Every year, thousands of adults are seriously injured or killed statewide in vehicle crashes caused by distracted drivers — crashes that are 100% preventable.

To help combat this issue, the California Highway Patrol is launching a statewide “Distracted Driving Education for Adult Drivers” traffic safety program.

During the yearlong education and enforcement campaign that will run through September 2023, the CHP will conduct at least 80 enforcement operations targeting adult distracted drivers and 600 adult traffic safety presentations.

These efforts will complement the CHP’s program combating teen distracted driving.

With multiple modes of communication and instant entertainment at their fingertips, cellphone use is the biggest driver distraction.

From Oct. 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2022, CHP officers issued approximately 57,446 citations for cellphone violations.

Last year, 9,733 people were injured and 96 people were killed in crashes in California caused by distracted driving.

“The CHP encourages drivers to make the conscious decision not to drive distracted every time they get behind the wheel,” CHP Commissioner Amanda Ray said. “Every distraction affects a driver’s reaction time, and circumstances can change without notice. Ultimately, it is never worth the potentially devastating consequences.”

Some of the most common types of adult distracted driving includes texting, talking on a cellphone, eating, grooming, talking to passengers, operating a navigation system and adjusting the radio.

The heightened awareness and increased enforcement are designed to encourage adult drivers to recognize the dangers of distracted driving and reduce the number of people impacted by this reckless, preventable behavior.

Funding for this program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has a kitten and several young adult cats waiting to be adopted.

Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.

The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.

‘Mom’

“Mom” is a 2-year-old female domestic shorthair cat with an orange and white coat.

She is in cat room kennel No. 3, ID No. LCAC-A-4080.

Female domestic shorthair kitten

This 3-month-old female domestic shorthair kitten has a gray and white coat.

Staff said the kitten is outgoing and all about fun and games. “She loves to play with toys and enjoys cuddle time. She also enjoys playing with the other kittens and cats.”

She is in cat room kennel No. 36, ID No. LCAC-A-4085.

Female domestic shorthair

This 2-year-old female domestic shorthair cat has a gray tabby coat.

“She is an adult cat with some playful kitten tendencies when toys are brought out. She has a sweet little meow and likes to have playful chats with you,” shelter staff said.

She is in cat room kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-3661.

Male domestic shorthair

This 3-year-old male domestic shorthair cat has an orange tabby coat.

“This guy can be shy at first, but once he knows that you are all about the pets, he will roll right over and start his purr machine. He has a unique curly tail which he flicks around when curious,” shelter staff said.

He is in cat room kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-4021.

Female domestic shorthair

This 2-year-old female domestic shorthair cat has a Siamese coat with reddish points and blue eyes.

Shelter staff said she came in as an injured stray. “When we met her, even in obvious distress, she was purring and happy to see us.”

After successful surgery to repair a rectal prolapse due to a large bladder stone, “she has continued to have a wonderful attitude and would make a lovely cuddle partner,” staff said, noting she is very sweet and talkative.

In her adoptive home, staff recommends she continue on a specific bladder health diet in order to prevent the possibility of future bladder stones.

She is in cat room kennel No. 73, ID No. LCAC-A-4090.

Male domestic longhair cat

This 1-year-old male domestic longhair cat has a black and white coat.

“This guy had a hard start, but has a lot of love to give once he warms up to you,” shelter staff said.

Staff said he also loves brushing and shows his appreciation with purring and head bumps.

He is in kennel No. 107, ID No. LCAC-A-4023.

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.

Dear Lady of the Lake,

We just moved to a house near the Oaks Arm and I have heard there is concern with mercury on Clear Lake. Is it safe to go fishing and swimming? When will the mercury be cleaned up and how do I receive updates?

Thanks!

— Musing about Mercury

Dear Musing,

Thanks for this question and for your concern. The history of Mercury and Clear Lake is complex. I could probably write several books about the Sulfur Bank Mercury mine (hereinafter referred to as “the mine”).

Today’s column is really a brief introduction to the history of mercury in California, including in lakes and reservoirs, and Clear Lake, and the current efforts for clean-up by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, or U.S. EPA.

I also will not be covering in detail the complex impacts the mine has had, and continues to have, on the adjacent Elem Indian Colony, but I recognize and acknowledge that these impacts are significant and severe, and the Elem people deserve a robust remediation and compensation strategy to continue to live near and on the Superfund site.

Like much of the Golden State’s recent history, post-settlement growth, development, and economy of the state was long built on the exploitation of native peoples and the degradation of natural and cultural resources. While the mine has been credited, at one time, as one of the most profitable in the state for mercury, it can be strongly argued if the cost was worth the price.

For more information on the Elem perspective, experiences, and proposed solutions please visit the Elem Environmental Protection Website here.

What is a Superfund Site?

The basic definition of a superfund site is when a site, due to a previously occuring activity, poses a threat to public health and / or the environment and the responsible party (owner, manager) is no longer able to conduct appropriate clean up or mitigation. Usually, this occurs when a business has been polluting, such as dumping waste illegally, and then the company goes out of business, leaving behind a polluted site with no responsible party to conduct, remove, clean-up the waste, or remediate the pollution.

The waste itself, or it’s residue, can be hazardous or toxic and prevent people and wildlife from safely using the land or water, and so the site becomes a candidate for the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, or CERCLA, commonly known as Superfund. Sites that pose the greatest potential threat to public health and the environment are put on the National Priorities List, or NPL. The list can be viewed as a map here.

The NPL is the U.S. EPA's list of the most serious uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous waste sites identified for possible long-term remedial response under Superfund. Sites included in the NPL are mostly based on a score the site received under the Hazard Ranking System.

The Sulfur Bank Mercury mine was listed in 1990 and has a score of 44.42. The ranks are based on a scale of 0 to 100, based on the actual or potential release of hazardous substances from a site through air, surface water or groundwater.

Money from Superfund can be used for cleanup only at sites that are on the NPL. However, while the Superfund FUND, used to be mostly supported by oil and chemical taxes, expiration of those taxes occurred in 1995, leaving the taxpayers and general fund to fully support the program.

However, the recently passed Infrastructure Bill includes about $3.5 billion in cleaning up Superfund sites, and other hazardous properties like Brownfield sites, and reinstates the Superfund taxes on oil and chemical companies, making it one of the largest recent investments to address legacy pollution.

This also is probably good news for the Sulfur Bank Mine Superfund Clean-Up site, as funding shortfalls have been referenced as barriers to remediation completion.

