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January 10, 2002
Bluff today, gone tomorrow
Homeowners on Letz Avenue along
the ocean bluffs in McKinleyville may be breathing a little easier.
Last week Miller Farms Construction put the finishing touches
on a drainage culvert that should at least temporarily shore
up cliff-side erosion on county property.
Erosion occurred the week before
Christmas when a section of the bluffs between Vista point on
Highway 101 and the Hammond Trail parking lot at the north end
of Letz Avenue sloughed into the sea as much as two cubic acres
of soil by one estimate.
According to officials in the
county Public Works Department, the cause of the sloughing was
a blown culvert at the top of the cliff that diverts the runoff
from the Arcata/Eureka Airport. They claim that the heavy rains
before the holidays saturated the hillside and washed out the
culvert, causing massive erosion.
Allen Campbell, director of
public works, said similar events have occurred at least three
times in the same area since he's been with the county and several
temporary fixes have been attempted. "But when you're dealing
with the Pacific coast and Mother Nature, look out."
Campbell said that the funding
is in place for a more permanent solution to the problem, but
that dry weather is needed as well as final approval from the
California Coastal Commission.
Landowners on the bluff and
stewards of the Hammond Trail are also concerned. Ruth Blyther,
planning director of the Redwood Community Action Agency that
has built many sections of the trail, said, "The county
says [the culverts] failed. Some people think they weren't maintained
properly."
Meanwhile, construction continues
on a new home not more than 200 yards from the site of the washout.
-- report & photos by
Steven Spain
Building on the block
Looking to buy a big building
in the middle of downtown Eureka?
The Eureka Federal Building
at 5th and H streets is on the block with an online/written auction
beginning Wednesday, Jan. 9. The real property disposal division
of the U.S. General Services Administration offers the three-
story brick building with some conditions -- and they are by
no means minor.
First, it comes with tenants.
The post office occupies the entire first floor, 6,308 of the
23,959 square feet in the building. U.S. District Court, Bankruptcy
Court, Customs, U.S. Marshals Service, U.S. Trustees, National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Social Security occupy
offices on the second floor. They all get a minimum three-year
lease, one they can cancel with a 120-day notice.
The place covers six parcels,
but it's not likely you'd be able to tear it down to build a
parking lot. It comes with a historic preservation covenant that
lets you know its listed on Eureka's Historic Register and specifies
that any plans for the building must be cleared by California's
State Historic Preservation Office.
The covenant also offers a bit
of its history: The neoclassical building, designed by architect
James Knox of the Department of the Treasury, was completed in
1910. It comes with five murals done in 1937 by Thomas Laman-Hardy,
commissioned under the Treasury Relief Arts Project.
Among the changes to the structure
that will have to pass the state historic standards -- an earthquake
retrofit, the building is a classic case of unreinforced masonry.
The invitation for bids states in capital letters the place is
offered "AS IS," and also includes warnings about the
presence of asbestos and lead paint. The feds estimate the retrofit
and other work needed to bring it to code could cost as much
as $8 million. While the suggested starting bid is $300,000,
there is no preset minimum.
Still interested?
You can obtain a brochure from
Rhonda Rance at the GSA, 888-472-5263, ext. 3433 or check the
auction site online at www.auctionrp.com. Just like on e-Bay,
you can follow the bidding action online. High bids will be posted
as they arrive.
Call for Northwest Eye
Humboldt photographers, remove
your lens caps. The Northwest Eye photography contest is accepting
submissions.
The juried exhibition and competition,
to be held at the Morris Graves Museum in Eureka next month,
will celebrate photography as practiced by Pacific Northwest
artists. Criteria include technical mastery, individual merit,
vision and originality.
Entries are due at the museum,
636 F St., between noon and 5 p.m. Jan. 14. While there are no
limitations on subject matter, the prints should not be larger
than 11 by 14 inches. The entry fee is $20, but the prize may
be worth it: First place nets $1,000.
