LUCERNE, Calif. – A Lakeport man was arrested for driving under the influence of drugs on Thursday night following a two-vehicle wreck that injured him and three others.

The California Highway Patrol’s Clear Lake Area office reported that 30-year-old Jeremy David Morgan was arrested after the crash.

The CHP said the crash occurred shortly after 6:30 p.m. Thursday on Highway 20 east of Cora Drive, just east of Lucerne.

The CHP said Morgan was driving his 2001 Jeep Cherokee westbound on Highway 20 at a stated speed of between 40 and 50 miles per hour.

Riding with Morgan was 29-year-old Sabrina Contino of Lakeport, who was seated in the right front passenger seat, and 49-year-old Teddy Teel of Nice, who was riding in the rear of the vehicle, the CHP said.

At the same time, Kat Salido, 40, of Cotati was driving her 2004 Hyundai Sonata eastbound on Highway 20 at a stated speed of between 40 and 45 miles per hour, with her 3-year-old son, Kaysen, seated in the right rear seat, according to the CHP report.

The CHP said Morgan lost control of his Jeep as he attempted to negotiate a curve in the roadway. His Jeep began to rotate sideways as it left the westbound lane and entered into the eastbound lane.

It was at that point that Salido rounded the same curve and collided with the right rear of Morgan’s Jeep, which subsequently flipped onto its roof and slid across the roadway before coming to rest facing a northwesterly direction, blocking the eastbound lane of Highway 20, the CHP said.

Salido’s Hyundai came to rest facing an easterly direction, also blocking the highway’s eastbound lane, according to the report.

The CHP said Morgan, who was not wearing a seat belt, suffered minor injuries. Contino, who was wearing her seat belt at the time of the crash, and Teel, who was not wearing his seat belt, both suffered major head and neck injuries and were later transferred to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.

Due to weather conditions on Thursday night, air ambulances had not initially been available to respond to the scene to transport the patients, according to radio reports.

Both Salido and her son were wearing their seat belts, with Salido having a complaint of pain to her chest. The child was uninjured. The CHP said both she and her child were released at the scene by medical personnel.

Following the collision, the CHP said Morgan was determined to have been under the influence of a controlled substance at the time of the wreck and subsequently was placed under arrest.

Morgan was booked into the Lake County Jail early Friday morning, with his bail set at $500,000. He is tentatively scheduled to make an initial court appearance on Monday.

The CHP said the crash remains under investigation.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A common disease has been confirmed as the killer of thousands of waterfowl along Clear Lake’s Northshore.

Over the last few weeks, dead ducks and other waterfowl have been found on Clear Lake’s shoreline in the Lucerne area, as Lake County News has reported.

“It is avian cholera,” Kyle Orr, spokesman for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, confirmed to Lake County News.

As many as 3,500 waterfowl are estimated to have been affected by this latest avian cholera case, Orr said.

Orr said that on Wednesday, the agency picked up 2,600 dead or dying waterfowl on Clear Lake.

He said the impacted species include, but are not limited to, ruddy ducks, northern pintails and mallards.

Orr said CDFW doesn’t plan any other further response at this time.

“We’re back in a monitoring phase,” he said.

Anyone who picks up any dead waterfowl should use protective clothing that can be disposed of or disinfected, Orr said.

Additionally, he said disposal methods that should be used for the dead waterfowl are incineration or dead burial.

The National Wildlife Health Center reported that avian cholera in wild birds is primarily caused by the type one strain of the bacterium Pasteurella multocida, which most commonly affects ducks and geese, coots, gulls and crows.

The bacteria can be transmitted in a variety of ways – bird-to-bird contact, through infected birds’ feces and other secretions, through food containing the bacteria and aerosol transmission, the center said.

The illness is highly contagious and is known to cause die-offs very rapidly. Quick action, including carcass collection, is used to prevent the disease from spreading, officials reported.

In 2007, an avian cholera die-off on the Northshore claimed more than 8,000 waterfowl, primarily ruddy ducks, about the same number that died in a January 2004 outbreak, as Lake County News has reported.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

COBB, Calif. – Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest remains closed to all public use due to hazardous conditions as a result of the Valley fire.

Cal Fire will be conducting a large amount of pile burning on the forest throughout this winter.