Much to know about mercury

Mercury (Hg) is a naturally occurring chemical element. It used to be known commonly as quicksilver and has historically been used in such applications as thermometers, barometers, manometers, float valves, mercury switches and relays, and fluorescent lamps. Mercury was also used in hydraulic mining, to increase gold and silver yields.

These days, many of the above applications have utilized alternative elements or materials to replace mercury, as mercury can lead to significant health concerns if someone becomes exposed. Mercury poisoning results when someone is exposed to mercury in its liquid form through ingestion, mercury vapor inhalation, or through water-soluble forms such as methyl mercury or mercuric chloride.

Mercury poisoning can lead to potential brain damage, and permanent lung and kidney damage. Chronic exposure can lead to death.

In 2014 the US EPA aimed to fully eliminate the use of mercury in dental offices throughout the Country and in 2017 the U.S. EPA approved mercury limits in California waters and fish tissues to protect human health and aquatic wildlife.

Mercury is unique from other elements in that it retains its liquid form under standard, or everyday normal conditions of temperature and pressure, which makes it extremely pliable for common use applications as listed above!

Mercury history in the Golden State

In California, mercury was historically used to improve hydraulic mining efficiency since mercury creates an amalgam with gold and silver. Basically, when miners added mercury to flowing water washed from mine site, in sluices or troughs, the mercury would readily attach to the gold or silver, making the desired elements heavier so they would sink out of the water and separate from other gravel and sands materials.

This process improved the recovery rates of gold and silver mining. After collection, to separate the gold or silver from the mercury, the amalgam was heated, the mercury vaporized leaving behind only the gold or silver. The vaporized mercury then became airborne and both more easily inhaled and released into the atmosphere.

Mercury mining was conducted to harvest enough material to provide for the booming industrial age in California, and other western states, but also to improve gold and silver mining.

In fact, during the California Gold Rush, gold miners used over 26 million pounds of mercury, and research estimates suggest that at least 13 million pounds of that mercury were released into the environment, mostly through waterways.

Mercury in lakes and reservoirs

Mercury contamination in lakes and reservoirs in California is not unique to Clear Lake. Due to the heavy and widespread mining activity across the State that transported mercury to surface sediments and waters, most, if not all of the waterways in California are considered contaminated by mercury.

In fact, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, or OEHHA, has a blanket fish advisory recommendation for all California lakes and reservoirs for a majority of the most commonly fished species and site specific advisories, such as this one for Clear Lake.

Studies of sediments in river flows during flood events has led researchers to predict that for at least the next 10,000 years, mining legacies in California will continue to release mercury-laden sediments into the environment, including waterways.

Mercury deposition is also a pathway for mercury to enter waterways, through rain and snowmelt. Mercury can become mobilized into the atmosphere during coal-combustion electrical power generation activities. Majority of this deposition occurs in the eastern and mid western United States.

You can track mercury deposition in your area by following the Mercury Deposition Network.

The history of mercury in California Lakes and Reservoirs is complex, and research is still ongoing to understand the full impact mining has had on ecological systems.

For more information I suggest these resources:

“Statewide Mercury Control program for Reservoirs”
Available: https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/mercury/reservoirs/docs/factsheet.pdf

“ Mercury Contamination: Toxic Legacy of the Gold Rush Assembly Natural Resources Committee March 24, 2014 Hearing Background Paper” Available: https://antr.assembly.ca.gov/sites/antr.assembly.ca.gov/files/hearings/Background%20paper032414.pdf

“Mercury and methylmercury concentrations and loads in the Cache Creek watershed, California”
Available at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1497&context=usgsstaffpub

Legacies of the Sulfur Bank Mercury Mine on Clear Lake

The mine is currently located in Clear Lake Oaks and stretches about 1,300 feet of shoreline on Clear Lake. The mine site contains a 160-are abandoned open-pit mercury mine, which is spring-filled with water and called the Herman Impoundment.

Note that the mine was not a hydraulic mine, but a pit mine. Pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining, is basically surface mining in descending fashion, down into the earth, as opposed to ascending fashion of surface mining on the side of a mountain or hillside.

The mine was mined for sulfur than mercury, intermittently, between 1865 and 1957. Mercury mined from the mine was transported around the state and used in hydraulic mining processes and in industrial applications.

After removing sediment from the pit, and mercury or sulfur was extracted, piles of removed sediment was dumped around the mine, sometimes into piles, called tailings, along the surrounding hills or into the lake or along the shoreline. The mine site has about 150 acres of mine tailings, which equates to about 200 million cubic yards of mine waste.

In general, the site geology, and surrounding sediment, is rich in mercury, which is why the site was selected as a mine location in the first place. Further human activity and modification of the area has allowed the mobilization of mercury from deep in the sediment to the surface where it can pose more contamination risk to humans and wildlife, and flow into the lake easier.

To complicate the issue, the initial clean-up solution, which created a wall of rock and sediment materials between the pit mine (i.e. Herman Impoundment) and the lake was constructed of waste rock from the site. This is called the Waste Rock Dam.

The Herman Impoundment, which sits higher in elevation than Clear Lake, and is spring fed, facilitates the mercury pathway into the lake. Gravity moves water from the impoundment through the contaminated soils and sediments of the waste rock dam; mercury is still slowly leaching from the mine site into the sediments at the bottom of the lake.

For the most part, mercury will stay adhered to sediments, and won’t be an exposure risk in the water itself. Swimming and boating are not at all hazardous in the Oaks arm area around the mine. Recreating in the sediments or soils at the site, or directly adjacent, should be avoided.
Please refer to this 2022 US EPA factsheet “The Sulphur Bank Mercury Mine Site: Arsenic and Mercury Risks."

Mercury exposure in water can occur when the mercury becomes methylated, under low oxygen concentrations in the water column, and moves into the water column where it can be consumed by fish. Fish and shellfish that live in, feed in, or habitat the sediments, are also more likely to ingest and become part of the mercury pathway.

The process of mercury moving from the sediments into fish, or living tissues, is called biomagnification. Biomagnification is the transfer of mercury in the fatty tissue of organisms up through the food web.

Basically, mercury transports through the tissue of one fish and is absorbed into the tissue of another fish, or human, when that fish is consumed. The larger the organism, the larger the amount of mercury potentially can be consumed.

Due to the contamination sourced from the mine, and the impact on the local tribal and Lake County communities, the site was added to the Superfund cleanup program in 1990. Since this time, the EPA has completed eight clean-ups to protect human health and the environment.

However, mercury is still present in fish in Clear Lake and in sediments near the mine, and continues to seep into the lake from the Herman Impoundment through the waste rock pile dam.

