LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lucille Arlene Harris, 74, passed away on May 2, 2016.
Her memory will live on in all who knew and loved her.
She will be laid to rest at Palm Eastern Mortuary and Cemetery in Las Vegas, Nevada, alongside her mother.
No services have been scheduled at this time.
Arrangements entrusted to Jones Mortuary www.jonesmortuary.com FD311, Lakeport, Calif.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The Konocti Junior Tennis Summer Program begins June 22 at the Gard Street courts in Kelseyville.
The program will be held on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays each week through August.
Youth ages 8 to 18 are welcome to attend at no charge.
Tennis practice and instruction will take place from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. during the week for the summer session. Players should bring their own drinking water.
For more information call 707-279-9652.
The map above shows a rough estimate of the area where the fatal boating accident on Saturday, May 28, 2016, occurred. The location is not approximate. Courtesy of Google Maps.
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The body of a man who went missing after a Saturday afternoon boating accident has been recovered from Clear Lake.
A dive team found the body early Monday afternoon in the area of Anderson Island near Kelseyville, according to Lt. Norm Taylor of the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
The name of the victim has not yet been released pending notification of next of kin, Taylor said.
Taylor said the boating accident occurred at about 2 p.m. Saturday.
Authorities responded to Braito's Marina in Buckingham on the report of a single vessel that went down near Anderson Island, with the missing man last being seen just north of the island, as Lake County News has reported.
“The cause is still under investigation,” said Taylor.
He said witnesses reported that the boat actually fell apart as it was under way.
“Currently we don't have any information that would indicate that it was speeding,” said Taylor, who added there is no speed limit on the lake.
The boat's operator, a 55-year-old male, was taken to Sutter Lakeside Hospital for treatment of moderate injuries. He was later released, Taylor said.
Another passenger, a 73-year-old male, sustained serious injuries and was flown to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. Taylor said on Monday afternoon that he did not know that man's current condition.
Taylor said the individual who died in the accident was a 74-year-old man.
Reports from the scene indicated that the man had last been seen at the time of the accident, as he and the other two men went into the water.
The search for the missing man had begun immediately after the incident. A Cal Fire helicopter had been among the resources used to look for him initially, based on emergency radio traffic.
Taylor said the search had continued through the weekend, with divers working 18 hours a day to find the man.
Lake County's local dive team was joined on Sunday by one from Marin County which assisted with the search, Taylor said. It was the work of the divers that finally recovered the body.
“His remains were found in the middle of the boat wreckage on the bottom of the lake,” said Taylor.
The Sheriff's Marine Patrol on Monday afternoon was continuing the work of raising the boat's wreckage so they could continue the investigation to determine the cause of the accident, according to Taylor. A coroner's case also was opened as a result of the body's recovery.
As it was a single-vessel accident, Taylor said the cause is likely to be either a problem with the operator or mechanical failure. Both possibilities are being investigated.
“Until we can determine that we won't know where to go from here,” 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. – Edward G. Hart, Jr, age 83, entered into rest in Saint Helena, Calif., on Wednesday, May 18, 2016.
A native of Lynn, Mass., Edward was a resident of Lake County for 15 years.
He served his country in the US Army from 1955-1957.
He is survived by his loving companion, Sharon Scrivner of Clearlake; daughters, Janis Hart of Seattle, Wash., and Donna Wholley of Beverly, Mass.; and son, Peter Hart of Clearlake. He was preceded in death by a daughter, Sharon McCabe. Edward also leaves behind eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Ed Hart lived life just as he pleased, without apology but with tremendous gratitude. He will be missed.
Arrangements under the care of Jones & Lewis Clear Lake Memorial Chapel.
Please share your loving memories of Ed by signing his online guestbook at www.jonesandlewis.com and www.legacy.com .
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – St. Helena Martin-O’Neil Cancer Center is offering a free support group for those with life-altering medical illnesses and injuries as well as caregivers.
The Circle of Life and Wellness group will meet the first Friday of each month from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Middletown Library. The first meeting will be June 3.
The Circle of Life and Wellness is focused on providing emotional support along with education and opportunities for discussion.
All individuals suffering from a life-altering medical illness or injury such as cancer, chronic pain, systemic disease traumatic injury or other illness are invited to join the dynamic group.
The circle will be facilitated by Amber Warner, LCSW, a psychotherapist in the Live Well Program at the St. Helena Family Health Center – Clearlake.
