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The California Public Utilities Commission has directed Pacific Gas and Electric to do more work on its 2021 Wildfire Mitigation Plan update.

On May 4, Caroline Thomas Jacobs, director of the CPUC’s Wildfire Safety Division, issued a revision notice to PG&E outlining the issues.

Jacobs said the Wildfire Safety Division found the “critical issues to be of significant enough importance such that an extension of the three-month statutory deadline is necessary” in order for it to adequately determine that PG&E’s 2021 Wildfire Mitigation Plan Update satisfies the information requirements the division has set forth and that the plan “will sufficiently reduce utility-related wildfire risk and impacts to public safety.”

“PG&E has shown us time and again that it is not protecting its customers. The company’s repeated mistakes led to wildfires in five of the last six years. PG&E’s failures have taken a devastating toll killing more than 120 people. Holding PG&E accountable has never been more urgent,” said Maya Chupkov of the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office.

In April, the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office had recommended the Wildfire Safety Division reject PG&E’s 2021 Wildfire Mitigation Plan until it made immediate changes that include focusing on the riskiest areas, adopting stronger oversight so it can better review its own safety performance and beefing up its inspections.

In a statement released to Lake County News in response to the notice, PG&E said it’s working every day to improve its electric system and reduce wildfire risk around it, that there’s more to do and it’s committed “to doing it the right way.”

“While we largely delivered on our 2020 Wildfire Mitigation Plan, we identified several gaps in our execution that we’ve tackled head-on. We’re focused on resolving those gaps in our 2021 Plan and further improving the quality and consistency of our work,” the company said.

PG&E said the gaps it’s working to resolve include prioritizing enhanced vegetation management work, quality of vegetation management activities and prioritizing the scheduling and execution of asset inspections.

“We are also engaging in discussions with the Wildfire Safety Division on a periodic basis to review many aspects of our wildfire mitigation efforts to ensure timely, thorough and transparent communication,” the company said.

In addition to PG&E, similar revision notices were issued on May 4 by the Wildfire Safety Division to Southern California Edison Company and Bear Valley Electric Service.

Officials said the utilities have 30 days to respond.

In PG&E’s revision notice, it outlines six critical issues that PG&E must remedy with regard to its plan.

They are:

— omission of quantitative targets for reduction in public safety power shut-off scale, scope and frequency;

— inadequate justification of significant changes to high priority circuit segments;

— unacceptable aggregation of system hardening risk-spend efficiencies, meaning, that the company failed to provide detailed costs and other data for mitigations such as covered conductor installation, undergrounding and remote grid work;

— equivocating language in asset inspection quality assurance and quality control process descriptions, with the notice explaining that PG&E continues to use vague and noncommittal language to describe its internal plans to address quality issues related to asset inspections;

— unresolved discrepancies in vegetation management expenditure data and their effect on the wildfire management plan; and

— contradictory reduction in expenditure allocation for critical vegetation management initiatives, noting that the company has significantly reduced its budget allocations “for initiatives considered critical to effective execution of its vegetation management programs.”

Chupkov said many of the concerns raised by the Public Advocates Office were included in the CPUC revision notice.

Referring to the Public Advocates Office as “Cal Advocates,” the notice stated, “The Cal Advocates’ comments provide a litany of examples of oversights in PG&E’s asset inspections, including missed inspections, inability to produce inspection records, and failures to collect complete asset information.”

The document said those oversights include, but are not limited to the following:

— Out of 967 transmission towers in the High Fire-Threat District that were scheduled for climbing inspections in 2020, PG&E failed to conduct any of those climbing inspections before its internal goal of the end of August 2020 and notedly before the critical fall wildfire risk time period.

— As of January 2021, PG&E could not confirm that it had performed intrusive pole inspections within the time frames required by General Order 165 on more than 41,000 poles.

This is the latest challenge PG&E has faced in meeting the CPUC’s expectations for addressing wildfire risks.

