|
 
COVER
STORY | PUBLISHER | CALENDAR
April 4, 2002
Two
elections next week
The March 5 county election
is behind us, but in two small cities the fun is about to begin.
There are city council contests in Trinidad and Fortuna next
Tuesday, April 9.
In Fortuna, three council seats
are open, three incumbents wish to keep them and they are facing
three challengers.
The election debate has centered
on classic municipal issues: development and budget priorities.
Development is happening faster in Fortuna than in any other
incorporated area of the county and it is not likely to slacken
anytime soon. The population, 10,600, is expected to grow by
at least 50 percent before the city runs out of buildable space.
Challenger Gary Kramer has made
controlling growth the cornerstone of his campaign. In his candidate's
statement, he said he would "do everything to preserve Fortuna's
quality of life, rural character and history." Fellow challenger
Deborah August is arguing that too much emphasis has been placed
on putting commercial activity downtown.
Compensation for Fortuna city
workers has become the other big issue. Fortuna's municipal employees,
especially police, have long complained that their pay lags behind
that of their peers in cities of similar size. All three challengers
and incumbent Odell Shelton have said they would support some
increase. Two incumbents, Phil Nyberg and Cliff Chapman, have
said there isn't enough money in Fortuna's budget to match cities
like Arcata or Eureka.
City Manager Dale Nieman has
weighed in, supporting Nyberg and Chapman's argument. He said
Fortuna only receives $126 per resident in taxes each year. Eureka
receives $306 per capita per year -- so they can afford to pay
as much as 35 percent more.
Nieman himself has become an
issue in the election as well. Challenger Dean Glaser said Nieman
has become too powerful, using his control over the flow of information
to the council to further his own agenda.
"You do not allow a vicious
dog to roam the neighborhood without controls, and at this time
the manager is a vicious dog," he said.
Glaser's campaign against Nieman
is not without precedent. Similar allegations cost former Eureka
city manager Harvey Rose his job in 2000.
Nieman remains philosophical.
"Well, I guess he's free to say what he wants," he
said.
The candidates:
Cliff Chapman: Incumbent, 62. Executive director of the Fortuna
Chamber of Commerce. Supports current city policies on growth
and employee compensation.
Odell Shelton: Incumbent, 58. Owns Shelton's Lube. Wants to judge
each development project on its individual merits. Open to increasing
employee compensation.
Phil Nyberg: Mayor and incumbent, 63 years. Veterinarian. Stands
behind the policies he has helped craft.
Deborah August: Challenger, 51. Real estate broker. Wants to shift
commercial development away from downtown. Sees increasing police
salaries as a public safety issue.
Gary Kramer: Challenger, 56. Retired. Wants to do more to control
growth and preserve Fortuna's rural character. Believes municipal
employee wages should be around state average.
Dean Glaser: Challenger, 57. Owner, Fortuna Marine. Wants to
reduce the amount of influence city manager exerts on council,
especially on development agenda. Supports increased police compensation.
In Trinidad four candidates
-- Greg Bowman, James Webb, Patricia Morales and Greg McCormick
-- will compete for three seats vacated by incumbents. That means
there will be only one loser, right? Right, but things could
get complicated if the loser is someone other than McCormick,
who decided he'd rather not run for office but withdrew too late
for his choice to be reflected on the ballot.
"About a week after I decided
to go for it, my wife and I found out we were about to have our
second kid," said McCormick, a 28-year-old Caltrans engineer.
City Clerk Alex Brehm said,
"To his credit, McCormick learned that serving on the council
is more than just showing up to meetings." Nonetheless,
since McCormick's name will appear on the ballot, there's a possibility
that he will be among the winners. If that happens, another election
for his seat might have to be held.
Kinetic
Museum disbanded?
The Kinetic Sculpture Race Museum,
a monument to the achievements of impractical dreamers, may soon
become a victim of its own refusal to be sensible.
The museum, which houses outlandish
amphibious vehicles used in past Kinetic Sculpture races, is
being kicked out of its space in Ferndale's Peers Building. Might
the museum's pieces be scattered to the four winds?
That grim possibility is looking
ever more likely, said Hobart Brown, founder of both the museum
and the race behind it. Brown owns the Peers Building, a former
car dealership, with Oakland resident Bill Neil.
