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April 5, 2001
`
Hem jesti? '
"What are we doin' here?"
says Luke.
Harry replies, "This is
it."
"Hem jesti?"
"The Majestic. Some of
the letters are missing."
"We live in a movie theater?"
"No, in the apartment over
it. Now come, come..."
![[photo of Majestic sign]](news0405-majestic.jpg) This bit of dialogue from The
Majestic, the film under production in Ferndale, is just
a taste of what you'll find at jimcarreyonline.com/movies/upcoming.html
--part of a massive website devoted to Jim Carrey, star of director
Frank Darabont's film. The site also includes almost daily reports
from the set and photos, some shot by KHUM DJ Gary Franklin.
Carrey plays Peter Appleton,
a screenwriter from Hollywood who is suffering from amnesia.
At the point early in the story when he sees the theater for
the first time, he thinks he is Luke, son of Harry Trimble (Martin
Landau), owner of the run-down theater.
Shooting for The Majestic
is right on schedule, according to publicist Ernie Malik. As
the cast and crew prepared for a break over Jazz Fest weekend,
there were only three weeks of Ferndale filming left to go and
only half of that time will be on Main Street.
Up until this week the weather
was ideal for filming, even the brief spring showers did not
stop the show. Monday the action moved indoors to Harry's apartment,
one of three "back-up" sets built in Hindley Hall at
the Ferndale Fairgrounds.
Malik took the Journal on
a tour of the makeshift sound stage where the sets have been
constructed. They include the office of the town doctor, Doc
(David Ogden Stiers) and the dark basement home of Emmett (Gerry
Black), the Majestic's aging usher. Harry's apartment has windows
looking out on the theater sign and into a painted version of
Ferndale and the cemetery on the hill behind it (see photo).
As the Journal goes to
press Tuesday, the cast list was not complete. Several area actors,
including Joel Agnew and Bob Wells, auditioned for "the
Reverend," a coveted speaking part. When we spoke with Malik,
he said the casting director was still considering the Humboldt
actors along with some from Los Angeles.
A number of Humboldt County
school marching bands auditioned for a role in the film's parade
scene. The Marching Lumberjacks learned last week that they got
the part.
-- reported by Bob Doran
Agencies
in accord on RR
At a meeting in Sacramento March
16 the four federal agencies involved in the reopening of the
Northwest Pacific Railroad line reached a tentative agreement
regarding responsibilities.
"Essentially we established
who is doing what, depending on the phases of the project,"
said Sandro Amaglio, regional environment officer for the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, in a telephone interview from San
Francisco.
The meeting resulted in a memorandum
of understanding. Once that document is approved, FEMA can finalize
the environmental assessment for its portion -- phase 1 -- of
the project, which is the reopening of the line through to Eureka.
"The Federal Highway Administration
will pick up the baton for the next phase," Amaglio said.
Cheryl Willis, deputy director
of planning for the California Department of Transportation in
Eureka, whose agency works closely with the Federal Highway Administration,
said phase 2 is "demonstration portion" of the project
once the rail line is open and moving freight.
Willis, who helped arrange the
meeting in Sacramento, said part of the delay in reopening the
line, which has been closed since 1998, has been due to the myriad
of state and federal agencies involved.
"There are numerous state
and federal agencies and different funds involved. They all have
different roles and responsibilities," she said. "When
we get to implemention, it takes a lot of coordination."
Regarding environmental review,
FEMA is the lead agency for phase 1.
"For the state environmental
processes, NCRA [North Coast Railroad Authority] is the lead
agency," Willis said.
Some environmental groups say
they are prepared to challenge FEMA's environmental assessment
in court if it is found to be inadequate.
Other federal agencies attending
the Sacramento meeting were Fish and Wildlife and National Marine
Fisheries Service.
Seniors
making hard choices
Sharp increases in natural gas
and electricity rates may be especially hard on seniors living
on fixed incomes.
"I am getting reports that
seniors are making choices between medications they need, their
dietary intake --keeping themselves warm," said Anthony
Antoville, a resource specialist with the Area Agency on Aging's
Senior Information and Assistance Program.
Antoville's office provides
seniors with advice about how they can help pay for their energy.
He said there has been a four-fold increase during the last year
in the number of people who have called because of an imminent
PG&E shutoff. And those who are managing to pay their bills
may be sacrificing their health to do so. Not only do they pull
money from their medications and food budgets to pay the bills,
Antoville said he also gets calls from seniors who are cold because
they "keep their thermostats as low as they can go."
The basic problem is that these
people lack the flexibility in their budgets to accommodate the
higher costs, Antoville said. "They are Social Security
recipients, they live in subsidized housing, and they are having
to make some very serious decisions."
