Remember When for the week of 8/29/17
120 years ago
Residual weather activity from hurricane Clyde, which swept through Baja, California and just missed Los Angeles, brought severe thunderstorms to the eastern Sierras. Lightning from the storms sparked numerous mountain fires, threatened livestock and charred countless residences.
70 years ago
A widespread hunt got under way for 20-year-old Virgil Lewis, who sawed his way out of the county jail and escaped in a stolen car. When it was discovered he was loose, police set up a roadblock on Highway 395 near Wendel.
45 years ago
The full-time enrollment at Lassen College hit a record high of 569. Tables and chairs were at a minimum as school officials had trouble accommodating the students.
Also, Father John Hannan was appointed pastor of Sacred Heart Church. Hannan also served as administrator for the parish.
35 years ago
Foreclosure proceedings for the Hotel Mt. Lassen were finalized after months of negotiating. Owners Bob and Harriet Clune reportedly lost $250,000 over 15 months of operation. A source close to the business credited the hotel’s failure to skyrocketing overhead costs and the city’s failing economy.
25 years ago
Former Lassen County District Attorney Warren Hass will temporarily fill the vacancy created by the resignation of district attorney Mark Nareau.
According to Lassen County District Administrative Officer Bill Bixby, Nareau has appointed Hass as assistant district attorney and he will assume those duties on Sept. 11, the day on which Nareau’s resignation becomes effective.
Hass will perform the duties as district attorney while the board of supervisors continues its search for a successor to fill the remainder of Nareau’s term. According to Bixby, that search should lead to an appointment in about three months, at which time, Bixby said, Hass has indicated he will be ready to retire.
15 years ago
Investigators with the Lassen County Sheriff’s Department were still trying Friday, Aug. 23 to identify the body found on Highway 44 last week.
On Aug. 20, a motorist found the body of a 50-60-year-old Asian woman wrapped in a blanket and located about 50 feet from the highway roughly seven miles east of the Lassen/Shasta County line. Investigators responded at about 10:20 a.m.
“I would characterize this as a body dump,” Sheriff Bill Freitas said on Friday. “We don’t think she was killed there.”
A pathologist in Reno finished the autopsy before Friday. However, dental records and fingerprints did not match those of any person reported missing.
10 years ago
Lassen Community College wrestling coach, Rex Branum claimed the recently released Lassen County Grand Jury showed he and Dr. Homer Cissell, LCC’s former president did nothing wrong regarding a $21,000 donation to the LCC foundation. The J. Robinson Intensive Camps issued a $21,000 check to Lassen College wrestling, and at Cissell’s direction, the money was deposited into the account of the LCC Foundation. The grand jury referred the matter to both the state attorney general’s office and the Lassen County District Attorney’s Office for review, alleging the coach and the former president misled the grand jury when they testified about the donation.
Last year
The Lassen County Board of Supervisors is still rallying for the future of the Honey Lake Power Company biomass plant. In two letters, one to Governor Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown and another to California Independent System Operator President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen Berberich, dated for Aug. 22 and signed by chairman Jim Chapman, the board expressed it’s concerns with the potentially end of the woody biomass plant in Wendel. In the letter to Berberich, the board expressed its belief that CAISO should issue a Reliability Must Run contract for HLP.
“Without immediate action by CAISO to reconsider its position on the RMR contract for HL Power, Lassen County residents will be at real risk of frequent and prolonged power outages being “islanded” and “isolated” from the grid. The most recent islanding incident occurred in May 2016,” read the letter.