NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Lake County’s state senator has authored a new bill to give a tax credit to middle-class homeowners who undertake fire safe improvements.
On Monday, Sen. Mike McGuire and several members of the Legislature – including Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, who also represents Lake County – introduced SB 944, the Fire Safe Home Tax Credit.
The size and scope of wildfires across California have increased in intensity and destruction over the past decade, impacting millions of residents and causing tens of billions in damage.
Lake County has been hit hard by a series of fires in that time, including the Rocky, Jerusalem and Valley in 2015, the Clayton in 2016, the Sulphur in 2017, and the Pawnee fire and Mendocino Complex in 2018.
The 2018 wildfire season eclipsed 2017 as the most destructive and deadliest year for wildfires in Golden State history. California’s largest, most destructive and deadly wildland fires have all taken place in the last decade – with over 38,000 homes, businesses and structures having been destroyed by California wildfires since 2015.
Because of this reality, the state of California has invested more than $1 billion in vegetation management and fire prevention funding over the next several years to help protect communities, but individual property owners in the wildland-urban interface have been on their own to pay for expensive hardening upgrades that will help make their home more fire safe.
Over 4.5 million homes are in the most threatened regions in the state and McGuire said there is a desperate need to provide everyday middle-class Californians with the tools they need to keep their home safe and help stabilize insurance markets in some of the most wildfire-prone regions in the state.
“Millions of Californians call the wildland-urban interface home and they are under increased threat by the growing size and scope of wildfires. This commonsense bill will help expedite desperately needed fire safe retrofits, which can be incredibly costly, on thousands of homes in the most threatened regions of our state,” Sen. McGuire said.
“This fire safe tax credit program is part of a larger data-driven plan to strategically invest in the most threatened communities to help neighbors retrofit their homes and usher in a more stabilized insurance market. We must act with urgency and provide middle-class Californians with the tools they need to keep their homes and families safe,” he said.
Under SB 944, homeowners making less than $70,000 annually ($140,000 for a couple) would qualify for the tax credit for home hardening projects with the primary purpose of protection from wildfire.
Qualified taxpayers can get a one-time tax credit, for up to $10,000, for completing home hardening projects already embedded in the state’s fire code, which could include: replacing roofs, exterior walls, vents, decks, fences and chimneys.
Out-of-pocket expenses for vegetation management will also be eligible for the tax credit and include wildfire mitigation measures like the creation of defensible space and establishing fuel breaks.
McGuire said funding mitigation makes fiscal sense: the Federal Emergency Management Agency estimates that for every $1 spent on fire hardening measures to bring buildings up to current codes, $4 are saved – including countless lives, billions of dollars in property damage, and hundreds of millions of avoided insurance costs.
In California, the return on investment can approach $6 for each dollar of mitigation.
The Fire Safe Home Tax Credit is co-authored by Senators Stern, Rubio, Dahle, Dodd, Galgiani, Hill, Jackson and Nielsen and Assemblymembers Aguiar-Curry, Friedman, Wood and Gallagher.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – While the coronavirus has captured attention worldwide, the seasonal flu continues to impact residents across Lake County, California and the nation.
Dr. Gary Pace, Lake County’s Public Health officer, said there is definitely flu in Lake County this season.
“So far, it hasn’t appeared to be particularly severe. No deaths from flu that we are aware of at this point,” he said this week.
Pace did not have any specific flu numbers for Lake County, and the California Department of Public Health said individual flu cases are not reportable in California.
The California Influenza Surveillance Program’s latest report on flu was released on Friday. It covers the period of Jan. 26 to Feb. 1, and tracks activity for the season beginning on Sept. 29.
That report shows that there have been above-expected levels for flu hospitalizations and outpatient cases, with 87 outbreaks and 266 deaths since the end of September.
The number of deaths has risen 55 from the previous report, for the period ended Jan. 25.
Of the total number of deaths in California since September, nine are pediatric cases, state health officials reported. The Centers for Disease Control said the nationwide number of influenza-associated pediatric deaths for the season so far is 78.
