All interested parties may attend and voice their opinions or concerns. Written testimony may be submitted in lieu of physical appearance. Please submit written testimony by the end of today, March 10th, for council review and consideration.

According to the city’s announcement, the subject property at 1409 Fourth Street, “has been a source of frustration for the neighborhood and the community for some time.”

Cody Loflin, the city’s Code Enforcement Officer explained that records available at the time of the investigation show an attempt to bring this property into compliance started as early as May 19, 2017.

“Throughout the years neighbors have filed complaints relating to disturbances caused by the property owner and his many tenants. Though in recent months, the property has not had tenant issues, the core of the problem has remained, that being the numerous dogs on the property.”

“Dogs have been a primary source of unreasonable noise, odors, and fear.”

Code Enforcement obtained records from the Susanville Police Department relating to calls for service at the address.

“From September 2017 through August 2022 there were at least 116 calls for service from this property. The 116 calls for service do not necessarily account for all calls as multiple phone calls or requests throughout the day may not necessarily be represented in the final number.”

Loflin explained that it would be reasonable to infer that during this statistical period the community’s public safety partners (Susanville Police Department, Susanville Fire Department, Sierra Emergency Medical Services Alliance) have responded to 200-300, if not more, calls for service at this residence alone.

“On August 9, 2022, Code Enforcement successfully obtained a nuisance abatement order to compel the property owner, John Murray, to begin abating conditions fostering a nuisance on his property in the hope that the abatements would alleviate the issues facing the community. Unfortunately, Mr. Murray proved not to be persuaded to take full ownership and responsibility for the issues plaguing Fourth Street.”

In November 2022, Code Enforcement began assisting the Susanville Police Department relating to animal control issues as the department had not filled their vacant animal control position. At this time reports of John Murray’s dogs, dogs consistent to that of a wolf-dog hybrid, were consistently observed to be roaming at large and chasing wildlife.

“The reported locations were generally in the area of Fourth Street as well as the southern end of the city such as Richmond Road, South Street, Cypress Street, and the Maurino Manor Subdivision. Code Enforcement obtained several written statements regarding the dogs. The statements all named John Murray as the owner of the dogs and that they were being kept on his property off Cheney Creek Road.”

“Specific to this set of complaints, there was only one statement that was received by a taxpayer of this city, while all other statements were from residents of the unincorporated territory of Lassen County.”

This matter escalated at the January 18th, city council meeting.

“Many residents of the City of Susanville and those that reside just outside within unincorporated Lassen County, voiced their concerns over the dogs owned by John Murray. This meeting and those that followed provided details that the dogs were roaming between Murray’s residence on Fourth Street and his property off Cheney Creek Road.”

The Susanville Police Department continued their efforts to bring Mr. Murray into compliance. Several citations for dog at large were issued by the Susanville Police Department and Lassen County Sheriff’s Office.

On February 15th, Code Enforcement received information from Susanville Police Chief Cochran that Mr. Murray had self-admitted to having a total number of 9 dogs within his Fourth Street residence.

“Mr. Murray was provided with notice of a violation of the nuisance abatement order issued against him by the Planning Commission. Mr. Murray was then notified of a public hearing to have a declaration by the legislative body of this city to name all the dogs owned by Mr. Murray to be a public nuisance and shall order the compliance to all local, state, and federal laws and to prohibit any activity that would foster a public nuisance to be allowed by his ownership of his dogs.”

Susanville Municipal Code Section 6.04.080 empowers the city council to declare any animal or condition of real property related to the harboring of animals within this city as a public nuisance and provide notice to the property owner with a timeline to abate said nuisance.

The city council shall consider any oral or written testimony provided to the council from any member of the public. To ensure the respondent’s due process rights, the respondent shall be provided an opportunity to provide information or defense of his actions to the city council.

Officer reports totaled 111, with a variety of reasons for the report being filed.

There were a total of 104 front desk / counter calls.

