The County of Lake Information Technology Department is seeking photographs for the digital portal to Lake County government – www.co.lake.ca.us – that will highlight the best of our environs.

High-resolution digital photos will be rotated each day as the backdrop on the county Web site, showcasing the various amenities of the area where we work, live, and recreate.

Photos must be digital, in a .JPG, .TIFF, or .PNG format, with dimensions of 1400 x 450 pixels or larger.

The person submitting the photo must have all rights to the photo, and sign a statement to that affect.

No financial compensation will be provided by the county of Lake for use of photo, but the photographer will be credited on the county of Lake Web site.

If you would like to submit a photo or have questions, send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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Noah Shinn, 39, of Laytonville was arrested on Tuesday by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

He was taken into custody for robbery, threats, conspiracy, murder, and cultivation and sales of marijuana, according to Capt. Kurt Smallcomb.

Shinn was arrested in connection with the Oct. 30 shooting death of 21-year-old Timothy Burger of Sacramento, one of several alleged suspects in a home invasion robbery linked to marijuana, officials reported.

Smallcomb said detectives were contacting witnesses in Sacramento on Tuesday when they located Noah Shinn, who also is the father of another suspect in the case, 19-year-old Sacramento resident Christopher Shinn. The younger Shinn was booked on Oct. 30 for the same charges as his father.

Noah Shinn's bail was set at $250,000, according to Smallcomb, the same amount that Christopher Shinn was booked on last week.

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At 4:42 a.m. Sunday Napa County, Calistoga and St. Helena City fire departments were dispatched to a fire in the 100 block of Petrified Forest Road in unincorporated Napa County, according to Pete Muñoa, Cal Fire battalion chief and Napa County fire marshal.

He said the 911 caller reported a fire with explosions in the backyard of a residence.

Fire department units arrived to find a well involved structure approximately 400 square feet in size, according to Muñoa.

Muñoa said a witness stated to fire personnel at scene that they believed the structure to be a drug lab.

This statement accompanied with the earlier report of explosions forced crews to take a defensive attack on the fire to limit their exposure to possible hazardous materials, he said.

Investigators from the Napa County Fire Marshal’s Office in conjunction with the Napa County Sheriff’s Office are investigating the blaze, Muñoa said.

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Lake County Registrar of Voters staff looks over ballots on the night of Tuesday, November 2, 2010, in Lakeport, Calif. Photo by Gary McAuley.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – On its busiest night of the year, the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office had a frustrating encounter with Murphy's Law.

Just a few hours past the 8 p.m. closing of the county's 53 precincts Tuesday night, two of the county's three voting machines jammed. Cleaning them didn't work, Registrar of Voters Diane Fridley reported on KPFZ Tuesday night.

Fridley said she said she and her staff were able to rely on a third machine from the department's store room in order to continue the count, which she said was going at about half speed.

In case it didn't work, she was prepared to borrow a machine from Sonoma County.

However, just after 1 a.m. Fridley's office released the preliminary results, with absentees and provisional ballots turned in on Tuesday yet to be counted during the 28-day election certification period.

The results tallied Tuesday night showed that, at least on the local level, voters chose challengers over incumbents, while Congressman Mike Thompson and state Assemblyman Wes Chesbro were returned to office, and Assembly member Noreen Evans won the state Senate seat currently held by Patricia Wiggins, who is retiring.

In the sheriff's race, Francisco Rivero received 8,102 votes or 53.9 percent of the vote, defeating 16-year incumbent Rod Mitchell, who had 6,919 votes, accounting for 46.1 percent of votes cast.

Sheriff Rod Mitchell and supporters gathered at Angelina's Bakery in Lakeport, Calif., to watch the returns online on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. Photo by Gary McAuley.

Don Anderson is projected to be the new district attorney, taking 7,597 votes or 53.3 percent of the vote compared to his opponent Doug Rhoades, who received 6,663 votes, or 46.7 percent.

Lake County News was unable to reach Rivero by phone early Wednesday morning, but spoke with Mitchell at close to 1 a.m.