At Live Well, Warner works one-on-one with patients to improve quality of life and often emphasizes the importance of receiving support from others. “Having a community around you is a powerful tool for resilience and wellness,” explained Warner.
The Circle is sponsored by the Integrative Cancer Support Services at the Martin-O’Neil Cancer Center at St. Helena Hospital Napa Valley.
Colleen Winters, clinical care navigator, began a support circle in Lake County over five years ago.
“We know that learning more and connecting with others fosters healing and relieves stress,” Winters explained. “We hope this group will help patients and caregivers cope through their journey.”
The Middletown Library is located at 21256 Washington St. in Middletown. The Circle of Life and Wellness meets the first Friday of each month from 10:30 a.m. to noon.
For more information, contact the Martin O’Neil Cancer Center at 707-967-5791.
With an estimated 35,000 bears, California has a healthy and growing black bear population.
In spring hibernating bears emerge from their winter slumber and begin an almost perpetual search for food. It is not uncommon for a black bear to consume up to 20,000 calories a day.
Unfortunately, this search can sometimes lead bears into populated areas and conflicts with humans.
Recently, sightings of black bears have been reported in Lake County, in particular, the Glenhaven area and in the Lucerne Rivieras.
“A bear's nose is seven times better than a hound dog's, and it will lead a bear to anything that is edible or smelly,” said Marc Kenyon, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's human-wildlife conflict expert. “Bears can smell meat drippings on your barbecue, dog food on your porch and candy in your sleeping bag. So if you live near or visit bear habitat, for your safety and the well-being of the bear, always keep your food and trash properly secured.”
Once a bear finds an easy food source, it will return again and again to the same location, and if that food source is a neighborhood or campground, the consequences are not going to be pleasant.
Not only can bears get sick from ingesting trash, they can also become dangerous as they begin to associate humans with food.
Bears that become habituated to human sources of food must be killed. Relocating habituated bears does not work.
The bears ultimately return to the same neighborhood or another populated area and continue their bad habits – scavenging through trash cans, breaking into homes and even attacking domestic animals.
Although there have been no documented human fatalities from black bears in the state's history, attacks have occurred. In order to keep bears in the wild and people safe, CDFW provides the following Bear Aware tips for people living in or visiting bear country:
For residents:
– Purchase and properly use a bear-proof garbage container.
– Wait to put trash out until the morning of collection day.
– Don't leave trash, groceries or animal feed in your car.
– Keep garbage cans clean and deodorize them with bleach or ammonia.
– Keep barbecue grills clean and stored in a garage or shed when not in use.
– Avoid using birdfeeders.
– Don't leave any scented products outside, including non-food items like suntan lotion and candles.
– Keep doors and windows closed and locked.
– Consider installing motion-detector alarms and/or electric fencing.
– Keep livestock in secure enclosures.
– Harvest fruit off trees as soon as it is ripe, and promptly collect fruit that falls.
– Securely block access to potential hibernation sites such as crawl spaces under decks and buildings.
For campers and hikers:
– Use bear-proof trash cans whenever possible or store your garbage in a secure location with your food.
– Store anything smelly including food, pet food and toiletries in bear-proof containers or in an airtight container in the trunk of your vehicle.
– Clean dishes and store food and garbage immediately after meals.
– Clean your barbecue grill after each use.
– Never keep food, toiletries or anything with a scent in your tent.
– Never intentionally feed bears in order to attract them for viewing.
– When hiking make noise to prevent surprising a bear. Clap, sing or talk loudly.
– Travel in a group if possible.
– Pay attention to the surroundings and watch for bear signs, such as tracks or claw or bite marks on trees.
– Keep dogs on a leash.
– If you see a bear, do not approach it. Make sure it has an escape route.
– If you encounter a bear in the wild, back away slowly. Do not run. Raise your arms to look larger and speak in a calm, loud voice. Do not turn your back.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016, marked the inaugural graduation of the class of 2016 when 13 local students were conferred their bachelor’s degrees by Marymount California University (MCU) at the Lakeside Campus in Lucerne.
The graduates walked the stage to the applause of their families, friends and the community.
I will remember that day always as I was fortunate enough to walk this journey with them the last two years: to know of their stories, their struggles, their challenges and their personal successes when they received their diplomas.
They were involved in the community before their graduation, and they are excited to move into greater roles of leadership and service out of their love for our community and a desire to be involved in our efforts to work together in many ways and across many fields.
