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May 17, 2001
Logging
begins, arrests rise
Logging on Pacific Lumber land
in the Mattole River Watershed resumed last week after almost
six months, accompanied by an exponential increase in the number
of protesters arrested by law enforcement.
Sheriff deputies have arrested
27 since May 9 when the logging began, according to an activist
calling himself Rabbit. Until then, there had been a total of
27 arrested since the protests began last November.
While the number of arrests
has increased, sheriff's deputies have refrained from using pepper
spray, Rabbit reported.
Protesters have been trying
to blockade roads into the harvest area in response to the harvesting
but have experienced little success.
"We tried that strategy
three or four days in a row and it did not prove to be very effective,"
Rabbit said in a telephone conversation. There are five gates
leading onto PL's property where the logging is taking place
and covering all of them "was too many bases to cover"
for the activists.
Eight of the activists arrested
last week were high school students from San Francisco who decided
to join the protesters. The Urban Pioneer High School students
were arrested while trying to talk to fallers as they cut down
trees.
Their arrest was accompanied
by charges of contributing to the delinquency of minors for the
other protesters, Rabbit said.
"These are bright and intelligent
kids who are taking these risks and getting involved of their
own free will."
Residents
boycott meeting
There were more Freshwater residents
outside a meeting Monday night at the Bayside Grange than inside.
Pacific Lumber Co. was holding
an informational meeting on its draft watershed analysis for
Freshwater basin. Five residents entered the building to hear
what PL had to say, while 12 more boycotted the meeting and protested
outside.
"For the past two years
residents of Freshwater have been attending various watershed
meetings with PL/Maxxam in an attempt to provide community input.
At every turn our comments have either been ignored or marginalized,"
said Attila Gyenis, a member of the Friends of Freshwater, a
group leading the protest.
Citing critical comments on
PL's plan from the Regional Water Quality Control Board scientists
and others, the group is calling for an "impartial peer
review of the watershed analysis." The group is asking the
California Department of Forestry and wildlife agencies to reject
PL's analysis.
Traffic
ticket for pot?
The U.S. Supreme Court may have
dealt medical marijuana a blow this week, but a bill being considered
in the state Senate would put pot smokers in the same class of
criminals as lead-foot drivers.
Sponsored by Sen. Bruce McPherson
of Santa Cruz, the law would change possession of a small amount
of marijuana from a misdemeanor to an infraction. The bill unanimously
passed the Public Safety Committee last week and is headed to
the Senate floor.
The Moscone Act of 1975 decriminalized
minor drug offenses, making possession of less than one ounce
of marijuana punishable by a $100 fine. But it didn't change
the crime's official classification, which remained a misdemeanor.
That misdemeanor status entitled
people charged with possession of marijuana to a jury trial and
public defender, even though the stakes were low. The new law
could save the state money by eliminating those procedures.
Channel
6 cuts news shows
KVIQ Action News 6 is going
to have less news in its programming mix. The station announced
May 10 that it would be dropping its noon, 6 p.m. and weekend
broadcasts, leaving its 6 a.m. and 5 and 11 p.m. newscasts intact.
The move leaves KIEM Channel 3 as the region's only station with
news at 6 p.m. and on the weekends.
KIEM and KVIQ had been locked
in a battle for news viewers for more than a year. KVIQ increased
its weekly news coverage from five to 22 hours a week last year
[see "More news more
often," June 29, 2000]. The station will now broadcast
12 1/2 hours of news programming a week.
"We experienced market
share gains" as a result of news coverage expansion, said
Jeanne Buheit, vice president and general manager for the station.
But Buheit said, "Even with an increased share, this market
is so small that it could not support the amount of local news
we were doing."
A soft market for advertising
contributed to the decision, she added, even though the station
has experienced ad revenue gains.
"It just isn't enough,"
she said. Twelve people, many of them part-time employees, were
laid off as part of the reduction. The KVIQ owner, the Ackerly
Group, is cutting staffing levels by 5 percent across the company,
according to a May 10 press release.
"We had a grandiose plan
of quadrupling the news [coverage] and we now realize that what
this market can support is doubling the news," Buheit said.
"We're still confident we can provide complete news coverage."
Eel River
sawmill reprieve
The troubled Eel River Sawmills
Inc. found a way to supply its milling facilities with timber
but faced a legal setback last week in the court case that is
delaying the company's prospective sale.
New logs would keep the doors
open at the company's Fortuna and Alton mills. The firm sent
a letter to its employees that said log purchases were made possible
by payments received from PG&E for electricity the company
is generating at its Fairhaven power plant.
The letter states that PG&E
had stopped paying for the power earlier this year, "creating
a severe cash flow problem." The utility has yet to pay
its accumulated debt to Eel River, but began paying current power
bills after declaring bankruptcy April 6.
The company has been trying
to sell its assets to Pacific Lumber and a group of investors
calling themselves Englewoods Forest Products. Those sales were
stopped when two former employees sued the company, alleging
that verbal agreements of employee ownership had been breached
by current management.
