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LAKE COUNTY – Five local American Indian tribes have received a $100,000 federal grant to help them improve housing in their communities.
The U.S. Department of Agricultural Rural Development visited Big Valley Rancheria's Konocti Vista Casino Thursday to make the official presentation to the tribes, which include Big Valley, Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians, Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, Robinson Rancheria and Elem Indian Colony.
The grant funds will be used to provide training and technical assistance to assist tribes in acquiring and developing land for housing projects and related infrastructure, rehabilitating and building housing, and operating housing assistance programs, the agency reported.
State USDA Rural Development Director Ben Higgins came for the event. He said the grant is modest when considering the nearly $80 million the agency has awarded over the last seven years to help foster growth in business development, homeownership and infrastructure in rural communities.
However, Higgins said in the case of Lake County's tribes, “Money alone isn't the answer,” and that it's necessary to have an element of community leadership as well.
“There are unique and pressing problems we're looking to address,” he said, which include a poverty rate of 17 percent in Lake County, which is five points above the state average.
Also on hand was Rob Wiener of California Coalition for Rural Housing. That organization is partnering with the tribes on an implementation plan for the grant, which includes conducting an analysis to identify each tribe's training and housing needs, training in affordable housing and training for housing and community development applications.
By funding that important training, said Higgins, the grant will help the tribes plan for the future.
This is one of the first grants the agency has been able to award in this fiscal year, said Higgins, which has been delayed in Congress.
The California Coalition for Rural Housing has done numerous farmworker housing projects, said Wiener, but tribal housing is a brand new experience for them. He said the coalition hopes to see if they can get existing housing programs to work for the county's tribes.
“We see this as a wonderful opportunity to learn about tribal housing issues,” he said.
The visitors from USDA Rural Development and California Coalition for Rural Housing also had what Higgins called an “eye opening” experience.
That came in the form of a tour of Big Valley Rancheria's housing conditions, led by Tribal Administrator Anthony Jack and Linda Hedstrom, the tribe's housing director.
“We're going to dispel the myth that all gaming tribes are rich,” said Jack.
What they showed were conditions that Wiener and Higgins said were some of the worst they had ever witnessed: numerous travel trailers clustered around each other, hooked up to hoses for running water; badly dilapidated homes and trailer houses that looked barely habitable.
And yet they sit in a beautiful area looking out on the lake, on land that Hedstrom called “an incredible, priceless piece of property.”
Even the rancheria's construction department lacked heating, wheelchair access and hot water, said Hedstrom.
“All tribes around here have the same stories,” said Hedstrom.
About 200 of the tribes 860 members live on the Rancheria, said Jack. Hedstrom said many more would like to return to the rancheria to live in their native communities, but the tribe needs more land and better housing.
They're hoping to expand the rancheria, said Hedstrom. While there's prospective land nearby, she said, the owners usually ask exorbitant prices.
The perception, said Jack, is that the tribe has a lot of money thanks to the casino, but that's wrong. Due to competition, he said, “It's hard to make a buck right now.”
That's one reason why the rancheria aggressively pursues grants, said Hedstrom.
The tribe recently put in 10 new manufactured homes next to 10 newer stick-built homes along Yellow Hammer Lane. Hedstrom said they had many people on a list for those manufactured homes. The families which received the homes were determined by lottery, she said, and began moving in at the start of March.
Hedstrom said the tribe wants to hold a construction boot camp, similar to one which has been held successfully in Lake County over the past few years, in order to help tribal members learn how to assist in building their own homes.
Afterward, Higgins said, “The housing conditions here are some of the worst in the state, if not the country.”
For more in USDA Rural Development's programs, visit www.rurdev.usda.gov/ca.
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LUCERNE – Conrad Kiczenski is worried – about global warming, poverty and war. And he's only 15.
Those are the major issues that will impact his future, he said.
Rather than just worry, Conrad is moving his feet.
This Saturday, the teen hopes to inspire other young people from around the county to speak out in defense of their future at a 2 p.m. rally in Lucerne Harbor Park.
Lake County's version of the “Shut Down the War Machine” rally, which Conrad and friend Alie Stout have organized, is part of a series of protests scheduled in major cities around the U.S. that same day.
Saturday, events such as the “Gathering of Eagles” rally in Sacramento, will show support for U.S. troops in Iraq. Organizers say that rally is nonpolitical.
Conrad said he first heard about the nationwide rally on Myspace.com, which has emerged as an important social forum for teens.
“I decided, we got to get up and do something,” he said.
He and Alie, 15, began making fliers and putting them up around town, although many of them were immediately torn down, they reported.
That hasn't stopped them, though. In fact, they've been out every day putting up new fliers to replace those that went missing.
This isn't the first time the teens have been involved with political action.
Alie and Conrad met while attending Upper Lake High School. Last October, they were part of a student walkout to protest the war. Alie estimates 70 students left class Oct. 5, despite the fact that they were facing “dire consequences.”
They were both hassled and cheered on by other students and community members, she said. “The positive overruled the negative by far.”
All of the teens ended up receiving detention, she said.
Since then, Conrad left Upper Lake High to study in California Virtual Academy's home school program. He said the school system doesn't motivate original thinking.
The October rally, like Saturday's, was organized largely through Conrad's efforts using Myspace.com and posting fliers.
“I just really think it's a good cause,” said Alie. “This area needs more things for teens to do that are positive, not negative.”
Still, she said she's gotten a lot of negative comments from classmates, whose views have ranged from the rally being a “dumb” idea to the more ominous opinion that it will look bad on her resume when she prepares to go to college.
“I just kinda give 'em the cold shoulder,” she said. “They can say what they want.”
Both the teens say their parents have been very supportive of their work to organize the rally.
