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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A woman driving her vehicle in the wrong lane of Highway 29 was involved in a head-on wreck with another driver on Monday evening.

The California Highway Patrol said Bonnie Adams, 73, of Plumas Lake, suffered moderate injuries in the crash, as did the other driver, 20-year-old Roen Adams of Oakland.

The CHP said that the crash occurred at 5:30 p.m. Monday on Highway 29, south of the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff.

Bonnie Adams was reported for driving her 2010 Honda Odyssey SUV the wrong way, northbound on Highway 29, within the No. 1 southbound lane, the CHP said.

Less than a minute later, she was involved in a head-on crash with Roen Adams, who was driving her 2007 Honda Accord southbound in the southbound No. 1 lane, according to the CHP.

The CHP said both women were flown by air ambulances to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital for treatment of their injuries.

Neither drugs nor alcohol are suspected as contributing factors, according to the CHP.

Both women were wearing their seat belts at the time the crash occurred, the CHP reported.

CHP Officer Piers Pritt is investigating the crash.

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.
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Equipment removes dead trees in one of the California forests impacted by a wave of tree mortality. Photo courtesy of Cal Fire.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – The U.S. Forest Service on Monday announced that an additional 27 million trees, mostly conifers, died throughout California since November 2016, bringing the total number of trees that have died due to drought and bark beetles to an historic 129 million on 8.9 million acres.

The dead trees continue to pose a hazard to people and critical infrastructure, mostly centered in the central and southern Sierra Nevada region of the state.

“The number of dead and dying trees has continued to rise, along with the risks to communities and firefighters if a wildfire breaks out in these areas,” said Randy Moore, regional forester of the U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region. “It is apparent from our survey flights this year that California’s trees have not yet recovered from the drought, and remain vulnerable to beetle attacks and increased wildfire threat. The Forest Service will continue to focus on mitigating hazard trees and thinning overly dense forests so they are healthier and better able to survive stressors like this in the future.”

Moore continued, “To increase the pace and scale of this important work, we need to fix how fire suppression is funded. Last year fire management alone consumed 56 percent of the Forest Service's national budget. As fire suppression costs continue to grow as a percentage of the Forest Service’s budget, funding is shrinking for non-fire programs that protect watersheds and restore forests, making them more resilient to wildfire and drought.”

Though California received record-breaking rains in the winter of 2016 to 2017, the effects of five consecutive years of severe drought in California, a dramatic rise in bark beetle infestation and rising temperatures have led to historic levels of tree die-off.

The Tree Mortality Task Force, or TMTF, with support from the Governor’s Office and comprised of more than 80 local, state and federal agencies and private utility companies, continues to remove hazardous dead trees.

To date, the TMTF members have collectively felled or removed over 860,000 dead trees; this includes over 480,000 dead trees felled or removed by the U.S. Forest Service.

The TMTF members are using a triage approach to this tree mortality crisis, first focusing on public safety by removing dead and dying trees in high hazard areas.

To further improve forest health, the U.S Forest Service and have increased their pace and scale of prescribed fire. The U.S. Forest Service has treated over 55,000 acres and has completed over 33,000 acres in fuel treatment projects.

By combining tree removal with prescribed fire, crews will be able to decrease overly dense stands of trees, reduce greenhouse gases, and protect communities across the state.

"Tree mortality at this magnitude takes on-going cooperation between public, nonprofit and private entities,” said Chief Ken Pimlott, director and California’s state forester. “California’s forests are a critical part of the State’s strategy to address climate change. By working together and using all the resources at our disposal we will be able to make more progress towards our common goal of healthier, more resilient forests that benefit all Californians.”

With record breaking levels of tree die-off, the TMTF has used this event as an opportunity to collaborate on several fronts: from public workshops about reforestation, public outreach in urban and rural areas, and awarding over $21 million in grants aimed to protect watersheds, remove dead trees and restore our forests.

The TMTF continues to collaborate on the efficient use of resources to protect public safety and build consensus around long-term management strategies for California’s forest lands.

