The extreme sporting event includes competition in wakeboarding, wake surfing, slalom skiing, street bike exhibitions, skydiving, motocross and concerts.

City officials say the community workshop's intent is to explain how BoardStock would be conducted if the city hosted the event this summer, and to hear from the community about concerns and opportunities.

A statement from acting City Manager Richard Knoll said the city “is contemplating a family-oriented, alcohol-free, open admission, sporting event in keeping with previous lake-related recreational events held in Lakeport.”

Knoll said the city hasn't made a decision about the event yet, and is still in the “information gathering phase.”

The City Council will use the input generated from the workshop to make its decision about BoardStock, Knoll added.

Rob Stimmel of BoardStock Promotions said that Greg Bennett, president and CEO of Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa, notified him Feb. 13 that the resort would no longer host the event.

Supervisor Rob Brown said that Bennett cited concerns about underage drinking during the event as a reason for canceling.

Stimmel said BoardStock has been held at Konocti Harbor for the last two years.

He said last August Konocti Harbor had notified them that “all systems were go” for this year's event, and that he believed his company had a verbal agreement with the resort. Stimmel said he wished he'd been notified sooner. “We've been scrambling now,” he said.

Over the last three weeks Stimmel said he has met with city and county officials about moving the event to Lakeport. So far, Stimmel said he's received a positive response from city officials, the Lakeport Regional Chamber of Commerce and some members of the Board of Supervisors.

He said he believes tonight's meeting will have a huge influence on the city's final decision. “They really want to know what the public thinks about it,” he said.

Stimmel said he's due to visit Lake Havasu, Ariz., which also is extremely interested in hosting the event.

But Stimmel said, given his choice, he'd rather stay in Lake County, where he said he's received a warm and friendly reception, and he knows what to expect.

“I would love to stay here,” he said.

Stimmel said he also believes the event has given the county great exposure; he cited a recent edition of Boating World, which he said devoted six pages to the county.

The meeting takes place at 5 p.m. today in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.

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The ordinance, drafted by Police Chief Kevin Burke, went before the City Council at its Feb. 6 meeting. At that time, the council approved it unanimously, and it was scheduled for a public hearing at tonight's meeting.

State voters approved Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, in 1996. The law allows individuals with a physician's recommendation to use or grow marijuana for medical purposes.

Acting City Manager Richard Knoll had originally drafted an ordinance dealing with medical marijuana cultivation at the request of Mayor Roy Parmentier.

That ordinance, brought to the council Jan. 9, was based on one used by the City of Ukiah in which the city would have granted a minor use permit to anyone interested in growing medical marijuana.

Both city staff and the council were concerned with that original ordinance, which was handed over to Burke.

Last month, citing concerns about the city giving approval for an activity still illegal under federal law, Burke completely rewrote the ordinance, which makes growing medical marijuana illegal within Lakeport's city limits.

Burke said previously that an incident in October – involving an attempted break-in at a home where medical marijuana was grown – convinced him that the activity could jeopardize the safety of city residents.

The plant's strong odor also makes growing it inside the city inappropriate, said Burke.

The Lakeport City Council's regular meeting will begin at 6 p.m., following a 5 p.m. workshop on the city possibly hosting BoardStock.

The council meets at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Ruby Glebe amongst the displays at the Lake County Museum. Photo by Emily Silva.

LAKE COUNTY – For many years, Ruby Glebe has been the county's historian, working to document the unique stories of the people who have called Lake County home.

But before she fell in love with its history, Glebe first fell in love with the county itself.

Glebe came to Lake County from Vacaville in 1937. She lived with her brother outside of Kelseyville on a ranch.

She said she instantly fell in love with the countryside. “It was the most beautiful country I had ever seen; so much different than Vacaville,” Glebe remembered.

The county provided the opportunity for Glebe to cultivate her interest in hiking and hunting.

Glebe became acquainted with the county’s settlers and became interested in their stories. That led her to begin documenting their accounts – including the hardships they recalled as they tried to get into the county.

“This was not an easy county to settle,” Glebe explained. “The stage coach roads were rough.”

The roads went from Cloverdale to Highland Springs, Calistoga to Middletown, and Williams through Bartlett Springs, said Glebe.

Her growing interest in county history resulted in her joining the county historical society in 1955. Her work began with the discovery of the old jail in Kelseyville, located five miles out of town, where it was a mill house.

Over the course of many years, the jail was moved to Lakeport and back to its original spot in Kelseyville, she said.

One of Glebe’s major accomplishments was being part of the committee that provided the county with a museum. In 1969, two people from each district were appointed to see if the courthouse museum could be saved, she said.

“We could not raise funds through taxes,” she said. “The museum was funded with 98 percent of federal state grants. The county was split on keeping the museum. The new courthouse wanted a sweeping view of the lake.”

However, the courthouse was built on top of a spring, she said. “The museum had to stay, or else the courthouse would have slipped into the lake,” Glebe mused.

