clearlake Oaks Moose Lodge, at the corner of Highway 53 and Highway 20.
The town hall is one in a regular series of meetings hosted by District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing.
Topics will include updates on local projects and the health of Clear Lake. Thompson also will give an update on issues and events in Congress.
The agenda also includes an open forum to discuss issues of interest to the community of Clearlake Oaks.
Free tables will be set up for local groups, businesses or organizations wishing to distribute informational literature.
Parking at the Moose Lodge is limited, so carpooling is encouraged.
For more information, contact Rushing at 707-263-2368 or
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Because the earthquake did not involve slip near the surface of the Earth, the study suggests that it did not release all of the strain that has built up on faults in the area over the past two centuries, and so future surface rupturing earthquakes in this region are likely.
The paper also suggests that similar events may be hidden from the prehistoric earthquake record both in Haiti and in other similar tectonic settings such as the San Andreas fault in California.
Gavin Hayes, a U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist, along with colleagues from USGS, California Institute of Technology, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the University of Texas at Austin, used a combination of seismological observations, geologic field data and satellite geodetic measurements to analyze the earthquake source.
Initially the Haiti earthquake was thought to be the consequence of movement along a single fault, which accommodates the motion between the Caribbean and North American plates.
By modeling the patterns of surface deformation, the team was able to assess which fault was responsible. Their results showed that the earthquake may not have been caused by the simple rupture of a single fault, but instead may have involved a complex series of faults.
The pattern of surface deformation was dominated by movement on a previously unknown, subsurface thrust fault, named the Léogâne fault, which did not rupture the surface.
Hayes, a post-doctoral researcher, is contracted to work for the USGS by Synergetic, Inc.
This is one of several papers to be published this month in a special issue of Nature Geoscience on the Haiti earthquake.
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MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – By a score of 42-0, the Clear Lake Cardinals of Lakeport fell victim to a decisively superior Middletown Mustangs football team in Middletown’s homecoming Friday night.
Amid pageantry that included a parade of floats, flag presentations by horses in full gallop and military personnel, and the crowning of the homecoming king and queen, the Mustangs ran up the score early in the game, leading 28-0 at the end of the first quarter.
“We just seem to be wrapping up the game in the first quarter in our last three games,” Middletown’s head coach Bill Foltmer said after the win.
The Mustangs have won their last four games, three of them shutouts.
Scoring highlights of the first quarter included a two-yard scamper by Jereomy Hoefer after a botched Cardinal punt attempt on their opening possession, a 32-yard dash by Middletown running back David Pike and a 15-yard screen from quarterback Kyle Brown to wide receiver Connor Chick, all resulting in touchdowns for the Mustangs.
Due to injuries and other factors, Clear Lake head coach Schad Schweitzer said his team was using their third string quarterback for most of the game against Middletown.
“We knew what we were up against,” Schweitzer said after the loss. “Today, Goliath won. David didn’t win.”
The Mustangs continued to dominate in the second quarter, when Pike took a handoff from Brown in Middletown’s opening drive and ran it six yards into the Cardinals' end zone for his second touchdown of the game.
After Danny Cardenas made his fifth extra point of the evening, Middletown held a commanding 35-0 lead going into halftime.
Foltmer noted Clear Lake had “a key lineman that was hurt” and due to injuries and other factors the Cardinals were “not the same team as they were earlier this year.”
The Mustangs scored quickly to open up the third quarter, capped by a 57-yard run by David Pike that broadened their lead to 42-0.
The Cardinals' only threat of the game came late in the fourth quarter, when they took 10 plays to drive the ball from their own seven-yard line to Middletown’s two-yard line.
Clear Lake’s Tyler Beets nearly scored on a 46-yard run, but with seconds to go, the Cardinals failed to convert on a first-and-goal opportunity from Middletown’s four-yard line and time ran out.
“The team didn’t quit,” Schweitzer said of his Cardinals, calling this game “something to build off of.”
Middletown quarterback Kyle Brown completed eight of 12 passes against Clear Lake for a total of 158 yards, and the Mustangs ran the ball 20 times for 264 yards rushing and 422 yards total offense against the Cardinals.
Looking ahead to Middletown’s Oct. 22 match against Ft. Bragg (5-0), Foltmer said, “We have a tough game coming up.”
He added, “the (North Central 1 – North) league is going to be a little bit tougher.”
The Clear Lake Cardinals host the Cloverdale Eagles (0-5) in Lakeport next Friday, Oct. 15, while the Mustangs travel to St. Helena (1-4) to take on the Saints.
In JV action, the Cardinals were more competitive, but still lost to Middletown 35-22.
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CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. – It was a day of lots of hard work and activity at Clarks Island in Clearlake Oaks on Saturday.
The Clarks Island Sustainability Initiative sponsored and promoted a cleanup day at the island, which is located between Tower Mart and the Clearlake Oaks Boat Launch, near Island Drive on East Highway 20.
Following the county redevelopment agency's purchase in 2008 of the former trailer park, the redevelopment agency has relocated the dozen mobile home residents, removed debris and rezoned Clarks Island as open space, as Lake County News has reported.
The community-based Clarks Island Sustainability Initiative formed earlier this year under the direction of District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing to begin the process of rehabilitating the island.
On Saturday the group of volunteers cleaned up debris and mowed, and hauled some invasive weeds out of the water.
When Clarks Island was a trailer park, locals planted many plants and trees which have been left in place for now, including apricots, black and green figs, persimmons, many verities of hollyhocks, choke cherries, crab apple and blackberries.
Still head, the county has hired a contractor to remove and replace a crumbling break wall on the island's Highway 20 side.
The group also is looking for a contractor who will donate time to pulling the many rotting piers left behind from the days when the island was a trailer park.
Plans for the island include creating floating islands to help control algae blooms in the area.
A natural building project is set to start soon, with volunteers needed to help make adobe bricks, and build walls, roofing and other details.
Call 707-263-2580 for a schedule or more information.
Miguel Lanigan contributed to this report.
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