Future clean-up efforts

According to the Sulfur Bank Mine US EPA Superfund Site Team, there is a comprehensive plan to conduct the remaining clean-up on the Sulfur Bank Mine site. This team wants the community around Clear Lake to be involved and participate in this planning, so local concerns and perspectives are considered and included.

The general timeline for the Clean-up is as follows:

• Fall/Winter 2022: Final cleanup plan for the on-land mine part of the site presented to the community.
• 2025-2028 (estimated): Start cleanup of on-land, mine part of the site.
• Ongoing: Continue studying lake and sediment to see how best to control the mercury.

The proposed schedule and approach to the remaining clean-up will include a proposed cleanup plan, released sometime this month (November 2022, called a “Proposed Plan”) for the on-land mine part of the site.

The U.S. EPA communication and outreach team will conduct several open house, town-hall and virtual events where they will explain how the plan will protect human health and the environment.

After the U.S. EPA releases the plan, they will notify the community via newspaper, fliers, radio, website, postcards. They will also post a youtube presentation and open a 90-day public comment period. It’s the intention of the U.S. EPA to host several public engagement opportunities, with events dates, time, locations, and accessibility information being posted on their website and sent out to local media partners.

You can reach out to the U.S. EPA Sulfur Bank Mine team directly by contacting their Community Involvement Coordinator, Gavin Pauley, Region 9, at (415) 535-3725 | This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

To learn more about the U.S. EPA Sulfur Bank Mercury Mine site clean-up and progress and to be added to the Superfund Site’s mailing list, visit this page.

This year there have been two presentations to the Lake County Board of Supervisors by the Sulfur Bank Mine Sueprfund U.S. EPA team, you can find them here and and the County of Lake You Tube Channel.

April 19, 2022
https://lakecounty.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=604&meta_id=201804

Sept. 20, 2022
https://lakecounty.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=1&clip_id=573&meta_id=186098

Sincerely,

Lady of the Lake

Angela De Palma-Dow is a limnologist (limnology = study of fresh inland waters) who lives and works in Lake County. Born in Northern California, she has a Master of Science from Michigan State University. She is a Certified Lake Manager from the North American Lake Management Society, or NALMS, and she is the current president/chair of the California chapter of the Society for Freshwater Science. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

As the end of daylight saving time arrives, the California Highway Patrol and its traffic safety partners are reminding motorists about the impact the time change and a lack of adequate sleep can have on their ability to safely operate a motor vehicle.

The CHP has partnered with the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, the California Office of Traffic Safety and the National Sleep Foundation in recognizing Nov. 6 to 12 as Drowsy Driving Prevention Week to raise awareness about the importance of a good night’s rest before driving.

Although we “fall back” and gain an extra hour of sleep, it does not necessarily equate to added rest, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

In the fall, people tend to wake up earlier, which results in less sleep throughout the week. The time change can also impair sleep quality. This disruption in sleep/wake patterns can have dangerous consequences, such as an increased risk of motor vehicle crashes.

“The CHP’s mission is to eliminate roadway deaths through education and enforcement of traffic safety laws designed to keep motorists safe,” said CHP Commissioner Amanda Ray. “Fatigue can impair driving skills similar to being under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Plan ahead before you get on the road to ensure you are well rested.’’

“Being so tired that you’re ‘running on fumes’ and driving are a dangerous combination,” Office of Traffic Safety Director Barbara Rooney said. “Driving safely requires your full and undivided attention — something we are not able to do when tired and sleepy. It is important you get the sleep you need so that when you drive, you are alert and refreshed.”

In California in 2019 and 2020, drowsy drivers caused more than 11,000 crashes, resulting in 6,411 injuries and 73 deaths.

Drivers ages 16 to 25 are at the greatest risk of falling asleep at the wheel, however drowsiness impacts anyone’s ability to drive safely by slowing reaction times and making it harder to pay attention to the road.

“Caltrans is committed to eliminating fatalities and serious injuries on all California roadways by 2050,” said Caltrans Director Tony Tavares. “To achieve this ambitious goal, Caltrans is working to make our transportation system safer and more forgiving. However, safety is a shared responsibility. Every motorist can do their part by ensuring that, when they get behind the wheel, they are well rested and alert.”

Whenever motorists begin to feel tired, the CHP reminds motorists to pull safely off the road and use one of Caltrans’ statewide roadside rest areas for a quick mind-clearing break.

To find a rest area or to check for the latest travel information on state highways, visit the Caltrans QuickMap at http://quickmap.dot.ca.gov/.

Motorists are advised against stopping on the side of the road where they risk getting hit by another car.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Lake County Animal Care and Control has more new dogs from the working breeds available to new homes.

Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of American blue heeler, basset hound, Cardigan Welsh corgi, Doberman pinscher, German shepherd, hound, Labrador retriever 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.

The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption.

Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online for information on visiting or adopting.

Female German shepherd

This 3-year-old female German shepherd has a black and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 18, ID No. LCAC-A-4168.

Female pit bull

This 3-year-old female pit bull terrier has a fawn-colored coat.

She is in kennel No. 8, ID No. LCAC-A-4210.

Female Cardigan Welsh corgi

This 2-year-old female Cardigan Welsh corgi has a short tricolor coat.

She is in kennel No. 26, ID No. LCAC-A-4139.

‘Arlo’

“Arlo” is a 3-year-old male basset hound-Labrador retriever mix with a short brown coat.

He is in kennel No. 9, ID No. LCAC-A-4164.

Male American blue heeler

This 1-year-old male American blue heeler has a short coat.

He is in kennel No. 10, ID No. LCAC-A-4128.

Female Labrador retriever

This 3-month-old female Labrador retriever has a short black coat.

She is in kennel No. 13, ID No. LCAC-A-4162.

Male Labrador retriever

This 2-year-old male Labrador retriever has a short black coat.

He is in kennel No. 14, ID No. LCAC-A-4112.

Male Labrador retriever

This 3-month-old male Labrador retriever has a short black coat.

He is in kennel No. 15, ID No. LCAC-A-4163.

Female corgi

This 3-month-old female Cardigan Welsh corgi has a short black and tan coat.

She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. LCAC-A-4138.

Male hound mix

This 2-year-old male hound mix has a short tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 20, ID No. LCAC-A-4176.

Male pit mix puppy

This 2-month-old male pit bull terrier mix puppy has a short gray and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 23a, ID No. LCAC-A-4116.

Male pit mix puppy

This 2-month-old male pit bull terrier mix puppy has a short gray and white coat.

