News

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Recent rains and cooler temperatures across the region have lowered the threat of wildfires.

As a result, this week Cal Fire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit Chief Mike Marcucci announced the lifting of the requirement on Cal Fire permits needed for burning in the State Responsibility Areas, or SRA, of Colusa, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties.

The lifting of that requirement went into effect at 8 a.m. Monday, Dec. 12 at 8 a.m.

For information on burn permits for Lake County, please visit the South Lake County Fire Protection District website at https://www.southlakecountyfire.org./home/permits/.

Marcucci reminded residents that while we are enjoying the rain and cooler temperatures, we are living in a year-round fire season.

“Please take the time to ensure your property and homes are ready for the next time that fire strikes,” Marcucci said. “It is also a great time to ensure that your flues and chimneys are clean as well.”

Marcucci also reminded residents that safe residential pile burning of forest residue by landowners is a crucial tool in reducing fire hazards.

State, federal and local land management and fire agencies also utilize this same window of opportunity to conduct prescribed burns aimed at improving forest health and reducing fuels on private and public lands.

For more on residential burning and ways to burn safely visit https://burnpermit.fire.ca.gov/.

Visit www.readyforwildfire.org for additional information on wildfire preparedness.

A satellite built for NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Études Spatiales, or CNES, to observe nearly all the water on our planet’s surface lifted off on its way to low-Earth orbit at 3:46 a.m. PST on Friday.

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography, also called SWOT, spacecraft also has contributions from the Canadian Space Agency, or CSA, and the UK Space Agency.

The SWOT spacecraft launched atop a SpaceX rocket from Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California with a prime mission of three years.

The satellite will measure the height of water in freshwater bodies and the ocean on more than 90% of Earth’s surface. This information will provide insights into how the ocean influences climate change; how a warming world affects lakes, rivers, and reservoirs; and how communities can better prepare for disasters, such as floods.

After SWOT separated from the second stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, ground controllers successfully acquired the satellite’s signal. Initial telemetry reports showed the spacecraft in good health. SWOT will now undergo a series of checks and calibrations before it starts collecting science data in about six months.

“Warming seas, extreme weather, more severe wildfires – these are only some of the consequences humanity is facing due to climate change,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “The climate crisis requires an all-hands-on-deck approach, and SWOT is the realization of a long-standing international partnership that will ultimately better equip communities so that they can face these challenges.”

SWOT will cover the entire Earth’s surface between 78 degrees south and 78 degrees north latitude at least once every 21 days, sending back about one terabyte of unprocessed data per day.

The scientific heart of the spacecraft is an innovative instrument called the Ka-band radar interferometer, or KaRIn, which marks a major technological advance. KaRIn bounces radar pulses off the water’s surface and receives the return signal using two antennas on either side of the spacecraft.

This arrangement – one signal, two antennas – will enable engineers to precisely determine the height of the water’s surface across two swaths at a time, each of them 30 miles (50 kilometers) wide.

“We’re eager to see SWOT in action,” said Karen St. Germain, NASA Earth Science Division director. “This satellite embodies how we are improving life on Earth through science and technological innovations. The data that innovation will provide is essential to better understanding how Earth’s air, water, and ecosystems interact – and how people can thrive on our changing planet.”

Among the many benefits the SWOT mission will provide is a significantly clearer picture of Earth’s freshwater bodies. It will provide data on more than 95% of the world’s lakes larger than 15 acres (62,500 square meters) and rivers wider than 330 feet (100 meters) across. Currently, freshwater researchers have reliable measurements for only a few thousand lakes around the world. SWOT will push that number into the millions.

Along the coast, SWOT will provide information on sea level, filling in observational gaps in areas that don’t have tide gauges or other instruments that measure sea surface height. Over time, that data can help researchers better track sea level rise, which will directly impact communities and coastal ecosystems.

Such an ambitious mission is possible because of NASA’s long-standing commitment to working with agencies around the world to study Earth and its climate. NASA and CNES have built upon a decades-long relationship that started in the 1980s to monitor Earth’s oceans. This collaboration pioneered the use of a space-based instrument called an altimeter to study sea level with the launch of the TOPEX/Poseidon satellite in 1992.

