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The fire was reported by the California Highway Patrol at about 11:25 a.m. on Highway 29 just south of Diener Drive. The vehicle was heading northbound when the fire occurred.
The bus' engine reportedly caught fire, according to CHP. The situation resulted in both lanes of traffic being blocked.
CHP, Lake County Sheriff's deputies, Lake County Fire Protection District and Cal Fire responded to the scene.
Cal fire reported that there had been a concern about a potential wildland fire nearby, so after sending two engines initially it prepared to send a full response, including fixed wing aircraft and additional engines.
When they discovered that the fire had been contained to the bus and hadn't spread into nearby vegetation, they canceled all but two engines and a helicopter, Cal Fire's Incident Command Center reported.
The highway was reopened at about noon, CHP reported. However, the bus was reported to have caught fire again at 12:35, with fire responding again to put it out within about 10 minutes.
The bus was towed shortly before 1 p.m.
Lake County Fire Protection District did not return a call seeking information about the incident.
CHP did not report any injuries to passengers.
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Mary Steeves, 85, Raymond Hawkins, 92, and Manuel Borba, 84, live at Orchard Shores Assisted Living Center, which recently took a survey asking a simple question: If money, health and time were not factors, what would you like to do with the rest of your life?
Steeves, Hawkins and Borba all wrote that they had a lifelong dream to fly.
That's when Jane McKnight, program coordinator at Orchard Shores, contacted Nancy Brier of Solo Flight School. The two women, with help from a generous community patron, put together a plan.
The residents were assembled sometime later the following week, but they had no idea why. The room was decorated with images of airplanes from a bygone era, and some of the residents’ family members were in attendance.
McKnight took the stage and began to read survey responses aloud to the residents. She told them all that their dreams were about to become a reality.
“When I started to read Mary Steeves’ description of her dream to fly, her face suddenly lit up, realizing that her dream was about to come true. ‘I wrote that! I wrote that!’ she exclaimed. Then she put her head in her hands and wept. It was a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life,” said McKnight.
Steeves’ daughter, Donna Sage, attended the assembly of nursing home residents and witnessed her mother’s reaction to the news.
“In all these years,” she said, “I never knew my mother wanted to fly.”
Back in World War II, Mrs. Steeves worked on airplanes as part of the nationwide effort to defeat the Nazi’s, but she never got a chance to fly. On Wednesday, she got her chance.
Each senior citizen went up in the air with an Federal Aviation Administration-approved certified flight instructor for an aerial tour of the spectacular Lake County landscape. During their ride, they had the option of taking the controls.
Solo Flight School’s Chief Flight Instructor Vern Childers is himself a veteran of the Vietnam War and a history buff. “These people remind us all to keep dreaming, that dreams can come true at any age, in every walk of life.”
Solo Flight School’s Chief Executive Officer Gary Trippeer took care to ensure that the school’s VIP students got extra special treatment during and after the flights. Lunch was served at the flight school and family members are encouraged to attend.
Local pilots were alerted to have aircraft shined up and ready for inspection. Solo Flight School’s own vintage 1941 Stearman was on display.
“The entire aviation community here in Lake County is enjoying this experience,” said Bill Ellis, owner of a Luscumb 8A, a Bonanza D35 and a pilot who still flies at age 90.
After the flights, each participant received their own log book documenting their flight time as well as a Certificate of Achievement.
“The dream of flight is nearly universal,” said Trippeer. “We are extraordinarily fortunate here that we get to see dreams come true every day.”
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
City Redevelopment Manager Richard Knoll led the meeting, which he said was meant to give an update on the agency's plans.
Knoll went over several areas during the meeting, beginning with a brief discussion about the $5.6 million in bonds the agency has issued since 2004 – which will be used to fund projects – and the agency's 2008-09 budget, which has just over $800,000 in operating expense and the bond proceeds.
The Third Street project, which also encompasses the city hall parking lot, is under way, and is the first phase in the downtown development program. Knoll said the second phase of the project will continue through downtown, and include new and wider sidewalks, landscaping, street lamps, bulbouts, street improvements, new pavement, street reconstruction and underground storm drainage.
Knoll showed the large audience a rough draft of a waterfront development plan, which so far hasn't gone beyond the staff level. It takes a “blank slate” approach, looking at several blocks along the waterfront as if there was no development in place, and considering what kinds of new development could take advantage of the close proximity to downtown and the lake.
The draft drawing showed a hotel development on the Dutch Harbor property and part of the Natural High land.
In-depth public discussion on the plan will be held at a later time, said Knoll.
Business owner Karan Mackey noted that the Natural High School property, one of the last undeveloped parcels on the shoreline, has been in public ownership since 1913, and she said she's like to see it continue to remain that way.
Knoll said he went to an Urban Land Institute meeting in Los Angeles eight months ago, and the message he heard from the group – which is mostly commercial developers – is that they've made mistakes in the past by eliminating open space, which they now acknowledge is critical to good development.
He said it's become clear to him how important the Natural High property is to the community.
