Dr. James L.J. Houpis. Courtesy photo. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — On Thursday, the Yuba Community College District Governing Board appointed an interim chancellor after the departure of Dr. Douglas B. Houston.
After a nationwide search, the governing board appointed Dr. James L.J. Houpis to serve as interim chancellor beginning July 1, and continuing through June 30, 2022, as the recruitment for a permanent chancellor is conducted through the academic year.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Houpis to our Yuba Community College family,” said Board President Susan Alves, “Dr. Houpis brings a wealth of experience in student-centered leadership, innovation, and equity, that will best serve our faculty, staff, administration, and especially students. Dr. Houpis’ guidance and focus on clear communication, community building, and transparency will be instrumental as we move forward in our selection of a permanent chancellor.”
“I am excited about returning to the North State and joining such an outstanding community college district, and developing relationships and working with committed colleagues, faculty, staff, students and community members toward common goals,” said Dr. Houpis. “I am looking forward to returning to the North State and serving the community in reaching their educational goals.”
Dr. Houpis received his bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences and his doctorate in forest science from University of California Berkeley, his master’s degree in biology from San Diego State University.
He was an environmental scientist and project leader in the Health and Ecological Sciences Division for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory conducting and publishing research in the areas of climate change and air pollution.
Dr. Houpis also served as the dean of Natural Science at California State University, Chico from 2001 to 2010 where he launched the Gateway Science Museum, initiated reform in general education science courses, and doubled the number of science majors.
Dr. Houpis served as the provost and vice president of academic affairs, and professor of earth and environmental sciences at California State University East Bay from 2010 to 2015.
Under his leadership, CSU East Bay’s enrollment expanded to record highs, primarily drawing on students from underrepresented populations.
The campus also instituted expanded peer mentoring, established, and expanded advising in all colleges, developed, and initiated cultural and cohort-based programs, expanded community engagement (from 70,000 hours to 300,000 hours), and expanded co-curriculum and high impact programs across all levels of instruction. As a result, CSU East Bay’s first-year retention increased annually, and the second-year retention was at a 10-year high.
Dr. Houpis served as the president of Modesto Junior College from 2019 to 2021. As president, he established the College’s Online Campus, the Institute for Applied Creativity, and Community Transformation (for college-wide professional development), began MIT’s invention education program in partnership with local high schools, and expanded a zero-textbook cost program.
Throughout his career, Dr. Houpis has been a strong advocate of sustainability, social justice and diversity, and their connections. He has also been dedicated to serving and advancing the needs of students from underrepresented populations receiving several awards for his continued efforts on behalf of Latino students and exemplary service to students through modeling shared governance.
Yuba Community College District spans eight counties. Yuba College and Woodland Community College, offer degrees, certificates, and transfer curricula at college campuses in Marysville and Woodland, educational centers in Clearlake and Yuba City, and through outreach operations in Williams.
The two colleges in Yolo County and Yuba County and the campuses in Clearlake, and Colusa and Sutter counties, serve 13,000 students across the northern Sacramento Valley.
The Summer Reading Display at the Lakeport Branch of the Lake County Library in Lakeport, California. Courtesy photo. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County Library's annual Summer Reading Challenge begins Saturday, June 12.
By signing up for summer reading with the library, children, teens and adults will have the opportunity to win various prizes, including stickers, small toys, a Samsung tablet or gift cards to local businesses.
Participating in the library program is a fun way for residents to challenge themselves to read more over the summer.
For students, reading over summer break can prevent summer learning loss and help them start the next school year out on the right page.
The library has programs for pre-K, kids, teens and adults. Children who can't quite read on their own can still sign up and parents can record the books that they read together.
Once sign-ups start on June 12 residents can register on the Library's summer reading website. Registration is open at any time until summer reading ends on Aug. 29.
Residents don't have to go online. They can also register and take part by visiting their local branch. All library branches have been open to the public since late March.
Once registered, participants can start reading books and get points by logging their reading, either online or by visiting the library. All reading counts, including eBooks, print books, audiobooks, comics, or whatever participants like to check out from the library and read.
Reading is its own reward, but the library offers prizes to make summer reading more fun. There will be prize drawings throughout the summer. The more points participants earn the greater chance they have to win. The Friends of the Lake County Library, a community nonprofit membership organization, provides all the prizes.
Once participants read enough to earn 1,000 points the Friends of the Lake County Library will donate a book to the library in their name. The book will have their name inside commemorating their reading achievement and they will be the first person to check it out.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — Clearlake Animal Control has five dogs waiting for their new homes this week.
The following dogs are ready for adoption or foster. The newest dog is listed at the beginning of the list.
“Bear.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Bear’
“Bear” is a male American Staffordshire terrier mix with a short brown coat.
He has been neutered.
He is dog No. 3476.
“Cleo.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Cleo’
“Cleo” is a female Doberman pinscher mix with a short gray coat who is new to the shelter.
