LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Authorities are continuing to investigate the cause of an early Monday morning structure fire in Clearlake.
The fire in the area of Cottonwood Street and Walnut Avenue was first dispatched shortly after 3 a.m. Monday.
Firefighters arriving at the scene found downed power lines, according to radio reports.
Lake County Fire Chief Willie Sapeta said crews arrived on scene to find a fully involved motorhome, with the fire also burning a mobile home and an extension building, and destroying a garage.
There also was damage to the awning on another nearby mobile home and charring of the exterior of a stick built home, Sapeta said.
Sapeta said there were no injuries.
Firefighters remained on scene for mop up and patrol until 6:30 a.m. Monday, Sapeta said.
He said on Tuesday that they were still working to determine the cause, but they have ruled out fireworks.
Assisting Lake County Fire were agencies including Cal Fire, Kelseyville Fire, Northshore Fire and South Lake County Fire, Sapeta said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
From left, Tarin Benson and Justin Gaddy are the newest appointees to the First 5 Lake Commission. Courtesy photos. LAKEPORT, Calif. — At the June 22 meeting of the Lake County Board of Supervisors, two new commissioners were appointed to the First 5 Lake Commission.
Tarin Benson is the coordinator of student services for Konocti Unified School District and Justin Gaddy is the program manager for Hope Rising Lake County.
Both appointees will each serve two-year terms as at-large commissioners.
Benson qualified for consideration as a commissioner as a representative of a local school district, and Gaddy qualified as a parent of a young child, under the age of 6, and recipient of project services included in the First 5 Lake strategic plan.
“I want to be part of organizations that are taking the lead in developing growth opportunities for our children and creating a brighter future for our community. I don’t just want to talk about change; I want to be part of the change that’s talked about,” said Gaddy.
“I am interested in helping to make the connections between 0-5 and education, and in building up our community by making a positive impact at the earliest ages because what happens in early childhood impacts a lifetime,” said Benson.
“We are excited to have Commissioners Benson and Gaddy at the First 5 table going forward,” said Carla Ritz, executive director for First 5 Lake. “There were several qualified applicants, each with varied backgrounds and experiences that would have been valuable to the First 5 Commission.”
Ritz added, “The recruitment and selection committee members were particularly focused on finding qualified candidates who could represent children and families in District 2 which was underrepresented on the commission at the time. Equity is a core value of First 5 Lake, and we believe that representation is essential to the pursuit of that value.”
Both Benson and Gaddy grew up in the south shore area of Lake County and attended schools within Konocti Unified School District, and both are graduates of Lower Lake High School who now work in Clearlake and Lower Lake.
The next meeting of the First 5 Lake Commission will be held via Zoom on Wednesday, Aug. 25, at 2 p.m. Members of the public are welcome and encouraged to attend and offer comments. More information about First 5 Lake, its investments and priorities can be found at www.firstfivelake.org.
Using funds derived from CA Proposition 10’s voter-mandated tax on tobacco products, the First 5 Lake County Commission funds programs and services that benefit the health and development of young children and educate parents, grandparents, caregivers and teachers about the critical role they play during a child’s first five years.
Since its inception in 2000, First 5 Lake has supported thousands of families with programs and services designed to help Lake County children grow up healthy and ready to succeed in school and life.
The First 5 Lake commissioners are:
— Chair Tina Scott, Lake County District 4 supervisor. — Vice Chair Carly Swatosh-Sherman, Lake County Office of Education, education specialist. — Brock Falkenberg, Lake County superintendent of schools. — Crystal Markytan, Lake County Social Services director. — Denise Pomeroy, Lake County Health Services director. — Allison Panella, mother of children under age 5. — Fawn Rave, education director, Robinson Rancheria. — Tarin Benson, coordinator of student services for Konocti Unified School District. — Justin Gaddy, father of a child under age 5.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The real estate market in Lake County continued to be strong through May.
The monthly reports are a snapshot of averages for our local real estate market.
How strong is the market you may ask?
The existing median price for single family residences in all of Lake County was $360,000 for the month of May. That’s up 30% from May 2020 and up $27,000 from April, which was $333,000.
That breaks down as follows for the county’s communities:
Lakeport: The median home price is in sync with the county median at $360,000, which is 46.7% lower than May of 2020. That shows that in May of 2020 there were some more expensive homes sold in Lakeport as compared to this year.
Hidden Valley Lake: May’s median home price also is in sync in Hidden Valley Lake with the county average of $360,000. That’s up 14.3% over the May 2020 average.
Kelseyville: The median home price in May was $450,000, up 50% from a year ago. That shows that in May 2021 there were some higher-priced homes sold when compared to May 2020.
Clearlake: The median home price for Clearlake was $227,000, up 2% over last year.
Existing single family residence sales were up 72% over last year countywide, at 86 sales for the month of May 2021 in all of Lake County.