Neil wants to sell and Brown
said he has reluctantly agreed to go along with it.
"It breaks my heart that
it has to go," he said.
Prospects for a new home look
dim. Brown said he had some ideas -- "Some zillionaire would
buy a piece of land, build a metal barn, put in a toilet and
electricity" -- but admitted they weren't likely to be realized
anytime soon.
So what's an eccentric artist
to do with his disorganized collection of enormous pedal-powered
contraptions? Send them to Australia, of course.
"I've been going down to
Perth for the last eight years to help them with their race,"
Brown said. "I called them and I said, `I've got a bunch
of these things coming up without homes.' They said they want
me to send them over there. I'm looking at putting three or four
of them in a shipping container."
Others may be sent to less exotic
locales: Some will be housed in Brown's Ferndale art gallery,
while others are being offered to people interested in using
them in this year's race. A new Kinetic Sculpture Race in Baltimore
is also interested.
But any way you slice it, the
museum will cease to be. That's a shame, Brown said, because
it's intentional chaos is unique among museums.
"There's no other like
it. It's isn't organized. That means it doesn't take control
away from the viewer. It tantalizes! There's no gold rope, nothing
explaining it. It's somewhere between an Easter egg hunt and
Willy Wonka's workshop."
The museum's essentially disorganized
nature may not be the mainstream's idea of what a educational
experience should be, Brown said. But he remains convinced that
he -- and his way of thinking -- will prevail.
"The museum shows a lack
of control, which is what were all about. It is a philosophy
that isn't yet well received all over the world. But someday
it will be."
 Klamath river "endangered"
U.S. Congressman Mike Thompson
(second from right) joined Tim McKay (center) of the Northcoast
Environmental Center at the Woodley Island Marina on Tuesday
to announce that the Klamath River has been named one of the
nation's most endangered rivers. The designation, by the conservation
group American Rivers, comes as the fate of the Klamath is being
decided by the federal government. The Bureau of Reclamation,
which controls the river's flows, has released a draft plan that
would give more water to irrigators and less to the river. That
draft has come under fire from the state Department of Fish and
Game, which says it would hurt protected fish species. A final
plan is expected soon.
Property
taxes due
Think you have until the 15th
to pay your taxes? Think again.
The second installment of Humboldt
County property taxes are due April 10 and as of the beginning
of the month there was more then $22 million left to be collected.
Individuals who have recently
purchased property may not have received a tax bill. Failure
to receive a bill will not exempt landowners from a late fee,
however.
If you are unsure about whether
or not you owe tax, call Humboldt County Treasurer and Tax Collector
Stephen Strawn at 476-2450.
Shareholders
vote yes
Shareholders in Fortuna's Eel
River Sawmills have voted to approve the sale of their company
to a Nevada corporation.
The approval was all but a foregone
conclusion, because most of the sawmill's stock is owned by the
Melvin and Grace McLean Trust. The trust has backed the sale
to the Eel River Acquisition Corp. as a way out of the company's
money troubles.
The company has struggled for
years and laid off the last of its sawmill employees about two
months ago. The only employees who still have jobs are in management
or at the company's Fairhaven Power Plant.
Brown wins
GOP nod
After a lengthy counting process,
Lake County Supervisor Ron Brown has been declared the winner
of the 1st District Republican state Assembly primary.
Brown beat Mendocino Deputy
District Attorney Tim Stoen by just 94 votes after the last batch
of absentee ballots was counted in Sonoma County.
Stoen, a moderate, campaigned
as the Republican candidate most likely to win a traditionally
Democratic seat in the fall election. Brown, a self-proclaimed
conservative, campaigned on traditional Republican themes.
He faces Patty Berg, the Eurekan
who won the Democratic nomination. Berg is heavily favored.
But Brown said he expects to
succeed -- with a little help from another competitor. He plans
to include Green Party candidate Doug Riley-Thron in the election
as much as possible.
"I've made a deal where
I won't appear at any debates where he can't appear," Brown
said. "He's going to take a lot of votes from her."
COVER
STORY | PUBLISHER | CALENDAR
Comments? E-mail the Journal: ncjour@northcoast.com
© Copyright 2002, North Coast Journal,
Inc.
|