LAKEPORT, Calif. – Congressman Mike Thompson will hold a “Coffee with our Congressman” on Thursday, Aug. 10, in Lakeport.

Thompson will host the event from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Lake County Board of Supervisors of Chambers, located on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse at 255 N. Forbes St.

Lakeport residents will have the opportunity to meet and speak with Thompson and to learn about the services available to constituents through his offices.

Thompson represents California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.

He is a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee and the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, and chairs the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force as well as the bipartisan, bicameral Congressional Wine Caucus.

Visit his Web site for more information.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has several new dogs ready for their new homes this week.

This week’s available dogs include mixes of border collie, Chihuahua, German Shepherd, husky, Labrador Retriever, miniature pinscher and pit bull.

Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.

If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets hoping you'll choose them.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).

Male retriever mix

This male retriever mix has a short red and white coat.

Shelter staff said he has already been altered, and he sits on command. He is well-mannered and would do best with children ages 12 and above. He was assessed with other dogs and did fine, not growling or fighting, but does exhibit dominant behavior.

He already has been altered.

He’s in kennel No. 5, ID No. 7970.

‘Tiki’

“Tiki” is a female miniature pinscher mix with a short brindle and white coat.

She’s in kennel No. 6, ID No. 8054.

Female German Shepherd

This young female German Shepherd has a long black and brown coat.

Shelter staff said she would benefit from obedience training and will make a great family pet with some work.

She would do best in a home with no small dogs or cats until she is trained. She is good with children ages 12 and up.

She’s in kennel No. 8, ID No. 7986.

Female Chihuahua mix

This female Chihuahua mix has a short black and white coat.

She already has been spayed.

She’s in kennel No. 9, ID No. 8083.

Male Labrador Retriever mix

This male Labrador Retriever mix has a short tan and white coat.

He already has been neutered.

Shelter staff said he has been assessed with other dogs, both male and female, and did fine with all of them.

He’s in kennel No. 11, ID No. 7999.

Female border collie mix

This female border collie mix has a medium-length tricolor coat.

Shelter staff said she loves to give hugs.

She’s in kennel No. 12, ID No. 8091.

Labrador Retriever-pit bull terrier

This male Labrador Retriever-pit bull terrier mix has a short black coat with white markings.

He’s in kennel No. 18, ID No. 8089.

Male husky

This male husky has a medium-length gray and white coat.

He’s in kennel No. 19, ID No. 8090.

Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.

Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm.

For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.

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.

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The California Highway Patrol will offer a free “Start Smart” traffic safety class for soon to-be-licensed, newly licensed, and teenage drivers and their parents or guardians on Tuesday, Aug. 15.

The class will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Clear Lake Area CHP office, located at 5700 Live Oak Drive in Kelseyville.

The CHP said a teenager is killed in a traffic collision every four hours nationwide. That equates to more than 1,870 teenagers killed each year. Another 184,000 teenagers are injured in traffic collisions.

These deaths and injuries can be substantially reduced or prevented by eliminating high-risk driving behaviors through education, and the CHP said its “Start Smart” program can help prevent these tragedies.

The Start Smart program focuses on providing comprehensive traffic safety education classes for teenagers and their parents.

Start Smart employs innovative techniques to capture the attention of teenagers and parents, providing a lasting experience.

The curriculum includes information on collision statistics, teen driver and passenger behaviors, graduated driver’s license laws, cultural changes in today’s society and the need for stronger parental involvement in a teenager’s driving experience.

Space is limited for this class. For more information or reservations, call Officer Kory Reynolds at the CHP office, 707-279-0103.

CLEARLAKE, Calif. – On Thursday the Clearlake City Council gave approval to the second and final reading of an ordinance to institute universal garbage collection in the city.

In June, the council had approved the first reading of the ordinance, which came out of an ad hoc committee that included Mayor Russ Perdock and Councilman Phil Harris.

Costs for the service given at the meeting are $4 a week for 20 gallon bins, $5 per week for 32 gallon bins and for the 64 gallon bins, $7 a week.

City Manager Greg Folsom said the ordinance will require all homes to have the service, with exceptions for vacation residences that are not used as rentals, and residences where no solid waste is generated, there are no water or power connections, or where no food is prepared or consumed.

Commercial properties must provide the city with disposal receipts on a quarterly basis to prove that their waste is being properly handled, he explained.