She has been spayed.
She is dog No. 4865.
“Dusty.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Dusty’
“Dusty” is a male American Pit Bull Terrier with a tan and white coat.
He is dog No. 4750.
“Sassy.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Sassy’
“Sassy” is a female Labrador retriever and pit bull mix with a short black with white markings.
She is house-trained.
She is dog No. 4602.
“Toby.” Photo courtesy of Clearlake Animal Control. ‘Toby’
“Toby” is a friendly senior male boxer mix.
He has a short tan and white coat.
Toby is house trained and neutered.
He is dog No. 4389.
Call the Clearlake Animal Control shelter at 707-273-9440, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to inquire about adoptions and schedule a visit to the shelter.
Visit Clearlake Animal Control on Facebook or on the city’s website.
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. — The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said it is investigating another death related to Clear Lake that occurred over the weekend.
Lt. Corey Paulich said 60-year-old Efrain Antonio Menjivar of Martinez went missing while swimming on Saturday near Clearlake Oaks.
At 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Menjivar was swimming approximately 30 to 40 yards offshore near Harvey Boulevard when he went under and could not be located, Paulich said.
Menjivar’s body was located at 6 a.m. Wednesday near the shoreline in the area of Island Drive in Clearlake Oaks, Paulich said.
Paulich said an autopsy is scheduled for Friday.
Menjivar’s death is the third water-related death from the weekend, all of them from incidents that occurred offshore of Clearlake Oaks.
Early Saturday, a boating accident offshore of Island Drive led to the deaths of Webster Medley III, 51, and Novia Walton, 50, of Fresno, as Lake County News has reported.
The newly engaged couple had been out with Medley’s family on the lake when the boat began to take on water and capsized.
Medley attempted to save Walton and disappeared, while Walton was taken to an out-of-county hospital and died on Saturday night. Medley’s body was found on Sunday morning.
The sheriff’s Marine Patrol is conducting additional follow-up, including an examination of Medley’s boat.
As of Thursday, the agency had not released any updates on the investigation into the fatal boating accident.
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.
Gehlen Palmer. Courtesy photo. MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — Gehlen Palmer, longtime resident and former Middletown librarian, is this year’s Middletown Days Pioneer award recipient.
Palmer will be featured at the Middletown Days Parade this year which starts at 10 a.m. Saturday, June 19. He will also be honored for his contributions to the community with a plaque, immediately following the parade, at the celebration near the arena at Central Park.
Palmer didn’t set out to be a librarian, he originally wanted to go into science, but, “Math,” he says, “was the issue.”
Born in 1947 in San Francisco, his formative years were spent around his father’s family who were readers and former teachers. He recalls driving his grandmother nuts by asking her to read “Ferdinand,” and Dr. Seuss’s “Bartholomew and the Oobleck” over and over again.
The family moved to Middletown in June of 1953, right after he finished kindergarten. His mom, Dorothy Rees, was a housewife and charter member of the Lioness Club. His father, Reis “Finney” Palmer, was a charter member of the Lion’s Club. He was also the milk man and owned the Golden State Foremost Dairy which is now known as Clover Dairy.
Palmer attended Middletown Elementary which at the time was located on Highway 175 and Middletown High back when the middle school and high school were still one.
His favorite teacher was Dave Robertson, the English teacher. They talked about books. The high school had just gotten a new library on campus. Palmer recalls typing up the check out cards during study hall.
After graduating high school in 1965, he headed to Humboldt State to study liberal arts. Then in 1967, in order to avoid being drafted and having to go to Vietnam, he joined the Coast Guard.
He was eventually sent to Indianapolis where he attended the Defense Department Journalism School. His last duty station was Governors Island in the middle of New York Harbor where the USO would give servicemen free tickets to Broadway shows. He ended his time with the Coast Guard five years later as an E5 Second Class Journalist.
Next, he headed off to Tampa and General Telephone and Electronics Services where he was a technical writer for two years before heading back to California, specifically, Monterey.
In 1975 he began what he calls “working in the book business.” He was a book clerk at the Navy Exchange bookstore at the Naval Postgraduate school by day and worked for the Pacifica Grove Public Library in the evening.
One day, he saw an ad for a bookstore manager in Astoria, Oregon and he packed up and moved. He held that job for the next three years before deciding to run his own bookstore. He had the store for 11 years, but when his mother died in 1993 — his dad having passed in 1978 — he moved back to Middletown.
He gave himself six months to find a job. One day he went into the Middletown Library and overheard the librarian lamenting that she only had two days left, hadn’t received very many applications and, of those received, not many were qualified.
Palmer put in his application and three weeks later he was the new librarian. At that time, the position was considered extra help and only 15 hours a week.
The old Middletown Library used to be housed across the street from the current library in what is now the Gibson Museum. If you had ever visited before construction of the new library, you know just how crowded it eventually became. There were stacks and stacks of books behind the counter because there was nowhere else to put them.