“This mission marks the continuity of 30 years of collaboration between NASA and CNES in altimetry,” said Caroline Laurent, CNES Orbital Systems and Applications director. “It shows how international collaboration can be achieved through a breakthrough mission that will help us better understand climate change and its effects around the world.”

SWOT measurements will also help researchers, policymakers, and resource managers better assess and plan for things, including floods and droughts. By providing information on where the water is – where it’s coming from and where it’s going – researchers can improve flood projections for rivers and monitor drought effects on lakes and reservoirs.

“SWOT will provide vital information, given the urgent challenges posed by climate change and sea level rise,” said Laurie Leshin, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, director.

JPL developed the KaRIn instrument and manages the U.S. portion of the mission. “That SWOT will fill gaps in our knowledge and inform future action is the direct result of commitment, innovation, and collaboration going back many years. We’re excited to get SWOT science underway.”

More mission information

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, leads the U.S. component of the project.

For the flight system payload, NASA is providing the KaRIn instrument, a GPS science receiver, a laser retroreflector, a two-beam microwave radiometer, and NASA instrument operations.

CNES is providing the Doppler Orbitography and Radioposition Integrated by Satellite, or DORIS, system, the dual frequency Poseidon altimeter (developed by Thales Alenia Space), the KaRIn radio-frequency subsystem (together with Thales Alenia Space and with support from the UK Space Agency), the satellite platform, and ground control segment. CSA is providing the KaRIn high-power transmitter assembly.

NASA is providing the launch vehicle and the agency’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy Space Center, is managing the associated launch services.

To learn more about SWOT, visit https://www.nasa.gov/swot.

LUCERNE, Calif. — A group of concerned Lucerne residents braved the cold on Thursday night to meet outside the Lucerne Hotel as part of a regularly scheduled meeting of the Lucerne Area Town Hall.

The town hall had been set to meet on Thursday night at the hotel, its regular meeting place, to discuss a secretive plan revealed by Lake County News this week in which the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians plans to purchase the building with a state grant and turn it into homeless housing.

The building’s current owner, Andrew Beath, who bought it from the county of Lake in 2019 in a sales process that was completed over the objections of the community, decided to oust the group after he found out the sale and its potential condemnation by resolution was on the agenda.

District 3 Supervisor Eddie Crandell followed up on Wednesday night by attempting to quash the meeting altogether, sending out a letter on county letterhead saying it was canceled due to lack of a location.

That’s despite the town hall bylaws which give him no such authority to call meetings or set times or locations.

Crandell told community members in his letter that the town hall would not meet again until January, when it’s expected escrow already will have closed.

Crandell has refused to engage with community members or respond to questions from the press about concerns about Scotts Valley’s plans for the building.

While Crandell didn’t succeed in stopping people from showing up, the group couldn’t conduct a formal meeting because it did not have a quorum.

Chair Kurt McKelvey and Vice Chair Jason Mohan were the only town hall members there. Kevin Waycik, Rebecca Schwenger and Melanie Lim were absent.

However, about 20 other people gathered on the building’s front steps on Hotel Road in hopes of hearing more about the situation.

“When you do it on the down-low, you know it’s not on the up and up,” one woman in the crowd said about the tribe’s secretive plan.

The woman next to her said the county of Lake does everything on the down low.

After waiting about 10 minutes after the 6 p.m. start time, and with no third board member arriving, McKelvey, holding an American flag, said he did not cancel the meeting.

“Other people in the community have created confusion about the cancellation of this meeting in order to infringe upon the people’s ability to freely speak on this, the First Amendment right to speak on these matters in a timely and actionable manner, and it’s also, I believe, an attempt to obstruct the the due process of this advisory council,” McKelvey said

Because there was no quorum, McKelvey said the meeting wouldn’t go forward.

McKelvey said he doesn’t plan to wait until January but will hold an emergency meeting before then.

He said he’ll issue an agenda in the coming days announcing that meeting’s time, date and location.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lakeport City Council held special meetings this week to consider making appointments to fill two of its seats vacated by resignations.

