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February 1, 2001
Humboldt
economy slips
An energy crunch, lagging demand
for forest products and a weakening of the tourist trade are
beginning to put the brakes on Humboldt County's economy.
Numbers from the December Index
of Economic Indicators, released this week by Humboldt State
University Professor Steve Hackett and student Debbie Keeth,
show that the North Coast is experiencing its most profound slowdown
for more than a year. The Index, which is adjusted for
the effects of seasons on Humboldt's sometimes volatile economy,
dropped 2.6 percent.
"It seems to be pretty
broad-based," Hackett said of the dip in economic activity.
There were setbacks in almost every sector the Index measures.
Retail sales dropped 7 percent,
making the 2000 holiday shopping season an extremely weak one.
National retailers JC Penney
and Montgomery Ward both folded their tents in Eureka during
January.
"Ward's has been on the
ropes for some time now," Hackett said, and is closing all
stores nationwide. Penney's is closing all 50 outlet stores nationwide.
Manufacturing, which in Humboldt
County is still mostly comprised of the forest product industry,
is plumbing new depths as a drop in demand for forest products
and a spike in energy costs make business unprofitable. December
was the third consecutive month that the sector saw significant
declines, producing 12.8 percent less than in December 1999.
It is currently at its lowest level since January 1995.
The slowdown is beginning to
have serious consequences for Humboldt County. Louisiana-Pacific
Corp. announced Jan. 25 that it will be laying off 180 workers
from its Samoa pulp mill. Management cited rising costs for natural
gas and plummeting prices for wood pulp as reasons and were unsure
what would happen after the plant is taken over by LaPointe Partners
Inc. The Midwestern firm agreed to buy the plant in November.
The pulp mill's layoffs and
the retail closures are too recent to be included in December's
Index, which shows a drop in unemployment. December's
jobless rate was 5.2 percent, down half a percentage point from
November.
Even tourism, often cited as
a sector that has grown as timber operations have lessened, provided
a lackluster performance -- the sector decreased 3.1 percent
over 1999.
"The old argument about
economic diversification is that sectors will offset each other
-- as one goes down another will go up to compensate," Hackett
said. The fact that all sectors are experiencing a decline is
indicative of a widespread economic downturn, he said.
"Usually, that's a good
indication that something's going on in the national economy."
Home care
layoffs announced
St. Joseph Health System announced
this week that 23 health care workers are being laid off from
its home health agency staff of 104.
St. Joseph spokesperson Laurie
Watson Stone said the layoffs are part of a reorganization effort
which is the result of "ongoing significant changes"
in the home health care industry, most notably the federal Balanced
Budget Act of 1997. Reimbursements for home health care fell
$8.8 billion -- or 52 percent -- between 1997 and 1999, and the
number of visits per patient declined 43 percent in the same
period.
Watson confirmed that the number
of patients served by the agency has remained steady at 1,800
per year, but "due to improved efficiency in the clinical
visits, the overall number of visits has decreased."
The home health agency, which
provides home health, pediatrics, HIV case management, in-home
and senior care services, employed 155 as recently as July 1999.
Affected employees are being
offered opportunities to fill vacancies at St. Joseph, Redwood
Memorial and General hospitals, all owned by St. Joseph Health
System, as they become available and training to move from home
health to acute care.
St. Joseph officials continue
to review and plan for consolidation of services and departments
following the buyout last year of its chief competitor, General
Hospital. Most recently physician services at the two emergency
rooms have been combined into one group.
"There was a rumor about
closing the emergency room (at General) that started because
of the physician consolidation," Watson said. The closure
decision and date have not been set because the hospital staff
is still "doing planning and analysis." No decision
has been made," Watson added.
"It's part of the planning
that is ongoing, what should be combined," she said. "But
that's all part of the second phase."
NMFS asks
for more time
Eel River advocates and Sonoma
County developers, on tenterhooks for months over proposed decreases
in the amount of water diverted from the Eel to the Russian River,
will have to wait a little longer -- one federal agency isn't
quite done deciding yet.
The National Marine Fisheries
Service is required to provide a document called a biological
opinion to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency
that controls the river diversion.
That document gives FERC license
to "incidentally take" -- or kill -- protected species,
in this case salmon and steelhead, if the project is deemed to
be acceptable in an overall sense. NMFS has released a draft
opinion in which it criticized the FERC proposal for not leaving
enough water in the Eel to protect fisheries.