Mitchell said it was just after midnight, when 50 percent of the results had been tallied, that he sought out Rivero at the Lake County Courthouse.

At that point he informed Rivero that he could begin the transition for his new administration as sheriff after Thanksgiving.

Mitchell, noting that he loves Lake County, said, “I owe it to the citizens to make sure that I facilitate as smooth a transition as possible.”

County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox and County Counsel Anita Grant assist with the counting of ballots at the Lake County Registrar of Voters Office in Lakeport, Calif., on the night of Tuesday, November 2, 2010. Photo by Tera DeVroede.

He said he hasn't thought about what he will do next, once his term runs out at the end of the year.

“There's too much to do right now in terms of getting ready for a new administration,” he said.

Because of the lateness of results being finalized, Lake County News will follow up with the rest of the candidates in the lead races later Wednesday.

Overall, voter turnout reported thus far was at 48.8 percent, with precinct ballots cast totaling 8,132, or 25 percent, compared to 7,749 absentees ballots, or 23.8 percent of the vote, according to the voting data released by Fridley's office.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

District Attorney candidate Don Anderson shot baskets with his grandson at Quail Run Fitness Center in Lakeport, Calif., while he waited for the election returns to come in on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. Anderson later found out he will be the county's new top prosecutor. Photo by Gary McAuley.

Activity at the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport, Calif., went on into the early hours Wednesday after two of the county's voting machines broke down on Tuesday, November 2, 2010. Photo by Gary McAuley.

The solo-vehicle collision was reported shortly before 4 p.m. in the 9200 block of Konocti Bay Road at Sequoia, according to the California Highway Patrol.

The rollover crash resulted in the driver being ejected from the vehicle, according to reports from the scene.

REACH air ambulance transported the crash victim to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, officials reported.

The CHP reported that it was seeking a blood draw from the driver in the crash.

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The study is the most extensive and sensitive planetary census of its kind. Astronomers used the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii for five years to search 166 sun-like stars near our solar system for planets of various sizes, ranging from three to 1,000 times the mass of Earth.

All of the planets in the study orbit close to their stars. The results show more small planets than large ones, indicating small planets are more prevalent in our Milky Way galaxy.

“We studied planets of many masses – like counting boulders, rocks and pebbles in a canyon – and found more rocks than boulders, and more pebbles than rocks. Our ground-based technology can't see the grains of sand, the Earth-size planets, but we can estimate their numbers,” said Andrew Howard of the University of California, Berkeley, lead author of the study.

“Earth-size planets in our galaxy are like grains of sand sprinkled on a beach – they are everywhere,” Howard said.

The study is in the Oct. 29 issue of the journal Science.

The research provides a tantalizing clue that potentially habitable planets also could be common. These hypothesized Earth-size worlds would orbit farther away from their stars, where conditions could be favorable for life. NASA's Kepler spacecraft also is surveying sun-like stars for planets and is expected to find the first true Earth-like planets in the next few years.

Howard and his planet-hunting team, which includes principal investigator Geoff Marcy, also of the University of California, Berkeley, looked for planets within 80-light-years of Earth, using the radial velocity, or “wobble,” technique.

They measured the numbers of planets falling into five groups, ranging from 1,000 times the mass of Earth, or about three times the mass of Jupiter, down to three times the mass of Earth.

The search was confined to planets orbiting close to their stars – within 0.25 astronomical units, or a quarter of the distance between our sun and Earth.

A distinct trend jumped out of the data: smaller planets outnumber larger ones. Only 1.6 percent of stars were found to host giant planets orbiting close in.

That includes the three highest-mass planet groups in the study, or planets comparable to Saturn and Jupiter.

About 6.5 percent of stars were found to have intermediate-mass planets, with 10 to 30 times the mass of Earth – planets the size of Neptune and Uranus. And 11.8 percent had the so-called “super-Earths,” weighing in at only three to 10 times the mass of Earth.

