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Supervisor Denise Rushing will host the event, which will take place from 10 a.m. to noon at the Odd Fellows Hall, 9480 Main St.
A similar event was held in Spring Valley in August, giving residents the chance to hear from the officials who will respond in times of disasters and emergencies.
Speakers on Saturday will include Kurt Herndon, Upper Lake Elementary superintendent; Rick Winer, Upper Lake Middle principal; Patrick Iaccino, Upper Lake High principal/superintendant; Chief Jim Robbins, Northshore Fire Protection District; Chris Rivera, Lake County Office of Emergency Services; Rachelle Henry, Upper Lake Water District; Betsy Cawn, Senior Support Services; Wolfgang Liebe, U.S. Forestry; and Pat Lynch, Upper Lake Flood Prevention.
Rushing also will speak about the Lake County Fire Plan.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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The report – issued just after noon on Thursday – noted that, effective immediately, Witter Springs Road will be closed to all traffic two miles north of Highway 20 at the bridge due to bridge deck failure.
Traffic will be detoured on East Road to Bachelor Valley Road and back to Witter Springs Road in order to avoid the bridge area, according to the report. Signs are in place to alert drivers.
Public Works' report said the closure will remain in effect until further notice.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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Sheriff Rod Mitchell confirmed at 11 a.m. that the search for 22-year-old Matthew Richard Zanoni was being called off, based on the determination of search leader, Lt. Gary Basor.
An official statement written by Basor that was released later in the day said that, as of Wednesday morning, the search was “scaled down significantly,” but would continue with the assistance of the Lake County Sheriff's Department Search and Rescue Teams, as well as with the continued efforts of the Lake County Sheriff's Department Marine Service Patrol.
Zanoni is described as a white Caucasian male, 5 feet 10 inches tall and 145 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes, according to Basor. He was last seen wearing board shorts and white socks. Zanoni was not wearing as shirt.
Zanoni was a passenger on an 18-foot Tracker pontoon boat when he went into the water, Basor reported. The boat was stopped about 100 to 150 feet offshore from Shag Rock, located just west of Buckingham peninsula, and some of its passengers had gone swimming.
Witnesses told authorities that Zanoni had been drinking alcoholic prior to the accident and that he wasn't wearing a life vest when he went into the lake, according to Basor's report.
The Lake County Sheriff's Department Marine Patrol first responded to the Rattlesnake Island area, based on the initial reports, Basor reported. When they arrived and couldn't find the boat they made a followup call and found that the incident occurred near Shag Rock.
Basor said when the deputies arrived, witnesses reported that several attempts were made by those on the pontoon boat to locate Zanoni.
Minutes after arriving, deputies requested that the North Shore Dive Team assist the sheriff’s department in the rescue efforts, said Basor. Members of the North Shore Dive Team made several dives that afternoon.
Beginning Sunday and lasting through Tuesday at 5 p.m., members of the North Shore Dive Team, the Lake County Search and Rescue Dive Team, as well as divers from Napa, Sonoma and Marin counties continued searching for Zanoni, Basor reported.
Basor said Thomas Tessier of Santa Rosa-based Aqua-Tech Inc. also volunteered to help, bringing his highly sophisticated drop sonar equipment for the search effort. Tessier helped search for a drowning victim on the lake in May.
The team – which Basor said was composed of highly trained professionals – assisted in more than 100 drop search positions in the given search area, which covered over one million square feet within the waters of Clear Lake.
Each location identified as a potential location for Zanoni was checked and searched, said Basor, but recovery efforts were temporarily slowed when civilian vessels also searching for Zanoni entered the search area causing concern for the diver’s safety. The boats were directed to leave the immediate area.
Family taking its own measures
Jennifer and Laura Zanoni, Matt Zanoni's sisters, were angry that the search was called off.
They said officials told them that they needed to “let nature take its course,” with Matt Zanoni's body expected to surface in about two weeks due to decomposition.
The sisters also were concerned because they said witnesses on the boat reported there were fishermen in the area who saw Matt Zanoni go into the water, yet the fishermen left quickly after the accident and didn't stay around to give a statement to sheriff's deputies.
They insisted that alcohol couldn't have been a major factor, as they were told by witnesses that he only had a few beers before he disappeared over the boat's side.
Jennifer Zanoni said she began making calls at 8 a.m. Wednesday, asking various agencies around the state for help.
Basor's report, however, said he had been in contact, and had been contacted, by some of those other agencies, including the US Coast Guard, and all agreed that every immediate effort to recover Zanoni has been tried.
“There's only so much we can do,” Chief Deputy Russell Perdock of the Lake County Sheriffs' Office told Lake County News.
He said the sonar equipment volunteered by Aqua-Tec was better than that used by Sonoma County.
Perdock also asserted that the Zanonis had told the other agencies that it was a rescue operation, not a recovery, which it had technically been since Sunday.
The Zanoni family plans to hire their own divers, who are scheduled to begin searching for Matt Zanoni on Saturday.
“Right now we're just trying to focus on finding that body so we can have some closure,” said Laura Zanoni.
Jennifer Zanoni asked for anyone who saw the incident to call her at 480-4254.
Basor reported that the investigation into the incident's cause is continuing.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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State Sen. Patricia Wiggins' eighth annual Women in the Wine Country dinner and fundraiser will take place from 4:30 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 21, a the Kendall Jackson Wine Center in Fulton.
