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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that, beginning on March 1, at least 10 percent of vaccine supply would be dedicated to education workers, including teachers, paraprofessionals, bus drivers, child care workers and site-based administrators.
“The education professionals who nurture and support our children deserve to be and have been prioritized for vaccines, and I am proud to accelerate those efforts in all 58 counties,” said Gov. Newsom. “Our top priority is getting students back in the classroom as safely and quickly as possible, and the expanded access to vaccines will build on the momentum and confidence that we can do so with urgency.”
Just over half of states – including California – currently authorize vaccines for education workers. Newsom’s office said that vaccine prioritization has been a core component of the Safe Schools for All Plan since December.
Counties have been authorized to vaccinate education workers based on supply since January and, at the state’s encouragement, at least 35 counties are actively vaccinating education workers, Newsom’s office reported.
In Lake County, Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace told the Board of Supervisors during his Tuesday report that the county’s K-12 teachers have now been vaccinated.
Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg offered Lake County News additional details about the local vaccination effort.
He said there are 1,352 public, charter and private school staff in Lake County.
Of those, he said 964 school staff members requested vaccinations and have been offered a vaccination registration code.
Falkenberg said all school staff who initially expressed a desire to be vaccinated have received at least their first shot and Public Health is scheduling second shots.
School staffers who may have delayed vaccination due to medical reasons are being scheduled when they are medically cleared, Falkenberg said.
The state said Thursday that county and local leadership, including from county offices of education, is foundational. “The state plan serves to supplement, not supplant, those efforts,” the Governor’s Office said.
To ensure communities throughout the state are prioritizing education workers, the state will true up local efforts to the 10 percent minimum through dedicated access to www.Myturn.ca.gov, the state’s vaccination scheduling app. Education workers will receive up to 75,000 single-use codes statewide to make an appointment to be vaccinated.
However, Public Health officials in Lake and other counties have reported issues with MyTurn regarding allowing out-of-county residents to get vaccination appointments locally, and the state has so far not said if it’s working to remedy those issues. Lake County Public Health has suspended use of the site, Pace said this week.
The Governor’s Office said vaccines will be directed to counties and school communities weighted by equity, including the proportion of students from low-income families, English learners and homeless youth.
Education workers will qualify for vaccine prioritization based on occupational health exposure – whether they are currently reporting or will imminently report in person.
For more information about safe returns to in-person instruction, please visit www.schools.covid19.ca.gov.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
The wolf, known as OR-93, has traveled farther south in California than the collared wolves that have preceded him.
OR-93 is a young male that dispersed from Oregon’s White River pack, southeast of Mt. Hood.
He was fitted with a tracking collar within the White River pack’s territory in June 2020.
Like many young wolves, he subsequently left his pack in search of a new territory and/or a mate.
After arriving in Modoc County in early February 2021, he quickly passed through portions of numerous California counties before arriving this week in Alpine County, between the trans-Sierra State Highways 4 and 108.
He then moved just into Mono County, putting him hundreds of miles from the Oregon state line and his natal territory.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife will continue to monitor his whereabouts with the cooperation of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
OR-93 is the 16th gray wolf documented to have dispersed into California, and most of those animals have traveled from Oregon.
One of those dispersing wolves, OR-54, traveled as far south as the Lake Tahoe Basin before returning north.
The others have primarily traveled, and sometimes settled, in California's northernmost counties.
The first wolf known in California since the 1920s, OR-7, first visited in late 2011.
Since then, the state has seen the formation of two packs.
The Shasta Pack in Siskiyou County had five pups in 2015 before disappearing late that year.
The Lassen Pack, which occupies parts of Lassen and Plumas counties, has produced pups each year from 2017 to 2020.
Additionally, a new pair of wolves has recently been documented in Siskiyou County and CDFW biologists believe it is likely they will produce pups this spring.
CDFW is working to monitor and conserve California’s small wolf population and is collaborating with livestock producers and diverse stakeholders to minimize wolf-livestock conflicts.
Gray wolves are currently listed as endangered pursuant to California’s Endangered Species Act, or CESA.
Their management in California is guided by CESA as well as CDFW’s Conservation Plan for Gray Wolves in California, finalized in 2016.
More information is available on CDFW’s wolf webpage.
CDFW encourages those who see wolves to detail their sightings on its online reporting site.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Last week, severe winter weather in the Eastern United States delayed shipments of the vaccine to Lake County, which led to the cancellation of clinics, as Lake County News has reported.
However, the anticipated shipments arrived on Monday, allowing the drive-thru clinics at Lakeport Auto Movies and Clearlake’s Redbud Park to resume.
Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace told the Board of Supervisors this week that the drive-thru clinic format is working really well and he thinks that will be the model moving forward.
Pace said Public Health shared the vaccine with numerous community partners – the two hospitals, Lakeview Health Center, North Lake Pharmacy and Safeway Pharmacy.
Local and state officials reported that 10,879 Lake County residents have so far been vaccinated, which amounts to 16 percent of the population. Of that total, 8,200 people have received at least one dose and 2,600 have received both doses.
Statewide, 7.7 million doses have been administered, according to the California Department of Public Health. That accounts for 19 percent of the state’s population.
Pace said more of the Pfizer vaccine is coming, and a new one-shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is expected to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday. That vaccine, he added, is ready to ship.
A concern for Pace is the state’s plan to have Blue Shield act as the third party administrator overseeing California’s vaccine rollout.
“This is kind of a big deal and we’re not even exactly sure what all it means for us,” he said.
Pace suggested that it may mean that it will be harder on the local level to be flexible and provide for Lake County’s specific needs.
He said he met with state officials last week and voiced concerns, and they nodded their heads and said they’re paying attention and are concerned. “I’m a little bit worried that they’re not going to deliver on that as it comes.”
Board of Supervisors Chair Bruno Sabatier said he shared Pace’s concerns about Blue Shield, noting members of the California State Association of Counties also are against the plan to have the company oversee the vaccine effort. He said Blue Shield is not in this community.
MyTurn schedule app causes problems
On Jan. 26, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the rollout of the MyTurn app, which allows users to sign up for vaccination appointments or to be notified when they become eligible.
Pace said Public Health used MyTurn last week for scheduling appointments. It resulted in problems that led Public Health to shut down its use, although he said they may have to try using it again in the near future.
The main problem with the app, Pace said, is that it doesn’t screen out people from out of the county. Bay Area residents who were unable to get appointments there used the app to find the closest appointments and ended up with appointments in Lake County.
“We had to turn away a bunch of people last Tuesday and it was a pretty unpleasant situation for everybody involved,” Pace said.
Among those who were allowed to be vaccinated were people who have second residences in Lake County. The ones with no connection to the county were turned away. “There were a lot of unhappy people, Pace said.
He said it’s important to try to reserve Lake County’s limited amount of vaccine for the most vulnerable members of the community who need it, adding he appreciated Public Health staff who stepped up.
Pace said it looks like the state may open the doors and allow people to go anywhere to get vaccinations.
Earlier this week, officials in Kings County reported similar issues with MyTurn scheduling out-of-county residents for COVID-19 vaccinations there, which also resulted in people being turned away, according to media reports.
Like Lake County, Kings County officials reported they were stopping use of the app temporarily while the problems were addressed.
On Wednesday, Lake County News called and emailed the California Department of Public Health to ask about the MyTurn app and the problems Lake County had, as well as to inquire about similar problems elsewhere and if there are plans to fix the app.
The agency did not respond.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The council took the action at its Feb. 18 meeting to declare 27 properties – 18 owned by the city and nine by the Clearlake Redevelopment Successor Agency – as surplus. Those properties total just over 26 acres.
Among the parcels listed are 14061 and 14071 Lakeshore Drive, the former Austin Resort property; and 14800 Ballpark Ave., which currently is the location of the ballfields at Redbud Park and is the focus of a negotiating agreement between the city and a firm interested in building a hotel there.
In his written report to the council, City Manager Alan Flora explained that some of the parcels were purchased with a specific intent and others were donated.
“The City has an interest in developing many of them, others are of possible interest for single family housing development,” he said.
He said that in 2019 the state enacted AB 1486, a bill focused on providing surplus land for affordable housing.
“While the City believes this bill was well intentioned by some, it is a significant deterrent to the City’s plans on several projects. Staff are working with Senator McGuire’s Office and the League of Cities in an effort to provide Clearlake some relief from AB 1486. However, staff do not recommend waiting on implementing our many plans for this relief to happen,” he wrote.
Flora said AB 1486 requires several actions from the city/successor agency and other public agencies that were not previously required.
He said the city council and successor agency must first make a determination on whether any public property to be disposed of is “surplus” or “excess surplus,” then a list and details of each “surplus” property must be sent to the California Department of Housing and Community Development.
From there, affordable housing developers are given the opportunity to negotiate with the city for purchase of each of these properties for affordable housing development, he said.
Flora said staff prepared a list of properties owned by the city and successor agency that they believe were appropriate to declare as surplus and notify the state.
“Some of the properties we have projects in the planning stages and others have no current plans for development, but with the cumbersome process established by the state it seems prudent to provide notice as soon as possible so we can react more quickly when projects arise,” he wrote.