Some of the higher numbers over last year were likely due to increased real estate activity after real estate agents were deemed essential workers.
By community, existing single family residential sales for May as compared to the previous year were as follows:
Lakeport: Up 400%, with 15 sales, showing that in May of last year there were slim to no sales in Lakeport.
Hidden Valley Lake: 160% over May of last year, with 13 sales, also showing a large increase in sales.
Kelseyville: Up 5.6% over May of last year, with 19 sales.
Clearlake: Up 27.3% over May of last year, with 14 sales.
The inventory for most of Lake County continued to be low in May 2021 at 156 active listings, down 37.3% from May 2020.
In April active listings totaled 128, so it is good to see that while inventory was still low in May it was up over the previous month.
For Lakeport there were 22 active listings in May 2021, up 29.4% over last May. This is only area that the data indicates more listings than the same time last year.
For Hidden Valley Lake there were 20 active listings for May 2021, down 53.5% from last May.
For Kelseyville there were 32 active listings in May 3021, down 48.4% from last May.
For Clearlake there were 29 active listings in May 2021, down 37% from last May.
Throughout Lake County for the month of May 2021, the median days on the market was nine, with sales to list price being 100% and 31.4% of active listings having price reductions.
In Lakeport, median days on market in May was five, with sales to list price being 100% and 18.2% of active listings having price reductions.
In Hidden Valley Lake, median days on the market was also five, sales to list price also 100%, and 30% of active listings have reduced their price.
In Kelseyville, May’s median days on market was 15 — a little longer than the rest of the county, but the median price was also higher than the rest of the county. The higher priced homes do tend to sell less quickly. Sales to list price was 100% and 37.5% of active listings have reduced their price.
In Clearlake, the May median days on the market was 11, sales to list price being 100% and percentage of active listing with price reductions being 20.7%.
This shows that for the month of May 2021, homes that are priced correctly are selling at asking price very quickly, 15 days or less.
Additionally, while it is a strong sellers market, buyers are not willing to overpay and that if a listing is overpriced, price reductions are happening.
Tama Prokopowich is president-elect of the Lake County Association of Realtors.
Illegal fireworks seized by authorities in Lakeport, California, during the 2021 Independence Day celebration. Photo courtesy of the Lakeport Police Department. LAKEPORT, Calif. — The Lakeport Police Department issued an update on its efforts to stop illegal fireworks usage during this week’s Independence Day celebration.
Lakeport Police once again partnered with the Lakeport Fire Protection District this year, with the two agencies launching their first undercover unit to deal with illegal fireworks.
The police department said that their combined efforts with Lakeport Fire resulted in the seizure of approximately 15 pounds of illegal fireworks and the arrest or citation of five subjects.
In addition, police and fire officials maintained visibility in the problem areas and issued public education to other violators.
“We know we’re not able to address every illegal fireworks incident as it is a daunting task for our limited resources to keep up with the amount of violators we have,” the police department said in a statement.
As a reminder of the dangers of these illegal and dangerous fireworks, police said they responded to one incident where a citizen reported being burned by fireworks debris after a fireworks charge prematurely exploded in a mortar tube.
All seized fireworks will be turned over to the fire marshal for safe destruction, police said.
The Lakeport Police Department will present a full after action report to the Lakeport City Council in the near future.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — With the Lake County Rodeo saddling up this month after a year off due to the pandemic, organizers are once again seeking youngsters to take part in its Cutest Cowpoke Competition and mutton bustin’.
The 91st annual Lake County Rodeo takes place Friday, July 9, and Saturday, July 10, at the Lake County Fairgrounds, 401 Martin St., Lakeport.
Rodeo is for all ages and on Friday the Cutest Cowpoke Competition takes place, while mutton bustin’ will take place on both nights.
Cutest Cowpoke Competition
The Cutest Cowpoke Competition will take place between 6 and 7 p.m. at the fairgrounds.
This contest is open to boys and girls, ages 3 to 8, with no limit on the number of entries.
The Clear Lake Junior Horsemen and the Scotts Valley 4-H sponsor the Cutest Cowpoke Competition. You will also see the Clear Lake Junior Horsemen each evening as they perform their very excellent Drill Team routines.
Applications are available online at www.lakecountyrodeo.com and the Lake County Chamber of Commerce at Vista Point in Lakeport.
The deadline to enter is Friday, July 9, at 5:30 p.m. at the fairgrounds.
All participants should arrive at the rodeo on Friday, no later than 5:15 p.m. to check in at the rodeo office.
It is necessary to purchase tickets to the rodeo to participate, but there is no entry fee for the competition. Admission to the rodeo for children 6 and under is free.
Children are encouraged to dress in “rodeo style,” but no live props are allowed.
The winning boy and girl will each be awarded a special silver buckle for their prize.
For questions concerning this event, please call 707-245-7431.
Mutton Bustin’
Most youngsters have played at being cowboys and cowgirls as they were growing up. Being a rodeo performer is also a dream for many.
