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Konocti Kids' Day will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
This year's theme is, “Wild About Kids.” Admission is free to the event.
Konocti Kids' Day is a countywide event this year, say organizers. In the past it's focused on children from birth to age 5, but this year – thanks to new partnerships – the event is open to children of all ages, with activities included for older children as well.
The day will include activities for all ages – performers, bouncy houses, car seat and bike helmet fittings, good food and much more.
An event highlight will be the appearance of the 129th Rescue Squadron from the Air National Guard, whose 65-foot Team Hawk helicopter will land in Clearlake on Friday night in preparation for Saturday.
Team Hawk's commander and members will offer presentations and handouts that will educate children and parents alike about the danger of drugs.
The California Highway Patrol helicopter and REACH helicopter also will be on hand, according to organizers.
Other special visitors expected to make appearance are Smokey Bear, Sparky, McGruff and Chipper, and Sutter Lakeside Hospital and Center for Health mascots Heart, Sun and Bee.
Groups including Girl Scouts, Pomo Preschool, Redbud Hospital, California Highway Patrol and Clearlake Police will have booths at the event.
One of the booths will offer the Managing Information on Lost Kids – also known as m.i.l.k. – Digital ID event, sponsored by local Farmers Insurance agent Marvin Carpenter, with additional support from the Rotary Club of Clearlake, the local Rotaract and Interact members, and the Clearlake Police Department.
Carpenter said m.i.l.k. helps increase awareness about missing children, and educates parents about what to do if the unthinkable happens – their child is abducted or lost.
In addition, Lake County Fire Protection District will provide education on everything from fire safety to accident prevention and disaster preparedness.
This year's event also will include a contest to promote the “Wild About Kids” theme. All agencies and organizations with a booth are encouraged to decorate their booth in accordance with the theme, with the winner receiving a $100 gift card to Walmart for their organization.
As part of Konocti Kids' Day, Lake Transit will give free rides to the event or elsewhere in the county.
Konocti Kids' Day is presented by the Lake County Office of Education (Healthy Start, School Readiness Program and Americorps), First 5 of Lake County, Sutter Lakeside Hospital and Center for Health, Lake Transit, Redbud Health Care District and Westamerica bank in partnership with the city of Clearlake.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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On May 15, 1850, soldiers attacked Pomo – mostly women and children – living on the island near Upper Lake, brutalizing and murdering many of them.
“Forgiving the oppressor who was guilty of this crime is a way for us, the Pomo people, to bring back much needed positive energy and balance,” said one of the event's organizers, Clayton Duncan, in a statement on the event. “We will have prayers and our children will dance.”
To get to the ceremony, take Highway 20, turn onto Reclamation Road by the Bloody Island
Massacre Monument and follow the road to the site of the ceremony.
For more information please call Clayton Duncan at 274-6788 or Bernadine Tripp at 275-9574.
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THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED.
LAKE COUNTY – Lake County's two state parks appear to be safe from threats of closure.
That's the word from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who released his May budget revise on Wednesday afternoon.
In January, Schwarzenegger's initial budget proposal suggested closing 48 state parks – including Clear Lake State Park and Anderson Marsh State Historic Park – which gave rise to public outcry around the state.
Traci Verardo-Torres, director of legislation and policy for the California State Parks Foundation – and manager of the groups Save Our State Parks campaign – said the updated budget proposal is headed in the right direction.
“We've staved off the immediate crisis,” Verardo-Torres told Lake County News.
Leona Butts, a member of the Clear Lake State Park Interpretive Association board, said Wednesday that she was “extremely relieved” to hear of Schwarzenegger's decision.
In Lake County, the possibility of losing the two state parks triggered a local grassroots movement that included signature gathering and a trip to Sacramento.
Butts said a petition drive mounted in Lake County gathered 5,260 signatures. She said she sent in the last petitions on Monday to Schwarzenegger's office.
Verardo-Torres credited efforts like that as an important factor in convincing the governor not to close the parks.
Madelene Lyon, president of the park interpretative association, said she was thrilled to hear the news. “It's been such a big cloud hanging over us.”
Even with the threat of closure looming for the last four months, Butts said the Clear Lake State Park Interpretive Association had continued to move forward with plans for the park, including fundraising for its Education Pavilion, which will be located across from the park Visitor Center at 5300 Soda Bay Road. Anderson Marsh also has building plans, including a visitor center, outdoor amphitheater and museum.
