News

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Ladies of the Lake Quilt Guild will host its 20th annual Falling Leaves Quilt Show in October.

The show will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 2,at the Lake County Fairgrounds, 401 Martin St., Lakeport.

The featured guest artist is Carrie Fondi, owner and operator of Aloha Quilt Shop.

Fondi has studied with many Hawaiian master quilters and specializes in Hawaiian hand applique.

Attendees will have the chance to view more than 150 quilts at this year’s show.

There also will be a silent auction, country store, theme basket raffle, vendors, a scissor sharpener, live demos, opportunity quilt raffle and drawing on Sunday afternoon, and a chance to win door prizes.

For more information visit http://www.llqg.org/quilt-show.html.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Clearlake City Council will discuss water saving measures, consultant contracts and a development agreement with a cannabis project when it meets this week.

The council will meet at 5 p.m. Thursday, July 7, in closed session to discuss existing and anticipated litigation and employee negotiations before the public portion of the meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

The meeting will be broadcast live on the city's YouTube channel or the Lake County PEGTV YouTube Channel. Community members also can participate via Zoom or can attend in person.

The agenda can be found here.

Comments and questions can be submitted in writing for City Council consideration by sending them to City Clerk Melissa Swanson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

To give the council adequate time to review your questions and comments, please submit your written comments before 4 p.m. Thursday, July 7.

Each public comment emailed to the city clerk will be read aloud by the mayor or a member of staff for up to three minutes or will be displayed on a screen. Public comment emails and town hall public comment submissions that are received after the beginning of the meeting will not be included in the record.

On Thursday, the council will hold public hearings to consider partial abandonment of Spruce and Armijo avenue north of 18th and a development agreement for a commercial cannabis operation located at 2250 Ogulin Canyon Road.

Under business, council members will discuss mandatory water allocations and other drought mitigation measures ordered by the state — especially for urban water suppliers — and give direction to staff.

The council also will hold a new first reading of an ordinance relating to traffic and parking regulations and consider authorizing the city manager to execute a contract to exceed $450,000 with BKF Engineering for the Lakeshore Drive design.

Staff also will ask the council to consider execute nine on-call consulting contracts, not to exceed $200,000 per contract over a five-year period, in order “to create efficiency, provide for enough consultant capacity, and prepare for upcoming projects such as Measure V Roads projects,” according to Finance Director Kelcey Young’s report.

Young said the contracts are being awarded to the following consultants: California Engineering Co, Borelli & Associates, REY Engineers, LACO Associates, TJKM, Tall Tree Engineering, Green Valley Consulting Engineers, Studio W Architects and RSA.

The council also will award the 2022 chip seal project, adopt updates to the management classification and benefits plan and appoint a council member and up to two alternates as voting delegates for the League of California Cities annual conference in September.

On the meeting's consent agenda — items that are considered routine in nature and usually adopted on a single vote — are warrants; the April 21 council meeting minutes; continuation of declaration of local emergency issued on Aug. 23, 2021 and ratified by council action on Sept. 16, 2021; continuation of declaration of local emergency issued on Aug. 23, 2021, and ratified by council action on Sept. 16, 2021; continuation of declaration of local emergency issued on Aug. 18, 2021, and ratified by council action on Aug. 19, 2021; continuation of authorization to implement and utilize teleconference accessibility to conduct public meetings pursuant to Assembly Bill 361; minutes of the April and May meetings; and notification of expiring committee appointments.

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 East Region Town Hall, or ERTH, will meet on Wednesday, July 6.

The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. at the Moose Lodge, located at 15900 Moose Lodge Lane in Clearlake Oaks.

The meeting can be attended in person or via Zoom; the meeting ID is 935 8339 6020, the pass code is 448228.

Agenda items include updates on the roadmap task force and commercial cannabis, the consolidated lighting district in Clearlake Oaks and street lighting in Spring Valley, the Lake County geothermal project watchlist and the EPA’s superfund site at the mercury mine.

In other business, there will be updates on Spring Valley and the Northshore Fire Protection District, and a report from Supervisor EJ Crandell, new business and announcements.

ERTH will next meet on Wednesday, Aug. 3.

ERTH’s members are Denise Loustalot, Jim Burton, Tony Morris and Pamela Kicenski.

For more information visit the group’s Facebook page.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The city of Lakeport is asking residents to practice water conservation this summer.