In addition to his librarian duties, Palmer, the sole employee, also served as janitor and groundskeeper for many years. He says he enjoyed the position and there was lots of work to be done, so he stayed to do it.
In 2000, as part of a classification and compensation study by the county, he was rewarded for his efforts. He received the largest raise of anyone in the county based on all the jobs he was covering. His hours were also increased. He said that he gave himself a “small raise” and put the rest away for retirement.
That same year a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation allowed the library to offer public access computers. That resulted in a conversion of an empty room into a Children's Room. The responsibility was left to Palmer who partnered with the Lioness Club to fundraise and to paint it. They also helped with the forming of the Friends of the Library.
Even with all the upgrades, the Gibson building eventually became too small to meet the needs. Planning for the new library actually began back in 1997 under then-Supervisor Ed Robey. The request for proposal didn’t actually go out until around 2010. Palmer thinks it was under Supervisor Jim Comstock.
County Librarian Susan Clayton gave Palmer leeway to help plan the new building. Palmer also helped to relay requests from library patrons as to what they would like in the new building.
“That got us the donation of the Circulation Desk from Calpine (the reception desk in the Visitor's Center) and the transfer of custom shelving from the Gibson Children's Room to the new library,” he said.
Palmer credits many individuals with helping with planning.
In April of 2013, the efforts of so many came to fruition and the new library was opened. Palmer got to enjoy the new building until he retired in November of 2018.
It should be noted that when he retired the position was still not full-time at just 30 hours a week, which, he says, gave him more time at home and to do the things he wanted to do.
These days, he still has lots to do around his house as he is one of the folks who lost his home in the Valley fire. He is enjoying his retirement and his new home, especially the back porch which has a great view of Cobb Mountain. He calls the porch a “terrible distraction.”
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Public Health staff updated the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday about the latest developments with COVID-19, including case and testing rates, and efforts to include vaccine coverage.
Acting Public Health Officer Dr. Evan Bloom and epidemiologist Sarah Marikos joined the board via Zoom.
“The short of it is that things remain the same,” said Bloom, noting case rates are low at 3.3 per 100,000 people, with testing positivity of 2.5 percent
“There have been some upticks in cases around Northern California,” Bloom noted.
“We are seeing some indications of possible mild upticks within Lake County, however, that remains to be seen with our numbers,” he added.
Bloom said vaccination coverage rates also remain the same.
Marikos said testing is declining statewide, with an overall test positivity rate of 0.8% and the daily case rate at 2 cases per 100,000 people.
She said the state was set to release its updated tier metrics on the Blueprint for a Safer Economy later that day, with Lake County to remain in the orange tier, indicating moderate transmission. She said that ranking is based on data from May 23 to 29.
Lake is among 35 counties in the orange tier this week, with 19 in the yellow, or minimal transmission, tier and three in the red, or substantial transmission, tier. There are none in the widespread, or purple tier, according to the state’s blueprint website.
Marikos said the state will be running the blueprint for the last time next week as it’s planning to sunset the framework on June 15.
She said Lake County’s overall case rate has been really stable since mid-April, with the number of cases ranging from 12 to 24 per week.
Testing is declining slightly in Lake County and also is declining statewide, said Marikos. Compared to a lot of other rural counties, Lake County is doing a good job of testing people and keeping the testing rate up, she added.
Over the last two week, about 950 county residents were newly vaccinated. Marikos said 53% of Lake County residents age 12 and older are now fully or partially vaccinated, compared to 66% of Californians.
Marikos offered the following vaccination breakdowns by age group: 8% of those in the 12 to 17 age group are vaccinated; 37% of those ages 18 to 49; 67%, ages 60 to 64; and 61%, age 65 and older.
With vaccinations slowing, the disparity between Lake County’s numbers and state is growing, because the state is vaccinating at a higher pace, Marikos said.
Speaking to the sunsetting of the blueprint framework, Bloom said, “Although the restrictions for businesses are going away, and that we are all happy that they are going away, the virus is not going away. The virus is still here, which is why vaccination is important.”
He said the virus comes in waves, and its impact differs in times of the year and seasons, which is why he encouraged people to get the vaccine.
Public Health is concerned that the vaccination rate and coverage is slowing, particularly in the 65-plus and 18 to 49 age ranges, he said.
“Vaccination is still important because we have not reached a level where we would feel that we could avoid a significant surge based on vaccine coverage of the county,” he said.
He encouraged people to continue to take precautions after the tiers go away on June 15, including wearing a mask if necessary and continuing to use social distancing, including in large groups.
There were some big community events recently where masking and social distancing didn’t take place, and he said Public Health is starting to see some cases from people who attended those events. That leads them to be concerned about more upcoming events, like July 4.
“The virus is still with us, unfortunately, so use your common sense,” Bloom said.
All of the vaccines are available throughout Lake County, with Bloom noting that Public Health is working on a number of different fronts to try to increase vaccination coverage incrementally.