As part of that lawsuit, Eel
River's assets were frozen by a court motion called a "lis
pendis," which informs anyone dealing with Eel River that
its assets are under litigation.
Eel River and the former employees
are trying to find a judge they can agree on. William Bertain,
representing the employees, filed a motion to disqualify Judge
Timothy Cissna because of the potential for bias. Cissna was
disqualified late last week by Sacramento County Superior Court
Judge James Ford. It is unclear who will hear the case.
HSU
investigation continues
A major investigation of Humboldt
State University finances continues following the resignation
of Executive Director of University Advancement John Sterns.
Campus police, university officials
and the district attorney are not releasing any information as
to what has been discovered since Sterns abruptly packed and
left his office March 20, 10 days ahead of his scheduled departure
date. Officer Thomas Dewey of the University Police Department,
who is heading the investigation, would only say that he has
been sorting through "stacks and stacks" of papers
and no arrests have been made.
In 1998 Sterns took over as
head of university advancement, overseeing fund-raising efforts
that experienced phenomenal growth in a short period of time.
Total external support, which includes such income as alumni
donations and grants for university research, grew from $10.9
million in 1997-98, the year before Sterns took over, to $28.4
million in 1998-99 and $39.2 million for 1999-2000.
According to Sean Kearns, HSU
director of university communications, the external support reports
were compiled and prepared by Sterns.
"The fund-raising figures
in the reports for the years 1998-99 and 1999-2000 are currently
under review," said Kearns in a memo that accompanied the
figures. "At this time the university is unable to verify
their accuracy."
External, or non-government,
revenue is a portion of the college income that has mushroomed
throughout the California State University system in recent years.
"Fund-raising has become
an institutional priority at all campuses," said Douglas
X. Patino, CSU vice chancellor for university advancement in
a press release. The CSU system as a whole received a record
$881.6 million in external support in 1999-2000, according to
an annual report submitted to the CSU Board of Trustees in January.
The total includes $251.5 million
in voluntary support -- gifts from alumni, parents, individuals,
corporations, foundations and other organizations. In addition,
the CSU campuses raised $630.1 million through special revenue
-- money from sources such as sponsorships, bequest expectancies,
pledges, contracts, grants, property transfers and income from
endowments.
HSU was one of the campuses
singled out as having "significant increases in donations"
in the January press release from the CSU chancellor's office.
"The [fund-raising] success
reflects the tireless efforts of university leaders and the continued
confidence donors have in the quality of CSU programs and the
importance of the CSU mission," said Patino.
![[Romano Gabriel sculpture]](news0517-gabriel.jpg) Sculpture
garden to be rededicated
One of Humboldt County's national
treasures will be rededicated in a ceremony this weekend. The
Romano Gabriel Sculpture Garden in Eureka's Old Town, recognized
as a world-class example of folk art, has received a face-lift.
Romano Gabriel was an Italian immigrant who came to Eureka just
after World War I and worked as a carpenter and gardener. He
combined the two trades in his spare time creating a collection
of whimsical hand-painted wooden flowers, animals and people
that filled his front yard on Pine Street. The Eureka Heritage
Society is holding the rededication event Sunday, May 20, in
connection with National Preservation Week, celebrating the completion
of work by Carol Hale, a member of the Heritage Board who worked
with her husband Jerry cleaning up Gabriel's wooden figures.
"We had a facade grant from the Eureka Main Street program,"
said Muriel Dinsmore, another board member. "It allowed
for new lighting, new signage and a protective coating for the
glass. Olga Pappini from Arcata donated money for landscaping
and we planted some Italian cypress." The display of Gabriel's
work was created after Ray and Dolores Vellutini bought the sculptures
from the Gabriel estate and gave them to the Heritage Society
following the artist's death in 1977. The display on 2nd Street
was dedicated in 1982. A no-host luncheon will follow the celebration
Sunday at Six Rivers Old Town, next door to the display. For
reservations call the Heritage Society at 442-8937 or 445-8775.
Balloon
tract to be cleaned
Cleanup of Eureka's balloon
tract has been ordered by the North Coast Regional Water Quality
Control Board.
The former rail yard and one-time
potential Wal-Mart site was the subject of a cleanup and abatement
order issued May 9. The 50-acre site suffers from petroleum hydrocarbon
-- fuel -- contamination in the soil and groundwater. Also present
are arsenic, copper, lead, zinc and chlorinated volatile organic
compounds.
The Union Pacific Railroad Co.,
which owns the site, has until June 15 to submit a work plan.
The company must clean up the contaminants and ensure they do
not seep further into the groundwater or Humboldt Bay.
Training
for displaced workers
Humboldt County workers laid
off in recent months will get a helping hand from the state.
The Workforce Investment Board has announced a $508,000 grant
to retrain 250 displaced workers in the county. The grant pays
for retraining, employment counseling, job placement and job
search skill training.
