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CHP welcomes new officers equipped with real-life experience; Hidden Valley Lake man among graduates
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – On Friday 77 new California Highway Patrol officers – including a Hidden Valley Lake man – were sworn in during an unprecedented socially distant graduation ceremony at the CHP Academy.
The graduating class begins their new career with more hands-on experience than any class in academy history, the CHP reported.
Among this year’s graduates is Kyle Nelson of Hidden Valley Lake.
Officer Nelson graduated from Windsor High School in 2004. Prior to attending the CHP Academy, he worked as a senior technician for Viavi Solutions in Santa Rosa.
As concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic intensified, the CHP closed its live-in academy in West Sacramento on March 20.
All cadets were sent home and assigned to work in CHP Area offices located as close to their residences as practicable.
Prior to leaving, the seven women and 70 men of Cadet Training Class, or CTC, III-19, who started Oct. 21, 2019, had completed 23 weeks of their 29-week training at the academy.
During the six months spent working in CHP Area offices throughout the state, cadets had an unprecedented opportunity to observe a wide variety of activities and tasks, enhancing their classroom work.
On ride-alongs with officers, they experienced a CHP officer’s shift in the field and learned first-hand how to complete crash reports and assist the public.
They also learned the administrative side of the job – filing reports, answering the phone, and performing general tasks that may be unfamiliar to many officers.
The CHP said Nelson spent six months working in the Clear Lake Area office in Kelseyville.
On Sept. 14, all members of CTC III-19 who left in March returned to the academy for their final weeks of training with enhanced health and safety protocols.
“We are all so proud of this class,” CHP Commissioner Warren Stanley said. “These cadets faced the uncertainty of the pandemic with resolve and returned to the Academy energized about their new careers, benefiting from a wealth of real-life experience that no other cadets have had.”
At the CHP Academy, cadet training starts with nobility in policing, leadership, professionalism and ethics, and cultural diversity. Training also includes mental illness response and crisis intervention techniques.
Cadet instruction covers patrol operations, crash investigation, first aid, and the arrest of suspected violators, including those who drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
The cadets also receive training in traffic control, report writing, recovery of stolen vehicles, assisting the motoring public, issuing citations, emergency scene management, and knowledge of various codes including the Vehicle Code, Penal Code, and Health and Safety Code.
Upon graduation, the cadets are assigned to CHP Area offices throughout the state.
The CHP said Nelson has been assigned to the Napa Area office.
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- Written by: Elizabeth Larson
Dr. Gary Pace said Friday that the latest deaths were the county’s 16th and 17th.
The 16th death, reported early this week, was in a person over age 65 who lived in a senior residential facility and had chronic medical issues, he said.
On Thursday, Public Health was informed of the 17th COVID-19-related death. Pace said the individual was over 60, had chronic medical issues and was living at the same senior residential facility as the person who died earlier in the week.
Both deaths reported this week were connected to Lake County’s second outbreak at a residential facility, Pace said.
Pace noted that the outbreak has now “started to stabilize.”
He did not name the facility. However, the first local outbreak was at Lakeport Post Acute, the second was at Rocky Point Care Center, also in Lakeport, according to the California Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 dashboard.
Lakeport Post Acute has had 37 residents and 22 health care workers test positive for COVID-19, while Rocky Point has had 49 confirmed cases in residents and 17 in its health care staff, the state reported.
The state’s dashboard did not give the specific numbers of deaths at each facility, only saying each had less than 11.
The California Department of Public Health said that there have been 27,411 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the 1,223 skilled nursing facilities across the state, with 21,006 health care workers also contracting the virus. Altogether, 4,705 residents and 153 health care workers associated with those facilities have died, the state said.
“Each time we receive a report of a COVID-connected death in Lake County, it is a stark and painful reminder of just how destructive this virus can be, not only to the individuals that pass away but to all of those connected to them,” said Pace.
Overall, Lake County has had well over 700 confirmed cases, although the case numbers posted by the county on Friday were not current due to technical issues.
Statewide, as of Friday night, there had been more than 928,800 confirmed cases and 17,632 deaths, according to reports posted online by the Public Health departments of California’s 58 counties.
“COVID-19 is prevalent in our communities,” said Pace. “Think about the people you know. If you are closely associated with someone working in a job that requires a lot of public contact, or direct interaction with vulnerable individuals, for example, please be vigilant in taking precautions at all times. Simple precautions can be life-saving.”
Dr. Pace is scheduled to give the Board of Supervisors an update on the local situation with the virus at 9:35 a.m. Tuesday.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Office of Education announced that David Carter is the 2019-20 Drive for Perfect Attendance Main Event and recipient of the 2020 Chevy Spark offered through the event.
Carter is currently a fourth grader at Terrace Middle School but was gifted the car based on his attendance at Lakeport Elementary School in the Lakeport Unified School District.
The main event took place virtually due to the pandemic at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15.
Lake County Superintendent of Schools Brock Falkenberg conducted the event and did the drawings of all the recipients.
“The idea behind this event is to promote school attendance for all Lake County students and to help publicize the importance of regular school attendance,” Falkenberg said.
Along with the vehicle, Carter was also gifted funding to cover auto insurance for up to one year for $2,000 and 12 $100 gas cards to help pay for fuel for a year.
The other 11 finalists also received scholarships for postsecondary education that were started by the Lake County Office of Education and matched by the Redwood Credit Union. Each scholarship varied from $100 to $600.
Each month that a student has perfect attendance, their name goes into a drawing. Each district holds a drawing to select their student representative. How many representatives are chosen in a district is dependent on the student population.
“Whether you are attending school virtually or attending school physically, attendance has been shown to be the number one factor in student success,” Falkenberg said.
The Drive 4 Perfect Attendance is sponsored by the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, in partnership with Mazzei Chevrolet and the Redwood Credit Union. It was also administered by the Lake County Office of Education to help promote school attendance for students in Lake County public schools.
The contest began on Aug. 10, 2019. It was scheduled to end on June 15, 2020, at 3 p.m. However, due to COVID-19, it ran through the month of February.
To view a list of all recipients, please visit www.lakecoe.org/Drive.
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- Written by: Lake County News reports
Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1.
It began this year on March 7, a week and a half before Lake County and the rest of the state began to a shelter in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each year, daylight saving time begins on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, as a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
All but two states – Arizona and Hawaii – observe it. The US territories of American Samoa, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands don’t observe it.
In California, voters originally approved daylight saving time in 1949. However, in November 2018, the state’s voters supported Proposition 7 which would end it.
Both the California Legislature and Congress must take action to finalize the change and there has been no headway on that part of the process.
Cal Fire urges Californians to use daylight saving time as a reminder to make important home safety checks, like checking smoke alarms and replacing their batteries.
The agency said that approximately two-thirds of home fire deaths occur in homes without working smoke alarms.
Most of those deadly fires occur at night, which is why Cal Fire it’s essential that every home has working smoke alarms to provide an early warning.
Working smoke alarms increase the chance of surviving a home fire by 50 percent, Cal Fire said.
For more information about smoke alarms visit Cal Fire’s website or contact your local fire department.
Cal Fire on smoke alarms by LakeCoNews on Scribd