As a result of the fire and drought-induced bark beetle mortality, 99 percent of the trees on the forest were destroyed.

Over the past year the Cal Fire management staff have aggressively been salvage logging to remove these standing dead trees in preparation for replanting.

As a result of this logging there are hundreds of residual slash piles that must be disposed of. Disposal of this material is not feasible by other means due to the volume of the material, number of piles, and time frame of which it must be disposed of.

“It is the goal of the department to restore the forest to a condition that is safe for public access. Allowing wood cutting, trail access, and camping is an important part of having this public land in Lake County,” said Cal Fire Sonoma Lake Napa Unit Chief Shana Jones.

A crew of firefighters will be assigned to conduct these pile burns throughout the winter beginning immediately on permissive burn days.

A large-scale smoke management plan has been completed in coordination with the Sacramento Air Resources Board and the Lake County Air Quality Management District. Department staff will follow the same rules and regulations that apply to the public.

Cal Fire thanks the public in advance for respecting and honoring the state’s decision to close the forest to public use; this allows the team to stay focused on the forest’s work plan in order to allow access as soon as is safe to do so.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters) and Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) introduced AB 1772 on Thursday, giving wildfire victims an additional year to rebuild their homes and businesses after a catastrophic wildfire and collect the full amount of insurance dollars to which they are entitled.

Extending the time a policy holder has to recoup their losses after a devastating fire will prevent battles with insurance companies and bring families greater peace of mind.

In October 2017, California experienced the most devastating wildfire in state history. 44 Californian lives were claimed.

More than 14,700 homes and 728 businesses were damaged or destroyed totaling over 9 billion dollars worth of insurable damage.

This disaster struck while Lake and Calaveras counties were still in process of rebuilding from the Valley and Butte fires, respectively, of 2015, which destroyed more than 3,000 structures and 1,700 homes.

“Four of my counties – Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma – were on fire in October. For many, it wasn’t the first time,” said Aguiar-Curry. “It breaks my heart to think about the magnitude of loss families across California are experiencing due to fires. It will take them years to pick up the pieces. My hope is that AB 1772 will provide those families a level of comfort knowing they will have the time and money they need to rebuild their homes, business, and lives after such a devastating event.”

AB 1772 extends the amount of time a home or business owner has to rebuild an insured property from two to three years and receive the full replacement costs they are entitled to after a declared emergency.

Many constituents who had homes and businesses burn down during the Valley and Butte fires of 2015 are still not done rebuilding due to the magnitude of loss those communities experienced.

Such large regional rebuild efforts put strain on resources and contractors available to finish extensive amounts of work.

Rebuild timelines for the North Bay and Southern California fires of 2017 are expected to be just as, if not more, time consuming.

AB 1772 has already gained the support of Legislators from regions North and South impacted by the wildfires of 2017.

Coauthors from the Assembly include Wood, Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara), and Marc Levine (D-Marin), and from the Senate Bill Dodd (D-Napa), Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) and Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara).

“The recent California wildfires devastated so many people in our communities,” said Wood, a joint author of AB 1772. “They have lost homes and businesses that they worked years to build and we can’t forget the emotional trauma they are also experiencing. This bill, which is limited to declared emergencies, will provide insureds an additional year to rebuild. When you think about all that is involved in rebuilding close to 10,000 structures in Northern California alone – all within a few hundred miles of each other – this bill will give people the time to complete the planning and permitting process, find the best contractor for their home or business and take the pressure off our local governments to ensure that they can meet the extraordinary needs of their residents.”

“This bill takes an important step to help victims and communities rebuild and recover after future disasters,” said Sen. Dodd.

“Twenty-four months just isn’t enough time for residents to work with their insurance companies on full reimbursement of their lost home,” Sen. McGuire said. “The size and scope of wildland fire events have grown significantly over the last decade in California. This new reality means we have to rethink what were once reliable programs and develop new solutions. I’m grateful to join with Assemblywoman Aguiar-Curry on this important initiative that will help all Californians.”

“The recovery process after a fire can be overwhelming—this extension will relieve one more worry for a family who has lost their home or a business owner trying to rebuild,” said Assemblymember Limón, “I am proud to join Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry as a principal coauthor of this important legislation to extend the coverage period. As our communities recover from the devastating fires of last year, we will continue to bring down barriers to returning to a sense of normalcy.”