“The Tree Mortality Task Force has provided an essential venue for coordination of response efforts, exchange of ideas, reporting, and accountability for the ongoing statewide response to this incident,” said Supervisor Nathan Magsig of Fresno County. “Leadership from the Governor’s Office, and Office of Emergency Services has helped to ensure county issues are heard and addressed. Monthly coordination of the 10 most impacted counties has resulted in a more effective use of resources and has allowed counties to share ideas and successes.”

The California Forest Watershed Alliance also weighed in on the news.

“These growing tree mortality numbers are not a surprise given the current state of California’s public forestlands,” said Justin Caporusso, the alliance’s chair. “They are however devastating to the landscape, threatening public resources and local communities. This ongoing epidemic underscores the importance of ecologically based forest management activities in protecting our communities and public resources.”

Caporusso said the group – which represents rural counties, farmland, forestlands, water interests and conservation – is advocating at both the state and federal level to increase the pace and scale of ecologically based thinning to improve the health of our forests, reduce wildfire risk and protect water supplies; find a fix to the fire-borrowing issue that will restore funding for proactive management, reforestation and restoration activities; and advance projects and partnerships that improve forest health on a landscape level.”

With a staggering 129 million dead trees in the state, the work of the task force is far from over. The strong foundation built will continue to be an advantage as the Tree Mortality Task Force continues to address tree mortality and its impacts.

Learn more about tree mortality and the work to restore our forests in California at the Forest Service's Our Changing Forests Web page, https://www.fs.usda.gov/main/catreemortality/home.

To learn about how to be prepare and protect your home against wildfire and bark beetles visit Ready for Wildfire, http://www.readyforwildfire.org/.
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NORTH COAST, Calif. – A crash involving a semi on Monday morning resulted in a temporary closure of a portion of Highway 20 in Mendocino County.

The California Highway Patrol reported that Highway 20 from Willits to Fort Bragg had been completely closed three miles from Highway 1, with one-way traffic opened in the eastbound lane at about 1 p.m.

At around 11:15 a.m. Monday the CHP reported that a semi had overturned onto its side near the Wildwood Campground.

At that time, the driver was reported to still be inside the semi. As of 1 p.m., there was no report of injuries.

The CHP reported that the semi had been partially loaded with scrap metal, most of which was on the roadway after the wreck.

Reports from the scene indicated a tow truck had been requested to assist with removing the truck.

Additional information will be posted as it becomes available.

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.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Two people were flown out of county by air ambulances on Monday night following a head-on collision on Highway 29.

The crash was first reported at about 5:30 p.m. Monday in the southbound lane of Highway 29 just north of the Nice-Lucerne Cutoff, according to radio reports and the California Highway Patrol.

Reports from the scene described the two vehicles involved as a black SUV and a blue sedan.

Initial reports indicated that the SUV was northbound in the southbound lane, leading to the head-on wreck that blocked two lanes of the highway.

When Lakeport Fire personnel arrived on scene they reported that two people were trapped as a result of the crash, with extrication needed.

Two air ambulances – CalStar 4 and REACH 1 – were requested to land at Sutter Lakeside Hospital in order to pick up the patients, according to radio reports.

CalStar 4 landed and picked up the first patient, transporting them to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, according to reports from the scene. REACH 1 landed a short time later, also taking the second patient to Santa Rosa Memorial.

Incident command requested Lake County Animal Care and Control respond to take care of a dog that had been in the back of one of the vehicles.

Additional information will be posted as it becomes available.

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.
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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Deputy Sheriffs Association and the Bay Area Deputy Sheriffs’ Charitable Foundation will again partner together to provide a special holiday shopping event for some less fortunate children in Lake County.

The third annual “Shop with a Cop” event will take place on Wednesday at the Clearlake Walmart store.

Seventy children will receive $200 each to shop tax-free for warm winter clothes, as well as holiday gifts and other needed items on their lists. Each child will team up with a local peace officer to help them shop.

