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FEDCO Construction will start the project – located on Lakeshore Drive adjacent to Nelson's Island and between San Joaquin Avenue and San Joaquin Avenue Extension, on Monday, Oct. 12, and continue through Nov. 6, the city reported this week.
Work hours will be from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Tree removal began Thursday and is expected to continue Friday, the city reported.
The project will widen and reconstruct Lakeshore Drive just northwest of the gooseneck. Work will include excavation and grinding out of the existing embankment, and placing new pavement. A portion of the existing roadway embankment also will be stabilized.
Lakeshore Drive through the construction area will be reduced to one through lane and controlled by a flagman. Officials said motorists should expect delays.
Electronic message boards will be in place prior to the start of the project, advising motorists of the work schedule and any changing conditions. Lakeshore Drive will be open to two-way traffic during the nights and weekends. Motorists are advised to drive safely through the construction zone.
The project is weather-dependent, and cooler-than-normal or rainy weather could delay the work schedule.
Anyone with questions should call Clearlake City Hall at 707-994-8201.
LAKE COUNTY – The inaugural “People's Choice Wine Awards” has crowned its first winners.
On Oct. 3, the Lake County Winery Association hosted the final portion of the People’s Choice Wine Awards for consumers at Six Sigma Ranch and Winery in Lower Lake.
The event brought 300 people to the Lake County wine region for a day of wine tasting and voting.
The day's public tasting was the culmination of a few months of concentrated efforts.
Earlier this summer, wineries in and outside Lake County were invited to submit their wines to the first ever, “Lake County” wine competition. The only criterion for taking part in the competition was that wines had to be produced using Lake County grapes.
In August, a panel of 10 prestigious wine judges gathered at Langtry Estate and Vineyards to narrow down the number of competing wines from the 168 submitted. A total of 38 wines in 164 categories were nominated to be part of the People's Choice competition.
The day's tasting concluded with the revealing of awards. Ribbons were given to winners and runners-up in each of the categories including: varietal, American viticultural areas (AVAs), "Best Red Wine of Lake County" and "Best White Wine of Lake County."
A special award was given to the "Winery of the Year" which was determined by the winery with the most votes for all its nominated wines.
The People’s Choice tasting was organized as a "double-blind" tasting. All bottles were uncorked in the tasting room by a few trusted volunteers and brought out one at a time, disguised in foil or black paper bags. A plain label revealed the wine varietal but named the brand only as "x", "y", or "z".
A few of the winning wineries included: Best Sauvignon Blanc, 2008 Hess Collection; Best Chardonnay, 2008 Shannon Ridge; Best Cabernet: 2006 Shed Horn Cellars; Best Zinfandel, 2007 Writer’s Block from Steele Wines. A full list of winning wineries is available at www.lakecountywineries.org .
“The People’s Choice Wine Awards event was created to educate and expose the public to the excellence of Lake County Wines,” says Kaj Ahlmann, Chairman, Lake County Winery Association and owner, Six Sigma Ranch. “To that end, we feel we met our goals. People had fun and were very enthusiastic – about the event and the wines. This was a perfect first occasion, and we look forward to doing the same next year...and beyond.”
The Lake County Winery Association’s People’s Choice Wine Awards event was sponsored by the following businesses and organizations: Lake County Winegrape Commission, Tallman Hotel, Blue Wing Saloon & Café, Kädär Hungary Cooperage, Synergy Glass and Packaging, Twin Pine Casino and Hotel, Bella Vista Farming Company, Clearlake Chamber of Commerce, Elk Mountain Vineyards, Foods Etc., Hardesters Market, Jonas Oil, SaverGlass, Inc., M.A. Silva Corks, U.S.A., Rosenthal Vineyards and World Cooperage.
Carlos Alberto Lopez, 38, of Lakeport was arrested Tuesday by officials with the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, according to a report from Lt. Rusty Noe.
Lopez works as a correctional deputy with Mendocino County, Noe said.
On Oct. 1 the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office received a report from a female subject who stated that she had been the victim of an assault during her release from the Mendocino County Jail, Noe reported.
Noe said that, due to the nature of the criminal complaint, the case was referred to the sheriff's office's detectives.
