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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8 and online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.
At 9:10 a.m., Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace will update the board on the coronavirus.
Pace said last week that the risk of the illness remains low for Lake County, as Lake County News has reported.
So far, six cases have been confirmed in California, the closest in Santa Clara County.
The full agenda follows.
CONSENT AGENDA
5.1: Adopt Resolution expressing support for Lower Lake Parade and Barbecue (May 24, 2020).
5.2: Adopt resolution approving Agreement No. 19-SD17 with California Department of Food and Agriculture for compliance with the Seed Services program for period July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020.
5.3: Approve long-distance travel for Dr. Gary Pace, Iyesha Miller, Dean Eichelmann, Christine Hannigan, Jasjit Kang and Craig Wetherbee to Anniston, Alabama, March 22 through March 27, 2020, to attend the Disaster Related Exposure Assessment and Monitoring training.
5.4: Approve Side Letter to the Lake County Correctional Officer Association Memorandum of Understanding for the period of July 9, 2019, to Dec. 31, 2019.
5.5: Approve the continuation of a local emergency due to the atmospheric river event 2019.
5.6: Approve the continuation of a local emergency due to the Pawnee fire incident.
5.7: Approve the continuation of a local emergency due to the Kincade fire incident, the Burris fire incident and the October 2019 Pacific Gas and Electric public safety power shutoff events.
5.8: Approve the continuation of a local emergency due to the Mendocino Complex fire Incident (River and Ranch fires).
5.9: Approve final parcel map and the deferred improvement agreement for Wright PM 05-08 and authorize the chair to sign.
5.10: Approve out of state travel for the Public Works director from April 19 to 23, 2020, to Orange Beach, Alabama.
TIMED ITEMS
6.2, 9:06 a.m.: Consideration of continuation of a local health emergency and order prohibiting the endangerment of the community through the unsafe removal, transportation, and disposal of fire debris for the Mendocino Complex fire.
6.3, 9:10 a.m.: Consideration of update on the coronavirus.
UNTIMED ITEMS
7.2: Consideration of resolution of intent to initiate the amendment of the zoning ordinance and set public hearing for the Planning Commission on Feb. 27, 2020; and (b) request that administration review the ability to add one staff to the ag department during midyear budget review.
7.3: Discussion and consideration of formation of an ad hoc committee to participate in a North Coast Counties Regional Forum Regarding Cannabis Licensing.
7.4: Consideration of agreement between county of Lake and Clean Lakes Inc. for the Aquatic Vegetation Management Program for Fiscal Year 2019-2020 and authorize the chair to sign.
7.5: Consideration of the following appointments: Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Advisory Board and Middletown Cemetery District.
CONSENT AGENDA
8.1: Conference with labor negotiator: (a) chief negotiator: M. Long; county negotiators: C. Huchingson and P. Samac; and (b) employee organizations: LCDDAA, LCDSA, LCCOA, LCEA, LCSEA and LCSMA.
8.2: Public Employee Evaluation: Community Development director.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
New residents of Lake County and registered voters who have moved to a new address, changed their mailing address within the county or changed their name must register or reregister by the deadline.
In addition, if you are a registered voter and your mailing address has changed, official voting materials – such as sample ballots and vote-by-mail pr absentee ballots – cannot be forwarded to another address and will be returned to the Registrar of Voters Office by the postal service.
Residents may personally phone the elections office at 707-263-2372 to verify if their voter registration information is correct and up-to-date.
The Registrar of Voters Office asks those who need to register or reregister to vote not to delay.
A completed voter registration form must be either personally delivered to the Registrar of Voters Office on or before Feb. 18 or postmarked on or before Feb. 18 and received by mail by the Registrar of Voters Office, or they must complete an online voter registration form on or before 11:59 pm on Feb. 18 for a voter’s name to be printed in the roster of index at his/her polling place.
Eligible Lake County residents who miss the voter registration deadline still have the option to vote in this election by conditionally registering to vote and casting a provisional ballot.
To do this, they can personally visit the Lake County Registrar of Voters in Room 209 on the second floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport, from Feb. 19 until prior to 8 p.m. on Election Day, or visit their polling place no later than the 8 p.m. close of the polls on Election Day.
Residents may register to vote at the Registrar of Voters Office in Lakeport; call the elections office at 707-263-2372 for a form to be mailed to them; or register online by visiting http://registertovote.ca.gov/.
Registration forms are also available at most local post offices, libraries, city offices and chamber of commerce offices.
Please be aware that pursuant to Section 2101 of the California Elections Code: “A person entitled to register to vote shall be a United States citizen, a resident of California, not imprisoned or on parole for the conviction of a felony, and at least 18 years of age at the time of the next election.”
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Female domestic short hair
This female domestic short hair has a lynx point and tortie coat and blue eyes.
She is in cat room kennel No. 7, ID No. 13521.
Male domestic short hair
This male domestic short hair has an all-black coat and gold eyes.
He is in cat room kennel No. 44, ID No. 13520.
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm.
