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'Warm for the Winter' effort gathers donations for Christmas giveaway
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The eighth annual “Warm for the Winter” winter clothing and blanket drive is under way.
The effort, headed by Clearlake City Councilwoman Joyce Overton, is seeking donations of coats and clothing for adults and youth, and bedding.
Specific items they're collecting include blankets, pillows, cots, tents and tarps, as well as hats, gloves, socks and clothing of all sizes – from infants to adults.
Overton said they especially need coats for children and infant clothing, items they're usually short of when it comes time for distribution.
Warm for the Winter this year is helping with a warming center, for which the blankets, pillows and cots are needed, Overton said.
The clothing, bedding and cots will be distributed once again at the Clearlake Rotary community Christmas dinner, which will take place on Saturday, Dec. 13, Overton said.
For more information or to arrange donation drop offs or pickups, call Overton at 707-350-2898.
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Clearlake City Council gives go ahead for negotiations with firm to complete zoning code update
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- Written by: Denise Rockenstein
CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council provided authorization to staff on Wednesday to negotiate an agreement with Price Consulting Services to prepare an update of the city's zoning code as well as develop a design review manual.
The fee is not to exceed $85,000, which City Manager Joan Phillipe said will be paid for through use of bond proceeds and without impact to the city's general fund.
Wednesday's authorization continues momentum in the lengthy process to update documents that direct the city's growth and development.
An update of the 2040 general plan is nearing completion; Phillipe said a key to successful implementation of the new general plan is updating the zoning code.
Price Consulting Services completed an update of the housing element within the city's zoning code in June for compliance with state housing laws.
Phillipe said Gary Price, who is the city's contract planner, also helped facilitate the update of the general plan.
“I think it is absolutely imperative that we continue on the path to update our documents,” Vice Mayor Gina Fortino Dickson said, adding in her experience as a planning commissioner, issues with inconsistencies in the zoning code were abundant.
She said addressing the task with someone familiar with the city “is a step in the right direction.”
Updating the zoning ordinance will focus on recent land use, and design policies and programs in the draft general plan update.
Phillipe said Price's collaborative work with staff in understanding the shortcomings of the zoning code should help create a practical and internally consistent code.
She expects that updated code will be much easier to administer by staff and understand by decision makers and the public at large.
The process, Phillipe said, is lengthy and will provide ample opportunity for public comment and participation.
She said updating the documents is imperative in that the current general plan is 30 years old and does not reflect changes in land use. Nor does it accommodate for modern technology – for example, telecommunication cell towers.
The design review manual is to be prepared as a companion document to the zoning ordinance, which, as a separate document, will allow for easier amendment as community needs and desires change.
It will describe critical design aspects for the physical development of the city, such as architecture, building materials, parking, sign appearance and landscaping design.
Phillipe said although design standards and guidelines can be established in the zoning code, that approach sets the city design direction in stone.
She said as the city evolves, design perspectives can change and having to amend the zoning code every time there is a change in city design perspectives is cumbersome and expensive.
“The manual is intended to provide more flexibility for designing projects, which can more easily change and evolve with ever-changing community views; it creates more flexibility in decision making and can become a dynamic planning tool the city can use to more cost-effectively change over time,” Phillipe said.
Phillipe said the work will be funded through housing bond proceeds with the nexus being to address, facilitate and streamline the process to meet mandated housing requirements for affordable housing.
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Registrar of voters provides update on final election canvass
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lake County Registrar of Voters Office is getting closer to completing the many tasks associated with finalizing the vote count for the Nov. 4 general election.
Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley's staff began work on the official election canvass the day after the election.
The canvass includes counting the remaining absentee – or vote-by-mail – and provisional ballots that weren't tallied election night – totaling 5,536 ballots, Fridley reported.
The preliminary count released on election night included absentees and provisionals that Fridley's office had received by Oct. 31.
Under California state law, Fridley is required to certify the results of the Nov. 4 general election no later than Tuesday, Dec. 2.
She said Thursday that the official statement of votes cast at the general election will be presented to the Lake County Board of Supervisors at its regular meeting on Tuesday, Dec. 9.
The newly elected and reelected county officials will begin their term of office on Jan. 5 or 6, 2015, she said.
On Tuesday morning, Fridley began the 1-percent public manual tally of randomly selected precincts. The procedure is meant to determine if there are any discrepancies between the machine count and the manual tally.
She anticipated that the manual tally would be completed on Friday and that processing of the provisional ballots will be completed by the end of the day on Monday.
At that point, Fridley said the final official canvass tasks will be the counting of the remaining vote-by-mail ballots and the approved provisional ballots.
Fridley said the process of counting those remaining ballots will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
She said anyone who is interested in the counting of the remaining ballots can watch the process at the Registrar of Voters Office in Room 209 on the second floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
Once those tasks are done, Fridley said she can certify the results.
Fridley said she said she will release the final results after the canvass is completed.
Following the election, Secretary of State Debra Bowen said approximately 1,705,281 ballots statewide remained to be counted during the official canvass, as Lake County News has reported.
On Thursday, Bowen's office reported that approximately 232,836 ballots statewide were still uncounted.
Based on Bowen's Thursday report, Lake – along with neighboring Mendocino, Napa and Sonoma – was among 29 of California's 58 counties still engaged in finishing the official canvass.
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Supervisors approve temporary Sunday closures of Historic Courthouse Museum
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Historic Courthouse Museum in Lakeport will be closed on Sundays until March while the county hires and trains new staff.
The Boards of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to allow the temporary Sunday closures at the request of Public Services Director Caroline Chavez.
Chavez said her department has 38 less employee hours than it had at the beginning of October.
She's trying to hire an assistant curator – now a term position that only runs through the end of July – and has lost funding for eight hours, or one-fifth of an assistant curator spot, that was used to cover the museum on Sundays.
She offered the board a variety of options, including closing the museum on Sundays through the end of June until it was decided if the assistant curator job would be extended; approving 10 hours a week for an extra help employee to help cover the museum and other facilities; recruiting an extra help employee for just four hours a week of coverage at the museum; or trying to recruit a volunteer.
Chavez said the museum also could be supplemented with marketing funds, and offer marketing-type visitor services.
“What we looked at primarily was the availability of staffing,” she said.
Her department currently has some extra help workers not willing to commit to the Sunday hours.
Chavez said she's in an active recruitment mode and is considering two highly qualified assistant curator candidates.
Currently, the number of museum visitors on Sundays is very low, less than 10 per day, with donations averaging less than a dollar, Chavez said.
She said the visitor numbers usually increase in March.
As such, she said her recommendation was to close on Sundays temporarily until at least March to allow her to recruit staff, and complete background checks and training.
She said she also hoped the board would reclassify the assistant curator job from a term position to a permanent one – a consideration not taken up on Tuesday.
Board Chair Denise Rushing said she didn't like temporary positions. “I think that puts everybody in a holding pattern,” with the county not getting the people it needs.
Rushing added that she supported hiring extra help as soon as possible.
Supervisor Jeff Smith said he wished the county had a place where it could offer RV parking in order to recruit RVers as seasonal workers. He said an RV spot had been included at the harbor at Redbud Park in Clearlake for that purpose.
Smith moved to approve the recommendation to close on Sundays through March – as well as to close the museum on Labor Day – with the board voting 3-1.
Rushing voted no – saying she doesn't want the museum to close on Sundays even temporarily – and Supervisor Anthony Farrington was absent for the discussion.
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