Butts and several park supporters had visited the state capitol in April for Park Advocacy Day. There, they had received a less than enthusiastic welcome from officials with the finance department and the governor's office, who had warned them that the closure were necessary.
That admonition, and recent rumblings from the capitol's heated budget committee sessions, made it seem as if the closures might actually take place.
While the parks have been spared, there will still be deep cuts, said Schwarzenegger. One area that will be targeted is Health and Human Services. Schwarzenegger also said he plans to modernize the lottery and use it to help create a rainy day fund.
North Coast Sen. Patricia Wiggins criticized Schwarzenegger's overall plan. “This budget is based on some of the same short-sighted tricks that got us into this mess in the first place, including massive borrowing and fund-shifting, without offering a long-term solution to our state’s budget problems.”
She suggested that Schwarzenegger's lottery plan “may be even worse speculation than buying a home in an inflated housing market.”
Parks face changes ahead
Schwarzenegger's plan includes using $11 million from the state general fund to support the parks in lieu of the park closures, said Verardo-Torres.
At the same time, Schwarzenegger is requiring the parks department to raise $2 million in fees. Verardo-Torres explained said she was on a conference call with parks officials Wednesday afternoon, and they haven't yet indicated which parks will see fee hikes, or how much the fees might go up, but she said she believes day use fees will be affected.
Fees always contain some risk, she added, and can't be relied upon to solve all of the parks' problems which, luckily, Schwarzenegger isn't proposing.
Lyon said raising fees at local parks is “doable.”
Pointing out that everything is going up in price, Lyon added, “I don't think people are going to balk at one or two dollars more to come into the park.”
Verardo-Torres warned that the parks aren't out of the woods yet. She said it hadn't taken much to lead the governor to a “pretty dire proposal” regarding a system that is already underfunded.
She said the foundation plans to encourage the legislature and Schwarzenegger to find longterm solutions to the parks department's funding needs. The California State Parks Foundation reported that state parks have more than $1.2 billion in deferred maintenance backlog.
The legislature also could choose to take serious action to cut expenses in a year where there is a multi-billion-dollar shortfall, as a state Senate budget subcommittee reportedly did this week in slashing funds for rural law enforcement. However, Verardo-Torres said the foundation heard almost unanimously that legislators didn't want to close state parks.
Butts said she's hopeful that the value of the parks to communities has made an impression on state officials.
The parks, she said, are a vital educational tool.
Just last week, she and her husband, DA, helped introduce 26 sixth graders from Ukiah to the wonders of Clear Lake State Park. The students camped there for two nights and worked on a variety of educational projects.
Supervisor Rob Brown, who took part in the April Sacramento trip to advocate for keeping the parks open, said he was encouraged by the news that the parks were spared.
“I think that it shows that the governor's office will listen to local residents and our efforts were actually not wasted, so I'm very happy about that,” Brown said.
He added, “Maybe we need to make another trip down there to talk to him about roads.”
E-mail Elizabth Larson at
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Ivan Garcia Oliver, 30, is being charged with the November 20 murder of 67-year-old Michael Dodele. He's also facing charges for having been found in jail with a shank he'd made from a toothbrush, as Lake County News has reported.
Not long after he was arrested and charged with Dodele's murder, Oliver and his half-brother were indicted by federal officials in an illegal dumping case in San Diego County, according to court documents.
Oliver was transported to San Diego County several weeks ago for a hearing in the federal case, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff.
The US Marshal's Office, who is overseeing Oliver's transport to and from the San Diego court appearances, told Hinchcliff they would have Oliver back in time for his preliminary hearing, which was to have begun at 8:15 a.m. Tuesday in Judge Arthur Mann's Department 3 courtroom.
However, Oliver, who has been in transit since last Thursday, didn't arrive in time for the hearing, said Hinchcliff.
And just where he was on the way back to Lake County was uncertain. Hinchcliff said the last report of Oliver's location came last Friday, when he was in Kansas City.
The US Marshal's Office reports that it transports 300,000 prisoners annually through a network of aircraft, cars, vans and buses. Their aircraft fleet moves prisoners over long distances, offering more security and less expense than commercial airlines. All scheduling is handled at the Kansas City headquarters of its Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System division.
Hinchcliff said Oliver may not be returned to Lake County until late in the week. No new preliminary hearing date has yet been set.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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