LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Thursday night, during its final meeting of the year, the Middletown Area Town Hall finalized its slate of board candidates for the new year, discussed bylaws revisions and got an update on a cell tower project.
MATH opened nominations for three seats in October, with the nominations also open last month and again on Thursday night.
The seats to be filled – which Chair Tom Darms said include two representing Middletown proper and one at-large seat, not the other way around as had been stated on the agenda – currently are held by Darms, Vice Chair Sally Peterson and Secretary Paul Baker.
MATH’s board also includes Rosemary Córdova and Lisa Kaplan, who are at-large members.
MATH, whose members reported having less participation since the meetings have been held virtually and not in person, went into Thursday night’s meeting with no formal nominations having been accepted at its last two meetings.
By the end of the Thursday night discussion, however, a slate of three candidates formed and will be presented to the town hall for acceptance at its January meeting.
The candidates are Ken Gonzales, who previously served on the MATH board; businesswoman Monica Rosenthal; and Baker, who this time agreed to serve but said he didn’t want to continue to be the board secretary.
All three accepted their nominations.
At the November meeting, MATH approved bylaws updates which included making December the month in which nominations close and setting the election in January. While the group has typically held elections in January, the bylaws previously didn’t give a specific time for elections.
The November bylaws updates also include allowing for nominations by proxy for those who can’t attend a meeting in person, which previously hadn’t been allowed.
MATH went over further bylaws changes regarding clarification to the board election procedures which will be presented for acceptance at the January meeting.
Darms said the new board members will be approved in January. At that time, they are expected to discuss having alternates in place for the board in order to ensure they can have a quorum at future meetings.
In other business, the group received a report from Community Development Director Scott De Leon on the granting of a permit to Verizon for the use of an existing cell tower in Middletown.
A previous iteration of the project was denied by the Lake County Planning Commission last year but De Leon said he is allowing this new permit to go forward because it’s his conclusion that the county can’t deny it and comply with federal law.
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.
Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt signs an official tally of the Electoral College votes from the 2016 presidential election, in January 2017. AP Photo/Zach Gibson
On Dec. 14, the members of the Electoral College will meet in state capitols across the country and cast their ballots for president and vice president. The expected vote total: 306 for Democrat Joe Biden and 232 for Republican Donald Trump. It will be their votes – not the votes of the nearly 160 million Americans who cast ballots on or before Nov. 3 – that will determine whose presidential term will begin on Jan. 20, 2021.
Over the past several months, The Conversation has asked scholars of the Electoral College to explain how this system was developed and how it works and to describe whether – and how – it gives advantages to certain people based on where they live. We’ve collected highlights from several of those articles here.
These 11 men agreed on a compromise that created the Electoral College.The Conversation, from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-ND
The idea of a popular election – where the candidate who got the most votes won – was attractive. But the 11 committee members realized the Southern states would not agree, because they wanted to wield more political power based on their ownership of enslaved people.
They ultimately settled, VanFossen writes, on “a system of electors, through which both the people and the states would help choose the president. [It] was a partly national and partly federal solution, and … mirrored other structures in the Constitution.”
That system assigned two U.S. senators to each state, and a number of U.S. representatives based on states’ relative populations – and a number of electors equal to the sum of the senators and representatives. No state would have fewer than three electors, no matter how few people lived there.
2. Benefiting less populous states
That system means voters in different states are treated differently, writes LaGrange College political scientist John Tures.
As he explains, “some critics have complained that the Electoral College system encourages candidates to ignore voters in smaller states like Oklahoma and Mississippi, instead focusing on campaigning in big states like California and New York, which have lots of electoral votes.”
But in reality, the Electoral College gives an advantage to voters in less populous states, Tures finds: “[V]oters in small states have more Electoral College votes per capita than larger, more diverse states, using several different measures – and therefore more power to choose a president than they would have in a national popular election.”
He notes that a similar system for electing Georgia’s governor was overturned in 1963 in a U.S. Supreme Court “ruling that it violated the fundamental principle of ‘one person, one vote.’”
3. A matter of race
Ignoring that principle has repercussions today, reports political scientist William Blake of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County: “The system continues to give more power to states whose populations are whiter and more racially resentful.”