The agency was widely expected
to release a final opinion by Jan. 23, but instead asked for
an extension of the deadline for the opinion so it can review
new evidence presented by the California Department of Fish and
Game.
"They made technical comments
on the draft decision and we want to make sure our technical
basis is as strong as possible," said Rod McGuiness, deputy
regional administrator for NMFS. "It's not really a matter
of reviewing our decision."
Nadananda, executive director
of the Friends of the Eel, said she hoped NMFS would stand by
its position that the FERC proposal was not sufficient for Eel
River fish. If NMFS doesn't give FERC permission for incidental
take, Nadananda's organization will probably sue, she said.
"We will sue FERC if they
are not complying with the law -- so we'll probably end up suing
them," Nadananda said.
Water board
meet postponed
Another important environmental
decision was postponed this week as the North Coast Regional
Water Quality Control Board put off its hearing on Pacific Lumber
Co. harvest practices in Humboldt County.
NCRWQCB staff allege that Pacific
Lumber's timber operations on five Humboldt County watersheds
have negatively affected the "beneficial uses" of the
streams flowing through them. Pacific Lumber is supplying drinking
water to residents of some watersheds who had previously been
able to use adjacent streams because the streams have become
filled with silt (See Nov. 16, 2000).
The hearing had been scheduled
for last September and has been postponed several times. Board
members cite scheduling conflicts and a need to study new data
as causing the delay. A new date has not been set.
Softball
hurler visits Saturday
When it comes to softball, Lisa
Fernandez is pure gold. Fernandez, possibly the world's best
softball pitcher, led teams to gold medals at the 1998 World
Championships, 1999 Pan American Games, and 1996 and 2000 Olympic
games.
Fernandez, who will speak at
Eureka High School for National Girls and Women in Sports Day
Feb. 3, said in a telephone interview from Arizona that she was
a lucky child.
"I was fortunate enough
to get involved in fastpitch [softball] at an early age."
She said she credits that involvement with having taught her
valuable life skills.
"How to communicate with
others, work with a team and shoot for goals -- these are all
important skills you learn through sports that you can't learn
any other way."
The statistics back her up.
According to the Women's Sports Foundation, female athletes are
less likely to experience teen pregnancy, depression or low self
esteem and are more likely to graduate from high school. That
adds up to success: 80 percent of female executives at Fortune
500 companies played sports when they were young.
Fernandez said even though she
had the chance to play, female athletes faced serious obstacles
when she was young. In junior high she had to play with boys
because female team sports weren't available, and the field conditions
were always worse for female sports. These days, she said, "It
has gotten better, but it is definitely not equal."
Pat Cowan, promotions chair
of the committee organizing Fernandez's visit, said the status
of women's sports in Humboldt County isn't all it could be, but
it is improving.
"There's still some things
left to do," she said, like making sure that women have
the same access to equipment and get the chance to play games
Friday night, when more people can attend.
The changes start in your own
mind, she said. "As a mother of a female athlete I had no
idea how I was not supporting her. It just occurred because of
my own lack of awareness. I did not recognize that as a female
athlete she was entitled to Friday night games."
Fernandez hopes she can make
people aware of those attitudes and help women and girls to speak
up, because the female athletes of today will be among the leaders
of tomorrow.
Memorial
services for Gupton
Memorial services were held
Tuesday for former Eureka Councilmember Jim Gupton, 59, who died
last week following a massive heart attack.
Gupton was a Eureka native and
graduate of Eureka High School and Chico State College. He worked
most of his life in the grocery business including positions
in the Bay Area with Safeway and Purity stores. He returned in
1979 to Eureka to work for a produce supply business, which he
purchased in 1987 and renamed Six Rivers Produce. More recently
he was employed as produce marketer for Murphy's Markets.
Gupton appeared on television
and radio stations with his produce show, "The Fresh Guy,"
and had a column by that name in the Eureka Times-Standard.
Gupton was active in many community
and civic activities including the Eureka Chamber of Commerce,
Rotary, St. Joseph Foundation and St. Bernard School.
Gupton was elected to the council
in 1996 to represent the 2nd Ward. He chose not to run for re-election
last year after suffering health problems.