Bloom said Public Health is working with school boards and will soon be starting clinics for children and families that will rotate throughout Lake County’s school districts.
They also are working with Behavioral Health, Medicare and Medicaid providers, and Public Health has applied for support from the state for mobile vaccination teams, he said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — The Lake County jobless rate was down slightly in April, while the state rate remained unchanged.
Lake County’s unemployment rate for April was 7.6 percent, down from 7.9 percent in March, according to the California Employment Development Department.
Statewide, unemployment held steady at 8.3 percent for the second month.
In April 2020, Lake County’s unemployment rate — as well as the statewide rate, were both 16 percent.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the nationwide unemployment rate in April was 6.1 percent, compared to 6 percent in March and 14.8 percent in April 2020.
In Lake County in April, total nonfarm jobs increased by 1.2 percent while the total farm jobs industry was down, -11.8 percent, over the previous month.
Total nonfarm job subcategories that showed the largest growth compared to March included transportation, warehousing and utilities, 30.5 percent; state government, 11.8 percent; mining, logging and construction, 10.1 percent; trade, transportation and utilities, 5.4 percent; and goods producing, 5.2 percent.
The five subcategories with the largest declines were information, -11.1 percent; wholesale trade, -10 percent; nondurable goods, -6.9 percent; government, -6.2 percent; and manufacturing, -5.6 percent.
Lake County was ranked No. 33 out of California’s 58 counties in this latest jobless report.
Neighboring county jobless rates and ranks for April are: Colusa, 13 percent, No. 57; Glenn, 6.9 percent, No. 25; Mendocino, 6.5 percent, No. 20; Napa, 6.3 percent, No. 17; Sonoma, 5.7 percent, No. 7; and Yolo, 6 percent, No. 11.
Marin had the lowest unemployment, 4.6 percent, while Imperial County’s 16.1 percent ranked it No. 58.
The state employment picture
California payroll jobs totaled 16,248,200 in April 2021, up by 101,800 from March 2021 and up by 1,302,100 from April 2020, the report said.
California’s April job gain accounts for 38 percent of the national gain of 266,000 jobs.
From February through April, the Employment Development Department said California added 390,300 total nonfarm payroll jobs, marking the state’s third consecutive month of gains over 100,000 jobs.
Seven of California’s 11 industry sectors gained jobs in April. Leisure and hospitality (+62,800) continued to have the state’s largest month-over increase thanks in large part to full-service restaurants. Professional and business services (+19,000) also posted a large gain thanks to strength in professional, scientific, and technical services, as did other services (+10,500) with an increase in personal care services.
Leisure and hospitality and other services, the hardest hit sectors during the pandemic, combined for nearly two-thirds of California’s job gains over the past three months.
Information (-3,500) saw the largest month-over industry sector loss, largely due to a decrease in software publishers.
The number of jobs in the agriculture industry decreased by 8,000 from March 2021 to 413,900 jobs in April. The agricultural industry had 44,700 more farm jobs in April 2021 than it did the April prior.
The Employment Development Department said there were 579,498 people certifying for Unemployment Insurance benefits during the April sample week. That compares to 680,279 people in March and 1,889,250 people in April 2020.
Concurrently, 78,640 initial claims were processed in the April 2021 sample week, which was a month-over decrease of 17,572 claims from March and a year-over decrease of 246,876 claims from April 2020, the state reported.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
As President Joe Biden and Senate Republicans grapple with determining the cost and layout of a new infrastructure plan, experts that AccuWeather spoke with explained how both a lack of upkeep as well as upward trends in damaging weather have accumulated into an "infrastructure crisis."
Dr. Marccus Hendricks told AccuWeather in an interview that the current infrastructure crisis the U.S. is facing stems mostly from prioritizing new infrastructure and focusing on initial construction and installation without attention to maintenance and management over the lifecycle of these assets.
Hendricks is an assistant professor of urban studies and planning and the director of the stormwater infrastructure resilience and justice lab at the University of Maryland.
"We've allowed these systems to drop below a condition where we can fiscally save money by doing more incremental investments to maintain these assets," he said, explaining that it now requires a large investment to repair these systems in a way that meets the needs of the community.
Like a compromised support beam, the neglect of the systems over the decades has set the stage for pending catastrophes as damaging weather hits the communities.
"The crisis has been in the making in terms of every single day with every car passing on a road, with every storm event requiring systems to manage stormwater runoff," Hendricks said.
Dr. Marccus Hendricks is an assistant professor of urban studies and planning and the director of the stormwater infrastructure resilience and justice lab at the University of Maryland. Photo courtesy of AccuWeather.
What's crumbling beneath our feet
It's long been acknowledged that a warming atmosphere and ocean have contributed to stronger, more intense natural disasters such as hurricanes, but the changing climate has also had its impact on the more mundane weather events. And as the more common weather events, such as a simple rainfall, grows, the more it outgrows and strains the infrastructure designed for a past age and climate.