Once the ordinance is approved, the city’s franchise hauler, Clearlake Waste Solutions, will begin a multi-stage notification process, Folsom said.

It’s believed that 2,000 new customers will be added to the company’s existing 3,800 customers. As a result, Folsom said the company will need to buy additional equipment to ramp up, so the target date for starting the new service will be April 1, 2018.

During public comment, several community members – many of them from the group Citizens Caring for Clearlake, a group that works on illegal dump sites – encouraged the council to pass the ordinance.

City resident Susanne Scholz also asked the council to approve the new rules, noting that Citizens Caring for Clearlake only have so much manpower, and that the cost for residents is not large.

Elliot Naess recounted cleaning up garbage dumped on the sidewalk on Olympic Drive earlier that day. As he was leaving the site, he encountered a garbage can rolling around in traffic that had come out of the back of a vehicle of a person hauling their own garbage.

Previously he said he’d applauded those who have hauled their own garbage. However, as a result of that situation, he said he needed to qualify that.

“Hauling garbage is not appropriate as an amateur sport,” he said.

Chuck Leonard, a former city councilman who also volunteered with city code enforcement for six years, said he often had visited properties where people were self-haulers. He said they had trucks and utility trailers filled with garbage.

He said he was glad to see the ordinance coming forward, adding it was only going to be a benefit to the city.

Vice Mayor Bruno Sabatier said he’s gotten a lot of complaints about the universal garage ordinance, and was sorry that those people weren’t at the council meeting to voice their opinions.

He suggested that people needed to manage garbage better, recycle more and purchase products differently, and in doing so they could actually save money.

“I think this is a good way to change behavior and clean up our city,” he said.

Councilwoman Joyce Overton said all of the people she’s spoken to about it – with the exception of one person – are against it, adding that it’s a lot of money for seniors on tight budgets.

She suggested seniors could lose their homes if they can’t afford to pay for the garbage service and it’s attached to their property tax.

Overton said she didn’t think universal garbage service will stop dumping, adding that some people will always be irresponsible.

“It will take some of it away but it won’t be the miracle cure,” she said.

Councilman Nick Bennett said people who have talked with him about it are about half for it, half against it.

“Let’s make adjustments in our lifestyle,’ he said, adding that it’s in Clearlake’s strategic plan to be a visibly cleaner city.

Citing the costs for the service, Perdock suggested people couldn’t find someone who would haul their garbage and pay the dump fees for that amount of money.

He said he’s visited other cities with universal garbage collection in effect. “I don’t see the garbage around town in those cities like I do here,” Perdock said, adding he believed it will address the illegal dumping issue.

Sabatier moved to approve the ordinance’s second reading, with Harris seconding. The council’s vote was 4-1, with Overton voting no.

Also on Thursday, the council gave consensus to exploring a partnership with Adventist Health Clear Lake to make upgrades to the community and senior center, which possibly could include a pool, fitness facilities and other amenities.

The council also reached consensus to direct staff to pursue some projects at the center, including installing a new sprinkler system and a memorial rose garden. The city has $9,500 left over from other work at the center, with funds specifically for the garden.

In other business, the council approved canceling its Sept. 14 meeting due to Folsom and two council members planning to be at the League of California Cities conference, and confirmed assessments for code enforcement abatements on properties.

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 Board of Supervisors this week will continue a discussion regarding the possible sale of the Holiday Harbor marina and updated rules regarding marijuana cultivation.

The board will meet beginning at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 1, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8 and online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.

In an untimed item, the board will once again take up a resolution amending a previous resolution declaring its intent to sell Holiday Harbor, located at 3605 and 3655 Lakeshore Boulevard, Nice.

The board had taken up the matter in early July but held it over in order for staff to do more research about the property.

In an item timed for 10 a.m., the board will continue a public hearing that has been held over from June 27 regarding an ordinance amending Article 72 of the Lake County Code to allow the outdoor collective cultivation of medical cannabis in "RL" Rural Lands and to create a certification of compliance process for cannabis cultivation.

The full agenda is below.

CONSENT AGENDA

7.1: Adopt proclamation designating the month of August 2017 as Breastfeeding Awareness Month in Lake County, Calif.

7.2: Approve leave of absence request for JoAnne Rode, physician’s assistant, from May 22, 2017, to June 12, 2017.

