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April 20, 2006
KILLED: A SWAT team associated with the
Eureka Police Department shot and killed 48-year-old Eureka resident
Cheri Lyn Moore in her apartment near the corner of Fifth and
G streets in downtown Eureka early Friday afternoon, following
a two-and-a-half-hour standoff between Moore and the police that
drew hundreds of onlookers.
According to the EPD, the incident began when police
received a call from an employee of the county Mental Health
Department requesting that the agency dispatch officers to check
on Moore's well-being. The Mental Health employee told police
that Moore had gone off of her regular medication.
When officers arrived at her apartment, located
above Heuer's Florist, Moore allegedly brandished a weapon, later
identified by witnesses and police radio traffic as a flare gun.
She blasted loud music and began tossing various household items
from her second story window down to the sidewalk below.
The police department called in reinforcements
and cordoned off the block, placing a sniper on the roof of the
building across the street. Apparently, there was no further
contact between Moore and the police until she was shot: "Attempts
by the Crisis Negotiation personnel to speak with the female
[Moore] or anyone else in the apartment were unsuccessful,"
read a press release. However, the Eureka Reporter wrote
the next day that a friend of Moore's had been talking with her
on the phone outside the apartment throughout the incident, at
least until the police told him to hang up.
The SWAT team was sent in at about 12:30 p.m. Bystanders
reported hearing around half a dozen gunshots ring out shortly
after the team entered the building, and confirmation that the
suspect had been killed followed shortly after.
The precise reasoning behind the decision to enter
the apartment and confront Moore is unclear, and the EPD is issuing
very few details pending results of two investigations: an autopsy
that was scheduled to be performed by an out-of-the-area coronary
team on Tuesday, and an investigation by the county's Critical
Incident Response Team, an interagency law enforcement squad
led by the District Attorney's Office. The EPD has said that
"core personnel" -- presumably, officers involved in
the raid and/or the shooting, were placed on administrative leave,
as is customary with police-related shootings.
In the meantime, some residents are questioning
whether the shooting was necessary. A vigil for Moore was scheduled
for Tuesday night at 6 p.m. outside Eureka City Hall, after which
people were invited to address the Eureka City Council on the
issue. Late last month, a group called the Coalition for Police
Review filed its intent to circulate a petition that would place
the formation of an independent Police Review Commission to investigate
allegations of misconduct by the EPD. The group will hold a forum
on the issue next Thursday, April 27, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., at
the Humboldt County Office of Education, 901 Myrtle Ave.
GUINEA PIG: The Humboldt County Board of
Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to start the non-renewal
process on Larry Parker's Williamson Act land conservation contract
for his 40-acre ranch in the Tompkins Hill area.
The reason? Mostly because he refuses to sign a
new contract, as required by the county's updated guidelines
for administering the Williamson Act, a state program that allows
tax incentives to ranchers and farmers. This makes Parker the
first rancher to be booted from the Williamson Act based on objections
to the new guidelines since the county approved the guidelines
last year.
When Parker bought the ranch in May 2005, it came
with a contract signed in 1980 by Marvin and Isabel Stapp. Under
the county's new guidelines, new purchasers have to sign new
contracts. "I'm happy with the old contract I inherited,"
he said at Tuesday's hearing. The only difference between the
old contract and the new one, he says, is a provision in the
new one that essentially says the county can at any time unilaterally
tweak it in response to changes in state law. He calls that open-ended.
"Who would sign such a thing?"
It's an argument that was made vociferously during
the past year as some ranchers, their attorneys and county staff
battled over the nuances of the guidelines. But a county staff
member said Parker wasn't making the argument himself until after
a decision earlier this year, in the Tooby Ranch case, determined
that "a contract is a contract." He was willing to
sign the new contract, she said, until "some people in the
community started advising him not to." And if the county
lets one guy sneak past the new guidelines, then all the new
purchasers will try to ignore the new guidelines, she said.
Parker said he did get an e-mail from someone suggesting
he was "the guinea pig for signing the new contracts."
But he said he just wants to farm.
That brings up another issue the county's has with
his ranch. At the hearing, county staff detailed how before Parker
bought the ranch it had been neglected because of illness in
the Stapp family. The Williamson Act says a contracted property
has to be productive and show commercial gain. The Stapp ranch
was in non-compliance for six years. So the ranch could have
been booted anyway.
John Butts of the county assessor's office said
Parker has cleaned up the place, fixed fences, put a couple of
horses on the place, and as of this week there were six cows
grazing on the land. Parker said he's recycled thousands of pounds
of junk metal, lined up deals with dairies and jam makers, and
otherwise worked hard to bring the place up to snuff. "My
wife and my kids ... want to have animals, we want to grow crops,
we want to live a farm life," Parker said.
