Summer is just around the corner and there are already many more pedestrians on the road.

We all want to live in a community where it is safe to walk to the park, to school or to one of our charming local stores.

This is one of the endearing aspects of living in a rural, resort community. You can stroll down the street, grab an ice cream, go to a park and have a picnic or take an evening walk to watch the sun set over the lake. Walking is a great way to stay healthy, get exercise and it is better for the environment.

Over the next few weeks, the Konocti Unified School District will be limiting our bus services for the remainder of the year and encouraging more of our students to walk and bike to school.

Although the reduction in bus services is due to transportation budget cuts at the state level, we also know that summer will soon be here and our students will be out and about.

We need to teach our students how to walk safely on roadways and we need to impress upon drivers that they must drive carefully and watch for motorcycles, bicyclists and pedestrians.

Officials and employees of the city of Clearlake have been meeting and collaborating with Konocti Unified School District officials to make our streets safer for pedestrians and bikers.

Several streets have been designated as safe routes for bikers. We have placed signs on these streets encouraging their use for students walking to school. These streets include Walnut and Uhl near Burns Valley School and Sutter and Willow Glen to Woodland near Pomo School.

We ask that parents walk these routes with their children for the first few days of limited bus services, beginning May 21.

Then, during the weeks until school lets out, we will have volunteers walk the students to school in what has been called a “walking bus.”

We also ask that drivers use a different street than those designated for walking and biking and to be very careful when crossing these streets. This will make these routes safer.

The walkers also have to be responsible. The Konocti Unified School District has started teaching the Child Pedestrian Safety Curriculum in our classrooms grades K-5. We are also doing pedestrian safety assemblies for the children grades K-3.

We are giving the children the following guidance:

• Walk with a friend when possible
• Ask your parents to help you pick a safe route to school: one that avoids dangers
• Stick to the route you picked with your parents. Don’t let friends talk you into shortcuts that could be more dangerous.
• Walk on the left hand side of the street, facing traffic.
• When you are near the street, don’t push, shove or chase each other
• Never hitchhike or take rides from people not arranged by your parents
• Talk to your parents and teacher about any bullying that may happen during your walk and never talk with strangers.
• Always wear bright-colored clothes and if it is dark or hard to see carry flashlights or wear reflective gear
• Watch out for cars and trucks at every driveway and intersection. Look for drivers in parked cars; they may be getting ready to move.
• Cross the street safely. Stop at the curb or edge of the street. Look left, right, left and behind you and in front of you for traffic. Wait until no traffic is coming and begin crossing. Keep looking for traffic until you have finished crossing. Walk, don’t run, across the street.
• Obey traffic signs, signals and adult school crossing guards.

The Lake Transit Authority has also been collaborating with the Konocti Unified School District and the City of Clearlake.

Lake Transit is implementing special services and fares effective on Monday, May 21, to assist KUSD students who would like to try their services to get to school. Please contact Lake Transit for information about the special, free Route 6 Tripper, which has been added to help students get to school.

The Summer Cruisin’ Pass is now on sale at Lake Transit in Lower Lake, and Ray’s Food Place in Clearlake. Although the pass indicates that it is valid from June 1 to Sept. 15, Lake Transit will honor this pass effective May 21.

The cost for the entire summer is $20 to students up to 18 years of age. For those over 18 years of age, a monthly pass costs only $40 – the cost of a tank of gasoline.

The more we all use public transit throughout the year, the more services and routes can be added. Lake Transit buses are a convenient, comfortable, and affordable way to get around Lake County.

Our communities should be considered walking and biking communities. Roadways must be safe for our children and other residents to walk and bike. That is part of the small town life that encouraged many of us to come to Lake County.

Let’s work together to make this happen. Walk more, and when you drive, please drive safely.

Dr. William MacDougall is the superintendent for the Konocti Unified School District, based in Lower Lake, Calif. He is retiring effective June 30.

Whenever my daughter and I walk by someone who is smoking we look at each other, sigh and, given no other option, hold our breath as we pass by.

We do that because we know all about the number of deadly ingredients found in cigarette smoke. We don’t blame the smoker. Chances are the smoker knows, too.

Unfortunately, the smoker has developed an addiction to the nicotine that is a natural part of the tobacco plant. What smokers might not know is that the tobacco companies that make the cigarettes are not only aware of how addictive nicotine is, but go out of their way to make it even more addictive than it already is.