There were seventeen misdemeanor, and fourteen felony arrests in February.

After registration and breakfast, Round-Robin pools were created based on the teams that were able to make the trip, as the weather prevented many schools from travelling to Redding.

More than one-hundred people volunteered their time to help run this competition, which showcased the academic prowess of students from across our region.

Teams of four faced off, with toss-up questions that either team could ring in and answer, followed by a bonus question for the team that correctly answered the toss-up question.

Toss-up questions were worth 4 points, and bonus questions worth 10. Categories included Chemistry, Biology, Earth and Space Science, Physics, Energy, and Math, with the majority being multiple choice questions while some were short answer questions. Each game was comprised of two 8-minute halves, with as many as 23 toss-up question.

To start the day, Lassen faced the U-Prep 2 team, with Lassen taking an early lead and maintaining that lead until the second half where U-Prep tied the score. On the second to last question, U-Prep pulled ahead by answering both the toss-up and bonus question correctly.

Lassen responded by answering the last toss-up and bonus question correctly to pull even for their closest game of the day, each team scoring 64 points.

Lassen easily won their next 5 matches, scoring 92-4 against Gridley 1, 72-26 against Shasta 2, 76-32 against Shasta 3, 68-26 against Foothill 3, and 54-8 against Gridley 2. By virtue of their strong performance in Pool play, they were seeded #2 in the playoff brackets.

They took on Foothill 2 as the #7 seed, and after losing the lead early, they held Foothill scoreless in the 2nd half of the game winning 82-12. They then faced off against the #3 seed, Chico 2, holding them scoreless for the first half and winning 26-18 in a tight match that came down to the last question, which earned them a spot in the final match.

Sitting on stage in front of all the middle and high school teams, their coaches and supporters, Lassen faced off against U-Prep 1, the #1 seed, for the title and a trip to the National Science Bowl competition.

Lassen Captain Jeremy Nielsen answered the first toss-up question correctly to take the early lead, which was quickly lost to the U-Prep team who answered the next 4 in a row.

However, the score stayed close as no one was able to correctly answer the bonus questions. Lassen answered the next question correctly, and the team came up with a correct response to the bonus question, taking the lead back. At the end of the first half, Lassen was leading by a score of 22-20.

Lassen started the second half by extending their lead, but U-Prep came back with two consecutive correct responses. Lassen came right back to take the lead, but U-Prep took it back with a correct response and a bonus question, leading to a score of Lassen 40 and U-Prep 52.

Lassen answered the final question correctly, and with time expired, had one last chance to answer a bonus question, which would give Lassen the lead and the championship.

Unfortunately, the answer to the math question was off by one, and Lassen took second place by a score of 44-52.

Lassen had its best showing at the Science Bowl since it last went to nationals in 2018. Given that the last two years, the Science Bowl was not held due to Covid restrictions, Lassen has finished in the top 2 twice in the last 4 competitions.

The team would like to thank Coach Kevin McCullough for his efforts in preparing them for the event, and driver Bob Nielsen for getting them to, and from, the competition, despite the snow.

The team also appreciates Lassen Municipal Utility District for sponsoring the event, along with many other sponsors across the north state.

Along with promoting the beef industry, the Cattlewomen and Cattlemen raise funds to award these scholarships each year to local youth in our community.

Completed applications must be postmarked by April 1st, 2023.

If you have any questions please email lassencattlewomen@gmail.com or contact Scholarship Chairman Kelsey Marks at P.O. Box 1469, Susanville, CA.

Houses under construction on North Fairfield Street. Eastman Studios photo

Building Permits Issued in Lassen

March 10, 1950

According to F. F. Nixon, city building inspector, about $103,000 worth of new building permits have been issued in Susanville in recent weeks.

Over $42,000 of this amount is to be spent on new dwellings; $32,000 for a new laundry, and the balance on garages, additions to buildings, repair work, etc.

Nixon credited the building spurt to the warm weather and the hopes that come with spring.