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Lakeport Police logs: Saturday, Jan. 10
Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026
00:00 EXTRA PATROL 2601100001
Occurred at Lake County Law Library on 3D....
City of Lakeport begins recruitment for commission and committee positions
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The city of Lakeport is now accepting applications from citizens interested in serving on a committee and a commission.
The city reported that there are three positions open on the Parks and Recreation Commission and five members of the Lakeport Economic Development Advisory Committee, or LEDAC.
These appointments would be effective as of January 2016.
The Parks and Recreation Commission acts in an advisory capacity to the Lakeport City Council in matters pertaining to city parks and recreation.
They also cooperate with the Lakeport Planning Commission and civic organizations to advance the sound planning of new recreation areas and facilities.
Parks and Recreation Commission members recommend, from time to time, policies on city recreation facilities to the city council for consideration and approval.
The commission meets on the first Thursday of each month at 3:00 p.m. The term for membership on this committee is two years. Applicants must be residents of the City of Lakeport.
The role of LEDAC is to develop ideas and strategies for the promotion of economic development through business retention, recruitment, attraction and creation.
LEDAC meets the second Wednesday of each month at 7:30 a.m.
It consists of up to 11 members who either live, work, shop or do business in the city of Lakeport. This includes Lake County residents who live in unincorporated areas of the Lakeport trade area.
The term for membership on LEDAC is two years.
Membership on these commissions and committees is voluntary. If you are interested in serving on one of these committees, please contact Hilary Britton, acting deputy city clerk, at 707-263-5615, Extension 43, or by e-mail at
Applications will be accepted until Nov. 30 at 5 p.m., and appointments will be scheduled for the Lakeport City Council meeting of Dec. 15.
Mendocino National Forest plans prescribed burns on Upper Lake Ranger District
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – In the months ahead work to thin trees will be taking place on the Mendocino National Forest.
Frank Aebly, the ranger for the forest's Upper Lake Ranger District, gave a report to the Board of Supervisors on the forest thinning plans on Tuesday.
Aebly said there is a certain amount of thinning forest staff has to do, and they can pursue it a variety of ways – through mechanical means, timber sales or prescribed burning.
This year, because of budget restrictions, mechanical thinning and timber sales won't be used, and instead the forest will be relying on burning, Aebly said.
“Given the situation that we had this summer,” he said, referring to the county's series of devastating wildland fires, “I felt it appropriate to come and talk with you and the public about the fact that we're going to be pursuing heavy burning this year.”
“I am a huge proponent of prescribed burns,” said Supervisor Jim Comstock.
Comstock grew up ranching and taking part in the burns, but he said in recent years they've been precluded from doing the burns. Unlike a prescribed burn, he said the Valley fire's impact on forest lands was destructive.
Supervisor Jim Steele said that some of the prescribed burn methods were actually developed in the Cobb area in the 1940s.
However, he said that all fell by the wayside over the years, allowing fuels to build up. He asked Aebly about how the burning would be done.
Aebly said the forest uses different types of burning. One method is pile burning. He said there are a lot of piles in the forest above Nice and Lucerne that resulted from a thinning program on a couple of hundred acres last summer.
Supervisor Rob Brown said he appreciated what was said about control burns. While such burns wouldn't have prevented the Valley fire, he said they could have stopped the fire from moving from Cobb to Middletown.
He cited Gov. Jerry Brown's recently declared state of emergency regarding the bark beetle infestation that has caused tree die-off across the state. He said he's bringing the matter to the board for a formal discussion at its Nov. 17 meeting, and asked Aebly if the forest was looking at that issue.
Aebly said the Covelo and Upper Lake districts aren't having a serious problem with the beetles.
However, on the east side of the forest – in the Grindstone Ranger District in Glenn and Colusa counties – there is a very large beetle problem, and there is a thinning and forest health project under way, Aebly said.
During the discussion with the board Aebly also noted that the forest has an overabundance of trees from 6 to 10 inches in diameter. Most purchasers are interested in trees between 14 and 36 inches in diameter, he said.
The smaller trees, he said, could be used in the pole or wood pellet industry, and the forest would work with an interested purchaser.
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Officials continue working to address Valley fire-related housing issues
LAKEPORT, Calif. – With fall bringing rain and cooler temperatures to Lake County, the effort to address Valley fire-related housing issues continued this week, as county officials adopted new rules for temporary housing placement and worked to get survivors at a campground moved to another facility.