7.3: Sitting as Lake County Air Quality Management District Board of Directors, approve Year 16 Carl Moyer Program Bus Replacement Agreement for Kelseyville Unified School District, and authorize the chair to sign the agreement.

7.4: (a) Waive the formal bidding process, pursuant to Lake County Code Section 38.2, as it is not in the public interest due to the unique nature of goods or services; and (b) approve the agreement between the county of Lake and Center Point Drug Abuse Alternative Centers (DAAC) for substance use disorder residential treatment and detoxification services for Fiscal Year 2017-18 for the amount of $90,000; and authorize the chair to sign.

7.5: Adopt resolution delegating to the county Public Works director authority to negotiate and acquire certain real estate up to $11,000; the purchase of a portion of certain parcels (APN 004-082-220, 004-082-040, 004-082-050, 004-081-030 and 004-081-040) as part of the bridge replacement project on Mockingbird Lane over Robinson Creek.

7.6: Adopt resolution approving right of way certification for HSIP Cycle 7 Sign and Striping Project - State Agreement No. HSIPL 5914 (104).

7.7: Sitting as the Lake County Sanitation District Board of Directors, adopt resolution granting a request for relief from Section 205 of the Sewer Use Ordinance to Mr. Keith Long for Property Located at 160 Mackie Road, Lakeport, CA, APN 004-026-13 and to Mr. Henry Long, Jr. for Property Located at 150 Mackie Road, Lakeport, CA., APN 004-026-14.

7.8: Approve water mainline extension dedication and conveyance for APN'S 060-350-23, -24 and -25; and authorize the chair to sign.

TIMED ITEMS

8.2, 9:10 a.m.: Presentation of proclamation designating the month of August 2017 as Breastfeeding Awareness Month in Lake County, Calif.

8.3, 9:30 a.m.: Consideration of informational presentation from Hope Rising (continued from June 27, 2017).

8.4, 9:45 a.m.: Public hearing, consideration of (a) resolution vacating a portion of a roadway, with reservations, Summer Drive in the Anderson Springs Subdivision, in the county of Lake; and (b) approval of certificate of acceptance of the irrevocable offer of dedication.

8.5, 10 a.m.: Public hearing, continued from June 27, consideration of proposed Ordinance Amending Article 72 of the Lake County Code to allow the outdoor collective cultivation of medical cannabis in "RL" Rural Lands and to create a certification of compliance process for cannabis cultivation.

UNTIMED ITEMS

9.1: Consideration of the following appointments: First Five Lake County.

9.2: Consideration of resolution amending Resolution 2016-07 declaring the Board of Supervisors intent to sell property, not required for public use, known as Holiday Harbor, located at 3605 and 3655 Lakeshore Boulevard, Nice, California (APN’s 032-133-35 and 032-137-01), Pursuant to Government Code Section 25520 et seq.

9.3: Consideration of resolution authorizing the county administrative officer to execute reimbursement agreements and related documents for collection of debris insurance proceeds up to the amount allowed by each property owner’s available insurance coverage, within a reasonable timeframe.

9.4: Consideration of request for board direction to staff regarding fee waivers

9.5: Consideration of and report on CSAC Counties Cannabis Summit.

9.6: Sitting as the Lake County Sanitation District Board of Directors, second reading, consideration of an ordinance establishing and prescribing sewer service charges for Anderson Springs.

CLOSED SESSION

10.1: Public employee evaluations title: Agricultural commissioner.

10.2: Conference with legal counsel: Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Government Code section 54956.9 (d)(2)(e)(3): Claim of Bishop.

10.3: Conference with legal counsel: Significant exposure to litigation pursuant to Government Code section 54956.9 (d)(2)(e)(3): Claim of Brown.

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 Clearlake Planning Commission will hold a special meeting this week at the city’s new visitor center.

The meeting will take place beginning at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 2, at the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce Visitor Center, 14365 Lakeshore Drive.

On the commission’s agenda is a public hearing to consider the approval of a road abandonment for Konocti County Water District.

Specifically, the commission is being asked to approve abandoning a portion of the Brannan Avenue right-of-way.

The commission also will receive a report on the Parks and Recreation Committee’s roles and responsibilities and an update on city parks and recreation activities.

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. – A fundraiser event is planned this month to benefit projects to help those in need in Clearlake.

The public is invited to attend “Jamaica Night” at the Clearlake Senior Community Center on Friday, Aug. 11, from 6 to 9 p.m.