Working with the sheriff's internal affairs division and the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office, detectives started a criminal investigation and were able to develop evidence that confirmed the victim's allegations, Noe said.
Noe said that on Tuesday, Lopez was called into the sheriff's office for an interview, after which he was arrested and booked into the county jail on charges of a sexual assault under the color of authority.
Lopez was placed on paid administrative leave pending the completion of the internal affairs investigation, Noe reported.
Noe said Lopez posted $15,000 bail and has been released.
Because all officers in the state have protection under the Peace Officers Bill of Rights, by government code it is unlawful to release an officer's photo, Noe said.
Shannon Edmonds, 35, and Melvin Dale Norton, 38, were in Lake County Superior Court's Department A on Tuesday for their preliminary hearing in the homicide of Shelby Uehling, 25, who had been staying both in Cobb and Clearlake.
Retired Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Raymond Giordano ruled there was sufficient evidence to try Edmonds and Norton for the murder.
Edmonds also faces a special allegation of using a knife, and Norton faces a charge of being an accessory and a strike enhancement.
However, Giordano found that prosecutor Art Grothe hadn't provided sufficient evidence to back up a charge against Norton of assault with a deadly weapon likely to cause great bodily injury or a special allegation that he used a billy club to beat Uehling.
Uehling was found face down next to an oak tree along Old Highway 53 in the early morning hours of Sept. 22. The first officer at the scene found that he had no pulse, according to Clearlake Police Sgt. Brenda Crandall, who was the a patrol supervisor on shift when Uehling's body was discovered and was one of five witnesses called to the stand during the six-hour hearing.
Based on the evidence that's been gathered so far, Grothe argued a theory for the homicide that proposed the motive was Edmonds' anger with Uehling, who had been dating Patricia Campbell, Edmonds' girlfriend of four months, during a brief time when she and Edmonds had split up.
Uehling had been severely beaten, suffering multiple blows to the skull and face, bruising to his chest, arms, legs and hands.
But the fatal wound was a three-inch laceration to his neck that severed his carotid artery, with another serious stab wound to his lower back that punctured a lung and still another stab wound to the buttocks. The thyroid glands in his neck also has been crushed and lacerated from blunt force trauma.
Grothe argued that Edmonds and Norton went to the area of Old Highway 53 and Lotowana with the specific purpose of killing Uehling.
He theorized that when the attack occurred at about 1 a.m. Sept. 22, Uehling had been asleep in his small red Honda Civic, with the seat in a reclining position and a shaving kit in the backseat.
Grothe suggested that Norton had swung a golf club through the open car window, embedding the head of the club in the dashboard and breaking off the shaft, which police would find down the road closer to the tree where Uehling's body would be found.
Uehling was pulled from the car, beaten and stabbed, said Grothe, with witnesses telling police that they heard Uehling screaming in agony as he fought for his life. Witnesses also told police that the heard one of the alleged assailants say at the scene of Uehling, “He's dead.”
But Edmonds' defense attorney Doug Rhoades took exception to the idea that the two men set out with the intent to kill Uehling, calling it “a stretch.”
Rather, Rhoades argued that it was just as likely a scenario that a fatal confrontation may have resulted without that intent, and that Uehling – who was found with a knife in his shoe – may have been an aggressor at some point in the struggle.
In the smaller Department A courtroom, Edmonds sat at a table with Rhoades which also was shared by Grothe and the case's lead investigator, Tom Clements. Defense attorney Stephen Carter sat with his client, Norton, in the jury box.
During the day Norton and Edmonds, both wearing black and white jail jumpsuits, their wrists shackled to their waists, would occasionally exchange pointed looks and raised eyebrows as the testimony against them was presented. At one point, five bailiffs were stationed in the courtroom.
Edmonds shot and fatally wounded two men as they ran from his Clearlake Park home during a 2005 break-in. He was not charged in that case, and this is the first time he's faced any felony criminal charges in Lake County.
Witnesses recount crime scene, events leading to man's death
Crandall, the second officer to arrive on the murder scene, said the attack occurred in an area called “the resorts,” composed of old cabins and mobile homes along Old Highway 53.
When she arrived she found an officer standing next to Uehling's body. In the roadway was a large amount of blood and pieces of evidence, including the broken shaft of a golf club, a mini Maglite flashlight and a trail of doughnuts. About 50 yards from his body was Uehling's Honda, with the driver's side door open and the engine still running. Crandall secured the scene and began taking photographs.