On a national level, the CDC said that 47 jurisdictions – including 45 states, along with Puerto Rico and New York City – have reported high incidences of influenza-like illness, or ILI, as of Feb. 1, with visits to health care providers as a result of ILI rising to 6.7 percent from 6 percent the previous week.
The CDC estimates that so far this flu season there have been at least 22 million flu illnesses nationwide, with 210,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 deaths from flu.
The California Influenza Surveillance Program report says that flu activity remains elevated in California, with the predominant viruses being the Flu A (H1)pdm09 viruses, although Flu B (Victoria) viruses are still circulating.
The CDC said influenza A and B viruses cause seasonal flu epidemics almost every winter in the United States.
Influenza A viruses are the only influenza viruses known to cause flu pandemics, or global epidemics, of the illness, the CDC reported.
The pdm09 version of the virus is the same as the flu virus that emerged in the spring of 2009 and caused a flu pandemic, and since then has continued to circulate seasonally with relatively small genetic changes and changes to their antigenic properties occurring since then, the CDC said.
Hospitalizations related to ILI nationwide are 35.5 per 100,000, an overall rate which the CDC said is similar to this time of year in recent flu seasons.
The percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza is 7.1 percent, a rate which the CDC termed as low.
The California Influenza Surveillance Program reported that, to date, more flu deaths in California have occurred among persons who are age 65 or older, 61.3 percent, than among persons aged 65 or younger, 38.7 percent, during the 2019–2020 influenza season.
The report said that the percentage of deaths occurring among persons younger than age 65 is consistent with other seasons during which influenza viruses other than influenza A (H3N2) have circulated in greater numbers, such as the 2015-2016 and 2018-2019 seasons.
While flu is widespread, state health officials report that it’s not too late to be vaccinated.
The CDC said flu vaccine effectiveness estimates will be available later this month, but that agency also said that vaccination is always the best way to prevent flu and its potentially serious complications.
Health officials said that everyone above age 6 months needs to have a flu shot.
Pregnant women, children under age 5, adults age 65 and above and people with chronic conditions are at high risk for flu-related complications.
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. – Lake County’s Public Health officer will offer an update on the coronavirus to the Board of Supervisors this week.
The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8 and online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.
At 9:10 a.m., Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace will update the board on the coronavirus.
So far, six cases have been confirmed in California, the closest in Santa Clara County.
The full agenda follows.
CONSENT AGENDA
5.1: Adopt Resolution expressing support for Lower Lake Parade and Barbecue (May 24, 2020).
5.2: Adopt resolution approving Agreement No. 19-SD17 with California Department of Food and Agriculture for compliance with the Seed Services program for period July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020.
5.3: Approve long-distance travel for Dr. Gary Pace, Iyesha Miller, Dean Eichelmann, Christine Hannigan, Jasjit Kang and Craig Wetherbee to Anniston, Alabama, March 22 through March 27, 2020, to attend the Disaster Related Exposure Assessment and Monitoring training.
5.4: Approve Side Letter to the Lake County Correctional Officer Association Memorandum of Understanding for the period of July 9, 2019, to Dec. 31, 2019.
5.5: Approve the continuation of a local emergency due to the atmospheric river event 2019.
5.6: Approve the continuation of a local emergency due to the Pawnee fire incident.
5.7: Approve the continuation of a local emergency due to the Kincade fire incident, the Burris fire incident and the October 2019 Pacific Gas and Electric public safety power shutoff events.
5.8: Approve the continuation of a local emergency due to the Mendocino Complex fire Incident (River and Ranch fires).
5.9: Approve final parcel map and the deferred improvement agreement for Wright PM 05-08 and authorize the chair to sign.
5.10: Approve out of state travel for the Public Works director from April 19 to 23, 2020, to Orange Beach, Alabama.
TIMED ITEMS
6.2, 9:06 a.m.: Consideration of continuation of a local health emergency and order prohibiting the endangerment of the community through the unsafe removal, transportation, and disposal of fire debris for the Mendocino Complex fire.
6.3, 9:10 a.m.: Consideration of update on the coronavirus.