The Salvation Army and the Redwood
Community Action Agency both offer financial assistance for energy
costs. But they are short-term solutions at best, Antoville said.
"We are definitely seeing
a problem right now with no apparent end in sight."
Property
tax deadline
Do you own property in Humboldt
County?
The second installment on your
2000-2001 property tax is due Tuesday, April 10. Payments by
mail must be postmarked by that day to avoid a late charge.
The tax collector's office suggests
mailing early. Those paying taxes in person at the County Courthouse
may experience delays waiting in line.
Aesthetics
of solar panels
"If it looks ugly on my
roof here, it's gonna look real ugly somewhere else, because
this is the ugliest part of town," said Norm Ehrlich, owner
of Eureka's Six Rivers Solar Co.
Ehrlich was talking about his
plan to put solar panels on the roof of his building on south
Broadway -- a plan nixed last week by Eureka's Architectural
Design Review Committee.
The committee found the panels
would be "ugly and inharmonious" with the surrounding
neighborhood's ambience. Sid Hughes, a planner with the city's
Community Development Department, said, "There has been
slow improvement in the appearance of Broadway [and] the overall
appearance of the proposed project ... was not in keeping with
that."
Ehrlich and the city have agreed
that he can install his project; he plans to move the panels
further back on his roof to conceal them. But he still plans
on appealing the committee's decision, because it will affect
him as a purveyor of solar panels.
"If I want to sell energy
equipment to anybody in Eureka, I can't have it be contingent
on how ugly it looks," Ehrlich said.
Besides, "I think solar
panels are beautiful," he said. "My opinion is that
opening up a $500 PG&E bill is ugly."
"I can move my panels back
on my roof where they are out of sight. But the bigger issue
is that not everybody is going to be able to hide their panels."
More money
for salmon?
A bill that would funnel $750
million into salmon restoration efforts in five western states
has been introduced by Rep. Mike Thompson. The money would fund
habitat restoration in Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho
and Alaska.
"The No. 1 cause of drastic
decline in salmon and steelhead along California's North Coast
is habitat loss," Thompson stated. "Once they are gone,
nothing we can do will bring them back."
No wet weather
test period
The dry winter has forced the
Humboldt County Department of Environmental Health to cancel
wet-weather testing for on-site sewage disposal systems for this
year.
The test determines whether
sewage systems will contaminate groundwater. It is a requirement
for those wanting to develop land in Fieldbrook, Hydesville and
Trinidad, parts of Freshwater, Jacoby Creek and Old Arcata Road,
and some other portions of the county. This year, there was not
enough rainfall to assure an accurate test.
Call the department for more
information at 445-6215.
Bye-bye,
billboards
Opponents of billboards on Highway
101, take heart: It looks like four of the outdoor advertising
structures are about to lose their leases.
The billboards are on property
owned by the city of Eureka and the leases end this week. The
City Council decided this week whether to renew their leases.
While the meeting was after press time, the city's staff has
recommended the leases be terminated and the signs removed.
Three of the billboards sit
on the west of 101 at the Elk River interchange and one is located
at the intersection of Broadway and Henderson. All are owned
by Infinity Outdoor.
Eureka writer
wins awards
Amy Stewart, a Eureka resident
and writer, has won the Jodi Stutz Award for poetry from Humboldt
State University. This is a good time for Stewart, who just completed
From the Ground Up, a memoir of starting a garden in Santa
Cruz. She is on a 14-city tour to promote her book. A paperback
edition is due out in early 2002.
Stewart writes for OrganicGardening.com,
Bird Watcher's Digest and has published in Family Circle's
Easy Gardening and Victoria.
Butterfly
to speak at C/R
![[Butterfly book cover]](news0405-luna.jpg) Since Julia Butterfly Hill descended
from her redwood perch 16 months ago, her life has been a whirlwind
of travel. This week she's back on the North Coast, and while
she's here she will do what she's been doing around the country
and around the world, she will speak to large crowds.
In February Hill served as part
of the Religious Delegation for Forest Conservation in Washington,
D.C., then returned to California for a performance of Luna
Tree, a family version of her story that was accompanied
by the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra.
March found the activist/author
on 12 college campuses in 11 states and in Italy where she met
with the country's minister of agriculture and participated in
a forum with Pannello Ecologico, an organization that manufactures
furniture and other wood products using an innovative process
recycling wood.
In April she hits the campus
circuit again including two events close to home. April 5 Hill
gives a talk at the Crescent City campus of College of the Redwoods
and April 6 she speaks at the CR's Forum Theater as part of the
school's Visiting Writers series. She will read from Legacy
of Luna, a personal account of her transformation while spending
two years living in a redwood tree.
The book has been translated
into five languages. On April 3 it was released in paperback
by Harper Collins' HarperSanFrancisco division.
Unless you already have ticket
for Hill's talk at CR, you are out of luck. More than 300 free
tickets were snapped up as soon as the event was announced last
fall.
New tech
site for North Coast
The Redwood Technology Consortium
has given the high tech industry on the North Coast a push by
launching a website dedicated to the development of that business
sector. The consortium, a trade organization that seeks to provide
the necessary conditions for high-tech growth, has opened the
doors at www.redwoodtech.com.
As a trading center for high-tech
talent, the site is still young. There were just four jobs posted
and three people seeking work in the "Talent Center."
But with a growing high-tech business community in Humboldt County,
there's room to grow.
Nuclear
expert to speak
When Andreas Toupadakis talks
about the dangers of nuclear weapons, he speaks from experience.
Toupadakis, who worked for the federal government at nuclear
weapons labs until he felt compelled to resign, will be speaking
in Arcata Saturday, Sunday and Monday at on the dangers such
weapons present.
"I have seen how easy it
is for nuclear contamination to occur and how hard it is to clean
it up," Toupadakis stated.
See this week's Calendar for
details.
Implementing
Proposition 36
Tom Antoon, senior program manager
for Humboldt County's mental health, alcohol and drug treatment
system, calls Proposition 36 "a thoughtful solution"
to the serious problems of drugs and crime. [See "A county
awash in drugs and alcohol," March 22.]
"Don't stick them in jail.
Get them off the merry-go-round, get them into treatment and
make them more productive members of society," he said.
On that, everyone can agree -- from law enforcement officers
to treatment counselors.
Unfortunately, the new law,
which mandates that nonviolent drug offenders be placed in treatment
rather than jail, is so vague that most of the people and agencies
responsible for making it work are still in the dark -- and the
launch date for the program is just months way.
Antoon has the task of putting
together an implementation plan for state approval and has invited
members of the law enforcement and treatment community to help
him. But as they try and put together the puzzle, there are still
a lot of pieces missing.
Will the existing network of
treatment providers be adequate? Will people forced into therapy
by law be willing to change their lives?
Funds are already in short supply
at county government and Proposition 36 won't help, said Karen
Suiker, Humboldt County's assistant administrative officer. The
law provides some funding for treatment -- Humboldt County will
get $246,000 to plan and launch the program and $492,000 annually
to run it. But Suiker is sure that won't cover the program's
costs.
Funding for construction of
new treatment facilities and drug testing were specifically excluded
from Proposition 36 and no one is sure where that money will
come from.
"Over time Proposition
36 may save us money," Suiker said, because fewer people
will need to be incarcerated. "But it cannot help us in
the short term."
Even if the money was readily
available, the treatment community would still anticipate difficulties.
"For us, there will be
challenges around increased volume," said Mike Goldsby,
program director for Family Recovery Services, the drug treatment
program administered by the St. Joseph Health System.
Antoon estimates that the law
will put around 300 new patients into Humboldt County's drug
treatment system, but said that number, like much else, is still
just a guess.
"We don't have any answers,
we just have needs and questions," said Helen Gale, administrator
of the Mobile Medical Office, an RV outfitted as a clinic that
travels to remote areas of the county. Gale said the office,
now starting drug treatment programs, is interested in providing
treatment through Proposition 36 but doesn't know how it will
play out.
"I think that Proposition
36 might help us sustain a program by referring additional patients
to us," she said, but she's not willing to build a treatment
program on the foundation of a still-ambiguous law.
The good news is that Humboldt
County faces these problems from a position of strength, Goldsby
said. He said the entire anti-drug community here, from law enforcement
to the judges to the staff at rehab centers, believes treatment
works.
"This is a neat time to
reflect that we have good relationships here in Humboldt County.
We have a responsive drug court, aware probation officers and
treatment programs that are open to referrals from criminal justice.
Our law enforcement community has been very explicit about the
need for more treatment," he said. "I think this is
a very different situation than what many communities have."
That cooperation and trust will
be important, Goldsby said, because the law has the potential
to cause infighting. "There could be money fights, fights
between providers and arguments between the need for increased
treatment beds.
"And there are going to
be philosophical issues," he added. "Criminal justice
hasn't always believed in treatment. Some thought it was the
easy way out." And many treatment programs have been suspicious
of mandated referrals because they perceived that people forced
into therapy wouldn't accept its teachings.
Those hostile attitudes don't
exist in Humboldt County, Goldsby said. "No one comes into
treatment 100 percent happy about it," he said. "But
by day four or five, you can't tell the difference" between
people who checked themselves in and those that were forced into
treatment.
The strongest asset Humboldt
County carries into the Proposition 36 implementation is its
drug court. The court already diverts a lot of people from jail
into treatment.
And the ambiguities and funding
gaps in the law might be cleaned up by additional legislation.