In 1978 the museum was dedicated, debt free. “It cost $498,000 and was paid for,” Glebe said, a note of satisfaction in her voice.

She served as the treasurer for 16 years and was the featured speaker at the museum’s 25^th anniversary. She also served on the museum advisory board for 30 years.

Glebe also was honored for her work with the county’s Geothermal Society from 1982 to 1992. She promoted the industry and saw its great potential.

“Air pollution was a major concern, but that can be controlled,” Glebe explained. “It is a heavily restricted, good, clean industry.”

When she's not busy helping to document the county's history, she has helped beautify the county by planting flowers and trees along Kelsey and Stone creeks.

Glebe’s work is a labor of love. She's called upon her passion for the county while serving in the volunteer County Historian position.

Her dedication to the county gained her notice once again recently. Last month the Board of Supervisors presented Glebe with a proclamation honoring her work.

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LAKEPORT – Hospice Services of Lake County and Sutter Lakeside Hospital are pursuing a long-term lease agreement that would help Hospice achieve its goal of having a new inpatient care facility.

Hospice Executive Director Marlene Kurowski reported Friday that she had just delivered a letter of intent from Hospice's Board of Directors to Bill Kearney, the Sutter Lakeside's Board of Trustees, and Kelly Mather, the hospital's CEO, regarding the potential agreement.

She cautioned that the agreement is very preliminary, but she said she expects both Mather and Kearney will sign and approve the document.

Mather was out of the office Friday and could not be reached for comment on the agreement.

Hospice offers many services locally for those in the end stages of life as well as their families, including patient care, counseling and grief camps.

In 2006, Hospice served 230 families, Kurowski reported, and counseled 513 bereaved clients.

Hospice hopes to lease land on the Sutter Wellness Campus on Hill Road, Kurowski said. The lease term, she said, would be for 50 years.

Kurowski said Hospice wants to build a facility that includes an inpatient care facility, along with administration, space for bereavement counseling and volunteer training.

The building could be as large as two stories and 32,000 square feet, said Kurowski, although it may need to begin as a smaller effort which is built in phases.

If they were able to build two stories, Kurowski said one story would be dedicated to inpatient care for patients who don't have caregivers.

Currently, Hospice is only able to offer care within patients' homes, because the organization has no actual care facility.

One of the biggest construction costs for such a facility, she said, would be land preparation. The parcel at the Sutter Wellness Campus, she said, is essentially ready to build.

“We think this opportunity is the right one at this point,” she said.

Kurowski added, however, that everything is still “very tentative” at this point.

Hospice's very popular thrift shops in Clearlake and Lakeport would remain in their current locations at 14290 Lakeshore Drive and 1701 S. Main St., respectively, Kurowski said.

One of the main reasons a new building has become so immediate, Kurowski said, is because the thrift shops are so popular that they're having to turn away donations, particularly at the Lakeport shop, which shares space with Hospice administration.

“It's really pressing that we make plans for a bigger facility,” she said.

On the Board of Supervisors' Tuesday agenda, Supervisor Anthony Farrington had scheduled a preliminary discussion on possibly donating a portion of 16 acres of county-owned property at 15837 18^th Avenue and 7000 S. Center Drive in Clearlake to Hospice for the new facility.

Kurowski said Hospice will attend Tuesday's board meeting to instead ask the county for financial support in the form of an $80,000 grant to move forward with their plans.

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The new shelter will replace the current facility on Lakeport Boulevard, which was built in the 1940s. Animal Care & Control officials say the current shelter is too small and run down, and that its poor ventilation system promotes the spread of disease among the animals.

The board voted to award a $185,000 bid to Rege Construction of Cloverdale to begin phase one of the project, said Public Works Director Gerald Shaul.

Phase one, said Shaul, will include flattening out a hill, and running sewer, water and power lines.

Shaul said the board also authorized Public Works to go out to bid April 4 for phase two.

The shelter's phase two will include the construction of a 3,400-square-foot building that will house Animal Care & Control's office and indoor kennels, Shaul said, as well as a detached, 3,400-square-foot kennel building.

Animal Care & Control Director Denise Johnson said the new building will ultimately have 72 kennels for dogs, twice the current number, and have 30 to 40 more cages for cats.

That phase is expected to cost about $2 million, said Shaul, and will start as soon as phase one is complete.

Shaul said the shelter has been designed to allow for future expansion to the main building, as well as construction of another detached kennel building.

“We would have liked to have built the ultimate building, but we just couldn't afford it,” said Shaul, who estimated that such a project would probably have cost double the current $2 million price tag.

The shelter, said Shaul, will be located near the Lake County Jail and the Lake County Sanitation District on county-owned land. Shaul said it won't be visible from the highway, and there are no private neighbors.

Animal Care & Control already utilizes inmate labor to help at the shelter, said Johnson, and the new shelter's close proximity to the jail will make inmates more accessible.

