LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Two months after Lake County experienced one of the major earthquakes in its history, thousands of residents will join millions of other Californians in taking part in a statewide earthquake preparedness drill on Thursday.

The Great California ShakeOut – which takes place on Oct. 20, which is International ShakeOut Day – will include a drill at 10:20 a.m. during which participants will practice how to “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” during an earthquake.

The annual drill began in California in 2008.

The event's Web site estimates that 10.6 million people are taking part this year, up slightly over last year.

Of those, 58,037 participants are on the North Coast, which includes 8,250 people in Lake County.

Local participants also will include 700 county employees and 500 state employees.

Sheriff Brian Martin said county staff will be participating in the morning drill, which will take place during the Lake County Disaster Council, which will meet beginning at 10 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors chambers at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St. in Lakeport.

The Great California Shakeout estimates that 6,270 participants in Lake County will participate in all of the local school districts, as well as one private school, Konocti Christian Academy in Lakeport.

Rob Young, the emergency preparedness director for the Lake County Office of Education, told Lake County News that the agency will run an active one-minute drill on Thursday at 10:20 a.m.

He said an announcement will go out through the public address system that states the following: “This is an earthquake drill. During a real earthquake you would complete the 'Drop, Cover and Hold On' action during the quake and for up to a minute after the quake has ended.”

Once the simulated quake drill is over, participants will be directed to meet at the designated safe area outside of the building, literature will be handed out to participants and they will discuss if work and classroom spaces are prepared for heavy shaking, if people know escape routes, can they account for staff and students, have they planned for their family and asked if they are prepared to serve as a disaster service worker, Young said.

Young said they are projecting the drill to end around 10:30 a.m., pending the amount of questions.

More than 200 people in the local health care industry will participate in Thursday's drill. Spokeswoman Cambria Wheeler confirmed that St. Helena Hospital Clear Lake, its clinics around the county and St. Helena Konocti Wellness Center at Lower Lake High School will participate. Meadowood Nursing Center in Clearlake also is registered, according to the event Web site.

Preparing for earthquakes is important all over California, and here in Lake County as well, where earthquakes are a common occurrence.

That's especially true in the Cobb area, where seismicity has increased in the last few decades due to wastewater injection at The Geysers, the world's largest geothermal steamfield located on the Lake/Sonoma County border.

And then there was the 5.1-magnitude earthquake that occurred on Aug. 9, 11 miles north northeast of Upper Lake, as Lake County News has reported.

The US Geological Survey reported receiving nearly 1,100 shake reports from from all over Northern California and as far south as Bakersfield.

An extensive search of the US Geological Survey online database records going back to 1900, as well as California Geological Survey records that stretched back to 1800, yielded no other quakes as large reported within Lake County's boundaries.

Tony Pierucci, curator of the Lake County Museum system, said so far he's not come across accounts in the museum holdings of very large earthquakes centered in Lake County over the past century.

One earthquake that local historical records attest caused serious damage – but wasn't centered in Lake County – was the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that devastated San Francisco that occurred early on the morning of April 18, 1906.

The 1906 quake caused walnut trees to shake in Upper Lake; in Lakeport, it caused the collapse of the Masonic Hall and damaged the Lakeview and Giselman hotels; damaged the original bell tower as well as the roof on the Lower Lake Schoolhouse; and did other damage to residences around the county.

“We're still uncovering all that there actually is at the museums so info might be out there but we have not come across it,” Pierucci said.

The Great California Shakeout comes just weeks after Gov. Jerry Brown signed new legislation to help California be more prepared in the case of large earthquakes.

On Sept. 29 Brown signed SB 438 by State Sen. Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) to establish the California Earthquake Early Warning Program and Advisory Board within the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) to advance the implementation of the program and spur further investment in the early warning system.

Similar earthquake early warning systems are in place in Mexico, China and Japan. Other countries also are developing such systems.

Under the legislation, an Earthquake Early Warning Program business plan will be developed and submitted to the Legislature by Feb. 1, 2018.

