LOWER LAKE, Calif. – In response to community concerns, the county is moving a recently opened probation office out of Lower Lake.

Supervisor Jim Comstock will ask the Board of Supervisors next Tuesday, March 20, to consider terminating the lease agreement between the county’s Community Development Department and Lake County Probation for the office space at 16195 Main St.

The office space previously was used jointly by the county’s building department and Environmental Health, according to County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox.

Acting Chief Probation Officer Steve Buchholz said Thursday that his staff is vacating the Lower Lake building.

“We were going to move in,” he said, adding, “There were some concerns by the citizens.”

Because of the state’s correctional realignment, which is shifting some convicted felons from state prison to county jails, and probationers from state supervision to “post release community supervision,” Lake County Probation needed to set up another office in the south county for its expanded caseload, Buchholz said.

Specifically, two probation staffers will work out of the south county satellite office, which also will serve as a check-in center, he said.

Probation had those two staffers conducting field services out of the Lower Lake location but Buchholz said they had not yet brought in any clients.

The business community didn’t welcome the probation office’s presence, he said.

“There was a belief that we would have high risk felons lining up out the door,” Buchholz said.

He added, “In my opinion there were some misconceptions on what was actually going to occur there but I do understand the concerns.”

Buchholz said his department has since found a privately owned location in Clearlake that better serves its needs.

He said the Board of Supervisors will consider approving a three-year lease for the Clearlake facility at its March 27 meeting.

Cox said the county has no other potential tenant lined up to take the county-owned office space in Lower Lake.

If building activity were to pick up again, there would be funding and justification to reopen a building department office there, Cox said. “We’re not seeing seeing a trend yet in construction activity that would justify that in the foreseeable future.”

Buchholz said the two probation officers who will work from the Clearlake satellite office primarily will handle the post release community supervision caseload, consisting of individuals coming out of state prison who will be under probation’s supervision rather than that of state parole.

Because of correctional realignment, Buchholz said probation’s caseload is increasing daily, “as we expected,” he said.

He called it “the proverbial snowball, it’s still moving,” noting, “it’s kind of hitting a lot of agencies from many different directions.

To help deal with the caseload, the county has reinstated the assistant chief probation officer job, which is the department’s second-in-command, Buchholz said.

Rob Howe, a former sheriff’s captain, has been selected for the job, according to Buchholz.

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