The situation and continuing cleanup prompted the Board of Supervisors to extend a health emergency declared by Dr. Karen Tait, the county's public health officer, on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday, Community Development Director Rick Coel asked the board to rescind an urgency ordinance for placing RVs on lots in the fire area that the board had passed last month.
He said the ordinance was no longer needed because the California Department of Housing and Community Development, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the California Office of Emergency Services and the county are all now consistently applying a set of minimum health and safety standards for site consideration and placement of temporary housing.
Those standards do not include a minimum property size minimum, but do require that there be adequate area for placement so as not to interfere with debris cleanup or the reconstruction of a permanent residence, that there be no hazards – including dead or dying trees – in the unit's proximity and no landslide risks, and that there be a potable water supply and a functioning septic system or sewer connection, according to Coel's memo to the board.
“This has been an evolving process over the last month,” he told the board on Tuesday.
Coel said he and his staff had begun drafting the rules for placing temporary dwellings before Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order last month that suspended for three years rules certain state and local regulations relating to placement of RVs and manufactured homes as temporary dwellings. At that point, Coel said they had no idea that an executive order was in the making.
“The necessity that was driving that was that there just was no communication at the time between us and FEMA,” he said.
However, since then, the California Department of Housing and Community Development has stepped in and acted as a liaison between the county and FEMA, Coel said.
The state Department of Housing and Community Development has assisted with developing criteria for temporary housing, and Coel said the county's new proposed policy follows the safety-based criteria for FEMA manufactured homes.
As of this week, only three of those FEMA homes have been installed in Lake County, but Coel believes there ultimately will be quite a few more, as numerous property owners and tenants have qualified. He said FEMA is still going through the vetting process on a case-by-case basis.
He said he wanted to make sure that the criteria the county is using to approve placement of RVs is consistent with what FEMA is doing.
As such, he asked for the interim ordinance to be rescinded and for the county to instead follow the new, specific policies he presented in his memo.
“It will allow the county staff to be a lot more adaptive with minor revisions and changes in process,” he said, explaining that the goal is to get people into temporary dwellings – whether individual or group sites.
Board Chair Anthony Farrington asked if the change in policy would alleviate issues about minimum lot sizes that had raised concerns. Coel said yes.
“We feel these criteria minimize risk to the county,” Coel said, explaining that his department has to issue the permits for such sites, including those for FEMA units. He said he wants to make sure everyone is treated the same.
Supervisor Rob Brown said that, absent a plan from FEMA, the county had to step up and do what was best for Valley fire survivors during the winter. “This is the solution for that.”
While it's not optimal, the county is being flexible, he said. “There's no way to plan for something like this,” Brown added, explaining the county is doing everything it can.
Supervisor Jim Steele said Coel was considering all of the criteria before FEMA or the state, and came close to what FEMA later proposed. “It's very good work.”
The Tuesday discussion highlighted local officials' concerns about working with FEMA.
Brown in particular criticized the agency for not being forthcoming in its communications, explaining that the county doesn't know who the agency is helping. He said it has been frustrating, although some of those issues may be getting worked out after a meeting last week.
Although communications are improving, he said they still need to get better.
He asked community members who aren't getting FEMA help to report it to the board so they can assist.
Asked about the communication issues cited by Brown, FEMA spokesman Steven Solomon said the agency has been working very closely with county officials on the recovery, noting the relationship has always been polite, professional and meaningful.
Solomon said information about individual registrations becomes part of the federal record, and is considered private and confidential, and so can't be released to the county.
“We continue to work very closely with county officials in making sure that everyone who is registered is informed of all the federal assistance that is available to eligible survivors,” Solomon said.
Efforts under way to find places for survivors
One of the sticking points between the county and FEMA that has arisen over the past several weeks is a plan the county had wanted to pursue for a temporary RV park at Hoberg's Resort.
While the resort's historic main lodge was destroyed in the fire, much of the rest of the property is undamaged by the fire. With the owner willing to let the property be used as a temporary park for up to three years, Coel and board members have held that it remains the best and safest option for community members to be able to locate as they prepare to begin rebuilding.
However, FEMA hasn't agreed.
Solomon told Lake County News that the agency's stance on the Hoberg's site is that there are hazardous materials that would need to be removed and damaged infrastructure that would need to be repaired.
There also are cultural resource sites in and around the resort that he said are of interest to several tribes.
“We're continuing to look at every possible solution,” he said.
In particular, Solomon said FEMA has identified two sites in Lake County that already are up and running as parks and have room for up to 40 pads each for manufactured housing units: Lake Village Estates in Clearlake Oaks and Clearlake Resort in Clearlake.
