|
 
COVER
STORY | GARDEN | PUBLISHER | CALENDAR
May 29, 2003
Skateboarding
flap in Eureka
A proposal to adopt the
Arcata model
by
HELEN SANDERSON
MIKE JONES REMEMBERS HOW IT
FELT. The aluminum wheels of his board would send vibrations
through his legs and rattle his kneecaps whenever he would cruise
down the hills of the Eureka neighborhood he grew up in.
That was in the early `60s.
More than 40 years later, Jones, Fifth Ward councilman of Eureka,
has not forgotten the thrill of skateboarding. But that does
not mean he wants to see the activity made legal, at least not
in Old Town.
All forms of coasting, including
skateboarding, roller-skating and the use of any "toy vehicle,"
were banned in Old Town in 1963, a prohibition that continues
to this day.
"They're dangerous,"
Jones said, referring to skateboards. "These days they're
a lot more fluid and faster and the [chances] of slipping off
of one and getting hit by a car are greater."
 Hogwash,
said Shawn Newman [photo
at right]. The 27-year-old skater
acknowledged that skateboards of the past were indeed slower,
but he contended that the increased mobility of today's boards
creates a safer ride.
If it weren't for Newman, there
wouldn't even be a debate right now over skateboarding in Eureka.
Ever since being ticketed for skateboarding in Old Town's no-skate
zone a year ago, Newman has been on a crusade to have the 40-year-old
ordinance revised.
Last summer, on the final leg
of his 2-mile commute, Newman stopped at the intersection of
F and Second streets, continued down the road and entered the
alley behind his workplace, Hurricane Kate's. It was there that
he was pulled over and cited by a bicycle patrol officer.
After paying his fine, Newman
persistently sought out any Eureka City Council member who would
listen to what he had in mind. No one, however, seemed to have
the time to pay the issue much attention. Newman, full-time employee
and father of a 5-year-old daughter, didn't have the time either,
but he found it.
"I was going down there
before work, after work and on my days off," Newman said.
"It got to the point that I'd walk in, and the city clerk
would say, `Hi, Mr. Newman. Back again?'"
He was finally heard last July
at a City Council meeting where he outlined how Old Town would
benefit if the ordinance were revised. His argument was simple:
Lift the archaic ban on skating and fewer people will drive their
cars. The result will be increased parking availability and a
decrease in pollution and traffic. The downtown district will
become more tourist-friendly.
The argument proved persuasive,
as last year's council agreed that the ordinance should be reviewed.
Since then, Councilmember Jeff Leonard, elected last fall, has
taken up the skating issue and is close to completing his proposed
revisions.
Instead of having a complete
ban of skateboarding in the downtown district, Leonard is proposing
that the new law would roughly follow Arcata's regulations on
skateboarding. Skaters would follow the same rules as bicycle
riders, who follow the same traffic laws as cars, in addition
to riding as close to the right hand curb as possible, wearing
reflective gear at night and lighting their path with a flashlight.
The revised ordinance faces
some obstacles, perhaps chief among them the reality that a lot
of other things have higher priority."There have been quite
a few items that have taken precedence," Leonard said, naming,
among other things, the controversial big box ordinance. "I'm
hoping this [skating ordinance] is going to break free in June."
There's also the opposition
of Jones.
"The law should stay the
way it is," Jones said. "Skaters are a danger to traffic
and a danger to themselves."
The owners of Old Town retail
businesses are also divided. Philip Hayfmer, owner of Many Hands
Gallery, is concerned that if skateboarding is permitted, skaters
will abuse the privilege. He predicted they would find their
way onto sidewalks and start doing tricks on their boards, endangering
pedestrians and shoppers.
"I remember when the law
wasn't strictly enforced and kids would be skating on the gazebo.
No one else dared to go over there for fear that they'd be run
over," Hayfmer said.
On the other hand, Louise Bacon-Ogden,
owner of Strictly for the Birds, located just a few shops away
from Hayfmer, thinks that the ban discriminates against skateboarders
because of the way they tend to look.
"Skaters are perceived
as being up to no good. They might have funky colored hair and
nose rings and automatically it's assumed that they're creeps,
and they're hassled for it.
"I'd rather see guidelines
in place so the people who use their skateboard as transportation
can go to work without being punished, and the small percentage
who misuse the right to skate face the consequences," Bacon-Ogden
said.
Meanwhile, Newman is driving
his van to work five days a week.
"The new ordinance is a
win-win situation," Newman maintained. "The city, the
tourists, the store owners, the environment and the skaters --
everybody is better off. The sooner this thing goes into effect,
the better."