“It''s going to make it a lot easier to use inmate help than it already is,” she said.

Johnson said the new location also will offer more room for large livestock than the current shelter.

One of the new shelter's features will be its use of solar energy.

“I'm so excited we're going to be solar,” Johnson said.

The new shelter effort has been helped by community groups such as Lake County Animal Services, which formed three years ago.

The group's founder and director, Karen Schaver, said raising funds for the shelter is part of the group's mission statement.

In the last three years, they've raised $22,000, Schaver said, through the work of many individuals and community groups who have worked to raise awareness about the needs of animals, and who conducted fundraisers such as dog-walking events, a horse show and fitness days. Donation boxes at area stores are also part of the effort, she said.

When the shelter is built, said Johnson, those funds the group raised will be turned over to Animal Care & Control.

Shaul said construction will begin as soon as the weather permits, most likely later in the spring.

If you would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to the shelter fund, donations may be mailed either to Lake County Animal Care & Control, 887 Lakeport Blvd., Lakeport CA 95453 (write "shelter donation" on your check), or Lake County Animal Services Shelter Fund, P.O. Box 662, Lakeport, CA 95453.

For more information about helping animals locally, including adopting pets or education, visit the following Web sites: Lake County Animal Care & Control, www.co.lake.ca.us/countygovernment/animalcontrol/animalcontrol.asp; or Lake County Animal Services, www.lakecountyanimalservices.org.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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New Planning Commissioner Clelia Baur. Courtesy photo.

CLEARLAKE OAKS – Northshore resident Clelia Baur has been named District 3's new representative on Lake County's Planning Commission.

Supervisor Denise Rushing made the announcement at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting. Baur's selection was confirmed by a board vote.

Baur said she was first exposed to planning and development issues in her last job, when she worked for Berkeley-based Bayer HealthCare as its director of public policy and communications.

In that role, one of her primary functions was the administration of Bayer's highly complex 30-year development agreement with the City of Berkeley.

She said the agreement covered Bayer's 45-acre biotech facility, and how it planned to satisfy the community's needs while satisfying its business goals as the facility grew and developed.

While administrating the plan, Baur said she attended many development and planning meetings, and got her first exposure to planning-related issues and processes.

“What really moved me to apply for this position on the Planning Commission was that experience,” she said, which taught her that a good, balanced approach to community development can be a win-win situation for everyone.

Baur grew up in Washington, D.C., and moved to Oakland in 1974. She holds a bachelor's degree in art from the University of California, Berkeley, and speaks fluent Italian and some German.

After graduating from university Baur was co-owner of her own graphic design business in San Francisco. She went on to hold positions in marketing, communications and art direction with a number of Bay Area biotechnology firms, including Roche Molecular Systems and Bio-Rad Laboratories, and eventually Bayer.

Her past professional activities include serving as first vice chair of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce Executive Board, founding member and steering team member of the Berkeley Alert multi-agency crisis response group. Baur also was a member of the South and West Berkeley Health Forum and Hemophilia Foundation of Northern California.

Now retired from Bayer, Baur has her own communications consulting business.

She said she's looking forward to joining the Planning Commission, which will be a new experience.

Baur will succeed Marvin Butler, who Rushing said “has been a tremendous planning commissioner for Lake County.”

“He's been very gracious and very good to stay on the two months while I went through this process,” Rushing said.

Baur's first Planning Commission meeting will be on March 8, said Rushing.

In selecting a new commissioner, Rushing said she went through a lengthy process that included interviewing 12 applicants.

Rushing said she had a series of “competencies” in mind that she hoped the new commissioner would possess.

“I was specifically looking for someone who would add a new dimension to the Planning Commission,” Rushing said.

That new dimension for Rushing included someone with both the perspective and ability to work with other commission members.

Rushing said she was very impressed with Baur, who understands smart growth principals and has worked with diverse groups of people to come to consensus.

During the interview process, Rushing said she wasn't looking for the right answer, but wanted to know more about how the applicants' approached certain problems. She said Baur's thought processes impressed her.

Approaching the challenges ahead will be crucial in that position, Rushing explained.

“We face many, many tough planning decisions – development along the lakeshore, the agricultural lands issues, etc. – so it's going to require some really thoughtful analysis and hard work, and also some new ideas,” Rushing said.

She added that she's thrilled Baur has the time and the interest to devote to the position.

Baur said she began vacationing in Lake County in the 1970s with her children. She and her husband, Jim, purchased a home in Clearlake Oaks in 2001, and moved to the county full-time last April, after they had both retired.

This Friday, Butler will take Baur and Monica Rosenthal, the recently appointed District 1 planning commissioner, on a tour of District 3.

Butler will be honored at the Board of Supervisors' March 13 meeting, Rushing said.

Baur said the Northshore is a lovely place.

“There's work to be done but there's so much potential for a really favorable outcome for everybody concerned,” she said.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. 

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