He is in kennel No. 23e, ID No. LCAC-A-4120.

Female pit bull puppy

This 2-month-old female pit bull puppy has a short white and red coat.

She is in kennel No. 24b, ID No. LCAC-A-4121.

Female pit mix puppy

This 2-month-old female pit bull terrier mix puppy has a short white coat.

He is in kennel No. 24c, ID No. LCAC-A-4122.

‘Ruby’

“Ruby” is a 6-month-old female hound mix with a brindle coat.

She is in kennel No. 31, ID No. LCAC-A-3753.

Male German shepherd

This 1-year-old male German shepherd has a short black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 33, ID No. LCAC-A-4204.

Male Doberman pinscher

This 6-month-old male Doberman pinscher has a short black and tan coat.

He is in kennel No. 34, ID No. LCAC-A-4207.

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.

What happens when the densest, most massive stars — that are also super small — collide?

They send out brilliant explosions known as kilonovae. Think of these events as the universe’s natural fireworks.

Theorists suspect they periodically occur all across the cosmos — both near and far. Scientists will soon have an additional observatory to help follow up on and even scout these remarkable events: NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which is set to launch by May 2027.

The key actors in kilonovae are neutron stars, the central cores of stars that collapsed under gravity during supernova explosions. They each have a mass similar to the Sun, but are only about 6 miles (10 kilometers) in diameter. And when they collide, they send out debris moving near the speed of light.

These explosions are also thought to forge heavy elements, like gold, platinum, and strontium (which gives actual fireworks their stunning reds). Kilonovae shoot those elements across space, potentially allowing them to end up in rocks forming the crust of terrestrial planets like Earth.

The astronomical community captured one of these remarkable kilonova events in 2017. Scientists at the National Science Foundation’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO, detected the collision of two neutron stars first with gravitational waves – ripples in space-time.

Almost simultaneously, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected high-energy light. NASA quickly pivoted to observe the event with a broader fleet of telescopes, and captured the fading glow of the blast’s expanding debris in a series of images.

But the players in this example collided practically in our “backyard,” at least in astronomical terms. They lie only 130 million light-years away. There must be more kilonovae — and many that are farther flung — dotting our ever-active universe.

“We don’t yet know the rate of these events,” said Daniel M. Scolnic, an assistant professor of physics at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Scolnic led a study that estimates the number of kilonovae that could be discovered by past, present, and future observatories including Roman. “Is the single kilonova we identified typical? How bright are these explosions? What types of galaxies do they occur in?”

Existing telescopes can’t cover wide enough areas or observe deeply enough to find more distant examples, but that will change with Roman.

Spotting more, and more distant, kilonovae

At this stage, LIGO leads the pack in identifying neutron star mergers. It can detect gravitational waves in all areas of the sky, but some of the most distant collisions may be too weak to be identified. Roman is set to join LIGO’s search, offering complementary qualities that help “fill out” the team.

Roman is a survey telescope that will repeatedly scan the same areas of the sky. Plus, Roman's field of view is 200 times larger than the Hubble Space Telescope’s infrared view — not as vast as LIGO’s, but huge for a telescope that takes images. Its cadence will allow researchers to spot when objects on the sky brighten or dim, whether nearby or very far away.

Roman will provide researchers a powerful tool for observing extremely distant kilonovae. This is due to the expansion of space. Light that left stars billions of years ago is stretched into longer, redder wavelengths, known as infrared light, over time.

Since Roman specializes in capturing near-infrared light, it will detect light from very distant objects. How distant? “Roman will be able to see some kilonovae whose light has traveled about 7 billion years to reach Earth,” explained Eve Chase, a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

Chase led a more recent study that simulated how differences in kilonovae ejecta can vary what we expect to observe from observatories including Roman.

There’s a second benefit to near-infrared light: It provides more time to observe these short-lived bursts. Shorter wavelengths of light, like ultraviolet and visible, disappear from view in a day or two. Near-infrared light can be gathered for a week or more. Researchers have been simulating the data to see how this will work.

“For a subset of simulated kilonovae, Roman would be able to observe some more than two weeks after the neutron star merger occurred,” Chase added. “It will be an excellent tool for looking at kilonovae that are very far away.”

Soon, researchers will know far more about where kilonovae occur, and how often these explosions occur in the history of the universe. Were those that occurred earlier different in some way? “Roman will allow the astronomy community to begin conducting population studies along with a slew of new analyses on the physics of these explosions,” Scolnic said.

A survey telescope offers enormous possibility – and also a ton of data that will require precise machine learning. Astronomers are meeting this challenge by writing code to automate these searches.

Ultimately, Roman’s massive data sets will help researchers unravel perhaps the greatest mysteries about kilonovae to date: What happens after two neutron stars collide? Does it produce a single neutron star, a black hole, or something else entirely? With Roman, we will gather the statistics researchers need to make substantial breakthroughs.

The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is managed at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, with participation by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science team comprising scientists from various research institutions.

The primary industrial partners are Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation in Boulder, Colorado; L3Harris Technologies in Melbourne, Florida; and Teledyne Scientific & Imaging in Thousand Oaks, California.

Claire Blome works for the Space Telescope Science Institute.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Board of Supervisors is poised to give its members one of the largest raises in its history after voting to take the next steps to increase its pay during its meeting on Tuesday.

With Supervisor Moke Simon absent, the board voted 4-0 to direct staff to come back with a draft ordinance no later than Jan. 23, after property taxes have been determined for the coming year, to put the 38.8% raise into effect.

Staff proposed, and the board accepted, tying the board’s pay rate to those of Superior Court judges.

Under the planned action, the board would get 38.6% of the salaries of Superior Court judges, which as of July 1 totaled $229,125 annually.

That action would increase annual pay for a supervisor from a base pay of $63,714 — with an additional $2,400 for the chair — to $88,483.20 annually, a 38.8%-percent increase from the current salary level, with the chair to receive an additional 5%, or $4,472.

The 2020 American Community Survey showed that Lake County’s median income is $49,254 and mean income is $72,862, with median family income of $65,410.

The raise means board members would rise from a pay level into which 16.6% of residents fall to one that covers 11% of county residents.

Newest Supervisor Michael Green, sworn in last week after being appointed to fill the District 4 seat by Gov. Gavin Newsom, encouraged approval.

“I’m going to support this and we’re going to find the money to pay for it and we have a big ol’ budget and I acknowledge there may be some challenges in finding the sustainability but I have every confidence the staff will get us there,” Green said.

