LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The new year is starting off with a slightly improving employment picture, according to a Friday report.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that nationwide unemployment for January was 4.9 percent, down from the 5 percent reported in December. The January 2015 nationwide unemployment rate was 5.7 percent.

It's the lowest national unemployment rate since the 4.9 percent rate reported in February 2008. This also is the lowest January unemployment rate since 2008, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The report showed that job gains occurred in several industries, led by retail trade, food services and drinking places, health care and manufacturing.

At the same time, employment declined in private educational services, transportation and warehousing, and mining.

On the local and statewide levels, the California Employment Development Department is not scheduled to release January unemployment data until March 4.

However, the unemployment rate in Lake County in December was 7.3 percent, up from 7.2 percent in November and below the December 2014 estimate of 8.6 percent, the Employment Development Department said.

California's unadjusted unemployment rate for December was 5.8, down slightly from November's 5.7 percent and much improved over the 7.1 percent California recorded in December 2014, according to state records.

Email Elizabeth Larson at elarson@lakeconews.com . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

FINLEY, Calif. – On Jan. 16, the members of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, Flotilla 88 of Lake County met for their annual change of watch ceremony.

The ceremony, held this year at Angel’s Rock House Mexican restaurant in Finley, commemorates the changing of the flotilla commanders and its officers for the new year of 2016.

Traveling from the United States Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat Station at Noyo River in Ft. Bragg were BM2 Petty Officer 2nd Class Ross Wiley and SK2 Petty Officer 2nd Class Henry Robles. 

Performing the ceremony, BM2 Wiley installed Dane Hayward as Flotilla 88 commander, Roberto Morfin as vice commander and seven of the staff officers.

The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary consists of more than 30,000 volunteer members throughout the country who provide operational support to the Coast Guard and are dedicated to promoting recreational boating safety.   
 
Dorothy De Lope is a member of the Flotilla 88 of Lake County.

The moon was formed by a violent, head-on collision between the early Earth and a “planetary embryo” called Theia approximately 100 million years after the Earth formed, UCLA geochemists and colleagues report.

Scientists had already known about this high-speed crash, which occurred almost 4.5 billion years ago, but many thought the Earth collided with Theia (pronounced THAY-eh) at an angle of 45 degrees or more – a powerful side-swipe, simulated in the 2012 YouTube video shown above.

New evidence reported Jan. 29 in the journal Science substantially strengthens the case for a head-on assault.

The researchers analyzed seven rocks brought to the Earth from the moon by the Apollo 12, 15 and 17 missions, as well as six volcanic rocks from the Earth's mantle – five from Hawaii and one from Arizona.

The key to reconstructing the giant impact was a chemical signature revealed in the rocks' oxygen atoms. Oxygen makes up 90 percent of rocks' volume and 50 percent of their weight.

More than 99.9 percent of Earth's oxygen is O-16, so called because each atom contains eight protons and eight neutrons. But there also are small quantities of heavier oxygen isotopes: O-17, which have one extra neutron, and O-18, which have two extra neutrons. Earth, Mars and other planetary bodies in our solar system each has a unique ratio of O-17 to O-16 – each one a distinctive “fingerprint.”

In 2014, a team of German scientists reported in Science that the moon also has its own unique ratio of oxygen isotopes, different from Earth's. The new research finds that is not the case.

“We don't see any difference between the Earth's and the moon's oxygen isotopes; they're indistinguishable,” said Edward Young, lead author of the new study and a UCLA professor of geochemistry and cosmochemistry.

Young's research team used state-of-the-art technology and techniques to make extraordinarily precise and careful measurements, and verified them with UCLA's new mass spectrometer.

The fact that oxygen in rocks on the Earth and our moon share chemical signatures was very telling, Young said. Had Earth and Theia collided in a glancing side blow, the vast majority of the moon would have been made mainly of Theia, and the Earth and moon should have different oxygen isotopes. A head-on collision, however, likely would have resulted in similar chemical composition of both Earth and the moon.