Members from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Clearlake Police Department, Lakeport Police Department, California State Parks, California Fish and Wildlife, Lake County Probation and Lake County District Attorney’s Office will be present to represent their respective agencies.

Since 2004, the Shop with a Deputy Sheriff event has fulfilled holiday dreams of over 3,600 Bay Area children who are at a disadvantage, and the numbers continue to grow. The annual event is made possible from the partnerships between the business community and law enforcement.

The shopping experience demonstrates to the children that someone cares for their welfare and development by teaming up with a deputy or a community volunteer.

The Bay Area Deputy Sheriffs’ Charitable Foundation has been fortunate to follow several children from past events. The organization said it has seen the children graduate high school and have been told by the children that the deputy sheriffs’ programs gave them the incentives and encouragement to do better in school and in life.

The foundation provides financial support for prevention programs that serve the underprivileged and vulnerable youth in the Bay Area by assisting disadvantaged children in securing school supplies and clothing, and other programs that seek to prevent youth from turning to a life of crime.

For more information visit www.deputysheriffsfoundation.org.
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Linda Bushta shows off the commemorative library card created in honor of Upper Lake Library’s centennial in 2016 in Upper Lake, Calif. Courtesy photo.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Linda Bushta found a great job in 2005 when she became the branch library coordinator at the historic Upper Lake branch of the Lake County Library.

She held that job until her recent retirement.

Bushta came to love the old Hammond Library building and its history, and was instrumental in putting on celebrations for the library’s 90th and 100th anniversaries.

During her time at Upper Lake Library Bushta conducted summer storytimes for children, class visits from nearby schools and worked with several teen volunteers.

The small library is the kind of place where everyone knows everyone and they’re all family. Bushta became very attached to the library and its patrons.

She reflected on what it was like to work there. “The job was never boring. I met so many wonderful people over the 11 1/2 years I ran the library: babes in arms became readers, high school students volunteered to earn graduation credit in community service on the thresholds of their adult lives, senior citizens with a lifetime of interesting life experiences wanting to learn more about today's technology; everyone came in search of information and through them, I learned something new every day. It was such a pleasure to see names of children who came to the library regularly on the honor roll in the local newspaper.”

Bushta’s retirement means that the job of branch library coordinator will open soon.

A routine day in the library includes helping patrons request books, checking books in and out, answering reference questions, shelving books, sorting deliveries of books, taking money for fines, planning displays and introducing patrons to the library’s digital resources.

Application information will be posted on the County of Lake job opportunities Web site http://jobs.lakecountyca.gov in December.

The library has a long and treasured history in Upper Lake.

In 1914 the Upper Lake Women’s Protective Club, or ULWPC, formed in response to water and property rights issues between Lake and Yolo counties.

The club also supported other civic improvements around the town and wanted Upper Lake to have a library.

Upper Lake merchant J. N. League donated space in 1914 for a library in his store downtown, but the ULWPC members still wanted a real meeting room and real library.

Two years later Amy Murdock and Lottie Mendenhall donated the building site at Main and Second streets, and Harriet Lee Hammond financed the library’s construction.

The library opened in October 1916 and was named the Harriet Lee Hammond Library in her honor.

The Upper Lake Library became part of the Lake County Library system in the 1970s. Now 101 years old, it is one of Upper Lake’s oldest continually-operating public facilities.

The Lake County Library is on the Internet at http://library.lakecountyca.gov and at www.facebook.com/LakeCountyLibrary.

Jan Cook is a technician with the Lake County Library.

Linda and Greg Bushta served as grand marshals in the 2016 Upper Lake Wild West Day parade in Upper Lake, Calif. Courtesy photo.
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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council met last week to continue to work through proposed new marijuana regulations, and approve a job classification, bonds and an equipment purchase.

The council’s special Dec. 4 meeting was largely focused on another consideration of proposed new rules for commercial marijuana, or cannabis, operations.

The proposed rules were recommended to the council by the Lakeport Planning Commission, whose members put extensive work into reviewing them this fall. The council took them up at the Nov. 21 meeting and set them for a formal public hearing at its Dec. 19 meeting, as Lake County News has reported.