His analysis of states’ racial breakdowns and electoral votes finds that “states whose people exhibit more intense anti-Black attitudes, based on their answers to a series of survey questions, tend to have more electoral votes per person.” That’s a measure of how many electoral votes a state has in proportion to the number of people who live there.
Statistically, he found that “if two states’ population numbers indicate each would have 10 electoral votes, but one had substantially more racial resentment, the more intolerant state would likely have 11.”
4. Vulnerable to interference
The Electoral College makes American democracy more vulnerable to hackers, fraudsters and others who might seek to alter the results, explains mathematician Steven Heilman at USC Dornsife.
Noting that “changing just 269 votes in Florida from George W. Bush to Al Gore would have changed the outcome of the entire [2000] national election,” Heilman highlights just how close so many national elections have been over the course of the country’s history.
As he details, “The Electoral College divides one big election into 51 smaller ones – one for each state, plus the District of Columbia. Mathematically speaking, this system is built to virtually ensure narrow victories, making it very susceptible to efforts to change either voters’ minds or the records of their choices.”
Westminster College political scientist Joshua Holzer describes the various ways that different countries pick their presidents, and “found better human rights protections in countries that elect presidents who are supported by a majority of voters – which is something U.S. Electoral College does not guarantee.”
He explains plurality voting – a method widely used across the U.S., in which the person who gets the most votes wins. He also looks at runoff voting, with “potentially two rounds of voting. If someone wins more than half the votes in the first round, that candidate is declared the winner. If not, the two candidates with the most first-round votes face off in a second round of voting.”
After laying out other variations, including contingent voting and ranked-choice voting, that let voters express more nuanced preferences, Holzer concludes with a description of an effort that is underway right now, to effectively convert the Electoral College system into a nationwide popular vote.
But, as he observes, that would come with its own problems – just different ones.
Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is directing approximately $550,000 in grant funding to 45 nonprofit wildlife rehabilitation organizations to immediately support care for injured, sick and orphaned wildlife.
The funds are made available from taxpayer contributions to the Native California Wildlife Rehabilitation Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund.
“California’s injured, sick and orphaned native wildlife need our help now more than ever,” said CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham. “We are proud to quickly make funds available to help these important partner organizations operate during difficult economic times.”
In 2017, Assemblymember Marie Waldron’s Assembly Bill 1031 created the Native California Wildlife Rehabilitation Voluntary Tax Contribution Fund on the state’s income tax form, and thanks to taxpayers’ generosity, more than $820,000 has been donated as of October 2020.
“I am so pleased these organizations will receive the funding they desperately deserve,” Waldron said. “Without them, California’s wildlife would suffer, which would mean we all suffer. I’m honored to have played a role in conserving California’s abundant natural beauty.”
In 2019, these 45 organizations collectively cared for nearly 112,000 orphaned or injured wild animals, including bats, opossums, skunks, raptors, reptiles, foxes, songbirds, fawns, sea birds, coyotes, bears and many other native species.
CDFW acted swiftly to stand up the new competitive grant program to support and advance the recovery and rehabilitation of injured, sick or orphaned wildlife and conservation education. Funds may be used to support activities such as operations and ongoing facility needs, innovation in animal care (e.g., wildlife rehabilitation techniques, enclosure designs, diet and behavioral enrichment), post-release monitoring and conservation education for the public.
“The California wildlife rehabilitation community is incredibly grateful for this much-needed support,” said Rachel Avilla, president of the California Council for Wildlife Rehabilitators Board of Directors. “While 2020 has certainly taken its toll on many small organizations, our commitment to helping wildlife remains strong as injured and orphaned animals continue to need our help daily. We want to thank Assemblymember Waldron and her team for pushing this landmark legislation through and CDFW for being an excellent ally. We are profoundly grateful for their continued collaboration and support to help care for California’s precious wildlife.”
Consistent with the legislation, eligible organizations were required to document their status as a nonprofit organization that operates a permitted wildlife rehabilitation facility, complies with all conditions of its Wildlife Rehabilitation Memorandum of Understanding, and maintains active participation in the Wildlife Rehabilitation Medical Database.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Office of Education, in partnership with the local Lake County school districts, was recently awarded a Learning Communities for Student Success Program grant from the California Department of Education.
The grant runs through June of 2023.
The purpose of the grant is to support programs aimed at improving student outcomes by reducing truancy and supporting students who are at risk of dropping out of school.