In April, after finding PG&E had made insufficient progress in mitigating wildfire risks across its service territory, the CPUC passed a resolution placing the company into step one of the six-step Enhanced Oversight and Enforcement Process.

The commission created that process to hold the company accountable for improving its safety record after it emerged from bankruptcy in 2020.

PG&E said it’s continuing “to evaluate, evolve and refine our approaches to further reduce wildfire risk and get better this year and beyond. We want our customers, stakeholders and the public to know that we are committed to reducing the risk on our system and continuously improving our approaches to make California a better and safer place for our customers and communities.”

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 Konocti Fire Lookout is seeking volunteers for the 2021 fire season.

Prospective volunteers are asked to attend an orientation and general meeting at Kelseyville County Park on Sunday, May 16, at 2 p.m.

Once trained, new volunteers will be asked to schedule themselves for either an eight- or four-hour shift at least once a month.

The Forest Fire Lookout Association organizes the Konocti fire watch under the direction of Cal Fire.

The group currently has limited staffing for its lookouts on Wright Peak until May 15, when it will fully open the volunteer lookout services.

Association volunteers have spotted and reported many incidents in the last five years.

For additional information contact Association Director Jim Adams at 707-245-3771.

LUCERNE, Calif. — As Lake County experiences another dry year and water levels in Clear Lake continue to decline, California Water Service is encouraging customers in its Lucerne water system to conserve water as much as possible.

Cal Water’s Lucerne system obtains water for its customers from Clear Lake.

“Our Lucerne customers have done a tremendous job with their conservation efforts, and we look forward to partnering with them again as we again face drought conditions,” said Cal Water District Manager Evan Markey.

According to Markey, Cal Water has been preparing to meet customers’ needs in preparation for drought conditions. These efforts include:

— Replacing, repairing, and upgrading infrastructure to minimize water loss;

— Identifying and repairing leaks through a Water Loss Auditing and Control Program;

— Developing 30-year water supply and facilities master plans, which enable the utility to identify and address potential gaps in supplies; and

— Updating its conservation master plan to help determine programs that would most benefit local customers and reduce water use.

“Although these efforts are critically important, they can’t take the place of customer conservation efforts,” Markey said.

Cal Water encourages customers to utilize its industry-leading conservation program to help save water.

The utility offers rebates on high-efficiency appliances and devices; a free conservation kit that includes a garden hose nozzle with shut-off valve, high-efficiency shower heads, faucet aerators, and more; educational resources; and a smart landscape tuneup program that includes an irrigation system evaluation along with installation of efficient devices and repair of irrigation leaks at no cost to customers.

Residents and businesses should also continue observing the prohibited uses of water that have been in effect.

Water-wasting activities include, in part, using water on outdoor landscaping that causes runoff onto adjacent properties or paved areas; using water during or within 48 hours after measurable rainfall; using a hose to wash vehicles unless the hose has a shut-off nozzle or similar device; and using water in a fountain or other decorative water feature, except where part of a recirculating system

Cal Water customers can visit www.calwater.com/conservation or contact the Redwood Valley Customer Center at 707-274-6624 for information on conservation programs along with a full list of prohibited uses of water.

Cal Water serves about 3,600 people through 1,900 service connections in Lucerne and parts of Duncans Mills, Guerneville, Dillon Beach, Noel Heights and Santa Rosa. The company has provided water service in the area since 2000.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. — The city of Clearlake is poised to begin a record-breaking year of roadwork and paving.

On Thursday the Clearlake City Council unanimously approved a $335,048 contract for the city’s 2021 Chip Seal Project with Pavement Coatings, a company that did a similar chip seal test project with the city last year.

Public Works Director Dale Goodman said the new project will be for 5.6 miles of chip seal work in the Avenues area.

The discussion on the topic begins at the 1:50:00 mark in the video above.

Goodman congratulated the city council, City Manager Alan Flora and staff for the “amazing” amount of road work that is going to be done this year.