The works will be judged by
Bruce Barnbaum, a professional photographer and instructor. Barnbaum
will present a lecture and slide show at the museum Jan. 21 from
6-8 p.m. Call 442-0278 for more information.
Burn
barrel ban?
A new regulation being considered
by a state air quality agency may end a long-standing rural tradition:
the burn barrel.
The California Air Resources
Board is considering a ban on burning paper and cardboard trash
in 55-gallon drums. The agency claims the backyard incinerators
are a major source of air pollution, spitting not just smoke
but highly toxic chemicals like dioxins and furans into the air.
"They're our No. 1 air
pollution complaint," said Leonard Herr, air quality specialist
with the North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District,
which enforces air quality regulations.
Complaints about burn barrels
are not only frequent, they are also hard to address. Often,
when someone is suffering because of the smoke from a burn barrel,
there is little Herr can do. They may be obnoxious, but they
are also legal, assuming the person burning has a permit from
the fire department. "You are legally allowed to use a burn
barrel on a city lot and bother your neighbors," he said.
And even if a person was burning
plastic or other banned refuse, the evidence is usually up in
smoke by the time his team arrives. "There's not a whole
lot we can do about it," he said. That would change under
a ban which would allow police or fire departments to respond
to complaints about burn barrels.
The ban includes exemptions
for rural areas without garbage service or access to conventional
waste disposal. That means the family living in Whitethorn should
still be able to dispose of trash in the traditional, time-honored
way -- by match.
The ban's effect should be concentrated
on urban areas, Herr said. It's easier to cause harm with air
pollution when your neighbors are right next door, and burning
is very popular in the urbanized areas around Humboldt Bay. "The
more built up a city is, the bigger the problem," he said.
It's easy to see why burn barrels
remain popular in otherwise urban areas , he said. "In Eureka,
only 30 percent of the households have garbage service."
Eventually, dealing with solid
waste will mean taking a more comprehensive approach than just
banning the barrels, Herr said. "We'd like to see an expansion
of garbage service."
Helping
quitters win
If quitting tobacco was one
of your resolutions heading into 2002, you have a hard road ahead
of you -- but there's help. Humboldt County's public health branch
is providing 3,000 "quit kits" to local health care
providers.
The kits contain information
and cigarette "substitutes," including straws and gum,
to help curb the oral fixation many smokers and chewers feel
after quitting.
"Quitting tobacco is difficult
for most people," stated Ann Lindsay, public health officer
for the county. "Successful quitting takes an average of
nine tries and that's fine. No one learned to smoke or chew in
a day, and quitting takes time, too."
Who
will fund prosecutor?
A successful environmental prosecution
program, already reduced by funding cuts, has been refused permanent
status in the state budget by Gov. Gray Davis.
The circuit prosecutor program
hires specialized attorneys to travel to multiple counties and
prosecute violations of environmental law. The program's North
Coast representative, Paul Hagen, has handled at least 28 cases
in Humboldt County -- all of which resulted in settlement or
a guilty verdict.
Running down poachers and violators
of the state's forest practice rules wouldn't be practical for
regular prosecutors in the Humboldt County district attorney's
office, Hagen said, because of the expertise needed.
The county does not pay Hagen's
salary, however local government agencies benefit from fines
collected. One settlement Hagen reached with Louisiana-Pacific
Corp. over pollution of Jane's Creek with sawdust required the
company to pay more than $700,000 in fines and mitigation.
"My services are free,
but even if they were paid the county would be getting its bang
for the buck," he said.
The problem of paying Hagen's
salary is becoming more difficult. Up until last year, the program
had been funded by grants from three government agencies: The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, its state counterpart,
the California Environmental Protection Agency, and the state
Department of Fish and Game. But last year the EPA grant ran
out leaving the program facing a 33 percent budget cut.
"We are running on a bare-bones
budget," said Gale Filter, director of the program. "We've
already lost the services of two prosecutors and a research attorney."
The solution seemed to have
been found when the Legislature passed a bill to provide $300,000
in annual funding. But Gov. Davis vetoed the bill, citing budget
concerns.