AB 1772 is expected to be heard in the Assembly Committee on Insurance in early spring.

Aguiar-Curry represents the Fourth Assembly District, which includes all of Lake and Napa counties, parts of Colusa, Solano and Sonoma counties, and all of Yolo County except West Sacramento.

NORTH COAST, Calif. – A Ukiah man arrested on New Year’s Day for driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs was found with illegal weapons as well as thousands of dollars in minted gold and silver coins that authorities said he stole from clients he served as an In-Home Supportive Services worker.

Van Allen Hubbard, 56, was arrested following a traffic stop shortly after 5 a.m. Monday in Redwood Valley, according to the Ukiah Area office of the California Highway Patrol.

The CHP said two officers responded to assist the Coyote Valley Tribal Police Department with a possible DUI driver stopped at Coyote Valley Boulevard just east of Highway 101.

One of the officers conducted a DUI investigation and Hubbard, the driver, was arrested on suspicion of driving a vehicle under the combined influence of alcohol and drugs, the CHP said.

During a vehicle inventory, the CHP said the officers discovered several dangerous and illegal weapons in the vehicle as well as a large amount of rare minted sealed gold and silver coins, the value of which is estimated between $15,000 and $20,000, the CHP said. A locked safe not belonging to Hubbard also was found in the vehicle.

The CHP said Hubbard couldn’t account for the items the officers found in his vehicle at that time, which led to further investigation.

On Tuesday, search warrants were obtained for Hubbard’s storage unit and vehicle, which resulted in the seizure of an additional quantity of rare minted sealed gold and silver coins with an estimated value of $10,000 to $15,000, according to the CHP.

Evidence developed in this case indicated that these items belonged to clients of Hubbard’s when Hubbard was working as an In-Home Supportive Services provider, the CHP said.

The CHP said Hubbard was booked into the Mendocino County Jail for driving under the combined influence of alcohol and drugs as well as being in possession of stolen property, possession of dangerous weapons including a sap or baton, elder abuse and additional lesser charges. His bail was set at $25,000.

Authorities said the exact value of the coins is under investigation.

The case has been submitted to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office for prosecution, the CHP said.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The first baby born in Lake County in 2018 was still comfortably in utero as midnight struck on Jan. 1.

It wasn’t until Tuesday, Jan. 2, that Lake County’s New Year’s baby made his arrival into the world.

Bodhi David Day was born at 6:11 p.m. Tuesday at Adventist Health Clear Lake to happy parents Philip Day and Melody Dawson-Day and big sister Eden.

Little Bodhi was delivered by Dr. Kimberly Fordham, MD, and Women’s Care Unit nurse Hayley Burt, RN. He was a healthy 7 pounds, 9 ounces.

Mother Melody Dawson-Day was also born at Adventist Health Clear Lake, making Bodhi a second generation Adventist Health Clear Lake baby.

“Each new baby is a reason for celebration, but welcoming a new life at the beginning of a new year is special for our entire team,” said Al Hansen, RN, director of Surgery and Women’s Care at Adventist Health Clear Lake. “All year long, we are privileged to provide our community with the healthiest possible beginning for each their growing family.”

The family took home a baby bundle full of special gifts, including a pack and play.

Adventist Health Clear Lake’s Women’s Care Unit provides labor and delivery services to hundreds women and their infants each year. For more information visit the “Services” section on www.adventisthealthclearlake.org.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – The Clearlake City Council will hold a special meeting to discuss a grant application and wildfire-related matters.

The council will meet beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 4, in the council chambers at Clearlake City Hall, 14050 Olympic Drive.

On the agenda is a public hearing to consider accepting a resolution that approves the city’s hazardous mitigation grant program grant application for the creation of a local hazards mitigation plan.

As part of that item, the council will direct staff to file a notice of intent with the California Office of Emergency Services.

The council also will get an update on the continuation of the emergency declarations for the Sulphur fire.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – Several state lawmakers – including Lake County’s state senator – have introduced legislation to prevent electric utilities from passing costs that result from negligent practices onto customers by raising rates.

State Sen. Jerry Hill, joined by Senators Ben Allen, Bill Dodd, Mike McGuire and Scott Wiener, and Assemblymembers Marc Levine and Jim Wood, introduced legislation SB 819 on Wednesday.