“We’ve seen the devastation earthquakes have caused in California,” said Gov. Brown. “This keeps us on track to build a statewide warning system that can potentially save lives.”

“The early earthquake warning system will help save lives,” said Sen. Hill.

Gov. Brown in 2013 signed SB 135 that mandated the creation of a statewide earthquake warning system led by Cal OES and in conjunction with partner organizations from the California Integrated Seismic Network, the private sector and all levels of government.

Earlier this year, the governor also directed $10 million to Cal OES in the 2016-17 state budget to further expand the state’s earthquake early warning system prototype, called ShakeAlert, the Governor's Office reported.
 
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors this week approved the membership of a newly formed municipal advisory committee to serve the Clearlake Oaks area.

On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved five board members for the East Region 3 Town Hall, or EaRTH, which the board had voted to form in May at the request of District 3 Supervisor Jim Steele.

EaRTH will represent residents living and working in the Clearlake Oaks area, including the communities of Kono Tayee, Paradise Cove, Glenhaven, Clearlake Oaks, Spring Valley, Long Valley, and Double Eagle, as well as Windflower Point and High Valley.

The makeup of the EaRTH Board includes one member each from the Spring Valley Property Owners Association, Clearlake Oaks Keys Property Owners Association and Clearlake Oaks Business Association, and two members-at-large.

On Tuesday, Steele proposed a slate of board members including Robert Hendrickson, Spring Valley Property Owners Association; Heather McFadden, Clearlake Oaks Keys Property Owners Association; James Burton, Clearlake Oaks Business Association; and members-at-large Denise Loustalot and Michael L. Herman.

The board vote on the five candidates was 5-0.

Steele told Lake County News on Wednesday that he plans to check with the newly appointed directors for the best meeting date, estimating that it is likely to be at least a month out, with the date and location to be announced.

At EaRTH's first meeting, the board will “consider elements of bylaws that set when and where they meet, and particularly contacting and creating public involvement,” Steele said.

He said he also will bring up the idea of forming a municipal advisory council for the Lucerne area at an upcoming Lucerne town hall set for Oct. 25.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

This is the second article in a four-part series on local measures on the November ballot. For the first article on Measure A, the Lucerne Elementary School District bond, and Measure B, which would raise South Lake County Fire Protection District's appropriations limit, see www.bit.ly/2dL1ycX .

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Among the local measures on a crowded November ballot are a tax on cannabis growing and a local community college district's bond reauthorization.

The Board of Supervisors voted in August to put a cannabis tax measure – now known as Measure C – before voters in November, while the Yuba and Woodland Community Colleges – which serve a portion of Lake County – are asking voters to approve Measure Q, a bond reauthorization to continue districtwide improvements.

Measure C: Cannabis tax part of creating new industry

Measure C, as put forward by the county, is a cannabis cultivation tax that will impact growers in the county's unincorporated areas.

The tax would charge $1 per square foot on outdoor cultivation sites, $2 per square foot on a mixed-light cultivation sites and $3 per square foot on indoor cultivation sites. Measure C also would be subject to annual Consumer Price Index increases.

Growing for personal use is specifically exempted.

Michael S. Green – a cannabis activist, proponent of the measure and Lakeport City Council candidate – says the tax itself is “pretty simple.”

Green said that what voters need to know is that the measure is “half of a two-part puzzle.”

The other part of the puzzle, he said, is the regulatory ordinance that's still being crafted by the county. The Lake County Planning Commission held a meeting last week in which the regulations – which would include different forms of licensing and a variety of development standards – were once more up for discussion.

Mireya Turner, an associate planner with the Lake County Community Development Department who is working on the regulations, said the department is determined to present a draft ordinance before the commission at a special meeting at 11 a.m. Dec. 15.

Green said the measure and the regulations can go on two tracks of development at the same time. “And that's exactly what the county has done. They're trying to be proactive,” and not have to wait two, four or more years to put this before voters, he said.