During discussion with audience members Knoll also acknowledged that Lakeport Unified School District Superintendent Erin Hagberg has seen the plan, but that the school property has financing against it for the district's performing arts center. He said a lot of issues involving the school site “need to be resolved.”
Lakeport has an advantage in the amount of publicly owned land along the lakeshore, he said. The challenges are finding enough parking and boat access.
Regarding Dutch Harbor, Knoll explained that the Redevelopment Agency staff had suggested the agency purchase the property from the city, because the agency has a greater ability than the city to move the development project forward. An appraisal is currently under way.
If a purchase proposal were to take place, a first right of refusal the city has on the property with Boeger Land Development would need to be addressed, Knoll said.
Jan Bruns, executive director of the Lakeport Main Street Association, gave an update on efforts to attract new retailers to downtown. The association created an inventory of available retail spaces and are shopping them to possible clients.
“We're really aggressively looking for good retail to come downtown – things we currently don't have,” she said.
Knoll said the City Council also has decided to work on attracting a hotel developer as part of its business plan. City staff is working on a request for qualifications from a developer, who they hope will be interested in one of five sites – Will-O-Point, an area between Third and Fifth streets, the Dutch Harbor and Natural High land, a block between Fourth and Fifth and Main Street and lake, and an area between Dutch Harbora and Clear Lake Avenue.
If they get an interested developer, the city could then move to assemble a site, said Knoll.
Audience members asked about use of eminent domain. He said the Redevelopment Agency currently doesn't have that power, although adding it recently was brought up at the City Council.
“It will likely come back for discussion after the first of the year,” he said, adding that it would be a lengthy process of about nine months to amend the redevelopment plan.
Mackey said the Natural High property touches people in Lakeport. “I want the council to understand there's something about that property that needs to be reckoned with,” she said. Knoll said he agreed.
In other project news, a developer wants to do a project in the area of S. Main Street and Lakeport Boulevard, but the intersection needs to be redeveloped and there are other capacity problems in the area. Knoll said city staff is working on a request for proposals to look at options for developing either a roundabout or a signalized intersection.
An audience member asked Knoll the alternative to having a traffic light or a roundabout there. “I think you see it,” Knoll quipped about the intersection, which he said isn't modern and doesn't handle traffic well.
State law requires a five year implementation plan for the Redevelopment Agency, which Knoll said is under way. It has identified nine different projects – downtown improvement, facade enhancement, Lakeport Boulevard and S. Main, land assembly for retail, the hotel development, waterfront development planning, project area infrastructure, a new or relocated parking facility construction and a “shovel ready” development in which the city would build the infrastructure.
Knoll said a public hearing will be held on the plan when it's ready; his goal is to have the plan done in three to four months.
Jason Brenner, a senior associate with Ukiah-based Ruff and Associates, discussed the latest on the city's downtown facade enhancement program. The company has done design work on Ceago del Lago, the Tallman Hotel and Blue Wing Saloon, and is working on the Soper-Reese Community Theater.
Knoll said the city will pay for the first $5,000 of design expense for businesses wanting to participate in the program; they'll also pay 50 percent or up to $50,000 for the actual facade enhancement work.
Brenner showed an illustration of a block of businesses between Third and Fourth streets on the east side of Main, with the buildings given new and colorful facades that hearkened to the area's original, early 20th century design.
He said the company is excited to be working with the community in Lakeport. “There's so much energy here, that's one of the exciting things about the project.”
Brenner said the project offers the chance to create a cohesive design strategy for the downtown area. The community partnership that has developed in Lakeport, he added, is fairly unheard of in such work.
The facade improvement area extends from Lakeport Boulevard to Clear Lake Avenue, and from Forbes to the lake. Knoll said business owners can contact him at the city if they want to participate.
The city also is reaching out to business owners throughout the city to stimulate development and property improvements, Knoll said.
Knoll said he plans to have another meeting on redevelopment issues in March; other meetings on focus redevelopment areas also will take place in the future.
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Earlier this month, Helms Petroleum reported losing more than 1,000 gallons of gas to a theft at its Lakeport facility, according to Lt. Brad Rasmussen of the Lakeport Police Department.
Rasmussen said Sgt. Kevin Odom was dispatched to Helms' S. Main location on Sept. 11, where the business reported 1,083 gallons of gas went missing the previous day from a large storage tank.
The company reported there was a small fuel spill from the tank, but that didn't account for the large amount of missing fuel, said Rasmussen.
It also hasn't been determined just how the gas theft was accomplished, he said.
“It's possible that someone accessed their main storage stank and drained fuel into another large container,” said Rasmussen.
In the spring, there had been several gas thefts, with fuel being siphoned out of peoples' vehicles, as Lake County News reported.
Rasmussen said there was no pattern that developed in the previous thefts, which aren't believed to be related to Helms' situation.
Helms' gas theft is definitely the biggest, and Rasmussen said they haven't ever seen a gas theft of this size before. The gas stolen if valued at $4,418.64.
Rasmussen said the case is still pending, although they don't have any leads or suspects. “We're hoping to get some more information on it.”
If anyone has any information on the thefts, call Lakeport Police Department at 263-5491.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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