Community Development Director Kevin Ingram said the rule updates are necessary to be in line with state regulations, with the state having given local jurisdictions a deadline of the end of this year to have their rules in place.

Police Chief Brad Rasmussen polled seven other jurisdictions about calls for service at their marijuana dispensaries. Only one – the city of Arcata – had responded to him by the time the meeting was held, and while he didn’t have time to sit and analyze the numbers, they did not look out of line with retail stores in Lakeport of similar size.

Councilman Kenny Parlet said it didn’t look like the facilities had large crime impacts, and helped address those types of concerns.

During public comment, the council heard from Kimberly Chilcutt, founder of a medicinal cannabis company, who pointed out what she considered was a significant hole in the rules, specifically, for small manufacturers and microbusinesses like hers.

Chilcutt said she uses nontoxic and biodegradable organic vegetable glycerin to make cannabis tinctures and topicals at her home. One of her key pieces of equipment is a crockpot.

“I do everything I can to be in accordance with the law,” she said. She added, “I don’t want to be cut out of what’s going on here.”

Mayor Stacey Mattina asked Ingram if Chilcutt’s operation fits the city’s residential policy. Ingram said no, that allowing for such operations in residences hasn’t been proposed.

Councilwoman Mireya Turner said Chilcutt’s situation is an example of the kind of caution that the council needs to use as it proceeds in creating new city rules.

Chilcutt asked the council to consider her unique situation. If the city insists she move to a commercial location, “I’m done. I can't afford it. I give too much away.”

Lakeport resident Stan Jones said he didn’t feel the city needs storefront commercial marijuana operations. He said he can live with delivery sales “but not happily,” and specifically asked them not to allow onsite consumption.

Planning Commissioner Michael Green said he didn’t see marijuana being a good fit in a residential area, period. He said the city should explore the state’s mini collective concept, but added that doesn’t belong in residential zoning, either.

Green, a marijuana industry consultant, said sole proprietors are caught in the middle of up and coming commercial operations.

Melissa Fulton, chief executive officer of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, told the council that rules the county puts in place in the unincorporated areas could alleviate the pressure in the city related to situations involving dispensaries, as the county areas could bear that business.

Lakeport Fire Chief Doug Hutchison said his agency also is watching to see the developing regulations. He was concerned about solvents, and said that so far it was hard to determine what would be needed from his department in the permitting and inspection process.

Hutchison said there isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t see a news story about an extraction lab that goes bad or an indoor grow in a residential area that’s discovered as the result of a fire. He recounted the discovery of a lab on Bevins Street that had used dangerous venting procedures.

Other residents brought up concerns about having storefront dispensaries in the city’s downtown and on 11th Street.

Chilcutt returned to the microphone to speak against deliveries rather than storefront dispensaries, noting, “Deliveries are very dangerous” due to the potential for robbery.

Parlet agreed that delivery seemed sketchy and brick and mortar dispensaries appeared a better way to go for distribution.

Mattina said many cities are banning commercial marijuana operations for now, and she wanted to see what the state would do with its regulations. She added that the city has been trying to find a happy medium. “We need to start somewhere.”

Turner said there are regulations at the state level that are attempting to make deliveries as safe as possible. However, she had concerns about enforceability on the local level if they tried to ban deliveries.

Green told the council that they needed to serve local patients, who he said aren’t going to show up at meetings to advocate for dispensaries.

Parlet suggested the city could make some allowance for medical marijuana dispensaries but not recreational storefronts as a sort of compromise.

In regard to concern about meeting an end-of-year deadline, City Attorney David Ruderman said that when the council holds the Dec. 19 hearing on the proposed regulations, if they make substantial changes they would need to bring them back at a regular meeting.

However, he noted that the city may have some room early in the new year to finalize its rules in order to meet state requirements thanks to new state emergency regulations.

In other news, the council took the following actions:

– Approved a new classification for police detective with a salary range earning $4,708 to $6,012 per month, and the reclassification of one police officer position to police detective in the 2017-18 budget.