Senate Bill 819 was prompted by utilities’ ongoing efforts to recover costs resulting from long-past wildfires by seeking permission to increase rates, even if found at fault in the fires.

The much-criticized practice came under sharp scrutiny as one such effort, by a San Diego utility, came up for review by the California Public Utilities Commission as wildfires raged last fall in Northern California’s Wine Country.

While the cause of those fires is still being investigated, several legislators want to ensure that the electric utilities serving California cannot recover the costs that result from the utilities’ negligent practices by raising rates for customers.

“The practice is an outrage and it’s time to stop allowing utilities to push the burden of their negligence onto the backs of customers,” said Sen. Hill, D-San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. “Victims of devastating fires and other tragedies, and ratepayers in general, should not be forced to pay for the mistakes made by utilities.”

Sen. McGuire, D-North Coast/North Bay, whose district includes communities ravaged by the wildfires in October – including Lake County – said: “Thousands of North Bay residents have lost their homes and businesses and many escaped these devastating fires with nothing but the clothes on their backs and their family's safety. While there is an active fire investigation taking place, there is absolutely no way residents who are suffering from this massive tragedy should ever pay for a corporation's potential negligence. It's simply unconscionable and I'm grateful to join with Sen. Hill on this important piece of legislation.”

“California’s utilities must be held fully liable when their negligence causes damage in our communities,” said Sen. Wiener, D-San Francisco. “You don’t burn someone’s house down and then raise their rates to help pay for the damage you caused. I want to thank Senator Hill for leading this effort to protect California’s ratepayers.”

“Utility customers shouldn't be stuck paying the bill for a problem they did not cause. This legislation is a fair response that will protect the public and hold companies accountable for the damage they’ve caused,” said Sen. Allen, D-Santa Monica.

“The cause of the North Bay fires is still under investigation,” said Assemblymember Levine, D-Marin County. “Regardless, ratepayers should never be stuck with the bill if negligence is determined. That's why I am coauthoring legislation with Sen. Jerry Hill to prohibit utility companies from charging ratepayers for costs if a utility is found at fault for a fire. The public yearns for accountability and we must have it here.”

Before ratepayers bear any cost incurred by a utility, the California Public Utilities Commission is required to evaluate whether those costs are just and reasonable.

For example, if a wildfire occurs in a utility’s service territory, the utility will incur costs to repair and replace equipment damaged by the fire.

The CPUC has the authority to determine if the utility acted reasonably in responding to the fire – in preventing the fire from occurring, in mitigating the fire’s spread, and in recovery efforts during and after the fire – before allowing the utility to increase rates to pay for the damage.

The CPUC’s ability to determine reasonable behavior, and to allow or disallow cost recovery in rates based on that review, is a central tenet of the CPUC’s authority.

SB 819 provides the CPUC with full authority to apply a reasonableness review to electric utilities’ requests for cost recovery.

In addition, the bill clarifies that fines, penalties, or uninsured expenses resulting from negligent behavior are not recoverable in rates.

In response to SB 819’s introduction, on Pacific Gas and Electric Co. released a Wednesday written statement.

“While there has been no determination on the causes of the Northern California wildfires that took place in October, it is clear that California needs much broader reforms that recognize the mutual interests of customers, utilities, investors, insurers and others as we work together to address the impacts of climate change including more frequent and more damaging wildfires,” the PG&E statement said.

“California is one of the only states in the country where the courts have applied inverse condemnation liability to events caused by a privately owned utility’s equipment. This means that if a utility’s equipment is found to have been a substantial cause of the damage in the event like a wildfire – even if the utility has followed established inspection and safety rules – the utility may be liable for property damages and attorneys’ fees associated with that event,” the company said.

“Allowing essentially unlimited liability undermines the financial health of the state’s utilities, discourages investment in California and has the potential to materially impact the ability of utilities to access the capital markets to fund utility operations. All of these are bad for customers and bad for the state of California,” PG&E said in the statement.

The company concluded, “And, at a time when California is asking privately owned utilities to invest billions of dollars to meet the state’s greenhouse gas reduction goals, these risks pose real consequences for the state’s environment, economy and communities.”