“Theia was thoroughly mixed into both the Earth and the moon, and evenly dispersed between them,” Young said. “This explains why we don't see a different signature of Theia in the moon versus the Earth.”

Theia, which did not survive the collision (except that it now makes up large parts of Earth and the moon) was growing and probably would have become a planet if the crash had not occurred, Young said. Young and some other scientists believe the planet was approximately the same size as the Earth; others believe it was smaller, perhaps more similar in size to Mars.

Another interesting question is whether the collision with Theia removed any water that the early Earth may have contained.

After the collision – perhaps tens of millions of year later – small asteroids likely hit the Earth, including ones that may have been rich in water, Young said.

Collisions of growing bodies occurred very frequently back then, he said, although Mars avoided large collisions.

A head-on collision was initially proposed in 2012 by Matija Cuk, now a research scientist with the SETI Institute, and Sarah Stewart, now a professor at UC Davis; and, separately during the same year by Robin Canup of the Southwest Research Institute.

LUCERNE, Calif. – It was standing room only on Thursday night as a beloved local biologist opened a series of lectures on Lake County's natural environment hosted by Marymount California University's Lakeside Campus.

Dr. Harry Lyons, a biology professor at the Woodland Community College Lake County campus in Clearlake, a longtime resident of Lake County and an expert on Clear Lake, gave the opening talk in “Distinguished Speakers Series.”

In “Lessons from Green Water,” Lyons discussed the Hudson River and Clear Lake, interspersing the fascinating facts of those two aquatic ecosystems with his own original music, playing guitar and singing while accompanied by bassist Rick McCann.

The hour-and-a-half-long presentation can be seen in its entirety in the video above.

The three-part speaker series is co-sponsored by the Friends of Marymount California University (MCU) Lakeside and the Lake County Land Trust.

Future installments will feature archaeologist Dr. John Parker in March and ecologist Catherine Koehler, the Land Trust's executive director and director of the McLaughlin Reserve, in April.

For information call 888-991-5253 or 707-262-0707 or go to www.lakecountylandtrust.org .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A man sent to state prison for a 1990 homicide in Clearlake Park has been denied parole for the fifth time following a hearing this week.

On Wednesday, the California Board of Parole Hearings denied parole for convicted murderer Kevin Coy Iloff, 50, according to the Lake County District Attorney's Office.

Deputy District Attorney Alan Upton attended the lifer hearing at California State Prison in Corcoran on behalf of the District Attorney’s Office to argue against Iloff’s release.

Iloff pleaded guilty in December 1990 to the second degree murder of 28-year-old Thomas Conatser and the use of a knife, and was sentenced by Judge Robert L. Crone Jr. to 16 years to life on Dec. 21, 1990.

He originally was prosecuted by Andrew S. Blum – now a Lake County Superior Court judge – and was represented by Mitchell Hauptman.

Iloff’s minimum eligible parole date was March 14, 2004. Iloff has had four previous parole consideration hearings, the District Attorney's Office reported.

According to investigation reports, Iloff had been involved in a relationship with the mother of his two children, but they had been separated for a few days, in part because of Iloff’s chronic drug abuse.

On Sept. 22, 1990, the woman was spending the night with Conatser at a home on Fourth Street in Clearlake Park.

At the time of the murder, one of Conatser’s children was sleeping in the same bed as Conatser and the woman. Conatser’s other child and the woman’s two children were asleep in another room.

At 4 a.m., Iloff jimmied the lock to the door, entered the house and the bedroom, and stabbed Conatser under the left armpit while everyone was asleep. 

After Iloff stabbed Conatser, he told the woman, “I stuck him, don’t call the cops,” and threatened to kill her, too. He then fled the scene and caught a ride back to Vallejo.

While an investigator from the Clearlake Police Department was at the murder scene with the woman, Iloff called the woman and told her that “if you give me up I’ll do you like I did him.”

A friend of Iloff told investigators that Iloff boasted that if the victim wasn’t dead that he would come back and finish him off.

Iloff told another person that he had grabbed the victim by the hair and said “Wake up. I want you to see who is going to kill you.”

Iloff then fled to Reno, Nev., where he was arrested five days later.