“Lake County has a high rate of chronic absenteeism. The grant allowed us to create a local solution that will work for us here in Lake County,” said Lake County Deputy Superintendent of Schools Cynthia Lenners.
Chronic absenteeism is defined as missing two or more days of school, excused or unexcused, a month.
“When students improve their attendance rates, they improve their academic prospects and chances for graduating,” said Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg.
The Lake County Office of Education has seven job openings for the implementation and operation of this program. There are six attendance liaison positions and one attendance coordinator position.
The Learning Communities for Student Success Program staff will provide extra support and school site services to students and their families related to attendance.
They will be hired through the Lake County Office of Education but will be assigned to one of the local school districts in Lake County.
“Although we would like our attendance liaisons to have an Associated Arts degree, the most important qualification for the job is for a person to have the passion to make things better for our students in Lake County,” Lenners said.
The attendance coordinator position requires a Bachelor’s of Arts degree.
For information on how to apply for these positions, please visit lakecoe.org and click on the “careers” button. Application deadlines are Friday, Dec. 18.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Kelseyville Unified School District said it has decided to close all school offices, including the district office, in the wake of positive COVID-19 test results among its employees.
The district said the offices will reopen on Jan. 4, at the end of winter break, which begins on Dec. 18.
“We test everybody, all of our staff,” said Superintendent Dave McQueen.
Some positive cases came back and the district reported that it made the decision to close for the rest of this month.
The employees who tested positive were not in contact with any students and contact tracing is underway for any adults at risk for infection, the district said.
The district said the affected staff members are currently in quarantine and will not return to work until such time as Lake County Public Health determines it is safe to do so.
“The health and safety of our students and staff remain our top priority. We wish our COVID-positive colleagues a speedy recovery,” McQueen said.
McQueen said he sent out a letter to parents reporting that some staffers had tested positive for COVID-19.
The district said all students will attend school full-time via distance learning. The small cohorts of students that were on campus will transition to distance learning until further notice.
Kelseyville Unified’s Food Services Department will continue to provide meals as it has throughout the pandemic and McQueen will remain in close contact with Lake County Public Health Director Dr. Gary Pace about pandemic-related issues.
The district had planned to reopen for a hybrid, in-person learning model on Nov. 30, but McQueen said they couldn’t open the doors after Lake County moved from the red tier, the second-most restrictive on the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, to the most restrictive, purple, on Nov. 29.
The students who want to come back for in-person learning and those who want to remain on distance learning form about a 50-50 split, which McQueen said actually works out well, as it will help them keep numbers down in the classrooms and so allow for social distancing when the time comes for in-person school to resume.
“We’re ready. If it goes back to red, we could open,” McQueen said.
In the meantime, the district asked parents to direct questions to their school sites. Although the offices are closed, phone lines will be monitored and calls returned.
Email is the best way to communicate with site administrators. Visit www.kvusd.org and click on the District menu; then choose Staff Directory to send an email.
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 Middletown Area Town Hall, the longest-running town hall in Lake County, is looking for new faces to join its board in the coming year and will be taking more nominations for three board seats when it holds its final meeting of the year this week.
MATH will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 10, via Zoom. The meeting is open to the public.
To join the Zoom meeting click on this link; the meeting ID is 872 2935 2332. Call in at 888-788-0099.
In an item timed for 7:15 p.m., MATH will take nominations for three seats – one at large and two representing Middletown proper.
The MATH Board includes Chair Tom Darms, Vice Chair Sally Peterson, Secretary Paul Baker, and at-large members Rosemary Córdova and Lisa Kaplan.
The seats up for election currently are held by Darms, Peterson and Baker, all of whom have declined to serve another term.
At the November meeting, the group said no nominations had yet come in, but Kaplan told Lake County News in the following weeks that some community members have come forward and expressed interest in serving.
Kaplan said that to be eligible to serve on the MATH Board, individuals must be qualified, which means they must live and be registered to vote in the South Lake Fire Protection District.
Other agenda items for Thursday include a discussion on the bylaws regarding clarification to the board election procedures, timed for 7:40 p.m.; public input, scheduled for 8 p.m.; and items for discussion and action in January, set for 8:15 p.m.
MATH will hold its first meeting of 2021 on Jan. 14.