UNTIMED ITEMS
7.2: Consideration of resolution of intent to initiate the amendment of the zoning ordinance and set public hearing for the Planning Commission on Feb. 27, 2020; and (b) request that administration review the ability to add one staff to the ag department during midyear budget review.
7.3: Discussion and consideration of formation of an ad hoc committee to participate in a North Coast Counties Regional Forum Regarding Cannabis Licensing.
7.4: Consideration of agreement between county of Lake and Clean Lakes Inc. for the Aquatic Vegetation Management Program for Fiscal Year 2019-2020 and authorize the chair to sign.
7.5: Consideration of the following appointments: Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Advisory Board and Middletown Cemetery District.
CONSENT AGENDA
8.1: Conference with labor negotiator: (a) chief negotiator: M. Long; county negotiators: C. Huchingson and P. Samac; and (b) employee organizations: LCDDAA, LCDSA, LCCOA, LCEA, LCSEA and LCSMA.
8.2: Public Employee Evaluation: Community Development director.
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 Lake County Registrar of Voters Office is reminding community members that the deadline to register – or reregister – to vote in the March 3 Super Tuesday presidential primary is Tuesday, Feb. 18.
New residents of Lake County and registered voters who have moved to a new address, changed their mailing address within the county or changed their name must register or reregister by the deadline.
In addition, if you are a registered voter and your mailing address has changed, official voting materials – such as sample ballots and vote-by-mail pr absentee ballots – cannot be forwarded to another address and will be returned to the Registrar of Voters Office by the postal service.
Residents may personally phone the elections office at 707-263-2372 to verify if their voter registration information is correct and up-to-date.
The Registrar of Voters Office asks those who need to register or reregister to vote not to delay.
A completed voter registration form must be either personally delivered to the Registrar of Voters Office on or before Feb. 18 or postmarked on or before Feb. 18 and received by mail by the Registrar of Voters Office, or they must complete an online voter registration form on or before 11:59 pm on Feb. 18 for a voter’s name to be printed in the roster of index at his/her polling place.
Eligible Lake County residents who miss the voter registration deadline still have the option to vote in this election by conditionally registering to vote and casting a provisional ballot.
To do this, they can personally visit the Lake County Registrar of Voters in Room 209 on the second floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport, from Feb. 19 until prior to 8 p.m. on Election Day, or visit their polling place no later than the 8 p.m. close of the polls on Election Day.
Residents may register to vote at the Registrar of Voters Office in Lakeport; call the elections office at 707-263-2372 for a form to be mailed to them; or register online by visiting http://registertovote.ca.gov/.
Registration forms are also available at most local post offices, libraries, city offices and chamber of commerce offices.
Please be aware that pursuant to Section 2101 of the California Elections Code: “A person entitled to register to vote shall be a United States citizen, a resident of California, not imprisoned or on parole for the conviction of a felony, and at least 18 years of age at the time of the next election.”
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has two cats prepared to go to new homes this week.
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
This female domestic short hair is in cat room kennel No. 7, ID No. 13521. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female domestic short hair
This female domestic short hair has a lynx point and tortie coat and blue eyes.
She is in cat room kennel No. 7, ID No. 13521.
This male domestic short hair is in cat room kennel No. 44, ID No. 13520. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male domestic short hair
This male domestic short hair has an all-black coat and gold eyes.
He is in cat room kennel No. 44, ID No. 13520.
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
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.
Clear Lake as viewed from above Lucerne, California. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Clear Lake, the largest natural lake in California and the heart of Lake County, is far more than that: it is the oldest natural lake in North America, with 68 square miles of surface area and an average depth of 26 feet, among the world’s most productive freshwater ecosystems, and a regional, national and planetary treasure.
It’s not unusual for warm, shallow, nutrient-rich lakes to support large populations of fish, birds and mammals of many different species, but bodies of water like this are ordinarily quite ephemeral, lasting only a few hundred or thousands of years before transforming first to marsh and then to meadow.
What makes Clear Lake unique are tectonic forces that have deepened its bed at approximately the same pace as sedimentation has accumulated: sediment cores show that a lake has existed continually at this location for at least 450,000 years and possibly as much as 2.5 million years.
