News

LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Thursday afternoon, the Lake County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People presented its inaugural Veterans Patriot Award to a man who the group said works tirelessly to look out for the well-being of veterans.

In the brief ceremony in front of the Veterans Service Office in downtown Lakeport’s historic courthouse square, local NAACP President Rick Mayo and Veterans Affairs Committee Chair Kenneth Bagsby presented the newly created award to Saul Sanabria, Lake County’s veterans services officer.

On hand were dignitaries including Capt. David D. Smith, the NAACP’s state area director, Vallejo NAACP President Jimmy Jackson, Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin, Clearlake Police Chief Andrew White, Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall and Undersheriff Darren Brewster, NAACP Branch Secretary Hazel Deaner and Roger Sciutto, an NAACP life member and former Clearlake Police chief.

“This to me is invaluable,” said Sanabria in accepting the award from the NAACP.

He also noted his gratitude to the people who had traveled so far to see him honored.

This is the first veterans award that the Lake County NAACP chapter has ever given in its 37 years of existence, said Mayo, also a member of the NAACP’s Veterans Affairs Committee.

And if anyone deserved it, Mayo added, it’s Sanabria, himself a veteran.

“He’s helped a lot of veterans in the community,” Mayo, a Vietnam era veteran, told Lake County News.

For his part, Sanabria credited his two staffers – Nancy Mitchell and Denver Cortez – with support to make good things happen at his little office, which serves not just Lake, which has a large per-capita veterans population, but a total of 15 counties.

Sanabria has worked as a veterans services officer for about 20 years. The Board of Supervisors appointed Sanabria to head the Lake County Veterans Services Office beginning in July 2014. Since then, he’s been involved in efforts including the creation of the county’s veterans court.

He and his staff are always on the lookout for veterans because they want to make sure people who served their country are in turn getting the benefits they’ve earned and deserve.

Sanabria makes a point of being available to help veterans around the clock, seven days a week.

To contact the Veterans Services Office, call 707-263-2384, visit its website or email Sanabria directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The office is located at 284 N. Main St., Lakeport.

Mayo said the NAACP plans to offer the award once every 10 years.

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.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Firefighters have been conducting firing operations in their ongoing efforts to control the August Complex, the South Zone of which is set to be placed under a new management team on Friday.

The US Forest Service said the August Complex burned several thousand more acres by Thursday to reach a total of 862,733 acres across all three of its zones, with containment at 38 percent, down one percentage point from the previous day.

The lightning-caused complex has been burning since Aug. 17, beginning on the Mendocino National Forest and spreading into the Shasta-Trinity and Six Rivers National Forests. It’s expected to be fully contained Nov. 15.

Officials said firefighters made significant progress on Wednesday, continuing to mop up where firing operations were finished on Tuesday north of Lake Pillsbury. Dozer line is complete from Soda Creek to Sunset Gap.

Crews continue working to increase containment in the area by identifying and removing trees that could fall across lines, locating and addressing smoldering vegetation adjacent to lines, and by making sure that lines near structures are secure, the Forest Service said.

Other crews are reinforcing dozer lines north and west of Pillsbury Ranch, installing and testing hose lays, pumps and sprinklers for use in holding operations.

In Lake County, mandatory evacuation orders remain in effect in the Pillsbury Ranch and Lake Pillsbury basin. More information on evacuations is available here.

Officials said management of the South Zone of the August Complex will be transitioning from the Type I Great Basin Incident Management Team 2, under Incident Commander Tony Demasters, to a Type 2 Incident Management Team as well as a National Incident Management Organization, or NIMO, team.

The Forest Service said the incoming Type 2 management team is from the Mendocino National Forest and led by Incident Commander Curtis Coots.

The Mendocino team will take over command of the incident on Friday, the Forest Service reported.

The Atlanta NIMO team is led by Incident Commander Mike Quisenberry and will provide further assistance in managing the fire, officials said.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Congressman Mike Thompson will hold another in his ongoing series of virtual town halls next week to discuss issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The virtual town hall will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1.

Thompson will be joined by special guest Rep. Rosa DeLauro (CT-03), chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, for a discussion about the congressional response to the coronavirus pandemic.

This is the 15th in a series of virtual town halls Thompson has held since the spring. All constituents of California’s Fifth Congressional District and members of the press are invited to join.

This event will be held over Zoom and interested participants must email Thompson’s office in order to join, as the platform has a capacity of 500 people.

Interested participants will be notified via email with instructions on how to join.

The event will also be streamed on Facebook Live via Thompson’s page.

Thompson represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Five dogs are waiting at Clearlake Animal Control this week for new homes.

The following dogs are ready for adoption or foster.

‘Bella’

“Bella” is a female American Bully mix.