I thanked our “village” in my commencement speech and asked the audience to stand to recognize themselves as that village.
We hear that said so often but the visual of all those people standing really brought home to me how vital our community has been in welcoming the Lakeside Campus and in supporting its growth by providing the academic opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree in the county for the first time.
I’d like to congratulate the class of 2016 again and thank our community for all its support. None of this would be possible without the vision of the county of Lake and its partnership with MCU to create a campus here.
All of our employees are local and all but one of our instructors is, for a total of 16 Lake County residents employed across the year.
We have contracted with many local businesses as vendors whenever possible and that list includes JP Specialty Cleaners, Advanced Electronic Security, Nathan DeHart Photography, Lake Transit Authority, Uribe Landscape, N & A Electric, Bicoastal Media, Westgate Petroleum, Chic Le Chef, WeedTech, Pak N Mail, California Exterminators and more.
A huge special thank you to Pak N Mail for the beautiful job on senior Capstone and biography posters; Fresh and Bangin’ Eatery for their wonderful hors d’ouevres; Lake Event Services for making “the Castle” even more spectacular than ever; Patrick Fitzgerald for the first-ever playing of “Pomp and Circumstance” in the Castle; Nate Rogers, professional events security, for all of his care and concern for the students, staff and campus; Lake County Land Trust for partnering with us to present the first Distinguished Speaker Series; and the Lake County Office of Education for its ongoing support and partnership.
Lake County News has our gratitude and appreciation as they have been tremendous supporters of the campus in their advertising, taking the initiative to film all of our Distinguished Speaker Series and making this remarkable series on the natural history of Clear Lake and Lake County available on their YouTube channel.
Great thanks to John Jensen who live-streamed the graduation ceremony, making it accessible to friends and family all across the world who were unable to attend and didn’t want to miss this special moment in their loved ones’ lives.
I want to extend my gratitude, that of my staff at Lakeside and the MCU community to our greater Lake County community for the warm welcome and tremendous support.
Michelle Scully is executive director of Marymount California University's Lakeside Campus in Lucerne, Calif.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Wine Studio is hosting a wine tasting event featuring wine releases from Kaz Winery, and artist reception with works by artist Marcie Ann Long on Friday, June 3, from 5 to 8 p.m. and Saturday, June 4, from 4 to 7 p.m.
Winemaker Richard "Kaz" Kasmier will be at the Studio both evenings to meet with guests. Musical guest Friday evening will be Majide!.
The $15 ($12/pp for Studio club members) wine sampler with paired appetizers by Fresh and Bangin' Eatery, will feature Kazza Roja Red with a frisée salad with charred apple and strawberry vinaigrette, 2014 Bullseye Petite Sirah with skewered portabello mushroom, jalapeño and Fresno chili with goat cheese créme sauce, 2012 Mainliner Lenoir with a butter lettuce wrap with lamb and carrot habanero sauce, and the Portworks White Port with brie custard in sesame seed rimmed waffle cone sprinkled with bittersweet chocolate and Macadamia nuts.
Richard Kasmier was an advertising photographer in his past life. After eight years of award-winning amateur winemaking, he made the leap to commercial winemaking.
Kaz Winery began as a small family owned boutique operation in Kenwood, Sonoma Valley. Kaz and his wife Sandi, daughter Kristin, son Ryan, and daughter-in-law Emily handled all of the facets of the business.
Still a small, family owned winery today, they specialize in organic wines, complex reds, bold blends, rare varietals and port-style wines. They relocated their production and tasting room in 2015 to the Wild West Winery in Big Valley. They are now sourcing all of their fruit from Lake County's vineyards, and their wines are all low, or no sulfite added wines.
A longtime resident of Lake County, in fact 26 years as of Memorial Day weekend, Marcie Long is showing her expressive and colorful flower paintings at the Lake County Wine Studio for the month of June.
Painting in her mother's English garden, bursting with life and color, has been an inspiration for many years. Most of the flower paintings are enlarged blossoms allowing the viewer to see all the way into the details of a flower. Two of Long's favorite painters, Vincent Van Gogh and Georgia O'Keefe have also provided inspiration with their paintings of flowers.
Long is known for her plein air paintings, especially those of the Rodman Slough area and vineyards all around the county. Her exhibit will be on display through June 29.
Lake County Wine Studio is located at 9505 Main St. in Upper Lake and for the months of June through August is open daily from 1 to 7 p.m., and Friday from 1 to 8 p.m.