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.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – With the community looking to enjoy some Christmas cheer, the Middletown Area Merchants Association is hosting its annual “Christmas in Middletown” as a three-day event this year.
The event runs from Friday, Dec. 11, through Sunday, Dec. 13.
Hours are 4 to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
MAMA said the event takes place rain or shine.
Organizers ask visitors to wear their masks throughout the event so they can celebrate together safely.
MAMA said this year’s event is spread over three days to encourage social distancing.
The event also will include businesses with storefronts and without, participating in the Love (& Shop) Where You Live punch card program.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council held a special meeting over the course of two evenings this week to appoint 10 community members to fill seats on two city committees and the Lakeport Planning Commission.
On Monday night, the council interviewed and appointed the new planning commissioners and continued the meeting on Tuesday evening when it selected members for the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee and the Measure Z Advisory Committee.
Lakeport Planning commissioners Michael Froio and Michael Green were elected to the city council in the November election, leaving their two seats vacant, with the term of a third seat, currently held by Ken Wicks Jr., up on Dec. 31.
The commission reviews planning and development matters and advises the city council on land use issues. The commission currently meets monthly on the second Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
Applicants for the three seats were David Brown, Scott Barnett, Kurt Combs, Kipp Knorr, Nathan Maxman and Derek Pool.
On Monday night, following virtual interviews with applicants, the council appointed Barnett and Combs to four-year terms. Maxman, who ran for city council and narrowly lost out on winning a seat, was appointed to fill the remaining two years on Froio’s term, said City Clerk/Administrative Services Director Kelly Buendia.
Barnett, Combs and Maxman will join a commission that also includes Mark Mitchell and Jeff Warrenburg, whose terms run through the end of December 2022.
Froio, Green and Wicks took part in their last planning commission meeting in their capacity as commissioners on Wednesday night. The new members will be seated at the commission’s Jan. 13 meeting.
On Tuesday night, the council discussed the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee, or LEDAC, and the Measure Z Advisory Committee, or MZAC, Buendia said.
LEDAC, which has 11 members, meets bimonthly. It advocates for a strong business community and works with the city and community on the city’s economic and business goals and activities, including business recruitment and retention, recommendations for the implementation of the city’s economic development strategic plan, and coordinating and reporting on the annual business walk.
Membership is open to anyone who lives, works, shops or does business in the city of Lakeport, including those who live in the unincorporated Lakeport trade area.
Applicants included Denise Combs, Bonnie Darling, Bill Eaton, Mary Phillips, Alicia Russell, Wilda Shock and Gene Yoon. Combs, Eaton and Shock currently serve on LEDAC.
Buendia said the council appointed Shock, Darling, Combs and Russell, and gave staff direction to appoint Eaton as an ex-officio research committee chair.
The new appointees will join Pam Harpster, Andy Lucas and Laura Sammel, whose terms expire at the end of December 2021.
In November 2016, city voters approved the 1-percent Measure Z transactions and use tax, which requires independent audits and citizens’ oversight.
As a result, MZAC was formed to review all revenues and expenditures of the tax revenue. It also makes recommendations to the city council on expenditures for tax proceeds.
MZAC’s five members serve four-year terms and the committee meets quarterly. Membership is open to residents of the city.
Applicants included Meg Harper and Zack Jordan, and incumbent Dennis Rollins.
The council appointed all three to the three open seats, Buendia said.
They will join Susan King and Verna Schaffer, whose terms run through the end of December 2022.
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.
Hope Rising cabinet members from left, Brock Falkenberg, Shelly Trumbo, Marshall Kubota, Kim Tangermann, Todd Metcalf, Lisa Morrow, David Santos and Allison Panella, at the ribbon-cutting for Hope Center on Thursday, November 12, 2020, in Clearlake, California. Courtesy photo.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Homeless community members in Clearlake now have a transitional housing hub along with increased community support, thanks to the opening of Hope Center, a joint project of Adventist Health Clear Lake and Hope Rising and funded through $4.6 million in state and local grants.
The center, a project years in the making, is located at 3400 Emerson St. in Clearlake.
It’s the first permanent facility dedicated to finding solutions for Lake County’s homeless residents.
Adventist Health reported that the first patient arrived last week.
Hope Rising Lake County will operate Hope Center, which will house 14 men and six women enrolled in services that lead to sustainable permanent housing.
