NICE – A sunrise ceremony to honor the victims of the Bloody Island Massacre will be held on Saturday, May 15.

The ceremony will be held on Reclamation Road. The turnoff is near the Bloody Island historic marker along Highway 20.

The 1850 massacre was carried out by the US Army in retaliation for the murder of Andrew Kelsey and Charles Stone.

Accounts vary as to the number of dead, ranging between 60 and up to 400.

LOWER LAKE – The Lower Lake Historic School Preservation Committee will host the Lake County Chapter of the California Retired Teachers Association in a ceremony celebrating retired teachers on Saturday, May 22, at 1 p.m. at the Lower Lake Historical Schoolhouse Museum.

Lake County CRTA members donated a substantial portion of the funds to acquire the newly restored bell for the museum's bell tower.

In honor of their donation, and as fitting for a historic schoolhouse, the bell will be rung in celebration of teachers, retired teachers and the teaching profession.

The public is invited to join us for this first annual celebration. Light refreshments will be served. For more information call the museum at 707-995-3565.

The Lower Lake Historic Schoolhouse Museum is a facility of the County of Lake, with support from the Lower Lake Historic School Preservation Committee. Museum hours are 11 a.m. until 4 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday.

LAKEPORT – The Lakeport Main Street Association will host its “Dinner and a Movie” night on Sunday, May 30, at Library Park, 225 Park St.

Imagine being in your favorite spot at Library Park enjoying a classic movie for the whole family.

Join them for a night of fun at Library Park while watching “E.T.-The Extra Terrestrial.”

A beer and wine reception will begin at 6 p.m., with dinner at 7 p.m. and the movie to follow at 8:15 p.m.

The cost for dinner and the movie is $20 per person, or $10 for children under age 12. To attend the movie only the cost is $5.

Presale tickets can be purchased at the Lakeport Regional Chamber of Commerce, The Kitchen Gallery and Hillside Honda.

The event is sponsored by Park Place Restaurant, Molly Brennan’s Pub, Main Street Pizza, Angelina’s Restaurant, the Lakeport Main Street Association and its members.

Bring your lawn chairs or favorite blanket for comfort.

UPPER LAKE – The Northshore Dive Team will hold a training this Sunday, May 16.

A training originally set for Lakeport has been canceled.

Instead, all team members are asked to meet at the Northshore Fire Protection District's Station 90 in Upper Lake at 11 a.m. Training will be held at Paradise Cove in Lucerne.

All interested personnel are encouraged to attend. You don't have to be a diver to be a team member.

The team, which operates through community donations, also is seeking help in updating its dive gear. Donations can be sent to the team at P.O. Box 61, Upper Lake, CA 95485.

For more information, call team leader Capt. John Rodriguez at 707-275-9007 or 707-349-3367, e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or visit the team's Facebook page at www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Upper-Lake-CA/Northshore-Dive-Team/289897949089?ref=ts.

SACRAMENTO – The California State Senate voted 31-0 Monday to approve Senate Bill 1023, which would allow local agency formation commissions (LAFCOs) to convert local resort improvement districts and selected municipal improvement districts into community services districts, without substantive changes to the districts’ powers, duties, financing, or service areas.

The legislation is by North Coast Senator Patricia Wiggins (D-Santa Rosa).

The Wiggins bill, which next heads to the Assembly for further consideration, also creates an accelerated procedure for converting the Tahoe Paradise Resort Improvement District into a recreation and park district.

SB 1023 is co-authored by Assemblywoman Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) and sponsored by Napa County.

LAFCOs control the formation, boundaries, and dissolution of cities and most special districts within their respective counties.

SB 1023 creates a new boundary change procedure, called an "expedited reorganization," and allows LAFCOs to convert resort improvement districts (RIDs) and three specified municipal improvement districts (MIDs) – Montalvo, Bethel Island and Embarcadero – into community services districts (CSDs).

The Wiggins measure also creates a new accelerated reorganization to specifically allow the El Dorado County LAFCO to convert the Tahoe Paradise RID into a recreation and park district.

California's 3,400 special districts deliver the public facilities and services that their communities want, matching community services to community needs. To help the districts remain responsive to their residents and property owners, the Legislature has rewritten a half-dozen of their principal acts to reflect more recent constitutional and statutory trends.

However, the statewide law that applies to the few remaining resort improvement districts and the municipal improvement districts' special acts is not up-to-date.

“MIDs and RIDs are so similar in concept to community services districts that some local officials want to convert them,” Wiggins says. “This bill allows RIDs and MIDs to convert into CSDs more quickly, without changing boundaries, altering duties, raising costs, or eroding anyone's constitutional rights. If they use these voluntary procedures, district officials can gain access to modern laws that help them serve their communities.”

MIDDLETOWN – Friends of the Middletown Library are having their semi-annual book fair on Saturday, June 19.

The sale will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the front lawn of the Middletown Library, located on the corner of Calistoga and Callayomi Streets in downtown Middletown.

Stop by on the way to Middletown Days festivities.

Books will be sold by the bag at a bargain price of $5 per bag. There will be a special sale of paperbacks, which will go for $3 per bag.

Books for sale include best sellers, children’s, mysteries, spy intrigue, romance, cookbooks, self help, reference, audio tapes and CDs – and some surprise offerings.

All proceeds are for the purchase of new books and supplies for the library and the new library building fund.

Please show your support of the local library by joining the Friends of the Middletown Library on Saturday, June 19.