The latest data from www.drought.gov indicates that 97.5% of California is in a severe drought — up from 65% two years ago.

Most California counties are in a severe or extreme drought and Lake County is no exception.

The city of Lakeport relies on groundwater wells in the Scotts Valley area along with treated water from Clear Lake for its potable water needs. Officials said both sources are vulnerable due to the current and forecasted drought conditions.

City officials are strongly encouraging customers to conserve water whenever possible.

Additional water use mandates may be issued in the future and the city is reminding customers that the following wasteful water usage practices are currently prohibited per Lakeport City Council Resolution No. 2630 (2017):

• Hosing off sidewalks, driveways and other hardscapes;

• Washing automobiles, boats, RVs and other vehicles with hoses not equipped with a shut-off nozzle;

• Using non-recirculated water in a fountain or other decorative water feature;

• Watering lawns in a manner that causes runoff, or within 48 hours after measurable precipitation;

• Irrigating ornamental turf on public street medians.

The city said it appreciates everyone’s assistance in helping to protect its water resources.

California’s 2022-23 state budget, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday, increases benefits available to victims of crime and provides more funding for trauma recovery centers across the state.

“With this increased funding, we’ll be better able to help crime victims recover and restore their lives,” CalVCB Executive Officer Lynda Gledhill said. “We’re grateful for the support of the Legislature and the Governor to expand victim services in California.”

Eligible victims of violent crime are entitled to receive $70,000 in reimbursements for crime-related expenses through CalVCB once all other sources of payment, such as health insurance, are exhausted. Many of the individual expenses have limits.

The budget raises the limits for three types of expenses for the first time in 20 years. The limit for:

• Funeral and burial expenses increased from $7,500 to $12,818.
• Relocation expenses increased from $2,000 to $3,418.
• Crime scene cleanup expenses increased from $1,000 to $1,709.

The new limits take effect immediately and will apply to new applications submitted beginning today.

Trauma recovery centers

The budget provides $23 million in additional funding for trauma recovery centers, or TRCs.

Besides boosting grant awards for current TRCs and providing more to award over the next three years, the funding will provide TRCs with flexible emergency cash assistance for victims for such costs as transportation, childcare, food, emergency shelter or other urgent expenses.

The budget also funds a three-year pilot program to create satellite TRC offices in rural or underserved communities in the Central Valley and Northern California.

TRCs, which are funded through grants administered by CalVCB, provide trauma-informed mental health treatment and case management to underserved crime victims who may not be eligible for victim compensation, or who may be fearful of reporting a crime to law enforcement.

Erroneously convicted felons

By statute, people who have been erroneously convicted of felonies can be compensated in the amount of $140 per day of wrongful imprisonment.

The budget changes statute to authorize CalVCB to pay claims approved by the board directly rather than reporting them to the Legislature for appropriation.

This process will allow approved claimants to receive their compensation more quickly.

Outreach campaign

In addition, the budget allocates $3 million for CalVCB to conduct a media and outreach campaign to raise awareness of victim services. The campaign will focus on reaching underrepresented and marginalized communities.

The California Victim Compensation Board, or CalVCB, provides reimbursement for crime-related expenses to victims who suffer physical injury or the threat of physical injury as a result of violent crime.

CalVCB helps crime victims and their families cover unforeseen expenses such as medical bills, mental health treatment, funeral and burial expenses, income loss and more.

To learn more about CalVCB, visit www.victims.ca.gov.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The National Weather Service is predicting that Independence Day could see rainfall in Lake County.

Forecasters said a weather system will continue to provide unseasonably cool inland daytime temperatures, more persistent cloud cover and light precipitation.

Daytime temperatures across the North Coast are expected to continue to be below normal through midweek, with increasing west-southwest winds expected to develop with some gusty winds over the ridgetops on Tuesday, mainly eastern of Lake County, the National Weather Service reported.

“As this system moves through, increasing west-southwest winds will develop with some gusty winds over the ridgetop on Tuesday, mainly eastern of Lake County.

The forecast is calling for a 30% chance of showers during the day Monday and on Monday night, with light winds of about 5 miles per hour.

There also is a 30% chance of showers during the day on Tuesday,

Daytime temperatures are forecast to be in the low 70s during the day and in the mid 50s at night both Monday and Tuesday.

Conditions are forecast to clear the rest of the week, with temperatures expected to reach the low 90s during the day and low 60s at night by Sunday.

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.