“I have never had this many balls in the year at one time. It’s incredible. We keep adding more,” said Goodman, who has spent 18 years working in the public works sector, not just in Clearlake but in larger cities of up to 100,000 residents.

The city of Clearlake has more than 100 miles of roads, with about 40 miles being unpaved. “That’s the result of just how the city has grown up. This wasn’t a master plan community,” said Goodman.

Clearlake, he added, “grew up like most cities grew up. So, as a result, we have unpaved roads.”

As a result of limited funds, paved roads have received limited maintenance mostly consisting of filling potholes and doing crackseal work. Goodman said additional work would be done occasionally if enough money could be scraped together.

Grading of unpaved roads, filling potholes and sealing cracks on paved roads is “not a great maintenance program if you want to keep your asphalt in good shape,” Goodman said.

Thanks to city voters passing the Measure V sales tax in 2017, Goodman said the city has had the funding to start to develop a pavement management program.

“The city has come a long way in a short period of time,” he said.

Last year, city staff put together a test project of one mile of unpaved road, Goodman said. They graded and rolled it, preparing it to put down a double chip seal layer.

He said the process consisted of putting down a layer of emulsion on the dirt, followed by a layer of chips, another layer of emulsion, more chips, then a fog seal.

“We didn't know for sure how that was going to work out in the long run,” Goodman said.

That project was completed eight months ago, and Goodman said it came through the winter and has held up well.

With that first project appearing to have worked, he said staff decided to bring forward this larger project, also in an area of the Avenues with good drainage.

He said staff has been out grading the roads where the chip seal work will be done, and as of Thursday they were about two-thirds of the way through it.

The project was put out to bid in March and Goodman said five companies sent in bids. Those bids were opened on April 22.

The low bidder was Pavement Coatings, the company that did last year’s chip seal test project. It bid $335,048. The highest bidder was American Pavement Systems, which bid $408,542.50, according to the staff report for the discussion.

Goodman said $400,000 was budgeted for the project, with an expectation that it could go as high as $500,000, so they were very pleased with Pavement Coatings’ lower bid.

The project will be paid for with Measure V funds, he added.

Councilman David Claffey asked if the work would account for 15 percent of the city’s unpaved roads, with Goodman confirming that was the case.

Claffey asked how many other roads Goodman’s team would be resurfacing in 2021.

Altogether, between three paving projects, Goodman said they will be doing about 15 miles of road. “Which is extraordinary,” he said, noting that at the cities he’s worked at, he’s never seen more than two or three miles of road work completed a year.

“This is just staggering the number of miles we’re going to be treating this year,” said Goodman.

Claffey asked about the last time the city has done so much road work, adding “maybe never.”

Goodman echoed that, adding that there may have been that much road work done in the city when the new Highway 53 was put in, but that project was done by Caltrans.

“This is a very big project,” said Claffey, thanking Goodman for his leadership.

“This is amazing that we’re getting this done,” said Councilmember Joyce Overton.

Since the city saved money on the bid, Councilwoman Russ Perdock asked Goodman if they are looking at adding more roadwork.

Goodman said, “Maybe.”

Flora, who indicated he had spoken to Perdock about the idea previously, noted, “It is extremely tempting to want to add on” to the work they’re already doing.

However, as tempting as it is, Flora cautioned that the city hasn’t yet gotten back the bids for its other Measure V projects, which include surface treatments on arterial streets.

His recommendation was to move forward with the enormous number of projects the city already has. “Maybe we go even bigger next year.”

Councilman Russ Cremer moved to approve the contract, with Perdock seconding and the council voting 5-0.

In other business on Thursday, the council heard a presentation by Dr. Cirilo Cortez, dean of the Lake County Campus of Woodland College, and interim Chancellor Dr. Art Pimentel regarding a promise program for Clearlake students, with council giving staff direction to work with the college on a plan.