While tying the salaries to Superior Court judges is meant to “mitigate the appearance of a conflict of your Board approving raises for themselves,” according to County Administrative Officer Susan Parker’s written report, supervisors acknowledged that the fact remains that they are approving the mechanism and so are still responsible for setting their own pay.

If approved early in 2023, this will be the latest batch of raises the supervisors have given out during the pandemic. So far, the board has given out $21 million in raises since the fall of 2021, justifying them with the 2019 classification and compensation study.

Parker’s report to the board said the raises will increase payroll expenses by $125,918 a year, increasing total supervisorial salary costs from $323,832 to $449,750 annually.

However, that number did not include benefits. It was not until Tuesday’s meeting that Assistant County Administrative Officer Stephen Carter reported that the total cost for the increase, with benefits, would be $165,000 annually.

Carter said the increase would be covered by ongoing county revenue streams with overages, citing among them property tax. Savings from the county’s continued high number of vacancies is another funding source.

Supervisor Jessica Pyska said it was “obviously” an uncomfortable conversation, but giving the raise is, in her view, important to the health of the county and the board itself.

She said it will encourage qualified people to step up and take the jobs, pointing to the uncontested reelections this year of board members EJ Crandell and Bruno Sabatier.

Pyska also said it was difficult to fill the District 4 seat that Green now occupies.

Green echoed Pyska’s comments, acknowledging it did look awkward but again pointing to the concerns about the current pay rate, explaining that he had to consider the pay when deciding to pursue the appointment. “I’m all in on this.”

During public comment, several speakers weighed in, some saying the raise was necessary, others also asking for additional transparency about what board members do and how much time they spend doing it. One speaker said the board has executive-level positions, and executives don’t make less than $100,000 annually.

Staff did not answer a question posed by Lake County News about when was the last time the board received such a large raise.

Instead, Human Resources Director Pam Samac said the supervisors last received a raise in 2015, when all staff received a 3% cost of living adjustment.

Lake County News also asked why Pyska said the District 4 seat was hard to fill when, at that point, this reporter knew of three individuals — including Green — who had applied. However, only Green was acknowledged and interviewed by the Governor’s Office.

Pyska said she hadn’t known about the other two and that there had been a “significant amount of time” when only one person had applied for the seat.

Later in the meeting, Pyska’s campaign manager, Gillian Parrillo, weighed in via Zoom to double down on the claim that the seat was hard to fill, saying one of the applicants had not been in the district. She also raised the issue with whether 38% of a Superior Court judge’s pay was a high enough pay range for the supervisors.

Since the Tuesday meeting, Lake County News has confirmed there was a fourth individual who had wanted to pursue the District 4 seat, but was outside of the district boundaries.

Board members agreed to Pyska’s suggestion that county staff add language to the proposed ordinance to raise pay supervisorial to state that supervisors’ jobs are full-time, meaning, they are trading “part-time” pay of $63,714 to go to full time at $88,483.20.

Sabatier, who wanted to wait until the midyear budget review early next year to make a final decision on the pay increases, said he also wanted to have a future conversation about expectations for supervisors performance.

He pointed out that state law covers the job descriptions, however, a review of state Government Code shows that such job descriptions give few qualifications for supervisors beyond being a registered voter and living in their specific district.

County Counsel Anita Grant said the board has existing policies, procedures and conduct requirements for its members that can be augmented if the supervisors wish.

After several minutes of trying to come up with a motion, Green, with Grant’s help, moved to have staff bring back an ordinance with the new pay amounts no later than Jan. 23, which should give staff time to look at the final property tax roll for the next year. Sabatier seconded and the motion passed 4-0.

At Grant’s suggestion, the board also directed staff to come back with “a vehicle” for the supervisors to develop more fully the obligations, functions and duties of board members.

Grant said the proposed ordinance will require two readings and won’t go into effect until 60 days after the approval of the second reading.

Comparisons with neighboring counties

To put Lake’s current and proposed supervisorial salaries in context, the following is a list of the pay ranges for the boards of supervisors of Lake and neighboring counties, as well as those counties’ current populations, as reported to the State Controller’s Office through its Government Compensation in California website:

• Colusa County, population 21,807: $74,746 to $83,060.
• Glenn County, population 28,750: $40,526 to $41,887.
• Lake County, population 67,407: $65,738 to $69,796.
• Mendocino County, population 89,999: $92,996 to $102,107.
• Napa County, population 136,179: $107,456 to $111,255.
• Sonoma County, population 482,404: $174,472 to $185,069.
• Yolo County, population 221,165: $104,556 to $108,834.

The state’s lowest pay rate for supervisors is in Modoc County, population 8,690, where the range is from $19,705 to $23,905.

The highest pay rate in the state is for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, with a pay range of $259,794 to $272,832. Los Angeles County’s population is 9,861,224.

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. — County officials are alerting pet owners in Lakeport regarding the outbreak of an infectious disease that affects cats.

Lake County Animal Care and Control has become aware of multiple documented cases of feline panleukopenia in the 5300 block of Lakeshore Boulevard.

Feline panleukopenia is a highly infectious disease that can infect wild and domestic cats.

The last feline panleukopenia outbreak reported in Lake County occurred in Nice in October 2020.

Animals with feline panleukopenia can shed large amounts of the virus in secretions including feces, vomit, urine, saliva and mucus.

Primary signs of infection include anorexia, lethargy, profuse watery to bloody diarrhea, and vomiting.

Feline panleukopenia must be immediately and aggressively treated, as infection can be fatal in less than 24 hours.

Animal Care and Control said prevention is vital to protect cats.

Cat owners in the area where these infections were documented are advised to contact their veterinarian for specific vaccination recommendations and treatment options if their cat is showing symptoms.

Although risk of infection in other areas of Lake County is lower, it is recommended that cat and dog owners regularly vaccinate their animals to prevent infection of diseases like feline panleukopenia, canine parvovirus and others.

Lake County Animal Care and Control can be reached Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 707-263-0278.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – It’s time once again to set clocks to “fall back.”

Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 6. It began on Sunday, March 13.

The Energy Policy Act, passed by Congress in 2005, establishes the beginning of daylight saving time on the second Sunday in March, with the end of it on the first Sunday in November.

Daylight saving time continues in California despite the November 2018 passage of Proposition 7, a ballot initiative that allows the State Legislature to change the dates and times of daylight saving time — including moving to permanent daylight saving time — with a two-thirds vote. That proposition was approved with a yes vote of 59%, compared to a 40% no vote.

However, the necessary steps for that initiative to go into effect haven’t taken place. That includes passage of a state law to allow for it.