On Friday and Saturday, that dream will come true for 10 youngsters each night who have entered the Mutton Bustin' Competition.
The competition will take place each day between 6 and 7 p.m.
Boys and girls between the ages of 4 and 8 years old will have the thrill of their life seeing how long they can ride a sheep. The winner each night will be awarded a silver buckle.
Presale rodeo tickets are available in Middletown at Koontz and Rainbow Ag; Pasquinellis Deli and Barreda’s Lower Lake Feed; Upper Lake Grocery; and in Lakeport, at Rainbow Ag, Lake County Chamber and West Lake Auto Center.
The ticket prices are adults $15 and youth $10, both nights. Presale tickets for Saturday evening are $2 off.
DJ Ken Steely will play for a dance following the rodeo on both Friday and Saturday, beginning between 9 and 9:30 p.m.
Daniel Johnson, University of Georgia and Raquel Partelli Feltrin, University of British Columbia
Like humans, trees need water to survive on hot, dry days, and they can survive for only short times under extreme heat and dry conditions.
During prolonged droughts and extreme heat waves like the Western U.S. is experiencing, even native trees that are accustomed to the local climate can start to die.
Central and northern Arizona have been witnessing this in recent months. A long-running drought and resulting water stress have contributed to the die-off of as many as 30% of the junipers there, according to the U.S. Forest Service. In California, over 129 million trees died as a consequence of a severe drought in the last decade, leaving highly flammable dry wood that can fuel future wildfires.
Trees survive by moving water from their roots to their leaves, a process known as vascular water transport.
Water moves through small cylindrical conduits, called tracheids or vessels, that are all connected. Drought disrupts the water transport by reducing the amount of water available for the tree. As moisture in the air and soil decline, air bubbles can form in the vascular system of plants, creating embolisms that block the water’s flow.
The less water that is available for trees during dry and hot periods, the higher the chances of embolisms forming in those water conduits. If a tree can’t get water to its leaves, it can’t survive.
A dyed cross section of a ponderosa pine sapling shows the water transport tissue and conduits.Raquel Partelli Feltrin
Drought stress also weakens trees, leaving them susceptible to bark beetle infestations. During the 2012-2015 drought in the Sierra Nevada, nearly 90% of the ponderosa pines died, primarily due to infestations of western pine beetles.
Fire damage + drought also weakens trees
Although fire is beneficial for fire-prone forests to control their density and maintain their health, our research shows that trees under drought stress are more likely to die from fires. During droughts, trees have less water for insulation and cooling against fires. They may also reduce their production of carbohydrates – tree food – during droughts, which leaves them weaker, making it harder for them to recover from fire damage.
Trees that suffer trunk damage in a fire are also less likely to survive in the following years if drought follows. When trees have fire scars, their vascular conduits tend to be less functional for water transport around those scars. Traumatic damage to the vascular tissue can also decrease their resistance to embolisms.
So, burned trees are more likely to die from drought; and trees in drought are more likely to die from fire.
What does this mean for future forests?
Trees in Western forests have been dying at an alarming rate over the past two decades due to droughts, high temperatures, pests and fires. As continuing greenhouse gas emissions warm the planet and drive moisture loss, increasing the frequency, duration and intensity of droughts, research shows the U.S. and much of the world will likely witness more widespread tree deaths.
The impact that changing drought and fire regimes will have on forests farther in the future is still somewhat unclear, but several observations may offer some insight.
There is evidence of a transition from forests to shrublands or grasslands in parts of the Western U.S. Frequent burning in the same area can reinforce this transition. When drought or fire alone kills some of the trees, the forests often regenerate, but how long it will take for forests to recover to a pre-fire or pre-drought condition after a large-scale die-off or severe fire is unknown.
In the past decade, the Western U.S. has witnessed its most severe droughts in over 1,000 years, including in the Southwest and California. A recent study found subalpine forests in the central Rockies are more fire-prone now than they have been in at least 2,000 years.
If there is no change in greenhouse gas emissions, temperatures will continue to increase, and severe drought stress and fire danger days will rise as a result.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — The Middletown Area Town Hall will hold an “unofficial” meeting to discuss local issues this week.
MATH will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, July 8, via Zoom. The meeting is open to the public.
To join the Zoom meeting click on this link; the meeting ID is 935 1671 5770. Call in at 888-788-0099.
The group reported that, due to the July 4 holiday, the agenda did not go out in time for an official MATH meet this Thursday, so the meeting will be “unofficial.”
They will gather to allow community members to meet, share improvement items they have posted to the Lake Area Planning Council and discuss community concerns.
Items they expect to discuss include needed stop signs, a discussion of reconvening in person, sharing of Area Planning Council posts and the monthly report from Supervisor Moke Simon.
The MATH Board includes Co-Chairs Rosemary Córdova and Monica Rosenthal, Secretary Lisa Kaplan, and Ken Gonzales and Paul Baker.