The council also held a swearing-in of new police department employees and the presentation of police department employee awards, and presented proclamations declaring May 9 to 15 as Police Week and May 2 to 8 as Public Employee Appreciation Week, and May as Military Appreciation Month and Older Americans Month.

Also on Thursday, Mayor Dirk Slooten said he would appoint himself to serve on the county’s Visioning Forum Planning Committee, formed in February. The vote for the appointment was 5-0.

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.

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — The Middletown Area Town Hall will host Congressman Mike Thompson at its meeting this week.

MATH will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 13, via Zoom. The meeting is open to the public.

To join the Zoom meeting click on this link; the meeting ID is 935 1671 5770. Call in at 888-788-0099.

Thompson is scheduled to give his presentation beginning at 7:10 p.m. He also will be available for questions afterward.

Community members are asked to email questions for Thompson to MATH at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Also on Thursday, there will be public input at 8:15 p.m. and an update from Supervisor Moke Simon at 8:30 p.m.

At 8:45 p.m., the group is set to discuss moving back to the in-person meeting format.

The MATH Board includes Co-Chairs Rosemary Córdova and Monica Rosenthal, Secretary Lisa Kaplan, and Ken Gonzales and Paul baker.

MATH — established by resolution of the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 12, 2006 — is a municipal advisory council serving the residents of Anderson Springs, Cobb, Coyote Valley (including Hidden Valley Lake), Long Valley and Middletown.

For more information email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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. — Looking at the real estate market for March of 2021 versus March of 2020 is revealing as last year in March the pandemic was just beginning to affect the community.

The market continues to be fantastic for sellers, which can be frustrating for buyers. Spring is traditionally the time when more homes come on the market. As we enter spring, we will see if
inventory goes up.

There are some interesting statistics that offer us a snapshot of the Lake County real estate market in March 2020 versus March 2021.

First, let’s look at active listings.

Active listings throughout the county were 128 for March 2021 which is down 52.8% over March 2020.

The breakdown of active listings by community in March, compared to last year, is as follows:

— Lakeport: 23 active listings, up 27.8% over the previous year.
— Kelseyville: 22 active listings, down 62.1%.
— Hidden Valley Lake: 9 active listings, down 82.7% from March 2020.
— Clearlake: 25 active listings, down 50%.

Existing home sales throughout the county totaled 73 homes for March 2021, up 4.3% from March 2020. That breaks down as follows:

— Lakeport: 12 existing home sales, up 9.1% over the previous year.
— Kelseyville: 16 home sales, down 20%;
— Hidden Valley Lake: 13 home sales, up 30%.
— Clearlake: 12 home sales, no change from March 2020.

The existing home median price throughout Lake County for March 2021 was $333,000, up 20.9% over March 2020. Those prices by community compared to the previous year are:

— Lakeport: $353,000, down 15.2% from March 2020; it’s important to remember inventory was up for March 2021.
— Kelseyville: $385,000, up 36.3%.
— Hidden Valley Lake: $362,000, up 25.9%.
— Clearlake: $204,000, up 6.3%.

The median number days on market in March 2021 across Lake County totaled 19, showing homes are selling quickly throughout the county.

In Clearlake, median days on the market totaled 34; followed by Hidden Valley Lake, 16; Lakeport, 13; and Kelseyville, eight.

The sales list to price in the county in March 2021 was 98.5%, indicating that homes are selling very close to list price throughout the county.

In Hidden Valley Lake, 100% of homes are selling at sales list to price, followed by 99.3% in Clearlake, 98.8% in Kelseyville and 98.6% in Lakeport.

As for active listings that had price reductions across Lake County in March, 27.3% were reduced, showing that even with quick sales and homes selling close to asking price, if priced too high, price reductions are needed.

In Lakeport for March 2021, 39.1% of active listings had price reductions, while Kelseyville had 31.8%, Clearlake had 16% and Hidden Valley Lake had 11.1%.

It will be interesting to see what the market brings us in the months ahead.

Tama Prokopowich is president-elect of the Lake County Association of Realtors.