I began my journey in Middletown with the Middletown Area Town Hall (MATH). I met with a board member by the name of Sandy Hamilton prior to attending the meeting. She showed me the marketing materials Middletown uses to promote itself. Residents of Middletown drive over the hill to Napa Valley and place advertising materials in key tourist locations.
I sat in on a full board meeting of MATH and found they were proactive about ideas to promote the economic health of their area. I contacted District 1 Supervisor Jim Comstock by email to talk with him and received no response.
I met with Rick Gunier who works with the winegrape growers of Lake County. We discussed placing a co op and/or wine center at the airport property in Clearlake. He said there was an interest in a co-op among some growers, but had more interest in Kelseyville for a location than Clearlake. I told him I had the concept for the airport. Our last conversation was about him getting a local big name engineer to draw up the plans for him.
I contacted Monica Rosenthal of the Lake County Winery Association. She told me that some of the ideas I presented were being implemented this year. She said she worked with “Shannon Gunier, executive director of the Lake County Winegrape Commission, and Debra Sommerfield of the County of Lake to implement promotional and advertising programs that benefit not only the wine industry here in Lake County, but other industries as well.”
I emailed District 2 Supervisor Jeff Smith in which Clearlake is located. He told me that a group had tried to develop an entertainment idea 20 years ago but ran into obstacles and they abandoned the idea. He said he was open to any ideas that could help the people in his district.
I emailed District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing to find her position on helping the city of Clearlake. I met her for the first time at a FLOW meeting in Lucerne. It was a garden planting/campaign stop for her.
I spoke with her for a few minutes about her view of Clearlake and the airport property. We spoke about the financial problems the city was having. We spoke of how the city of Clearlake being healthy could help the county. She felt the city’s disincorporation would not necessarily be a bad thing.
I met with Betsy Cawn who was a fountain of information relating to Lake county ecological history. She knew the hows and whens of government actions relating to Lake County, and, what studies were done on our county. If you ever meet her, take the time to grab a little of her knowledge.
I emailed information to Denise Rushing about the Lucerne castle and how the Google Foundation is donating $1 billion to education based projects.
Carol Bettencourt put a lot of thought into her idea about Lucerne and the potential to tie in the Lucerne castle to a tourist activity. Out of respect to her creativity, I will only say it was filled with fun and adventure to all participants.
Herb Gura felt that the existing businesses in Clearlake needed support and a better approach would be promoting our area to fisherman, bird watchers, sailors, and water lovers of all kinds.
Tom Cammarata who is a 40 year veteran of advertising offered some astute observations that should be obvious to us all. The first and most obvious is our tourist base lives within 100 miles of us.
There is a disconnect between the lodging industry and the wine industry. I am attempting to locate a motel/hotel lodging association to find their view on improving their industry.
One thing is certain. There are locals with the money reserves to invest in making our county more appealing. The wine industry needs lodging for its customers. The lodging industry needs the customers the wine people can provide. At the center of all this is the Lake which our economy is dependent on.
To be continued.
Keith Buter lives in Lucerne, Calif.
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