The facility involves local health systems, county support services, nonprofit organizations, and other organizations in a united effort to serve individuals in the community experiencing homelessness.
Eight employees will staff Hope Center, including a program director, case manager, program assistants, licensed social worker, and drivers. There will be on-site management 24 hours a day.
In addition to dorm-style rooms provided on opposite ends of the building, the center includes a commercial demonstration kitchen with a dining area, communal living room, one-on-one support services rooms, a group meeting/conference room, and shared offices for service providers.
"Hope Center is committed to helping, sheltering, and taking care of our neighbors experiencing homelessness," said Allison Panella, executive director of Hope Rising, at the ribbon-cutting celebration on Nov. 12. "We are opening our doors to endeavor what we set out nearly three years ago to do; to restore a sense of hope to a community that has been battered by floods, fires, power outages, and now a pandemic."
Adventist Health Clear Lake is thrilled to help lead this transformational project, David Santos, president of Adventist Health Clear Lake, said at the socially distanced event.
"Hope Center allows us to live into the reality that we can lift ourselves from something that haunted our city, community and county,” Santos said. “Today, we reached a tipping point. With our combined forces and support, Hope Rising is changing Lake County and creating a model to impact and change the health outcomes for rural counties across our country. What we are doing today can have a monumental impact on generations to come."
The facility is the first low-barrier transitional housing hub in Lake County, offering comprehensive services for vulnerable members of the community experiencing homelessness. The center’s wraparound services are provided through a team approach that focuses on building individual strengths to help them achieve goals and improve well-being.
A $2.4 million Homekey grant for the center was provided by the California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency, working hand in hand with the California Department of Housing and Community Development. The grant will fund staff and services at Hope Center for two years.
"I am thrilled to see leaders of Lake County receive this significant grant to house 20 homeless clients as they prepare for permanent housing," Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry said at the celebration. "This facility is the result of all of us coming together, building and maintaining strong partnerships and working to improve our community one step at a time."
Adventist Health Clear Lake's Project Restoration House served as a pilot program for Hope Center.
Established in 2017 by Adventist Health Clear Lake’s Community Wellness director, Project Restoration House provides intense case management and services to support clients who are homeless.
It has substantially reduced the high utilization of emergency medical services, police encounters, 911 calls, and incarceration days resulting in $1.2 million savings in the first year.
"As we look at the work that is going to happen at Hope Center, a love ethic is at the center of it," said Shelly Trumbo, Well Being executive for Adventist Health. "There is nothing soft about standing alongside a human being and supporting them in their transformation. That is the work that will be happening here, and it is strong, and it is solid. It leads to trust where organizations lock arms together for justice and equity."
Hope Center received an initial $1.3 million grant from Partnership HealthPlan of California to begin building the facility. Additional funding by the City of Clearlake, Lake County Continuum of Care, Lake County Behavioral Health, and Adventist Health Clear Lake helped complete the building's construction.
Adventist Health Clear Lake owns the property and will continue to maintain it in compliance with the 15-year grant agreement regarding the property's use. "Adventist Health truly wants to lead the way in convening this concept of transforming the health and wealth status of Lake County," Santos said.
Following the ribbon-cutting, attendees planted a garden at the front of the building, then were invited inside for tours. "Consider the roots you are planting here today," said Panella, "the seeds of hope and a continued connection to our community."
More information about Hope Center is available at Hope Rising at www.HopeRisingLC.org.
A dorm room at Hope Center in Clearlake, California. Courtesy photo.
Following the announcement by Gov. Gavin Newsom to expand CA Notify statewide, the California Department of Health and the California Department of Technology on Thursday launched the digital tool designed to notify Californians of their possible exposure to COVID-19.
The free, mobile technology is now available to all Californians and can be accessed on mobile devices.
Californians can now receive notifications informing them if they have been exposed to someone who has tested positive for the virus so they can take immediate actions around quarantine and testing.
Californians with iPhones can enable CA Notify in their settings and Android phone users can download the CA Notify app from the Google Play Store to immediately start receiving exposure alerts on their phones.
Use of the technology is completely voluntary, private and secure. CA Notify does not collect the location of a phone or individual to detect exposure, and it does not share a user’s identity. Californians opt in to use the tool and may to opt out at any time.