MATH — established by resolution of the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 12, 2006 — is a municipal advisory council serving the residents of Anderson Springs, Cobb, Coyote Valley (including Hidden Valley Lake), Long Valley and Middletown.
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Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
The Western U.S. has seen record-breaking high temperatures in recent weeks as a heat dome, or mass of warm air, blankets the Pacific Northwest.
This essentially occurs when a “mountain” or “dome” of warm air rises into the atmosphere, gets pinched off by the jet stream, and blocks new weather systems from moving in.
The extreme heat, coupled with a severe drought this spring and summer in the region, has combined to significantly raise the risk of wildfire from both human and natural hazards, such as lightning.
As the drought and heat wave stretches on, vegetation in these areas dries out, creating ample fuel for potential wildfires. But how dry is it?
NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP, part of the Joint Polar Satellite System, or JPSS, detect and monitor drought and plant health using observations from their Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS, instrument.
The VIIRS instrument, which views Earth in visible and infrared wavelengths, detects the “greenness” of vegetation, which shows how many plants there are, how leafy they are, and how healthy they are.
Scientists are able to use that data to color code areas on a map where vegetation is stressed based on a scale of zero (most stressed) to 100, due to lack of water and extreme temperatures.
Additionally, its Active Fire Product provides additional information on active thermal anomalies. This information is used to monitor drought and estimate crop yields, but can also be used to estimate fire risk around the world.
The data from June 24 show that western vegetation is extremely stressed, especially as compared to June 2020 and other, more average years.
Between June 25 and 27, the Geostationary Lightning Mapper, or GLM, an instrument on NOAA’s geostationary satellites, GOES-16 and GOES-17, observed significant lightning activity across the western U.S. from summer storms.
GLM monitors lightning activity continuously over the Americas and surrounding ocean regions, collecting information such as the frequency, location and extent of lightning discharges to identify intensifying thunderstorms and tropical cyclones.
Lightning from a June 25 thunderstorm in Northern California sparked the Lava Fire, which is 24,974 acres, according to the InciWeb Incident Information System, and is currently 70 percent contained.
The Shasta-Trinity National Forest, which is managing the fire response effort in coordination with Cal Fire, attributed the rapid growth of the fire to “strong, erratic winds and dry fuels.”
GOES-16 and GOES-17 have kept constant watch over the area from more than 22,300 miles above the Earth’s surface, providing continuous updates on the fire, though at a coarser resolution than the JPSS satellites, which orbit closer to the planet.
The Advanced Baseline Imager, or ABI, on these satellites is capable of detecting heat signatures and changes in fire behavior faster and more accurately than previous versions of this sensor, as well as help predict the motion of fires in real time.
The ABI measures energy at different wavelengths that is either reflected (visible or near infrared) or emitted (infrared) from Earth’s surface. Thus, it is able to measure the size, temperature, and radiative power of fires.
For example, the GOES-R fire detection and characterization data product uses both visible and infrared channels to locate fires and learn about their characteristics. Fire Temperature RGB imagery is used to manually locate and monitor fire hot spots, which are shown as red, orange, yellow, or white as it grows hotter.
This type of imagery is particularly useful to identify new hot spots and the direction those hot spots are moving, especially for fast-growing or newly-formed fires.
Also, GeoColor imagery combines data from multiple channels from the ABI so it looks similar to what we would see with the naked eye, allowing us to easily spot smoke plumes from fires rising into the atmosphere.
Satellite imagery of several of the fires, including the Pack Creek and Bear Fires in Utah and the Telegraph Fire in Arizona, reveal impressive plumes with thick pyrocumulus clouds, which form when there is enough moisture and atmospheric instability over an intense heat source and smoke."
Suomi NPP and NOAA-20 have been able to track the Lava Fire’s changes overnight through the use of the Day-Night Band, which can see weather patterns and environmental events in low-light conditions. Additionally, when passing over twice a day, the VIIRS instrument provides fine-resolution imagery of the fires, which helps to detect smaller and lower-temperature fires, as well as better map the perimeter of larger fires. Additionally, the satellites collect detailed information about fire intensity.
This data helps to predict the height, thickness and movements of wildfire smoke, which can help inform air quality advisories and warnings to protect public health in the area.
After a fire, the satellites can provide high-resolution looks at the burn scars, which can help to forecast post-fire weather events like mudslides and debris flows.
The benefits provided by the latest generation of NOAA satellites aren’t just seen during a fire but are important in monitoring the entire life cycle of a fire disaster.
Data from the satellites are helping forecasters monitor drought conditions, locate hot spots, detect changes in a fire’s behavior, predict a fire’s motion, monitor smoke and air quality, and monitor the post-fire landscape like never before.
“Taz” is a male domestic shorthair kitten in cat room kennel No. 66, ID No. a798. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Taz’
“Taz” is a male domestic shorthair kitten with a yellow tabby coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 66, ID No. a798.