In February, State Assemblymember Steven Choi introduced AB2868 for California to go to year-round daylight saving time.

The bill would have allowed the state to make that move immediately after federal law authorizes it, as current federal law doesn’t allow states to set their standard time to year-round daylight saving time, according to the Legislative Counsel’s Digest entry on the bill.

However, Choi’s bill stalled in the Legislature earlier this year.

Likewise, efforts in Congress aren’t moving forward. The Sunshine Protection Act, introduced by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) passed the U.S. Senate in March, but the U.S. House of Representatives hasn’t produced its own bill on the matter.

In the meantime, changing clocks also is a good time for Californians to check the batteries in their smoke alarms and other safety features in homes.

Visit Cal Fire’s website on smoke alarms or or contact your local fire department for guidance.

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.

The California Highway Patrol said a new program will be dedicated to the safety of the state’s Native Americans.

The Native Tribal Traffic Education Program, or Native-TTEP, grant will be a proactive program designed to bring traffic safety education to the Native American population with initial efforts focused in CHP Northern, Valley and Golden Gate Divisions.

The CHP officers and other nonuniformed personnel involved in the program will serve as resources to Native American communities and tribes.

The goal of the CHP Native-TTEP grant will be to educate drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists to help reduce the number of fatal and injury crashes involving all users of roads on and near tribal lands in California.

It will also improve service and public trust in tribal communities by implementing many of the
safety programs the CHP has to offer.

The topics of the program that will benefit California’s motoring public include seat belts, the proper use of child safety seats, the dangers of driving under the influence, pedestrian and bicycle education, defensive driving techniques, distracted driving, teen/parent driving safety, driver's license requirements, and other educational subjects.

Traffic safety presentations will be conducted at schools, public health fairs, tribal events, traffic safety conferences, bicycle rodeos, Indian education and Native youth programs, tribal Elder programs, passenger safety seat checkup events, and school bus safety training.

“We are excited to offer our traffic safety programs to tribes and Native Americans living in our
communities all in an effort to strengthen relationships, reduce traffic crashes, and most importantly save lives,” said CHP Commissioner Amanda Ray.

The CHP Native-TTEP grant is the first safety grant program focused on reaching the Native American communities in California, which is home to the nation’s largest American Indian/Alaska Native population.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

What's up for November? A lunar eclipse, the moon and planets, and the Leonid meteors.

A total lunar eclipse is on the way, to provide a little celestial magic, early on the morning of Nov. 8. The eclipse will be visible to viewers in North America, the Pacific region, Australia, and Eastern Asia — anywhere the Moon is above the horizon while the eclipse is happening.

For observers in the Eastern time zone of the U.S. and Canada, the partial eclipse begins a little after 4 a.m. It reaches full eclipse about 5:15 local time, and the Moon then sets while still in eclipse for you.

For observers on the West Coast of North America, that translates to the partial eclipse beginning just after 1 a.m., and reaching full eclipse by about 2:15 a.m. You'll be able to see the entire eclipse unfold before sunrise, weather permitting, as the Moon exits the dark part of Earth's shadow (called the umbra) a few minutes before 5 a.m.

During a lunar eclipse, you'll likely notice that you can see a lot more faint stars, as the usually brilliant full moon dims to a dull red. And during this eclipse, viewers with binoculars can spy an extra treat — the ice giant planet Uranus will be visible just a finger's width away from the eclipsed Moon.

Check your local details to find out if the eclipse is visible from your area, and find lots more eclipse info from NASA at the address on your screen.

In the pre-dawn hours of Nov. 11, you’ll find the Moon directly between Mars and bright bluish-white star Elnath. Elnath is the second brightest star in the constellation Taurus, after reddish Aldebaran, and it forms the northern horn of the bull. You'll find that Elnath is about the same brightness as the star Bellatrix in nearby Orion, where it forms one of the hunter's shoulders.

On Nov. 20, in the hour before sunrise, look toward the southeast to find a slim, crescent Moon hanging right above bright bluish star Spica. It's a giant star, 10 times the mass of our Sun, and 12,000 times more luminous. Fortunately for us, it's located 260 light years away.

And in the evening sky, on Nov. 28, a beautiful crescent Moon hangs beneath Saturn in the south after sunset.

The Leonid meteor shower is active throughout November. It peaks after midnight on Nov. 18, with something like 15 to 20 meteors per hour under clear, dark skies.

The shower's name comes from the constellation Leo, the lion, from which its meteors appear to radiate. The meteors are dusty bits of debris left behind by comet Tempel-Tuttle as it orbits the Sun. This comet was actually discovered twice, independently.

On the peak night for the Leonids this year, the Moon will be about 35% full, meaning it will interfere with your ability to see the fainter meteors. However, Leonid meteors are often bright, with trails (also called trains) that persist for a couple of seconds after they streak across the sky.

And while the Moon will be rising in the east with Leo around midnight local time, it's actually better to view the sky away from the meteors' apparent point of origin, by lying back and looking straight upward, as any meteor trails you see will appear longer and more spectacular.

Stay up to date with all of NASA's missions to explore the solar system and beyond at nasa.gov.

Preston Dyches works for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — A plan currently under consideration by the county of Lake would give the Kelseyville Senior Center the unique distinction of having been purchased with funds provided by the county government twice in a 20-year span.

The timing of the proposal from District 5 Supervisor Jessica Pyska, which first went before the Board of Supervisors in August, was notable as it was just 20 years before — in July 2002 — that the escrow to purchase the center from the previous owner closed thanks to funds the county budgeted to make the purchase possible.

However, until shortly before it was first discussed publicly by the board in August, neither Pyska nor county staff seemed to be aware of this previous purchase — despite having conducted “due diligence” on the proposal.

What’s been revealed of the current plan in public so far is vague beyond the idea of helping to “stabilize” the senior center’s operations and have the building available for other uses.

And, so far, a center official said negotiations with the county haven’t started.

The funds will come from American Rescue Plan Act funds. The county has received $12.5 million in ARPA funds and has set aside $1 million to help stabilize the county’s senior centers.

The board first discussed the plan regarding the spending of the ARPA funds on Dec. 21. Staff had reported there would be community input on the plan and how the money has been spent, but so far there haven’t been any of note.

What’s been revealed so far is that the Kelseyville Senior Center plan could end up taking the lion’s share of those ARPA funds set aside to target senior center needs countywide.

Despite the numerous unknowns, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously in August to appoint a negotiating team for the county consisting of County Administrative Officer Susan Parker and Assistant County Administrative Officer Stephen Carter.

