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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
In a unanimous vote, the council appointed Terry Stewart to a term that ends in March 2025.
He will fill the seat vacated in September by Kathryn Davis.
Stewart, who submitted his application on Tuesday, was one of three applicants who sought the position. Also applying were Thomas Burnett and Jim Scholz.
A lifelong Lake County resident, Stewart graduated from Lower Lake High School in 1968. He went on to get his contractor’s license. He owned and operated Floortown from 1980 to 2000, and continues to operate a shades and blinds business and owns a number of rentals.
Stewart was a firefighter with the fire department from 1976 to 1989, a former Clear Lake Chamber president and remains a member of the Clearlake Rotary Club.
Council members asked him a variety of questions; one of the questions was about his view of the city and its future.
He said he’s optimistic about the city’s direction, noting that what’s happened over the last two or three years has been “a marked turnaround.”
Stewart said he was impressed with improvement to the city’s streets thanks to the Measure V sales tax, and also noted he’s very pleased with the development of Austin Park. “It’s fabulous, really.”
He added, “I’m upbeat about the future of the community,” noting he wants to retain the flavor of a small town, but make it nicer and more welcoming.
Councilwoman Joyce Overton thanked all of the applicants, adding that the council doesn’t usually have such a hard choice.
Ultimately, council members favored Stewart for the position, with Councilman Russ Cremer moving to approve his appointment. Councilman David Claffey seconded and the council approved the motion 5-0.
The council also appointed Michael McKeown to the Clearlake Marketing Committee. McKeown, the sole applicant, will succeed Susan Bloomquist, who resigned in August.
In other business during the two-and-a-half-hour-long meeting, council members discussed a local syringe exchange program, Any Positive Change, that had been operating in the city and had begun to distribute glassware for smoking drugs, which state law allows such programs to do in the interest of reducing disease.
The program is no longer in the city after the owner of the property where it had been operating severed the relationship.
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors also discussed the program, approving a resolution that continues to authorize the syringe program but enacting a temporary restriction on distributing any glassware.
The council chose to take no action regarding rules for syringe supply programs, instead choosing to wait to respond and set up rules should Any Positive Change apply to the state to operate in the city.
Council members also got an update on the redistricting maps for county, state and federal offices that are now in the draft stages, but chose to offer no additional input on the maps at this time.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
- Details
- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
The meeting will take place from 3:30 to 5 p.m.Monday, Nov. 8.
The in-person portion of the meeting will be in council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, located at 14050 Olympic Drive in Clearlake.
Virtual attendance will be via Zoom using meeting ID 846 1886 0779, passcode 436559.
Everyone in the community is invited to share their input on recreation and design preferences. Discussions and activities will be used to propose additional park features and amenities for the City’s application to the Rural Recreation and Tourism, or RRT, Grant Program offered through the California Department of Parks and Recreation and funded by Prop 68.
The RRT grant seeks to create new recreation features that support economic, tourism and health-related goals.
On Wednesday, November 4, the city published an online survey to collect initial thoughts from community members.
Suggestions from the survey will be considered and built upon in the community meeting on Monday.
The survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/3TS3CMG.
For more information about the hybrid meeting, visit the city’s Facebook page or email Tina Viramontes at
- Details
- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
The competition takes place at the school and countywide levels.
The National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation present Poetry Out Loud in partnership with counties and local partners all across the United States.
This national arts education program encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition for high school students across the country.
The Poetry Out Loud program helps students master public speaking skills and build self-confidence, while also learning more about both classic and contemporary poetry.
Any Lake County High School student currently enrolled in grades ninth to 12th are eligible to compete, whether enrolled in a public, private, alternative or home-school.
During fall and winter of 2021, schools are invited to hold classroom and school wide contests, with students advancing to a county competition in early 2022.
Nonschool organizations, such as after school clubs, libraries or nonprofit organizations, may also choose to run Poetry Out Loud. Students may only compete in one stream — either with their school or an organization.
More information is available at www.PoetryOutLoud.org, including guidelines for conducting the competition in-person or virtually.
The county champion will move on to represent our county in the State competition for a chance to advance to the national finals, which are planned to take place in Washington, D.C, April 26 to 27, 2022, and where $50,000 in awards and school stipends will be distributed.