During Iloff’s time in prison he has had 22 disciplinary actions, including fighting, possession of alcohol, refusal to follow orders, assaulting other inmates, threatening a corrections officer and participating in a riot.

In 1999, he was convicted of attempted murder of another inmate while Iloff was incarcerated at Pelican Bay State Prison, according to Upton.

As a result of that conviction Iloff was sentenced to an additional and consecutive five-year prison term that he will have to serve if he is granted parole for the murder of Conatser, Upton reported.

At his initial parole hearing in 2003 Iloff got into a heated exchange with the parole commissioners and refused to attend the hearing. He has since had three other parole hearings scheduled.

At the parole hearing Wednesday, Conatser’s brother was present, as were Conatser’s two sons – who were asleep in the house at the time of the murder – to ask that Iloff's parole be denied.

Upton asked the Board of Prison Hearings commissioners to deny Iloff’s parole on the grounds that he still presented an unreasonable risk of danger to the public if released, and that although Iloff had begun to participate in prison rehabilitation programs, such participation was too recent to demonstrate a sincere reformation of character. 

The Board of Prison Hearings commissioners agreed and issued a three-year denial of parole, Upton reported.

Upton said Iloff’s next parole hearing will be in 2019.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Real estate sales in Lake County ended 2015 on an upswing, according to a report from the Lake County Association of Realtors.

LCAOR reported that the number of sales in December increased by 8 percent over November sales.

A total of 93 single family units sold in December compared to 86 in November. LCAOR said the 93 sales were the second-highest number in a month for 2015 with June topping the list at 109 sales.

The median sales price of $216,000 pulled back from the November median sales price of $252,250, which marked the high point for a monthly median price in 2015. The December median was the second-highest monthly sales price for 2015, according to LCAOR.

The 2015 December median sales price of $216,000 was 42-percent higher than the December 2014 median sales price of $152,000. In December of 2014 there were 53 sales making the 93 sales in December 2015 over 75-percent higher on a year-to-year basis, LCAOR reported.

“The last three months of 2015 ended strongly,” said 2016 LCAOR President Erin Woodward. “Both median sales prices and number of sales compared favorably to other months of the year. The real estate community did not know what to expect after the fires and many expected sales to slow, but that was not the case.”

Inventory levels in both November and December fell to four months. The report said a normal level of monthly inventory is considered to be six months.

In some years, LCAOR said the December inventories can be low as sellers wait to list their properties after the holidays. Continued low inventories can lead to a seller’s market.

Sales financed by cash fell to 25.6 percent of the transactions after they made up 47.7 percent of the deals in November. LCAOR said conventional loans accounted for 53.5 percent of the financing with another 10.5 percent of the transactions being financed through FHA loans.

Distressed sales increased to 17 percent of the sales after making up only 4.7 percent of the deals in November, according to the report.

On a statewide basis the California Association of Realtors reported that existing, single-family home sales totaled 405.530 in December, up 9.6 percent from November 2015 and up 10.7 percent from December 2014, LCAOR said.

LCAOR said the median sales price was $489,310 up 2.6 percent from November 2015 and up 8.0 percent from December 2014.

NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

Lake County – December 2015
Median price: $216,000
Median days to sell: 92
Units Sold: 93

Lake County – November 2015
Median price: $252,250
Median days to sell: 107
Units Sold: 86

Lake County – December 2014
Median price: $152,000
Median days to sell: 94
Units Sold: 53

On Thursday Gov. Jerry Brown named the head of the new agency tasked with regulating medical marijuana.

Lori Ajax, 50, of Fair Oaks, has been appointed chief of the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation at the California Department of Consumer Affairs, Brown's office reported.

In October, Brown signed the three-bill legislative package known as the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, which was championed by state Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg), whose district includes Lake County.

That legislation set out to regulate all aspects of the medical marijuana industry, and in so doing created the Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation.

The governor's office said Ajax has been chief deputy director at the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control since 2014, where she has served in several positions since 1995, including deputy division chief, supervising agent in charge and supervising agent.

