CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake Planning Commission has canceled its upcoming meeting.

The meeting was scheduled to have taken place at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5.

The next planning commission meeting will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 19, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

While actively working on the Bodega Fire on Sept. 25 near the town of Bodega, Hakala sustained substantial electrical shock when he came into contact with an energized downed power line.

Sonoma County Fire Chief Mark Aston, Bodega Fire Chief Ron Albini, Cal Fire Battalion Chief Robert Sherman and Retired Cal Fire Capt. Hank Epling visited with firefighter Hakala after the incident to follow up on his treatment and to provide comfort and support to his wife and family members.

Hakala underwent surgery Sept. 26 and is listed in critical but stable condition. Doctors expect him to remain in the hospital for approximately two weeks for further treatment and recovery. It is not known at this time if further surgery will be necessary.

He has been a volunteer firefighter with the Bodega Volunteer Fire Company for 12 years. He has been employed with Cal Fire, Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit for 11 years as a seasonal employee at the Santa Rosa Station.

Sonoma County Fire has created a trust fund on behalf of the Hakala family. Donations can be sent to the Ben Hakala Trust Fund in care of Bodega Volunteer Fire Co. at P. O. Box 28, Bodega, CA 94922.

In particular African-American and Native-American youth have been identified as having significant barriers to finding permanent homes and experiencing longer stays in foster care. This grant provides the means to help identify and overcome barriers to permanency.

“I am elated today with two significant accomplishments, $14.5 million to assist foster youth disproportionately represented in the foster care system and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s signature of AB 12 which extends foster care benefits for foster youth from age 18 to age 21,” said CDSS Director John Wagner. “I look forward to using these resources and the provisions of the new law to help improve the foster care system for all California foster children and youth.”

Over the last decade, California has reduced its foster care population by roughly 40 percent due to investments in efforts to find permanent families for children and more recently in efforts to prevent the need for children to enter foster care. This grant will enable California to take these efforts to the next level.

Despite the inroads made into caseload reductions, certain groups of foster children and youth have disproportionately higher representation and longer periods within the foster care system.

This five-year grant from ACF will allow CDSS to work in partnership with the Administrative Office of the Courts, philanthropy, local and non-profit agencies to examine and identify barriers and to provide solutions for these specific sub-groups.

The ultimate goal is to also introduce an updated and integrated, casework practice model that will be customized for replication statewide. The partnership will also develop a system that can achieve fiscal sustainability and will include reinvestment and will support longer term, systemic change.

The pilot counties include: Fresno, Humboldt, Los Angeles and Santa Clara, which have prior experience implementing innovative child welfare strategies and have a significant representation of the target population. These counties account for nearly 40 percent of the statewide child welfare system in foster care throughout California.

Studies have shown that former foster youth are less likely to complete high school, attend college, or be employed, and are at a higher risk for becoming homeless, arrested or incarcerated. AB 12 aims to reduce this correlation by providing foster youth between the age of 18 and 21 a better support system to stay in school and obtain employment.

In addition to continuing foster care services to this age group, the legislation allows California to take advantage of federal funding through participation in kinship guardianship assistance payments. California was one of the first states to establish the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payment program to provide financial assistance for children that are placed under legal guardianship with a relative and, now under this legislation, federal funding will be available to support these payments.

In addition to signing AB 12, Gov. Schwarzenegger announced on Thursday that he signed the following six bills to protect and enhance the benefits and services available to California’s foster youth:

• AB 743 by Assemblymember Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) to help keep siblings together in the foster care system. The bill clearly defines a required timeframe of ten days that the child welfare system must notify the child’s attorney before a planned separation of siblings.

• AB 1933 by Assemblymember Julia Brownley (D-Santa Monica) to allow foster children to continue attending their school of origin and, if applicable, secondary schools in the same attendance area, when placed with a family in a different neighborhood.

• SB 1353 by Senator Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood) to require consideration of the proximity to the school in which a child is enrolled at the time of placement in foster care is one indicator of the best interests of the child with respect to educational stability.

