LAKEPORT — The Lake County Board of Supervisors (BOS) passed an ordinance on a second reading regarding the regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated areas of the county Tuesday.
The BOS heard public testimony on the issue and ultimately passed the ordinance on second reading by a 3-2 vote, with supervisors Denise Rushing and Jeff Smith dissenting.
An in-depth account of the passage of the ordinance will appear in Record-Bee this week.
The BOS voted to take up an extra item related to a quagga mussel resolution passed at last week”s meeting.
County Administrator Kelly Cox requested the BOS make changes to the language of the resolution. The BOS unanimously approved the resolution requesting the Governor declare a statewide state of emergency related to quagga and zebra mussels with the corrected language.
The BOS approved a research program to be conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) regarding quagga mussels and Clear Lake.
Gary Hansen of the Department of Water Resources spoke to the BOS on behalf of Public Works Director Scott De Leon. Hansen said the program was desired to come about to see if there is anything in Clear Lake”s water or sediment that might be resistant to the invasive mussels.
Jim Steele, a retired state Fish and Game biologist, has been assisting the department in developing a quagga mussel program. Steele spoke highly of UNLV”s research of quagga mussels in Lake Mead and encouraged the BOS to approve the program, which was in the amount of $21,452. The BOS ultimately approved the program by a 4-1 vote, with District 5 Supervisor Rob Brown dissenting.
The board adjourned as the BOS and re-adjourned as the Lake County Air Quality Management District to hear testimony on the possibility of updating the county”s fire season burn ban.
Doug Gearhart, air pollution control officer, provided the board with testimony on possible plans on changing the burn ban, which included moving the date the ban is in effect from May 1 to May 15, the development of a residential burn exemption that would allow burning on state and federal holidays or to reject changes to the policy. The board did not act on this issue.
Reconvening as the BOS, it endorsed eight candidates to serve on the Napa-Lake Work Investment Board. On the recommendations of Social Services Director Carol Hutchingson, the BOS endorsed eight candidates to be appointed to represent Lake County in the areas of One-Stop partner representatives, private sector business representatives and a community-based organization representative.
District 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington and Hutchingson will serve as the One-Stop partner representatives. Lynne Butcher, Trena Pauly, Monica Rosenthal, John Ussery and Sandra West will serve as private sector business representatives. Tonya Bravo will serve as the community-based organization representative.
The BOS approved a bid to build the Middletown Library and Senior Center.
Purchasing Agent Jeff Rein informed the BOS that approximately $225,000 in savings was identified for the project with the potential for an additional $100,000 in savings if the BOS opted to eliminate landscaping on the facility temporarily.
The bid, submitted by R.E. West Construction in the amount of $3,680,304 was approved by the BOS 4-0, with Brown recusing himself because he knew some of the subcontractors. Cox said the contract will come back before the BOS with change orders soon.
Some matters the BOS discussed were continued to future meetings.
A public hearing of an appeal by Silicon Valley business magnate John Nady of a mitigated negative declaration on property he owns and wants to build on, Rattlesnake Island, was continued to the Sept. 6 meeting at 1:30 p.m.
A consideration of awarding a bid for the southeast system lift station and force main project was continued to follow a budget meeting today at 3 p.m.
A public hearing on the discussion and consideration of the formation of an energy and water efficiency assessment district and adoption of the California Property Assessed Clean Energy (California PACE) program was continued to next Tuesday at 10 a.m.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14.
