UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Westamerica Bank's Upper Lake branch is on schedule to close by the end of the week, with officials reporting that there will be no banking establishment to replace it.
Posted at the entrance of the bank, located at 9470 Main St., is a sign that says that the branch will close permanently at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16.
“No action is necessary on your part and there will be no interruption in your banking service,” the notice states.
The notice also informs customers that all of the Upper Lake branch's accounts and loans will automatically transfer to the Lakeport branch, located at 650 N. Main St.
The California Department of Business Oversight, which is the agency that is responsible for overseeing state-chartered banks like Westamerica, confirmed that there will not be another banking institution coming into town to take Westamerica's place.
“Hopefully the closure will not create too big of a banking services void in the community,” said Tom Dresslar, a special assistant to Department of Business Oversight Commissioner Jan Lynn Owen.
In communications that began with the California Department of Business Oversight in December, Westamerica Bank cited low transactional volume “which does not support having a branch in the current location” as a reason for closing the bank.
When the bank announced its plans to customers at the start of the year, members the Upper Lake community – as well as surrounding towns that relied on the bank – objected, beginning a spirited petition drive that got the attention of local and state officials, as Lake County News has reported.
County leaders, state Sen. Mike McGuire, Assemblyman Bill Dodd and the Department of Business Oversight got involved in the effort to find a solution, which involved other banking institutions also contemplating having a presence in downtown.
Upper Lake has had its own bank since 1921. In the late 1970s the town's bank, then known as Bank of Lake County, became Westamerica Bank. It was sold to the Napa Valley Bank in 1988 but once again became Westamerica Bank in the 1990s, according to a bank history.
Westamerica's Upper Lake branch is the only bank on the 85-mile stretch of the Highway 20 corridor between Williams and Ukiah.
Eventually, as a result of further negotiations with the Department of Business Oversight this spring, Westamerica Bank agreed to delay a closure until the middle of October.
Officials like Dodd and McGuire had indicated they were using the extension to look at options for bringing in another financial institution.
Mendo Lake Credit Union also was exploring options, but so far has not publicly announced any decisions about an Upper Lake location.
“It's unfortunate it didn't work out,” Dresslar said.
“At least we got the petitions and we go the extension,” said Debbie Hablutzel, president of the Upper Lake Community Council.
She said that, for many older people, the additional time to make new banking arrangements was helpful.
Hablutzel said community members and customers have had no direct contact from Westamerica in recent months, noting that about a month after the extension was announced, the bank reduced hours to noon to 4 p.m. weekdays.
She said Upper Lake's merchants continue to hope that one of the local banking institutions will provide an ATM in downtown.
A longtime Westamerica Bank customer, Hablutzel said she's already in the process of moving her accounts to another institution in response to Westamerica's actions.
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