The dinner event will include traditional Jamaican food and drinks, plus Reggae music, fun and traditional games.

Come try out your skill at limbo, a traditional Jamaican dance where you go as low as you can under a pole while swaying to the rhythm of the popular Jamaican music.

All proceeds go the Mission Department as a fundraiser for the Praises of Zion Church.

The Mission Department has an outreach program for the needy of our community, an ongoing food cupboard, home visits for the sick and elderly, and projects for local children.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children 12 and under, and are available at the door the night of the event.

The Clearlake Senior Community Center is located 3245 Bower Ave. in Clearlake, near Safeway.

For more information please contact June Jackson at 707-995-0778.

Visit Praises of Zion Church’s Web site for more information about its work in the community.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – Firefighters contained a wildland fire near Lakeport on Sunday before it could damage nearby homes.

The fire in the 300 block of Island View Drive was first reported just before noon on Sunday.

Lakeport Fire, Kelseyville Fire, Northshore Fire and Cal Fire sent resources to the incident, according to Lakeport Fire Chief Doug Hutchison.

When Hutchison arrived on scene just minutes after dispatch, he reported over the air that the fire was then about two acres, moving uphill with wind hitting it.

Incident command’s radio reports indicated that the fire had threatened structures on Sun Drive, Walnut Drive and Weimer Way.

Cal Fire air attack responded, as did Cal Fire Copter 104 from the Boggs Mountain Helitack Base, based on radio reports. The helicopter made numerous water drops on the fire.

The quick arrival by firefighters resulted in reports of the fire having initial containment just before 12:40 p.m.

Hutchison told Lake County News later in the afternoon that, based on the latest mapping of the fire, it had burned approximately 9.6 acres.

He said no structures were damaged.

Hutchison said the fire’s cause remained under investigation, but it appeared to be human-caused.

By about 3 p.m. most local units had cleared the scene, as Cal Fire was assuming incident command due to the fire being in the State Responsibility Area, Hutchison said.

Hutchison himself also cleared the scene a short time later but said Cal Fire was expected to remain on scene for some time.

He said Cal Fire was planning to use a dozer to remove a large, hollowed-out oak tree in the fire area as part of mop up operations.

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.

SACRAMENTO – Standing 10 feet below street level, the city of Sacramento takes on a completely new dimension.

Above you the faint murmur and echoes of thousands of tourists fall through the chinks in the wood boardwalk, filter through the earth and emerge between cracks in the century-and-a-half old brick that keeps all the above – people and earth and brick – from crashing down on you.

Sheriff George “Tight Knot” Lee did promise to take me behind, or rather under, the scenes of Old Sacramento. He certainly didn’t disappoint.

Old Sacramento, a state historic park, sees millions of tourists each year. Between the restaurants, candy shops and museums, there’s certainly a lot to see.

After a while, though, local residents get burned out on the same ol’ same ol’ and soon Old Sacramento just becomes somewhere you take out of town relatives to when you get tired of entertaining them yourself.

The staff of the SHM’s “It’s Jacked Up!” tour intend to turn that notion upside down – literally.

With the amiable Sheriff Lee – whose real name is Steve Bralley, a local businessman/volunteer tour guide now outfitted in a historic costume – our group sets out from the museum and strolls across the green lawn to first row of squat brick buildings.

Stopping abruptly at the mouth of an alleyway, Sheriff Lee turns on his spurred heels and faces our group.

Behind the sheriff, the broad alleyway slopes down out of sight. A block away, the cobbled path reappears as it rises to the level of the next street before once more falling from view and reappearing another block away. Looking down the length of it, Firehouse Alley looks like a long rope strung loosely from L, K and J Streets.

His back to the alleyway, Sheriff Lee now says in a slight southern drawl, “The early settlers here, having built a home for themselves and invested capital in making this place a reality, were intent on staying here – even though “here” was a terrible place to build a city.”

Gesturing for us to follow him, the sheriff turns around and descends the gentle slope of Firehouse Alley. Once at the floor of the pathway – about 10 to 15 feet below the level of the street – we turn to the left and approach the back of the B.F. Hastings building, walking towards a black iron door.

With one hand on the door, Sheriff Lee begins again: “Where we’re now standing was the original level of Old Sacramento.”

The sheriff proceeds to explain to us that before the discovery of gold made the area a household name, the central valley of California was sparsely populated. Those who did dwell among the oak groves and tulle-skirted rivers understood that their existence rested on an uncertain foundation.