– Considered and approved resolutions for the authorization, preparation and sale of wastewater revenue bonds to repay the city for project costs associated with the wastewater system improvement project.

– Authorized City Manager Margaret Silveira to sign the associated purchase order and purchase agreement for a 2017 Hamm Model HD-14-VV double drum vibratory roller for paving projects at a cost of $62,748.75.

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.


Agenda-Packet-2017-12-04---Special-Meeti-121201712207AM by LakeCoNews on Scribd

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LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – North Coast residents who lost their homes in the October wildfires will have a new tool to track the progress of debris removal in their communities.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, or USACE, with the support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, has launched a website designed to give a quick view of the status of debris removal by parcel in Lake, Mendocino, Napa and Sonoma counties.

Owners can see the status of their property by visiting http://www.spk.usace.army.mil/CAwildfire and clicking on the Status Map button.

The site also shows:

–Right-of-entry, or ROE, forms processed: An ROE form has been received by the county and sent to USACE for processing.
–Parcel in process: The process for site assessment, initial soil sampling and debris removal has begun.
–Confirmation sampling pending: Debris removal has been completed and final soil sampling is being conducted.
–Parcel transferred to county: The parcel has been cleared and a final report has been sent to the county.

The removal of hazardous household waste is complete in Lake County and is nearing completion in Mendocino, Napa and Sonoma counties.

The removal of ash and debris by USACE contractors is also continuing.

As of Dec. 11, 437,281 tons of debris have been removed from the burn zones.

Anyone who has questions can call the USACE debris removal line at 877-875-7681 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. or email:

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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Board of Supervisors this week will discuss a letter from Harbin Hot Springs regarding difficulties the resort’s management said it is encountering with the Community Development Department in the effort to rebuild in the wake of the Valley fire.

The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8 and online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.

At 9:30 a.m. the board will discuss and consider the letter from Heart Consciousness Church, which owns Harbin Hot Springs.

The south county resort was destroyed in the September 2015 Valley fire.

Now, as they’re attempting to rebuild, resort officials said in a letter to District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon that they are experiencing challenges with Lake County Community Development, and they lay those issues at the feet of department head Robert Massarelli.

Sajjad Mahmud, senior vice president and managing director, and Julie Adams, vice president and managing director, said in the letter that they have encountered a burdensome and bureaucratic planning process with repeated obstacles that to them seem extreme.

Mahmud and Adams said they had anticipated the entire process for the resort’s general plan/amendment application would be completed by the end of this year, but that they’ve received a letter from Community Development dated Nov. 16 with an extensive list of old and new items required and a meeting date this Wednesday, which pushes the project back much further.

The letter notes that Lake County residents and the resort’s guests are waiting for progress on the rebuild, and the county is losing $150,000 per year in room tax, sales tax and additional property taxes.

In more than 40 years of dealing with the county, Mahmud and Adams said the resort found the county “practical, fair and effective,” adding, “This has been missing in the last year.”

They added that working with Community Development on the rebuild has been “deeply demoralizing.”

“Experientially, going through the Lake County Community Development Department in the last year has been worse than going through the Valley Fire,” Mahmud and Adams wrote.

Simon requested that the matter be placed on the agenda. In his memo to the board for item, he asked for the board to discuss the concerns “and consider giving direction to staff.”

In other business, in untimed items the board will consider a resolution of intent to amend Article 72 of the Lake County Zoning Ordinance related to commercial cannabis and will consider the 2016 Lake County Crop Report prepared by the agricultural commissioner.

At 9:45 a.m., the board will get a report and status update on the CalHOME program for Valley and Clayton fire survivors, and at 10 a.m. will consider accepting a cannabis work plan commencing in early 2018 and giving direction to stakeholder department heads.

The full agenda follows.

CONSENT AGENDA

7.1: Adopt resolution establishing salaries and benefits for employees assigned to Confidential Unit “A” for the period from July 1, 2017, through June 30, 2018.