Ajax is a member of the National Liquor Law Enforcement Association and the St. Sava Mission Foundation, according to Brown's statement on her appointment.

This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $150,636. Ajax is a Republican, the governor's office reported.
 
Email Elizabeth Larson at elarson@lakeconews.com . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – A Kelseyville man who led authorities on a high-speed vehicle chase on Tuesday evening was injured, with his girlfriend later arrested on drug and weapons charges.

Timothy Tolbert, 45, is facing numerous charges in connection to the pursuit as well as the discovery of drugs and weapons at his home, where his girlfriend, 41-year-old Amy Melissa Gregor, was arrested the following day, according to Sgt. Travis Lenz.

Just before 6 p.m. Tuesday Lenz was on routine patrol in the city of Clearlake when he observed a Honda CBR street bike motorcycle, with one rider, traveling eastbound on Lakeshore Drive during hours of darkness, without the front head light illuminated.

As Sgt. Lenz positioned his patrol vehicle behind the motorcycle to initiate a traffic enforcement stop, the rider drove the motorcycle onto the south shoulder of Lakeshore Drive, passing two stopped vehicles which were waiting at the stoplight at the intersection of Old Highway 53, Lenz said.

As the driver reached the intersection, the stoplight turned green, and the motorcycle proceeded through the intersection, heading eastbound and accelerating to a high rate of speed, Lenz said.

Lenz activated his patrol vehicle’s emergency lights and siren, yet the motorcycle failed to yield. He pursued the motorcycle to the intersection of Highway 53 at a high rate of speed.

The motorcyclist completed a right turn onto Highway 53, heading southbound and proceeding n Highway 53 at a high speed. Lenz said the driver continued southbound on Highway 53 until he reached the intersection of Highway 29. At this point, Lenz was several hundred feet behind the suspect vehicle.
 
Lake County Sheriff's Deputy Walter White, who was located at the intersection, got behind the motorcycle at that time, Lenz said, before the motorcyclist completed a right turn onto Highway 29 and proceeded northbound, continuing to travel at a high rate speed.

Lenz said the motorcyclist completed a right turn off Highway 29 onto Point Lakeview Road. Due to the abrupt turn the suspect made onto Point Lakeview Road, Deputy White had to proceed past Point Lakeview and turn around to safely complete the turn.

Lenz said he then got behind the motorcycle once again. After traveling a few hundred yards, the rider lost control of his motorcycle due to the unsafe speeds at which he was traveling, drove off the road and crashed into a telephone pole guide wire, prior to coming to a stop.

Sgt. Lenz and Deputy White were able to detain the rider, identified as Tolbert, who later was transported via air ambulance out of county for medical treatment due to the extent of his injuries, Lenz said.

The California Highway Patrol responded to the scene and completed the traffic collision investigation, according to Lenz.

Lenz said Tolbert also was confirmed to be on felony probation out of Tehama County for drug-related charges.

This case will be sent to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for a complaint against Tolbert on charges which include evading a police officer while driving in wanton willful disregard for public safety, evading a police officer while traveling in the opposing lane of traffic and driving on suspended license, Lenz said.

At 11:20 a.m. Wednesday the Clearlake Police Department Investigations Unit responded to the 9300 block of Buffalo Court in Kelseyville to conduct a probation search at Tolbert’s residence, Lenz reported.

During the probation search, Lenz said detectives contacted Gregor, who resides at his home.

At the residence Lenz said detectives located a large amount of heroin packaged for the purpose of sales, a vehicle which had been reported stolen out of Clearlake two days prior, pepper spray, .45-caliber ammunition and a “billy club”-style baton.

Lenz said Gregor is a convicted felon and was placed under arrest for possession of narcotics for the purposes of sale, possession of stolen property, possession of tear gas by a prohibited person, possession of ammunition by a prohibited person and possession of a billy club. Gregor was transported to and booked into the Lake County Jail.

All of the same charges against Gregor additionally will be sent to the Lake County District Attorney’s Office for complaint on Tolbert, due to the fact he is still hospitalized, Lenz said.
 