It’s been proven that they add forms of ammonia to the “recipe” to break down the nicotine molecule to its’ base form, so the smoker is free-basing nicotine.

In order for the smoker to maintain this designed addiction, they are exposing themselves to many, many chemicals that are known to cause early death in a large percentage of smokers.

The sad truth is that the smoker is not the only victim of these deadly toxins. Only 15 percent of the smoke inhaled stays in the lungs. The other 85 percent is exhaled into the air, so as other people, including nonsmokers, walk through the cloud, they too are breathing the more than 60 cancer causing chemicals present in secondhand smoke.

Nonsmokers have already made the choice to live a healthier life style and should expect a certain level of security knowing they can walk around in public places, or go to work, without the concern of being poisoned.

There are some protective factors already in place.

Ten years after the “smoke-free bars” law went into effect, the “smoke-free cars with minors” law started.

This law, which has been in effect since the beginning of 2008, prohibits smoking in a motor vehicle when a minor (17 years old and under) is also in the car. A violation is punishable by a fine of up to $100.

The city of Lakeport has an ordinance that prohibits smoking “within the boundaries of any city park, playground, or recreation center” (cmc 8.44.020). A violation of this law is an infraction.

The Lake County Fair Board has assigned certain areas within the fairgrounds that are off limits to smokers in an effort to protect nonsmokers, especially children, from the damaging effects of secondhand smoke.

California is definitely moving in the right direction, but is the state doing enough?

To help you decide, you might be interested to know that for every eight smokers that die of a smoking related death, one non-smoker does too. That’s because there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

Labeled as a Class “A” carcinogen, the very moment secondhand smoke is inhaled, it starts causing damage to cells and tissue inside the body. Over a long period of time the effect can be very serious and in some cases deadly.

The EPA, the FDA and the U.S. Surgeon General have all agreed that nonsmokers need protection from being forced to breathe tainted air.

Another fact that most people might not be aware of is that the more a young person breathes secondhand smoke the more likely they are to become smokers. With each breath, they are getting nicotine into their bloodstream and sooner or later they too could become addicted to it.

There is also very strong proof that young girls suffer permanent damage to their reproductive system after inhaling secondhand smoke.

Evidence shows an increase in chances that, when older, they might have difficulty getting pregnant, have an increased chance of having miscarriages and giving birth to low-weight babies.

Living in America, people have the right to choose whether or not to smoke. Do they have the right to put nonsmokers in danger?  

We have the right to breathe clean air. Since there are more nonsmokers than there are smokers and 48 million of them are former smokers, it would make sense to me that there should be laws and rules in place to protect nonsmokers, not because they are the majority, but because of the high risk being exposed to secondhand smoke presents.

So when my daughter and I walk down the street we should not have to choose to breathe or not to breathe.

As community a member, I support ordinances and policies that limit exposure to secondhand smoke while outdoors – especially in public parks, outdoor events (such as the Lake County Fair), and areas outside a local business we would like to visit.

You have an opportunity to join efforts to protect the health of our community.

If you would like more information about the health effects of exposure to secondhand smoke, or would like to be involved in local efforts to protect the health of our community, call the Lake County Tobacco Education Program, a program of Lake Family Resource Center at 707-262-1379, Extension 113.

For help to quit smoking, call the California Smokers Helpline at 800-NO-BUTTS.

Glenn Koeppel lives in Lucerne, Calif.

We’ve all heard the stories. High-schooler gets bullied by text messages from school mates. Kids harassing each other over Facebook pages. Employers “Googling” potential employees.

Ever since the dawn of popular social networking around 10 years ago, cyber issues have affected our children.

Parents, business people, and school teachers/administrators have struggled to find effective ways to deal with these social networking challenges.

And more recently, as more and more adults and businesses have jumped on the social networking band wagon, the sins of cyber life have graduated from the school yard to our backyards and our workplaces.

The more tech-savvy we as a society become, the more social networking has become a gray area of proverbial backyard justice.

It’s not only become a way for cyber predators to gain access to their victims, it’s become a way for victims to retaliate against their harassers.

Take three cases that have made national and international news recently.

In once case, comedian Jon Lovitz tweeted the names and pictures of three high schoolers who committed racist vandalism at his friend’s home.

In another case, German Olympian Ariane Friedrich posted on Facebook the name and email address of a man who had sent her a lewd photo of his genitals.