Do teens think much about the war in Iraq, and what it might mean for their future?
Conrad and Alie certainly do, but they said other teens either don't think much about it or, worse yet, don't have any hope that they can make a difference by speaking out.
They said the kids who do think about it a lot don't appear to hang out with the popular crowd.
Conrad believes a draft may be imposed soon, because, he said, “We're making enemies faster than we can kill them.”
What would they like to see happen at Saturday's rally?
“What we're trying to do is inspire people to stand up for their future,” said Conrad.
The rally will start at 2 p.m. Saturday in the picnic table area of Lucerne Harbor Park, Conrad explained. There will be an open mike for a discussion of both sides of the war issue.
Conrad and Alie say they want people of all viewpoints to come and share their thoughts “so we can learn from them,” added Conrad.
“I want to leave people inspired, with hope that they can make a difference, because that's really missing,” said Conrad.
He said he expects a pretty good turnout of both adults and teens.
Lake County Youth Action (LCYA), a group Conrad and Alie are helping organize, will meet at noon on Sunday at the Lucerne Senior Center, to discuss the rally and possible future events.
For anyone needing a ride to the rally, Conrad suggests visiting laketransit.org/systemmap.asp.
For more info on LCYA go to groups.myspace.com/lakecountyyouthaction or email Conrad at
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Acting City Manager Richard Knoll and other city staffers attended the meeting Thursday morning in Rancho Cordova.
The hookup ban resulted from an incident last April in which the city sewer system became overloaded due to heavy rains and problems with Willopoint trailer park's sewer system.
The city tried to release treated wastewater from its system through irrigation, in order to prevent its sewer ponds overflowing, according to Knoll. Because of ground saturation, between three and six million gallons of treated wastewater ran off the site, into a Clear Lake tributary and, eventually, into the lake itself, which violating CLMSD's waste discharge agreement with the state.
Knoll said the board did decide to formally impose the cease and desist ban – which had been issued to the city on Jan. 18, at the same time as the hookup moratorium. However, it agreed to lift the connection ban, he said.
“There are a number of stipulations and conditions associated with the cease and desist order, including the fact that we have to construct 90 acres of additional irrigation facilities related to our spray disposal at the wastewater site,” he said.
That work needs to be completed by Nov. 1, he said, and would add capacity to the system.
The city has agreed to other stipulations spelled out in the cease and desist order as well, said Knoll, including completing a sewer master plan, and more plans for staffing and revenue.
The project to add irrigation is progressing, said Knoll. At the March 20 City Council meeting staff will offer a proposal from the city's engineering firm that include design and bid specifications for the project.
Last month, Knoll said, the council directed staff to begin negotiations on the irrigation facilities and another capacity-increasing project, which would build a bypass channel around the sewer system's recapture basin, allowing the city to extend irrigation, its main treated wastewater disposal method.
The regional board and the city didn't see eye to eye on everything, said Knoll, including capacity calculations for the city's sewer system. He said during his testimony at Thursday's meeting he mentioned his concerns about those calculations and the board's methodology.
Some of the regional board's staff research included using the city's draft general plan as a basis for calculating capacity, said Knoll, which isn't an accurate approach.
They also found on the city's Web site a map of proposed projects that, if built, would not all run into the city's sewer system.
The information the regional board staff pieced together led them to conclude that several hundred new homes would hook up to the system within the next few years, said Knoll.
Knoll said that's untrue, and after looking historically at the number of new home permits he reported to the board that the city is issuing an average of 12 to 14 permits annually.
Scott Schellinger of Schellinger Brothers, the company building the Parkside subdivision near Westside Community Park, attended the meeting, said Knoll. Schellinger told the regional board that if they could build and sell 25 homes in the next year in Lakeport they would be “ecstatic.” He added that Lakeport is a market that doesn't have high-volume housing demand.
With those objections lodged, however, Knoll said the city was willing to accept the board's conclusions about capacity and move forward.
“The question was, is the city out of capacity?” Knoll said. The answer, he added, based on the water board's calculations, was yes.
However, capacity will expand due to the city's planned projects, he said.
“That is the basis upon which the regional board lifted the connection ban,” said Knoll.
Knoll explained that he told the regional board that it's been a difficult year for the city in terms of the sewer issue. He said he's had to adjust his own thinking about the city's sewer capabilities.
“We've had to come to grips with the fact that we don't have as much capacity as we thought we did,” he said.
Hookups to the sewer system would be able to take place again after Nov. 1 once the city fulfills the regional board's stipulations, said Knoll. That will allow Schellinger Brothers to move forward with permits, including four that were pending for new family homes.
Knoll reported Rick Kemp at the Sears on Main Street also had wanted a building permit for a new business in his plaza, which while in the county would flow into the city sewer system.
With the regional board's willingness to lift the ban based on the city's proposed capacity projects, the city now has new hurdles, said Knoll.
The irrigation and bypass channels, together, are in the million-dollar range, said Knoll.
“How we're going to pay for it is going to be the challenge,” he said.
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Daphne Kelley, 56, of Clearlake died at UC Davis Medical Center, where she had been taken for treatment, according to CHP Officer Kevin Domby.
Kelley's 1999 Oldsmobile collided with a tree at 8:01 a.m. Wednesday on Highway 29 near Diener Drive, according to CHP incident logs.
Rescue crews had managed to revive her at the accident scene before transporting her to Davis, according to Domby.
The agency reported that Kelley was driving northbound at an unknown rate of speed when her car went into the southbound lane then back into the northbound lane before going off the road and striking the tree on the driver's side.
The CHP has released no further information about the accident or what caused Kelley's vehicle to travel back and forth across the road before the collision took place.
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