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Acting City Manager Richard Knoll and other city staffers attended the meeting Thursday morning in Rancho Cordova.
The hookup ban resulted from an incident last April in which the city sewer system became overloaded due to heavy rains and problems with Willopoint trailer park's sewer system.
The city tried to release treated wastewater from its system through irrigation, in order to prevent its sewer ponds overflowing, according to Knoll. Because of ground saturation, between three and six million gallons of treated wastewater ran off the site, into a Clear Lake tributary and, eventually, into the lake itself, which violating CLMSD's waste discharge agreement with the state.
Knoll said the board did decide to formally impose the cease and desist ban – which had been issued to the city on Jan. 18, at the same time as the hookup moratorium. However, it agreed to lift the connection ban, he said.
“There are a number of stipulations and conditions associated with the cease and desist order, including the fact that we have to construct 90 acres of additional irrigation facilities related to our spray disposal at the wastewater site,” he said.
That work needs to be completed by Nov. 1, he said, and would add capacity to the system.
The city has agreed to other stipulations spelled out in the cease and desist order as well, said Knoll, including completing a sewer master plan, and more plans for staffing and revenue.
The project to add irrigation is progressing, said Knoll. At the March 20 City Council meeting staff will offer a proposal from the city's engineering firm that include design and bid specifications for the project.
Last month, Knoll said, the council directed staff to begin negotiations on the irrigation facilities and another capacity-increasing project, which would build a bypass channel around the sewer system's recapture basin, allowing the city to extend irrigation, its main treated wastewater disposal method.
The regional board and the city didn't see eye to eye on everything, said Knoll, including capacity calculations for the city's sewer system. He said during his testimony at Thursday's meeting he mentioned his concerns about those calculations and the board's methodology.
Some of the regional board's staff research included using the city's draft general plan as a basis for calculating capacity, said Knoll, which isn't an accurate approach.
They also found on the city's Web site a map of proposed projects that, if built, would not all run into the city's sewer system.
The information the regional board staff pieced together led them to conclude that several hundred new homes would hook up to the system within the next few years, said Knoll.
Knoll said that's untrue, and after looking historically at the number of new home permits he reported to the board that the city is issuing an average of 12 to 14 permits annually.
Scott Schellinger of Schellinger Brothers, the company building the Parkside subdivision near Westside Community Park, attended the meeting, said Knoll. Schellinger told the regional board that if they could build and sell 25 homes in the next year in Lakeport they would be “ecstatic.” He added that Lakeport is a market that doesn't have high-volume housing demand.
With those objections lodged, however, Knoll said the city was willing to accept the board's conclusions about capacity and move forward.
“The question was, is the city out of capacity?” Knoll said. The answer, he added, based on the water board's calculations, was yes.
However, capacity will expand due to the city's planned projects, he said.
“That is the basis upon which the regional board lifted the connection ban,” said Knoll.
Knoll explained that he told the regional board that it's been a difficult year for the city in terms of the sewer issue. He said he's had to adjust his own thinking about the city's sewer capabilities.
“We've had to come to grips with the fact that we don't have as much capacity as we thought we did,” he said.
Hookups to the sewer system would be able to take place again after Nov. 1 once the city fulfills the regional board's stipulations, said Knoll. That will allow Schellinger Brothers to move forward with permits, including four that were pending for new family homes.
Knoll reported Rick Kemp at the Sears on Main Street also had wanted a building permit for a new business in his plaza, which while in the county would flow into the city sewer system.
With the regional board's willingness to lift the ban based on the city's proposed capacity projects, the city now has new hurdles, said Knoll.
The irrigation and bypass channels, together, are in the million-dollar range, said Knoll.
“How we're going to pay for it is going to be the challenge,” he said.
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Daphne Kelley, 56, of Clearlake died at UC Davis Medical Center, where she had been taken for treatment, according to CHP Officer Kevin Domby.
Kelley's 1999 Oldsmobile collided with a tree at 8:01 a.m. Wednesday on Highway 29 near Diener Drive, according to CHP incident logs.
Rescue crews had managed to revive her at the accident scene before transporting her to Davis, according to Domby.
The agency reported that Kelley was driving northbound at an unknown rate of speed when her car went into the southbound lane then back into the northbound lane before going off the road and striking the tree on the driver's side.
The CHP has released no further information about the accident or what caused Kelley's vehicle to travel back and forth across the road before the collision took place.