Measure C is not a parcel or sales tax, and will affect only the very small subset of Lake County residents who will end up with cultivation permits and state licenses, Green said.

He added that 99 percent of the people voting on the measure won't pay a dime.

It is, he maintained, an important new revenue source for a financially strapped county.

At the same time, Green believes the tax will legitimize the county's cannabis industry, which he and other supporters are trying to bring out of the shadows.

If approved by voters, Measure C wouldn't go into effect until both county regulations were set and state regulations go into effect in 2018, he said.

The county's early estimates put potential revenue at $8 million annually, a figure that Green said is in the likely range of between $4 million and $12 million.

On the “Yes on Measure C” Web site Green has created, he offers a fiscal analysis of the measure that shows scenarios for a variety of different types of licenses and how much could potentially be raised annually.

A scenario that includes a total of 200 licenses raises nearly $4.2 million annually, while 690 licenses could bring in just over $8 million and 995 licenses more than $12 million.

“You've got to pay to play,” he said.

Because Measure C is not a specific tax, the money raised from the cannabis licensing would go into the general fund. Board discussions so far have suggested that money could be used for a wide range of uses including law enforcement, code enforcement, water quality-related programs and drug abuse prevention.

Measure C also is regionally consistent with that is being considered by voters in Humboldt and Mendocino counties, Green said.

It's far better than a measure being considered in Santa Cruz County, where grows are proposed to be taxed at $25 per foot, he added.

Green called Measure C a “thoughtful” approach to beginning the process of appropriately scaling the new cannabis industry. He said a reasonable tax gives the county an incentive to foster the cannabis industry as it develops.

He said he understands that people are pretty skeptical of tax measures in general.

Green noted that there is no organized opposition to Measure C. No arguments against the measure have been submitted to the Registrar of Voters Office.

However, perhaps the biggest challenge to the measure is voter awareness, Green said.

“It's a very crowded ballot this year,” he said.

Measure Q: Yuba and Woodland Community Colleges seek bond reauthorization

The Yuba and Woodland Community Colleges are asking voters across its eight-county coverage area to approve Measure Q, which district officials said is a reauthorization of $33,565,000 in bonds approved by voters in November 2006 as Measure J.

Measure J was a $190 million Proposition 39 bond.

Measure Q would be used to continue repairing, renovating, constructing and equipping classrooms and facilities at district campuses. Programs that would benefit include nursing, health care, science, technology, engineering, fire and police training, according to the measure's language.

The ballot language calls for no increase in authorized district debt, with interest rates to be below the legal limit. It also will require a citizens oversight committee and cannot be taken by the state.

The estimated tax rate on Measure Q would be $9.18 per $100,000 of assessed value on property owners from 2017-18, according to the measure's language.

It's estimated that the total debt service amount required to be paid if Measure Q passes would be $42,823,000, which includes principal and interest.

Lake County Campus Executive Dean Annette Lee said the total Measure J investments at the Clearlake campus have totaled more than $17.3 million since the 2006 Measure J passage. 

She said that figure represents approximately 12 percent of the total Measure J expenditures to date.

Improvements on the Clearlake campus include the new life science, library resource and administration building, along with the culinary arts facility, Lee said.

Should Measure Q pass, along with the state's Educational Facility Bond, Proposition 51, Lee said the district “will be positioned well to address some much needed repairs to existing buildings across our campuses.”

She said those projects may include repainting to improve life expectancy of older building envelopes; re-plumbing older buildings; repaving parking lots and campus entry, removal and replacement of worn LCC storage units, among other items.

“There are also some Career Technical Education programs that we hope to address,” Lee said.

A group that includes retired military and educations and taxpayers submitted an argument against the measure that alleges it's not a reauthorization by, in fact, a new bond.

Another argument the group is using against Measure Q is that the district is not being specific enough with its list of projects and that “maintenance items such as re placing roofs, flooring, ceilings, electrical, plumbing, and paving should be handled through annual maintenance.”