For more information call Lake County Wine Studio at 707-275-8030 or 707-293-8752.
During the summer of 2015, survey flights conducted by the United States Forest Service (USFS) showed vast areas of dead and dying trees in the Sierra Nevada foothills and lower-elevation mountain areas of California.
Aircraft flew over four million acres of forested land and found that roughly 20 percent of stands had a distinct reddish-brownish coloration instead of a bright green, healthy leaf canopy. The toll was more than 10 million dead trees, region-wide.
To put this pattern of forest decline into historical perspective, investigators at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley published a study in April 2016 in the Journal of Earth Science & Climatic Change.
The paper documented NASA's unique three-decade record of vegetation cover change from the Landsat satellite and analyzed a series of detailed yearly maps to compare previous controls on forest growth rates and effects of recent fluctuations in water availability since the mid-1980s.
Operating since the 1970s, the Landsat Earth-observing mission is operated jointly by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey.
“NASA's satellite record offers abundant evidence that extensive tree die-back from the historically low water years of 2013 to 2015, combined with numerous large stand-replacing wildfires in the Sierra region, has essentially reversed the impressive accumulation of live tree density state-wide that we were tracking since the early 1980s,” said the study's lead author, Christopher Potter of Ames.
Three decades of forest growth was erased by the drought's impacts over much of the lower-elevation Sierra Nevada mountain region in the past couple years.
The U.S. Weather Service defines drought as a deficiency in precipitation over an extended period resulting in water shortages that cause adverse impacts on vegetation, animals and people.
The calendar year 2013 was the driest on record, with a total of just 30 percent of average statewide precipitation.
A record low snowpack level in 2015 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains was unprecedented in comparison to the past 500 years – typical snow water levels in 2015 were detected at just five percent of the historical average.
Ames scientists began by examining Landsat satellite imagery at nearly all of the high tree die-back sites in the southern Sierra region flown by the USFS. The first outcome confirmed that changes in drought-sensitive satellite indices from the years 2011 to 2015 closely matched patterns of tree die-back across the USFS aerial survey locations in the southern Sierra region.
But there was much more to learn; the satellite data record was analyzed further to put the 2013-2015 drought into historical context, particularly with respect to noticeable increases in forest canopy browning due to summer water limitations.
According to the satellite data, areas most severely impacted by constant water shortages were located just southwest of Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks, and in the Sierra and Sequoia National Forests.
The Landsat satellite data values at dying tree locations nearly resembled those from charred forest stands burned in the 2013 Rim Fire near Yosemite and the 2015 Rough Fire near Kings Canyon National Park.
This won’t be the end of the analysis of these regions. Potter says that Landsat images are provided by NASA at no cost to researchers every two weeks.
“Our continued analysis of this unique, reliable satellite data over the next several years at these same Sierra aerial survey locations should help inform forest and park managers about the potential for further, delayed tree die-back,” Potter said. “It will also enable us to efficiently track subsequent recovery and regrowth rates of drought-affected forest stands during more favorable precipitation years.”
New research from North Carolina State University finds that turnover among executive leaders at nonprofit organizations is often plagued by problems – with very few transitional periods mirroring the scenarios painted in the professional literature.
The study also found that most nonprofit executives do not leave their positions due to voluntary retirement, as previously thought.
“There has been very little empirical evaluation of executive turnover in nonprofits,” said Amanda Stewart, an assistant professor of public administration at NC State and author of a paper describing the work. “And, because executive turnover is inevitable, it’s important to pay attention to what organizations can do to limit any adverse impacts turnover can have on a nonprofit and its mission.”
To better understand the challenges involved in nonprofit executive turnover, Stewart interviewed 40 executives of nonprofit organizations about their experiences during their transition into leadership roles.
Many executives reported significant challenges when taking charge at their new organizations. For example, five executives reported having little to no support from the boards of directors who hired them. And many executives told Stewart that they had to clean up unexpected financial or administrative messes left behind by the previous executive.
“Listen, I think boards figure that if they give a recruit the total picture they might not be able to recruit someone,” one executive is quoted as saying in the paper. “The naiveté is the only way to get into the [executive] position, because if you knew, you would never get into it,” a second executive says in the paper.
“These findings tell us that the conventional wisdom in professional literature about nonprofit executive transitions is based on a best-case scenario,” Stewart said. “And only one or two cases of the 40 I examined were even close to that ideal.