“During planet formation, small bodies similar to asteroids and comets stick together, eventually growing to Earth-size and beyond. Not all of the planets grow large enough to become giant planets like Saturn and Jupiter,” Howard said. “It's natural for lots of these building blocks, the small planets, to be left over in this process.”

The astronomers extrapolated from these survey data to estimate that 23 percent of sun-like stars in our galaxy host even smaller planets, the Earth-sized ones, orbiting in the hot zone close to a star.

“This is the statistical fruit of years of planet-hunting work,” said Marcy. “The data tell us that our galaxy, with its roughly 200 billion stars, has at least 46 billion Earth-size planets, and that's not counting Earth-size planets that orbit farther away from their stars in the habitable zone.”

The findings challenge a key prediction of some theories of planet formation. Models predict a planet “desert” in the hot-zone region close to stars, or a drop in the numbers of planets with masses less than 30 times that of Earth.

This desert was thought to arise because most planets form in the cool, outer region of solar systems, and only the giant planets were thought to migrate in significant numbers into the hot inner region. The new study finds a surplus of close-in, small planets where theories had predicted a scarcity.

“We are at the cusp of understanding the frequency of Earth-sized planets among planetary systems in the solar neighborhood,” said Mario R. Perez, Keck program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “This work is part of a key NASA science program and will stimulate new theories to explain the significance and impact of these findings.”

For information about exoplanets and NASA's planet-finding program, visit http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov .

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In Clearlake, Jeri Spittler and Joey Luiz were the top vote getters in a field of nine candidates. They were seeking the seats to be vacated next month by Clearlake Councilmen Chuck Leonard and Roy Simons.

Preliminary results released early Wednesday morning by the Lake County Registrar of Voters showed that Spittler led the field with 769 votes, or 19.9 percent, followed by Luiz with 642 votes or 16.6 percent.

Finishing out of the seats were Bill Perkins, 547 votes, 14.1 percent; Jim Scholz, 528 votes, 13.6 percent; Frank Taylor, 457 votes, 11.8 percent; Barbara Grier, 401 votes, 10.4 percent; Raymond Brady, 239 votes, 6.2 percent; Estella Creel, 201 votes, 5.2 percent; and Michael J. Walton, 87 votes, 2.2 percent.

City Clerk Melissa Swanson was returned with 100 percent of the vote, or 1,785 ballots cast for her. No person filed for the city treasurer spot.

In Lakeport, the seats currently held by Mayor Jim Irwin and Council Ron Bertsch were on the ballot, with Bertsch not seeking reelection.

Businesswoman Stacey Mattina led the field, with 433 votes or 20.7 percent of the vote.

She was followed by former Lakeport Police Chief Tom Engstrom, who received 380 votes, or 18.2 percent, despite having dropped out of the race several weeks ago, citing commitments to his church, as Lake County News has reported.

Finishing third was George Spurr, with 315 votes or 15.1 percent of the vote, followed by Irwin, 306 votes, 14.6 percent; Marc Spillman, a city planning commissioner, 304 votes, 14.5 percent; former Councilman Ted Mandrones, 225 votes, 10.8 percent; and P.J. Racine, 130 votes, 6.2 percent.

It's unclear at this point if Engstrom can simply decline to serve, clearing the way for Spurr to take the seat, or if an appointment or special election may have to follow.

In other election news, the Konocti Unified School District Board of Trustees saw two incumbents returned and a new member elected.

Anita Gordon won reelection with 24.8 percent of the vote, or 2,233 votes, followed by Bill Diener, with 2,131 votes, 23.7 percent, and incumbent Herb Gura, 1,638 votes, 18.2 percent. All three will serve four-year terms on the board.

The remainder of the field included Russell Kay Hunt, 1,100 votes, 12.2 percent; Lynda C. Davis-Robinson, 1,008 votes, 11.2 percent; and Philip J. Tuley, 891 votes, or 9.9 percent.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

The incident occurred just before 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 29, on Point Lakeview Road in Kelseyville, the CHP reported.

