Larson, the editor and primary reporter at Lakeconews.com, was commended for "her extraordinary and exemplary efforts to keep the public informed during the wild fires of June, 2008 and the Board also acknowledges and appreciates the reliable and trustworthy public service provided to the citizens of Lake County by lakeconews.com."
On Tuesday, Larson thanked the board and the many local and Cal Fire firefighters for their dedication and perseverence for fighting the fire and for granting her access to cover the story and take photographs.
The Board of Supervisors also issued a proclamation commending the firefighters and fire personnel for their extraordinary efforts on Tuesday.
Lakeconews.com was started by Larson in December of 2006. After accepting a position with a California-based agricultural newspaper, Larson resigned as the editor of the newspaper based locally in Lakeport and began Lakeconews.com to provide timely and 100-percent local news to the residents of Lake County – the importance of which was highlighted during the recent Walker wild fire event in Lake County.
"... Through the dedicated efforts of Elizabeth Larson and Lake County News .., the citizens of Lake County were kept informed with up-to-date and accurate information concerning the status of the fires, efforts to contain the fires, the impact of the fires on our air quality and other information important to the health and safety of the general public, along with multiple photographs taken at the actual scene of the fires and at the Cal Fire base camp," the proclamation states.
Shortly after the fire was discovered near Walker Ridge in eastern Lake County near the Colusa County border on Sunday, June 22, Lake County News broke the story of the fire to their thousands of subscribers and readers from across the country.
At the end of each story on the Web site, readers can post comments. A person from Kelseyville wrote after the second story on Monday, June 23, "I am an elderly, housebound, disabled, senior and there is no news other than you. I don't know how I will know when to evacuate."
Because Lakeconews.com is delivered electronically and accessible via the Internet, throughout the fire event, Larson was able to keep updating stories as the situation changed and notify readers – including firefighters – immediately via email, notifying residents of evacuations and where evacuation centers had been opened.
"... The multiple daily updates authored by Elizabeth Larson and other contributors to lakeconews.com were extremely well written, timely, factual, did not sensationalize and proved to be a very reliable source of information, all of which was provided to the public at no charge on the lakeconews.com Web site...," the board's proclamation states.
Lakeconews.com is free to all readers with no subscription fee required, although they do accept donations and have just begun offering advertising.
The board noted that the news delivered via Lakeconews.com was, "... also accessible to individuals outside of Lake County who were concerned about their friends and relatives in Lake County, including the family and friends of hundreds of firefighters ..."
"... The exemplary efforts of Elizabeth Larson and the public service she and lakeconews.com provided should be appropriately and officially acknowledged and recognized by our County government," the Board of Supervisor's proclaimed, and from the many accolades and appreciative comments from the public on the lakeconews.com Web site, the community of Lake County thanks Larson and lakeconews.com, too.
Terre Logsdon was a former staff writer for the Lakeport-based newspaper and worked with Elizabeth Larson there. She is currently a volunteer staff writer for Lakeconew.com because she believes in Larson's good work and Lake County's need for 100-percent local and timely news.
E-mail Terre Logsdon at
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