Victoria Brandon, chair of the Sierra Club Lake Group since January 2005, will receive the event's environmental award.
“Personal recognition from such an extraordinarily dedicated and able legislator as Pat Wiggins is immensely gratifying, but the honor actually belongs to the Sierra Club Lake Group, and to the other local conservationists committed to making our community the greenest place in California,” Brandon said.
Brandon's duties with the Sierra Club keep her busy around the county, from monitoring development to writing letters to politicians on environmental policy matters.
She worked to garner support for the Congressman Mike Thompson's Wilderness Bill and supported the Cache Creek Wild & Scenic campaign.
A Lake County resident since 1981, she also is a board member of Tuleyome, a volunteer advocacy-oriented nonprofit organization founded in 2002 that is dedicated to protecting the Putah-Cache bioregion, which includes Lake County.
Brandon's other activities include participating in the Cache Creek Watershed Forum, secretary of the Chi Council for the Clear Lake Hitch, membership in the Coalition for Responsible Agriculture and editor of the Lake County Peace Action newsletter.
Other honorees include: Arts – Hanya Popova Parker, Sonoma County artist; Health Care – Carol Mordhorst, Mendocino County Public Health director; Business – Jeannie Hamann, owner, Hamann Real Estate; Wine – Phyllis Zouzounis, owner and winemaker, Deux Amis Winery; Special Achievement – Elaine Honig, Creative Director, Honig Vineyard and Winery.
For more information about the event visit www.wiggins4senate.com/events.html.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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A report from Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff said a jury on Tuesday found Craig Alvin Lemke, 45, guilty of the home invasion robbery, which took place in February 2006.
Hinchcliff prosecuted Lemke, whose trial began Sept. 12 in Judge Stephen O. Hedstrom's Department 4 courtroom.
Lemke was defended by attorney Jason Webster. Webster did not return a call placed to his office Wednesday.
According to Hinchcliff's report, at just after 8 p.m. Feb. 12, 2006, Lemke and Joe Moncivaiz Jr. went to the home of the elderly couple, who Lemke had previously known and with whom he had work-related contacts.
The men parked their vehicle three-tenths of a mile down the road from the victim’s residence, which Hinchcliff said was located on Highway 29 just south of Lower Lake.
According to testimony at trial, Lemke and Moncivaiz checked the location of the couple inside the residence through uncovered windows after dark, then approached the front door, knocked on it, and told the male victim they had run out of gas. The male victim was 89 years old and the female victim 70 years old, Hinchcliff reported.
When the male victim opened the door, Lemke pushed him onto the floor and bound his hands and feet with electrical tape, according to Hinchcliff's report. When the female victim came out of her bedroom to investigate the noise, she was tied up with zip ties and electrical tape. Both Lemke and Moncivaiz were wearing coverings on their faces and gloves to avoid identification and leaving fingerprints. Lemke was wearing a Halloween skeleton mask.
After ransacking the residence for about 15 minutes, the men fled with several guns, a large amount of ammunition, $2,100 in cash and other items, Hinchcliff reported.
Once they reached Highway 29 in front of the residence, they realized they could not carry the stolen property down Highway 29 to their car for fear of being seen by passing cars, and stashed the stolen items, Hinchcliff said.
While they were making their way back to the car, the male victim freed himself and called 911. Hinchcliff explained that before Lemke and Moncivaiz could return to retrieve the stolen property they had stashed, they realized their car would not start and heard approaching sirens of Lake County Sheriff’s deputies.
They fled into the surrounding hills until deputies left the area two hours later, then called a friend for a ride and returned home, said Hinchcliff. Meanwhile, the stolen property was found by sheriff’s deputies and returned to the victims.
The jury deliberated for two hours before returning with guilty verdicts on all charges, including two counts of first degree robbery, first degree burglary, elder theft, two counts of false imprisonment of an elderly person and grand theft of firearms, Hinchcliff reported.
In addition, several special allegations charged were submitted to Judge Hedstrom for a court trial after the jury convicted Lemke of the crimes charged, said Hinchcliff. Special allegations including two prior “strikes,” three prior prison terms, committing a felony while released on own recognizance and crimes against elders were found to be true.
Lemke had prior felony convictions and prison sentences between 1986 and 1995 for possession of a sawed off shotgun, transportation of methamphetamine, robbery, burglary and threatening a witness, said Hinchcliff.
When he is sentenced on Oct. 25, Lemke could face a maximum of 76 years to life in prison, according to Hinchcliff.
Hinchcliff added that Lemke's accomplice, Moncivaiz, previously admitted his participation and pleaded guilty to first degree burglary.
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The accident occurred at about 2:44 p.m. according to the California Highway Patrol's incident logs.
CHP Officer Adam Garcia said late Wednesday that the crash took place on Highway 29 in Middletown near the junction with Highway 175.
Garcia said a preliminary investigation indicated that the collision occurred whn a 2002 Ford Ranger traveling southbound on Highway 29 began to make a left turn directly in front of a 2007 Honda motorcycle, which the pickup's driver failed to notice approaching.
The motorcycle rider took evasive action, Garcia said, and laid the motorcycle down onto its side and slid under the Ford.
Garcia said the motorcycle rider was transported to Redbud Hospital by ambulance with minor injuries.
He said the names of the drivers involded were not available Wednesday afternoon.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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