Local employers who have laid
off employees since Jan. 1 include Montgomery Ward's, JC Penney,
Eel River Sawmills and Pacific Lumber Co..
Despite the recent layoffs,
the unemployment rate for Humboldt County dropped half a percentage
point last month. The unemployment rate for April was 6.3 percent,
down from 6.8 in March. These numbers reflect a shrinking workforce:
There were 200 fewer jobs in Humboldt County in April, but the
rate still dropped because there were 500 fewer people in the
labor pool.
Rio Dell
water project funded
The funding for Rio Dell's emergency
water supply system was secured this week as the California Department
of Health Services granted the city $250,000.
The grant is in addition to
the $750,000 the city had already received from the State Office
of Emergency Services after Gov. Davis declared a state of emergency
there March 16. Rio Dell has been experiencing severe water shortages
following the failure of wells that have traditionally supplied
the town's water.
Construction on the temporary
system, which will draw water from the Eel River, began May 16,
said Loretta Nicholas, Rio Dell city manager. A permanent solution
to the problem will come when Rio Dell receives permission to
draw water from the Eel on a long-term basis.
No environmental impact studies
were required for the temporary water treatment system because
it was considered a clean water emergency. A permanent plant
would have to go through normal environmental permitting processes.
Nicholas said the city hopes
to have the new permanent plant on line by 2003.
Families
plan review
The Humboldt County Children
and Families Commission's Strategic Plan for the year 2001 is
up for review at three public meetings this month.
The plan is designed to fulfill
the Children and Families Act of 1998 by identifying potential
strategies for helping young children and families. Copies are
available at the Humboldt County Library and the commission's
website, www.humkids.org.
See this week's Calendar for the times and places of meetings.
Speakers
available
The Humboldt County Human Rights
Commission announced last week that it has established a Speakers'
Bureau. The bureau consists of a stable of knowledgeable speakers
who can talk on issues ranging from anti-semitism to environmental
ethics.
Call 268-2548 for details.
Workers,
know your rights
"We get a lot of calls
from people who just want to know what the laws are," said
Jim Smith, president of the Central Labor Council of Humboldt
and Del Norte counties.
The council is distributing
copies of the book "California Workers' Rights" to
the Humboldt County Library and Office of Education to help workers
understand what the laws are. The council also is considering
running seminars, Smith said.
Smith said the most common questions
concern minimum wage, overtime and dismissal.
"When they have genuine
grievances, we try to help them," he said, whether or not
they are members of the AFL-CIO. For more information, call 443-7371.
Grandma
goes kayaking?
"I wanted to build a relationship
between young and old people," said Judy Dixon, a teacher
at Ferndale Junior High School. To help build that relationship,
Dixon gave her students the assignment of talking to seniors
in the community and bringing either a biography, story from
their life or poem about them back to class.
The fruits of that assignment
are about to be published. Dixon has collected and put into a
book the work her students did and comments they made about their
impressions of senior citizens both before and after the assignment.
Those comments revealed a lot
about the benefits of the assignment, Dixon said. "Before
the interviews they said old people smell funny, always drive
big boat cars and are cranky all the time. Then they found out
their grandparents go kayaking."
Students and those they interviewed
will be holding a book party May 18 at Ferndale City Hall. There
aren't enough copies of the book for sale to the general public,
Dixon said, but there will be a copy available at the branch
library in Ferndale and the main library in Eureka.
The poetry
of youth
Humboldt County's youth is invited
to speak its poetic mind June 9.
Teen Speak, a poetry reading
where young people are encouraged to stand and deliver their
words, is looking for participants. The young adults will be
joined by visiting poet Jewelle Gomez, whose poetry has been
published in the New York Times, Village Voice
and the San Francisco Chronicle.
For more information, call coordinator
Karen Hepner at 839-6400.
HSU softball
to championship
The Humboldt State University
softball team is heading to the NCAA Division II national championship
in Salem, Va. this week after sweeping its opponents at the Western
Regional Championships in Davis May 11 and 12.
Led by pitcher Jessame Kendall,
the team has become a dominant force in college softball. Kendall
pitched her 100th consecutive inning Saturday -- she's now pitched
more than 1,000 innings overall.
The Lady Jacks had to defeat
Cal State Stanislaus and host team UC Davis for the right to
head east. They are trying for their second national title in
three years.
Officer
on beach patrol
Snowy plovers can rest easier
at night, thanks to the Humboldt County Sheriff's new beach patrol
officer.
Deputy Rick Chandler was hired
by the sheriff with funds from the Off-highway Vehicle Commission
to patrol Humboldt County's beaches and dunes. His chief mission
will be to curb irresponsible vehicle use that is contributing
to a decline in the number of western snowy plovers. The birds'
nests are camouflaged on the beach and easily run over by aggressive
drivers.
The plover is listed as threatened
under the Endangered Species Act and it is the county's responsibility
to take care of the bird, said 3rd District Supervisor John Woolley.
He said it is his hope that with education and an increased enforcement
presence, the bird will recover "without further regulations."
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