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Richard Knoll said in an interview Wednesday that he's preparing a staff report to the council for its March 20 meeting in which he'll urge them to move forward with the event, which for the past two years has been hosted at Konocti Harbor Resort & Spa.
The city hosted a public meeting March 6 to allow community members the chance to give their opinions on the plan.
At the council's request, a second meeting to gauge community opinion about the event will be held at City Hall at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 20.
From the first community meeting, Knoll said the city received 23 written responses from community members that were opposed to hosting the event, and 19 that expressed support.
He said that he hoped the council wouldn't rely solely on those responses to make their decision, because he believes the event is consistent with past lake-centered events hosted in Lakeport, including boat racing and sailing events.
Knoll said city staff has come up with conditions for the event. “More than anything else, it's a rough operational plan.”
That plan calls for fencing, limited gate locations, hiring extra security personnel to augment the police staff, and requiring that the event be nonalcoholic. That last part, said Knoll, would be enforced through searches of bags and coolers, with alcohol being confiscated if necessary.
A beer garden will be part of staff's suggestion, he said, which would be tightly controlled, with no alcohol leaving that area.
Knoll said there are still other issues that need to be addressed, such as providing access to bathroom facilities for boaters, which he said was a problem at Konocti Harbor.
He said he believes the event will bring a lot of people to the county and could potentially have a very beneficial impact on the local economy.
The event will likely take place in August, Knoll said, although the timing could be more flexible in the future.
He said he's concerned about water quality, because algae blooms have happened in the past at that time – although not recently, he said.
Knoll said the council could make a decision as early as its March 20 meeting, but that he thinks they might wait until April 3, at which time Stimmel – who is currently out of the country – would be able to attend.
Local business owners share opinions
Roy Disney of Disney's Water Sports was one voice at the March 6 meeting who laid out several concerns about the event, especially the intersection of boating and alcohol.
Disney said in a later interview, “Our No. 1 concern with the whole event is safety and safe boating out on the lake.”
Alcohol, he said, “just has no room in boating.”
Disney, who has been in business locally for 25 years, said that the event is “well known for its alcohol consumption.”
While he loves the water sports competition side of the event, Disney said he doesn't believe BoardStock is a good fit for Lakeport, and doesn't think it can be converted to a nonalcoholic event.
He's also not convinced of the potential benefit to local hotels and restaurants, because August is already a peak tourism time.
For Disney, “ideal events” for Lake County include the Konocti Challenge (formerly Pedal the Puddle), fishing tournaments and car shows, which all possess a strong family element.
He said he's not alone in his concerns about the event, and that other local businesses, particularly hotels and restaurants, have told him they don't support BoardStock being held in Lakeport.
Sandra West, owner of Kelseyville's Edgewater Resort, has built a successful business on the lakeshore and been a staunch advocate of the county.
She also was at the March 6 meeting to ask questions.
West said Wednesday that she thinks BoardStock in Lakeport could be a good idea, if it has limitations and restrictions, such as making it an alcohol-free event.
She agreed with Disney that August is already a busy season for local tourism, and she would like to see the event held during the off season, such as in April or October. Like Disney, West said she's also heard from local business owners and community members about hosting the event in Lakeport, and the majority of them have “negative thoughts.”
West said she's also like to see the county hold a “safe, clean and sober weekend,” which she feels would end up attracting more families interested in having safe fun on the water.
She said she would only really support the event if it was advertised as being “safe and sober.”
“No beer gardens, none of that stuff,” she said.
West said it's her understanding that BoardStock, when it was held in Stockton several years ago, was an alcohol-free event.
She added that the promoter should waive any fees for holding the event in Lake County.
There's no better setting for the event than Lake County, she said – if it's done properly.
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The accident victim's name has not yet been released by authorities.
CHP incident logs report that the solo vehicle accident occurred at 8:01 a.m. on Highway 29 at Diener Drive.
Officer Kevin Domby of the Clear Lake CHP Office reported that the woman was driving north on Highway 29 north of Diener Drive at an unknown speed when the accident occurred.
Domby said the woman's 1999 Oldsmobile traveled into the southbound lane, then back into the northbound lane before going off the road's north edge and striking a tree on the driver's side.
The woman was reported dead at the scene, but rescue crews revived her, said Domby. She was transported to UC Davis Medical Center, said Domby, where she was in critical condition.
No further details about the incident were available by the time of publication.
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