“One of the things I learned was that nonprofit boards do not become more functional during times of turmoil – so if leadership turnover stems from problems in the board itself, a new executive won’t resolve that problem,” Stewart said. Support from the board, and transparency about management decisions, were key to turnover success.
Stewart said that the interviews revealed a “Goldilocks” spectrum of nonprofit boards, when it came to interacting with executives. “Too little” boards offered virtually no support or oversight to executives; “too much” boards tried to micromanage executives; and “just right” boards used the turnover to assess their organizational needs and hire an executive who was equipped to address those needs. Ideally, executives also wanted their boards to communicate effectively and to provide public support when needed.
The study also found that, contrary to expectation, most executives leave nonprofits for reasons other than voluntary retirement.
When interviewing the executives about why their predecessors had left their organizations, Stewart found that only nine of previous executives had left due to “voluntary retirement.” Other factors included eight dismissals for wrongdoing, six due to a mutual agreement between executive and board, five who left for “personal reasons,” and five who left for new jobs at other organizations.
“These findings are very different from the widely held idea that people leave nonprofit executive positions primarily because of retirement,” Stewart said. “And it also highlights the importance of having a good fit between the executive and the board of directors.”
Stewart is following up on this work to better understand, systematically, how the nonprofit community is developing – or failing to develop – a new generation of leaders.
The paper, “Turnover at the Top: Exploring Nonprofit Executive Turnover,” is published in the journal Nonprofit Management & Leadership. The work was supported by American University.
UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Upper Lake will once again celebrate its western heritage with its annual Wild West Day street faire on Saturday, June 4.
The action takes place from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Main Street.
This year's celebration includes the 100-year-old Harriet Lee Hammond Library, the Blue Canyon Gang, parade, children carnival, costume and beard contests, Physics at Play juggling troupe, raffle, vendors and live music.
The schedule of events provided below will help you plan your day.
7 to 10 a.m.: Pancake breakfast at the Upper Lake Fire House.
8 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Street faire.
9 to 11 a.m.: Costume, beard and bonnet contest.
10 a.m.: Parade on Main Street followed by awards ceremony.
10 a.m. to 3 p.m.: Library is open.
11 a.m. to 4 p.m.: Tri-tip barbecue, strawberry ice cream social at Odd Fellows Hall and renovation raffle.
11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.: Physics at Play Jugglers.
11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.: Open houses, Harriet Lee Hammond Library, corner of Second and Main streets; and Upper Lake Fire House, corner of Washington and Main Street.
Noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.: The Blue Canyon Gang.
1:15 to 4 p.m.: Live music: Hilarie & Milton.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – An array of adorable felines of all ages are waiting for homes this week at Lake County Animal Care and Control.
Available this week are three kittens and three adult cats.
In addition to spaying or neutering, cats that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are microchipped before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
If you're looking for a new companion, visit the shelter. There are many great pets there, hoping you'll choose them.
In addition to the animals featured here, all adoptable animals in Lake County can be seen here: http://bit.ly/Z6xHMb .
The following cats at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (other cats pictured on the animal control Web site that are not listed here are still “on hold”).
Domestic short hair kitten
This female domestic short hair kitten has a brown and white coat.
She's in cat room kennel No. 53b, ID No. 4913.
Domestic short hair kitten
This female domestic short hair kitten has a white coat with blue eyes.
She's in cat room kennel No. 53c, ID No. 4914.
Domestic medium hair kitten
This male domestic medium hair kitten has a white coat and blue eyes.
He's in cat room kennel No. 70a, ID No. 4966.
Female domestic short hair
This female domestic short hair has a black coat with a white mark on her chest.
She's in cat room kennel No. 73, ID No. 4911.
'Mom'
“Mom” is a female domestic short hair mix with a gray tabby coat.
She's in cat room kennel No. 114, ID No. 4823.
Female domestic short hair
This female domestic short hair mix has a very colorful calico coat.
She's in cat room kennel No. 142, ID No. 4760.
Adoptable cats also can be seen at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Cats_and_Kittens.htm or at www.petfinder.com .
To fill out an adoption application online visit http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control/Adopt/Dog___Cat_Adoption_Application.htm .
Lake County Animal Care and Control is located at 4949 Helbush in Lakeport, next to the Hill Road Correctional Facility.
Office hours are Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday. The shelter is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm .
For more information call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278.
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.
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