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Opinion
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- Written by: Robin Fogel-Shrive
Last month, the Lake County Big Read provided a variety of activities, programs, and opportunities to read and discuss featured novel “The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan, additional works by Tan, and stories for children set in the Chinese American culture.
It was a joy to collaborate with so many agencies, businesses, schools, community leaders and residents!
The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program, designed to revitalize and restore reading to the center of American culture, by encouraging students and citizens of all ages to read for pleasure and to take part in community activities, reading groups, and school events that aim to promote the enjoyment of literature.
The Lake County Office of Education, the Literacy Task Force and the NEA partnership with Arts Midwest collaborated to support this year’s Big Read in Lake County.
I’d like to take this time to give thanks to the following partners to whom the program owes its success:
The Big Read Advisory Committee: Lori White, Wilda Shock, Shelly Mascari, Tamsen Nash, Alethea Eason, Bernie Butcher and Scott Hopkins.
Program volunteers and partners: Patti Diener, Chic Le Chef Caterers (Julie Hoskins and staff), Carla Hoff and the Lake/Mendocino Reading Council, Jamey Gill and the Mendo/Lake Credit Union, Shelby Posada and the Lake County Arts Council, Dwain Goforth and Camisha Knowlton at the Lower Lake School House Museum, Carl Porter, the Bad Girls Book Club, the Cobb Mt. Teacher’s Book Group, Allison and Greg at Mt. High Coffee and Books, Tanya, Micki and Grace at Star Gardens Nursery, Bernie Butcher and staff at the Tallman Hotel, Bert Hutt and his troupe, Nura Brown and Jolene Chappelle at The Harbor on Main, the Lake County Library – Christopher Veach and branch staf, Jo Bennett, Alan and Margaret Mathison, Gina Fortino Dickson, Susan Feiler at the Lake County Wine Studio, Darlene Hecomovich-Friends of Boggs Mountain, Olga Martin Steele and Andy Weiss at KPFZ, and Lake County Record-Bee and Lake County News for caring and accurate support, as well as timely assistance with program promotion.
I’d like to bestow a very special acknowledgment and thank you to guest speakers Cathy Kroll from Sonoma State, and local author Carolyn Wing Greenlee, who provided brilliantly rich programs for our kickoff and closing events, and to local author Alethea Eason for creating a writing workshop that was splendidly inspiring.
Special thanks to Yuba College staff for a hosting a wonderful Chinese food banquet and student performance, and the Friends of Mendocino College for hosting Carolyn Wing Greenlee's speaker engagement.
Thank you to Wally Holbrook and Tim Gill at the Lake County Office of Education for turning my motivation for a Big Read in Lake County into a reality. And most importantly, thank you to those who participated in and supported our program activities, which celebrated a brilliant American novel.
Robin Fogel-Shrive is program director for The Big Read of Lake County, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Roberta Lyons
The recent Lake County Land Trust annual benefit dinner, held at The Lodge at Blue Lakes on Oct. 12, was a success thanks to the help of many people who made it possible and to all of those who attended.
Thank you to our sponsors: Homestake Mining Co. of California, John Wise and Evelyn Wachtel, Brad and Kathy Barnwell, the Law Office of Dennis Fordham and the North Coast Winegrape Brokers.
Delicious wines were provided by Six Sigma, Wildhurst, Steele Wines and Shannon Ridge, and the chef and staff at the Lodge at Blue Lakes catered wonderful appetizers and a delicious dinner.
We are grateful to all of the silent auction donors who are too numerous to mention here but are very much appreciated, including local businesses and individuals.
A special thanks goes to the owners of the Lodge at Blue Lakes, which offered Land Trust supporters attending the event a discounted overnight rate – which several people took advantage of to have a more relaxed evening and lovely morning on Blue Lakes – and donated 10 percent of the proceeds of overnight room rentals to the Land Trust.
Konocti Junction provided lively music during the social hour – thanks go to band members Tom Nixon, Janet Berrian, and Scott Sommers and their great sound system.
Charlotte Ambrose, salmon recovery coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was the guest speaker and presented on the Endangered Species Act’s successes and short-comings.
Long-time supporter Bonnie Piccolo and son Collin tackled organizational details that kept things running smoothly, including keeping out guests’ wine glasses topped off, and arranged for Michele Malm and a great group of teens from Kelseyville High School to assist with logistical tasks including tending tables and leading the post-dinner clean-up.
Last but not least, thank you to all who attended to support the Lake County Land Trust – thank you for sharing our special evening!
Roberta Lyons is president of the Lake County Land Trust, which serves Lake County, Calif.
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- Written by: Phil Murphy
After moping over the loss of Measure E for 10 months, the Lake County Board of Supervisors finally stopped ignoring lake-related issues and instructed Public Works Director Scott De Leon to come up with an improved half-percent countywide sales tax measure to be put on the June 2014 ballot.
