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June 6, 2002
Home prices
leap
The median price for an existing
home in Humboldt County jumped 6.5 percent in April and is currently
$159,500, according to the May edition of The Index of Economic
Activity, published by Humboldt State University.
The lumber manufacturing industry
also appears to be on the mend, according to the Index.
Production has increased, bouncing back after falling this spring
to its lowest level since 1994.
The Index, which keeps
track of the local economy, is the work of economist Steve Hackett
and his students.
The current strength of the
national real estate market, according to Hackett's publication,
relies on the construction of new housing to keep pace with an
ever-growing population, continued appreciation of the market
and low mortgage rates keeping the demand for housing greater
than the supply. In April, the number of home sales increased
by 3.9 percent from the previous month, with most indicators
pointing toward continued growth.
The trend in home sales is expected
to continue as long as demand outpaces the supply, the Index
says. Since last year the average statewide price for an existing
home has risen 26.1 percent to $321,950.
The Index notes that
there is some concern that the current statewide growth in home
sales will not sustain itself.
In May, the county's lumber-based
manufacturing showed improvement. Managing director of the Index,
John Manning, believes this is partly due to the recent tariffs
placed on imported Canadian softwood lumber.
Although the economic forecast
looks good for home and lumber sales, claims for unemployment
insurance in the county leaped by 31.0 percent last month, while
the number of help-wanted ads rose by only 19.1 percent, the
Index said.
Headwaters
plan released
A draft plan that will govern
management of the Headwaters Forest Reserve near Fortuna was
released last week and is available for public comment.
The plan is the work of the
U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the California Department
of Fish and Game, which jointly manage the reserve. The two agencies
will be accepting input from the public until Aug. 29.
The 7,500-acre reserve, purchased
by the government in 1999 after years of controversy, contains
stands of thousand-year-old redwoods. It also provides habitat
for a number of imperiled species, including the northern spotted
owl, marbeled murrelet, chinook and coho salmon and steelhead
trout.
The plan details several management
alternatives that are consistent with preserving the area and
at the same time allowing it to be used for recreation, Lynda
Roush of the land management bureau said in a press release.
The plan can be viewed on the
Internet at www.ca.blm.gov/arcata/headwaters.html.
A public meeting will be held
on the plan at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16, at the Humboldt County
Library, 1313 Third St., Eureka.
Are
small school districts endangered?
Twenty-six of Humboldt County's
32 school districts could be required to consolidate with neighboring
districts under a reorganization proposal before the state Legislature.
Additionally, the state's draft
Master Plan for Education, released last month, calls for removing
much of the authority of the state superintendent of public instruction
-- an elected post -- and transferring that power to a new position
appointed by the governor.
The purpose of the plan is to
streamline and improve the delivery of education services to
students from kindergarten through college.
"Our recommendation is
that the governor appoint the person who runs the Department
of Education and that there be a clear line of accountability,"
said Janet Holmgren, president of Mills College in Oakland and
chair of the Governance Working Group, one of seven groups that
presented the draft Master Plan to the Legislature in early May.
Holmgren said her group stopped
short of suggesting the publicly elected schools chief be eliminated
entirely.
"We did not want to get
into whether or not to abolish that office," she said in
a telephone conversation Tuesday. "There is a role for state
superintendent -- a watchdog role, the public's advocate to monitor
and evaluate programs but not to run the department."
California currently has a system
with overlapping responsibilities. It includes an elected superintendent
of public instruction, an appointed state Board of Education
and an appointed secretary of education -- plus a governor who
can fund or eliminate programs with his line-item veto.
The group also looked at and
shelved the idea of statewide collective bargaining to reign
in expenses.
"We didn't get very far,
but all districts need some help in the negotiating arenas because
it takes up an inordinate amount of time."
Regarding the small school district
proposal, Holmgren said it is potentially a hot issue.
"I'm not sure how controversial
it will be, but I am hopeful it will not be a bottleneck,"
she said. "We received strong support [for reform] from
those legislators who attended various hearings."
"Since Proposition 13 passed
[in 1978 limiting property tax revenue], California has fallen
dramatically behind. We are among the least well funded and the
least successful in the delivery of K-12 education. It's dreadful,"
Holmgren said.
In a phone call from Sacramento,
Assemblymember Virginia Strom-Martin said it is now up to the
joint legislative committee to sort through the recommendations
and adopt the plan. She said consolidation may prove impractical
in the 1st Assembly District where the population is thin and
distances great.
"I'm not sure I can support
it at this time. Perhaps more consolidation of services -- yes,"
Strom-Martin said.
Superintendents of small schools
-- defined as the smallest one-third of the schools, those with
under 1,000 students -- are wary.
"I feel it would be really
unfortunate," said Ron Pontoni, superintendent of the 510-student
independent Cutten Elementary. "There are lots of wonderful
things happening in schools less than 1,000. There are districts
of 400-500 students that are pretty efficiently run."
Marie Twibell, superintendent
of Fieldbrook Elementary with 98 students, said her school is
already consolidating some services with other small schools.
"We share a food service
program with Blue Lake and a resource teacher with Cuddeback,"
she said. "Consolidation ... homogenization is not the answer."
Humboldt County Superintendent
of Schools Louis Bucher is already firing off letters of protest
to Strom-Martin and Sen. Wesley Chesbro.
