Lake County Redevelopment Agency and Lake County Sheriff Rod Mitchell took to the board a proposed option agreement to purchase two parcels – one vacant and one with a building that formerly housed a real estate office – that will be the site of the new substation.
The parcels, owned by May Noble, are located at 6222 and 6224 E. Highway 20. The asking price is $300,000, which Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Cox's report to the board notes is $41,000 below the appraised value.
Redevelopment funds will pay for half of the funding, while Mitchell pledged to provide the second half from the Rural and Small Counties Sheriff's subvention program. That state program gives Lake County $500,000 annually.
This year's final county budget hearings included money in the Redevelopment Agency budget to rent office space in Lucerne – the center of the agency's project area – for the sheriff's substation, Cox's report noted.
“We were thinking of just renting a building to begin with,” Cox said.
As the agency searched for a building to rent, Cox reported that they discovered Noble had the property for sale.
The location is a good one for a variety of reasons, said Cox, including its highly visible location on the highway, the Lucerne Firehouse's presence next door and the fact that it's situated directly across the highway from Lucerne Harbor Park, which Cox noted is “heavily used.”
The two parcels are offered as a package deal, said Cox. The vacant parcel could be used for extra parking for the public; Deputy Redevelopment Director Eric Seely noted that the lot with the building only has four parking spaces.
Mitchell didn't come to the beginning of the discussion; Board Chair Jeff Smith said he had told the sheriff that he needn't come for the item. However, with the board asking more questions, Mitchell was called and asked to come and share more details.
Necessity and a desire for greater efficiency have led Mitchell to begin dividing the county into service regions. “The intention is to establish three operational areas,” said Mitchell.
Those are Region 1, serving Middletown, Cobb and Lower Lake; Region 2, which includes the Highway 20 corridor; and Region 3, the greater Lakeport area.
Mitchell said he wants to have an operations base in Middletown that will be staffed by sheriff's personnel and volunteers, with a lieutenant assigned to oversee operations.
The substations planned for Lucerne and Middletown will help the department decentralize, which is important for another reason, said Mitchell. “The fact is, we’ve outgrown the main office.”
The space crunch is further increased by the fact that the sheriff's office is due to lose is Lower Lake substation because the courts require a holding area, Mitchell reported.
The Lucerne substation, said Mitchell, also would be optimally located at the Noble property because of his desire to have a boat patrol location there, which the park's close proximity makes possible.
Mitchell said he already would have created a Middletown substation had he been able to do so.
“If I could snap my fingers that would be the first place I would establish it,” said Mitchell, based on the development and growth in the area. “The second would be on the Northshore.”
Cox said the Middletown substation is included in the town's library project.
In the Lucerne substation's case, Cox said the Redevelopment Agency's ability to help – its funding can be used for policing, he said – has pushed that project to the front.
Smith said he initially had misgivings about the proposed purchase. He said he wondered if a better location wouldn't be Clearlake Oaks.
The board eventually agreed that the property's proximity to the park and the firehouse made it a good choice.
Supervisor Denise Rushing moved to approve the option agreement, which the board approved unanimously. The agreement runs out Jan. 15, 2008.
Mitchell told Lake County News Tuesday afternoon that he plans to use the building with some modifications.
“The staffing portion will not be happening immediately but it is not too far off,” he said. “I do intend to have a staff level officer oversee the services in each region and the Lucerne station would be one of them.”
He added, “I appreciate the board's support of this because I genuinely believe that this will be good for the entire Highway 20 corridor. Mostly, I am grateful to Kelly Cox for his support and to Eric Seely for his work and of course, May Noble for her generosity. That is a big deal to us.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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