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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
The Lakeport Library, located at 1425 N. High St. in Lakeport, invites the public to attend the closing event on Saturday, March 25, from 1 to 2 p.m.
The reading will feature Lake County’s poet laureate for 2020-2024, and Literacy Program coordinator for the Lake County Library, Georgina Marie Guardado, and special guest Lee Herrick, California’s new state poet laureate.
A curated lineup of poets laureate will join Guardado and Herrick, including Ukiah Poets Laureate Emeriti Linda Noel and Jabez Churchill, Alameda Poet Laureate Kimi Sugioka and Kansas State Poet Laureate Emerita Denise Low.
Each poet laureate will share original work and select poems by Natalie Diaz.
This event is hosted by the Lake County Library, and supported by the Friends of the Lake County Library and Lake County Literacy Coalition.
The 2023 NEA Big Read is supported by a number of community and business partners, and supporters, who are also invited to attend to celebrate the program’s successful return for the first time since before the Coronavirus pandemic.
The National Endowment for the Arts Big Read, a partnership with Arts Midwest, broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.
Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,700 NEA Big Read programs, providing more than $24 million to organizations nationwide.
In addition, NEA Big Read activities have reached every Congressional district in the country.
According to the National Endowment for the Arts’ 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, poetry readership is the highest on record since 2002, with the poetry-reading rate among young adults more than doubling in the last five years.
Visit https://www.arts.gov/initiatives/nea-big-read for more information about the NEA Big Read. Organizations interested in applying for an NEA Big Read grant in the future should visit Arts Midwest’s at https://artsmidwest.org/ for more information.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The snowstorms in late February and early March caused road damage all around Lake County and have led to a long-term closure of Elk Mountain Road in Upper Lake.
The Mendocino National Forest reported that the road, also known as Forest Road M1 above Upper Lake, was severely impacted by the storms.
As a result, Elk Mountain Road was closed on March 1, leaving only one access point to Lake Pillsbury from Potter Valley.
The Lake County Public Works Department reported on its Facebook page on March 1 that the United States Forest Service closed the road at the conservation camp, while the Mendocino National Forest reported that the county had closed the road above the Middle Creek Campground.
The day after it was closed, Public Works crews began the work to open access from the Potter Valley side to Soda Creek Store.
On March 12, the agency’s Facebook page reported that Elk Mountain Road remained closed from the conservation camp to Lower Deer Valley, and that the roadway wasn’t safe.
A section of the road with a large area of dirt and rock was described as “quickly turning to the consistency of chocolate pudding. With all this moisture it's not a matter of if it will slide, but when. Please, do not tempt fate. You can access the Lake Pillsbury area on the Potter Valley side,” wrote Lori Price, the page’s administrator.
Crews were able to clear a path from the Lake County line on the Potter Valley side to the Soda Creek store, with four-wheel-drive and chains required, Public Works reported.
However, Price wrote that the closure will be long term on the Upper Lake side due to a large slide and roadway slipout.
Public Works Director Scott De Leon told Lake County News on Tuesday that the effort to get the road repaired and reopened is underway, but will take time.
He said the project will be submitted to Caltrans for Emergency Relief Funds, with initial estimates of $3 million to complete the repairs.
“We’re looking at construction this summer at the earliest, as we’ll need to bring in geotechnical engineers to perform investigations of the slide to determine the most appropriate repair strategy and an engineering consulting firm to prepare plans and specifications for construction,” De Leon said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The National Weather Service said that, following the storm systems moving through the region this week, a colder storm will likely impact Lake County and the North Coast with more beneficial rain and mountain snow early next week.
National Weather Service observation stations showed that the most rain fell in the southern part of the county on Tuesday, recording nearly 2 inches of rain on Boggs Mountain on Tuesday.
Snowfall on Cobb also was reported on Tuesday night.
The rainfall was causing road issues on Tuesday evening, when the California Highway Patrol said a vehicle was reported to have hit a boulder on Highway 29 at Hofacker Lane near Middletown.
Lighter rainfall amounts are expected through the weekend, based on the forecast.
The forecast also calls for light winds through Wednesday, with winds picking up on Thursday, with gusts of more than 30 miles per hour, and Friday, with gusts of more than 20 miles per hour.
Daytime temperatures will be in the low 50s this week, dropping into the high 40s on Monday.
During the nighttime hours, temperatures will drop into the low 30s through early next week.
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- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
“Getting big money out of elections for smaller community offices is essential,” Sen. Dodd said. “These well-financed campaigns favor the wealthy at the exclusion of grassroots candidates and people of color. My bill puts a cap on donations to ensure fairness while encouraging a more diverse field that is more reflective of the population.”
California has thousands of publicly elected governing boards managing an assortment of agencies including schools, community colleges and special districts.
Elections often receive little media coverage and even less scrutiny of campaign donations, which are not limited by state law and can exceed money given to candidates for higher office.
Currently the default is to allow unlimited contributions, and only three special districts statewide have adopted voluntary limits.
In response, Sen. Dodd introduced Senate Bill 328, which sets an individual donation limit of $5,500 by a person, business or committee to a candidate for school board, community college board or special district board. The contribution limits are equal to those set for the state Legislature.
The bill would allow local governments to vote to adjust the limits, but the default would no longer be unlimited.
The bill uses the framework of then-Assemblymember Kevin Mullin’s Assembly Bill 571 that set the same limits for city and county offices in 2019.
SB 328 was approved in the Senate elections committee on a 6-0 vote.
“This is a good governance measure that will help maintain the public trust in our local elections,” said U.S. Rep. Mullin, who was elected to Congress last year. “I appreciate Sen. Dodd carrying on that legacy and I’m proud to support this important reform.”
A second bill written by Sen. Dodd in partnership with Secretary of State Shirley Weber also was approved by the committee.
SB 437 would increase transparency in presidential elections by establishing a statutory deadline for political parties to supply the names of party nominees.