Since the program began in 2005, more than 4.1 million students across the country have participated in Poetry Out Loud.
“All of the student competitors demonstrate their openness to the power of poetry and their commitment to developing skills that allow them to share that power with those around them,” said Michelle T. Boone, Poetry Foundation president.
As part of Poetry Out Loud, the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation provide free, standards-based curriculum materials — all available online — which teachers may choose to use in their classrooms.
These include an online poetry anthology containing more than 1,100 classic and contemporary poems, a teacher’s guide, lesson plans, posters, and video and audio on the art of poetry recitation. Schools are welcome to access these resources at www.PoetryOutLoud.org.
High schools and organizations that wish to be part of the official Poetry Out Loud program must contact Georgina Marie Guardado, Lake County Poetry Out Loud coordinator, by Dec. 1 to participate. Guardado and the Lake County Arts Council will work with interested schools and organizations to include them in the official Poetry Out Loud program.
Poetry Out Loud offers school, county, and state level awards and prizes. Each state champion will receive $200 and will advance to the national championship, where $50,000 in awards and school stipends will be distributed, including a $20,000 award for the Poetry Out Loud National Champion.
The state champion’s school will receive a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry materials. The first runner-up in each state will receive $100, with $200 for his or her school library.
The Poetry Foundation provides and administers all aspects of the monetary prizes awarded and travel arrangements for the Poetry Out Loud National Finals.
For further information on Poetry Out Loud, visit www.lakearts.org.
For questions, additional materials and guidelines, and to confirm participation, contact Guardado at
- Details
- Written by: LAKE COUNTY NEWS REPORTS
NORTH COAST, Calif. — Authorities on Thursday arrested a man who has been sought for months for his part in a series of Mendocino County burglaries and for shooting at a sheriff’s deputy.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said its deputies and sheriff’s K-9 took 40-year-old William Allan Evers into custody.
Evers has been the focus of searches in the areas of Elk and Albion since May, when he shot at a deputy responding to a burglary report.
Since then, there has been a continuing series of burglaries in remote areas of Mendocino County as well as sightings of Evers.
The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office had last received a report of a man believed to be Evers in an Albion resident’s vegetable garden on Aug. 30.
Then, on Wednesday morning, an Albion resident saw a man crouched down beside an outbuilding near their residence. The man, who matched Evers’ description, then ran off into the wooded terrain.
Sheriff's deputies responded and searched the area during the morning and late afternoon hours.
During the late afternoon hours, sheriff's deputies encountered Evers from a distance but he eluded them because of the terrain.
On Thursday morning, three Mendocino County Sheriff’s deputies returned to the wooded area where they encountered Evers the previous day. That area is part of the Salmon Creek Forest near a specific location commonly referred to as the "doughnut shop.”
While searching approximately 300 yards downhill from the doughnut shop, two sheriff's deputies encountered Evers, who exited brushy terrain approximately 8 feet away from them. Evers immediately noticed the presence of the sheriff's deputies and ran back into the brushy terrain from where he had appeared.
The deputies chased after Evers who was approximately 30 feet away and running at a fast pace through the wooded terrain. One of the sheriff's deputies was a sheriff's office K-9 handler and deployed his partner "Takota," who gave chase.
Takota bit onto Evers' backpack and he kicked the dog, which caused the dog to disengage momentarily. Takota was given verbal deployment commands and again gave chase to Evers, eventually knocking him to the ground with a bite to the lower leg.
Sheriff's deputies reached Evers, who was attempting to stand up to resume fleeing and wrestled him back onto the ground and into handcuffs. The foot chase lasted approximately 50 yards until Evers was restrained in handcuffs.
Evers subsequently attempted to stand and flee while sitting on the ground in handcuffs.
Evers was eventually escorted to a nearby patrol vehicle and placed into a wrap leg restraint system due to his history of noncompliance and aggressive behavior.
Officials said Evers was transported to the Sheriff's Office Ukiah Station to meet with Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office investigators, sheriff's office detectives and to be medically cleared before being booked into the Mendocino County Jail.
Evers is being held on $2.5 million bail for a charge of attempted murder, according to jail booking records.