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COVER
STORY | CALENDAR
March 14, 2002
A
slower speed limit
By Memorial Day weekend, it
will be illegal to drive faster than 50 miles per hour in the
accident-plagued section of Highway 101 that runs between Arcata
and Eureka.
It may also cost speeders twice
as much in traffic fines if they are caught.
The plan to lower the speed
limit was unveiled by California Department of Transportation
officials at a meeting of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors
Tuesday.
The new speed limit along the
five-mile corridor is just one of several new safety measures
being undertaken by Caltrans in the wake of a two-car collision
on Jan. 23 that killed four people.
Others include the creation
of a permanent radar speed detection system, the installation
of flashing beacons at intersections and new warning signs informing
drivers that they are in a "safety corridor" and asking
them to be "courteous."
Rick Knapp of Caltrans said
that while the collision rate for the corridor as a whole is
below the state average, accidents at the intersections are higher
than the norm.
As part of the effort to make
the corridor safer, traffic violation fines in the corridor would
double under legislation being proposed by State Sen. Wesley
Chesbro. Additionally, the California Highway Patrol has requested
additional funding so that it can effectively enforce the slower
speed limit. "We will be writing a lot of tickets out there
this summer," Sgt. Hal Rosendahl told the county board.
The supervisors expressed support
for the package of safety measures, which will cost about $200,000.
Some members of the public, however, complained that by focusing
on traffic speed, Caltrans was failing to address the main safety
hazard in the corridor: the presence of several left-turn lanes
that enable cars to cross the highway in front of oncoming traffic.
"Rather than closing the
left-turn lanes, they're placing the onus on CHP and local law
enforcement officers," said Dave Schneider, who regularly
commutes along the route.
Republican
primary undecided
Republican candidates for the
1st Assembly District were so close at the close of the March
5 primary that they decided not to declare a winner.
And they still haven't.
Lake County Supervisor Rob Brown
and Mendocino County Deputy District Attorney Tim Stoen each
received about 35 percent of the vote. Stoen had a 196-vote edge,
but with more than 4,000 absentee and provisional ballots left
to count after Election Day, neither could be declared the winner.
That 196-vote margin had been
reduced to just 44 votes after Lake County finished its tally.
Sonoma, Mendocino, Humboldt, Del Norte and Trinity counties had
yet to count their remaining ballots by press time Tuesday afternoon.
Any one of the counties has enough votes left uncounted to tip
the balance.
The uncounted votes are mostly
absentee ballots turned in at the polls, said Lindsay McWilliams,
Humboldt County's elections officer. The signature on each of
those ballots has to be checked against the signature on record
at the elections office. Provisional ballots are those given
when it is unclear on election day if the person had the right
to vote; that question must now each be resolved on a ballot-by-ballot
basis.
The candidates have expressed
admiration for each other during the counting. Stoen and Brown
have both said they would support the other's candidacy in the
general election this fall.
"I'm staying pretty serene
on all of this," Stoen said. "I have immense respect
and admiration for my opponent -- even affection," he said.
The counties have until April
4 to certify the results.
Sterns
mentally ill?
FORMER HUMBOLDT STATE UNIVERSITY
ADMINISTRATOR John Sterns is mentally ill, according to a report
filed in court Tuesday.
Sterns, who has been charged
with embezzlement, falsifying government records and forgery,
suffers from schizoid-affective disorder and depression, said
his attorney Marion Miller.
"It's a major mental health
diagnosis," Miller said in an interview outside the courtroom
after the report was filed. "Symptoms range from irrational
behavior and hallucinations to psychosis," she said. "You
don't fake this."
But you can hide it, Miller
said. She said that Sterns "is a person of great intelligence"
and was able to mask his illness for most of his life.
Miller said the disorder first
became apparent in March 2001, shortly after the first allegations
of misconduct at HSU. He was checked into the Semper Virens psychiatric
facility in Eureka and diagnosed there with clinical depression.
In November he was rehospitalized at a facility in Mt. Diablo
and diagnosed with schizoid-affective disorder.
Sterns, who now lives with his
wife's family in Walnut Creek, is on an extensive regimen of
medication and therapy, Miller said. He did not appear in person
for the court date.
The pre-plea probation report
was requested by the judge in the case, John Feeney. It would
help Feeney decide how to sentence Sterns were he to plead guilty
but cannot be used as a defense during a trial.
"The people's position
is that he has long-term problems, but that's no defense,"
said Rob Wade, the deputy district attorney prosecuting the case.
"His conduct has been extremely serious." Sterns' alleged
crimes at HSU, which went beyond mere theft to include vast misrepresentations
of his own abilities and achievements, are estimated to have
cost the school at least $120,000.
The District Attorney's office
has repeatedly stated it will not offer special conditions or
leniency in return for a guilty plea.
Sterns' next court date is April
4 to discuss any other issues that may need to be addressed.
A preliminary hearing is set for April 11.
Nurses to
vote this week
Nurses at St. Joseph Hospital
in Eureka will vote March 15 on whether or not to organize as
part of the California Nurses Association.
The election comes at the end
of a tumultuous campaign. Nurses allege that management has applied
increasing pressure to vote against unionization and has even
broken the law.
"Several nurses were pulled
into offices and directly asked one-on-one what their vote will
be," said Tracey Ledbetter, a San Jose nurse and member
of the CNA Board of Directors. Ledbetter said such question would
violate the National Labor Relations Act, which provides protections
for a secret election.
Blame for the violations lies
with the Burke Group, Ledbetter said. The management consulting
group, which has been advising St. Joseph throughout the election
campaign, has been implicated in illegal antiunion campaigns
in other California hospitals.