If the non-renewal proceeds, over the next 10 years
Parker's taxes will gradually increase, from their present $193
annually under the Williamson Act contract (it's an incentive
program to keep agriculture alive, essentially), to (by today's
fair market share value of the ranch) $6,150 by 2016, when the
contract officially terminates.
DRAT THAT CLOUD: Like Pigpen's black cloud
of fly-speckled grit that follows him wherever he goes, the Evergreen
Pulp Mill's past keeps hanging around. On April 12, the Environmental
Protection Agency released its national Toxics Release Inventory
of data from 2004.
The EPA puts out this cheery news on industry emissions
every year, and sometimes it is cheery. The EPA data shows that,
overall, emissions are declining. However, every year, the pulp
mill out on the Samoa Peninsula seems to star in the top 10 ranking
of California polluters. In 2004 the mill, then owned by Stockton
Pacific Enterprises, released 2.3 million pounds of toxics into
the environment -- second only to an outfit called Chemical Waste
Management in Kettleman City, Kings County (12.2 million pounds).
The mill polluted more than the oil refineries in Martinez.
Stockton Pacific was fined last year for the mess
it made in Humboldt County's water before it left the mill in
the care of new owner Evergreen Pulp Inc. And ever since, Evergreen
Pulp Inc. has been busy swatting at a cloud of protest over the
mill's continuing expulsion of excess emissions. Evergreen has
been given until April 2007 to clean up its act.
BAT SCRATCH FEVER: The County Department
of Public Health would like to remind residents, domestic pets
and livestock that rabies is going around and to be mindful of
wild animals acting strangely in your neighborhood. Following
a rabid fox attack that occurred in Willow Creek two weeks ago,
more rabid animals have been seen and killed in the county. The
public health branch reports that another aggressive fox was
discovered in a Willow Creek neighborhood last week and was shot
by a concerned citizen. In Fortuna, both a bat and a fox have
been tested positive for rabies, and a Miranda woman is undergoing
a series of shots after a rabid bat scratched her last month.
The county offers four easy tips to protect yourself
and loved ones from rabid animals. One, avoid eye contact with
wild or stray animals. Two, report animal bites to the animal
control officer. Three, tell children not to pet wild or stray
animals. Four, bring pet food indoors at night. Questions about
rabies should be directed to the Department of Health and Human
Services, Division of Environmental Health. Contact the Vector
Control Desk at (707) 268-2203, the main desk at (707) 445-6215,
or toll free at 1 (800) 963-9241.
TOP
Don't bag on big boxes
Council members take note --Fortuna wants
to shop
by HELEN SANDERSON
Rub-a-dub dub, three men in a tub, and who do you
think they be? A bookeeper, a CEO and a grocery store checker
will sit beside the butcher and shoemaker already on the Fortuna
City Council, but maybe the more critical question about the
newly elected City Council members is who they are not.
Most importantly, they're not opposed to
big box stores coming to Fortuna -- a key issue for voters in
the Friendly City.
Tax preparer Pat Whitchurch, former Palco CEO John
Campbell (who was named mayor Monday night) and incumbent Dean
Glaser, a retired grocery store checker, were the top vote-getters
in last week's city election. To some degree, each candidate
has voiced approval for the proposal to bring a major retailer
to town. Glaser and Campbell came out strongly in favor, while
Whitchurch took a pro-business tack, saying if land is available
for big boxes then let them come.
In recent years, as Sacramento developer FHK Development
Co. has eyed Fortuna as a possible haven for a Wal-Mart, Lowe's
or Home Depot, shopping has become one of the central concerns
in the 11,000-person city, where water and sewer services and
annexation of outlying neighborhoods, like Loop Road and Mill
Street, are also issues.
Incumbent Mayor Odell Shelton was the only council
candidate in the recent election cool to the much-discussed topic
of a large retail store, calling Wal-Mart a predator that creates
low-wage jobs, more of which Fortuna does not need.
"I'm worried," said Sylvia Jutila, a
member of Fortuna First, a group formed with the goal of warning
citizens to the dangers of Wal-Mart. "People don't realize
the damage it will do to the town. It will just perpetuate poverty
that taxpayers will have to subsidize."
In particular, says Shelton, ramped-up fire protection
will be necessary, along with two more police officers, whose
starting salaries are $50,000 each.
Some say Shelton's loss at the ballot box illustrates
Fortuna's rising fever for low-cost shopping.
The longtime public official placed fifth out of
six council contenders, garnering only 11 percent of the votes.