A dark gray – almost black – compact Volkswagen, model year ranging between 1999 and 2005, hit a vehicle driven by a woman who had her 10-year-old child with her, according to the report. The woman sustained minor injuries.

The CHP said that, during the crash, the Volkswagen's driver's side mirror was broken off and the vehicle may have sustained damage to other portions of the driver's side.

The driver of the Volkswagen fled the scene without rendering assistance, the CHP said.

Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of this vehicle, its driver or both should call CHP Officer Rob Hearn, 707-279-0103.

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The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the second tasting room for Clay and Margarita Shannon was held Saturday, October 30, 2010, in Lower Lake, Calif. Photo by Terre Logsdon.

Located on Point Lakeview Road, in the highly-acclaimed Red Hills AVA just up the road from Gregory Graham Winery, Vigilance is Clay and Margarita Shannon's second Lake County tasting room.

“We want to share this beautiful site with everyone,” said Clay Shannon, gesturing with his arm over the expansive vineyards that wend downhill to Anderson Marsh, where Shannon visualizes kayaks launching to explore the abundant wildlife and birding opportunities, leading to Clear Lake beyond.

This vision for Vigilance includes turning the refurbished ranch house – which now serves as the tasting room with stunning views of the vineyards and marsh, complete with American white pelicans wheeling skyward in the distance – to a bed and breakfast which will welcome all.

“We want to capture an old-world experience,” Shannon explained. “Where families, couples, everyone, can experience the natural beauty and clean air here.”

At the same time, they hope to give visitors the chance to relax, enjoy local foods – including the grassfed beef and lamb Shannon raises– play cards at one of the picnic tables under the apple trees or in the olive orchard, or also be able to enjoy a family-friendly movie on a large outdoor screen during warm summer nights.

Congressman Mike Thompson visited and took part in the grand opening of Vigilance Winery & Vineyards on Saturday, October 30, 2010, in Lower Lake, Calif. Photo by Terre Logsdon.

Of course, sampling the many wines offered at Vigilance is something else one can enjoy here – or just sipping a lemonade. Shannon's overriding vision, he said, is to offer more good things to the world, which includes access to the outdoors via horseback, mountain bike, hiking and kayaking.

“We want this to be a place for people to connect,” Shannon said, “with each other, with nature, with the outdoors – all in a comfortable and welcoming setting.”

At the Vigilance grand opening on Saturday, Congressman Mike Thompson, co-chair of the Congressional Wine Caucus and representative for Lake County, welcomed guests and noted that Shannon brings more to the community than he takes away, giving a nod to Shannon's continuing effort to support the community.

“We're trying hard and spending a few dollars at it,” by buying and contracting locally as much as he can, Shannon explained.

District 3 Supervisor Denise Rushing, who was also in attendance for the grand opening, said she was impressed with Shannon's continuing dedication to support the communities in Lake County.

“He is a model of local business support,” Rushing said of Shannon, whose first tasting room in Lake County, under his Shannon Ridge label, is located in her district in Clearlake Oaks, in a refurbished schoolhouse on East Highway 20.

In addition to hiring locally, Shannon also donates locally, and recently donated materials for the natural building project under way at Clarks Island in Clearlake Oaks.

The name of the label, Vigilance, comes from the temperament of their two Maremma sheepdogs, who vigilantly oversee the sheep that help tend the vineyards and assist the Shannons in their sustainable practice of winegrape growing.

Besides, Shannon said of Vigilance, “It's a cool name, too.”

From the deck railing of the tasting room at Vigilance Winery & Vineyards, visitors can take in the stunning vistas to Anderson Marsh and Clear Lake below. Photo by Terre Logsdon.

Winemaker Mike Woods was dubbed the “King of Cab” at last years' Lake County People's Choice Awards, an event where professionals narrow the field of Lake County-branded wines and the “people” vote in a blind taste test naming the winners.

Woods not only oversees the production of all varietals of wines produced under Clay and Margarita Shannon's three labels – Shannon Ridge, Vigilance and Cross Springs – he also produces award-winning wines under his own Shed Horn Cellars label.