The low-lying land of the river valley perennially flooded. During particularly wet winters, you could stand on the foothills of the coastal range, look east to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, and see oak groves rising from a muddy morass of floodwaters.

Stretching from rim to rim would arise an inland sea, with the occasional knoll of high land peeking out as an island and refuge for the Native Americans and Californio ranchers.

It was right here in the marshy meadows that the new Euro-American immigrants chose to build their city. Within a few years, residents realized their mistake as flood after flood washed away their homes. Their stubborn determination to rebuild after each fresh disaster led one Nevada journalist to quip that Sacramento suffered a certain “dementia.”

If they were crazy, there was at least a method to their madness that time itself soon revealed. Eventually tiring of the flooding, these early Sacramentans devised a means to cheat nature and rise above the floodwaters one brick foot at a time.

“You see, with the levees they built barely helping at all, these stubborn, entrepreneurial people decided the best thing they could do was raise the level of the buildings,” with that Sheriff Lee pushes open the heavy iron door.

Gesturing for us to enter, he follows us as we all walk out of the summer sun and into the dim interior.

“Sacramento is just one of three cities in the United States that raised its buildings and street levels. The other two were Seattle and Chicago.” Rather than echoing in the rather spacious basement we now stand in, Sheriff Lee’s voice seems to absorb into the soft brick walls and archways that disappear into the darkness.

Actually, we aren’t in a basement at all, as we soon learn to our amazement. Or rather, it is now, but it wasn’t always so. In fact, we are standing in what was, for the first decade or more of its life, the street level of the B.F. Hastings building.

This, then, is the level where the Pony Express riders dropped their satchels full of letters from back east; where the State Supreme Court justices entered when they came to conduct their business in the courtroom on the second floor; where took place the rip-roaring good times of a Gold Rush town flush with too much fast cash and all the creature comforts it could buy.

“When the town leaders decided to raise the level of the streets in 1864, business owners had two choices,” Sheriff Lee explains to our group. “They could jack up their buildings to the new street level and build a basement or they could lose their first floor (which would then become their new basement and their second floor their new first). Benjamin Franklin Hastings of the B.F. Hastings building decided to jack his up.”

The process of raising tons of brick, wood and wrought iron wasn’t as complicated as you would think. All it took was manpower, long wood beams and railroad jacks.

The first step in the process required digging a number of tunnels running lengthwise and widthwise under the building. Tall enough for a man to crouch, each tunnel then had a long timber inserted through it like a thread through the eye of a needle.

Where the timbers crossed each other, a jack was placed. Back into the tunnels crawled the workers and with the cry of a whistle, each man twisted the jackscrew one full revolution. Another whistle call, another crank and so on inch by inch.

Sheriff Lee explains the mechanics of raising the building we now find ourselves under with the aid of a model. A scaled-down Hastings building sits on a tabletop, four small railroad jacks under each corner of the building. Our guide asks for volunteers and I take my place on one corner.

“Please turn the screw eight times and then step back,” he instructs. After some cranking, the model building groans and squeaks upwards with each twist of the screw. At the end, we step back and I peer over the dangerously-slanted building to an amused Sheriff Lee. The roofline slants downwards towards my corner, a clear indictment of my work.

Pointing to me, he says, “You probably wouldn’t last long on the jack line.” Thankfully, my mistake creates an opening for Sheriff Lee to explain the work a bit more.

“They used buckets of water on the roof as a level to make sure mistakes like this [pointing at my sad slope] were corrected. Once they had jacked the building up, they constructed wood cribs underneath and proceeded to build brick piers and arches for support. Along the perimeter of each building they also had to build a retaining wall of brick with buttresses to support the tons of dirt that was going to be filling in to raise the level of the streets.”

Over the next 13 years, close to 1,000 buildings were raised in this manner in Old Sacramento. The cost of raising each building was borne by the owner of the building, which is why some businessmen decided to simply lose their first floor to the rising street level rather than pay the cost of saving it.

At the end of the affair, when asked if they wanted to help pay for raising the level of the alleyways, the building owners answered with a resounding “no way!” That’s why to this day Firehouse Alley looks like an exhausted elastic band, running along the width of Old Sacramento in a bunched line of rolling slopes.