The program's organizers were
advised by the governor to get together with their supporters
to find other funding sources, but "nothing has materialized
yet," Filter said. The program's funding is only secure
through June 30.
In the meantime, Hagen has been
hard at work -- again. He just filed a 350-count complaint against
Arcata Readimix and three trucking companies for alleged unsafe
transportation of contaminated soil to a landfill in San Joaquin
County.
PG&E
seeks plant spin off
PG&E is floating a plan
to sell off the Potter Valley Project, the small-scale hydroelectric
plant that diverts large-scale amounts of water from the Eel
River south to the Russian.
As part of its bankruptcy recovery
plan, PG&E has proposed selling the 1908-vintage facility.
Selling Potter Valley to a spinoff company, Potter Valley Project
LLC, would remove the project from state regulation. Rather than
being watched by both state and federal agencies, the plant would
be regulated solely by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The power plant stands at the
center of a tug of war over resources between Humboldt and its
neighbors to the south. It's not about electricity: Only 9.2
megawatts are produced at the facility, compared with about 7,100
megawatts at PG&E's Diablo Canyon hydroelectric facilities.
But the dam diverts 180,000
acre-feet of water to the Russian River, feeding agriculture
and development in Sonoma County. That diversion is blamed for
the collapse of the salmon and steelhead trout fisheries in the
Eel. Negotiations are underway to reduce the amount taken from
the Eel, especially in the summer when the Eel can go dry.
With such high stakes, no one
seems pleased that PG&E wants to sell. Representatives of
Sonoma County have voiced concern the new company might try to
reduce the flows to the Russian, while Humboldt County river
advocates feel state control of the plant is better for their
interests.
"We feel strongly that
the state should stay in control of our utilities, not the federal
government," said Nadananda of Garberville's Friends of
the Eel River.
Wet
weather testing begins
With heavy winter rains underway,
the Humboldt County Health Department's Environmental Health
Division announced last week that the wet weather test period
was open.
In many areas of Humboldt County,
property owners wanting to subdivide or develop land with on-site
sewage disposal systems need to test their soils and ensure there
won't be groundwater contamination during the wet months. The
test must be conducted by a civil engineer, geologist or qualified
consultant. The testing may require several weeks, so get started
early.
Call Environmental Health at
445-6215 for more information.
Bus
service to Redding
Carless travellers trying to
get to Redding can finally take the bus. Greyhound has re-established
its Eureka-Redding line.
The service was stopped six
years ago. Attempts had been made in the interim to start a public
transport line to Redding, but those efforts ceased last year
when Greyhound announced it would resume service. The first bus
rolled into Eureka Jan. 8.
A one-way trip on the new line
will take about three and a half hours and cost $28. For schedule
information, call Greyhound at 1-800-231-2222.
Feeling
the pinch
As economic data has rolled
in over the last few months, a strange trend appeared: Humboldt
County seemed to be immune to the recession. Unemployment was
down and several sectors of the local economy were picking up
steam even though the national economy has been in recession
since March. That trend has now come to an end, according to
the latest Index of Economic Activity for Humboldt County.
Every economic statistic the
Index tracks declined during November, from home sales to the
hospitality industry. In some sectors the slowdown is minor,
and some parts of the economy are likely to rebound quickly.
But the writing is on the wall: The recession has hit Humboldt.
Nowhere is that clearer than
in the retail sector, said Steve Hackett, executive director
of the Index. "Retail sales are a pretty good indication
of what's going on in the overall economy," and sales at
Humboldt County merchants dropped 10.4 percent in November.
There are other reasons to be
concerned about the drop in retail sales. The retail industry
isn't just a barometer of the county's health; it is also an
important source of employment. Through the tourist trade, it
brings much-needed money into the county economy.
While Humboldt's tourist industry
hasn't seen the same kind of downturn as the rest of Northern
California, stays at local hotels did slip 6.5 percent in November.
Home sales dropped almost 20
percent during November, erasing some of the gains made during
October. The sector is volatile, Hackett said, and the trend
in Humboldt's home sales is probably still upward. Home sales
grew consistently from the late '90s through late last year.