At their grand opening party, organized by Linda Shields, who handles “whatever else needs doing” for the three labels, Vigilance offered a Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cimarron – which is a multi-layered blend of Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Barbera, Mourvedre and Tempranillo – as well as single-vineyard Shannon Ridge labels of Roussanne, Viognier, Riesling, Barbera and Cabernet Sauvignon.

“All of the grapes for all of our wines are sustainably produced,” said Sales Manager Joey Luiz, “and everything is Lake County grown.”

Although production of their wines occur in Lake, it also occurs in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, according to Wood, as Shannon has no production facilities of their own here, but that hasn't been an issue.

And Lake County wine lovers – here and elsewhere – will love what the Shannons are sustainably producing here now, “and for generations to come,” Thompson remarked, which is in alignment with the rising future of Lake County.

“We will offer a safe place for friends and family to have a little peace,” Shannon noted.

If his little slice of paradise at Vigilance is any testament to the burgeoning local food and wine scene – paired with plans for amazing outdoor opportunities in Lake County – he just be might be on to something big.

Visit Vigilance online at www.vigilancewinery.com/.

E-mail Terre Logsdon at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

Although it's the end of October and seated scarecrows with wine glasses in hand greeted visitors to the opening, winegrape grower Clay Shannon said of this years' harvest,

Congressman Mike Thompson, 59, decisively won his seventh two-year term in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

“I feel both humbled and grateful,” Thompson told Lake County News just after 10 p.m. Tuesday, not long after he was declared the winner in a field that included Republic Loren Hanks, Green Party candidate Carol Wolman and Libertarian Mike Rodrigues.

With 89.1 percent of the precincts in the First Congressional District counted as of 2:45 a.m., Thompson had 92,591 votes, or 61.6 percent of the vote, compared to Hanks' 49,182 votes, accounting for 32.7 percent of the vote. Wolman took 5,138 votes, 3.4 percent, and Rodrigues received 3,600 votes, or 2.3 percent.

Hanks told supporters in Napa Tuesday night that they've seen “a powerful shift in public sentiment” with the toppling of the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives.

“This district kept its incumbent, and we wish Mike Thompson good health in the next Congress,” he said. “But the conservative constituents of the district have awakened and after tonight, we will retool and retrench.”

He said the race “race has been a good first step in a long campaign to return the country to a Constitutional foundation.”

Thompson said he's honored to be able to continue to serve the First Congressional District, where he said he's worked with residents on the issues that are important to them.

He said he is looking forward to getting back to work when Congress goes back into session on Nov. 15.

However, come January, when new members of Congress are sworn in, the House will be under new leadership, with the Republicans retaking the majority, whereas the Democrats retained their majority in the Senate.

As to one of the legislative targets of Republicans, “I don't think they can repeal health care,” said Thompson. “There are just too many good things people are already enjoying.”

Thompson said President Barack Obama also wouldn't sign such repeal legislation.

“Everybody knows that health care was not sustainable,” Thompson said. “It needed to be fixed.”

Thompson acknowledged that there has been a lot of criticism about the fix that Congress produced.

“The truth of the matter is, we have a health care path upon which we'll continue to move, continue to make sure that Californians and Americans have access to quality affordable health care,” Thompson said. “That's something we've been trying to do in this country for decades.”

The Republicans will now steer a lot of legislation, but no matter who is in the Speaker of the House's chair, Thompson said he's not concerned about working closely with his colleagues across the aisle, which is something he said he has always done and will continue to do.

“I've been in the minority more than I've been in the majority,” he said.

Looking ahead at the serious challenges still facing the country, Thompson said he hopes the new Republican majority will be “interested in working with everyone to do what's best for America.”

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .

Timothy Burger, 21, of Sacramento died after being shot in a fire fight in a home in Laytonville, according to a Monday report from Capt. Kurt Smallcomb of the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

The incident in which Burger died occurred at a residence on Steele Lane in Laytonville on Oct. 30, as Lake County News has reported.