That’s ahead of being able to answer critical questions about how the property would be operated.

As for the county’s due diligence on the plan, Parker revealed little of it at the Aug. 9 board meeting beyond simply identifying the building’s current owner as the Kelseyville Seniors.

No other specifics of the plan were offered then or, more recently, during the county’s late September budget hearings.

In response to a question from Lake County News at the August meeting about who would operate the building, Pyska said the county would operate it after the morning use by the seniors, who would get to rent it from the county for continued use.

When asked by Lake County News about the estimated cost to run the facility on an annual basis, Parker said they didn’t know.

Pyska said she has spoken to the center board and the Area Agency on Aging about the proposal.

“It’s an aging building,” she said, noting it’s difficult for the nonprofit Kelseyville Seniors group to manage the repairs and maintenance.

Pyska said it could be used as a community center, explaining that Kelseyville doesn’t have a community center or a library, and it could also be used as an outpost library now that the county also has a new bookmobile coming.

She said there’s a need for Kelseyville, and the plan is for the county to purchase the building and operate it.

“This is an investment that we want to make in our senior centers and into our seniors,” she said, noting the Kelseyville Seniors group is struggling to keep up with deferred maintenance.

The board followed up at that meeting by voting unanimously to move forward with negotiations and holding a closed session discussion with county negotiators, from which there was no reportable action.

Lorna Sue Sides is the Kelseyville Senior Center’s executive director, as well as a leader of the Citizens for Healing, the group advocating for changing the name of Kelseyville to “Konocti,” and wants to put an initiative on the March 2024 presidential primary ballot to do it.

Sides told Lake County News that Pyska approached them in the summer of 2021 with a proposal for the county to purchase its buildings with ARPA funds with plans to keep the senior center operational, increasing the footprint of the building and adding library/community space.

While Pyska’s public statements painted a picture of a struggling senior center, Sides told Lake County News that the group is stable.

“We don’t need to do this. We’re solid,” she said, standing in the dining room of the center on a summer Monday, as about a dozen people were having lunch.

Sides said Kelseyville Seniors Inc. is fully solvent and its buildings are in good condition.

Lake County News posed several additional questions to the county following the board’s August approval about what information it had about the center’s financial status and the history of the building.

In response, the County Administrative Office said it was just beginning the process and that the county would request financials and other documentation soon.

At the same time, the county’s response to the questions indicated that county officials were not aware of how the building was acquired by its current owners.

History of the property

County property and historical records show that the building at 5245 Third St. that now houses the Kelseyville Senior Center/Event Center was built in 1965 and it is about 2,150 square feet on a lot that measures 0.16 of an acre.

The property began to house the Kelseyville Post Office the following year, where it remained until Jan. 27, 2002. The building was privately owned and leased to the Postal Service.

The U.S. Postal Service built a new Post Office at 5500 Gaddy Lane, which was first occupied in August 2001, said Evelina Ramirez, a Postal Service spokesperson.

Ramirez said the lease for the building on Third Street was terminated on April 27, 2002.

Both Retired County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox and retired District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown confirmed to Lake County News that the county helped the Kelseyville Seniors group purchase the building.

In the 2001-02 fiscal year budget, the county of Lake had reserved money to purchase and renovate the building. In May of 2002, the Board of Supervisors voted to allocate $200,000 — $165,000 to purchase the building and $35,000 for renovations — to the project.

Escrow closed on the building on July 23, 2002. A front-page story on July 27, 2002, in the Lake County Record-Bee explained how the building was purchased with the aid of the county of Lake.

Similarly, county records show the property’s ownership history. The grant deed for the sale listed the estate of Thomas Joseph Weiner as the seller and Kelseyville Seniors Inc. as the buyer.

However, there also was a second document recorded at that time, a short form deed of trust and security agreement for the county grant which had made the purchase by the seniors group possible in the first place.

At the time of the August board meeting, county officials appeared to be unaware of that document — or the previous part the county had to play in buying the building 20 years ago — in their responses to Lake County News. Cox said at that time he also had communicated with county officials after seeing the article Lake County News published about the board’s planned discussion on the building purchase.

Rob Brown told Lake County News that he approached Congressman Mike Thompson about funds to assist the center before the 2002 purchase.

At the Board of Supervisors’ meeting on April 13, 2004, Thompson gave the board an update on federal and local issues, and presented a check in the amount of $89,415 for the construction of a new kitchen at the Kelseyville Senior Center to Gene Kyle, according to board minutes.

Separately, a book printed by the Government Accounting Office on appropriations for the federal 2003 budget confirmed that funding, rounding it up to $90,000, and stating that it was to be used “for renovations of a facility into a senior center.”

Lake County News spoke with Marilyn Westfall, who was president of the senior center board at the time of the building’s purchase and initial renovation but is no longer involved.

“We need a place of our own,” she said, which was the impetus for pursuing the project.

Westfall was unable to recall specifics of when certain improvements were made.

However, she said she and her husband and other volunteers did a great deal of the initial renovation work, including removing the old floors due to the asbestos in them.

Her husband did the cabinetry and they painted the building. The renovations were completed within a couple of years, she said.

The 2007-08 Lake County Grand Jury Report completed an oversight report on the center “to determine if best practices in regards to bookkeeping and financial policies were being followed.”

At that time, the report said the center had a new kitchen but that it served no congregate — or in-house meals — and Meals on Wheels programs for this area were provided by the Lakeport Senior Center, which is still the case.

The report said the county of Lake contributed $2,000 that current fiscal year to the center’s operations, which were estimated to cost $10,000 annually.

The grand jury also found issues with the center’s financial procedures, and said there was no evidence at that point of a current Federal 990 filing or state filings.

“The center’s operations are more similar to a social club rather than a full-service senior center,” the report said.

Later center officials sought to remedy that. In August 2010, the center submitted to the IRS three years of Form 990-EZ filings — for 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Those reports were filed by Judy Cardinale, who was treasurer for 10 years, from about 2008 to 2018.

She said that before her tenure, the center had failed to submit the IRS filings and was in danger of losing its nonprofit status.

Cardinale told Lake County News that the major renovations to the center were done by the time she joined the center’s leadership, although she believed the kitchen renovations were done sometime around 2005.

“I had to reconstruct all the records,” she said.

The center’s federal tax filings that Cardinale helped put together give an idea of when the main spending occurred. For 2004, the filings indicated that approximately $77,002 was spent to “renovate and maintain” the building. In 2005, the center reported renovation and maintenance costs totaled $19,183, and in 2006 those costs were at $8,840.