"Our stormwater systems as they're currently installed and designed will require complete overhaul in terms of being able to address the needs of these wet weather events in light of climate change," Hendricks said.
As the climate changes and warms, more water evaporates. For every 1 degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature, the atmosphere can hold around 4% more water vapor, leading to heavier rain and increased risk of flooding of rivers and streams, according to Climate Central.
Since the 1950s, the wettest day of the year has grown wetter in 79% of the 244 cities analyzed by Climate Central in a research brief from 2019. In addition to this, even though 78% of the cities analyzed have data dating back at least a century, 35% of them have set rainfall records since 1990.
"One of the things that we've noticed, as it relates to flooding anyways, is especially in the last, let's say, 20 to 30 years or so, is that we've seen flood risk increasingly get worse in the country," Chad Berginnis, the executive director of the Association of State Floodplain Managers, told AccuWeather.
Some communities, however, are facing a disproportionate threat of flood risk. In March 2021, an analysis of 38 major cities by the real estate brokerage Redfin found that once-redlined neighborhoods with a large population of people of color were at a greater danger of flooding caused by climate change, Reuters reported.
"Redlining" refers to a practice, common from the 1930s into the late 1960s, in which mortgage lenders refused loans in parts of the cities with mainly large minority populations. The mortgage lenders would carve up the map in red, hence the name. As a result, the practice reduced the opportunities to own homes and investments in those areas.
The analysis found that of the cities analyzed, there are $107 billion worth of homes in formerly redlined areas at high flood risk compared to $85 billion worth of homes in areas marked green as best for loans, providing a glimpse at how redlining, while now illegal, had lasting consequences on today's generations.
"Communities of color have always faced issues of elevated risk, Hendricks said, "whether it's the sighting of land areas that were set aside for them to develop their communities and those areas usually being lower-lying areas or flood plains where no one else wanted to live or even thinking about the ways in which redlining was formally incorporated within municipalities to sequester and segregate certain communities and to be able to dictate which communities receive services and had the opportunity to own or buy housing."
"When you look at those [redlining] maps, they look strikingly similar to high flood risk [maps]," Redfin Senior Economist Sheharyar Bokhari, a co-author of the study, told Reuters.
Ironically, several fair housing organizations accused Redfin of systematic racial discrimination in a lawsuit during 2020, saying the online company offered fewer services to homebuyers and sellers in minority communities in a type of digital redlining, The Associated Press reported.
Hendricks added that civil rights, social justice and environmental injustice across the country are connected to "what we're contemporarily seeing as well as what we've historically seen in terms of disenfranchisement and marginalized communities being underserved or unserved all together."
Carolyn Kousky, the executive director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Process Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Photo courtesy of AccuWeather. How much are these events costing us?
With an increase in damaging weather events, it's only natural to see an increase in costs alongside them.
From 1980 into 2021, the U.S. has sustained 291 weather and climate disasters where the overall cost of damages reached or exceeded $1 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Over the 41 years, these disasters have claimed the lives of more than 14,000 people and have racked up a price tag in excess of $1.9 trillion.
According to the NOAA data, the number of those events has increased each decade from 1980 through 2019.
The year 2020 was no less destructive. Hurricane Laura damaged the coastal area of southern Louisiana, broke water systems and severely damaged the area's electric grid; a record-breaking wildfire season scorched more than 10.2 million acres across the American West and destroyed several towns in California, Oregon and Washington; and storms and severe flooding along the shoreline of Lake Michigan in January caused significant damage to roads, homes and Port Milwaukee.
As Americans dealt with not only a global pandemic, but possibly even job loss and financial strain, 2020 generated a record-breaking 22 billion-dollar events, claiming 262 lives and costing $96.4 billion in damage. It shattered the previous annual record of 16 disaster events that occurred both in 2011 and 2017.
Carolyn Kousky, the executive director of the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Process Center at the University of Pennsylvania, told AccuWeather in an interview that low- and moderate-income households and communities typically struggle with access to resources for rebuilding efforts following disasters, despite the allocation of disaster aid.
"There's a common misperception that for big disaster events you can rely on federal disaster," Kousky said. But disaster aid is instead extremely limited and is often delayed in reaching households, she added, creating a recovery gap for lower-income households and communities after the disaster.
On the other hand, she added, there are localized events, such as intense rainfall, that are worsening with climate change that can cause flooding, but the disaster may be limited to just be one small community and neighborhood. Due to the small scale, it doesn't rise to the level that would enable the community to qualify for federal resources. But even the federal funding, such as grants from FEMA in the wake of the larger disasters, only goes so far.
The federal grants aren't designed to bring homes back to pre-disaster conditions. Instead, they are intended to make homes safe and habitable again after a disaster, Kousky said.