Planning
considers subdivision
Plans for the first phase of
a 468-unit subdivision in McKinleyville will be considered by
the Humboldt County Planning Commission Thursday, Feb. 15.
Mark Rynearson, a developer
working on the proposed Central Estates subdivision, has applied
for a negative declaration regarding environmental impact of
the project proposed for the Miller property between Central
and McKinleyville avenues across from Heartwood Drive.
While planning department staff
feels that the negative declaration should be approved since
mitigations are sufficient to offset impacts, others in the community
think otherwise, including planners in the Arcata Community Development
Department.
"We commented on it,"
said ElizaBeth Schatz, senior planner. "We have a concern
regarding traffic impacts in Arcata." In particular Schatz
feels that the plan does not take into account the fact that
McKinleyville declares itself a bedroom community in its proposed
revision of the General Plan.
McKinleyville Community Services
District board member Jill Geist thinks the size of the project
is being misrepresented since phase one deals with just the first
64 units on 14.7 acres, phase one of the overall development.
She sees the proposed mitigations as minimal and says that most
of the off-site impacts will become the financial responsibility
of the county.
According to Geist, "Ultimately,
this project needs an EIR and several mitigations to address
cumulative impacts of traffic, drainage and sociologic impact.
But that won't happen unless they hear people demanding one."
MCSD is already making plans
to increase capacity for the sewage treatment plant. Bids are
due Feb. 6 on work including modification of the headworks at
the plant and expansion of sewer mains that will carry waste
from the new development.
Live wires
at KHSU
"The most exciting thing
for us is that this is the first national news service focused
on the participating stations," said Terry Green, KHSU station
manager, of the new Live Wire Independent News program.
KHSU, the public radio affiliate
at Humboldt State University, already carries news programs from
National Public Radio, including Morning Edition and All
Things Considered. But Live Wire would be different,
Green said.
"To some degree NPR depends
on local stations, but they mostly use their own reporters and
news feeds from the British Broadcasting Corp. A station-based
news service is a new thing," he said.
The four-week pilot project
will provide a mix of daily stories and investigative pieces
every weekday at 1:30 p.m. starting Feb. 5. Green said KHSU does
not have any plans to contribute news stories to the network
but may in the future.
Environmental
prosecutions
When Humboldt County Deputy
District Attorney Paul Hagen talks, polluters listen: Hagen took
two cases of environmental damage to court in late January, with
guilty pleas achieved in both.
Serious diesel-fuel contamination
of groundwater was discovered at the Mercer-Fraser Co. on the
South Fork of the Eel in November 1999. Mixed rainwater and diesel
was being inadequately contained or in some cases discharged
directly onto the ground. In addition, there was unlawful burning
and asphalt placed too close to a watercourse. The company was
fined $45,000, $40,000 of which was suspended pending successful
cleanup efforts.
David Neal Grandy, a licensed
timber operator who had been harvesting trees from two areas
near Mule Creek, admitted Jan. 24 to violations of the Forest
Practice Act. He had constructed an illegal stream crossing,
harvested too close to a fish-bearing stream and apparently used
Mule Creek as a skid trail. Grandy was fined $13,500, with $7,500
suspended during a two-year probation period.
CDF employees found the violations
during routine inspections. Hagen said that CDF has begun to
be more vigilant about enforcing the FPA.
"The number of cases has
begun to pick up. Until recently, they didn't send me that many."
Court to
EPIC: Be specific
"Trying to just do the
small projects is frustrating from the standpoint of trying to
change the way things are done," said Paul Mason, executive
director of the Environmental Protection Information Center in
Garberville.
It may be frustrating, but after
a ruling handed down from U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Conti
in San Francisco Jan. 22, it seems to be the only way to go.
Conti ruled that California's
logging regulations do not clash with the Endangered Species
Act. EPIC had claimed the rules do not protect threatened coho
salmon as required under the ESA.
In his ruling, Conti counseled
EPIC to stick to "site-specific" challenges to the
rules. The federal court, Conti stated, "needs to concern
itself with more distinct and developed facts" -- meaning
cases of specific violations.
Asked if the ruling would push
EPIC to pursue a more site-specific strategy, Mason said his
group "may need to do precisely that. We are still evaluating
options and may appeal Conti's ruling."
-- reported by Arno Holschuh,
Judy Hodgson and Bob Doran
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