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August 14, 2003
Citizen
Arkley Businessman starts
online paper
by
HANK SIMS
If all goes according to plan,
Humboldt County -- and Eureka residents especially -- will have
a new source of news in the next couple of weeks.
Eureka businessman Rob Arkley
is financing the Eureka Reporter, an all-Eureka, all-the-time
web site that Arkley says will eventually make its way into newsprint.
The Reporter is starting
out with a staff of three journalists, all veterans of the Humboldt
County news scene. The managing editor will be Glenn Simmons,
most recently of KINS Radio. He has previously worked for the
Times-Standard, the Humboldt Beacon and the Arcata
Union, among other publications.
Wendy Butler, known for her
arts coverage on KHSU and in other outlets, and Christine Benson,
formerly of the Humboldt Beacon, are the staff writers.
Simmons said last week that
the Reporter would have an intense focus on the greater
Eureka area, including coverage of local government, politics
and youth sports.
The Reporter's slogan
is "Real News by Real People."
"We are local people writing
the news," said Simmons. "It's not wired news, it's
not canned news, it's just local news."
Arkley is the founder of Security
National Servicing Corp., a financial services business. With
his wife, former City Councilmember Cherie Arkley, he is well
known for his charitable contributions to the city of Eureka
and for his forays into the downtown Eureka real estate market.
Monied potentates with a hankering
to get into the news business are the stuff of legend. In the
early 20th century, Gen. Harrison Gray Otis and his progeny --
great boosters of the tiny town of Los Angeles -- used their
Los Angeles Times to transform the burg into the megalopolis
of the West Coast. The most famous fictional example, Charles
Foster Kane in Orson Welles' film, Citizen Kane, was based
on William Randolph Hearst, owner of the San Francisco Examiner
and numerous other "yellow" journals.
But Arkley insists that Simmons
-- who he said was "well known for covering both sides of
a story" -- would have a free hand and complete editorial
independence.
"[The paper] is simply
not related to our other businesses," Arkley said.
On Tuesday, Times-Standard
Managing Editor Charles Winkler said that he looked forward to
seeing the Eureka Reporter, and said that competition
keeps everyone sharp.
"We certainly wish Mr.
Arkley luck," he said. "It should be exciting."
The Eureka Reporter will
be found at www.eurekareporter.com.
Boxer
blows through the North Coast
The Senator talks wilderness
and enjoys the lack of fog
by
HANK SIMS
Humboldt County rolled out the
welcome mat for Sen. Barbara Boxer earlier this week -- and if
the local citizenry were enthused about her visit, the weather
seemed positively ecstatic.
After a day touring Crescent
City, Boxer came down Highway 101 for a fund-raising event at
the Eureka Inn Monday night, followed the next morning by a cruise
of Humboldt Bay under brilliant sunshine with the U.S. Coast
Guard and a visit to Eureka's Alice Birney Elementary School.
Left to right: Peter La
Valle, mayor of Eureka; unnamed Boxer aide; Sen. Barbara Boxer;
David Hull, executive director of the Humboldt Bay Harbor District.
Aboard a Coast Guard research vessel in Humboldt Bay.
To her supporters at the fund-raiser,
the senator came bearing gifts. Most of the attendees were members
of the environmental activist community, and they wanted to hear
Boxer speak on the "California Wild Heritage Wilderness
Act of 2003," a bill she introduced earlier this month.
When she stepped up to address
a crowd of about 150 in the Eureka Inn's PALCO Room, however,
the senator's first message was an unequivocal recommendation
to California voters on the issue that is overshadowing all others.
"No on the recall, yes
on (Lt. Gov. Cruz) Bustamante!" she said.
Unlike most of the state's other
high-ranking Democrats, Boxer said that she had always favored
putting a member of the party on the ballot in case the effort
to recall Gov. Gray Davis -- which she consideres a waste of
both time and money -- were to succeed.
"I always said we needed
to have a backup," she said. "Now we have a strategy.
We have a wonderful man who will make history if this recall
goes through."
The bulk of her talk, though,
was dedicated to the environment, and her new wilderness bill,
introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mike Thompson,
was topic number one.
The bill would add 2.5 million
acres of public lands in 81 different California locations to
the list of federally designated "wilderness areas."
These areas would then be exempted from new logging and mining
operations and the construction of new roads. They would also
be off-limits to all motorized equipment, including vehicles.
Boxer said she expected the
bill to meet stiff resistance from Republicans, but she promised
to "work very hard to push this through." She urged
supporters of the bill not to lose hope -- a similar bill that
focused on the Central Coast area succeeded last year, despite
Republican opposition.
Some activists came from as
far away as Trinity County and southern Oregon to "support
and thank" the senator.
David Rose, a member of the
South Fork Trinity Land Conservancy and a resident of Mad River,
said that the event was more than a chance to express his gratitude
for Boxer's work on wilderness issues -- it was also a great
forum for meeting other activists and seeking support for his
group.