Flesh
to the skeleton:
Mad River Hospital resumes
construction
by
JUDY HODGSON
 For 14 months the monstrous steel skeleton stood
silent, a testament to the financial difficulties faced by one
small rural hospital. Earlier this month, construction began
anew on Mad River's 22,000-square-foot Medical Outpatients Building,
part of the hospital complex on Janes Road in Arcata.
"Of course we're thrilled,"
said Alison Book, public relations coordinator for the hospital.
Hospital officials had suspended
work on the building in March 2001 after a crucial bank loan
failed to materialize. A consultant was brought in and, one month
later, 49 full- and part-time employees were laid off. It was
the first layoff in the hospital's 30-year history.
The financial troubles were
attributed to falling revenues, primarily from MediCal reimbursements,
and additional regulation from the state.
"We have been going through
a refinancing process," Book said last week. "At this
time, the administration feels comfortable in completing the
building."
The building will house outpatient
services, including women's health, physical and occupational
therapy and radiology. The site will also provide short-stay
services such as endoscopies (a non-surgical internal examination)
and eye surgeries.
In an interview last year, Doug
Shaw, whose family owns the majority of stock in the closely
held corporation, said Mad River is a rare bird: a privately
owned independent hospital. Most hospitals are nonprofits and
part of large hospital chains, such as St. Joseph and Redwood
Memorial hospitals, or they are supported by special districts
like Jerold Phelps Hospital in Garberville.
HUMBOLDT PEOPLE
A stem cell donor's tale
by GRACE
KERR
When I gave blood in July 2001,
I was asked if I wanted to have my blood sample included in the
National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) registry. I didn't hesitate.
I said to a friend later, "I have a feeling that they are
going to call me one day." Somehow I just knew that my blood
sample would match someone in need of a bone marrow or stem cell
transplant.
I learned of the NMDP registry
in 1990, when a former co-worker, David, was told that his leukemia
had returned after a five-year remission. Only 26, he would need
a bone marrow transplant to survive. A donor was needed, but
no matches were found within his family, the first place where
a match is sought. (Siblings have a 25 percent chance of matching
one another.)
Everyone who knew David was
encouraged to join the NMDP registry, in hopes that a match would
be found. In those days the registry had only been around for
about three years, so the pool of donors was limited.
Unfortunately, there was a $50
fee to get on the registry. I was a starving student, along with
several others who knew Dave, and few of us could afford to sign
up.
A suitable donor was eventually
located, but by then David was very sick. The transplant was
performed, but sadly, he didn't survive. I thought that if only
a match had been found earlier, he might have made it. I wished
that I had gotten on the registry then.
The process begins
Last summer, almost exactly
a year after joining up, I got a call. I was a preliminary match
to a person in need of a transplant; was I interested in donating?
I said I was -- I found the prospect very exciting.
But I wasn't considered a suitable
donor yet; a "confirmatory typing" blood sample would
have to be taken. It turned out that the first blood test showed
a match on four of the six tissue typing markers. An additional
test was needed to determine if the last two markers also matched.
Before blood for that test could
be drawn, I had to learn more about what I was getting into.
From a brochure at the Northern California Community Blood Bank
in Eureka, I learned that donations are made in one of two ways.
One is through direct extraction of bone marrow. It's a surgical
procedure that requires a one-night stay in a hospital. Regional
or general anesthesia is given and a portion of marrow is removed
from the back of the pelvic bone using a needle and syringe.
The other method, a peripheral
blood stem cell (PBSC) donation, extracts stem cells. It's a
newer process in which a "growth factor" medication
is given to the donor to increase the number of stem cells in
the bloodstream. When a sufficient quantity is present, blood
is drawn and passed through an apheresis device, which separates
stem cells from other blood cells, returning the remainder to
the donor. It's similar to the procedure people undergo when
they donate platelets at the blood bank.
The brochure listed possible
side effects from both procedures, including bone pain, insomnia,
headaches, fatigue and nausea.
I admit that at this point I
experienced some trepidation, but I felt compelled to brave whatever
might happen. I agreed to go to the next level. I signed consent
forms, and a sample of my blood was drawn and sent to a lab.
About a month later, I received
another call, this time from Lupe Valdez Perez of Bloodsource
in Sacramento, which coordinates bone marrow and stem cell transplants.
Lupe excitedly told me that
I was an exact match on all six tissue markers to a 48-year-old
woman with plasma cell leukemia, who needed a stem cell transplant.
Again, I was asked if I still wanted to participate. Again, I
said yes.