“We want all Californians to add their phone to the fight to slow the spread of COVID-19 because the tool works best when more people sign up,” said Dr. Erica Pan, acting State Public Health Officer. “Combined with other actions like physical distancing and wearing masks, CA Notify helps Californians anonymously keep themselves, their loved ones, and their communities safe.”
When individuals voluntarily activate CA Notify, the tool uses Bluetooth technology to exchange random codes between phones without revealing the user’s identity or location.
When someone is tested for COVID-19, they will receive a text message from 855-976-8462. This text will remind CA Notify users who receive a positive test result from a provider or laboratory to enter their verification code into their phone using CA Notify.
Any other CA Notify users who were within 6 feet of the COVID-19 positive individual for 15 minutes or more when that person was most likely to be infectious will get an anonymous notification of possible exposure.
“The technology is 100-percent voluntary and secure and provides Californians immediate information and links to resources when they’ve been exposed to COVID-19,” said Amy Tong, director of California Department of Technology. “We are proud the Golden State is making this innovative tool available statewide to encourage more Californians to do their part to keep others safe.”
The state launched a pilot in September for students, staff, and faculty at UC San Diego and UC San Francisco and expanded it to include five other UC campuses in mid-November.
The privacy-first focus of CA Notify does not allow the state to know how many people opted into the system, but the UC system estimates more than 250,000 individuals are utilizing the technology as part of the pilot.
CA Notify has helped identify exposed individuals early, allowing them to quickly quarantine and reduce virus transmission. The CA Notify pilot has been successfully evaluated, and similar programs have been launched in other states.
“Our pilot experience starting at UC San Diego and expanding to other UC campuses showed this technology was effective in identifying exposed individuals early for quarantine and testing, and helping keep our communities as safe as possible,” said Christopher Longhurst, MD, chief information officer of UC San Diego Health. “This free and reliable smartphone technology can help all Californians. As we enter a new, and hopefully final, surge in the pandemic, now more than ever is the time to put every possible tool to use to slow the spread of the virus.”
CA Notify is not a contact tracing app but augments the contact tracing process by issuing exposure notifications to people you may not know.
Contact tracing identifies the close contacts of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, and contact tracers reach those individuals by phone, email, and text. CA Notify does not track or trace information about the people you are in contact with and does not collect or exchange any personal information.
Visit CANotify.ca.gov to learn more about how CA Notify works.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Kelseyville Food Pantry is planning to expand its long-running services to the community in the new year.
Since 2012, the Kelseyville Food Pantry – a collaboration of the Presbyterian, United Methodist, and Unitarian Universalist churches in Kelseyville – has been feeding the hungry not just in Kelseyville but all of Lake County twice a month.
The food pantry offered its thanks to the Hunger Task Force of Lake County and to Sutter Lakeside Hospital for their very generous donations.
Thanks to the generosity of these two organizations, beginning on Jan. 15, the Kelseyville Food Pantry will begin offering an additional panty to supply guests with a bag of canned items.
The distribution will be from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. on the third Friday of each month.
The food pantry’s monthly giveaways – which include nonperishable items as well as fresh produce, eggs and bread – will continue on the second and fourth Tuesdays from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., all at the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church, located at 5340 Third St., behind WestAmerica Bank.
Everyone is welcome; the food pantry’s only criteria is that you are hungry and that you share what you cannot use.
“Our sincere thanks to the Lake County community that has sustained and supported us over the past eight years. Your generous spirit has helped us maintain our goal to feed the hungry, and as that need continues to grow during these uncertain times, we appreciate you even more!” pantry organizers said.
If you would like to become a volunteer, the food pantry can use people to shop for canned items and be reimbursed. They can also use a few more socially-distanced hands to help on pantry day to fill the bags.
For more information please call Julie Berry at the Kelseyville Presbyterian Church office at 707-279-1104 or email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport Police Department is seeking leads in its investigation into illegal hunting that has been reported at the city’s wastewater treatment facility.
The City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District wastewater treatment plant is located on Linda Lane in south Lakeport.
Police said there has been an increase in the hunting activity as reported by neighbors, who have heard gunshots, and facility workers, who have found evidence of this activity, especially during weekends.
“This crime is very serious and poses a significant danger to nearby residents,” the police department said.
Anyone with information about current or previous illegal hunting activities at that location is encouraged to report it to the Lakeport Police Department at 707-263-5491, option 1.