This election, however, brought out 45 percent of voters, scorching
past the typical 25 percent turnout for a Fortuna city election.
On Monday, he said too much of the campaign's focus
was on big boxes.
"But did it cost me the campaign? I don't
know," Shelton said. "It shows that it's time for a
change. I gave it my best for 12 years."
The bigger election issue, Shelton said, should
have been the General Plan update, which is scheduled to wrap
up in April 2007.
The long-range land use plan will include any rezoning
of the 75-acre, Palco-owned parcel where FHK Development Co.
has proposed plans for a large retailer. The site, home to a
lumber mill that closed last June and took 100 jobs with it,
is currently zoned for heavy industry.
The council will decide if and how to rezone the
property, possibly incorporating a mix of light industrial, commercial
and residential zones. An environmental impact report of the
parcel will also be included in the final plan, as well as an
economic blight study.
Councilmember Doug Strehl, owner of a shoe store
on Main Street, won't say how he feels about bringing a big retailer
to town. "It's not worth talking about until we have a project,"
he said, "and there is no project. We won't know anything
until 2007."
If the council creates a commercial zone on the
Palco site, then big box talks will likely begin in earnest.
For now, the project is on ice.
Still, it's something Strehl must consider, both
as a councilman and a business owner. He's already learned that
as bigger stores come to the county, little shops must learn
to adapt.
When the Bayshore Mall opened in Eureka in the
1980s, Strehl knew he could not compete strictly in the shoe
sales market. So he narrowed his focus, apprenticed with a cobbler,
and opened a shoe repair shop within his store. His business
survived -- thrived, even -- and over the 20-plus years he also
started peddling orthopedics. Others weren't so lucky, or business-savvy.
Thirteen stores closed down in Fortuna shortly after the Bayshore
Mall opened.
Strehl's is "the perfect small-business bob-and-weave
success story," said David Reed, coordinator for the Fortuna
Business Improvement District, which represents 650 businesses
in Fortuna, from Internet-based firms to large corporate chains
like Safeway.
Other small businesses would be well-advised to
follow Strehl's example should a big box come to the city, Reed
said.
And while FBID will not take a pro or con stance
on the issue, Reed says that a number of businesses have voiced
their concerns to his organization. A few others though, including
a vacuum-repair shop, have declared their support of a Wal-Mart,
which could conceivably boost their business.
But Reed sees the bigger issue as job creation.
"It's great we're talking about retail, but
we also should think about light technical and light manufacturing"
-- industries that create better paying, trade-specific jobs,
Reed said. He explained that when a retailer opens, it doesn't
necessarily attract employees to an area, but usually pulls workers
from other retail shops.
Robert Johnson, owner of Green's Fortuna Pharmacy,
said his business has weathered the arrival of Rite-Aid, and
when a new Walgreens is built on South Fortuna Boulevard, it
won't hurt his Main Street business -- it'll probably just attract
new customers to his store.
"It's only for the better, because they won't
offer the same customer service we do," Johnson said, adding
that Green's makes 40-60 home deliveries a day. Otherwise, he
said he doesn't discuss the "political side" of the
debate.
At this stage in the planning, the coming South
Fortuna Boulevard shopping center will include Walgreens, Starbucks,
Redwood Capital Bank, Blockbuster, a pizza parlor, a large restaurant
and a "clothing or imports store," according to Assistant
City Planner Stephen Avis. Construction will begin soon and will
likely be complete in late 2006.
Avis said plans for the shopping center, which
will be called Strong's Creek Plaza (after the creek that runs
through the long-vacant property), were drafted by Ferndale architect
David Pierce. The design will have a "distinct Fortuna feeling"
-- specifically, a wooden, craftsman look incorporating detailed
cornices and knee-braces.
The big picture for Fortuna is that there is not
much room to expand. "The city is pretty well built out,"
Avis said. The remaining vacant parcels are owned by families
who have made it clear that they will not sell in their lifetimes.
Other landowners, he suspects, plan to sell when property prices
are even higher.
The 75-acre Palco site is possibly F-town's last
big opportunity for change, and Avis hopes the residents realize
their options are not limited to the big box.
"The community doesn't always have to be in
a state of reacting to the proposals of a developer," Avis
said. Instead, he suggests that the residents come up with ideas
for what they want in Fortuna and try to attract those developers.
For instance, an amusement park has been floated
as an idea. Avis said that surveys focused on development in
Fortuna have been circulated to Fortuna High students. Ideas
are also being solicited from Hispanic residents and senior citizens,
two of Fortuna's fast growing demographics.
On May 3, the city will host a community workshop
to brainstorm ideas for how best to use the city's remaining
vacant parcels, including the Palco mill site.
TOP
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