Two airplane flights to Sacramento
soon followed. The main purpose of the first, a there-and-back-in-one-day
affair, was to ensure that I was in good health (I checked out
fine after a physical exam at Sacramento's Sutter Hospital that
included a chest X-ray and an EKG). I also learned from a doctor
that the woman who would receive my stem cells was desperately
ill, and that a stem cell transplant was the best method in her
particular case as it would be less risky. (For my part, I was
relieved to not have to endure a hospital stay, which would have
been necessary had I been donating bone marrow.)
Before the second flight, Tennie
Brooks, a good-humored R.N. at the Eureka blood bank, administered
three injections in as many days of the growth factor medication,
Filgrastim. After the second day, I started to feel one of the
most common side effects of the drug -- bone pain. It was a deep
muscle pain in the thighs, like after strenuous running or hiking.
I also felt pain low in my back. Fortunately I was allowed to
take ibuprofen.
Blood from a bumblebee
I flew to Sacramento again on
the evening of Oct. 30. This time I would spend two nights there,
at a downtown hotel. On Halloween morning, Lupe, the woman who
had informed me about the match in the first place, arrived to
pick me up and take me to Bloodsource for the first four-hour
stem cell collection process. A vivacious and maternal woman,
she was surprised and amused to see me dressed in a bumblebee
costume.
 So were the rest of the folks at Bloodsource, a
beautiful facility full of light and green plants. Still in my
bee suit, I received the final injection of Filgrastim, and was
given breakfast while the medication took effect.
Now it was time for the actual
injection. Marcy McIntyre, a graduate of Humboldt State University
and a nurse that I had met on my first visit, came into the room,
her face painted as a jack-o-lantern. She was going to tend to
the apheresis machine. A needle was put in one of my arms, blood
was drawn and then sent to the machine, which uses centrifugal
force to sort out the stem cells. These ended up in a plastic
blood bag, while the blood minus the stem cells was returned
to me through a needle in my other arm. Luckily, I have prominent
veins and no trouble was had. I tried to resist the vampire jokes.
There was a television in the
little room where I sat up in a hospital bed. It was on the whole
time, and helped create a rather surreal atmosphere. There were
Regis and Kelly on Halloween, dressed as one another and laughing,
while I sat mostly immobile, tethered to this machine that was
sucking up my blood and spitting it back into me. Marcy and I
talked a lot, ignoring the TV, but occasionally looking up to
chuckle. I also enjoyed the costumes worn by other Bloodsource
staffers, which included two witches -- but no vampires.
After the first hour, my lower
back really began to hurt. I was given some pillows for back
support. I was also allowed to shift my body a little -- while
carefully watching the needles in my arms.
Another side effect soon became
apparent: tingling in the mouth and fingers. I had been told
that this could occur. It was because of an anti-coagulant that
I had been given (the medication is necessary for the apheresis
process). I took some Tums, a source of calcium, which helped
somewhat.
Near the end of the process,
I was fed a hearty lunch. When it was all over, I took a taxi
back to the hotel. I felt very tired, as I hadn't slept well
the first night, and perhaps the process took a bit of my energy.
Also, I still had tingling hands. I had a light dinner, went
for a short walk and then went to bed early, which was a good
idea, as Lupe arrived at 6 the next morning to bring me back
to Bloodsource for the final collection process. This time, along
with a muffin, I was given a large glass of milk to get some
calcium in my body to prevent or at least reduce the tingling.
I was then promptly hooked up
to the apheresis machine, as my donation needed to be on an airplane
by noon that day to get to the eager doctors and recipient. The
Bloodsource staff was nervously whirling around, creating labels,
filling out paperwork, making and taking phone calls and double-checking
everything. I didn't have the low back pain anymore, nor the
tingling, and the process went very smoothly. Two other nurses,
Tammy and Natalie, attended to me, and were kind enough to sit
and chat with me for the three hours that it took.
After I was detached from the
machine, I was surprised how little was in the collection bag,
perhaps two cups or so. This was packed up with the previous
day's collection, labeled, and rushed off to the plane. I mentally
sent the recipient good wishes along with this precious cargo.
After a doctor checked me over
and asked some questions, I said goodbye to the staff of Bloodsource
and returned to my hotel. It was a few hours before I would board
my plane home. I had good energy this time and walked into Old
Sacramento, where I enjoyed the Railroad Museum and a hotdog
and soda.