On Tuesday morning, Boxer met
with local elected officials and members of their staffs at the
Coast Guard headquarters in Samoa. Supervisor Bonnie Neely made
a quick presentation arguing for federal funding to rebuild the
Buckhorn grade on Highway 299 so that it can accommodate larger
trucks.
Boxer was impressed, and immediately
assigned the project to one of her aides. "You have made
a very brilliant case for this," she said. "Trade is
so crucial. It's the backbone of the California economy."
After the meeting, it was all
aboard Coast Guard Lifeboat #47217 for a cruise across the bay
to the Adorni Center. Neely was among those who made the trip
across with the senator. Seas were flat, and the sun poured 70
degrees of happiness down onto the party.
"I think her response today
was wonderful," Neely said. "I think she could see
that we're not on an equal footing with other areas of California."
Up in the boat's cabin, Eureka
Mayor Peter La Vallee, Eureka City Manager Dave Tyson and David
Hull, executive director of the Humboldt Bay Harbor District,
pointed out to the senator new developments along the Eureka
waterfront.
Boxer remarked how pleasant
it had been to walk along the boardwalk early that morning, then
echoed a sentiment she had made the previous night -- something
to the effect that it had been too long since she was last in
the county, and that she was so pleased to see the changes that
had taken place.
Gov.
Price
If there are any Humboldt County
residents who wish to replace Gov. Gray Davis with a local person,
they now have an official candidate.
McKinleyville resident Darin
Price, a chemistry lecturer at Humboldt State University, will
be among the more than 150 California residents whose names will
appear on the Oct. 7 recall ballot.
"Recalls need to be reserved
for extreme circumstances," Price, a member of the Natural
Law Party, said on Monday. "However, there is going to be
a recall, and I think that our issues -- timber, fisheries --
need to be represented."
Price said that he has a "lot
of experience with numbers," and cited his years spent on
HSU's finance committee as one of his principal qualifications
for office. He also noted that he has been a teacher for the
last 15 years, and that he served in student government when
he attended HSU as an undergraduate.
The candidate has a web site
-- www.priceforgov.com
-- for people who are interested in learning more about his platform.
Rumors that Arcata resident
Doug Thron, who ran for state assembly on the Green Party ticket
in 2002, would also run proved to be unfounded.
Thron said that he had taken
out papers for the race only as an emergency measure, in case
Peter Camejo, last year's Green Party candidate for the office,
decided not to run. Camejo eventually decided that he would seek
to replace Davis in October.
"I would never run against
Peter," Thron said.
The
in-laws from hell
The Eureka Police Department
announced last week that it had arrested three individuals for
the 2002 murder of Eureka resident Nathan Dannemiller -- his
former in-laws.
Douglas and Marcella Lunsford,
his ex-wife's parents, and Charles Lunsford, her brother, were
arrested in Bradford, Tenn., on Aug. 6 -- exactly one year after
the crime -- by a team of Humboldt County law enforcement officials.
The Lunsfords were charged with murder and conspiracy, with the
additional aggravating charges of lying in wait and murder of
a witness.
Dannemiller was shot to death
outside his Del Norte Street apartment on the morning of Aug.
6, 2002. At the time, he was involved in a custody dispute with
Chastity Dannemiller over their two children.
In October 2001, Douglas Lunsford
was charged with an earlier attempt on Dannemiller's life in
Trinity County. The jury in that trial could not reach a verdict,
however, and Lunsford was not convicted.
Humboldt County Deputy District
Attorney Andrew Isaac said that his office would be seeking a
sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole
for the Lunsfords.
Rail
trails
The Arcata City Council has
thrown its weight behind two new hiking and biking trail routes
that would be located along railroad tracks.
At its regular meeting on Wednesday,
the council approved two letters to the North Coast Railroad
Authority in support of trails along the authority's right-of-way.
In the first case, the council
asked the NCRA to "rail bank" its right-of-way between
Arcata and Korbel, a stretch commonly called the Arcata &
Mad River, or "Annie and Mary," Railroad. According
to City Manager Dan Hauser, the "rail bank" option
would allow work on the "Annie and Mary Trail" to begin,
with the NCRA maintaining its rights to someday reopen rail service
between the towns.
In the second, the council asked
the NCRA to support the city's own "rails and trails"
plan, in which hiking and biking paths would be placed alongside
tracks within the city limits.
The NCRA has not yet responded
to the city's requests.
The
Karl Rove factor
In an effort to avoid last year's
massive fish kill on the Klamath River, the Trinity Management
Council has filed plans to supplement the Klamath's fall flow
with 50,000 acre-feet of water from the Trinity River, if needed.
The additional water from the
Trinity was provided by Judge Oliver Wanger, a federal district
court judge based in Fresno, who is currently hearing a lawsuit
over the allocation of Trinity River water.
