News

The County of Humboldt, drunk with power and out for a heavy-metal joyride, today seems hell-bent on pushing the envelope of the Brown Act to its very limits. Here it is 4:30 p.m. Friday, and no agenda posted for the Tuesday morning meet. Where's my agenda?

Meanwhile, the City of Eureka is up and at 'em. What do we have over there? Check the agenda PDF and tell me if I miss anything major.

1. The city's still trying to move the Hill Street Pump Station, a piece of property over by the old Mall 101 area (now better known as the home of Harley-Davidson). There's a closed-session item on it. City Manager Dave Tyson is apparently deep in negotiations with "Nelson," one name. Who is this "Nelson"? Some over-the-hill '90s boy band pop celebrity who moved to Eureka to open his own pump station?

2. There's a public hearing on an amendment to the city's Local Coastal Program for what looks like a parcel on the foot of C Street. Are we talking about the Buhne Building? Fisherman's Terminal? Help me out, I'm a little bit behind on matters Eureka right now.

Basically, it looks like they want to introduce an ordinance that would change the use of the parcel to allow "commercial uses incidental to the primary coastal dependent industrial use." Makes sense, because strict coastal dependent industrial is about the last thing the city would want on that area of the waterfront, and coastal-dependent industrial real estate isn't exactly a hot commodity around Humboldt Bay these days.

3. An ordinance that would amend the rules for street trees. This whets my curiosity, but the council does not put up its packets on the web, alas, and the planner has gone home for the day.

4. A $1 million program with a big title -- the "101 Corridor Traffic Light Synchronization Program Project." If approved, this program or project or program project will authorize city staff to seek a $640,000 grant and to set aside $380,000 from next year's budget. The money would then be spent to further the cause of Traffic Light Synchronization.

5. And there'll be a mid-year city budget update.

Ten 'til five, and the county's agenda still isn't up. I'm outta here. You'll be hearing from my attorneys. There is a meeting, we know that much. It'll be at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Board of Supervisors Chambers in the county courthouse, 825 Fifth St., Eureka.

The Eureka City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Eureka City Hall, 531 K St., Eureka.

UPDATE, SATURDAY MORNING: So the county's agenda is up, and there's just about nothing there. Seriously, apart from closed session it looks like a five-minute meeting. Gotta say, though, that I dig the new department-by-department format for agenda items. They must have been working out the kinks.