The "Improving Air Quality in Your Community" Web site features activities for reducing both indoor and outdoor pollution, including diesel engine retrofit programs, improving air quality in local schools, and pollution prevention options for small businesses.

These projects have a successful track record: they were previously put into action by state and local governments across the country.

This site includes information about the costs to establish and maintain each project, and how local communities can apply for EPA grants to kick-start their activities.

For more information visit www.epa.gov/air/community/.

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Two dump truck loads of trash was removed from Highway 29 south of Kelseyville. Photo courtesy of Caltrans.

LAKE COUNTY – As part of its partnership with Keep California Beautiful, Caltrans cleaned up a portion of Highway 29 on March 4.

Caltrans officials reported that two dump truck loads of trash was removed from Highway 29 south of Kelseyville.

Among the larger items picked up were tire casings, Caltrans reported.

This pile of tire casings were among the larger items Caltrans removed. Photo courtesy of Caltrans

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Ann Blue, Clear Lake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club, is the Penny Pines chairman. Photo courtesy of Thelma Dangel.

LAKE COUNTY – Ann Blue, Clear Lake Trowel and Trellis Garden Club, Penny Pines chairman, presented an expanded Reforestation and Restoration Program that is statewide. This program is a statewide program sponsored by California Garden Club Inc. to which the club belongs.

California Garden Club Inc. has established a restricted fund to be used for California US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service in the $5,000 to $20,000 range.

Each month members donate extra funds in the range of extra pennies as they bring a cut of flowers or other plants to show. The funds grow to an amount of $100 when that amount is reached.

Trowel and Trellis members voted to participate in the program and made the first $100 donation which is donated each time. The club has supported the Penny Pines Program since 1990.

Every $68 donation will plant approximately 350 seedlings on one acre of burned area in the Mendocino Forest.

For more information on these programs, you may contact Ann Blue at 263-5854.

Come visit the group at Scotts Valley Women's Club House, 2298 Hendricks Road, Lakeport on the third Tuesday of the month at l2:30 p.m., or check out the group's Web at www.clttg.org.

Other associates are Mendo-Lake District; California Garden Club Inc.; Pacific Region and National Garden Clubs Inc.

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The public meeting will take place from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Middletown Multi-use Room on Wardlaw Street.

Agenda items include a discussion of the appointment of a parliamentarian and the MATH meeting day and place change under old business.

Under new business, MATH will meet the candidates for District 1 Supervisor.

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

The MATH Board of Directors include Chairman Fletcher Thornton, Vice Chairman Joe Sullivan, Secretary Mike Tabacchi, Jon Meyer, Martha Webster, Bill Wright and Scott Fergusson.

Disability-related accommodations may be made by contacting the MATH Chairman at 987-8285 at least 72 hours in advance of the scheduled meeting time.

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Textile artists from Sonoma County to southwestern Oregon are invited to apply. Grants will be awarded in the range of $100 to $1,000.

The Quilter’s Guild created this fund to provide grants and fellowships to encourage interest, education and activities in the broad field of textile arts.

Examples of textile arts include wearable art, sewing, quilting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, fabric manipulation and dyeing.

Grant applications and information are available at the Humboldt Area Foundation or on their Web site at www.hafoundation.org.

Deadline for submission of grant applications is April 10, 2008. For more information, contact the Humboldt Area Foundation at (707) 442-2993.

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People from all over Lake County came to learn how to become better at acquiring grants for nonprofit organizations.

In fact, more people RSVP'ed to the event than the Greenview Restaurant's dining room could actually hold.

Fortunately, not everyone who RSVP'ed actually showed up. Amazingly, the dining room ended up providing the exact number of chairs needed.

A special "thank you" must go to Mike Zuech, manager of the Greenview Restaurant, for providing a place for The Foundation Center to make this presentation. Zuech was not even able to attend the presentation as it was scheduled during his vacation to Mexico.

However, Zeuch is likely to hear a lot about it after he returns from vacation on March 8.

"Grantseeking Basics" was in part a slide show presentation. However, if you happened to be present that night I think you would agree the slide show really was not necessary. Scott Ullman was "the show." This man is a walking encyclopedia of information when it comes to grant funding. It is not likely that Lake County will see him again in person for a year or more.

Ullman actually is assigned to cover the western United States for The Foundation Center doing presentations to groups. He spends a great deal of time on-the-road. Lake County just got lucky this year and was able to entice him to stop off in Hidden Valley Lake on his way to Ukiah.

Even though face-to-face encounters with Ullman may be few and far between, he did say he was open to participating in online webinars or interactive podcasts. In fact, The Foundation Center itself is getting more and more involved in online traing with regard to grant funding. Even so, there is a possibility the Lake County online talk show, Power Networking, will get Ullman as a special guest at some future date. If so, that date will be announced in this publication at least a week prior to the event.

One thing that should interest a lot of grant writers here in Lake County is the possibility there may be a satellite resource center for The Foundation Center set up here in the not-too-distant future. There have been some rumblings that the Clearlake Public Library may be interested.

At the meeting Monday night, someone suggested the Calpine Visitor Center would be a great location for the grant research material to reside. With two conference rooms and an upstairs reading area, there certainly is room. Plus, the fact the Calpine Visitor Center has high speed Internet access is a real plus.

According to Ullman, the only thing the Calpine Visitor Center lacks to qualify as a Foundation Center sattellite location is its hours of operation. The Foundation Center requires that every one of its satellite locations be available to the public for more hours than the Calpine Visitor Center is currently open.

But, now that Calpine has had its restructuring plan approved by the Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court, perhaps a lengthening of its visitor center's hours of operation is in order?

What would really be nice is for the Calpine Visitor Center to become a wifi hot spot. Then, Calpine could actually generate some revenue for itself through its own visitor center while it was open to the public. Grant writers could come and bring their online mobile devices and actually do philanthropic research within the premises. They could even make free VOIP calls to The Foundation Center in San Francisco via Skype while doing research online. This would no doubt be a refreshing change of pace from the empty parking lot that has become an all-too-familiar site at the Calpine Visitor Center these days.

For more information about The Foundation Center, visit http://foundationcenter.org. If you want to connect with Scott Ullman, be sure to click over to the San Francisco location.

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