De Leon assembled a small group to lend their advice, and in October he presented their plan to the Board of Supervisors and public, where it got mixed reviews.
The good news was it did not have a nine-person “citizens oversight committee” comprised mostly of elected leaders, but beyond that it didn't have much else in it that was new, except for an even more vague expenditure plan.
The citizens oversight committee had now been replaced by an even larger 11-member group, but this time the three citizens and six politicians had been traded away for a mob of special interest groups, almost all of whom had a financial stake in the condition of the lake. The group's role had changed as well; now they were to form policy instead of simply seeing that the expenditures added up, and they were apparently in charge of policing themselves.
After it became clear that an almost nonexistent expenditure plan was certain to doom the new ballot measure, the Board of Supervisors instructed De Leon to come back with more financial details, and the newest expenditure plan was revealed at the Nov. 5 board meeting.
The latest problem was that the new plan showed only the first year costs, which would be nothing remotely near to what the average costs would be since they included large sums for infrastructure that were one-time expenses.
So when $1 million was budgeted for the quagga program and another $275,000 for water quality monitoring it reflected costs that would drop by well over $1 million in the second and all subsequent years – and this was nearly half of the total yearly budget!
With the measure projected to raise $24 million over its 10-year duration, this meant that no one could explain where nearly half the money was going, something the supervisors seemed content with, as none questioned it.
Another worrisome aspect was that the $24 million estimate was based on sales tax revenue from the near low point of the recession plus the assumption there would be zero inflation for the next decade, a more reasonable estimate would be closer to $30 million, meaning that so far around $15 million dollars in this plan seems to have no purpose-though there is no guarantee it won't be spent!
Surprisingly, the Board of Supervisors never seriously considered a quarter-percent increase instead of the half-percent, even though the former seems better scaled to the actual needs. This is probably because the supervisors told De Leon to figure out how to spend $2.4 million every year rather than to ask what a comprehensive plan might cost, which explains why the reverse-engineered version makes so little fiscal sense.
The other issue being studiously ignored is the Konocti Harbor factor; if the resort gets back on its feet as planned it would mean at least $500,000 per-year in renewed transient occupancy tax funds, which until the resort's closure had provided the bulk of the weed and algae program's funding.
So the reopening of Konocti Harbor may be another big reason to either scale back or abandon a new tax measure, but there is yet one more powerful argument for not asking for more assistance from the taxpayers, and that is the fact that Lake County Vector Control has several million dollars in the bank it doesn't need and that cash can be used to deal with both the quagga and algae problems according to the legal definitions in the California Health and Safety code of the term “vector.”
The Board of Supervisors appoints a controlling interest in the board of Lake County Vector Control and can change those appointees at will, those millions could be available for use in a couple of weeks if the right people were selected for those three positions.
Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff Smith earlier this year publicly promised to bring the glaring problems with Lake County Vector Control before the board, but that promise has so far not been kept.
So as it stands today the Board of Supervisors has a “healthy lake” plan without any idea at all of where half the money is going, it ignores all other possible revenue sources and uses absurdly unrealistic revenue projections to hide the true amount of money likely to be collected, it has no meaningful oversight of anything, and all this is headed for the lower turnout June primary ballot where it will certainly be a harder sell than in the November general election. Is the outcome even in doubt at this point?
Phil Murphy lives in Finley, Calif.
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- Written by: Melissa Fulton
The Lake County Chamber of Commerce is urging businesses within the city limits of Lakeport to read the following as it pertains to business signage in the city and may impact their business.
On Sept. 11 the Lake County Chamber of Commerce was notified of a meeting on that date of the Lakeport City Planning Commission at which they would be discussing the city sign ordinance. Of particular concern for that discussion was the growing use of “feather flag” banners and abuses of other types of temporary signage.
Upon receipt of that notice I contacted Andrew Britton, Lakeport Planning Services manager and Margaret Silveira, Lakeport City manager, requesting that the discussion and any decisions be tabled until the business community could be notified and be present.
Mr. Britton and the city manager did convey the chamber’s concerns about making any decisions without due notification of the business community.
Although the planning commission did hold discussions on the signage ordinance/feather flags that evening no decisions were made. It was determined that this subject would be covered at the Nov. 13 meeting of the planning commission. That meeting will begin at 5 p.m. in the council chambers at Lakeport City Hall.
The discussion this Wednesday will cover businesses displaying banners, feather flags or pennant signs. These are considered temporary signage, subject to limitations on the number of days allowed to be displayed.
The staff report to the commission states: 83 businesses are displaying temporary signs; 24 locations are using temporary signage as permanent signs and 71 businesses are using temporary signs on a long term basis.
City staff is presenting five options to the planning commission for the meeting on Wednesday. It is within reason to believe that the Commission will make a recommendation on one of the options and forward same to the Lakeport City Council.
The chamber strongly urges local businesses to attend the planning commission meeting on Wednesday.
Melissa Fulton is chief executive officer of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce, based in Lakeport, Calif.