And in a third case, movie director Spike Lee used Twitter to help spread the address of an elderly couple as that of the man who shot and killed an unarmed teen. The couple, who had nothing to do with the shooting, had to leave their home in fear for their lives.

And then you have the professional arena, with businesses finding new ways almost daily to use social networking to gain information about existing and potential employees.

Sure, businesses use social networking for background checks, marketing and advertising – that’s old news.

What’s potentially more interesting (and possibly insidious) is the recent trend of some employers asking applicants for Facebook passwords, or sites such as LinkedIn tracking members’ usage in order to assist recruiters in evaluating the efficiency of an applicant’s professional networking skills.

There’s no question that social networking can be a valuable tool when used appropriately. Clearly social networking is a growing trend that’s not going anywhere, and its results can be powerful and effective.

But since it’s an unprecedented developing phenomenon, lawmakers and enforcement authorities have little guidance on how to manage it and are scrambling trying to figure out how exactly to deal with the fallout of wrongful use.

Right or wrong? You decide. But get used to it. There’s no going back, so parents, teachers and community leaders, add it to the list of important issues to be discussed with your children.

Like it or not, social networking is here to stay, and because there are no real rules of play yet, it’s like the wild wild west all over again.

No punches are pulled, and everything we do and/or say can find its way to the Internet. And once it does, it’s permanent.

So be prepared for the world (including your boss and your grandma) to know about it.

Annette Lee is a Lake County, Calif., business owner, community college instructor and proud parent.

Team DUI successfully finished this school year, marking our sixth year of educating our youth on the true realities of driving under the influence.  

Our team would like to extend our appreciation to Lake County educators for their support in allowing us the opportunity to foster working partnerships with Lake County school districts, working together to help keep our youth and others safe.

Our team also would like to share our appreciation with the countless individuals throughout Lake County for your continual support.

Underage drinking is a serious problem throughout our nation. Alcohol is the drug of choice for youth and the leading cause of death and injuries among teenagers.  

Team DUI was formed as a countywide volunteer educational outreach program designed to raise awareness of the consequences and dangers of DUI through prevention with the focus on the youth of our communities in order to help prevent one more senseless death or injury.  

Because of the educational prevention efforts of Team DUI to help keep our roadways safer for everyone, injuries have been reduced and lives, young and old, have been saved and more will be saved.    

During this school year, Team DUI delivered 16 classroom and assembly presentations throughout Lake County schools, addressing students from seventh through 12th grade levels.  

We covered topics relating to driving under the influence, the impact it has on the victim, the offender, families, friends, the community and the value of parents discussing the issues with their children which has resulted in opening up needed lines of communication between parent and child.

Our team worked tirelessly to get our message across to our youth. Our speakers came forth with inspirational courage and fortitude as they endured months of emotional stress, reliving painful stories in order to help safeguard our youth now and into the future.   

Through Team DUI, not only were our youth better able to understand the legal consequences of DUI, they were also able to see and understand the other side of DUI; the side that has life altering consequences. Students listened with their minds and their hearts. Our team has made a major difference, working to change the culture among our youth as they cope with teen peer pressure.                 

Each member of Team DUI fulfills a different role, but the message we deliver is very powerful when we work together.

The members of Team DUI are extraordinary individuals who are inspirational in their dedication to the safety of our communities. Each member of Team DUI is a hero in their own right.  

Our team has touched the lives of many people throughout our entire county.

The legacy of Team DUI will live on in the lives of our youth as they will have a better chance to live to become responsible adults.

Never underestimate the power of the committed people of Team DUI to bring about change in the good fight against drinking and driving.

Team DUI wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable summer.

Judy Thein is founder of Team DUI. She also serves on the city council for Clearlake, Calif. For more information on Team DUI, call 994-8201, Extension 155.

In response to a letter regarding Measure D in another publication on Thursday, April 26, I believe marijuana has medicinal value to cancer patients who have appetite loss and certainly there must be other medicinal uses.

I am for complete decriminalization and legalization of marijuana. I find it to be much less harmful than alcohol.

In other words, I do not feel it's the evil weed, and if people of legal age want to smoke, it I believe they should be allowed to.

I do believe, however that the growing of medical marijuana and hemp for other purposes needs a much harder look before implementation of a growing plan.