Those appointments are contingent upon the acceptance of the final Nov. 8 general election results at the council’s meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 20, said Administrative Services Director/City Clerk Kelly Buendia.

The council held special meetings on Monday and Tuesday evenings to discuss those and other appointments.

On the city council, there are two vacancies.

One is due to the resignation of Michael Green, who was appointed by the Governor’s Office to the District 4 supervisor seat.

The second is the seat formerly held by Mireya Turner, who resigned in August to take the Lake County Community Development director job.

The council temporarily appointed former council member, George Spurr to fill the remainder of Turner’s term through December.

However, by the time of her August resignation, Turner already had filed to run for a third term on the council and was on the ballot.

She was elected to a third term in the Nov. 8 general election and was required to resign again, and so the council must make a new appointment for another two years, until the next municipal election.

The council considered seven applicants for the seats: Kim Costa, Brandon Disney, Amelia Sparks, Shannon Walker-Smith, Anakalia Kaluna Sullivan, Nathan Maxman and Theresa King.

Buendia said the council made appointments contingent upon a few things happening first — specifically, election certification — with the selections to be finalized at the council’s reorganization meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 20.

She said the council selected Brandon Disney for appointment to the City Council seat formerly held by Green and Kim Costa for appointment to the City Council seat held by Turner.

Costa most recently received notice for her efforts to advocate for her neighborhood in the Parkside subdivision next to Westside Community Park as the planning commission and council were considering Waterstone Residentials new apartment complex next door.

“At the Dec. 20, meeting the Council will certify the election results, acknowledge Mireya Turner's resignation and swear in Stacey Mattina, Brandon Disney and Kim Costa,” said Buendia.

Mattina, currently the city’s mayor, ran uncontested and won a fourth term in the November election.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The number of homes sold in Lake County was down in November, an issue that the Lake County Association of Realtors said was influenced in part by rising interest rates.

There were 68 homes that were sold through the multiple listing service in November, compared to 90 during the same time last year.

Homes sold included traditional “stick-built” houses as well as manufactured homes on land.

There were five sales of mobile homes in parks compared to three for the same time last year, and 13 bare land (lots and acreage) sales, compared with 38 for the same time last year.

There are 371 homes on the market right now. If the rate of sales stays the same at 68 homes sold per month, there are currently 5.45 months of inventory on the market at the moment compared to 5.0 months of inventory a month ago.

That means that if no new homes are brought to the market for sale, in 5.45 months all of these homes would be sold and there would be none available.

Less than 6 months of inventory is generally considered to be a “sellers’ market” while more than 6 months of inventory is often called a “buyers’ market.”

The inventory has been growing steadily over the past several months, with more homes being brought to market with fewer buyers.

The recent interest rate hikes have played a big role in reducing the number of active buyers.

The total percentage of homes bought for all cash in October was 41% (compared to 15% for this same time last year).

Of those, 35% were financed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac (“conventional loans”) compared to 51% for the same time last year.

Twelve percent were financed by FHA (compared to 13% for this time last year) and 10% were financed by the VA or CalVet (compared to 5% for this time last year).

Two percent had other financing such as private loans or seller financed notes (compared to 16% last year at this time).

Most homes were selling close to the asking price, at an average of 96% of the asking price.

The median time on the market last month was 49 days, compared to 23 days for this time last year.

The median sale price of a single family home in Lake County in November was $287,000, lower than the median sale price of $304,500 during this time period last year.

In the past 30 days, 41% of homes sold had seller concessions for an average of $7,085.

A year ago, 37% of homes sold had an average seller concession of $6,474.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office will conduct a driving under the influence and driver license safety checkpoint on Saturday, Dec. 17, somewhere within the unincorporated area of Lake County.

The goal of the CHP is to ensure the safe passage of each and every motorist by targeting roads where there is a high frequency of intoxicated or unlicensed drivers.

A sobriety/driver license checkpoint is a proven effective tool for achieving this goal and is designed to augment existing patrol operations.

Vehicles will be checked for drivers who are under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or driving unlicensed.

The objective is to send a clear message to those individuals that consider driving and mixing alcohol or drugs, or driving when unlicensed, that you will be caught and your vehicle will be towed away.

Funding for this program was provided from a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.