As we finish our exploration of the underground space, Sheriff Lee guides us towards the black iron door we first entered. Emerging from the underbelly of the building, it takes some time for our eyes to readjust to the rising mid-morning sun peaking over the crenellation of the Hastings building.

“If you will follow me,” the businessman-cum-living-history-actor beckons, “our next stop will take us to the foundations of some of the earliest buildings in Sacramento’s history, to a glimpse of the seedier side of this riverside gold rush town.”

Walking back up to the level of the modern street, passing tourists stare questioningly at our troupe. I can’t help but smile as we walk past them on to our next historical spelunking adventure.

Some people can’t imagine what mysteries lie hidden beneath their feet.

If you go

The underground tour is offered on the weekends year-round. Between the Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend, however, the SHM runs it 7 days a week, several times a day. For times and availability (and to book a spot on the tour) visit http://sachistorymuseum.org/tours/underground-tours/. It only costs $15 for adults and $10 for youths age 6 to 17. Children 5 and under are free; however, the SHM does not recommend the tour for this age group.

The museum offers a more adult-focused tour that runs Thursday through Saturday starting at 6 P.M. According to Shawn Turner, manager of tour programs, “the after-hours tour explores more those first 10 years of Sacramento’s history and so touches on topics of houses of ill-repute and gambling halls and those sorts of things that happened at night.”

Both tours are ADA-accessible.

Antone Pierucci is a Sacramento-based public historian and a freelance writer whose work has been featured in such magazines as Archaeology and Wild West as well as regional California newspapers.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported a different number of buildings raised in the city during a 13-year period. The correct amount is close to 1,000.

This week in history takes a look at Lady Liberty, unmasking the people and events that led to her creation.

Aug. 5, 1884

It was a muggy August day in 1884 when a crowd of politicians, newsmen and Freemasons gathered on the naked stretch of land atop Bedloe’s Island.

Bedloe’s Island or Oyster Island or Love’s Island, the name of this small barnacle of dry soil in New York harbor changed with its ownership. Over the centuries the island had been a refuge for Tories during the Revolution, a country villa for the wealthy, a hospital and, most enduring, a military fort.

On this day in history, the men gathered on the island were preparing to change its name once more.

The usual interminable speeches were given, the proud pronouncements of congratulations and thanks that accompany any and all formal events.

Finally, the moment arrived and William A. Brodie, the Grand Master of New York’s Free and Accepted Masons, intoned solemn words over the cornerstone of what would soon be the base of the Statue of Liberty.

It was a grand scene – despite the thick air of a New York Summer – and one that proved a fitting conclusion to a journey that had begun decades earlier in a dining room in Paris.

The inception

In the summer of 1865, a group of men sat around a table in the suburbs of the City of Lights, discussing the politics of the day. In attendance was a somewhat hodgepodge collection of characters: Edouard Rene de Laboulaye, the owner of the house and a well-known author; noted historian Henri Martin; Oscar and Edmond de Lafayette, grandsons of the Marquis de Lafayette of American Revolution fame; and a young artist from the Alsace region, Frederic Auguste Bartholdi.

It was reportedly Laboulaye who first off-handedly remarked how wonderful it would be for France to present the American people with a monument to memorialize the friendship between the two nations, two sister republics and bastions of freedom.

Although no action would be taken for some years, the idea of a monument germinated in the creative mind of the young artist Bartholdi, where it found fertile ground.

Following the 1870 revolution that overthrew the Louis-Napoleon monarchy and the disastrous conclusion to the Franco-Prussian War, the time seemed ripe for France to reconnect with America.

In 1871, the plan for the as-yet-unnamed monument was rejuvenated, with Laboulaye garnering support for the project at home and Bartholdi raising interest in America.

It was decided that America would finance the construction of the pedestal and France that of the statue itself. The plan was to erect the monument by July 4, 1876 – the centennial anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The iconic monument took form as a resolute lady liberty. In one hand she held a tablet bearing the date of July 4, 1776; in the other, a blazing torch of enlightenment. The statue’s symbolism, as well as its actual name, "Liberty Enlightening the World," reflected the emotions behind her formation.

To the values of liberty, freedom and knowledge would Lady Liberty stand at the entrance to America, proclaiming their superiority over all others. Her very genealogy would be a testament to the deep kinship between France and America.

The reality

Despite raising a significant amount of money for both the pedestal and the actual statue, Lady Liberty arose from the heaps of bronze, copper and iron only incrementally.