• SB 654 by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) to expand eligibility for Independent Living Program (ILP) services to youth who are former dependents of the juvenile court placed with nonrelated legal guardians and are receiving permanent placement services, regardless of the age at which dependency was dismissed, but only if the youth’s guardianship was ordered after his or her eighth birthday. This allows some former foster youth who left foster care prior to aging out to later seek ILP services, until age 20. AB 1905 by Assemblymember Paul Cook (R-Yucca Valley) to ensure continued approval and payments for foster youth relative or extended family member caregivers, pending the annual reassessment visit.

• B 1758 by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) to add nonrelative extended family members to the list of family members and guardians eligible for foster care wraparound services, and allows certain dependent or ward categorically eligible foster youth to remain eligible for Medi-Cal.

Capt. Bob Holbrook uses a Lakeport Fire Protection District ladder truck last week to help recover a report on the Lakeport Bank of America's flag pole on Wednesday, September 29, 2010. Photo was taken by Lakeport Fire Chief Ken Wells.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lakeport firefighters recently gave the Bank of America a helping hand.

Lakeport Fire Chief Ken Wells reported that one of the flag poles in front of the Lakeport Bank of America lost the rope on Sept. 29.

He said the rope was recovered by Capt. Bob Holbrook using a ladder truck from Lakeport Fire.

The recovery will help the bank fly their flags, Wells said.

Hours will be from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.

Events may be canceled due to rain.

Households can bring up to 15 gallons of toxic items free of charge. A charge will be made for amounts above 15 gallons.

Items that are accepted include paint, solvents, fuels, five-gallon propane tanks, pool chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, dry cell batteries, fluorescent light tubes (up to 60 feet free) and other toxins that cannot be put in the trash.

Excluded items that cannot be accepted are televisions, computer monitors, ammunition, explosives, radioactive materials or infectious wastes. To learn how and where to properly dispose of those items, please contact the Public Services office at 707-263-1980.

This is a residential service. Charges apply to businesses; phone 707-468-9786 for more information and business appointments.

Free recycled paint is available at Lake County Waste Solution Transfer Station at 230 Soda Bay Road in Lakeport on first-come, first-served basis in five-gallon containers, of tan, brown, gray and pink.

Used oil can be recycled year round at a number of sites in the county.

The HazMobile program is subsidized by the Lake County Public Services Department Solid Waste Division.

If you have any questions regarding this or any of Lake County’s Solid Waste programs, please call 707-262-1760 or the hot line number at 707-263-1980.

For a list of upcoming HazMobile events visit www.recycling.co.lake.ca.us.

“AB 1648 removes a bureaucratic barrier at DMV that had made it very difficult for rural fire departments to license their firefighters to drive heavy equipment,” Chesbro said. “You had situations where firefighters could not respond to fires because they were not licensed to drive fire engines. Rural fire departments had to send two firefighters sometimes hundreds of miles on a round trip to a DMV office and take a vital piece of equipment out of service for an entire day just to license one firefighter. This situation was unacceptable and I heard about it from many chiefs of rural fire departments all over the First Assembly District. I’m grateful Assemblymember Jeffries joined me to craft a legislative solution, which the governor has now approved.”

AB 1648 allows firefighters who already possess a Class C license to earn a “Firefighter Endorsement” that authorizes them to drive fire equipment after completing 30 hours of classroom and behind-the-wheel training under supervision of a qualified fire chief.

“To complete the process, firefighters will still have to submit to the DMV their health questionnaires and written documentation from the fire chiefs who trained them and pass a written test," Chesbro said. “But it eliminates the requirement of having an already licensed firefighter also travel to a distant DMV office. It put too many rural communities at risk to have personnel and equipment taken out of service for an entire day, especially during fire season.”

Both houses of the Legislature approved AB 1648 without a “no” vote and the governor signed it on Sept. 29. It takes effect on Jan. 1, 2011.