This young male Siamese mix is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-960. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Siamese mix
This young male Siamese mix has a short white coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-960.
This female Siamese mix is in cat room kennel No. 68, ID No. LCAC-A-963. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Female Siamese mix
This female Siamese mix has a short coat and blue eyes.
She is 2 years old.
She is in cat room kennel No. 68, ID No. LCAC-A-963.
This male yellow tabby kitten is in cat room kennel No. 70b, ID No. LCAC-A-987. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male domestic shorthair kitten
This male yellow tabby kitten has a short coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 70b, ID No. LCAC-A-987.
This male yellow tabby kitten is in cat room kennel No. 70d, ID No. LCAC-A-989. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male domestic shorthair kitten
This male yellow tabby kitten has a short coat.
He is in cat room kennel No. 70d, ID No. LCAC-A-989.
This male domestic shorthair is in cat room kennel No. 120, ID No. LCAC-A-874. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male domestic shorthair
This male domestic shorthair has a gray and white coat.
He is 1-year-old and weighs nearly 6 pounds.
He is in cat room kennel No. 120, ID No. LCAC-A-874.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors’ last meeting of June saw its members confronted with numerous issues related to employment, from workplace safety to a notable retirement, and ongoing challenges with recruitment.
It was during the same meeting that numerous In-Home Supportive Services workers rallied outside on the courthouse steps and spoke to the board during public comment about wanting better working conditions and wages. Their union, California United Homecare Workers Union Local 4034, had closed session negotiations with the board, sitting as the IHSS Public Authority, on that day.
The board also approved new updates to the county’s COVID-19 workplace safety rules and honored retiring county Risk Manager Jeff Rein after 30 years of dedicated service.
One of the main employment-related items was the board’s discussion and approval of drafts of a hiring incentive policy and an updated referral policy, both of which offer cash to bring in new employees.
The challenges are being attributed, in part, to the pandemic.
County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson said the county’s classification, compensation and recruitment committee was largely responsible for the draft policies.
That committee includes Huchingson, Supervisor Moke Simon, Supervisor Tina Scott, Human Resources Director Pam Samac, County Auditor-Controller/County Clerk Cathy Saderlund, analyst Diana Rico of Human Resources, Health Services Director Denise Pomeroy, Sheriff Brian Martin, Social Services Director Crystal Markytan, Chief Probation Officer Rob Howe, and deputy county administrative officers Steven Carter and Matthew Rothstein, a group Huchingson said during the meeting included “the best minds.”
Huchingson said staff wanted to workshop the drafts with the board and then take them to meet and confer with the county’s employee unions. The drafts would then return to the board before the policies are put in place, which could take place in July.
Samac said the committee had worked over the course of several months to develop a hiring incentive policy to attract and retain hard to fill positions.
The document defines hard to fill as those which have had two failed recruitments in a six-month period, resulted in fewer than three to five qualified and available candidates, candidates have declined job offers due to wages and benefits, non-entry level positions that have turned over multiple times in the last three to five years, and promotional recruitments that are not eligible for hiring incentives.
The positions are not entry level, with Samac adding, “Promotional recruitments are not eligible for this incentive.”
The list the committee sent to the board includes positions in 10 classifications that have typically been hard to fill. Those classifications are for attorneys, engineers, licensed medical staff, mid/senior level management, planners, safety, senior accounting and finance, senior social workers, mental health and substance abuse, and specialized skills and certifications.
Samac said they will look at those positions twice a year and ask to have more positions added to the list twice annually.
Proposed incentives as initially presented to the board were $6,000 for deputy sheriffs, deputy probation officers and welfare fraud investigators; $5,000 for correctional officers and dispatchers; and all other positions would be 10 percent of the overall salary, not to exceed $10,000.
Board Chair Bruno Sabatier said he had asked Human Resources for a list of all vacancies. He said that list showed 237 vacant positions but the list of jobs proposed for incentives covered only 60 of them.
He said every one of the positions that are vacant need to be supported. “How are we going to fill those positions?” he asked, adding, “We don’t need a list.”
Sabatier said the plan shouldn’t be specific to pay and that it doesn’t matter why the position isn’t filled.
He also noted the “insane” competition for public safety employees, adding he’s talked to the sheriffs of surrounding counties about it.
Scott said they needed to look at the proposal as “one brick in the wall,” and she was fearful of completely opening the incentives up to all jobs.
During the pandemic the county’s recruitment has been in a “holding pattern,” said Huchingson, noting that the vacancies now may look different than they would if not for emerging from a pandemic.
“Ultimately, we are looking for an overall fix,” said Simon, calling the incentive list a tool.
Huchingson said the incentives will be funded by cannabis tax for general fund departments, and for self-funded departments with salary savings, they will cover it themselves.
Sabatier wanted to have the matter brought back to the board once $100,000 in incentives have been spent.