In response to the writer's question, “Why is the wine industry welcomed with open arms and embraced while marijuana is condemned as the evil weed with its roots firmly planted in hell?”

This is very easy to answer on several planes. First of all, you are exaggerating. I'm sure most of the people, including people from the Farm Bureau, do not believe that marijuana is is an evil weed with its roots firmly planted in hell. However, I'm sure many people who believe in decriminalizing it want to see strict regulation of growing it as they do with all crops.

Unlike marijuana, the wine industry has a longstanding tradition of bringing culture and tourism to the areas where it's produced.

Over the last 150 years that the wine industry has been in California it has been examined and scrutinized, and farming practices have been improved. The grapevine stays firmly implanted in the soil 12 months of the year, thereby stabilizing the soil – marijuana does not. Everything to do with the wine industry is visible and above board.

Before a winery or vineyard goes in, the owner is required to make improvements and go through an extensive permit process before even being allowed to sink the first shovel. In other words the neighborhood roads are not going to be ruined by winery trucks passing through the neighborhood. Home values will go up when a new winery comes to the area.

Marijuana, on the other hand, is totally unregulated. Home values will plummet when marijuana plots go into a neighborhood.

I've read Measure D. I encourage others to read it (you can see it below).

Measure D was written by marijuana growers and provides no regulation of marijuana growing whatsoever. Nowhere in the measure is there any wording regulating drainage, pesticides or herbicides. There is no wording regulating the erosion control or the dead skunk stench that the plants gives off.

Measure D, under the guise of being a regulatory document, cleverly opens up nearly every neighborhood for growing it.

Measure D allows marijuana growers to grow in agricultural districts, agricultural preserve districts, single-family residential zones, suburban reserve districts and timberland preserve districts.

Self-regulation simply does not work. The expression of “the fox watching the hen house” applies here. It's like having Wall Street govern the banking industry. It's simply ludicrous.

There is nothing in Measure D that says a grower has to be a resident of Lake County. This will bring people from all over the state to grab land for their plots for marijuana. This will raise holy hell with our watershed. The supply for medical marijuana will far exceed the demand for medical marijuana.

However, people will still need to sell their marijuana. What happens to the excess marijuana? I'm sure the states around us will feel the impact whether they like it or not. This is what it's all about: MONEY! Pure and simple. If we just take care of the patients in California we won’t need to grow so much marijuana. That’s why we voted to legalize medicinal marijuana – California patients.

Look around you. Lake County is a big bowl. Much of the land for growing things is already used for growing things in flat areas where runoff isn't as damaging. Nearly everything in Lake County that grows agriculturally maintains its rootstock throughout the winter and holds the soil in place. Vineyards on hillsides are terraced to prevent erosion.

When growers grow marijuana they will be using the watershed to grow it. They will strip the land of trees to allow for sunlight and build grow boxes to level out a portion of the hillside.

Don't believe that? These photographs show two probable plots that have already been developed under everyone's noses. One comes complete with a flat spot for a possible illegal guardhouse RV. Read Measure D so you can judge for yourself its vagueness.

One grower has already produced a crop of nearly 50 plants last year viewable on Google Earth and you can clearly see how the land has been clear-cut of precious madrone, manzanita and other native plants that hold the hillside in place and prevent it from washing down to Clear Lake. It is bare of vegetation. The chainsaws ran for weeks. My eyes watered from the skunk smell through two months of summer.

The newest addition of a probable grow site was clear cut, graded without retaining walls, fences built and rock hauled in all without permits. They were red tagged. Now they are applying for permits after the fact.

If you think that, because it's going to be grown on the hillsides away from you, and therefore out of your area, trust me, in the winter it will come to your neighborhood. It will come in the form of clay and mud and pesticides and herbicides. Your lakeshore property will receive extra nutrients to help those invasive weeds become even thicker.

The growers work on red-tagged property on weekends in direct violation of the law. At 9:10 a.m. on Saturday Dry Gulch Trucking delivered water to the site above us as shown in the photo below. Code enforcement stated firmly this was an illegal activity.

Measure D will be the scourge of Lake County. Measure D makes it allowable to grow in nearly any vacant area.

Budget cutbacks have already gutted the Code Enforcement Department in Lake County. It's hard enough already for them to keep track of the code violations and they simply can't keep up with it. This will be exploited to the nth degree.