Gas companies are already prevented from shifting the burden of fines and penalties onto customers as a result of legislation by then-Assemblymember Hill in response to the PG&E gas pipeline explosion that leveled a San Bruno neighborhood in 2010.

That legislation, Assembly Bill 56, was approved by the governor in 2011.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – The first snow survey of the winter season completed on Wednesday showed a below-average snowpack, although state water officials caution it’s still early in the water year.

The California Department of Water Resources held the manual snow survey east of Sacramento in the Sierra Nevada, finding little snowpack, which was predictable after a dry December throughout California.

Measurements at Phillips Station revealed a snow water equivalent, or SWE, of 0.4 inches, 3 percent of the average SWE of 11.3 inches in early January at Phillips as measured there since 1964.

SWE is the depth of water that theoretically would result if the entire snowpack melted instantaneously.

“As we’re only a third of the way through California’s three wettest months, it’s far too early to draw any conclusions about what kind of season we’ll have this year,” DWR Director Grant Davis said. “California’s great weather variability means we can go straight from a dry year to a wet year and back again to dry. That’s why California is focusing on adopting water conservation as a way of life, investing in above- and below- ground storage, and improving our infrastructure to protect our clean water supplies against disruptions.”

More telling than a survey at a single location, however, are DWR’s electronic readings on Wednesday from 103 stations scattered throughout the Sierra Nevada.

Measurements indicate the SWE of the northern Sierra snowpack is 2.3 inches, 21 percent of the multi-decade average for the date.

The central and southern Sierra readings are­­ 3.3 inches, ­­29 percent of average, and 1.8 inches 20 percent of average, respectively.

Statewide, the snowpack’s SWE is 2.6 inches, or 24 percent of the Jan. 3 average, the readings found.

“The survey is a disappointing start of the year, but it’s far too early to draw conclusions about what kind of a wet season we’ll have this year,” said Frank Gehrke, chief of the California Cooperative Snow Surveys Program who conducted today’s survey at Phillips. “There’s plenty of time left in the traditional wet season to reverse the dry trend we’ve been experiencing.”

California traditionally receives about half of its annual precipitation during December, January and February, with the bulk of this precipitation coming from atmospheric rivers.

So far this winter, an atmospheric high-pressure zone spanning the western United States has persistently blocked atmospheric rivers from reaching the state. If that zone were to move or break up, storms could deliver considerable rainfall and snow this winter.

Davis noted that forecasting accuracy falls off dramatically after just a week or 10 days into the future.

“Current technology and computer modeling can tell us what our weather might be weeks into the future, but we’re essentially blind to what the weather will be beyond the two-week mark,” he said. “That’s why we are putting in so much effort to improving medium- and long-range modeling.”

The Phillips snow course, near the intersection of Highway 50 and Sierra-at-Tahoe Road, is one of hundreds that will be surveyed manually throughout the winter.

Manual measurements augment the electronic readings from the snow pillows in the Sierra Nevada that provide a current snapshot of the water content in the snowpack.

California’s exceptionally high precipitation last winter and spring has resulted in above-average storage in 154 reservoirs tracked by the Department.

DWR estimates total storage in those reservoirs at the end of December amounted to 24.1 million acre-feet, or 110 percent of the 21.9 million acre-feet average for the end of the year.

One year ago, those reservoirs held 21.2 million acre-feet, 97 percent of average. End-of-year storage is now the highest since December 2012, when it was 24.3 million acre-feet, which was early in the first of five consecutive water years of drought in California.

On average, the snowpack supplies about 30 percent of California’s water needs as it melts in the spring and early summer.

The greater the snowpack water content, the greater the likelihood California’s reservoirs will receive ample runoff as the snowpack melts to meet the state’s water demand in the summer and fall.

You may have heard or read about a storm undergoing "bombogenesis." What exactly does that weather term mean?

In simple terms, bombogenesis is a storm that undergoes rapid strengthening. The vast majority of such storms occur over the ocean. The storm can be tropical or non-tropical in nature.

Other common phrases for bombogenesis include weather bomb, or simply bomb.

The term bombogenesis comes from the merging of two words: bomb and cyclogenesis. All storms are cyclones, and genesis means the creation or beginning. In this case, bomb refers to explosive development. Altogether the term means explosive storm strengthening.