More recently, Cardinale said the new laminate floors were installed and the interior painted before she left the center’s board.

The center today

Sides said they are used to running the center on a very small budget, but declined to give specifics due to pending negotiations.

The center has no paid staff. Sides said all work is done by volunteers and individuals who are part of the Ability Road skills training program. There also is a volunteer handyman.

They do not pay property taxes, and most of the supplies they use are donated by board members.

She said they do pay a bookkeeper for services, utilities and insurance.

The board has grown in recent months, with members now numbering five, she said.

Estimated costs to run the center for the 2021-22 fiscal year are just under $10,000, meaning that the center’s frugal management has kept its annual expenses close to what the grand jury estimated 15 years ago.

Sides said they have no intention of curtailing any of senior-centered activities if the center is sold.

The center lost about $2,000 since the beginning of the pandemic, Sides said. “Most of our income comes from rentals, so we were impacted, but I feel we sailed through the lean times due to our very low overhead and a small COVID grant.”

Over the summer the center had a couple of unexpected gifts from the Kelseyville business community and their rentals are starting to pick up, Sides said.

“I do want to go on record stating that our buildings are in good condition and KSI [Kelseyville Seniors Inc.] is fiscally sound,” she said.

The Kelseyville Senior Center still doesn’t use its kitchen to cook congregate meals for the seniors that use its services. Rather, it serves meals provided by the Lakeport Senior Center.

The Lake Family Resource Center, or LFRC, has overseen the Lakeport Senior Center since July 2020.

Lisa Morrow, executive director of both LFRC and the Lakeport Senior Center, said there is an informal agreement between the two centers.

Morrow explained that the Lakeport Senior Center holds the contract from the Area Agency on Aging to provide nutrition services to its entire service area, which includes Kelseyville, and under that contract has a meal count that it is contractually required to provide.

She said they bring hot food to the Kelseyville Senior Center so they can serve their clients there. Kelseyville does not have to pay for the service.

“We’re delivering meals to them, hot food to them, Monday through Thursday,” Morrow said.

During a late summer visit to the center, this reporter counted about a dozen people having lunch at a time, with people cycling in and out.

Sides estimated that they serve between 10 and 22 diners at their lunches five days a week.

Morrow said they used to also provide meals on Fridays, but they’ve had to cut back to four days a week due to staffing and volunteer shortages.

As a result, Kelseyville Senior Center has been seeking out food from local restaurants and caterers to fill that gap on Fridays. Over the summer, Sides said the Kelseyville Business Association had begun to step up to help find food donations for the Friday meals.

The issue has continued into the fall, with Sides noting the center held a meeting in October to discuss it. “We are going to continue to cobble together Friday lunches,” she said. “But we are working on something more stable and hope to have a solid plan by the first of the year. Looking for sponsors offering cash, prepared meals, groceries, or labor. We do have some solid commitments. Asking for quarterly donations, but one time donations will be graciously accepted.”

In addition to meals, Side said the center has a card day and an art afternoon, and they hope to be able to resume their Tai Chi program soon.

Minor upgrades have been made to the building, including new commercial grade laminate flooring that was installed within the last several years.

The kitchen is small but sinks and counters from the upgrade more than a decade ago appear in very good shape. Sides said they would expect to get new appliances if the county purchases the building.

Today, in addition to the original building, there is a small modular building that sits behind it along with a storage area that, altogether, is about 800 square feet.

Sides said the proposal she’s discussed with the county would include removing the modular and extending the original building back to the property boundary and over the area that now includes several parking spaces.

Based on those initial discussions with the county, Sides said the figure suggested for the building’s purchase was around $200,000, with the county anticipating that it would spend $500,000 to expand the building’s footprint.

She said she and the rest of her board are open to negotiating with the county regarding the sale of the center’s buildings.

Sides said she will be involved in negotiations and hopes to have two other board members present.

“Our final decision will be based on what we feel would best serve the senior population of Kelseyville, both now and into the future,” she said.

Asked in the weeks after the initial discussion about that total figure of $700,000 for purchase and renovation reported by Sides, Deputy County Administrative Officer Matthew Rothstein told Lake County News in an email, “It is quite premature to assume any terms are final. County staff have identified potentially-qualifying expenditures in support of Lake County’s other Senior Centers, and we look forward to partnering with those Centers’ operators to determine what County investments are most appropriate soon. Nothing is appropriate to announce at this time.”

However, by the time the county’s final budget hearings rolled around in late September, that $700,000 figure was listed in the capital expenditure projects.

County plan appears to be moving forward

Following the approval of the $353,392,512 county budget on Sept. 22, Rothstein confirmed to Lake County News that the $700,000 budget figure included for the senior center project “is inclusive of any negotiated purchase price and renovations.”

He added, “However, this is only a set-aside at this point; due diligence is still being conducted, and those findings will inform the course ultimately taken.”

As for whether library services might be offered there, no plans there have been introduced publicly.

County Librarian Christopher Veach told Lake County News, “I have been included in discussions with Supervisor Pyska and the County Administration office about the possibility of providing library services at the Kelseyville Senior Center but have nothing new to share at this time.”

As of this week, negotiations between the senior center board and the county still haven’t started. However, Sides said there are aspects of work that have been taking place since the board appointed the negotiating team.

That work includes an assessment of the building and an inspection conducted by county staff. The county then hired an out-of-county company to do another inspection at the end of August, Sides said.

Sides said the county has a contractor doing a bid on the necessary repairs and that the county was waiting on that bid, or estimate.

“I think the negotiations will start after this last report comes in,” Sides said. “Everyone has commented that the buildings has good bones.”

Last week, Lake County News asked Pyska about the status of the project, at which point she said in an email that the county was still conducting due diligence and “it will come back to the Board at a later time.”

Lake County News also asked if she was aware that the county of Lake in 2002 had provided the funds for the Kelseyville Seniors to purchase the building and renovate, and if there been any alternate consideration of simply asking the group to allow the county to use the building and cover utilities rather than be paid money for a building they didn't purchase on their own in the first place.

Pyska referred those questions to Parker, who she said had been conducting the due diligence.

“Yes, we are aware of the funding provided as it appears on the preliminary title search,” Parker said in an email. “We will be reviewing all options to provide to the BOS for consideration.”

Editor’s note: The story has been corrected to state that rather than all work being done at the Kelseyville Senior Center by “one volunteer,” it is done by volunteers, plural, along with assistance from the Ability Road skills training program.

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.