7.2: Adopt resolution establishing salaries and benefits for employees assigned to Confidential Unit “B” for the period from July 1, 2017, through June 30, 2018.

7.3: Approve ground lease agreement between the county of Lake and Personal Network Computing Inc. (DBA Valley Internet) for an initial term of 15 years and monthly rent of $1,200 per month and authorize the chair to sign.

7.4: Approve Amendment 2 to the agreement between the county of Lake and Restpadd Inc. for Acute inpatient psychiatric hospital services and professional services associated with acute inpatient hospitalizations for Fiscal Year 2017-18 in the amount of $180,000 and authorize the board chair to sign amendment 2.

7.5: Approve Amendment 1 to the agreement between the county of Lake and Davis Guest Home for Fiscal Year 2017-18 for an increase of $41,675 and a new contract maximum of $80,000 and authorize the board chair sign the amendment.

7.6: Approve Amendment 1 to the agreement between the county of Lake and Kings View Corp. for professional consulting services for Fiscal Year 2017-18 for an increase of $18,800 and a new contract maximum of $28,795 and authorize the board chair to sign the amendment.

7.7: Approve resolution of the board of directors, Northshore Fire Protection District, calling a special election on April 10, 2018 for the purpose of imposing a special tax increase for fire protection and prevention, rescue, emergency medical services and transportation, hazardous material, and other services related to the protection of lives and property, and approving an increase in the district's spending limit.

7.8: Approve contract between county of Lake and Industrial Employers and Distributors Association for public authority labor negotiations consultant, annual rate of $22,588 beginning July 1, 2017, through June 30, 2018; and authorize the chair to sign.

TIMED ITEMS

8.2, 9:10 a.m.: (a) Consideration of continuation of a proclamation of a local health emergency reaffirmed by the interim county health officer for the county of Lake; and (b) update and discussion on Sulphur fire recovery.

8.3, 9:15 a.m.: Hearing, appeal of nuisance animal abatement, Case Number 2017-11-0037, located at 6687 Blue Heron Drive #E, Upper Lake, Ca (Andrew Nickerson).

8.4, 9:30 a.m.: Discussion/consideration of letter from Heart Consciousness Church DBA Harbin Hot Springs.

8.5, 9:45 a.m.: Report/status update on CalHOME program for Valley Fire and Clayton fire survivors.

8.6, 10 a.m.: (a) Consideration of cannabis work plan commencing in early 2018; and (b) consideration of direction to stakeholder department heads.

UNTIMED ITEMS

9.2: Discussion and consideration of amendments to 2018 Board of Supervisors regular meeting calendar.

9.3: Consideration of the 2016 Crop Report for Lake County from the agricultural commissioner.

9.4: Consideration of resolution of intent to amend Article 72 of the Lake County Zoning Ordinance.

9.5: Consideration of approval of revisions to the county’s harassment policy and Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity Plan to conform to California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act.

CLOSED SESSION

10.1: Conference with legal counsel: Existing litigation pursuant to Gov. Code Sec. 54956.9(d)(1): McCarty, et al v. Lake County, et al.

10.2: Conference with legal counsel: Existing Litigation Pursuant to Gov. Code sec. 54956.9(d)(1): Shikman v. County of Lake, et al.

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.
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New homeowners Jaiana Alvarez, Giovanni Steffan and their children at the dedication of their Habitat for Humanity home in Clearlake, Calif., on Saturday, December 9, 2017. Photo courtesy of Habitat for Humanity Lake County.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Habitat for Humanity has dedicated another home and welcomed another family into its circle.

On Saturday, Habitat staff, family and friends gathered to celebrate the occasion with lunch and fellowship before presenting the Steffan-Alvarez family with the key to their new home on Green Street in Clearlake.

Grocery Outlet stocked the pantry and the bathroom, and provided gifts for the two children, a generous donation that Habitat and the family all appreciate

“The boys are so excited to have their own rooms in time for Christmas,” said homeowner Jaiana Alvarez. “This is such a blessing.

Her husband Giovanni Steffan agreed. “We’re so grateful for all of the work Habitat for Humanity did with us in making this happen. We wouldn’t have this opportunity without them.”