A duty
I returned home that evening;
the flight was smooth and easy. A week later, Lupe called to
ask how I was feeling. I said just fine -- despite, I added,
having been stuck by needles a total of 16 times. (Lupe laughed
because I'd bothered to count.) She called me again a month later,
and will call periodically until this fall, as studies are still
being done on the use of Filgrastim and on the stem cell donation
procedure itself.
Many have asked if I know how
the recipient of my donation is doing. I haven't been told and
don't know if I ever will, and that's OK. I knew from the start
that she didn't have great odds, but at least the transplant
gave her another chance.
The medical staff at Bloodsource
and at the Eureka blood bank expressed a lot of gratitude to
me for donating, but really it was I who was grateful. I was
given expert care, and all my questions were answered. They did
everything possible to ensure my safety and comfort. I never
felt scared or uninformed.
The process was relatively easy
for me to handle and I wasn't trying to be a hero. I thought
of it as a duty to give someone another chance for life. It was
a way for me to counteract some of the pain and greed in the
world, and I was thankful for the opportunity.
Grace Kerr is a graphic
artist on the Journal's production staff.
|
Transplant facts
Stem cell transplants are so new that there
is very little data as to their efficacy. But it is anticipated
that the outcomes will be comparable to bone marrow transplants.
Here are a few quick facts on that procedure:
- Zero to 15 percent of leukemia patients
who need a bone marrow transplant and don't get one survive.
- One-fifth to more than half of leukemia
patients who receive a bone marrow transplant from a donor who
is not related to them survive. (These figures are based on the
type of leukemia, when the patient received the transplant and
other factors.)
Here are some basics relevant to both bone
marrow transplants and stem cell transplants:
- Some donors are informed as to their recipient's
condition, but only if the recipient's family chooses to allow
the information to be shared.
- Identities are not revealed. However,
if the donor and recipient give permission, some transplant centers
will coordinate an anonymous communication between them. After
a year, identities can be revealed if both parties agree in writing.
- Donors are not paid, but the National
Bone Marrow Donor Registry covers expenses, including meals.
If donors can show that missing work will cause them financial
hardship, lost wages will be reimbursed.
To get on the National Marrow Donor Program
registry, sign up at the Northern California Community Blood
Bank in Eureka (at this time, there is no fee). Call 443-8004.
For more details on bone marrow and stem
cell transplants, see www.marrow.org,
or pick up a brochure at the Eureka blood bank.
|
Deputies
back recall
In an interview late Tuesday,
District Attorney Paul Gallegos said the Humboldt Deputy Sheriff's
Organization, a union, and its equivalent at the Eureka Police
Department are supporting the effort to recall him.
"I think it's a misunderstanding
to think that [this] represents all of the [sheriff's deputies
and police officers'] positions," Gallegos said. "I
think it's a union thing."
The sheriff's organization notified
the press by fax Tuesday afternoon that it would announce "the
position the members have taken" on the recall effort at
a press conference on Wednesday.
Dave Morey, president of the
organization, could not be reached for comment. Sheriff Gary
Philp was also unavailable.
Gallegos said that any political
stand on the part of the organization would not affect his working
relationship with law enforcement.
"I'm not going to personalize
stuff; I'm going to keep doing my job," he said. "You
have to be philosophical about these things."
Earlier this year, Eureka police
officers publicly charged Gallegos with being soft on crime when
he struck a plea bargain involving suspects in a drive-by shooting
spree in Eureka. No one was hurt in the episode. The defendants
each face seven years in prison.
New
PL charges
The District Attorney's Office
broadened its case against the Pacific Lumber Co. on Tuesday,
alleging in court papers that more than half of the $500 million
that PL received in the Headwaters deal was obtained fraudulently
and that the company needs to pay the money back.
"The cost was to all Californians,"
Gallegos said in an interview. Referring to PL, he added: "When
you deceive the government, when you deceive the people and the
cost they bear outweighs any benefit they see, then they have
the right to seek sanctions."
The revised case, Gallegos said,
should clear up once and for all that the fraud case does not
depend solely on logging on unstable slopes, a prominent charge
in the initial complaint; he said the entire Headwaters agreement
was "tainted" from the beginning.
"They deceived government
agencies, as a result everything that emanated therefrom was
garbage," he said.
Pacific Lumber was not reached
for comment.
The revised complaint asks for
an injunction that would require PL to immediately reduce its
logging by 40 million board-feet per year. It also asks for $2,500
in penalties for every tree authorized to be harvested since
the Headwaters deal took effect on March 1, 1999.
Last week, a Superior Court
judge threw the validity of the agreement into doubt -- not to
mention future PL logging -- when he ruled that the Sustained
Yield Plan, a pillar of the Headwaters agreement, never existed
in a usable form.