"They [the Burke Group]
are training these managers in what to do," she said.
St. Joseph management said in
a statement that it did not believe there had been any violations
of the act. "If there are allegations, they are for the
National Labor Relations Board to review," the statement
reads.
The CNA won't lodge a formal
complaint with the NLRB because it might delay the election,
Ledbetter said. "At this juncture we will just go ahead
with the vote," she said.
Dam plan
moves forward
A proposal to study the feasibility
of building a dam on Willow Creek has received approval from
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
In an order issued March 5,
FERC granted Big Rock Power Partners a three-year "preliminary
permit" to study the feasibility of the project, which calls
for building an 80-foot-long, 15-foot-high concrete diversion
dam, as well as 5.45-megawatt power plant. The project would
be located near Willow Creek, at a location within the Six Rivers
National Forest known as Steamboat Rock.
Patrick Shannon, a Willow Creek
resident and a chief proponent of the project, said it would
provide enough electrical power to serve 3,000 households. He
said he and his partner in the venture, Mark Middleton of Mad
River, are hoping to start an electrical cooperative that would
be owned either by home owners or an Indian tribe.
Tim McKay of the Northcoast
Environmental Center in Arcata, expressed concern that the project
is proceeding without a thorough study of its environmental impacts.
No extra
water for Trinity
A Hoopa Valley Tribe request
for an increase in flows in the Trinity River has been rebuffed
by the Bush administration.
The recent decision by the U.S.
Department of the Interior means that a 2001 court order that
capped flows at levels set for a drought year remains in effect
-- even though it is estimated there will be significantly more
water from snowmelt and storage this year than last.
In December 2000, then-Secretary
of the Interior Bruce Babbitt ordered an increase in the amount
of water sent down the Trinity, which had seen its salmon stocks
seriously depleted by decades of water diversions to Central
Valley farmers. After a challenge was mounted by the agriculture
and hydropower industries, however, a federal judge ruled that
the government had not properly studied the impact of Babbitt's
order.
Arcata and
the money
The city of Arcata, eager to
collect a $194,128 debt from the Arcata Economic Development
Corp., has proposed a novel solution: We'll lend you the money
so you can pay us back.
In a debt-for-debt swap approved
at the March 6 City Council meeting, the city would loan AEDC
$194,128 from the Aldergrove Industrial Park Fund. The corporation
would turn around and repay that amount to the city's revolving-loan
fund, used to fund housing programs and economic development.
The new loan would be secured
with the Foodworks building, a business incubator for culinary
enterprises. If the corporation doesn't repay the loan, the building
would transfer to city hands.
That is in fact the plan, said
Dan Hauser, Arcata's city manager. "This is a 90-day loan
with the assumption they will transfer title of the Foodworks
building to the city," he said. The corporation has been
unable to run the Foodworks facility at a profit, but it is hoped
the city could do better, Hauser said.
"We have lower insurance
rates and we won't have the debt burden the AEDC did. And we
don't have to pay property taxes," he said.
The city will undertake a study
to ascertain just how feasible running Foodworks would be. Results
are expected in May.
Even if Foodworks has to be
sold, the city could probably realize a tidy profit, Hauser said.
The facility is encumbered with $615,000 in debt but was recently
appraised at $1.4 million.
Tempered
economic optimism
Humboldt County may not be making
great economic strides, but at least it isn't going backwards.
That's the picture from the
latest Index of Economic Activity, a monthly snapshot
of Humboldt's economic health produced by Professor Steve Hackett
and his staff at Humboldt State University. The latest report
covers January, the most recent period for which data are available.
That data shows continued strength
in the industry that has proven to be Humboldt's best performer
over the last two years: home sales. Sales of new and existing
homes jumped another 10.5 percent in January.
"It's a clear trend,"
Hackett said. Home sales have more than doubled since 1997. That's
good news for a broader section of Humboldt's population than
just real estate agents, he said.
"Construction workers,
contractors, mortgage brokers, appraisers -- there is a whole
community of people that depend on home sales."
Tourism, another big industry
for Humboldt, rebounded from the beating it took after 9-11.
Activity increased 16.4 percent, making this the best January
in three years.
Even timber had a good month,
scoring a 4.4 percent increase. That did little to erase the
serious difficulties timber companies face, however: Lumber manufacturing
has suffered a series of declines due to structural changes and
pressures from cheap foreign softwood sources. January may have
represented an increase over December, but it was still the worst
winter for timber since the Index began in 1994.
And there were other reasons
for tempered enthusiasm. Retail sales were sluggish, gasoline
prices increased and the unemployment rate rose to 7.5 percent
-- more than a percentage point higher than in December.
But Hackett remained hopeful.
"We have increases in home sales and hospitality is hanging
in there," he said. "Our broad indicators show that
we have turned the corner on the recession," he said.
Prosperity
Journal gone
It was called Prosperity, but
apparently it wasn't prosperous enough: The Prosperity Journal,
a quarterly publication that sought to boost economic development
in the region, has seen its last issue.
The periodical is an outgrowth
of Prosperity!, a wide-ranging economic development plan adopted
by the county in 2000. Prosperity! the plan is based on nine
basic industries; Prosperity the magazine focused on one of those
industries per issue.
It proved impractical to publish
the Prosperity Journal every quarter, said publisher Kathy
Moxon. The new idea is to write stories and offer them to Humboldt
County newspapers for use in their publications.
"It's an experiment to
control costs," Moxon said.
The main drawback is that Prosperity!
would lose visibility, she said. "We are going to try to
get them to put a logo on it," she said. "And if we
can talk newspapers into putting us in a column area, that would
be good. But there's no guarantee."
COVER
STORY | CALENDAR
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