Solomon said Thursday that FEMA had by that point received approximately 2,492 registrations in Lake County.
Of that number, he said FEMA has provided rental assistance to more than 700 county residents.
Eligible survivors are either given cash assistance or payments are made directly to landlords, or they receive a manufactured housing unit, he said.
Regarding the units, Solomon explained, “They're more than a trailer and different than an RV in that they're fully furnished, from beds to silverware, with all appliances.”
He said more than 100 of the units are staged in the Sacramento area.
So far, three of the units have been placed and are occupied in Calaveras County, Solomon said. Three have been placed in Lake County, but have not been “licensed” – or permitted – and so are not yet occupied.
Coel told Lake County News that he's heard several more of the units will be delivered to Lake County next week.
His department has to do the permitting for the units, which he said is a process with a quick turnaround. However, for the manufactured housing units, “The property constraints are a real challenge. FEMA can’t place these in 100 year flood zonings, so that further limits the locations for placement of individual units.”
Coel's Tuesday report to the board had included a memo that explained that most of the fire-damaged properties in Cobb and Anderson Springs cannot currently meet the minimum health and safety criteria that the county, the state and FEMA are implementing for temporary housing placement. As such, other other alternatives are being explored due to the lack of FEMA group sites being developed.
In other housing news related to the Valley fire, officials are still working to find alternate accommodations for about 80 people staying at the Hidden Valley Lake campground.
The county and the Hidden Valley Lake Association had an agreement in place until late last month allowing for fire survivors to stay there for free, as Lake County News has reported.
Deputy Social Services Director Jennifer Fitts explained that the agreement had to end, as it was interfering with FEMA benefits for some fire survivors.
The association has continued, however, to allow survivors to stay there for free, and reported that it is working to assist the impacted families.
Fitts said she had staff at the campground on Thursday afternoon, delivering information on available rentals, getting additional contact information and just checking in with families in general.
She said county staffers have continued to try to urge families staying there to move to available rooms at Konocti Harbor Resort and Spa in Kelseyville.
“We haven’t been very successful though,” she said. “Most have children in school in Middletown and also work in the area. They have told us Konocti is too far away.”
Konocti Harbor has opened more rooms, and 12 are now available, Fitts said. The county is paying for the rooms.
Fitts said she also is following up on a report that a number of fire survivors are living in RVs in Nice.
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Animal Care and Control gives update on Valley fire animal adoptions
LAKEPORT, Calif. – A week after they were made available to the public for adoption, 15 animals rescued from the Valley fire are still waiting to go to new homes.
Animal Care and Control Director Bill Davidson said Wednesday that three dogs and 12 cats have yet to be adopted.
Beginning on Oct. 29, animals that hadn't been reclaimed since the fire – which began Sept. 12 – were offered to the general public for adoption, as Lake County News has reported.
Davidson guaranteed the Board of Supervisors at its Oct. 27 meeting that there is no intention to euthanize any animals rescued from the fire.
The Board of Supervisors at that time also approved Davidson's request to waive all adoption fees for the animals to help expedite adoptions, although spay/neuter costs must still be paid for by the adopters.
Those spay/neuter costs are: male dogs, $80; female dogs, 60 pounds or less, $90; female dogs, 60 pounds or more, $105; male cats, $55; female cats, $65. Any fire animals that already are altered are free.
When adoptions began, 42 animals – 10 dogs, 27 cats, three horses and two chickens – were offered to new homes, with 20 of the animals being adopted on that first day, Animal Care and Control reported.
Eight goats found on Butts Canyon Road in Middletown were not available until Wednesday. Davidson said all were adopted immediately after having generated a lot of interest from community members.
The three remaining dogs are all pit bulls, Davidson said.
Regarding the cats, he said the SPCA of Clear Lake in Kelseyville has agreed to take 10 felines on Saturday as a temporary hold for a rescue group.
Although the emphasis has been on placing all of the animals locally, Davidson said he is working with with rescue groups in the region which have indicated they will help find homes for the animals.
To visit the animals, stop by Animal Care and Control, located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Lake County Jail. The shelter can be reached via telephone at 707-263-0278.
Animals available for adoption also can be viewed at Animal Care and Control's Web site; click on “Dogs & Puppies” or “Cats & Kittens.” However, not all of the available cats are included in the online photo gallery.
Animal Care and Control also is posting regular updates on the animals on its Facebook page.
Email Elizabeth Larson at