“That would be a miracle,” said Huchingson, who suggested that the program might have traction in three to four months from implementation.
Huchingson said staff plans to bring back to the board at a future time the county relocation policy that offers $3,500 to new employees; she said the goal is to increase that amount.
Department heads ask for additional jobs, more money
Sheriff Martin told the board that with the proposed increase to $6,000 for deputies, “I wouldn't say we’re competitive at $6,000. I’d say we’re more competitive.”
Neighboring agencies also offer incentives — some of them substantially more.
Martin said the Ukiah Police Department pays $10,000 to recruits out of the academy, $8,000 to live in the city and $20,000 for lateral transfers.
“It’s tough to compete with that,” he said.
He said awhile back the committee’s name was changed to also include a focus on retention. “The current employees we have are arguably more important,” with more experience and dedication, Martin said.
“In my department I’m dealing with a retention issue as much as a recruitment issue,” said Martin, explaining that he’s hiring people and losing them more quickly.
Since taking a draft budget to the board a few weeks before, his number of employees had dropped from 121 to 114. The next conversation, he said, needs to be about retention.
Not discussed during the meeting was the fact that when many county employees were given raises last year as a result of the classification and compensation study, the deputies did not receive a raise. In June, the deputies’ union returned to negotiations with the county.
During the discussion, other department heads raised their own concerns.
Todd Metcalf of Behavioral Health Services explained his department is used as a training ground, with people staying only a few years.
Crystal Markytan of Social Services said a committee isn’t needed to figure out that Lake needs to pay its employees on par with other counties, because the county is spending an enormous amount of money to train people only to lose them.
Public Works and Water Resources Director Scott De Leon asked to have the board add the county surveyor position, which he said will be hard to recruit. It is being vacated due to a retirement.
Health Services Director Denise Pomeroy told the board that if her agency doesn’t have the staff to draw down funding from the federal government, the government will take away the funds.
She said the Public Health Department is a training ground, hiring licensed staff out of school who stay a few years and then leave. She said they have had some positions vacant for as long as nine years.
Huchingson said the updated hiring policy could be implemented on July 13 and three months after that the county could see changes in recruitment outcomes.
Sabatier said that looking at the hard to fill vacancy list, the average pay of vacancies on the priority list is $30 an hour.
Other vacancies average $22 and hour. He said those support staff positions will be very hard to fill if nothing is done.
“I’m still very uneasy with just pushing this forward when it seems very top heavy as to who we’re trying to recruit versus what does our county need,” Sabatier said.
He said the county won’t be able to fill $14 an hour positions with no incentive.
The board reached consensus to raise the incentive for public safety employees to $10,000.
Samac said Animal Care and Control Director Jonathan Armas asked for the veterinarian and vet tech positions also to be added.
The board also supported the second policy change, raising the employee referral incentive from $500 to $750 for most positions and up to $1,000 for hard to fill positions.
The new employee has to work for 90 days and mention who referred them for that person to receive the incentive, staff explained.
Huchingson said they were asking to increase the amount for the referrals due to minimal success.
Simon said he wants to entertain increasing the referral bonus for all positions to $1,000 in the future.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
The city of Clearlake’s fireworks display over Clear Lake in Lake County, California, on Saturday, July 3, 2021. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County returned to a more familiar celebration of Independence Day this weekend, with residents and visitors alike coming out to enjoy events that were more limited or canceled last year.
This year’s main events were in Clearlake on Saturday and Lakeport on Sunday.
Clearlake’s daylong Redbud Festival, beginning with the parade in the morning and continuing through to the fireworks display on Saturday night, drew thousands of people to Austin Park.
Last year, the city held a drive-in event, but this year looked more like past festivals, with the addition of a concert at the new band shell in Austin Park.
City streets around the event were lined with vehicles, and the crowd appeared larger than pre-COVID years.
“It went exceptionally well,” said Clearlake Police Chief Andrew White.
White said that, despite the large crowds and traffic there were no significant issues during the celebration.
“I think it was a shining moment for the city and a vision transformed to reality,” he said. “Along the way there were numerous degrading comments about how the event would fail, no one would sponsor the concert, there would be all kinds of crime, etc., etc. I think the community proved them wrong. It was a great event.”
White said he even ran into a former co-worker who came up from the Bay Area just for the concert.
The fireworks display in the city of Lakeport, California, center, with another display at nearby Konocti Vista Casino at right. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News. In Lakeport, where the 2020 Independence Day event had been canceled because of the pandemic, the show was back on for Sunday.
Spectators crowded into the city and watched the fireworks display from locations including the shoreline.
In addition to Library Park, the fireworks barge this year was moved to make the show more visible from the new lakeside park that’s being constructed on the former Natural High property in order to allow for more spacing of spectators.
During the event, the Lakeport Police Department once again had a command post set up at City Hall, with mutual aid assistance from agencies including Lakeport Police, California State Parks, California Highway Patrol, Clearlake Police and Lake County Probation.