At the scene she spoke with a witness who had been outside at his residence on Lotowana, covering up his boats that night, when he said he heard a lot of yelling and screaming. “He stated that it sounded as if someone was in agony,” Crandall recounted.
The witness told Crandall that he had seen two men walking away from the crime scene.
Carter asked Crandall during cross examination if she had seen blood on the golf club or in the car's interior. She said she did not, that she hadn't performed a close examination but was just trying to get photographic impressions of the scene.
Norton's girlfriend Jackie Shelafoe said they've been living together on and off for two years at her trailer on Clement Drive, but she'd only known Edmonds for a few months.
She recalled twice visiting Edmonds' home a few trailer parks away on Sept. 21 before finally walking home at about 9:30 p.m. She then took her medications for bipolar disorder and went to bed.
Later that night, at about 11:45 p.m., Norton came in and made a phone call to Edmonds, telling him that someone – believed to be Uehling – was up at the top of the hill on the Lotowana side. He then hung up, grabbed a golf club Shelafoe kept by her front door for protection and ran out of the trailer.
About 20 minutes to a half hour later, Norton returned to the trailer with Edmonds, with Shelafoe noting that Norton had blood on his blue jeans.
“Melvin said, 'Don't worry, we didn't stab anybody,” she said.
She said Norton and Edmonds then changed clothes, with Norton grabbing white plastic shopping bags from the kitchen, into which they placed the clothes. They also washed up.
Shelafoe also recounted that they had a billy club with that, measuring 10 inches in length but extending to a fully opened length of 24 inches, that belonged to Edmonds. In pictures Grothe showed her, Shelafoe also identified a two-bladed knife that Edmonds owned.
Shelafoe, who said Norton had assaulted her last year, said she was scared when she saw the men come in with bloody clothing, “because I was afraid they'd done something wrong.”
Under cross examination by Carter, Shelafoe said she couldn't recall specifically seeing Norton take the shopping bags from the kitchen, and also didn't see the men wash up or change, although their clothes were different when they left the home.
Girlfriend recalls days before Uehling's death
Campbell, who lived with Edmonds at the Lakeside Resort, followed Shelafoe to the stand.
On the stand the young woman was at times exasperated, angry, embarrassed and impatient with the questioning by the three attorneys.
Campbell said on the stand that during their four months together she and Edmonds would occasionally fight and split up briefly, and she would either move from his trailer go next door to her mother's or to her father's Clearlake home.
About a week before Uehling's death she had briefly dated him after meeting him at the home of her mother's friend. It had been Campbell who had reached out to Uehling after meeting him.
Edmonds, Campbell said, knew that she and Uehling were dating but didn't know about their brief sexual relationship.
The relationship, which was marked by the couple using methamphetamine together, broke up quickly. Campbell accused Uehling of stalking her after he came to her mother's home and banged on all of the windows, trying to get in. That incident ended after Norton and Edmonds told Uehling to leave, she said.
Campbell – who after she broke up with Uehling texted him a picture of her and her daughter – said she sent him a final message on Sept. 21 telling him she didn't want him to contact her any more.
During testimony Campbell said that at one point Uehling had made a threat against Edmonds, telling her that if Edmonds ever tried anything Uehling had items in the trunk of his car that could “take care” of Edmonds.
Campbell said she moved back in with Edmonds on Sept. 20. At the time she was using methamphetamine, but she said it was Uehling's drug use that made her stop seeing him. During testimony she stated that Uehling had gone to her father's home and said he would quit using drugs to get back together with her.
Campbell said she slept all day on Sept. 21, waking up briefly to eat some of the barbecue that Edmonds and his friends had fixed. The next time she woke up was at 5 a.m. the next day, when the police showed up at the residence.
Grothe asked her if she had ever told Edmonds about Uehling's threat against him. She said yes. “I was just warning him just in case anything went down,” she said, noting that the conversation took place within a few days of Uehling's death.
Clearlake Police Officer Timothy Alvarado testified to interviewing two brothers who lived near the crime scene. One of them heard a man scream, “No, leave me alone,” before hearing another man state, “He's dead.” He also claimed to have seen two men leaving the area in dark clothing after apparently considering taking the Honda with them.