The Clearlake Police Department thanked the Lake County Sheriff’s Office and the CHP for their assistance in this investigation.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – County officials said this week that they are planning to begin winding down the donation management that the county took on last year in the wake of the Valley fire.

The closure of the Federal Emergency Management Agency Area Field Office in Lakeport at the end of January and the near-completion of the CalRecycle debris cleanup for residential lots has signaled a change in the direction of recovery as the Valley fire focus shifts towards rebuilding, the county of Lake reported.

“Many county staff have been working in the Emergency Operations Center and on fire recovery projects and programs since July 29, when the Rocky Fire broke out. Given the progress that has been achieved at this point, it’s the right time for many County staff to transition back into fulfilling their regular job duties,” said Lake County Administrative Officer Matt Perry. “Fulfilling these regular job duties will also contribute towards the rebuilding process.”

Donation management is one area that the county will be transitioning out of, officials said.

Managing donations is not a typical core service of any local government, but a county donation management team was established when it became apparent that Lake County was going to be inundated with physical contributions.

District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown estimated there were close to 500 tons of donations that were received, sorted, organized and taken to distribution centers since the start of the Valley fire.

The donation center at the Work Right building in Lakeport is slated to be closed by the end of March, the county reported.

“The owner of the building has a lease to another business starting in April,” said Brown.

The Seventh-day Adventist Donation Center hopes to remain open at their Lakeport site, located in the Willow Tree Shopping Center on 11th Street, for as long as the need remains.

The Cobb Mountain Lion’s Club plans to keep their donation center open at the Little Red Schoolhouse until the one-year anniversary of the start of the Valley Fire, Sept. 12, 2016.

One of the larger donation items offered was the mobile laundry unit built by Brett Gayner of Sonoma County.

However, at the Feb. 2 Valley Fire Long-Term Recovery Task Force meeting the county's recovery coordinator, Carol Huchingson, announced that the county is going to halt its efforts to place the unit.

“It has taken a significant amount of staff time looking for a workable location with the correct electrical and water hook ups and none of the possible arrangements pursued worked out,” Huchingson explained. “Staff can now devote that time to other areas of the recovery.”

Huchingson also pointed out that the owner of the existing Middletown Laundromat has reported that his facility is operating at only about 50- to 60-percent of capacity, thus indicating a readily available resource for Valley fire survivors who lost in-home laundry facilities when their homes burned.

“There are volunteer organizations in Lake County doing a tremendous job helping Valley fire survivors. County staff needs to focus on other areas of recovery to help Lake County rebuild. We are willing to support and encourage volunteer or community organizations to step in where there is a need,” said Brown.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This weekend months of study and preparation by three high school Academic Decathlon teams will culminate in the county competition.

The final stage of the Lake County Academic Decathlon will take place Saturday, Feb. 6, in the cafeteria at Kelseyville High School, 5480 Main St.

The public is invited to attend the Super Quiz and awards ceremony, beginning at 2 p.m., according to Tammy Serpa, education specialist with Career and College Readiness Department of the Lake County Office of Education. The event is free.

Serpa and Academic Decathlon coordinator Norma Cromwell are overseeing the event's organization.

This year's topic is India, Serpa said.

She said the master of ceremonies for the Super Quiz will be Dr. Ketmani Kouanchao, Mendocino College's dean of student services.

One team each from Clear Lake High School, Kelseyville High School and Upper Lake High School will take part in the Saturday competition, according to Serpa.

“We have 52 students combined participating this year in the decathlon,” Serpa said.

Clear Lake High School comes to the event as the defending champion.

The Academic Decathlon's 10 disciplines include arts, economics, essay, interview, language and literature, mathematics, music, science, social science and speech. In addition, the teams are scored on their Super Quiz performance.

Serpa said there also are poetry and poster production competitions judged by the Lake County Arts Council. Those contests are not scored in the overall competition.

The poems and posters will be on display at the event, and Serpa said they are tangible examples of what the students are learning through the competition.

Serpa said the Academic Decathlon's essay portion, which the students completed on computer, was proctored in January and judged by college professors and retired high school teachers throughout California.