Last year I put $1,300 into graveling the fire road that leads to my home. The heavy equipment, four-wheel-drive vehicles and increased traffic to the grow sites a few hundred feet from my house have beat the gravel down into the road and this summer will be just another dusty summer for us.

Will the grower share in the cost of my loss? There's nothing in Measure D asking him to improve the neighborhood. There is nothing in Measure D telling him to repair his damage.

Kill Measure D in June. Kill it DEAD. Send a message. Not because it's about marijuana and its medicinal value, but because it's a poorly constructed document that will ruin the environment and the beauty of Lake County. It will demolish the value of your homes. It will make your life very uneasy. Share this letter with your acquaintances.

If you see trucks filling up water tanks with lake water at suspicious times and places, it's illegal. Get a license number or photo.

Finding an answer is not going to be easy. But let our county supervisors do what we elected them to do and over the course of time find an answer.

There is a citizens group that would like your support called Citizens to Protect Lake County-No on Measure D. It has the support of the Lake County Deputy Sheriffs Association, Lake County Farm Bureau, Lake County Chamber of Commerce, Sierra Club, Clear Lake Riviera HOA, Buckingham HOA, Kelseyville Business Association with many more to come soon. Contact for the organization is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Greg Cornish lives in Nice, Calif.

April is Alcohol Awareness Month, which offers the opportunity for awareness of the consequential severity of driving under the influence.

Frequently, no matter what area one lives, we turn on the television or pick up the newspaper to hear or read about another DUI tragedy.

These tragedies are not accidents, but rather they are the result of an individual’s irresponsible decision to drink and drive.

In a matter of a few seconds, that irresponsible decision can change the lives of many forever.

Every day, innocent people get hurt by the carelessness of DUI drivers.

The sad fact is that it’s only a matter of time until the next alcohol-fueled tragedy happens on a road, because too many people won’t admit they had too much to drink or arrogantly believe they can drive anyway.

Last year almost 800 people were killed and nearly 30,000 injured in California as a result of drunken driving crashes.

These catastrophes didn’t have to happen. Drunk driving is completely preventable, yet it continues to claim more than 10,000 lives each year across America.  

Each day you and I share the road with two million people who have been convicted of drunk driving three times or more. More than 400,000 people were found guilty five times or more. On an average, these folks drive drunk 80 times before their first arrest.  

These repeat offenders have an oblivious disregard for human life. Remorse is absent. A change of behavior is absent. Sound judgment is absent. Understanding consequences is absent. They are clearly a proven danger to public safety, not only in the community they reside, but wherever they travel.

Most DUI drivers convince themselves that their destructive action was an accident. If they convince themselves it was an accident, then their guilt is minimized.  

Some of these drivers may utter the words “I’m sorry,” but those words are merely an instant, built-in mechanism that is used when they are caught.  

There could never be enough “I’m sorries” to take away the pain and emptiness that is in the hearts of a family and friends who have lost their loved one or have watched their love one suffer at the hands of a DUI driver.

The DUI driver is not the one left behind to pick up the pieces to a family's life. Their lives go on, as they will never feel the suffering that is felt by their victims.

Drunken driving is inexcusable and against the law. Negligent DUI drivers who are responsible for the death or injury of an innocent person must be made to face the consequences of their selfish act.  

Driving under the influence effects everyone. The impact of the consequences of DUI is pervasive and knows no boundaries.

People tend to think, “It can’t happen to me.” Yet anyone, in any community, including here is Lake County, may become the victim of a DUI tragedy at any time.

Statistics reveal that one in every three people will be involved in a drunken driving crash during their lives.

No one is immune from this hideous crime. It is time this violence be given the seriousness it deserves.  
        
Despite all of the sorrow we deal with each day across the nation due to DUIs, there is still hope.

Hope that one day people will understand the seriousness of this crime.

Hope that one day, more people will become accountable for their actions.

Hope that there will be no more drunken driving tragedies because of prevention.  

Hope that no one will ever have to cope with a lifetime of pain due to injuries sustained in a drunken driving crash.

Hope that all parents will know the importance of talking with their kids about alcohol, and that teens will learn the dangers that alcohol can bring to their young lives, before a tragedy occurs.

Hope is a valuable and powerful resource. We can all do our part to share in the hope that will help change the culture of this violent crime.

Judy Thein is founder of Team DUI and a member of the city council for the city of Clearlake, Calif.