She has a short beige and tan coat.

She is dog No. 3537.

‘Boog’

“Boog” is a senior male American Bully mix with a short brown and white coat.

He is dog No. 4012.

‘Brownie’

“Brownie” is a male Labrador Retriever mix with a short brown and dapple coat.

He is dog No. 4257.

‘Jack’

“Jack” is a male Labrador Retriever mix with a short yellow coat.

He is dog No. 4155.

‘Lady’

“Lady” is a female German Shepherd mix.

She has been spayed.

She is dog No. 3683.

The shelter is open by appointment only due to COVID-19.

Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.

Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.

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. – Local school districts are once again having to make adjustments as rising COVID-19 case numbers in Lake County could lead to greater state restrictions and further delay efforts to get all of the county’s schools back to in-person instruction.

On Tuesday, Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace delivered the news that Lake County’s surging case rate – now more than 100 new cases since the start of last week, for a total caseload of 530 by Wednesday – has moved the county into the purple tier, the most restrictive level of the state’s Blueprint for a Safe Economy, which looks at risk of community disease transmission.

Moving fully into that most restrictive purple tier – which Pace said could happen as early as next week if the growth in case numbers doesn’t start to slow – could result in the state requiring closure of indoor dining at restaurants, indoor movie theaters, force indoor church services back outdoors and prevent some schools from opening.

In August, Lucerne Elementary and Upper Lake Unified became the first two county school districts to open classes at the “stage 3” level of school reopening – a hybrid model that allowed for in-person instruction as well as distance learning, as Lake County News reported.

Pace said that increased state restrictions won’t close those two districts that already are open.

However, for the other four districts – Kelseyville, Konocti, Lakeport and Middletown – which started the 2020-21 school year with distance learning and plans to transition as soon as safe and feasible to the hybrid model, Pace said there could be further delays until the state moves Lake County back into a less-restrictive tier.

On Sept. 15, Middletown Unified Superintendent Michael Cox said his leadership team met to discuss and evaluate reopening schools, with the team to continue meeting every two weeks to determine when it’s “safe and appropriate” to return to classroom instruction.

On Sunday, Konocti Unified reported that its next steps include having its district leadership team review the data during the first week of October to determine the possibility of moving to the stage two hybrid model.

“The District will report our evaluation and decision by the end of the week, if a decision is made to move to Phase 2, we will provide parents, students, and staff two weeks to prepare for this shift,” Superintendent Becky Salato said in a statement on the district website.

In Kelseyville Unified, officials had initially hoped to open the school year earlier this month with students on campus but eventually chose to start the year with the distance learning model.

District Superintendent Dave McQueen said last week school officials were to meet on Friday to determine if they could meet the state guideline to begin moving to the hybrid learning model.

Following that Friday meeting, McQueen announced that Kelseyville’s schools would reopen classrooms to the hybrid model on Oct. 20 based on the county’s COVID-19 data, and the fact that schools have obtained the personal protective equipment required to keep students and staff as safe as possible.

However, in a Wednesday statement, McQueen said those plans to reopen in late October had been canceled after the Lake County Public Health Department notified the district earlier in the day that a Kelseyville High School student had tested positive for COVID-19.

He said contact tracing is underway, anyone at risk will be notified and the district will both coordinate with Public Health and follow the agency’s guidance. The district also is taking proper steps to sanitize Kelseyville High School daily.

“I know people need to get back to work and having young children at home makes that hard, but it simply isn't safe for students to return to the classroom at this time,” McQueen said.

As Kelseyville Unified prepared for the hybrid model, McQueen said several concerns surfaced, including the ability to maintain enough social distancing at schools and potential staffing shortages if people are exposed to COVID-19 and have to remain home for weeks at a time.

As a result, McQueen said that the district has decided that it won’t reopen schools for in-person instruction until Lake County’s COVID-19 transmission risk drops into the orange or moderate tier in the state’s blueprint, at which point students could return to classrooms five days a week with safety measures including masks, student desk partitions and screening.

Hours later, Kelseyville Unified’s action to postpone its in-person reopening was referenced at the Lakeport Unified School District Board, which held a special meeting – the second in two days – that included discussion of its efforts to get students back into the classroom.

Lakeport Unified Board considers survey results, hears teacher and parent concerns

On Tuesday night, the Lakeport Unified School Board held a discussion on its Learning Continuity and Attendance Plan, which Superintendent Jill Falconer said is a state-required framework for how districts manage distance and in-person instruction.

The school board approved that plan at Wednesday night’s special meeting after a lengthy discussion on the district’s plans for transition to the hybrid learning model.

Falconer said that when the board made the decision to go to distance learning, the goal was to go to the hybrid model as quickly and safely as possible.