No alcohol was allowed at the event this year, and there was one alcohol-related arrest that involved a fight, said Police Chief Brad Rasmussen.
Rasmussen estimated that there was about the same amount of illegal firework activity as previous years.
The city of Lakeport is the only place in Lake County that allows for the sale and use of safe and sane fireworks from July 1 to 4. The city usually sets up an area to use safe and sane fireworks during the event, and this year officials enlarged the area for these fireworks on Fourth Street near Library Park.
Illegal fireworks seized on Sunday, July 4, 2021, in Lakeport, California. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News. Even so, the city every year plans for dealing with the illegal fireworks that make their way into the city and which were detonated before and after the city’s fireworks show.
New this year was an undercover team of a Lakeport Fire firefighter and a Lakeport Police officer who were on patrol looking for illegal fireworks.
Police seized illegal fireworks on Sunday as well as some safe and sane fireworks that Rasmussen said were transported to the city through areas where they are not legal.
The fireworks seizures occurred in areas including Library Park and Willopoint, Rasmussen said.
Rasmussen said there were a total of five misdemeanor arrests made by early Monday for illegal fireworks, with the undercover team contributing to those arrests. One of the arrests resulted from a foot pursuit on 11th Street.
Illegal fireworks seized by police included bottle rockets, mini blasters, flaming balls launched from mortar tubes, Roman candles and magic whips.
In one incident, illegal fireworks being discharged on a dock at Library Park injured a bystander, Rasmussen said.
He said a woman reported she had been burned when a mortar tube exploded prematurely.
Rasmussen said the illegal fireworks will be sent to the state fire marshal for destruction.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
At right, Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen places seized fireworks into a bag held by Gerry Gonzalez, a Lakeport Police reserve officer, at the command post at Lakeport City Hall in Lakeport, California, on Sunday, July 4, 2021. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News.
Festivities to celebrate Independence Day, the Fourth of July, are as historically woven into the American experience as apple pie. Photo by Esther Oertel. Fourth of July themed artwork and craft by the author's granddaughter. By the time the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776, we’d been working on our independence from Great Britain for at least three years. This began with dumping tea into Boston Harbor as a protest against steep taxation of the beloved brew.
The following year, in 1774, the newly formed Continental Congress began meeting to discuss what to do about British imposition of inequitable laws. The result, the birth of a new nation, was made official when the Declaration of Independence was signed two years later.
A war had to be fought to make this a reality. For eight long years, the sheer grit and determination of an untrained Continental Army – with some help from the French — eventually overcame the elite fighting force that was the British military.
Two hundred and 45 years later, we still celebrate this victory — and the pre-victory declaration — with aplomb. As we should.
To enhance your festivities, however the Fourth is observed by you, I offer a bit of trivia about the holiday, including some obscure tidbits with which you can impress your friends and family if you so desire.
In addition, some Fourth of July food history is presented. We may think that barbecuing on this holiday is relatively new but think again — it’s been happening on the Fourth longer than we may imagine.
Today’s recipes are variations on refreshing and thirst-quenching lemonade, a must for summer and any Fourth of July celebration. A traditional version is included –— among the best I’ve tasted — as well as some revved up fancy ones just for fun. Enjoy!
Fourth of July trivia
July 2, 1776 could just have easily been designated our nation’s birthday. It was then that the Continental Congress voted to declare independence from British rule; however, the Declaration of Independence wasn’t finalized until two days later, making July 4, 1776 the official date on the document.
John Adams, who later became our second President, favored July 2 as our designated Independence Day. He so vehemently opposed July 4 that he refused to attend future Independence Day celebrations.
Or Independence Day could’ve been Aug. 2, the date that the document was finally signed.
The “pursuit of happiness” as famously recorded in the preamble, wasn’t the wording in the original draft. Thomas Jefferson initially wrote “pursuit of property,” but Benjamin Franklin convinced him to make the change since he considered property too narrow a definition.
While Thomas Jefferson is considered the Declaration’s author, the document was written by a five-man committee also consisting of Franklin, Adams, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingston. To be fair, Jefferson was the one officially responsible for drafting the formal statement, however, he wasn’t recognized as its principal author until the 1790s.
One of Jefferson’s early drafts condemned the slave trade. Though he owned more than 200 slaves in 1776, he called it a “cruel war against human nature” and condemned King George III for “creating and sustaining” it.
The first official Independence Day celebration was held the following year, July 4, 1777.
The tradition of Fourth of July fireworks began in 1777 at this first celebration. In addition to the fireworks, bells were rung and thirteen cannons were fired, one round for each state of the union.
Massachusetts was the first to declare the Fourth of July a state holiday, which it did in 1781, several months before the key American victory in Yorktown.
Button Gwinnett is considered the most obscure signer of the document. He passed away a year later, making his signature the rarest and therefore the most valuable, despite his relative lack of future accomplishment.