The manufacturing sector saw
yet another month of slowing activity in November. In Humboldt
County, manufacturing mostly means wood products, and seasonally
adjusted lumber numbers dropped 9 percent over the month. The
logging sector's economic output is now 25 percent smaller than
it was just three years ago.
The recent drop in logging may
be a temporary effect of the recession, however. "When the
economy picks up, lumber traditionally roars back," he said.
The long-term decline in logging won't stop that, although "it's
not clear how dramatically it will come roaring back," Hackett
said.
Levee
lawsuit
Users of a levee trail, upset
over what some call harassment by a nearby property owner, have
filed suit to assert their access rights.
The Mad River levee, located
in Blue Lake next to the Mad River, is on property owned by dairy
farmer Manuel Morais. He claims that people who use the levee
as a recreational trail have vandalized his property. In 1998
he started to obstruct people from using the levee.
While Morais owns the property,
he may not have the right to prevent usage of the levee as a
trail. It was constructed through an easement purchased by Humboldt
County, which also has the right and obligation to maintain the
levee -- so while the land is Morais', the levee is at least
partially within the county's control.
And the people who have been
using the levee have rights to the property as well, said Blue
Lake attorney Richard Platz, who is representing the Mad River
Levee Access Group in the suit.
Until the late '70s, California
law gave people who used private property for recreational purposes
for a period of five years or more the right to continue that
use, Platz said.
Because people have been using
the levee since the 1950s, that right has been well established.
The suit seeks to establish access for recreational users. Platz
said no court date had been set.
Ferndale
to hire manager
The problem, said Ferndale Mayor
Jeff Farley, "is that we on the City Council all work other
jobs." That's left Farley and his colleagues on the council
without enough time for city business. They are now searching
for a city manager.
The manager position would hopefully
pay for itself by attracting grant money while reducing the amount
of planning work for which the city has to contract out to private
consultants.
The application deadline closed
Dec. 31. With 16 applications in hand, Farley said the city is
ready to begin the selection process. "We'll have something
within the next couple months," he said. "We looked
for someone who would want to stay, someone who has put down
roots here."
The idea to share a manager
with Rio Dell, also currently searching for a city manager, fell
flat because of concerns over workload. "We threw the idea
of sharing a manager around, but we felt that for the amount
of work we had here, sharing would not work."
Delay
for McKinleyville plan
A voluminous packet of comments
on the proposed McKinleyville General Plan update from a homebuilders'
group may postpone the plan's approval, but it will be all the
better for it, according to Humboldt County's top planning official.
"In our business, the more
carefully your plans are reviewed, the better they come out,
" said Kirk Girard, director of Community Development for
the county.
When the comments were submitted
by the Northern California Homebuilders' Association in December
some residents were concerned that it is a stalling tactic by
builders who were more comfortable under the old plan. A report
in the McKinleyville Press stated comments were viewed
by county planning staff as an attempt to obstruct the plan's
passage.
Not so, said Girard.
"They paid to have a consultant
go through the plan with a fine-toothed comb and they found aspects
that would have to be changed," he said. As an example,
Girard pointed out that the proposed plan update had been based
on 1990 census data. The 2000 data is now available and should
be used, he said.
But the comments will set back
the schedule for the plan update's approval. They have to be
studied and incorporated into the proposal, which will then have
to be recirculated for another 45 days.
The plan revision should be
presented to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors by spring,
Girard said.
Hoopa
election open
Not all the election deadlines
have passed in Humboldt County. Tribal members who want to sit
on the Hoopa Valley Tribal Council have one more week to file
an application for candidacy.
Three seats are open on the
tribal council, which has many of the functions on the reservation
that a city council has in an incorporated area. Tribal council
members are responsible for social services, the tribal police
force and the museum. The deadline to file is Jan. 18. Five tribal
members have already applied to run.
Also open is a position as the
tribal chief judge, with three tribal members already in the
running.
The primary election will be
held April 30.
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