Although the lake and its watershed offer a paradise for wildlife and abundant agricultural and recreational opportunities, the region also faces serious problems.
Clear Lake has been subject to algal blooms for much of the past century, and was listed as impaired for excess nutrients under the federal Clean Water Act in 1986.
Like most other watersheds in the region, numerous abandoned mercury mines in the basin, especially the Sulphur Bank Mine Superfund site, have led to significant mercury contamination.
Although water clarity improved noticeably beginning in the 1990s, noxious “blooms” of cyanobacteria (commonly called “blue green algae”) have been intermittent since 2009.
Devastating wildfires in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 have denuded the hills surrounding the lake and increased the phosphorus-rich sediment delivery that encourages rampant growth of “algae” and invasive aquatic weeds, while simultaneously reducing the tax base, increasing the demand for services and therefore limiting the capacity of local government to address these issues.
What to do? The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, charged with developing a recovery plan, has held periodic workshops that offered little besides recommendations to extend compliance deadlines.
Then in 2017 Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, whose district includes all of Lake County, sponsored Assembly Bill 707 to create a Blue Ribbon Committee charged with developing strategies to clean up the lake and revitalize the local economies that depend on it.
The committee is chaired by the secretary of Natural Resources and includes representatives from local government, the University of California at Davis, the Water Board, Lake County tribes, and spokespersons for economic development, agricultural, environmental and public water supply constituencies.
The legislation also included $2 million for research and formulation of a stewardship plan, and prospects for an additional $5 million in upcoming water bond funding.
The committee held its first organizational meeting in Upper Lake on Oct. 10, 2018, followed by a series of three stakeholder workshops on Oct. 24.
The facilitators acknowledged that the first task was to assemble and coordinate the numerous studies that have been conducted on the lake in the past and are continuing on an ongoing basis, and to use this data set to create a model of what a healthy lake looks like, while avoiding any temptation to base that model on deep, cold bodies of water such as Lake Tahoe.
They appeared surprised at the number of local residents who participated and by both their commitment to Clear Lake and their breadth of knowledge, while many of the participants appeared equally surprised that the focus of the group seemed to be as much on the economic revitalization of Lake County as on the ecological well-being of the lake itself.
Although these subjects are admittedly closely connected, it was apparent that mission creep could become a serious issue as the committee’s mandate evolved.
The second committee meeting, on Dec. 20, was preceded by a tour of the Middle Creek Flood Damage Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration Project site.
This project, first proposed in the 1990s, is widely acknowledged to be the single most effective action available to improve watershed health and Clear Lake water quality.
By breaching antiquated levees that "reclaimed" 1,600 acres of wetlands for agriculture in the 1930s and 1940s, and by restoring the natural contours and hydrological functions of the area, the project will intercept much of the nutrient-laden sediments that currently trigger rampant growth of weeds and “algae.”
The project will also restore wildlife habitat, improve breeding and rearing conditions for the threatened Clear Lake Hitch, and provide significant recreational opportunities.
Both the Water Board and a 1994 Environmental Protection Agency study have prioritized restoration of the area – the largest single damaged wetland on the lake – as the number one target for improving water quality and restoring an impaired ecosystem, and in February 2019 $15 million in state funding was procured to allow the county to purchase the remaining private properties within its boundaries.
Six additional meetings followed in 2019, several preceded by site visits, along with six meetings of a Technical Subcommittee chaired by committee members but primarily composed of outside experts. The year concluded with preparation of an annual report to the Governor and consideration of a formal letter of support for the prompt realization of the Middle Creek Project.
Priorities for 2020 include creating a model of the upper watershed; implementing a basin-wide monitoring strategy; conducting a bathymetric survey of Clear Lake; reviewing existing programs and Best Management Practices; and assessing public perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge gaps about the lake and water quality generally.
Victoria Brandon is the president of the Board of Directors of Tuleyome and a Lower Lake resident. Tuleyome is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit conservation organization based in Woodland. For more information go to www.tuleyome.org.
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