LUCERNE — With its water supply held by private interests, its lagging economy under the county”s redevelopment magnifying glass and its streams falling victim to illegal dumping, Lucerne was the focus of a town hall meeting called by its county district supervisor Denise Rushing over the weekend.
Dist. 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing held her second town hall meeting Saturday since being elected in November, this one to address issues affecting to the community of Lucerne.
County department heads spent the first half of the meeting updating attendees on county government projects such as redevelopment, nuisance abatement and parks.
The second half of the meeting was reserved for attendees to raise questions specifically having to do with Lucerne. Dist. 3 Planning Commissioner Marvin Buttler was on hand to record all issues raised.
County Chief Administrative Officer Kelly Cox and Public Services Director Kim Clymire kicked off the updates with a presentation about Lucerne”s Alpine and Harbor parks.
Cox and Chief Deputy Redevelopment Director Eric Seely followed with an update on redevelopment activity in Lucerne. Seely suggested that some of the county”s government offices could be relocated to the community in order to draw customers for local businesses.
Cox reiterated the idea in his address about economic development of the community, adding that another option is pursuing hotel developments on the north side of Highway 20 and leave lakefront property as open space.
“We have a lot of decisions that have to be made in this next year,” said Cox, imploring the audience that community input would be vital as redevelopment and economic development efforts had reached what he identified as a turning point. “We definitely don”t want to be ramming anything down the community”s throat that the community doesn”t want,” said Cox.
He said work groups with specific focuses and an opinion survey planned for Lucerne are conduits for the needed community input. Rushing circulated a questionnaire toward the end of the meeting to get feedback about what questions would be important to ask.
“We need to identify and rank the community”s general priorities, we need to rank Redevelopment Agency project priorities and gage the community”s sentiment about specific projects and issues, such as the Lucerne clubhouse,” said Cox.
The clubhouse was the focal point of a proposal former RDA Director Andy Peterson brought to the county Board of Supervisors last year shortly before his retirement. He proposed that the RDA purchase the property from county Public Services for the purpose of selling it to a developer to become a parking lot for a hotel development planned on adjacent property. Several of Lucerne”s residents expressed opposition, saying the clubhouse was a part of the community”s culture and history.
Cox said similar questionnaires had been done in Clearlake Oaks last year and in Upper Lake two years ago; this will be the first conducted for Lucerne. Cox said the cost of the survey will be borne by the Redevelopment Agency.
Another commonly expressed concern was illegal dumping. Resident Lenny Matthews displayed several pictures she took of a steep slope leading to Morrison Creek, just above the community at the end of Country Club Drive.
County Code Compliance Manager Voris Brumfield said her division had compiled a list of sites needing cleanup. “With Public Services, we”re going to look at … why the dumping is constantly reoccurring, and come up with different ways in which we can shut it down,” said Brumfield.
She noted that the county Web site, www.co.lake.ca.us, provides information about the nuisance abatement process along with other county processes. The Lucerne Senior Center provides computers with online access.
Brumfield also said there will be another vehicle amnesty event in May, in which dilapidated cars and car parts may be brought to a county dump site free of charge. The only cost, she said, would be that involved in transportation to the site.
Sheriff Rodney Mitchell addressed the crowd a short while later and fielded a question about what law enforcement can do when illegal dumping is reported. He said penal code 374 makes dumping a misdemeanor, with allowances for the offense to become a felony.
Mitchell, Clymire and Brumfield concurred that reporting dumping to county Code Compliance when it is spotted is important; the number to call is 263-2309.
Craig Bach, president of the Lucerne Community Water Organization highlighted the community”s water concerns, the primary of which is the privatization of the community”s water system. “Our water is still supplied by a corporation whose main concern is profit and increasing dividends to their shareholders.” He said efforts were under way to gain local control of the water system. “Cal Water and its high-priced staff of lawyers will keep asking for rate increases, and the Public Utilities Commission will keep granting them unless Lucerne fights,” said Bach.
“There are a few possible solutions,” said Rushing, addressing the issue. “Almost all of them involve rate increases of some kind, because frankly this water system is dilapidated,” said Rushing.
Addressing a question about the county government taking control of Lucerne”s water system, Rushing said, “The public solutions might be able to tap into monies that the private solutions can”t.” She said specifics of that wouldn”t be known until numbers from a rate analysis local water organization Friends of Locally Owned Water (FLOW) is undertaking are available.
Rushing said a town hall meeting is scheduled for Upper Lake in the near future.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