A cyclone (non-tropical storm or hurricane) is essentially a giant rising column of air that spins counterclockwise over the Northern Hemisphere.

When air rises, it produces a vacuum effect that results in lower atmospheric pressure.

When a storm strengthens, the column of air rises at a faster and faster rate and the pressure within the storm lowers.

Meteorologists use a barometer to measure the atmospheric pressure. Atmospheric pressure is often called barometric pressure.

Average storms in the winter have a low barometric pressure reading of 29.53 inches of mercury.

Some of the most intense storms may have the barometric pressure below 29.00 inches.

However, it is not the lowest pressure that defines bombogenisis but rather how quickly the pressure within the storm plummets.

When the barometric pressure falls at least 0.71 of an inch (24 millibars) in 24 hours, a storm has undergone bombogenesis.

For example, a weak storm that began with a barometric pressure of 29.98 inches and ended up with a barometric pressure of 29.27 inches in 24 hours underwent bombogenesis.

The Superstorm of 1993 (Storm of the Century) from March 12-13 is a prime example of a storm that underwent bombogenesis. The storm strengthened from 29.41 inches (996 mb) to 28.45 inches (963 mb), or nearly 1.00 inch (33 mb), in 24 hours. Much of this strengthening occurred over land.

Other examples of storms that underwent bombogenesis are Hurricane Charley in 2004 and Hurricane Wilma in 2005. The Blizzard of 2015 (Jan. 26-27), the Bering Sea storm of December 2015 and the northeastern United States storm of late-October 2017 experienced bombogenesis.

Storms that undergo bombogenesis are among the most violent weather systems that affect a broad area. This is because the rapidly ascending air near the center of the storm must be replaced by air surrounding the storm. As these winds move toward the center of the storm at high speed, property damage can occur, trees may fall and the power may go out.

The western North Atlantic is one favored area for storms to undergo bombogenesis. This is a region where cold air from North America collides with warm air over the Atlantic Ocean. Warm waters of the Gulf Stream may also provide a boost in a festering storm.

As a result, some, but not all nor'easters may undergo bombogenesis.

The intense winds often create massive seas and may cause significant beach erosion.

In terms of precipitation, very heavy rain and/or snow may fall in the path of the storm undergoing bombogenesis.

Precipitation rate is produced from the rising column of air. When air rises, it cools and moisture condenses to form clouds and rain or snow. The faster the air rises and cools, the heavier the precipitation.

Alex Sosnowski is senior meteorologist for www.AccuWeather.com.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lake County’s last survivor of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor has died.

Wilbur Kenneth “Bill” Slater, 93, died on New Year’s Eve at his home in Lakeport.

Slater’s declining health had prevented him from attending the last Pearl Harbor commemoration event in Lakeport on Dec. 7.

He had been a fixture at the event over the years. With his quick wit and gift for storytelling, the “kid” of the local survivors group – as he had been dubbed – often had a bloody Mary in hand for the chilly morning commemorations, provided by his friends Ronnie and Janeane Bogner, who organized the gatherings.

Supervisor Rob Brown called Slater one of the most interesting men he’d ever met, and asked for a moment of silence for him at the first Board of Supervisors’ first meeting of the year on Tuesday morning.

“We were so fortunate to have him in Lake County along with the other Pearl Harbor survivors,” said Brown.

Born in Southern California, hard times during the Great Depression led to Slater’s family sending him and his siblings to an orphanage.

Slater would enlist in the Navy as a 17 year old. In October 1941 he joined the crew of the battleship USS Pennsylvania. He recalled thinking, “Man, I'm home free now,” when he was assigned to the big battleship, believing he would be safe.

The Pennsylvania was in dry dock at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on the morning of Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941.

In interviews with Lake County News over the years, Slater recalled that he was below decks when the bombs started to drop shortly before 8 a.m.

He said that at first he thought it was battle exercises. Then he heard the alarms go off, and the words, “Now hear this, all hands man battle stations,” coming over the ship’s address system.

At the battle station where he was assigned, Slater was an ammunition handler for a 3-inch anti-aircraft gun.

He was supposed to take shells from a locker and bring them out to the men loading the guns. However, that day, the hoist used to bring the shells to the deck had broken down, which led to Slater and other ammunition handlers having to bring the shells up manually from below deck.

Their efforts also were hampered because the ammunition was locked up and the sailor who set the fuses wasn't there.