Two weeks ago, before the spike in local case numbers, the district conducted two surveys – one for staff, one for families – asking about their experiences with distance learning and when they would like to return to hybrid learning. “We do have a good split on opinions on when is the time to transition to hybrid,” said Falconer.

Of 190 staff, 147 responded, with 43.6 percent wanting to start hybrid learning at the semester break on Jan. 4, 24.2 percent wanting to start as soon as possible, 17.4 percent wanting to start at the quarter break on Oct. 13 and 14.8 percent responding with an “other” option.”

For families – 461 members of 1,100 families responded – 39.9 percent wanted to return to hybrid learning as soon as possible, 27.3 percent wanted to wait until the Jan. 4 semester break and 9.3 percent said they would like to start on Oct. 13, at the start of the second quarter.

Falconer told the board that the work needed to finalize reopening – including site plans being completed by the different schools and notifying parents – could take five weeks to complete, putting an in-person reopening at Nov. 2.

That’s if, she cautioned, Lake County remains out of the state’s most restrictive purple tier on its Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

Falconer also noted the concern that if there are more COVID-19 cases in the community, there could be an increase in staffers being exposed and requiring quarantine, which would limit the district’s ability to reopen.

“This is a fluid thing. Sometimes we take one step forward and two steps back. Sometimes we take two steps forward and one step back, and we try to be flexible and go with that flow,” Falconer said.

She said district officials are visiting the Lucerne and Upper Lake districts to see how their reopening is working and, on Friday morning, will be conducting the first voluntary COVID-19 surveillance testing for staff.

The district board heard concerns from Lakeport Elementary teacher Nichola Bronk, who said the district’s survey was very flawed because it only gave limited options on when parents wanted their children to return to school and that it was completed by less than half of the families in the district.

She said there was no option for saying that she doesn’t want her children to return to school until they have a vaccination and it’s safe.

Several other teachers also spoke, assuring everyone that they wanted to be back in class with their students.

“We are doing the best we can,” said Clear Lake High School teacher Cary Stillman, adding that the technology is not where it needs to be to serve teachers with distance learning. Stillman said the end goal should be to have children in class when it’s safe and healthy to do so.

Special education teacher Christian Dorn said distance learning is “nothing like it was” earlier this year, but a major issue for teachers remains how to do it effectively. “We’re just figuring it out right now.”

Fourth-grade teacher Lori Underwood said she was very concerned about reopening in the hybrid model due to recent case surges, pointing to the chance of exposure and evidence that children can carry the virus without any symptoms.

While teacher Catherine Dunne said it’s easiest to teach in person, “In circumstances like this, I think what’s safest has to prevail,” adding case increases in Lakeport are very concerning.

If cases continue to increase, there is a greater likelihood of teachers being quarantined or infected, which Dunne said leads to new problems, such as a lack of available teachers.

District nurse Diane Gunther pointed to case demographics released by the Lake County Public Health Department earlier this week that showed that 44 cases in Lake County have been reported in the 0 to 12 age group, with another 89 in the 12 to 24 age group.

Gunther said she is concerned that not enough testing is being done to know just how much of the virus is in the community.

She said we’re now entering flu season, which will cause people to be indoors more and, as a result, also will increase the risks of spread for both the flu and the coronavirus.

Editor’s note: In an earlier version of this story, Nichola Bronk was incorrectly identified as a parent in the district. She is, in fact, a teacher.

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. – Fall officially arrived this week, but rather than cooling off, Lake County is expected to see hot and dry conditions beginning this weekend.

The National Weather Service has issued a hazardous weather outlook due to higher-than-average temperatures forecast for next week and a fire weather watch for the weekend and early next week.

The hazardous weather outlook predicts that temperatures will rise well above normal across the interior of northwest California from Saturday through Monday.

The fire weather watch is in effect from 8 p.m. Saturday through 8 a.m. Monday in elevations above 1,500 feet, especially in southeastern Lake County.

A fire weather watch means that critical fire weather conditions are forecast to occur. As such, forecasters urged area residents to listen for later forecasts and possible red flag warnings.

The forecast calls for north to northeast winds from 12 to 18 miles per hour with gusts of up to 25 miles per hour from Saturday night through Monday morning. Higher gusts are possible over the most exposed ridgetops.

Humidity will range from 10 to 20 percent in afternoons with overnight humidity from 20 to 40 percent.

The specific Lake County forecast calls for daytime highs in the 90s over the weekend and temperatures at or slightly above the century mark on Monday before dropping slightly back into the high 90s on Tuesday and Wednesday. Nighttime temperatures are forecast to be in the low 60s.

In addition, widespread haze due to the region’s wildland fires is expected to impact Lake County through the middle of next week at least, based on the forecast.

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.