If you are interested in the Habitat for Humanity Homeownership Program and would like to know if you qualify, or if you lost your residence in one of the wildfires during the last three years, contact Deborah at 707-994-1100, Extension 106, Tuesday thru Thursday to discuss your options.

You can pick up a pre-application at the office located at 15312 Lakeshore Drive in Clearlake.
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Smoke from the Southern California fires moved into the Lake County, Calif., air basin on Monday, December 11, 2017. Photo by Elizabeth Larson/Lake County News.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Thick smoke from the fires raging across Southern California moved into Lake County’s air basin on Monday.

Lake County Air Pollution Control Officer Doug Gearhart confirmed to Lake County News on Monday that what looked like clouds moving in over Lake County actually was smoke from the Southern California fires.

As of Monday, those fires – the Thomas, Lilac, Creek, Rye and Skirball – had burned nearly 257,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,000 structures, with according to Cal Fire.

The largest of the fires, the Thomas, located in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, has burned 230,500 acres and is 15-percent contained, Cal Fire said.

Cal Fire said the Thomas fire continues to threaten 18,000 homes. About 95,000 residents reported to be under evacuation on Monday morning, with some evacuation orders lifted in the early afternoon.

Air quality conditions in Lake County could become unhealthy if the arriving smoke drops to the ground, Gearhart said.

NASA satellite imagery on Monday showed the smoke from the wildland fires moving out over the Pacific Ocean before circling back to the north and then the east as it approached the northern portion of the state.

Gearhart said no burn days are in effect for another week due to the fire activity in Southern California and the dry conditions here in Lake County.

He said Cal Fire and the local fire chiefs requested no burn days for fire hazard and lack of resources through Dec. 18 and possibly longer.

However, he added that no burn days would have been in effect anyway due to the current air pattern, which has no air movement or dispersion of pollutants. He said that’s likely to be the case for a few more days.

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.
A satellite image from Monday, December 11, 2017, showed smoke from the wildland fires in Southern California moving out over the Pacific Ocean and then beginning to circle back over Northern California. Image courtesy of NASA.
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Woodland Community College’s Lake County Campus in Clearlake, Calif. Courtesy photo.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – Officials with the Yuba Community College District are addressing confusion about the district’s presence in Lake County following the name change for its Clearlake campus.

The Yuba Community College District was founded on a 161-acre site outside of Marysville in 1927.

In 1965, the college district was reorganized to include Colusa, Sutter, and Yuba Counties. In the early 1970s, large portions of Glenn, Lake, and Yolo counties were added to the district.

The district currently stretches across the central valley from high in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada to the Coast Range and covers 4,192 square miles.

In 2008, the district became a multi-college district with Woodland Community College becoming an accredited second college.

The college has provided courses in Lake County since the fall of 1972. The campus is east of Highway 53 in the city of Clearlake.

In 2012, the campus added 26,600 square feet of modern, new buildings to expand the campus services.

The expansion added a new student services center, library, state-of-the-art kitchen and dining room for the Culinary Arts Program, and new classroom/labs for biology and early childhood education courses.

In July of 2016, the Board of Trustees voted to realign the Lake Campus from Yuba College to Woodland Community College.

Many people in the community have mistakenly thought that Yuba College is gone from Lake County.

In fact, the college remains in the community providing excellent student services and is now known as the Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College.

Woodland was recently recognized by Schools.com as one of California’s top 25 community colleges.

Woodland students’ combined UC and CSU transfer rates consistently place the college among the top 10 percent of all community colleges statewide!

Students attending the Lake County Campus receive services for a personal education plan and guidance for a path for transfer, certificate completion, language skill improvement, associate degrees, or career advancement.

Financial aid programs help students afford college fees and provide assistance with living expenses.

The college is proud of the fine instructors, counselors, staff, and administrators who serve Lake County.

Anyone interested in a tour of the campus, enrollment, or with questions about Lake County Campus of Woodland Community College may call 707-995-7900.

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