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August 30, 2001
Former
congressman sued
Alleging breach of contract,
a Santa Rosa company is suing former U.S. Rep. Frank Riggs.
Riggs, who represented the North
Coast in the House from 1991 to 1998, took over as chairman of
DriWater Inc. when he left office. He quit just six months later
and has been accused of not fulfilling his obligations to the
company, according to a report in the Aug. 25 Santa Rosa Press
Democrat.
The company's board of directors
includes one-time political allies of the former congressman
who gave Riggs a 5 percent stake and a $3,000 monthly salary.
The compensation was given with the understanding he would use
his connections to attract investors and government contracts,
the report said.
DriWater Vice President Kent
Courley charged Riggs "never did anything" in return
for his salary and stock. DriWater has asked Riggs to return
the stock, valued at about $370,000, but he has refused.
The company makes an irrigation
gel which releases water into the soil over time.
The suit was filed in Sonoma
County Aug. 10. A pretrial conference is scheduled for Dec. 11.
A
zoo, a pool and Arkley cash
The Sequoia Park Zoological
Society is about to become the latest recipient of Arkley family
generosity.
Eureka businessman Robin Arkley
and his wife, City Councilmember Cherie Arkley, have offered
to donate an undisclosed but reportedly significant amount to
help the zoo implement a master plan adopted in 1993.
The Arkleys have helped fund
several other projects in Eureka in recent years, including the
donation of $2 million to cover the city's shortfall on the waterfront
boardwalk project, the purchase and donation of the historic
Eureka Theater, the purchase and restoration of a building to
house a ballet company, and the renovation of the Eureka High
School swimming pool.
In a private business venture,
the Arkleys purchased the historic Vance Hotel in Old Town and
funded its rehabilitation.
The swimming pool restoration
work contracts went to bid last week and work should begin in
October, said Sheldon Reber, spokesman for Eureka City Schools.
If all goes well the pool could be in use as early as next January.
The project is estimated to cost between $275,000 and $300,000.
The Arkleys' remarkable string
of charitable gifts hasn't been trouble-free, however. A $3 million
offer from the couple to help the city purchase the piece of
land known as the "Balloon Tract" was turned down by
the City Council last June.
CR enrollment
up
The Eureka campus of the College
of the Redwoods has experienced a leap in enrollment: The community
college will be serving about 11 percent more students this year
than last.
Enrollment at the Eureka campus
was 4,707 last year. This year it is 5,259.
"We certainly are pleased,"
said Paul DeMark, public information officer for the college.
"We feel we have the capacity to grow."
Casey Craybill, president of
the college, said in a written statement the increase was helped
by "improved outreach efforts," including the free
distribution by mail of class schedules.
CR has also been expanding its
offerings. This is the first year classes will be offered in
the school's hospitality and tourism program, DeMark said. Ten
new full-time instructors were hired by the Eureka campus as
well.
Enrollment grew by 17 percent
at all CR campuses combined.
Humboldt's
budget hangover
When Gov. Davis signed the state
budget into law July 26, he used his veto power to kill funding
for a program that provides healthcare for mothers and children.
The Maternal Child and Adolescent
Health program lost all its money from the state general fund.
It is a move that will end up costing more than it saves, according
to Dr. Rebecca Stauffer, director for the program in Humboldt
County.
"We are one of the very
few prevention-based programs," Stauffer said. Because it
provides services like prenatal care, the program saves money
by preventing expensive health problems.
The cut saves the state $2,644,000
out of a $101 billion budget, or a little less than .003 percent
of the total budget. But its impact on county finances could
be broad because the funds are used to leverage matching funds
from the federal government, Stauffer said.
"Our share of the state
money is about $24,000, but because it's matchable to federal
dollars, the financial impact is more like $84,000," Stauffer
said.
A bill to restore the funding
has been introduced in the Assembly and is being supported in
the senate by 2nd District Sen. Wesley Chesbro.
Money for community colleges
was also vetoed by the governor (see CR budget cut by Davis,
Aug. 23) and a similar bill has been introduced to restore that
funding.
St. Bernard's
bounces back
St. Bernard's Catholic schools
were on the ropes last year. Class sizes had been whittled down
to unsustainable levels by years of declining enrollment and
the school lacked a principal to lead it out of the woods.
But with enrollment numbers
up with a new principal in place, the school has declared itself
on the mend.
Enrollment is the key issue
for the school, where the size of the student body had dropped
30 percent from 447 in 1996-1997 to 304 in 2000-2001. This fall
enrollment is up by 11 children to 315, according to a statement
released by the school.
"Obviously we want to grow
more. Ideally we would be in the area of 500 students,"
said Patrick Daly, who took over as principal a year ago.
Daly said that while enrollment
growth is still a priority, St. Bernard's is now on stable footing.
"I'm very excited about the future of St. Bernard's,"
he said.
Restating
the obvious
Once again, the national press
has told us something we already know: The North Coast is a great
place.
Eureka/Arcata was chosen as
one of Outdoor Magazine's "Ten Dream Towns."