However, they still managed to start quickly returning fire. Naval records show that the Pennsylvania was among the first of the ships to return fire on the Japanese.

“When we were down getting those shells manually the one bomb that hit the ship went right through where my battle station was,” he said.

He said the bomb killed 24 men; he was certain that he would have died as well had he still been on the deck.

“That's the most harrowing thing that happened to me that day,” he said.

Explaining how he felt afterward, Slater said, “Frightened isn't the word.”

Slater didn’t see the USS Arizona blow up but heard it. “You couldn't miss it otherwise,” because it blew up for quite a while. As he emerged from below deck he also saw that the USS Oklahoma had rolled over.

That night, he was given a rifle and two bandoliers of shells by a big Marine and told to patrol the area around the hospital.

Slater said wires had been put up to keep people off the lawns, and as he was patrolling that night he tripped over a wire and his rifle went up in the air and came down, hitting him on the head.

“The Japanese didn't get me that day but I did a pretty good job on myself,” he recalled with a laugh.

While the Pearl Harbor attack was frightening, it wasn’t the experience that scared Slater the most during his time at sea.

That event came years later, as he was preparing to leave the Navy in October 1945 and heading back to the states from Japan aboard the heavy cruiser USS Salt Lake City.

As the ship neared Astoria, Ore., it was hit by huge waves at the mouth of the Columbia River. The ship rolled to 47 degrees, short of the 55 degrees that would have capsized it, according to the Oct. 23, 1945, edition of The Oregonian newspaper, which recounted the incident in a front-page story.

“The worst day I ever had at sea – and I never had a bad day – was when we crossed the Columbia River bar, and I was for sure that g**damned ship, that old tub, was gonna capsize,” he said.

Slater was among nearly 450 enlisted men aboard the ship who were set for discharge, according to The Oregonian article.

He said he was afraid he was going to die on his last day in the service.

“It's funny now, but it sure wasn't funny then,” Slater said at the December 2013 Pearl Harbor commemoration.

Not long after Pearl Harbor Slater was on leave in San Francisco. There he met his future wife, Helen, working in a restaurant run by her sister on Market Street.

In a final interview with Lake County News on Dec. 3, Slater recalled that marrying Helen was one of the best things he ever did.

For many years he worked as a truck driver. He purchased land in Lakeport not far from the lake where he and Helen eventually would build a home and retire.

The couple were married for 60 years, until Helen’s death on July 25, 2007, the day before his 83rd birthday.

Slater lived the final years of his life in the home he and Helen built, with daughter Leslie and her husband living nearby.

His charm never dimmed. Friends called him “the chick magnet” for his ability to attract female admirers of all ages.

Up until a few years ago, he was a regular at Renee’s Cafe in Lakeport, where he liked to stop in for breakfast, wearing a Pearl Harbor ball cap.

What future generations think about Pearl Harbor was important to him.

He and another Pearl Harbor survivor, Henry Anderson, were on hand in June 2012 as remaining members of the Lake County Pearl Harbor Survivors Association in order to present a $10,000 check to the Lakeport Rotary to fund maintenance on the association’s memorial mast in Library Park. The event is commemorated in the video below.

Slater said at that time that they wanted people to remember what Dec. 7, 1941, was all about.

He was a firm believer in luck, which he felt had a lot to do with the course of his life – including surviving Pearl Harbor, marrying a good woman and leading what was, from all appearances, a contented existence.

Even as his health declined, Slater remained optimistic, unworried and grateful.

“I have everything I need and sometimes too damn much,” he said.

In recalling those lost in the war so many years ago, Slater wisely said, “I know one thing for sure – we owe a hell of a debt to all of the guys who are no longer with us. They're the real heroes.”

And, in truth, so was he.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council started off the new year by finalizing an ordinance to govern commercial marijuana activities in the city.

The half-hour meeting on Tuesday night dealt primarily with the new ordinance and with mayoral appointments on a variety of committees and boards.

Following a brief discussion, the council gave unanimous approval to the second and final reading of the ordinance governing commercial operations for marijuana, or cannabis. The ordinance and its accompanying staff report begin on page 13 of the agenda packet below.

