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LAKEPORT – Sheriff's officials are looking for a Lake County Jail inmate who walked away from a work assignment on Wednesday afternoon.
Leticia Flores Batres, 34, of Santa Rosa, a minimum security inmate assigned to Lake County Animal Care and Control, was last seen by animal control staff cleaning kennels with fellow inmates at about 1:45 p.m. Wednesday, Captain James Bauman of the Lake County Sheriff's Office reported.
About a half hour after she was last seen, Animal Care and Control – which is now located next to the Lake County Jail – notified jail staff that Batres was missing after searching the area, Bauman said.
After conducting their own search of the Animal Control and jail grounds – which included a formal count of the jail housing units – jail staff confirmed Batres had walked away from her work assignment outside of the jail facility, said Bauman.
Several sheriff’s patrol units responded to the apparent escape and commenced with an extensive search of the area for Batres. Bauman said that, a short time into the search, one deputy located the jail-issued denim shirt rolled up and discarded behind the Animal Care and Control facility along with her jail identification tag.
All potential routes leading away from the animal control and jail facilities were thoroughly searched but Batres had yet to be located late Wednesday, according to Bauman.
Batres is described as a Hispanic female adult, 5 feet 4 inches tall, 135 pounds, with medium length black hair and brown eyes. Bauman said her tattoos include a “band” on her left ankle, a heart on her upper right arm, and “Flores” on her back. She is believed to be still dressed in blue denim jail issued pants, a white T-shirt and jail-issued shoes.
Batres was classified as a minimum security inmate who was booked on May 29 for a Lakeport Police Department bench warrant for transportation of a controlled substance, Bauman said. She was serving a 365-day sentence and had an Immigration and Naturalization hold placed on her.
Bauman said Batres has an alias of Leticia Hernandez Flores. Officials recently discovered she also has an outstanding misdemeanor warrant of arrest out of Sonoma County for contempt of court and possession of controlled substance paraphernalia.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Leticia Batres should immediately notify the Lake County Sheriff’s Department at 263-2690.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
NORTH COAST – One group in Lake County and three in Mendocino County will receive a total of $445,860 in transportation planning grants, Caltrans reported this week.
The groups applied for the funds, which were awarded on a competitive basis for fiscal year 2008-09, according to Caltrans.
The Transportation Planning Grant program complements the Governor’s Strategic Growth Plan for transportation, which reduces congestion below today’s levels while accommodating future transportation needs from growth in the population and the economy, Caltrans reported. The Governor’s Strategic Growth Plan incorporates GoCalifornia, a plan designed to decrease congestion, improve travel times, and increase safety.
Lake County/City Area Planning Council will receive $160,000 for their “State Route 53 Corridor Study.”
This project will evaluate current and future traffic conditions, with a primary emphasis on access points, including future interchange locations and designs, and develop preliminary long-term plans to address highway and local road needs.
The city of Fort Bragg will receive $75,889 for their “South Fort Bragg Bicycle and Pedestrian Access Plan.” It involves reaching out to under-represented citizens and developing a comprehensive plan to improve pedestrian and bicycle mobility and access along the busy South Main Street corridor.
Mendocino Council of Governments will receive $148,000 for their “Community Action Plan – City of Point Arena,” which will create a downtown streetscape and parking plan by evaluating crosswalk locations, bike lanes, pathways, current parking, traffic circulation and access, and the existing discontinuity of sidewalks.
MCOG and Mendocino Transit Authority will receive $61,971 for their “Commute Transportation Study for Mendocino County.”
The project will focus on the development of a Commute Transportation Plan between the outlying inland communities of Mendocino County to the city of Ukiah, and the potential demand for commute service between the Willits and Ukiah areas to Sonoma County.
Transportation Planning Grants are intended to promote strong and healthy communities, economic growth, and protection of the environment.
In accepting these grants, these groups agree to be a partner with Caltrans in its common mission to improve mobility and the quality of life in California.
Funding for these grant programs is contingent on the passage of the 2008-09 State budget.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at the district's office, 12952 E. Highway 20.
Last month, longtime board member Pat Shaver resigned shortly after community members began to call for her removal from the board at a particularly heated public meeting to discuss a potential rate hike, as Lake County News has reported.
Within days of Shaver's resignation, board Vice President Mike Anisman and President Helen Locke also tendered their resignations. Both had said in previous interviews that the district's serious financial condition had come as a total surprise to them after they were seated earlier this year.
Anisman's resignation became effective Sept. 5; Locke's originally was to have taken effect Sept. 5 as well.
However, that was going to leave the board without a quorum and hamper its ability to choose new directors to fill the vacant slots, so Locke pushed back her resignation date and will stay to help choose Shaver's replacement, which is the purpose of Thursday's meeting.
Four candidates have expressed interest in succeeding Shaver – Mike Benjamin, who has served in various public service capacities in the city of Wheatland; Bob White, a former board member who lost his reelection bid last November, the same time as Locke, Anisman and Frank Toney were elected; Dena Barron, owner of Lake Village Estates; and Lowell Estep, who works for Highlands Water District.
Locke told Lake County News Tuesday that the board will interview the four candidates during the special meeting and then make a decision. The board also will consider adopting a resolution to change signatures on two bank accounts.
She said the board is still finding out the protocol for how it must appoint new directors to take the seats she and Anisman are vacating. Those replacements aren't expected to be named Thursday.
Estep said Tuesday he became interested in joining the board after he heard about their original rate hike proposal, which suggested 39.4-percent increases for both sewer and water.
In his role at Highlands Water, Estep takes care of the district's pipes, so he understands how a water district operates.
He said it's important to get audits of the district's books done so informed decisions can be made.
Estep also suggested that it's important to do one's homework before going to a board meeting “screaming and yelling,” such as what happened at the rate hike meeting last month.
On Tuesday the district's recently formed finance committee met for the first time. Toney, who spearheaded the group in order to put more focus on managing the district's budget, said the meeting went well.
In addition to choosing a new director, the board is expected to adopt a previously approved resolution to change the district's meetings from 3 p.m. on the third Wednesday to 7 p.m. on the third Thursday of the month.
Directors agreed last month to move the meetings to encourage more public participation.
If that resolution is finalized Thursday, the district board will hold its next regular meeting at 7 p.m. Sept. 18.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Jackie Armstrong of Lake County Public Services said theft of recyclables can be classified as misdemeanor or infraction, but if the recycling agent elects to pursue civil action, the court may award damages three times the value of the stolen recyclables up to $2,000 for a first offense and $5,000 for a second offense.
Most people agree that local scavengers are performing a service when they remove recyclable materials from garbage cans, said Armstrong – after all, no one wants to see recyclable materials taking up space in the landfill.
But she said it's another matter entirely to remove recyclable materials, including CRV containers, from recycling containers, including residential curbside totes, or a drop off recycling location.
According to California Public Resources Code Section 41950, once recyclable materials have been segregated from solid waste materials and placed in recycling containers or at a designated recycling collection location, the recyclable materials become the property of the authorized recycling agent (i.e. garbage company), Armstrong explained.
Recyclables theft doesn't constitute a serious problem in Lake County as a whole, although Armstrong said they've encountered trouble spots in some areas.
It's a serious enough problem in some parts of the state that legislation has been introduced to crack down on it. Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco) authored AB 1778, meant to stop professional poaching rings operating in neighborhoods with curbside recycling services.
Armstrong said recycling poachers also increase the risk of identify theft, so if you see someone digging through recycling carts in your neighborhood, please let the poacher know that the activity is prohibited by law and call your garbage company to report the incident.
For more information about this or other waste management issues, call the county Public Services Department at 263-1980.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports