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April 14, 2005
PALCO LOGGING OVERTURNED:
An official from the State Water
Resources Board dealt a blow to the Pacific Lumber Co. last Wednesday,
staying a previous decision by a lower body to allow the company
to log up to 75 percent of its approved timber harvest plans
in the Freshwater Creek and Elk River watersheds. The action
was prompted by an appeal filed by the Humboldt Watershed Council.
In his decision, Richard Katz, a member of the state board, found
that harm would likely result to the residents of those watersheds
if the logging were allowed. Katz also turned aside arguments
that the company and its contractors would suffer serious financial
harm if it were not allowed to proceed with the THPs. "[T]he
evidence clearly indicates that Palco is largely responsible
for the circumstances in which it now finds itself," he
wrote. In a press release, company CEO Robert Manne said that
he would fight the stay. "Palco will request an immediate
appeal to the full state board and we are confident that the
full board will overturn this one individual member's decision,"
he said. Katz's appeal came just as the company announced that
it was seeking to refinance $750 million in long-term debt.
GOBBLE, GOBBLE, BURP: WaterMark's
buying binge may be over. According to one source, the company
may be shedding many of the brands it has acquired -- but not
Yakima. On Tuesday CEO Jim Clark said in a telephone interview,
"I have nothing definite to report, but we are always talking
to those on the buy side and the sell side." The company
was founded in 1998 by combining two premium kayak brands, Daggar
and Perception, and it immediately began gobbling up other outdoor
sport gear companies like marshmallows. There was Harmony paddle
sports accessories in 1999; Yakima, Arcata's successful roof
rack company, in 2001; Rhode Gear, another vehicle rack manufacturer,
in 2001; and AT Paddles in 2003. The company's headquarters were
moved to Arcata in 2001, but last summer the company announced
it was moving most administrative operations to Portland, Ore.
Company officials had promised to leave behind 70 or so employees
in Arcata and a few departments, mostly in customer service.
But in January, it was announced those jobs, too, would go north
and all local operations on the North Coast would cease by September.
WaterMark's main competitors are Johnson Outdoors and Confluence
Watersports.
FISH SERVICE PROTECTS
SOME STURGEON:
The National Marine Fisheries Service
announced last week that it would seek to list the green sturgeon
-- one of the fish at issue in the dispute over Klamath River
water -- as a "threatened species" under the endangered
species act. However, the decision affected only the Sacramento
River run of the odd, prehistoric fish, which can reach up to
7 feet in length; runs in the Klamath and the Rogue River would
not be affected. The service had previously resisted efforts
to list the fish, but conservation groups -- including the Environmental
Protection Information Center and the Center for Biological Diversity
-- obtained a court order forcing the agency to reconsider. Now,
with the decision to protect only the Sacramento sturgeon, those
groups suspect that the Klamath's health has again been compromised
by political considerations. "By leaving the northern population
completely unprotected, the Bush administration is setting up
the sturgeon and their river habitats to become further casualties
in the Klamath Basin water war," wrote Jeff Miller, spokesperson
for the Center for Biological Diversity, in a press release last
week.
140 NEW NURSES: The county's Workforce Investment Board announced
last week that it had received an $800,000 state grant to train
140 new nurses and other health care professionals to work in
Humboldt County hospitals and clinics. "The health care
industry offers many well-paying jobs, and that's a great opportunity
for those who want to remain living in Humboldt County,"
said Jacqueline Debets, executive director of the Workforce Investment
Board. The money will be used to finance student education costs
and additional nursing instructors at Humboldt State and College
of the Redwoods. Local matching funds -- $210,000 in all -- were
donated by St. Joseph Hospital, Mad River Community Hospital,
Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods, among
others. Prospective nursing students can get information about
receiving financial support from the new fund by calling the
local Job Market office at 445-6149.
COUNTY SEEKS INPUT ON
DRUG TREATMENT PLAN: The Humboldt County Department of Health and Human
Services is seeking public input on its $642,000 Substance Abuse
and Crime Prevention program. The program, which was instituted
in 2000 with the passage of Prop. 36, is designed to move drug
offenders from the criminal justice system into treatment programs.
There will be a public meeting on the proposed 2005-06 budget
for the program on Tuesday between 9 and 11 a.m. at the department's
headquarters -- 507 F St., Eureka. Rich Mostranski, DHHS program
analyst, said everyone is invited, particularly community members
with experience in treatment or law enforcement. Interested community
members can obtain copies of the budget by contacting Mostranski
at 476-4078 or
EUREKA SCHOOLS CONSTRUCTION UPDATE: Several Eureka City
Schools buildings are now benefiting from upgrades, courtesy
of the $43 million school bond measures S and T passed by Eureka
voters in 2002. Superintendent Jim Scott and Dan Prideux, program
manager of 3D/I, the project management firm for the bond measures,
presented details to the Eureka City Schools' governing board
last week. Lafayette and Grant elementary schools are undergoing
remodeling of their kitchens. Jefferson Elementary, along with
Lafayette, recently received matching funds from the state for
construction projects. Remodeling of school offices at Winship
and Zane middle schools is slated to wrap up at the beginning
of the 2005-06 school year. A 7,000-square-foot, $2.2 million
multipurpose room is under construction at Winship, and pine
trees are being removed from the Zane campus to make way for
a bus turnaround area. The 50-year-old Eureka High gymnasium
will be demolished and rebuilt to the dismay of taxpayers and
historical preservationists who fought to keep the complex in
one piece. The gym will cost $12.9 million and is slated for
completion by December 2006. Updates on renovation efforts will
be posted at www.eurekacityschools.org.
LOCAL STUDENTS SEE POPE:
A group of 15 McKinleyville and
Arcata high school history students, in Europe for a long-planned
trip, were on hand to view the body of Pope John Paul II as he
lay in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The trip, organized by teachers
Gary Glassman and Jack Bareilles, was likely one that the students
will never forget, Glassman said. When the pope died April 2,
the group was in Paris, on their way to Florence and then Rome.
"We realized we were about to be at the epicenter of history,"
Glassman said. After arriving about 10 p.m. last Tuesday, about
15 students persisted in waiting in line outside the basilica
-- in a crowd of some 100,000 -- for the grueling 12 hours that
it took to get inside. One of them was 15-year-old Josh Grondalski
of Blue Lake, a 10th grader in Glassman's advanced placement
European history class, who has trouble standing for long periods
because of recent foot surgery. "It was kind of hard staying
in line for 12 hours, but everyone was really nice," he
said, including one Italian who shared a 3 a.m. Thermos of espresso
with those nearby. Outside the church it was a "really happy
atmosphere (with) waves of singing, like one person would start
singing and the whole crowd would start -- it was really moving,"
he said. When he finally got to the head of the line, Josh said,
"I felt relieved, because as soon as I saw him, all my pain
was lifted and I was like, oh my gosh, I saw the pope."
WAY TO GO, BOSS: Humboldt State University presents its annual Distinguished
Alumni Awards this week to three accomplished alumni, including
Journal publisher Judy Hodgson, a 1978 graduate of HSU.
Hodgson, a former managing editor of the now defunct Arcata
Union, bought the Journal in 1990; it became a weekly
in 1998. Also honored at Thursday's dinner were Muriel Dinsmore,
the former director of public affairs at College of the Redwoods
and a one-time editor for the Times Standard, and Po Chung,
a 1969 HSU graduate and cofounder of the Asia Pacific division
of DHL Express. The awards ceremony and dinner were scheduled
to be held at the Ingomar Club in Eureka.
HSU president:
Danco wanted out of BSS building project
story & photo by HANK SIMS
On the surface, all appears well at the construction
site of Humboldt State University's long-projected new Behavioral
and Social Sciences building. The construction area has been
fenced off, a foundation dug and a large crane stands ready to
start moving materials.
Late last month, Humboldt State's
media affairs office sent out a press release announcing that
the project, which is scheduled to be completed in October 2006.
[Corrected
from original version]
[Right; Danco-Swinerton
Construction equipment at the BSS building site on Humboldt State
University campus, April 11. ]
However, the Journal
has learned that on Feb. 1, Danco-Swinerton, a partnership between
local construction company Danco Builders and the San Francisco-based
Swinerton Builders, asked to be released from its $23.5 million
contract to construct the building, citing increased construction
costs since the company entered a successful bid to design and
construct the building two years ago.
In an e-mail message last week,
HSU President Rollin Richmond, who was out of town, confirmed
that Danco-Swinerton officials working on the project had asked
Humboldt State administrators to release or renegotiate the contract.
Richmond further affirmed that his team had denied the request.
"We tried to understand
their situation as best we could and felt particularly badly
that a local group would suffer from the rapid increase in construction
costs," Richmond wrote. "However, to modify or delay
the contract would almost certainly have resulted in a loss of
a badly needed building on the HSU campus that is designed to
emphasize the cultures of our local tribal nations."
Danco president Dan Johnson
said last week that he knew nothing about the attempt to have
his company released from the contract. He referred all questions
on the topic to Steve Brucker, Danco-Swinerton project manager
for the building.
"As far as we're concerned,
the project is moving along as planned," Johnson said.
In a telephone interview from
Swinerton's Portland office, Brucker declined to comment on his
company's negotiations with the university.
"We're fulfilling the obligations
of the contract," he said. "Anything beyond that is
not public information. It's not our company policy to disclose
business operations."
Richmond stated that he also
learned that a Swinerton executive had taken the request to the
California State University Chancellor's Office.
On Monday, Richmond declined
to elaborate further on the details of Danco-Swinerton's request
to be released from the contract, such as who in the company
had made it and how much the company is now expected to lose
on the building.
"Suffice it to say that
there are good people on both sides and we're working together
to resolve this hard issue," he said.
The Behavioral and Social Sciences
building, which will eventually house 10 academic departments
and a new CSU Native American Center, had a long, controversial
history even before ground broke on the site last year. First
announced by former HSU President Alistair McCrone in the early
'90s, the project lingered in a drawer, unfunded, until 2000.
It then became the subject of a dispute between the university
and neighbors of the Union Street site, who faulted the original
design for being ugly and out of scale with the surrounding neighborhood.
The city of Arcata quickly took
the residents' side in the dispute, launching a lawsuit that
sought to force the university to prepare an Environmental Impact
Report that would document and mitigate the building's likely
impacts to the neighborhood. The city lost that lawsuit in April
2002.
But shortly after taking office
in July 2002, Richmond said that he would respond to concerns
by seeking a new design for the building. In May 2003, the university
formally put out a new request for proposals in a "design/build"
competition that sought, among other things, to minimize the
building's impact on the community, improve its design and maximize
its energy efficiency and use of sustainable materials.
Danco-Swinerton was one of three
teams to submit a proposal, and design judges rated its proposal
the best.
In the proposal, Danco-Swinerton
stated that it had five goals for the project, one of which was
to "complete the work on time, within or under budget, with
no [legal] claims, to the satisfaction of HSU."
The proposal further stated
that the partnership was well positioned to meet the university's
budget goals, due to the fact that one of the companies involved
was local.
"Our local team members
bring firmly established relationships with local subcontractors
to ensure our budget and schedule," it read. "We have
a thorough understanding of local market and construction conditions
as well as previous experience on the HSU campus."
The other bidders -- Turner
Construction of New York and the S. J. Amoroso Construction,
Co. of Redwood City -- each turned in proposals that met the
$23.5 million cap for the project. However, judges rated their
proposals lower in several categories, including building design,
site design and sustainability.
Dikeman
accused of jury bias in 1992 case
by
EMILY GURNON
A veteran prosecutor in the
District Attorney's Office is the subject of a federal court
case involving charges that he excluded three potential jurors
from a trial because they were Native Americans.
Deputy District Attorney Worth
Dikeman, 59, was the prosecutor in the Humboldt County murder-for-hire
case of Richard Craig Kesser of Fortuna, who was convicted in
1992 of plotting with his fiancée, Jennifer Gayle Leahy,
to kill his former wife, Mary, for her insurance money. They
hired hit man Stephen Chiara, who completed the deed. Kesser
was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
In the process of selecting
a jury for the trial, Dikeman elected to "strike" jurors
from the potential pool, as attorneys are allowed to do. But
the current dispute arose when he excluded three Native Americans
from the jury pool.
According to a published opinion
filed by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in December, Dikeman
gave the following explanation in Humboldt County Superior Court
following his striking of the three Native Americans, one of
whom worked for a tribe:
"My experience is that
Native Americans who are employed by the tribe are a little more
prone to associate themselves with the culture and beliefs of
the tribe than they are with the mainstream system, and my experience
is that they are sometimes resistive of the criminal justice
system generally and somewhat suspicious of the system."
Attorneys are not allowed to
exclude jurors on the basis of characteristics such as race or
religion. When they do, they risk having a reversal of the verdict
and a new trial ordered.
Dikeman also gave other, non-race-based
reasons for excluding the jurors, such as the fact that one woman's
husband was a recovering alcoholic, as was the alleged murderer,
and might be sympathetic to him on that basis.
It is for that reason that a
three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court, on a 2-1 decision,
denied Kesser's petition in December, essentially siding with
Dikeman -- as have the trial court, the state Court of Appeal,
and the federal district court.
Dikeman said this week that
he is angered by the allegations.
"It is wrong to exclude
a particular group from a jury. I didn't do it. I never do it.
And four courts have said I didn't," he said.
Allegations of jury bias "are
frequently made, and they are rarely granted," Dikeman said.
But the 9th Circuit judge who
dissented in the ruling did not mince words when describing Dikeman's
actions.
"In Batson [a Supreme Court
case involving jury bias], our highest court specified that `the
Equal Protection Clause forbids the prosecutor to challenge potential
jurors solely on account of their race'," wrote Judge Johnnie
B. Rawlinson. "Yet that is precisely what the prosecutor
did in this case when he smeared an entire race of people, expressly
assuming that Native American people are unwilling to adhere
to `our laws,' and thereby implying that they are unfit for jury
duty."
Kesser's appellate attorney,
William Weiner of San Francisco, said he has filed a petition
to have the case reviewed by the full Circuit Court. That petition
is pending.
"I think it was unfortunately
quite clear that Mr. Dikeman believed that Native Americans were
biased," Weiner said earlier this week. "He cited some
way that Native Americans were resistive to `our laws' and then
knocked them off."
Most prosecutors "don't
do that because they're not that stupid," he added.
Joanne Kesser, the defendant's
mother, said Tuesday that she and her late husband were involved
in the painful process of testifying for the prosecution in her
son's case. She found Dikeman to be respectful and considerate.
"He knew how hard it was
on our family, and he went out of his way at all times to make
it as easy as he could," she said. "As far as [the
jury bias claims], I didn't have an opinion one way or another
about it."
Reggae:
The last year at French's Camp?
by
BOB DORAN
Reggae on the River
may no longer have a home at French's Camp after this year due
to a breakdown in contract negotiations between event organizers
and the family that owns the land. [Right: The tents of 10,000 campers line the Eel
River for Reggae. Photo by Kim Sallaway]
For more than 20 years, Humboldt
County's largest music festival has drawn thousands of fans from
around the world to a particular bend in the Eel River just south
of Richardson's Grove State Park. Event organizers confirm that
this year's 22nd annual festival could be the last to be held
at French's Camp.
While the potential location
change will not impact this year's Reggae on the River, scheduled
for Aug. 5-7, French's Camp owner Pat Arthur said, "It has
a future this year only. The lease will be up Sept. 1."
The plan after that? "Well,
I plan to be quieter," said Arthur, who turned 77 last year.
"I know there are going to be a lot of disappointments,"
she added, "but I've been disappointed too, my family has
been. We can take just so much."
According to Pat's son, Mark
Arthur, "My mom is getting older and she doesn't want to
deal with the hassles. She's tired of her friends asking, `Why
are you doing this to us?' She's tired of her neighbors complaining
about the garbage in their yards and complaining that security
has kind of fallen apart the last couple of years."
Taunya Stapp, who recently took
over as executive director of the Mateel Community Center, which
coproduces the festival, conceded that, "There are logistic
problems at French's Camp. For one, it impacts the town of Piercy.
[Traffic] gets backed up and people can't get to work. It's only
three days a year -- and there's a tremendous amount of economic
good created by the event -- but we still are aware of the problems."
After the Mateel's seven-year
contract for the use of French's Camp ran out at the end of 2004,
the Arthurs proposed a revised three-year contract. "I guess
the Mateel and People Productions didn't want to sign that,"
said Mark Arthur. "My mom was asking for a little bit more
money; I think $3,000 more [per year, but] the money really isn't
the issue."
Neither side would discuss contract
specifics.
Mark Arthur denied rumors that
he has been negotiating with other promoters interested in using
the property for concerts. While the terms of the old lease allowed
for just one concert a year, he noted that, "That was one
of the things I wanted to change in the new contract. We as a
family want to develop the west side of the river and that wasn't
permitted. Personally I would like to see more events [at French's
Camp]. Maybe not just one big event; there could be four weekends,
maybe a little hip-hop one weekend, a little old school another,
who knows what else."
Both Stapp and Carol Bruno,
head of the concert promotion group, People Productions, seemed
unfazed by the prospect of moving the mammoth festival to a new
location. Is Reggae on the River a site-specific event? "Absolutely
not," said Stapp. "The event itself is mythic. You
carry that myth wherever you go. If we have to move it, I see
it as an opportunity."
Where else could you put 15,000
dancing campers for a long weekend in August? "Basically
I have 20 options I am developing at this point and 50 percent
of them are overwhelmingly exciting. This is an opportunity.
We're prepared for this," said Stapp.
Future plans for the festival
were on the agenda for a Mateel Community Center directors meeting
scheduled Tuesday night after the Journal went to press.
Said Stapp, "We have the
potential, depending on what the board decides, to make this
event something that doesn't impact the people around it, to
find a way to mitigate the problems from the get-go and choose
[a new] location with that in mind."
While further negotiations with
the Mateel are at an impasse, Pat Arthur did not completely rule
out allowing Reggae to return to French's Camp. "At this
point I'm not certain," she said. "If it goes well
this year there's always that possibility If they behave themselves,
it may happen [again]."
Reemphasizing the fact that
she is not considering leasing the land to other music promoters,
Arthur launched a final dig at Reggae organizers. "If I
were to do anything, I would sell it -- and not to the Mateel
and not to People Productions, not at all," she said.
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