Additional complaints the group has lodged include an allegation that the district has been a poor steward of taxpayer money and is “making it up” when it claims that the improvements will increase property values and home prices. “Not even realtors claim buyers pay more for homes in college districts.”

Opponents also raised the fact that the district issued a series of bonds under Measure J totaling $26.5 million in the spring that won't show up on tax bills until this fall.

Lee explained that the Measure J bonds issued earlier this year were part of the final series, with repayment beginning in the next fiscal year.

She also pointed out that the district refinanced earlier Measure J bonds for a total taxpayer savings of $72,333,632.

Lee emphasized that Measure Q is not a new bond.

Due to state law limitations on the issuance of bonds under Measure J passed back in 2006, the Yuba Community College District doesn't anticipate being able to issue any additional Measure J bonds in the immediate future even though the district still needs to complete some previously approved projects, Lee said.

Lee said that if Measure Q passes and the bonds are approved and issued, then Yuba Community College District will cancel and not authorize the issuance of Measure J Bonds in a like amount. 

Next up: Clearlake's three ballot measures.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Tuesday the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved continuing emergency proclamations related to the wildland fires, and got an update on the Clayton fire cleanup.

The separate proclamations were taken to the board by Sheriff Brian Martin and Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Karen Tait.

The local emergency proclamations must be regularly continued, based on state law requirements.

“As the County seeks funding and performs recovery operations related to tree removal and other fire recovery projects for the Rocky, Jerusalem, and Valley Fires, it is advisable that we continue the declaration of an emergency to support the fire recovery process,” Martin said in his memorandum to the board.

Tait was accompanied to the board meeting by Environmental Health Director Ray Ruminski, whose department oversees the cleanup effort for the wildland fires.

Ruminski gave the board a status update on the signups on the CalRecycle-sponsored cleanup program.

An estimated 300 structures – of which approximately 203 were residences – were destroyed in the August Clayton fire, according to a county damage assessments.

Ruminski estimated that 136 properties have registered for the CalRecycle program, which has been in its preliminary phase for the last few weeks.

Actual debris removal with heavy equipment crews on site is set to start on Wednesday, “barring any more frustrating delays,” Ruminski said.

Ruminski said the cleanup is starting in a few places around the school in the old part of Lower Lake, as well as several sites in the Copsey Creek Ranch Subdivision along where Copsey Creek comes through town – basically, creek frontage lots.

He said surveying locations of streams around Lower Lake took place last Friday afternoon as well as on Monday afternoon.

“So far the rainfall we've had is not really putting any significant flow into the streams. The ash and debris is not running off of the lots at this time,” he said.

The conditions are not too muddy, and the rainfall has actually been of benefit for dust control, Ruminski said.

As for cleanups taking place by private contractors, Ruminski said 35 sites are registered and 11 already have been completed.

“So we're getting there,” said Board Chair Rob Brown.

Supervisor Jim Comstock estimated there are still about 20 properties whose owners the county hasn't yet heard from, a number Ruminski confirmed.

“We're still doing outreach and we're still accepting signups on the CalRecycle program at this time,” Ruminski added.

Following the vote to continue the proclamation made by Tait, Comstock thanked Ruminski for his work. “It's a monumental effort and you're doing an outstanding job.”

While the original deadline passed for property owners to be included in CalRecycle's cleanup program, Ruminski said his agency still wants to get as many properties signed up for the cleanup work as possible and so property owners may continue to apply.

To sign up for the cleanup program, download the right-of-entry paperwork at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Environmental_Health/Clayton__Valley__Rocky_and_Jerusalem_Fires.htm or http://www.lakecountyrecovers.com/ .

Paperwork also is available at Lake County Environmental Health, 922 Bevins Court in Lakeport, or by stopping by the operations center office at the former Lower Lake bank building, 16195 Main St.

For more information call Lake County Environmental Health at 707-263-1164.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.