"These districts reflect
their small, rural communities. Parents are involved and students
feel connected. As reflected by the state's Academic Performance
Index, children is these small districts tend to perform well
on state tests," said Bucher.
Strom-Martin, a former teacher
who is leaving office due to term limits, held meetings throughout
the district early in the Master Plan process, however, the nearest
opportunity to comment in person on the draft plan will be at
Sonoma State June 28. The joint committee plans to adopt the
plan by late August.
Strom-Martin urges citizens
to read the plan online -- www.sen.ca.gov/masterplan
-- and submit written comments or they can register to participate
in a website dialogue on specific topics related to the plan.
To learn more about the on-line dialogue, visit www.network-democracy.org/camp/
or contact Laurie Maak (510) 527-6474.
-- reported by Judy Hodgson
Un-hyphenated
name
Don't look for Green Party candidate
Doug Riley-Thron on the November ballot under the letter "R."
The Assembly candidate is getting
divorced from his wife, Karen Riley. Since the two hyphenated
their last names when they married, they are choosing to unhyphenate
them.
Election codes allow for marriage-related
name changes.
Thron faces Democratic candidate
Patty Berg from Humboldt County, and Lake County Republican Rob
Brown for the seat being vacated by Virginia Strom-Martin.
Co-op
convergence
They're coming from all over
the country for the 46th annual Consumer Cooperative Management
Association Conference, an event hosted by Humboldt County's
own Northcoast Co-op.
Over 300 people arrive this
week. Between Thursday and Saturday they will attend workshops,
lectures and forums on all things cooperative and take tours
exploring local farms and businesses working toward sustainability.
 While
the conference is aimed at co-op managers, there are events open
to the public, in particular two keynote speeches: first a talk
on Friday by Harvey Hartman, author of Marketing in the Soul
Age: Building Lifestyle Worlds, and a Saturday morning speech
by Frances Moore Lappé, [photo
at right] author of Diet for a Small
Planet and its recent sequel, Hope's Edge: the
Next Diet for a Small Planet, written with her daughter,
Anna.
Hartman is founder and chairman
of the Hartman Group, market researchers specializing in natural
products. Hartman will discuss what he sees as a trend in marketing,
targeting customers with "a deep cultural longing to find
a more soulful way of living."
Lappé began research
for the groundbreaking book Diet for a Small Planet while
a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley
where she was studying community organizing. That was put on
hold while she looked at something bigger: the ramifications
of food distribution.
"I wanted to get to the
roots of the suffering in the world, suffering that seemed so
needless," she explained in a call from her office in Boston.
"I started with the question: Why is there hunger in the
world? That soon grew to, Why is there hunger in a world of plenty?
The experts were telling us that we'd reached the Earth's limits
to feed people and famine was inevitable."
After poring through reams of
data she discovered something even more unsettling: There is
in fact plenty of food in the world, but much of it is misdirected
because of our meat-centric diet.
"What I learned was that
humans are creating the scarcity that we feared. We had turned
ruminants, livestock, particularly cattle, into protein factories
in reverse. Throughout history ruminants had taken inedible grasses
and waste and turned it into high grade protein. But since World
War II, when we had so much grain and it was so cheap, we created
this factory model that turned livestock into units of productions
into which we now feed close to half the world's grain."
Since Diet for a Small Planet
was published in 1971, Lappé has founded two organizations:
Food First, a think-tank examining world hunger, and the Center
for Living Democracy, an initiative aimed at involving regular
citizens in the decision-making process.
With her new book, Hope's
Edge, she resumes her exploration of the impact of our food
choices on the world, this time with a focus on positive solutions
around the world.
"Amazing things can happen
when people make the right choices. That's what Hope's Edge
is about, how on every continent people are breaking out of the
notion of simply focusing on food production without asking who
has access to it.
"We talk about everything
from the landless worker's movement in Brazil where a quarter
million people are settled on 17 million acres of land to urban
gardens in the Bay Area."
What does all this have to do
with co-ops?
"The co-op principle is
at the heart of everything I talk about. To me it means we're
all in this together. The notion of what I call `living democracy'
is co-responsibility. We can't just blame irresponsible politicians.
You can't look to others for solutions. You must become the solution
yourself."
There are a limited number of
tickets available for the keynote speeches. For further information
call 442-6441. To learn more about Lappé's work go to
www.dietforasmallplanet.com.
-- reported by Bob Doran
Chesbro
to work on a balanced budget
State Sen. Wesley Chesbro (D-Arcata)
has been chosen as one of six legislators appointed to the Joint
Conference Committee responsible for negotiating a balanced budget
for California.
Because California is operating
under a deficit, balancing the budget is certain to entail budget
cuts.
"With the size of the deficit,
it's going to be a challenge to get a budget that protects the
state's vital needs, spreads the pain around and treats all Californians
fairly," said Senate President John Burton, who appointed
Chesbro to the conference committee.
Chesbro is currently chairman
of the Senate's Budget Subcommittee on Health, Human Services,
Labor and Veteran Affairs.
Summer swimming
holes
Benbow Lake will be nonexistent
this summer while its eroded seasonal dam undergoes repairs.
Another swimming hole however, Freshwater Pool, will be re-opened,
and will include a new floating platform funded by Pacific Lumber
Co.
A dam that will create the pool,
along with an accompanying fish ladder, are to be put in place
by June 15. Last year, drought prevented Humboldt County from
installing the dam out of fear that young salmon would be stranded
in the lower creek.
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