The speech and interview portions of the competition took place last Saturday, also at Kelseyville High School, she said.

All of that is in preparation for the remaining portions of the competition, with the academic decathletes taking those subject exams on Saturday morning, ahead of the Super Quiz, Serpa said.

A number of local organizations are offering sponsorship of the Academic Decathlon once again this year, Serpa said.

She said Mendo Lake Credit Union will offer scholarships of $125, $75 and $50 for the top three interview finishers, with the Lodge at Blue Lakes giving a $100 scholarship to the top scoring student at each school. The Lakeport Lions also offers awards for the top speeches.

The winning team will advance to represent Lake County at the California Academic Decathlon in Sacramento March 17 through 20, Serpa said.

Serpa said the Friends of Mendocino College group will make a donation to the team heading to the state competition.

Email Elizabeth Larson at elarson@lakeconews.com . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

Californians have reduced water use by 25.5 percent since June, continuing to meet Gov. Jerry Brown's 25-percent mandate despite a decline in the statewide water-savings rate during the last three months of 2015.

In December, the statewide conservation rate was 18.3 percent, down from 20.4 percent in November, compared to the same months in 2013.

A drop in the water conservation rate was expected during the cooler fall and winter months, when Californians use less water and there is less opportunity to save on outdoor water use compared with the hot summer months.

Indeed, average statewide water use declined from 76 gallons per person per day in November to 67 gallons in December, the second lowest per-person rate since water-use reporting began in June 2014.

Nonetheless, Californians are urged to keep up their efforts to conserve through the winter months. This includes complying with urban water supplier directives to switch to once-a-week watering schedules, and not using outdoor irrigation during and within 48 hours following a rain event.

“While the recent rains and growing snowpack are wonderful to behold, we won’t know until spring what effect it will have on the bottom line for California’s unprecedented drought,” said Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board. “Until we can tally that ledger, we have to keep conserving water every way we can. Every drop saved today is one that we may be very glad we have tomorrow.”

In November 2015, the governor issued an executive order directing the State Water Board to extend and revise the drought emergency water conservation regulation based on conditions through January.

Staff released a draft updated emergency regulation for public comment on Jan. 15. The State Water Board was set to discuss this extended emergency regulation on Tuesday.

December conservation data

For June through December, the cumulative statewide reduction was 25.5 percent, compared to the same months in 2013. That equates to almost 1.1 million acre-feet of water saved, putting the state 91 percent of the way to meeting the 1.2 million acre-feet savings goal to be achieved through February 2016.

Statewide water savings for December 2015 was 18.3 percent (75,719 acre‑feet or 24.7 billion gallons), a decrease from November 2015’s 20.4 percent savings.

Contributing to the lower monthly savings, December 2015 saw the lowest level of water provider compliance to date with 60 percent of suppliers meeting their conservation standards.

Statewide average water use for December 2015 was 67 residential gallons per capita per day (R-GPCD), down from 76 gallons per person per day in November. This is the second-lowest per-person rate observed since the State Water Board began requiring reporting due to the drought.

In his April 1, 2015 executive order, Gov. Brown mandated a 25 percent water use reduction for cities and towns across California.

In May 2015, the State Water Board adopted an emergency regulation requiring an immediate 25 percent reduction in overall potable urban water use.

The regulation uses a sliding scale for setting conservation standards, so that communities that have already reduced their R-GPCD through past conservation will have lower mandates than those that have not made such gains since the last major drought.

The State Water Board tracks water conservation for each of the state’s larger urban water suppliers – those with more than 3,000 connections – on a monthly basis, but compliance with individual water supplier conservation requirements and the statewide 25 percent mandate is based on cumulative savings.

Cumulative tracking means that conservation savings will be added together from one month to the next and compared to the amount of water used during the same months in 2013.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – With a new year now under way, classes also are back in session at the Mendocino College Lake Center in Lakeport.

The Lake County Friends of Mendocino College, in partnership with members of the Lakeport Kiwanis Club, will host an open house and barbecue at the Lake Center campus from noon to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4, at the Lakeport campus.

