LOWER LAKE >> The grand opening of an event center and private cannabis club was canceled the day before the planned event after inspectors found multiple violations of building and fire codes.
The opening of The Lodge on Lake Street was set for last Saturday. The inspection was conducted last Friday by a county building and safety inspector and the fire chief and fire marshal from the Lake County Fire Protection District (LCFPD).
Lodge owners Terri Larsen and Peter Shifman were told after the inspection that the violations prevented them from opening the center until the violations were corrected and the building reinspected.
The Joint at the Lodge on Lake Street was to be a non-profit, members-only club where people could gather to drink wine, socialize and use cannabis , as long as they were at least 18-years-old, had a valid ID and a valid medical marijuana recommendation from a physician.
Larsen and Shifman — along with a lot of volunteer help, including contractor Joel Moore — had converted the old Rebekah’s Lodge building in Lower Lake into a combination broadcast studio and entertainment venue. The Joint was to be a part of the Lodge.
The inspection and subsequent notice of violations that prevented the club to open had no connection to The Lodge’s plans for the cannabis club, according to Fire Chief Willie Sapeta of the LCFPD.
“We had safety concerns,” he said Sunday. “The building was not fire-safe.”
He said that the fire department is “apolitical” and that the fire safety inspection was done in a “very objective way.” He added, “You’re either following the building codes or you’re not.”
Sapeta declined to give specifics of the violations — deferring to the county building department — but said they were “life-safety issues.”
Larsen issued a statement Monday addressing the cited violations, saying that many of the problems the inspectors found existed before her and Shifman bought the building, such as a water heater and exit doors that were not up to code.
However, she said of the building and fire inspectors, “… they never said anything to anyone when there were kids in there at the heavy metal shows that were held there for several years,” before she and Shifman purchased the building.
“According to the inspector, the water heater was a virtual bomb (and) it had been wired like that since it was installed many years before we purchased the property,” Larsen said.
She added, “In addition, we had (five) contractors or retired contractors overseeing our improvements during the year long process and every one of them was working under the impression that the work we were doing was covered under tenant improvements, as they did not affect the structural stability of the building.”
Larsen also said that the since the destructive wildland fires in the past several years, building and fire codes have become more strict in the county, something “we have learned a lot about” since Friday’s inspection.
“I was actually really glad to learn of these issues before we had any events here, we obviously are not ready yet,” Larsen said. “Our utmost goal is the safety of anyone coming into our building, and we plan to make the necessary changes as soon as possible to be able to continue our goals.”
In a post to The Lodge’s Facebook page on Friday, Larsen stated, “I learned a lot today, and we are going to work hard to be compliant as soon as possible.”
