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LAKE COUNTY – On Tuesday a majority of Lakeport voters approved a measure to restore the sale of safe and sane fireworks in the city, while elsewhere around the county several school board races were decided.
Measure C, an initiative that was placed on the ballot after the Lakeport City Council voted earlier this year to prohibit safe and sane – or state-approved – fireworks sales in the city, passed with a margin of 59.3 to 40.7 percent, or 514 yes votes to 353 no votes, according to the Lake County Registrar of Voters.
City ordinance had allowed four nonprofit groups to sell the fireworks annually, which the groups – Clear Lake High School Booster Club, Miss Lake County Scholarship Organization, Terrace School Parent Teacher Organization and the Lake County Channel Cats – have said is their biggest annual fundraiser, as Lake County News has reported.
The groups, along with American Promotional Events and TNT Fireworks, gathered signatures to get Measure C on the ballot.
The measure proposes to limit sales times during the July 1 to July 4 sales period, and also pledges to require a 5-percent surcharge on fireworks sales which will go to the city for safety personnel.
Overall, turnout in Lakeport was at about 35.2 percent, with 876 or the city's 2,491 registered voters taking part in the election, the Registrar of Voters Office reported. Approximately 11.1 percent, or 277 voters, turned out at the precincts and 24 percent, or 599 voters, took part by absentee ballot.
In other races around the county, a Mendo-Lake Community College District race between incumbent Janet Chaniot and challenger Craig Shell was decided, with Chaniot receiving 2,205 votes, or 73.5 percent of the vote, and Shell getting 796 votes, which accounted for 26.5 percent of the vote.
The Upper Lake Elementary School board race had three seats open, which went to Marilyn Pivniska, 359 votes or 27 percent; Joanne Breton, 283 votes or 21.3 percent; and Don Meri, 267 votes or 20.1 percent. Matt Barnes received 229 votes (17.2 percent) and Nicole Miller brought in 192 votes (14.4 percent).
Bruce Higgins and Mark Timothy Sadler won seats on the Lucerne Elementary School Board. Higgins received 207 votes or 41 percent of the vote, and Sadler received 153 votes, approximately 30.3 percent of the vote. Sadler just edged out James Hankins, who received 28.7 percent of the vote, or approximately 145 votes.
In the Upper Lake High School District, three seats were decided. Claudine Pedroncelli received 569 votes (28.1 percent), while Valerie Duncan got 540 (26.7 percent) and Ron Raetz brought in 535 votes (26.5 percent). Glenn Koeppel rounded out the field with 376 votes, or 18.6 percent of the vote.
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It is sad that measure C passed in that it will significantly increase the fire danger during the early July period when fires are especially dangerous for those who live in the mountains. It is also sad that the young people involved in these groups are being taught that as long as it brings in money it great, without any regard for those that might be adversely affected by that decision.
At least we have the fireworks back (in your face Rumfelt-parmentier-bertsch!), hope people act like grown-ups and don't make people regret that move!