The public is invited to attend to meet students and college officials, and learn about the Lake Center's programs and classes.

Steve Hixenbaugh, interim dean of the Lake Center and the college's career and technical education program, said the spring semester started last week for Mendocino College at its three campuses – in Ukiah, Willits and at the Lake Center. Hixenbaugh said the last day of the spring semester is May 27.

“We had a very strong fall. Every number was up here,” said Hixenbaugh, adding that fall enrollment grew by 11 percent across the district, including the Lake Center, in fall 2015 over fall 2014.

As the spring semester gets under way, there are 48 fewer students at the Lake Center compared to this time last year. However, Hixenbaugh said that with students still adding classes – and with several late start classes set to begin in the weeks ahead – he expects that final tally to change and show Lake County enrollment to be up.

There are slightly fewer classes being offered at the campus this semester as the college works to build the most efficient schedule. However, it has augmented its late-start and online course offerings, and all of the classes are well-enrolled, he said.

Overall, the district is showing an increase of 244 students for the spring semester, for a districtwide total of 4,154, he said, with all other metrics up.

“We're not seeing the decline other community colleges have seen,” he said.

That decline, according to Hixenbaugh and other local college officials, is a matter of an improving economy.

It also shows in the fact that there are slightly fewer full-time students this semester – 1,150 compared to 1,153 previously – but 247 more part-time students, a shift that Hixenbaugh said results from people having jobs and being unable to take a full-time course load.

“That's the economic indicator,” he said.

Hixenbaugh said there are 163 Lake County high school students taking courses either online, at high school sites or at the Lake Center, up from 100 in spring semester 2015.

He said the college has been working with its three strong Lake County high school partners, Clear Lake High, Kelseyville and Upper Lake, and the result is K-12 enrollments are significantly up.

“We're serving a lot more students here with online classes, and we've got a really significant footprint with our K12 partners,” he said, explaining there is a statewide move to get high school students college experience.

In one example of how the college is particularly serving the high schools, Hixenbaugh said it is offering a Spanish 200 course. For smaller districts that normally wouldn't be able to offer a full-time language instructor, it's a key offering.

Upper Lake High Principal/Superintendent Patrick Iaccino has discussed at board meetings his students taking the courses from Mendocino College, which is helping them meet language requirements.

Mendocino College offers a lot of online courses, and there are more Lake County students taking classes online than their counterparts in Mendocino County, he said.

Approximately 31 percent of online students are from Lake County, which provides 25 percent of the districtwide student population, Hixenbaugh said.

The college is offering a wide variety of courses, including science classes such as chemistry, which Hixenbaugh said always is full.

He said there always has been a demand for science classes, but the challenge has been providing the courses. However, thanks to the new state-of-the-art classrooms that are fully equipped for those science classes, the courses now are available.

Among its late-start classes, the Lake Center will host a new “Construction Fundamentals” course that's meant to assist with the rebuilding effort following last year's wildland fires. That class begins Feb. 27.

Hixenbaugh said the course will be aimed at both owner-builders and those going into the construction field.

The college is now working to finalize its summer class offerings, Hixenbaugh said.

“We're hoping to plan a robust summer schedule,” which he said should be done within the next few weeks.

The college is part of a countywide education coalition that consists of the Lake County Office of Education, Marymount California University, Woodland Community College and others that Hixenbaugh said are making progress in increasing the educational offerings to help Lake County residents advance not just learning opportunities but quality of life.

The 30-acre campus, with a view of Mt. Konocti and the nearby hills traversed by Highway 175, opened to students in January 2013 in Lakeport and won TLCD Architecture awards for its design.

“It's a beautiful campus,” said Hixenbaugh.

He said there is plenty of room to grow as the campus continues to expand.

“This place is such a gem,” said Hixenbaugh.

The Lake Center is located at 2565 Parallel Drive in Lakeport, telephone 707-263-4944. For class information visit http://www.mendocino.edu/ .

Email Elizabeth Larson at elarson@lakeconews.com . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.