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Victoria Brandon
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Clear Lake, the largest natural lake in California and the heart of Lake County, is far more than that: it is the oldest natural lake in North America, with 68 square miles of surface area and an average depth of 26 feet, among the world’s most productive freshwater ecosystems, and a regional, national and planetary treasure.
It’s not unusual for warm, shallow, nutrient-rich lakes to support large populations of fish, birds and mammals of many different species, but bodies of water like this are ordinarily quite ephemeral, lasting only a few hundred or thousands of years before transforming first to marsh and then to meadow.
What makes Clear Lake unique are tectonic forces that have deepened its bed at approximately the same pace as sedimentation has accumulated: sediment cores show that a lake has existed continually at this location for at least 450,000 years and possibly as much as 2.5 million years.
Although the lake and its watershed offer a paradise for wildlife and abundant agricultural and recreational opportunities, the region also faces serious problems.
Clear Lake has been subject to algal blooms for much of the past century, and was listed as impaired for excess nutrients under the federal Clean Water Act in 1986.
Like most other watersheds in the region, numerous abandoned mercury mines in the basin, especially the Sulphur Bank Mine Superfund site, have led to significant mercury contamination.
Although water clarity improved noticeably beginning in the 1990s, noxious “blooms” of cyanobacteria (commonly called “blue green algae”) have been intermittent since 2009.
Devastating wildfires in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 have denuded the hills surrounding the lake and increased the phosphorus-rich sediment delivery that encourages rampant growth of “algae” and invasive aquatic weeds, while simultaneously reducing the tax base, increasing the demand for services and therefore limiting the capacity of local government to address these issues.
What to do? The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, charged with developing a recovery plan, has held periodic workshops that offered little besides recommendations to extend compliance deadlines.
Then in 2017 Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, whose district includes all of Lake County, sponsored Assembly Bill 707 to create a Blue Ribbon Committee charged with developing strategies to clean up the lake and revitalize the local economies that depend on it.
The committee is chaired by the secretary of Natural Resources and includes representatives from local government, the University of California at Davis, the Water Board, Lake County tribes, and spokespersons for economic development, agricultural, environmental and public water supply constituencies.
The legislation also included $2 million for research and formulation of a stewardship plan, and prospects for an additional $5 million in upcoming water bond funding.
The committee held its first organizational meeting in Upper Lake on Oct. 10, 2018, followed by a series of three stakeholder workshops on Oct. 24.
The facilitators acknowledged that the first task was to assemble and coordinate the numerous studies that have been conducted on the lake in the past and are continuing on an ongoing basis, and to use this data set to create a model of what a healthy lake looks like, while avoiding any temptation to base that model on deep, cold bodies of water such as Lake Tahoe.
They appeared surprised at the number of local residents who participated and by both their commitment to Clear Lake and their breadth of knowledge, while many of the participants appeared equally surprised that the focus of the group seemed to be as much on the economic revitalization of Lake County as on the ecological well-being of the lake itself.
Although these subjects are admittedly closely connected, it was apparent that mission creep could become a serious issue as the committee’s mandate evolved.
The second committee meeting, on Dec. 20, was preceded by a tour of the Middle Creek Flood Damage Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration Project site.
This project, first proposed in the 1990s, is widely acknowledged to be the single most effective action available to improve watershed health and Clear Lake water quality.
By breaching antiquated levees that "reclaimed" 1,600 acres of wetlands for agriculture in the 1930s and 1940s, and by restoring the natural contours and hydrological functions of the area, the project will intercept much of the nutrient-laden sediments that currently trigger rampant growth of weeds and “algae.”
The project will also restore wildlife habitat, improve breeding and rearing conditions for the threatened Clear Lake Hitch, and provide significant recreational opportunities.
Both the Water Board and a 1994 Environmental Protection Agency study have prioritized restoration of the area – the largest single damaged wetland on the lake – as the number one target for improving water quality and restoring an impaired ecosystem, and in February 2019 $15 million in state funding was procured to allow the county to purchase the remaining private properties within its boundaries.
Six additional meetings followed in 2019, several preceded by site visits, along with six meetings of a Technical Subcommittee chaired by committee members but primarily composed of outside experts. The year concluded with preparation of an annual report to the Governor and consideration of a formal letter of support for the prompt realization of the Middle Creek Project.
Priorities for 2020 include creating a model of the upper watershed; implementing a basin-wide monitoring strategy; conducting a bathymetric survey of Clear Lake; reviewing existing programs and Best Management Practices; and assessing public perceptions, attitudes, and knowledge gaps about the lake and water quality generally.
At this writing a 2020 meeting schedule was expected soon; schedules, agendas, and much additional information is available at the BRC website, https://resources.ca.gov/Initiatives/Blue-Ribbon-Committee-for-the-Rehabilitation-of-Clear-Lake .
Victoria Brandon is the president of the Board of Directors of Tuleyome and a Lower Lake resident. Tuleyome is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit conservation organization based in Woodland. For more information go to www.tuleyome.org.