Rather than unveiling her in all her glory on July 4, 1876, Bartholdi and his compatriots could only show her extended arm, clutching the torch. They built the rest of Lady Liberty over the next eight years.

When the French finally finished their part of the bargain in 1884, they looked to the Americans to uphold theirs.

With the ceremonial cornerstone laying on Aug. 5, 1884, construction of the pedestal began in earnest. It still took two years to complete.

In that time, Lady Liberty had been disassembled, packed aboard a French ship and unloaded in New York, only to wait while workers finished construction of her pedestal.

Rather than a hindrance to the project, the old star-shaped Fort Wood that had sat on the island for almost a century had been incorporated into Liberty’s base.

Finally, in 1886 all was ready for assembling her in her final place. The work proceeded rapidly and by October 28, 1886—just 10 years and three months late—Bartholdi himself drew back the French flag covering Liberty’s face to the sounds of whistles, the roar of guns and the applause of those below.

The Statue of Liberty, as the striking monument was popularly nicknamed, stood 151 feet tall.

Although first envisioned as a monument to democracy and enlightenment, the symbolism of the statue evolved with the nation.

When, in 1903, officials placed a bronze plaque bearing Emma Lazarus’ now-famous poem, "The New Colossus," Liberty became an emblem of America’s promise to the world’s poor. With her austere gaze, she commanded the entry into the port of New York.

She still stands there today, a testament to the value of freedom so greatly cherished by the democracies that birthed her. "Give me your tired, your poor; Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free… I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Antone Pierucci is a Sacramento-based public historian and a freelance writer whose work has been featured in such magazines as Archaeology and Wild West as well as regional California newspapers.

"Don't water your weeds." – Proverb

LOWER LAKE, Calif. – The Lake County Weed Management Area recently hosted its 14th annual "Invasive Weeds Tour" at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park.

Since July is "California Invasive Weed Awareness Month" an interesting and energetic collection of participants and presenters were present.

The weed walk was sponsored by the Lake County Department of Agriculture and the Lake County Resource Conservation District, or LCRCD, with Charlotte Griswold, president of LCRCD on hand.

This walk was encouraged to educate the public about the increasing amount of non-native invasive weeds that proliferate in our parks, yards and landscapes, and the results of this influx.

After the walk a lunch was provided in the shade of the ancient oaks near the Anderson Ranch House. The event then culminated in a discussion of aquatic invasive plants – another important topic for our diverse county to consider.

Some of the experts who led and discussed the central topics included Trish Ladd, environmental scientist from the California Department of Parks and Recreation, Bill Lincoln of LCRCD, Victoria Brandon who works with the Lake County Land Trust and Sierra Club, Catherine Vanderwall of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, McLaughlin Natural Reserve Director Paul Aigner and Anderson March Interpretive Association Board Member Henry Bornstein. Also in attendance were some of the group from the Lake County Master Gardeners.

Identified on the walk, some of the many invasive plants that are taking over the grasslands at Anderson Marsh State Historic Park and other California regions are curly dock, some kinds of morning glories, Italian rye grass, Himalayan blackberry, vetch, and many more European and Asian grasses.

A familiar invasive plant is the star thistle, a noxious weed that probably arrived in the Bay Area during the Gold Rush era. It originated in Turkey or Greece.

The release of a particular type of weevil, along with control burns and herbicides in some areas, have somewhat reduced the onslaught of starthistle plants.

Lake County enjoys a temperate climate which is conducive to the growth of a variety of plant life. This is true of most of California.

Because of its temperate climate there are around 6,300 native plant species in our state. Both native plants and non-native plants, or invasives thrive, due in part to this temperate climate, but our landscapes and creeks can become ruined by exotic plants who take up nutrients and water in the soil that were intended for the natives. Invasive plants may add fuel for fires, as well.

Once the invasive plants take hold they are also prone to change the habitat and leave the plants and animals who once lived in a niche high and dry.

Although the change to the landscape is small, each minute alteration in the biodiversity breaks an important link in the chain that is important to the environment.

Where do these unwanted plants come from that are crowding out and threatening the landscape?

They sometimes arrive via our gardens or aquariums, sometimes escaping and growing where they are unwanted. They hitchhike on clothing, vehicles or animals, and sometimes through agricultural feed and seed.

The goal is to restore grasslands to the conditions prior to European arrival, and to promote native plants.