During his turn on the stand, Clements recounted going to the home shared by Shelafoe and Norton on Sept. 22, where during the service of a search warrant officers found Norton's and Edmonds' clothing in the shopping bags in the trailer's first bedroom, stashed under the bed.
Tucked between the mattresses of that same bed was an “asp,” or retractable billy club, and the two-bladed knife, both of which had been identified as belonging to Edmonds.
That same day, he interviewed Edmonds once and Norton twice, noting that both men originally denied having anything to do with the incident.
Eventually, Norton said they went to confront Uehling to make him stop harassing Campbell, and an argument ensued in which Edmonds and Uehling began fighting. During the fight Edmonds reportedly got a cut on his forearm, which Grothe later would argue was accidentally self-inflicted.
Clements, who also was present for the autopsy, conducted by Dr. Thomas Gill, described the extent of Uehling's injuries.
Grothe argued that the attack was intentional and a “joint endeavor for which Edmonds specifically armed himself.
Rhoades said Edmonds was known to usually have a knife on him, and said the evidence presented a scenario that was a “far cry from, 'Let's go up there and kill him.'”
Carter argued that there was no evidence to show his client had committed murder, with the two main weapons – the billy club and the knife – identified as belonging to Edmonds.
Giordano ordered the men held for trial. They'll return for arraignment at 8:15 a.m. Oct. 19 in Department 3. They remain in jail on $1 million bond.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
KELSEYVILLE – As he prepares to return to Washington, DC this week, North Coast Congressman Mike Thompson visited Lake County on Monday and toured the county's new domestic violence shelter.
Thompson, accompanied by district representative Brad Onorato, met with several groups on Monday during one of his regular stops in the county.
Late in the afternoon, he met with the Lake Family Resource Center Board of Directors at the new domestic violence shelter and administrative offices, located at 5350 Main St. in Kelseyville.
The group closed escrow on the $1.1million property in July, as Lake County News has reported. It will include 35 beds contained throughout several small cottages, as well as housing Lake Family Resource Center's administrative offices, and community meeting rooms and classrooms.
Executive Director Gloria Flaherty and board members including Dr. Bill Cornelison, Kathy Fowler, Barbara Breunig, Joanne Van Eck and Barry Parkinson, showed Thompson around the facility, which currently is undergoing renovation.
Flaherty explained how that families will have separate space but also will share common areas for meals and laundry.
Those communal situations, said Flaherty, are meant to instill a sense of stability in families escaping violence. They also hope to help families recreate bonds.
Flaherty said the people who stay at the shelter can stay anywhere from overnight to as long as a year. The average stay is six to nine months, during which clients are working on becoming independent, including saving for deposits on new places to live.
Originally, Lake Family Resource Center had planned to build a new facility, but they then became aware of the former motel property in Kelseyville, which Flaherty previously said was much less expensive than what it would have cost to build a shelter from scratch.
On Monday she credited Thompson with urging she and her board to look first at purchasing an existing motel or resort property.
As he listened to Flaherty explain the plans, Thompson appeared impressed.
“I see the vision,” he said.
On Tuesday, Thompson is due to return to Washington, DC, where he'll get back to work on issues including the health care bill.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
Since 2006 Lake County has led the state in the number of plants eradicated within its borders, with increasing amounts found on state and federally owned lands, as Lake County News has reported.
It appears no different this year.
So far this season, with another month to go, Lake County Sheriff's deputies and agents with the state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) have pulled 517,942 illegally grown plants from both public and private lands, according to Capt. James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
In addition, officials have seized 272 pounds of processed marijuana and 14 firearms, and made 34 arrests, Bauman said.
In 2008, there were 498,174 plants eradicated, 220 pounds of processed marijuana and seven firearms seized, and three arrests made, according to Bauman.
Total plants eradicated for 2007 totaled 507,000 and 344,241 for 2006, based on previous state reports.
Bauman said the sheriff's office has one detective assigned full-time to marijuana suppression.
Depending on the operation, as many as 10 to 15 CAMP members assist with an eradication during the season and another two to four local police officers assist with an operation, he said. That means a typical eradication operation can involve anywhere from one to 20 people, including CAMP.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at