Following the ruling, State
Senator John Burton, the Senate's president pro tem, announced
that a Senate subcommittee would hold hearings on the Headwaters
deal, which traded half-a-billion dollars for old-growth redwoods
and an agreement by the company to adhere to new logging guidelines.
Eureka
marine dies
A Humboldt County native has
made the ultimate sacrifice in the war for Iraq. Marine Capt.
Andrew La Mont, 32, of Eureka was confirmed dead last week in
Iraq, marking the North Coast's first casualty in the conflict.
La Mont, a pilot, was killed
when his helicopter plummeted into a canal on a routine re-supply
mission southeast of Karbala on May 19.
He was unmarried and had no
children. He is survived by his parents, James and Vivian La
Mont, as well as three brothers and four sisters.
A Marine spokesman said Tuesday
that the cause of the crash is under investigation, but that
there probably wouldn't be any answers for several months.
Forest
protected
A two-year effort to buy a 581-acre
parcel of Pacific Lumber Co. timberland outside of Redway was
finalized last week.
The parcel was bought with $2.5
million of Proposition 40 bond funds and is now part of the state
parks system. Proposition 40, approved by voters last year, is
designed to protect the environment through such measures as
land acquisition.
"The Pacific Lumber Company
is pleased to once again complete a transaction with our neighbors
in the state park that provides additional valuable parkland
while at the same time provided fair compensation for our company,"
PL President Robert Manne said in a press release.
The thickly forested land is
adjacent to the John B. Dewitt Redwoods State Reserve and contains
redwoods, including some old growth, and Douglas fir.
"It's a nice little resource
refugia," said Steve Horvitz, superintendent of Humboldt
Redwoods State Park, which will administer the forest.
The land is open to the public
for day use, but Horvitz said access will be difficult until
the California Department of Parks and Recreation can get out
there and do some surveying work for roads and trails.
The Redway group Stable Slopes
and the Save the Redwoods League helped facilitate the deal.
Theater
takes a hit
The art-deco facade of the Arcata
Theater took a beating last Friday when a U-Haul truck backed
into it.
The driver, David Katz, was
apparently trying to park on the curb when the back corner of
the truck caught on the nose of the marquee, still reading "THEATER
FOR SALE." He then tried to pull forward, but only succeeded
in peeling back the lower part of the marquee's south side.
Arcata contractor Kelly Martin
was called in Friday night to make an emergency repair, removing
the dangling piece of facade and boarding up the hole.
The building's owners have yet
to fully assess the damage.
"I have no idea what it's
going to cost. That's still down the road yet," said Bob
Morse of Bindell Realty, which has been trying to sell the theater
for almost a year. He said he didn't think that the damage would
deter any potential buyers.
In another act of seemingly
random violence against an Arcata landmark, vandals ripped the
thumb off the 97-year old bronze statue of William McKinley that
stands in the middle of the Arcata Plaza.
Sobering
conference
There was a pall of fear in
the room as the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors settled
down on Tuesday to get the straight poop from their man in Sacramento,
former Supervisor Don Peterson.
The county is looking at a minimum
15 percent cut in next year's budget, but many crucial issues
have yet to be hammered out. "We don't know exactly what
is going to happen," said Supervisor Jimmy Smith, remarking
on the general tenseness in the room.
Peterson, a lobbyist for Humboldt
and other counties, spoke by video-teleconference from the office
of the California Association of Counties. He laid out a situation
that is becoming more and more pressing. The budget is 95 to
98 percent complete now that Gov. Gray Davis' revised budget,
submitted in May, is out, but the devil is in the details.
One item of particular concern
to the supervisors is a possible change in the allocation of
vehicle license fees -- fees that are constitutionally mandated
to the county that have come under attack as the budget crisis
has deepened. It was promised that any resulting shortfall in
the fees would be made up. That shortfall amounted to $232 million
a month last year, about $500,000 of which went to Humboldt County.
"That money is absolutely sacrosanct," said Smith.
"The county will collapse without it."
Also discussed were the effects
of a half-percent increase in the state sales tax, and the dramatic
rise in worker's compensation costs (Humboldt County is the biggest
employer in the region).
The face-to-face teleconference,
with both locations appearing simultaneously on a big screen
TV, was a first for the Board of Supervisors and was met with
general acclamation.
COVER
STORY | GARDEN | PUBLISHER | CALENDAR
Comments?
© Copyright 2003, North Coast Journal,
Inc.
|