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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is continuing its efforts to locate a boy whose family reported him missing on Sunday.
The sheriff’s office said 12-year-old Austin Maloney was last seen leaving a residence off of Jerusalem Grade at 3:30 p.m. Sunday.
Social media posts indicated he was last known to be in the area of Burnt Oak Road, Coons Flat and Jerusalem Grade Road northeast of Hidden Valley Lake.
At the time he was last seen, Austin was wearing a black sweatshirt, blue jeans, an orange beanie hat and sketchers shoes, officials said.
Austin is described as 5 feet 1 inch tall and 77 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes.
Sgt. Aaron Clark told Lake County News on Sunday night that it’s believed Austin ran away.
The sheriff’s office and Lake County Search and Rescue received the report of the missing boy at 7:30 p.m. Sunday and quickly mobilized, as Lake County News has reported.
Radio traffic indicated the search continued through the night.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office is asking community members with information about Austin’s whereabouts to contact Central Dispatch at 707-263-2690.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Sheriff’s Office and its Search and Rescue teams began a search late Sunday night near Hidden Valley Lake that continued early Monday for a missing boy who is believed to have run away from home.
On Sunday night, Middletown resident Bo Darnell posted on Facebook that her 12-year-old son Austin had been missing since the afternoon.
He was reportedly last seen in the area of Burnt Oak Road, Coons Flat and Jerusalem Grade Road northeast of Hidden Valley Lake, according to social media posts.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Aaron Clark confirmed to Lake County News late Sunday night that authorities were searching for the boy.
Clark said the boy ran away from home at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday.
The family called law enforcement at about 7:30 p.m., Clark said.
He said Search and Rescue personnel were able to quickly mobilize just before 8 p.m.
The search on Sunday night included a large group of more than 20 participants who were working in rough terrain, Clark said.
Searchers were reported to be continuing their efforts to locate the boy early Monday in the midst of cold, rainy conditions.
Just after 2:10 a.m., the Northshore Fire Protection District Support Team was toned out to respond to the search site, according to radio traffic.
Additional information will be posted as it becomes available.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The council will meet in closed session at 5:30 p.m. to discuss labor negotiations before the public portions of the meeting begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 16.
The meeting will be by teleconference only. The city council chambers will not be open to the public.
The agenda can be found here.
To speak on an agenda item, access the meeting remotely here or join by phone by calling toll-free 669-900-9128 or 346-248-7799. The webinar ID is 973 6820 1787, access code is 477973; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
Comments can be submitted by email to
Indicate in the email subject line "for public comment" and list the item number of the agenda item that is the topic of the comment. Comments that read to the council will be subject to the three minute time limitation (approximately 350 words). Written comments that are only to be provided to the council and not read at the meeting will be distributed to the council prior to the meeting.
The council on Tuesday will present a proclamation honoring Ken Wicks Jr. for his years of service to the city of Lakeport, including nearly a decade spent on the planning commission. His term ended in December, and last week he was commended by the commission for his work.
Under council business, City Manager Kevin Ingram will seek authorization to execute the first extension in the form of an amendment to the professional services agreement with The Retail Coach for retail strategies.
Ingram’s report to the council explained that the city hired the company in July 2019 to conduct an assessment of the Lakeport area “and provide targeted data sets and education opportunities focused on sustaining and enhancing existing businesses as well as recruiting new ones.”
He said the company’s proposal contained eight phases: Analyzing the market, determining retail opportunities, identifying development and redevelopment opportunities, identifying retailers and developers for recruitment, marketing and branding, recruiting retailers and developers, downtown revitalization and retail recruitment coaching.
The majority of the items in the first five phases were completed but the COVID-19 pandemic “severely limited The Retail Coach’s ability to begin recruitment, revitalization efforts and education opportunities,” Ingram wrote.
Ingram said the company agreed to “pause” the contract.
“As businesses seek to return to a degree of normalcy, City staff has begun conversations with The Retail Coach to work towards completion of the original proposal,” Ingram wrote in his report.
He said The Retail Coach has agreed to extend the contract at a reduced rate of $25,000 rather than $30,000.
The council also will hold the traffic safety biannual review in which it will discuss observed trends in received traffic safety-related complaints to the city.
Police Chief Brad Rasmussen also will give a police statistics and training summary report for 2020.
In other business, Community Development Director Jenni Byers will ask for approval for staff to initiate a text amendment to the zoning ordinance to address microenterprise home kitchen operations and work with county staff so that the text amendment would be in effect if the county proposes to continue with a permanent program after July 1.
On the consent agenda – items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote – are ordinances and minutes of the regular council meeting on Feb. 2.
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- Written by: DERICK MOORE
With Presidents' Day arriving on Feb. 15, just weeks after a presidential inauguration, we look at where our presidents were born and how many places in the United States carry their names. Places include counties, cities, towns and minor civil divisions.
George Washington, who took the oath on April 30, 1789, tops the list of presidential namesakes with at least 94 places that share his name.
Every other president, except for Dwight Eisenhower and our most recent – Biden, Donald Trump and Barack Obama — have places that share their names, too. (A ghost town named Trump in Colorado disappeared in the 1930s.)
Second on the list of places with presidential monikers is Abraham Lincoln (72), followed by Andrew Jackson (67) and Thomas Jefferson (62).
Five names show up twice because we had different presidents with the same last name: John Adams and John Quincy Adams; William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison; Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Roosevelt; Andrew Johnson and Lyndon Johnson; George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
Adams, Roosevelt and Bush were related but there is one more name that appears twice but belongs to one man: Cleveland, as in Grover Cleveland, who was our 22nd and 24th president.
So, while Biden is the 46th president, he is the 45th person to be president.
Fun facts
Of the 45 men who have been or are president of the United States, a third (15) came from just two states: eight from Virginia and seven from Ohio.
Many presidents (29) were born in states that were colonies or former colonies. While there were 13 colonies, 15 states were former colonies because Maine was then part of Massachusetts and Vermont was part of New York.
The top five presidents with matching county names are: Washington (31), Jefferson (26), Jackson (24), Lincoln (24) and Madison (20). Of the 3,143 counties in the United States, 298 match presidential names.
Only eight presidents were born west of the Mississippi.
The president born farthest west? Barack Obama in Hawaii.
Even though we may think of Ronald Reagan as a Californian because he served as governor of that state, he was born in Illinois.
Richard Nixon, however, was born in California and is the only president from the West Coast.
Derick Moore is a senior communications specialist at the Census Bureau.
[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]