The new rules had been the focus of extensive work by a working group of city staffers and council members as well as the Lakeport Planning Commission, which met numerous times throughout the fall to dig into the specifics of how the city would regulate recreational commercial use, which begins this year under state law.

The council held a lengthy discussion of the ordinance at its Dec. 19 meeting, at which it took comments from community members, the majority of whom had concerns about commercial marijuana activities. The primary request was not to allow storefront operations, especially in the city’s historic downtown.

At the Dec. 19 meeting, the council made several key changes to the proposed ordinance, including limiting cannabis retailer activities to delivery only, removing the restriction that cannabis retailers be limited to the possession of a maximum of 5 pounds of dried cannabis, eliminating the provision limiting the number of cannabis retailers within the city to two, removing the reference limiting storefront cannabis retailers to 1,500 square feet of retail area as all retail activities are now prohibited within the city, removing the reference limiting storefront cannabis retailers to 50 square feet or 10 percent of total retail area (whichever is less) for the display of cannabis paraphernalia and similar items as all retail activities are now prohibited within the city, and prohibiting retail cannabis delivery within the C2 zoning district.

Under the new rules, cannabis retail is now limited to the C3 and Industrial zoning districts only.

During public input Tuesday night, the council heard from retired Lakeport businessman Rick Kemp, who urged them to accept the ordinance.

Citing the billions in marijuana sales estimated to take place across the state, Kemp said the city needed to get in on the resulting sales tax revenue, which he suggested will help fund city improvements.

City Planning Commissioner Michael Green thanked the council for considering the ordinance. “A historic moment is upon us. We've never done this in the city of Lakeport.”

He acknowledged that cannabis has complicated issues of background checks and buffer zones. Pulling licenses for businesses and keeping them will be “crazy hard.”

Green added, “The ultimate goal is to make this a safer community,” and to tackle issues with cannabis consumption.

Councilman Kenny Parlet asked staff about the license renewal process and a provision for submitting an annual report, and if reminders would be sent so businesses don’t get shut down for inadvertently missing a deadline.

Community Development Director Kevin Ingram said staff keeps a master index to help it track of those issues. City Manager Margaret Silveira said it would be like how the city sends out renewal notices for business licenses.

Parlet thanked the staff, planning commission and the working group for all of the effort put into the new rules. “This was not an easy thing.”

Mayor Mireya Turner asked to have added to the “whereas” section of the ordinance a reference to AB 133, which the governor signed into law in September. The bill allows for a single physical location to hold multiple commercial cannabis license types, subject to local ordinances. AB 133 was considered an important fix to the state’s rules, which previously had required different commercial license types to have separate and distinct locations.

Parlet moved to approve the ordinance with Turner’s addition, with Councilman Tim Barnes seconding and the council voting 5-0. The final vote gained the council a round of applause from the small audience in attendance.

In other business, the council approved Turner’s appointments to act as liaisons to certain organizations and to act as council representatives on specific boards and committees. The council members also approved a resolution

The appointments are as follows:

– Lakeport Fire Protection District: Councilman Tim Barnes, liaison; Mayor Mireya Turner, alternate.
– Lake County Chamber of Commerce: Turner, liaison; Councilwoman Stacey Mattina, alternate.
– Lakeport Main Street Association: Councilman George Spurr.
– Lake County/City Area Planning Council (APC): Mattina and Councilman Kenny Parlet; Spurr, alternate.
– County of Lake Solid Waste Management Task Force: Spurr and Turner.
– SB 621 Indian Gaming Funds Committee: Spurr and Barnes.
– Local Agency Formation Commission: Parlet.
– Invasive Species Task Force Committee: Parlet.
– Clean Water Program Committee (formerly TMDL): Parlet.
– Lakeport Unified School District Committee: Mattina and Turner.
– Oversight Board of the Former Lakeport Redevelopment Agency: Mattina; Parlet, alternate.
– Lake County Abandoned Vehicle Abatement Service Authority: Parlet; Spurr, alternate.
– Lake County Airport Land Use Commission: Will appoint if needed.

The council also approved a resolution appointing Turner as voting delegate and Mattina as alternate to represent and vote on behalf of the city at the League of California Cities, Redwood Empire Division Business meetings and represent the city and vote at Division Legislative Committee meetings.

Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.

010218 Lakeport City Council agenda packet by LakeCoNews on Scribd