California Senate Majority Leader John Burton has planned legislation
that would fund drug testing. And Sen. Wesley Chesbro will be
holding a town hall meeting in Eureka this week to find
out what people in Humboldt think about the law and what he can
do to help.
Antoon said the law's ambiguity
may be a blessing in disguise, as it will give Humboldt the flexibility
to fit the program to local needs.
"Of course it leads to
some complications but it also provides for customization on
a local level. I don't think any of the obstacles caused by the
ambiguity are impossible to overcome."
Chesbro's town hall meeting,
"The Implementation of Prop. 36, Issues, Challenges and
Opportunities," will be April 9 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. in the
Board of Supervisors Chambers in the County Courthouse.
-- reported by Arno Holschuh
Open
to information
The North Coast Regional Water
Quality Control Board has put out a call for information on the
condition of streams and rivers. The agency needs to collect
information on fish populations, pollution, timber harvest-related
damage and water temperature to fulfill its obligations under
the Clean Water Act.
If you have any information
on the health of a waterway on the North Coast, call the board
at 570-3762.
Humboldters
go abroad
Two separate exchange programs
are sending Humboldt County residents to other countries to learn
about lives and cultures.
Dr. Kim Bauriedel, who has been
active in organizing several other exchange programs, has been
selected to lead a Rotary medical excursion to Russia. He and
four other medical professionals will be touring the cities of
Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk and Bamaul.
While Bauriedel and his colleagues
are learning about Russia's medical system, Eureka High student
Sarah Leal will be going to Germany as part of a government exchange
program.
Leal has been awarded the Congress-Bundestag
Youth Exchange Scholarship, which includes language instruction,
admission to a German high school, excursions to cities within
Germany and meetings with both German and American officials.
Callahan
lifts to new heights
Eureka resident and national
female bench-press champion Tammi Callahan returned triumphant
from the 2001 California State Power Lifting meet last week,
where she broke records and held onto her title.
Callahan, competing with women
who weigh between 132.75 and 148.75 pounds, bench pressed 225.5
pounds, dead lifted 330.5 pounds and 308.75 pounds. The effort
was enough to win not only the meet but also the title of Best
Female Lifter.
The next challenge for Callahan
will be to defend her title as National Bench Press Champion
in September. A win at the national meet would earn her a trip
to the world championships in New Zealand in December.
Training
for watershed work
Landowners who have creeks and
streams flowing through their land and want to improve their
condition may be interested in a new course being offered by
the Mattole Restoration Council.
The class, to be held April
16-20, will focus on identifying where erosion is occurring and
how to stop it. Special attention will be given to restoring
and strengthening roads, seen as a major source of the silt which
clogs streams and degrades salmon habitat. The class is funded
by the Department of Fish and Game and the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation.
Those who want to learn the
basics of salmon habitat restoration should call the council
at 629-3514.
Tourism
in county up
The 2001 Humboldt County tourist
season is shaping up to be the best ever, according to statistics
gathered by the Humboldt County Visitors and Convention Bureau.
The bureau gives out information
every winter in the hopes that travelers will make the drive
or flight north. Staffers have talked to 114 percent more people
this year than last year -- and last year was already a record-breaker.
The increases "are not
a fluke," said Tony Smithers, marketing director for the
bureau. They are a trend caused by increased advertising and
a renewed interest in Humboldt's main symbol, the redwood.
BSS building
to cost more
Bids were received March 22
for the construction of Humboldt State University's planned new
Behavioral and Social Sciences Building, and the news was not
good: The lowest bid, from Intertex General Contractors of Valencia,
was $4 million more than the anticipated cost.
The news comes as lines are
being drawn in the fight between HSU and the city of Arcata over
the building. The city maintains that the educational facility
would be oppressive to the surrounding neighborhood and has filed
suit against the university. State Sen. Wesley Chesbro wrote
a letter to the California State University Board of Trustees
on the city's account. In March Chancellor Charles Reed responded
with a letter of his own defending the building.
The building is slated for completion
in the fall of 2003.
101 widening
dropped
The plan to build a bypass around
Richardson's Grove State Park in southern Humboldt, which has
been on the books since 1959 but never begun due to cost and
environmental considerations, has been dropped.
"Every few years someone
would say, `We should do something about this project,' and then
they'd see it wouldn't work and put it back on the shelf,"
said Friday Ululani, a project manager with Caltrans.
J Warren Hockaday, executive
director of the Eureka Chamber of Commerce and a supporter of
Highway 101 widening, said the narrow road "results in a
higher cost of doing business for anyone who has to ship products
in or out and affects the competitive ability of local business."
Caltrans dropping the project means the business community has
to concentrate on other transportation improvements like further
port development, supporting a revitalized rail system and increasing
the airport's capacity.
COVER
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