The Klamath and Trinity rivers
meet at Weitchpec, located on the Yurok reservation. [This has been corrected from the original
version, which misstated Weitchpec's location.]
Tim McKay, president of the
Northcoast Environmental Center, called the process a "stop-gap
measure," but one that should prevent the tragedy from recurring
this year.
Meanwhile, it was widely reported
last week that Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political strategist,
played a personal role in last year's dispute over Klamath River
water in which upstream irrigators received plenty while downstream
users -- and endangered fish -- did not.
"My original reaction was,
`Oh yeah, this is how they do things in the White House,'"
McKay said. "It struck me that they would take the side
of the haves in the water struggle."
The Coalition for the Klamath
Basin, an umbrella group of which the NEC is a member, has requested
that the federal government provide them with all documents that
pertain to Rove's role in the dispute.
Last year, Michael Kelly, an
Arcata resident and a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist,
filed a complaint under the Federal Whistleblower's Protection
Act after charging that he was pressured into endorsing a plan
that gave inadequate protection to Klamath fisheries.
See CORRECTION
on this news item
On
the waterfront
At its regular Tuesday meeting
next week, the Eureka City Council will look at two proposals
for the fishermen's work area at the foot of C Street.
One, which was narrowly endorsed
last week by the city's Redevelopment Advisory Board, is a 33,000-square-foot,
two-story building that would bring the old Lazio Seafood Restaurant
back to the waterfront.
The project, by Eureka developers
Greg Pierson and Larry DeBeni, includes a fishermen's work area,
fresh fish market and cafe, and marine retail and gift shops
on the lower level. The upper level would house the resurrected
Lazio's and office space.
A second, more modest one-story
project, by J.P. and Associates of Auburn, Calif., was not endorsed
by the Redevelopment Advisory Board even though it won unanimous
approval from the committee that ranked the projects.
That project more narrowly focuses
on fish processing and a fresh fish market with little retail
and no restaurant.
One committee member, speaking
on background, said the city's plan for waterfront development
attempts to separate the fish processing/work area from the retail
establishments and restaurants that may be bothered by the smell.
He also noted that from C Street east to F Street, there are
currently three major projects under development that incorporate
retail and restaurants.
Henry Cho, owner of the Eagle
House, says the larger, two-story project would block his view.
Cleaning
the privies
Some downtown business owners
asked the Arcata City Council last week to incorporate public
toilets into a plan to "streetscape" the core of the
city.
The council, in turn, referred
the matter back to the merchants for design suggestions and ideas
about what has become the critical issue: how to maintain the
privies.
"That's the crux of it,"
said City Manager Dan Hauser in a telephone interview Tuesday.
Two public restrooms in the
city's transit station just a block and a half off the Plaza
were closed last year.
"We had to pay bonus pay
to city workers to clean them because of fecal material,"
Hauser said. "They were being used as daytime sleeping quarters
and party facilities for groups of people with common interests.
There were a lot of smoking material and syringes [left behind]."
Hauser said the city earlier
this year reached an agreement regarding toilets with the North
Coast Growers Association that puts on the weekly farmers' market
every Saturday through October.
The Arcata Endeavor, a nonprofit
that runs the Arcata Service Center across from the ballpark,
agreed to keep its restroom open during the market hours. In
addition, the city rents a handicapped accessible portable toilet
for $300 a month that is placed in the city lot behind F Street.
"It's only serviced on
Friday before the market, so about Wednesday you wouldn't want
to go in it," Hauser added.
Restrooms have been harder to
find in recent years because many merchants have quit allowing
public access. Due to requirements of the federal Americans With
Disabilities Act, if a restroom is open to the public, it must
meet all requirements for wheelchair accessibility. Many existing
businesses do not.
Eureka and Ferndale have also
struggled with how to provide public restroom facilities. Hauser
said that Eureka has "major, major" problems keeping
the restroom on the gazebo in Old Town clean and in working order.
Hauser said the toilet discussion
last week did produce some interesting ideas, including a European-style
facility with a full-time attendant and installing pay toilets
with timers.
Any suggestions will be referred
to the Arcata Mainstreet Design Committee, he said.
Frame
wins
It appears that the city of
Trinidad's long-running and costly legal dispute with resident
John Frame has come to an end.
At a special meeting Monday
night, the city council voted 3-2 to settle a lawsuit brought
by Frame concerning the Wagner Street Trail, which wends along
the city's steep bluffs down to the sea, by permanently closing
a portion of the trail.
In settling, the city recognized
scientific studies commissioned by Frame which concluded that
continued use of the trail would likely result in serious geological
damage to one of the bluffs. However, Frame's main reason for
opposing the trail was that it passed through his property.
Frame was supported in the dispute
by the Tsurai Ancestral Society, which represents descendants
of the original residents of the Trinidad area.
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