Five-year-old Nina Jekel was the recipient of the "youngest fiddler" award at the Redwood Empire Fair Fiddle Contest. She also won second place in the pee wee class. Photo courtesy of Andi Skelton.

LAKE COUNTY – Konocti Fiddle Club members made a good showing at the Redwood Empire Fair Fiddle Contest.

These fiddlers play many styles of music, and most are also members of the Clear Lake Performing Arts orchestras and students of Andi Skelton.

Contestants are required to play three memorized tunes per round, and some classes play two rounds.

Clayton Rudiger and Edison Serena, who are also in the CLPA Youth orchestra, played their three tunes perfectly and each won a second place (Danish judging) in the Junior-Junior class. Edison also won an award playing the mandolin in the "any instrument" class.

Annie Perez, who is playing with the Lake County Symphony this summer and also a CLPA Youth Orchestra member, is now the 2008 Junior Fiddle Champion. Sue Condit, violinist in the symphony, won a fourth in the open class with tough competition.

Andi Skelton, concertmaster of the symphony, joined Condit for the Twin Fiddle class, and they took first place.

Patricia Jekel, who plays flute in the symphony, also plays good old-time fiddle and is now the 2008 adult champion. Her daughter, 5-year-old Nina, won a second place in the pee wee class and also the youngest fiddler award. Her dad, Darren Jekel, won third place in the "any instrument" class with his great old-time banjo tunes.

Symphony violinists, Greg Bushta and Andi Skelton were kept busy playing guitar accompaniment for all the entrants, and each won an accompanist award.

The Konocti Fiddle Club entertained the crowd between classes, with Lars Tisell from the CLPA Youth Orchestra joining in on his fiddle and Irish tenor banjo, and Natalie Jekel on rhythm. The contest is organized by well-known fiddler/violinist and teacher, Laura Smith of Potter Valley, who was a past Clear Lake Performing Arts Scholarship recipient, and member of the Lake County Symphony.

All entrants were rewarded for their hard work with ribbons and a check, but most agreed they just liked to play for fun and to support the music events in Lake and Mendocino counties.

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Assembly Bill 2149 would rein an increasingly popular gimmick used by sales people in which they claim to be “senior experts” offering advice, rather than sales people out to make a buck. The bill would regulate the use of “expertise” designations and require actual training of anyone who would seek to convince seniors that they have special knowledge about their needs.

The full Senate, voting during an afternoon session, approved the bill on a 26-9 vote.

“I’m very pleased,” said Berg, D-Eureka, “that so many senators share my belief that we can and should do what we can to protect older adults.”

Berg’s bill is designed to stop unscrupulous salespeople from using bogus titles to gain the confidence of older adults, who all too often lose their life’s savings to sweet-sounding pitches by so-called experts.

After Thursday’s approval, the bill needs a concurrence vote in the Assembly – where success is expected – before being sent to the governor.

Berg, who for years has been the Legislature’s key thinker on aging issues, has introduced a trio of bills this year, all designed to give seniors more information about the people they are dealing with when considering insurance or financial investments. The fleecing of older adults, known to police as elder financial abuse, is one of the fastest-growing segments of crime in the country.

The bills are sponsored by the California Alliance for Retired Americans and the Congress of California Seniors. The Gray Panthers of California and the Older Women’s League are also in support.

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Deputy Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart reported Friday that the air quality index for particulate matter was in the good range on Friday, and is expected to remain at that level through Sunday.

He said the local air quality index is expected to remain well below the 101 rating which would trigger an unhealthy alert.

Several unhealthy air alerts were given last month as a result of wildfires on the North Coast and around Northern California.

Some residual smoke that returned to the Lake County Air Basin earlier this week was transported from many uncontrolled fires that still are burning in the northern part of the state, Gearhart said. Progress is being made on these federal land wildfires but much of the complexes are in rugged and remote areas.

Winds are expected to be mostly from the west with some northwest patterns through Sunday, keeping much of the smoke to the north and west of Lake County, according to Gearhart.

Residual smoke can be expected to remain throughout areas of Northern California on occasion, including Lake County, though at a much reduced level, until the lightning complex wildfires are contained, he said.

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Volunteers are needed to input data from the boat application forms that have come in this summer during the sticker and inspection portion of the prevention program.

The data entry will be basic and the work will take place in county offices at 255 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport.

If you are interested in helping with this important program and can spare a few hours a day, week or month, please contact Sarah Ryan at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 707-485-2993 (cell) to sign up for a volunteer slot.

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The Friday Night Farmers’ Market, located adjacent to Austin Park in Clearlake, offers local farm-fresh produce, crafters, vendors, live music and prepared foods. The market is a California Certified Farmers’ Market and runs from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. every Friday night through Oct. 17.

On Aug. 22, the featured music act will be Dan Meyer and the Misdemeanors of Jazz. The winner of the co-op’s logo contest will be announced at 7 p.m., with the winner receiving a box of local organic produce every week for four weeks. Help the co-op celebrate all of its successes at this special event. Please check out the logo submissions on the co-op wikisite – http://lakecountycommunityco-op.wikispaces.com/ – and cast your vote by midnight on Aug. 20.

The Co-op Buying Club boasts two different boxes of organic produce: the “Purist Box” combines local produce with produce from River Dog Farm in Capay Valley; the “Fruit and Veggie Box” comes from an organic supplier that supports a wider range of produce. Local organic pears are available from Yoxagoi Farms in Kelseyville. Produce orders can be picked up from 5:50 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays in Clearlake. To place an order for produce boxes, call Ann Breen at 995-0696 or email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Volunteer coordinator Barbara Christwitz reminds buying club members, “We can only be successful if the community steps forward to sustain the buying club through volunteering.”

Anyone wanting to volunteer for the buying club or any of the co-op’s projects or committees can call her at 995-0490.

For more information about Lake County Community Co-Op, or any of their projects, stop by the co-op information booth at the Friday Night Market. Or, you can link from the Web site http://lakeco-op.org to the co-op’s wikisite.

Another great way to find out about the co-op is to drop in at a general meeting. The meetings are held the second Saturday of each month at the Hot Spot Youth Center, 4750 Golf Ave. in Clearlake from 10 a.m. until noon.

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The meeting will take place in the multi-use room located on Wardlaw Street.

Under unfinished business, the group will discuss the Middletown Street Light Project.

In new business, Rick Coel, director of Lake County's Community Development Department, will make a presentation. Discussion will be held on videotaping MATH meeting and street and stop signs will be an action item on the agenda.

MATH is a municipal advisory council serving the residents of Anderson Springs, Cobb, Coyote Valley (including Hidden Valley Lake), Long Valley, and Middletown. The meetings are open to the public.

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