Officials said the alleged home invasion was believed to have been linked to marijuana cultivation taking place at the residence.

Smallcomb said two other suspects in the case have been taken into custody.

A few hours after the incident on Oct. 30, two Mendocino County Sheriff's deputies, assisted by a Cal Fire officer, located 18-year-old Tyrone Bell and 19-year-old Christopher Shinn, both of Sacramento, walking south of Laytonville, Smallcomb said.

Detectives interviewed Bell and Shinn and subsequently arrested them, he said.

The men were booked into the Mendocino County Jail on charges of murder, conspiracy and robbery, with bail for each set at $250,000, according to Smallcomb.

An autopsy was scheduled to take place on Burger Monday. Smallcomb said the results would be released at a later date.

Also on Monday, Smallcomb reported that investigators were able to identify the suspect alleged to have shot a 19-year-old Laytonville man in an Oct. 28 confrontation that also was said to be connected to marijuana cultivation.

Leberado Lopez Ramirez, 35, a transient who is believed to have connections both to Oregon and Northern California, is alleged to have shot William Graves on Oct. 28 in or around the Bell Springs Road Area north of Laytonville, Smallcomb said.

Smallcomb said deputies learned that Graves and Ramirez – who were engaged in a marijuana operation – allegedly got into an altercation, with the result being that Graves was shot in the face.

On Oct. 29 detectives were able to identify Ramirez as the suspect who allegedly shot Graves, who Smallcomb said remains hospitalized.

Smallcomb said Ramirez still remains at large, and the investigation is continuing.

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The special meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 3, in the board chambers at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St., Lakeport.

The commission will consider the draft environmental impact report and draft environmental assessment on the project, which can be downloaded at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Community_Development/Bottle_Rock_Power_Draft_EIR_9-16-10.htm .

All written comments must be submitted prior to 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 1, to Community Development Director Richard Coel, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , telephone 707-263-2221.

Bottle Rock Power LLC is seeking a use permit and rezone in order to expand its steamfield, according to county documents.

The project is located within the Binkley Leasehold at 6743, 6825, 7358, 7385 and 7500 High Valley Road, Cobb.

As part of the project, the company wants to build two new geothermal well pads along with an access road, and 1.3 miles of new pipeline to connect to the existing pipeline serving the power plant.

Also part of the proposal is the drilling of 22 production and injection wells on the two proposed

well pads over the life of the project.

The commission hearing's purpose is to review the draft EIR's adequacy, and consider whether or not to direct preparation of the project's final EIR.

Since the plant reopened three and a half years ago, neighbors of the facility have brought forward numerous complaints about permit violations, traffic, environmental impacts and safety.

A number of community meetings in Cobb have been held to address those concerns, with the atmosphere at most of those meetings becoming heated as community members confronted plant officials.

One of the area property owners closely watching the process is Hamilton Hess, chairman of the Friends of Cobb Mountain, a group that formed in 1976 in response to a plan from Unocal to put geothermal wells on Cobb.

Hess said he's read the 750-page EIR, which he called “an immense thing.”

He added, “I think it's a poor document, frankly.”

Hess said he believed the transportation section is faulty, pointing to its statement that the number of vehicles and trips could be mitigated down to causing no impact.

Considering the existing traffic issues for residents along High Valley Road, “That's a very curious and, I would say, untrue statement to make,” Hess said.

He said the impacts on residents so far have been “fairly heavy in several respects,” including odor, traffic, noise and grading work that's been done without proper permits. “It's been a difficult situation.”

Hess also pointed out that there's no assurance that there is even enough steam in the field to justify the project, with the document's median estimate putting it at 26 megawatts below what the plant needs.

“It's a big gamble,” he said.

He said a lot of Cobb residents are planning to attend the Nov. 3 hearing.

“There are strong feelings in the valley about it,” he said.

E-mail Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow Lake County News on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LakeCoNews , on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-County-News/143156775604?ref=mf and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/LakeCoNews .