(Never mind that they are two towns, thank you very much.) The
article's author waxes poetic about the redwoods, the mountains
and the fog. There's even a favorable reference to the "fishy
warehouses" of Eureka.
Of course, familiar Arcata stereotypes
are sprinkled throughout the article: Visitors are advised that
ordering a cup of coffee without bringing your own mug is "unthinkable."
Everyone in town either stocks groceries, works at Humboldt State
University or agitates for leftist causes.
Humboldt also received a stunning
review in an article in the Spring 2001 Jeep News, a magazine
distributed by the carmaker to Jeep owners and dealers. Between
odes to Jeep's "awesome sound system" and "innovative
suspension," there is ample praise for Humboldt's hills,
towns and -- most of all -- beaches, which "require aggressive
driving".
Humboldt County is likely to
receive a lot more media attention in the near future, as the
Outdoor Writers Association of California holds its fall conference
here Sept.15-18. Let's hope they remember their mugs.
Weed-free
input sought
Horse owners and cattlemen who
bring hay or straw onto national forest land may be required
to buy special weed-free versions of the products under a proposed
Forest Service rule.
The rule, which is still open
for public comment, is intended to stop the spread of noxious
weeds on Forest Service land. Most hay and straw contain seeds
from weeds that are baled with the crop, but certified hay and
straw is available which does not contain viable seeds. The rule
would mandate that only such hay or straw could be brought into
national forests.
To comment on the proposed rules,
write to the Forest Service at 1323 Club Drive, Vallejo, CA,
94592.
Eel River
plan opposed
PG&E's latest plan for the
Eel River has won grudging approval from the Department of Fish
and Game and the National Marine Fisheries Service but is being
criticized by the Department of Interior.
Much of the Eel River's summer
flow is diverted to feed the Russian River, and with it agriculture
and development in Mendocino and Sonoma counties. That diversion
is managed by PG&E through its Potter Valley Project. Critics
maintain the diversion has starved Eel River salmon and trout
of water needed to survive.
In 1998, after 10 years of study,
PG&E announced it agreed and wanted to reduce the amount
of water diverted by 15 percent. Scientists at NMFS took issue
with the plan, saying it didn't leave enough water in the Eel
to restore that river's fisheries. Then in May NMFS said it was
in productive negotiations with PG&E and close to a solution
both found acceptable.
But now the Interior Department
has said the new proposed plan, which allows managers greater
flexibility to adjust flows to deal with adverse conditions and
includes higher summer flows for the Eel, isn't good enough.
It isn't yet clear what changes Interior desires in the new plan.
The plan has also been criticized
by tribal groups and the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power
Commission.
McCrone
to retire from HSU
![[photo of McCrone]](news0830-mccrone.jpg) "It's not the sort of thing I aspired
to since boyhood," said Alistair W. McCrone of his career
as president of Humboldt State University. "I wanted to
be a geologist."
He will soon get the chance
again to follow his dream career in the earth sciences: McCrone
announced his retirement Aug. 22 at the annual faculty-staff
convocation. He commented on his remarkable run as president
in an emotional and reflective press conference Friday.
McCrone, who will turn 70 in
October, has held the office at HSU since 1974. He is the longest-serving
president in the California State University system and the second
longest-serving president in the history of the system.
Born in Saskatchewan, Canada,
in 1931, McCrone followed his love of geology through the educational
system, earning a doctorate from the University of Kansas in
1961. He worked with oil exploration parties in his native Canada
during the 1960s but had settled into academia by 1969 and became
an associate dean at New York University. He moved the University
of the Pacific in Stockton in 1970, where he served as academic
vice president and professor of geology.
Then in 1974 someone from the
CSU chancellor's office called him.
"The phone rang one day
and I was asked if I would be interested in these presidencies,
one of them being at Humboldt. I was invited to the presidency
and I accepted," he said.
The role of the president in
the 27 years he held the office has been "to release the
talents that are already there all over the place and enable
people to do their jobs not only according to their technical
abilities but also according to their style," McCrone said.
McCrone's own style has provoked
some criticism as being a little too distant by some faculty
members, who traditionally have an adversarial relationship with
administrators. John Travis, president of the HSU chapter of
the California Faculty Association, said McCrone was "available
but not responsive" especially in the last few years.
McCrone also addressed the matter
of the employment of John Sterns, the former director of university
advancement who allegedly perpetrated widespread fraud in the
university's finances. (See Journal cover story, "The
case against John Sterns and HSU," Aug. 16.) Asked whether
he felt responsible for Stern's ability to embezzle more than
$60,000, tamper with trust funds and inflate donation numbers
by about $15 million, McCrone said yes.
"As president, you can't
say you didn't have any connection."
The Sterns scandal did not prompt
his resignation, McCrone said.
"I've been contemplating
this for years," he said, basing his decision on the realization
that he had "reached a certain number of accumulated years."
"You think, `Well, there
are a few years left if I am blessed with good health.'"
He expressed an interest in spending those years travelling or
teaching geology.
McCrone said he was proud of
the identity that evolved at HSU during his tenure. The heart
of that identity was the growing "consciousness of environmental
problems and the need for their address."
HSU is an institution "where
the curriculum is suffused with a value system."
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