Another form of federal aid comes from the big events when Congress decides to allocate money through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but it generally takes years before the money makes it into the pockets of the people impacted by the disaster.
"The challenge here, too, is that financial recovery really underpins all other aspects of recovery. So if you don't have the resources to make your home safe again and to get back into your home, then that causes all these negative sort of consequences," Kousky said.
For example, someone might have to divert funds from other important needs like health care to pay for keeping a home safe. The stress, she added, could also impact mental health.
As far as insurance goes, Kousky told AccuWeather that as climate disasters grow more severe, public policy over insuring losses from them may also change.
"As climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of many types of natural disasters, we're starting to see areas around the country where insurance becomes very difficult to get or extremely expensive," Kousky said, adding that they started to see signs of that kind of stress in California after the wildfires in 2017 and 2018.
Another example Kousky gave was that in general, the impact of sea levels on coastal area could rise through coastal flooding becoming more common.
"That's not a risk anymore," Kouksy said. "That's a certainty and we don't insure certainties, so this is going to start to be a problem in many parts of the country."
Building for tomorrow's weather
When planning for infrastructure to go up against floods, Berginnis suggests not designing it for today's weather, but for the flood conditions that might be realistic in the future, and Hendricks echoed his concerns.
"We can only expect for the intensity and frequency of wet weather and rainfall events to increase," Hendricks said. "With these increasing rainfall events, it adds a significant amount of pressure to existing systems."
However, Hendricks added that an additional challenge when planning ahead lies in the possibility that by the time the lengthy bureaucratic process is through, the designs that were developed for the systems and the costs associated with them may not be enough with the environment changing and atmospheric conditions evolving.
As far as managing insurance prices goes, Kousky suggests a tighter partnership between insurance, local-level building code and land-use decisions.
"What makes insurance cheaper and more available is lowering the risk, and so it really comes back to changing how we're living in high-risk areas, and that is a much harder conversation to have with people," Kousky said.
In addition, Hendricks added that part of the answer of how to build for the future lies not only in climate adaptation, but also climate resilience -- and making sure no communities fall behind in the process.
"If we don't provide an opportunity for just transitions, allowing for communities of color [and] low-income communities to be able to take advantage of some of these emerging technologies and green infrastructures and low-impact development, then essentially we perpetuate the same inequalities that we've seen historically and we leave communities behind," Hendricks said. "As some communities get greener, healthier or resilient, communities that have been historically overburdened and again underserved will be left behind and still burdened with antiquated systems of the past."
He went on to say that a vulnerable segment of a system anywhere makes the entire system more vulnerable.
"As cliché as it may sound, when it comes to infrastructure systems, we are quite literally only as strong as our weakest link," Hendricks said. "In order for us all to be resilient, we have to serve those vulnerable and underserved aspects of the system first."
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Problems with the environmental document for a major cannabis operation to be located next to Hidden Valley Lake led the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to grant an appeal of the planning commission’s decision to give the project a major use permit.
However, in granting the appeal of the We Grow LLC project permit filed by concerned neighbors, the board said it was doing so without prejudice.
That will allow owner Zarina Otchkova the chance to resubmit the proposal, which her consultant indicated she planned to do.
In early 2020, Otchkova purchased 309 acres at 16750 Herrington Road, 17610 Sandy Road and 19678 Stinson Road in Middletown.
She went to the Lake County Planning Commission in April and received a vote of approval for a major use permit for a project that includes nine acres of cultivation, 35 greenhouses, four 50-foot by 100-foot drying buildings, a 200-square-foot shed, four 2,500-gallon water tanks and fencing, as Lake County News has reported.
By the following week, an appeal had been filed by a group of neighbors, some of them on hand for the board meeting on Tuesday morning.
However, while the appellants and their supporters showed up with signs ready to protest, they were caught off guard by what happened next.
When the hearing began, Board Chair Bruno Sabatier gave the floor to Scott De Leon, the county’s Community Development, Water Resources and Public Works director.
“This is a very large project, and it’s certainly the subject of a great deal of public interest,” as evidenced by attendance at Tuesday’s hearing, said De Leon, who attended the meeting from his office via Zoom.
“We’ve been diligent in our evaluation of the appeal and the questions raised about the environmental analysis for this project,” he said.
Based on that review, Community Development was modifying its recommendations to the board because De Leon said staff had discovered “procedural errors” that have rendered the project’s initial environmental study defective.
As a result, De Leon said the project could not move forward as presented.
He explained that changes were made to the project during the review process and the potential impacts to the environment that could result from those changes were not considered.
Due to those factors, he said he and his staff recommended the board grant the appeal and deny the project without prejudice, a statement interrupted by applause from the socially distanced audience in the board chambers.
De Leon said they expected the applicant would reapply, which they have the right to do, and staff will make revisions to the environmental analysis for the modified site plan and in consideration of concerns raised by the public.
Sabatier asked County Counsel Anita Grant to explain the meaning of denial without prejudice.