With the serpentine soils found in Lake County a refuge of sorts is found to enhance the native grasses, because non-natives do not thrive as well on the serpentine soils.

Where the soil has been intensively disturbed due to farming or other means, the invasive plants begin to take hold, even blotting out the state grass, purple needle.

Various methods to deter non-native plants have included herbicides and professional prescribed burns.

Afterwards native grasses can be planted, including perennial and annual plants for stability to deter re-invasion.

On a smaller scale, hand-pulling or even solarization – when the young plant is covered, thereby “smothering” it before it takes hold, are often effective deterrents to invasive plants.

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also formerly wrote for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.

NASA scientists have definitively detected the chemical acrylonitrile in the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan, a place that has long intrigued scientists investigating the chemical precursors of life.

On Earth, acrylonitrile, also known as vinyl cyanide, is useful in the manufacture of plastics. Under the harsh conditions of Saturn’s largest moon, this chemical is thought to be capable of forming stable, flexible structures similar to cell membranes.

Other researchers have previously suggested that acrylonitrile is an ingredient of Titan’s atmosphere, but they did not report an unambiguous detection of the chemical in the smorgasbord of organic, or carbon-rich, molecules found there.

Now, NASA researchers have identified the chemical fingerprint of acrylonitrile in Titan data collected by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, in Chile.

The team found large quantities of the chemical on Titan, most likely in the stratosphere – the hazy part of the atmosphere that gives this moon its brownish-orange color.

“We found convincing evidence that acrylonitrile is present in Titan’s atmosphere, and we think a significant supply of this raw material reaches the surface,” said Maureen Palmer, a researcher with the Goddard Center for Astrobiology at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and lead author of a July 28 paper in Science Advances.

The cells of Earth’s plants and animals would not hold up well on Titan, where surface temperatures average minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 179 degrees Celsius), and lakes brim with liquid methane.

In 2015, university scientists tackled the question of whether any organic molecules likely to be on Titan could, under such inhospitable conditions, form structures similar to the lipid bilayers of living cells on Earth.

Thin and flexible, the lipid bilayer is the main component of the cell membrane, which separates the inside of a cell from the outside world. This team identified acrylonitrile as the best candidate.

Those researchers proposed that acrylonitrile molecules could come together as a sheet of material similar to a cell membrane. The sheet could form a hollow, microscopic sphere that they dubbed an “azotosome.” This sphere could serve as a tiny storage and transport container, much like the spheres that lipid bilayers can form.

“The ability to form a stable membrane to separate the internal environment from the external one is important because it provides a means to contain chemicals long enough to allow them to interact,” said Michael Mumma, director of the Goddard Center for Astrobiology, which is funded by the NASA Astrobiology Institute. “If membrane-like structures could be formed by vinyl cyanide, it would be an important step on the pathway to life on Saturn’s moon Titan.”

The Goddard team determined that acrylonitrile is plentiful in Titan’s atmosphere, present at concentrations up to 2.8 parts per billion. The chemical is probably most abundant in the stratosphere, at altitudes of at least 125 miles (200 kilometers). Eventually, acrylonitrile makes its way to the cold lower atmosphere, where it condenses and rains out onto the surface.

The researchers calculated how much material could be deposited in Ligeia Mare, Titan’s second-largest lake, which occupies roughly the same surface area as Earth’s Lake Huron and Lake Michigan together.

Over the lifetime of Titan, the team estimated, Ligeia Mare could have accumulated enough acrylonitrile to form about 10 million azotosomes in every milliliter, or quarter-teaspoon, of liquid. That’s compared to roughly a million bacteria per milliliter of coastal ocean water on Earth.

The key to detecting Titan’s acrylonitrile was to combine 11 high-resolution data sets from ALMA. The team retrieved them from an archive of observations originally intended to calibrate the amount of light being received by the telescope array.

In the combined data set, Palmer and her colleagues identified three spectral lines that match the acrylonitrile fingerprint. This finding comes a decade after other researchers inferred the presence of acrylonitrile from observations made by the mass spectrometer on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

“The detection of this elusive, astrobiologically relevant chemical is exciting for scientists who are eager to determine if life could develop on icy worlds such as Titan,” said Goddard scientist Martin Cordiner, senior author on the paper. “This finding adds an important piece to our understanding of the chemical complexity of the solar system.”

ALMA, an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile.

Elizabeth Zubritsky works for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.