Flora told the council that the state law has put a “stranglehold” on the city and its property.
He said the state law was the result of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order to make surplus properties available for affordable housing.
If a developer contacts the city about the properties on the list, the city then has to follow certain parameters. Flora said that the way the legislation was written local government is limited in its ability to refuse to negotiate with a developer – even if the property isn’t zoned correctly for the proposed project.
In working with the League of California Cities and state Sen. Mike McGuire’s office to craft some modifications to this bill, “We’ve definitely made our voice heard,” he said.
“Here in the city, we don’t have a problem developing affordable housing. It’s easy. It’s been done for years,” Flora said.
What the city needs is market rate affordable housing, he said.
The city has a number of affordable housing developments in the pipeline which will allow it to meet the state’s requirements in next couple of years, but Flora said it’s behind in market rate housing.
He said he’s not sure if there will be a legislative fix, and he doesn’t want to wait for one because the city has so many projects.
In the meantime, Flora said the city needed to go through the process with the list of properties he presented to the council.
He said they will have to work to make sure there’s development consistent with local law.
Flora said some of the properties could be developed for affordable housing and some for the city’s homestead project, which seeks to develop market rate housing.
Councilwoman Joyce Overton asked if the city could sell them to anyone interested.
Flora said yes. He noted that the state rules make even 50 by 100 residential lots available for affordable housing developments.
Overton asked if an amendment can be made to the law soon. Flora said they will have to fight to make things happen, as most legislators don’t understand the situation.
He said some Bay Area communities have created workarounds to avoid affordable housing requirements, and this law was a reaction to that.
Flora said he’s been told it’s very unlikely there will be a legislative fix anytime soon unless proponents like the city can come up with something creative. He’s also asked if the city can be exempt if it meets its affordable housing numbers but he doesn’t know if that will be allowed.
Once the city sends the list to Housing and Community Development, Flora said they have a 30-day period to advertise the property.
The council voted unanimously to approve the list, which is below.
Surplus properties list
City of Clearlake: 15662 40th Ave., APN 041-102-12, 0.11 acres
City of Clearlake: 15677 36th Ave., APN 041-395-01, 0.11 acres
City of Clearlake: 4999 Cass Ave., APN 041-363-09, 0.2 acres
City of Clearlake: 5019 Cass Ave., APN 041-363-10, 0.2 acres
City of Clearlake: 15903 36th Ave., APN 041-144-01, 0.12 acres
City of Clearlake: 15913 36th Ave., APN 041-144-02, 0.12 acres
City of Clearlake: 15919 36th Ave., APN 041-144-03, 0.12 acres
City of Clearlake: 15817 Olympic Drive, APN 039-434-19, 0.13 acres
City of Clearlake: 14180 Division Ave., APN 040-031-11, 0.12 acres
City of Clearlake: 14071 Lakeshore Drive, APN 039-530-49, 2.94 acres
City of Clearlake: 14795 Burns Valley Road, APN 010-026-29, 4.3 acres
City of Clearlake: 14800 Ballpark Ave., APN 040-253-03, 8.45 acres
City of Clearlake: 3578 Redwood St., APN 039-175-21, 0.12 acres
City of Clearlake: 4438 Fir Ave., APN 041-103-26, 0.45 acres
City of Clearlake: 3980 Eureka Ave., APN 039-521-32, 0.11 acres
City of Clearlake: 16178 35th Ave., APN 041-211-28, 0.23 acres
City of Clearlake: 6145 Old Highway 53, APN 040-364-25, 0.42 acres
City of Clearlake: 13981 Morgan Ave., APN 039-112-06, 0.26 acres
Clearlake RDA Successor Agency: 3496 Peony St., APN 039-623-19, 0.54 acres
Clearlake RDA Successor Agency: 3141 Mint St., APN 039-625-06, 0.54 acres
Clearlake RDA Successor Agency: 13940 Sonoma Ave., APN 039-625-01, 0.27 acres
Clearlake RDA Successor Agency: 3444 Boxwood St., APN 039-626-16, 0.92 acres
Clearlake RDA Successor Agency: 3423 Acacia St., APN 039-626-07, 0.12 acres
Clearlake RDA Successor Agency: 3453 Acacia St., APN 039-626-11, 0.13 acres
Clearlake RDA Successor Agency: 3463 Acacia St., APN 039-626-12, 0.12 acres
Clearlake RDA Successor Agency: 13980 Sonoma Ave., APN 039-626-01, 0.27 acres
Clearlake RDA Successor Agency: 14061 Lakeshore Drive, APN 039-530-50, 4.74 acres
Email Elizabeth Larson at