Grant said that it will allow the reapplication without waiting a standard six months. She said the board was prevented from making their required finding for the project in order to grant or deny a permit because the California Environmental Quality Act — or CEQA — analysis was defective.
“You cannot rely upon it in order to make the decisions that you have to make,” she said of the analysis.
“It is not just a choice, it is effectively the only reasonable choice you can make, which is to grant the appeal and deny the use permit without prejudice,” Grant added.
She said that will allow the applicant to reapply and allow the department to take the necessary corrective action as to the CEQA analysis, which has to be done before either the planning commission can hear it or the board can move forward.
Community members outline concerns
The board moved forward with allowing comments from the concerned community members who were in attendance either in the board chambers or on Zoom.
Hidden Valley Lake resident Jim Ryan, who lives on Greenridge Road directly below the project, said the concerns will remain in a month or a year. He said the proximity of large commercial cannabis grows to major residential areas is what needs to be addressed.
“We don’t want it to be a continuing issue, but it may be,” he said, adding a main issue is water.
Ryan added the neighbors were all in shock about the property’s suggested use.
Dan Levine, who lives in the nearby Shadow Hills Subdivision, told the board, “The negative impacts from this project would have been very substantial and quite numerous.”
Like Ryan, Levine said the problems won’t go away once We Grow reapplies.
“Please don’t trade our environment and our quality of life for a few extra tax dollars,” Levine said.
Scott Nagelson, whose family owns the property adjacent to the We Grow site, said he was grateful for what transpired at the meeting.
“We’re not gonna go away. We will be back if they reapply. We are all adamant that this is not appropriate for our neighborhood,” he said.
Jesse Cude, a representative of the appellants and a Shadow Hills Subdivision resident, asked the board to uphold the appeal with prejudice and to refund the appeal fees — which county documents showed totaled $1,136.30 — because he said they shouldn’t have to pay for the mistakes of others.
He also asked them to stop allowing new permits for any growing — whether it be cannabis for winegrapes — due to the drought.
Sufyan Hamouda, We Grow’s consultant, offered brief comments during the meeting. He said they received an email from Community Development on Monday letting them know the department was changing its recommendation to the board on Tuesday due to procedural oversight and the CEQA document that was submitted for this project.
“We do agree with the staff’s new recommendations,” said Hamouda.
Hamouda said he’d spoken with his client and will work closely with Community Development to make sure the amended CEQA document is accurate for the proposed project, which he indicated they intended to pursue.
At one point, Sabatier responded to criticisms from speakers about the planning commission — including assertions that they didn’t care about the community — noting that the commissioners are shackled by the rules and regulations the board created.
Attending remotely, Bart Levenson spoke about how the planning commission had listened to solid testimony about concerns with We Grow’s plans but concluded with its members saying they had no reason to deny the project.
She said the old rules do not apply, considering issues with droughts and fires. If the commission is shackled by the rules, “It is urgent that those rules be reexamined. It’s not OK to just say, ‘The rules are the rules.’ Not anymore.”
Donna Mackiewicz, representing the Redbud Audubon Audubon Society, pointed to other deficiencies with the environmental study of the project.
She said not all of the land had been fully surveyed. The biological report said the property is home to only 10 species of bird. Yet, Mackiewicz said she walked the property perimeter for a few hours on Sunday and saw 40 bird species.
Shannon Williams told the board about the unpermitted activity that We Grow started the minute they bought the property, including construction and an illegal cannabis grow.
Both in her statements to the board on Tuesday and in a letter in the board packet, Williams outlined another concern relating to a potential conflict of interest with a planning commissioner. Although she did not name the commissioner in question, it was an apparent reference to District 4 Commissioner Christina Price, appointed by Supervisor Tina Scott.
Price is a real estate agent who works for the same brokerage that represented Otchkova when she bought the land last year, said Williams, who said she also is in real estate.
“I see a huge conflict of interest there,” Williams said.
Board takes action; chair raises issue of rule changes
As the board prepared to take action, Grant explained, “This is going to be a reapplication process. This isn’t just kicking it back to the planning commission.”
She said county staff will have the opportunity to have an accurate and sufficiently comprehensive CEQA analysis. For the use permit, she said certain findings have to be made relating to services such as water, streets and highways, and the general comfort and welfare of the neighborhood.
Sabatier said the board had no other decision other than to deny the permit without prejudice.
He suggested concerned community members speak to the supervisors should the county ordinance that allows such cannabis operations need to be changed. He said the ordinance took three years to craft and while it has had amendments, there has been no major revisions.
Sabatier said rural residential zoning, where agriculture operations are allowed, is one area where it’s starting to get sensitive for certain areas when it comes to cannabis operations.
“Let’s have that conversation and see where it goes,” he said.
Supervisor Moke Simon said establishing the new cannabis industry comes with challenges. “It is one portion of the economic development opportunities.”