And finally, a woman’s signature appears on some copies of the Declaration of Independence. Though she’s not an official signer, Mary Katharine Goddard, a well-known patriot and one of the nation’s first woman publishers and postmasters, was commissioned by Congress to print copies of the document. For an unknown reason, she added her name below the original signers.
Fourth of July food history
If you want to get really authentic with your Fourth of July celebration, you could dine on what those in George Washington’s era ate. Things like turtle soup, pickled eel, boiled pigeon or Indian pudding could grace your plate.
Or you could eat your way through the original thirteen colonies by serving a dish that represents each one. Modern choices could include Virginia ham, Philly cheese steak or Massachusetts lobster rolls (you get the idea) or, with a bit of research, historical dishes can be presented.
As to beverages, it’s said that colonists on average consumed the equivalent of seven shots of alcohol each day (in forms such as beer, hard cider, rum or brandy).
It’s no wonder that Ben Franklin collected more than 200 euphemisms for drunkenness, from “addled” to “out of the way.” (My favorite is “halfway to Concord.”)
Drinks had interesting names like Rattle-Skull (a concoction of porter, rum or brandy, lime juice, and brown sugar syrup) and Stonewall (rum with just enough cider to take the edge off).
Other amusing monikers for colonial quaffs include Bogus, Blackstrap, Bombo, Mimbo, Whistle Belly, Syllabub, Sling, Toddy and Flip.
Since upwards of 74 million Americans will break out their backyard grills on Independence Day, chances are many of us will indulge in something from the barbecue. This tradition took hold in the U. S. in the early 1800s and has been part of Fourth of July celebrations since.
Virginia colonists had long been pit roasting the pigs abundant in the American south, a tradition most likely imported from the West Indies; however, grilled meat gained widespread popularity as a Fourth of July staple when political leaders staged Independence Day rallies and used massive barbecues to draw large crowds.
July has been declared National Hot Dog Month, and for good reason — it’s estimated that 150 million hot dogs will be consumed on Fourth of July alone.
Sausages have been around for a long time — they were mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey, after all — but the hot dog as we know it likely evolved from the German frankfurter brought to America by immigrants. In 1893 the hot dog became standard fare at many baseball parks across the country, leading to its prominent place in American food culture.
Lemonade, the star of today’s recipes and a popular potable on the Fourth of July, has origins deep in Medieval Egypt. There a sweet and tangy lemon drink, qatarmizat, was a common offering. A related beverage, Kashkab, was a frothy mixture of fermented barley, mint, a meadow flower called rue, black pepper and citron leaf, which provided lemony tang.
True lemonade, at least as we know it to be, made its debut in Paris in the summer of 1630 as an effervescent medley of sparkling water, lemon juice and honey. Vendors sold it on the streets from tanks strapped to their backs.
Limonade, as it was known in France, became popular throughout Europe, but especially so in Paris. Some say this beverage, which was full of immune-boosting vitamin C, helped Parisians stave off the second bubonic plague pandemic. Perhaps this gives us good reason to indulge in it these days.
Happy Fourth!
Sparkling Lemonade
This is a delightfully refreshing twist on a traditional summer favorite!
8 ounce bottle lemon juice concentrate 1 cup sugar Club soda
Mix lemon juice concentrate and sugar together. Heat until sugar is dissolved but mixture is not thickened. Cool and store the mixture in the fridge. Mix with club soda just before serving, either in individual glasses or in a pitcher. The ratio is one-third lemon syrup to two-thirds club soda. (This can be adjusted to your liking).
Raspberry Lemonade Slushie
Juice of two lemons 2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen ½ cup sugar 2 cups ice cubes
Puree all ingredients in a blender until smooth and icy.
Minty Lemonade with Kiwi
Juice of two large lemons ½ cup sugar 5 or 6 kiwis, peeled and pulverized in blender or food processor 4 quarts water 3 or 4 sprigs fresh mint, muddled (i.e., smashed into small pieces) Kiwi slices and mint to garnish
Blend all ingredients in an extra large pitcher or punch bowl. Garnish as desired.
Red, White and Blue Sparkling Lemonade
2 tablespoons strawberry syrup* 1 tablespoon blue raspberry syrup* ½ cup sparkling water 1 cup lemonade Ice
Fill a tall glass with ice.
Pour strawberry syrup into glass to form a red layer.
Pour lemonade very gently into the glass over the back of a spoon for the white layer.
Mix the blue raspberry syrup with the sparkling water in a separate container with a pour spout, like a measuring cup, and cascade very gently into the glass over the back of a spoon to make the blue layer.
*Recipe adapted from the Torani syrup website.
Esther Oertel is a writer and passionate home cook from a family of chefs. She grew up in a restaurant, where she began creating recipes from a young age. She’s taught culinary classes in a variety of venues in Lake County and previously wrote “The Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News. Most recently she’s taught culinary classes at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa. She lives in Middletown, California.