At Simon’s request, Grant gave the wording of the motion, which was to grant the appeal on the basis that the CEQA analysis was defective and to deny the use permit without prejudice.
Simon offered that motion, with Supervisor Jessica Pyska seconding and the board voting 5-0.
The vote received a round of applause.
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. — The Board of Supervisors will meet Wednesday to hold its annual budget hearings.
The hearings will begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday, June 9, in the board chambers on the first floor of the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.
The meeting also can be accessed via one tap mobile at +16699006833,,95295773063#,,,,*570411#.
All interested members of the public that do not have internet access or a Mediacom cable subscription are encouraged to call 669-900-6833, and enter the Zoom meeting ID and pass code information above.
On Wednesday the board will hold a public hearing on the recommended 2021-22 fiscal year budget, along with position allocations and the consideration of authorization for department heads to proceed with purchasing selected capital assets before the adoption of the final recommended budget later this year.
County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson’s written report to the board notes that the fiscal year 2020-21 adopted budget was $322,362,410; the recommended budget for the new fiscal year is down by more than $15.3 million, for a total of $306,971,923.
Huchingson attributed the decrease to appropriation reductions in capital project funds.
Over the next two years, it’s expected Lake County will receive more than $12 million from the American Rescue Plan Act, Huchingson said.
Also on Wednesday, the supervisors — sitting as the Lake County Air Quality Management District Board of Directors — will consider the district’s 2021-22 final draft budget. That hearing is set to follow the main hearing.
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.
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — The Middletown Area Town Hall this week will host updates from the Lake Area Planning Council and Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
MATH will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, June 10, via Zoom. The meeting is open to the public.
To join the Zoom meeting click on this link; the meeting ID is 935 1671 5770. Call in at 888-788-0099.
At 7:10 p.m., the group will hear from the Lake Area Planning Council regarding the Regional Transportation Plan update, with a question and answer period to follow.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. will offer an update on its public safety power shut-offs and wildfire safety in an item scheduled for 7:40 p.m. There also will be time for community members to ask questions of the company’s representatives.
At 8:30 p.m., District 1 Supervisor Moke Simon will give MATH his monthly update.
AT 8:45 p.m., the group will discuss moving the meetings back to the in-person format.
The MATH Board includes Co-Chairs Rosemary Córdova and Monica Rosenthal, Secretary Lisa Kaplan, and Ken Gonzales and Paul Baker.
MATH — established by resolution of the Lake County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 12, 2006 — is a municipal advisory council serving the residents of Anderson Springs, Cobb, Coyote Valley (including Hidden Valley Lake), Long Valley and Middletown.
For more information email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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.
Tax Day has come and gone, and you think you filed your return in the nick of time. But several weeks later you receive that dreaded letter in the mail from the Internal Revenue Service informing you of missing the deadline and failing to pay your tax bill on time. Your assessed tax penalty, based on what you owe, is $450.
This type of scenario is quite common, since penalties are assessed for over 40 million taxpayers each year, according to the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel’s 2020 report. There are numerous IRS penalties, but the three most common ones are failure to file a return on time, failure to pay the estimated amount owed from the past year and failure to pay after filing.
What many people don’t know is that the IRS offers several ways to reduce late fees and other penalties. Yet only a fraction of those who are eligible take advantage of them.
As a professor of accounting and a consumer advocate, I tend to be concerned when I identify a benefit that has been underutilized. I also serve as a volunteer on the Taxpayer Advocacy Panel, an independent body that aims to help the IRS improve based on outreach and feedback from the general public.
We recently discussed the low utilization of a key penalty relief program, which prompted me to write this article.
Applying for penalty relief
The main form of relief the IRS offers to taxpayers is the first-time penalty abatement policy, which was introduced about two decades ago. It covers penalties related to a failure to file, a failure to pay or a failure to deposit the estimated taxes owed.
You didn’t previously have to file a return – because you earned too little money, for example – or you’ve had no penalties for the previous three years.
In addition to penalty prevention and penalty relief, other resources are available to taxpayers who need help after Tax Day.
The taxpayer advocate service is an independent organization within the IRS, and its local taxpayer advocates provide free help to any taxpayer to provide guidance through the process of resolving tax problems. There’s at least one in every state.
The IRS also supports Low-Income Tax Clinics, which are staffed with attorneys and other professionals to help low-income filers with tax disputes that may require legal intervention. While it can be difficult to reverse penalties or challenge other IRS decisions, taxpayers with legal help stand a much better chance of succeeding with their claims.
Many people may be familiar with Benjamin Franklin’s assertion that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
No one enjoys paying taxes, but additional penalties can make a bad situation even worse. The good news is most penalties can be avoided by filing taxes on time and paying any taxes due. If you are unable to pay all of the taxes due right away, you can always establish a payment plan.
So next year, remember there are many resources available to you to make it easier to file on time – free, in most cases – and to avoid penalties. And taxpayer advocates are available to answer any tricky questions.
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