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June 21, 2001
Districts
shaping up
The Humboldt County Board of
Supervisors has begun the process of adjusting the districts
from which they are elected under the guiding philosophy of not
fixing that which isn't broken.
While the districts have grown
at very different rates over the past 10 years, the board has
directed staff to prepare a "minimalist" plan for redistricting.
Such a plan would bring the five districts' population totals
just within 10 percent of each other, satisfying the legal requirement
without rocking the boat.
"You have the 2nd District,
which has the most people, and the 1st, which has the fewest.
They're 10.184 percent out of balance," said Lindsey McWilliams,
administrative services director for the county. "If you
took 75 people or so from the 2nd and gave them to the 1st, you
would be at 9.8 percent."
There are other approaches,
McWilliams said, but the closer you get to a perfect numerical
balance, the more complicated the situation gets. The 4th district,
for instance, needs to gain people -- but they would have to
be taken from the 1st or 3rd districts, which are also people-poor.
"It's like trying to rearrange
a house of cards without the house falling down," said McWilliams.
And the bottom line, he said,
is that no one is approaching the supervisors with reasons to
rearrange.
"The supervisors are for
the most part content with their districts and the districts
are for the most part content with their supervisors."
Salmon bill
passes house
Congressman Mike Thompson's
$600 million salmon restoration bill has been approved by the
House of Representatives on a 418-6 vote.
The bill would fund salmon habitat
restoration efforts in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho
and Alaska. The money would be given to the state governments,
who would then distribute it to local and regional projects.
"The primary cause of the
drastic decline in salmon and steelhead along California's North
Coast is habitat loss," stated Thompson.
While the near-unanimous approval
of the bill augurs well for its success, a similar measure won
approval in the House last year and then failed to pass the Senate.
This year's bill has yet to be considered by the Senate.
Eel River
sale cleared
A decision by Humboldt County
Superior Court Judge Marilyn Miles freed Eel River Sawmills'
assets June 9 from a lien imposed by two former employees.
The lien is part of a class
action lawsuit filed in March. The lawsuit alleges that the company
cannot be sold to anyone other than its own employees. The financially
strapped Eel River has been trying to sell its mills and timberlands
to Pacific Lumber Co. and Englewood Forest Products since the
beginning of the year.
Both companies have expressed
interest in continuing with the purchase.
Best oyster?`Screaming
twins'
The official winners of Saturday's
2001 Arcata Bay Oyster Festival were announced earlier this week.
Slurping up the highest honor
of "Best oyster of the festival" was one of Jambalaya's
"Screaming Twins," an oyster cooked in the shell and
topped with a smoky chipotle chili aioli sauce, which was paired
with an oyster in a sweet mint Thai pesto sauce.
First place went to Hurricane
Kate's oyster with tasso ham and Cajun cream sauce. Second place
honors were bestowed on Village Baking's red coconut curry topped
oyster and third went to Folie Douce's Japanese grilled oyster
with green onion sesame, wasabi and plum sauce.
Oyster lovers from as far away
as Louisiana and as close as 8th and G streets spent the afternoon
on the Arcata Plaza, basking in the sunshine and partaking in
the sybaritic delight of fresh Humboldt Bay oysters, local brews
and wines.
Festival producer, the Arcata
Downtown Business Community, is currently collecting data to
determine the economic impact of the festival on Humboldt County.
"Saturday was a platter
of the best of Humboldt --day was beautiful, the food was great,
the people were happy and I can't think of any better ingredients
for a perfect picnic on the Arcata Plaza," said Michael
Behney, ADBC executive director.
KEET seeks
new digs
Citing a need for space, KEET-TV
has announced it is looking to relocate.
Station employees are forced
to work out of their homes because there isn't enough space at
the station, said Ron Schoenherr, executive director of the public
television station. More room for studios and editing is also
needed to accommodate the station's growing commitment to local
programming.
KEET's upcoming conversion to
digital television will increase the amount of local broadcasting
the station will provide. Digital television allows several programs
to be broadcast simultaneously, opening up space in the schedule
for local shows.
"We really want to be able
to take advantage of the new digital television mode we will
be converting to and increase local programming," Schoenherr
said.
The station is required by the
Federal Communications Commission to broadcast digital television
by 2003.
The 31-year-old station currently
occupies a facility at the top of Humboldt Hill. The cost of
relocating isn't yet clear, but Schoenherr said that part of
the funding would probably come from one or more foundations.
Tetanus
vaccine shortage
A nationwide shortage of tetanus
vaccine has hit home in Humboldt County.
Only one drug company makes
the vaccine, said Dr. Ann Lindsay, Humboldt County Health Officer
and president of the Humboldt Del Norte County Medical Society.
There had been two, but one recently discontinued tetanus vaccine
production, and "it's taking a while to beef up production
to meet demand," Lindsay said.
"It probably isn't a very
high-profit drug."
Until adequate supplies are
available, Lindsay is recommending that only travellers to high-risk
areas and children under the age of 7 receive the vaccination.
"People who are due for
their booster shots should forgo it for another year," she
said.
Big setback
for Bigfoot
Bicycle race organizer Vic Armijo
had built a course for the July 27 Bigfoot bicycle race that
had everything he looks for: It was beautiful, challenging and
finished. Until the land owner plowed four miles of it under,
that is.
The course, built on Pacific
Lumber timberlands in the Freshwater watershed, was mistakenly
"decommissioned" as part of the company's campaign
to improve watershed health. Old logging roads, like those on
which Armijo built his bike track, can release sediment into
streams unless destroyed.
That's all well and good, said
Armijo, but he now finds himself "seven weeks before the
race without a course." He said he has even heard rumors
at local bike shops that the Bigfoot race is to be cancelled.
His reply? "We'll get the
course done." He has friends, a local Boy Scout troop and
the new Bigfoot Bicycle Club (see Journal cover story,
"Making Fast Tracks," April 19) helping him.
"It's just going to take
up a lot of what would otherwise be our free time," he said.
People interested in helping
build a new course can call Armijo at 822-3488.
Council
may censure Machi
Arcata councilmember Michael
Machi's complaint to the federal Housing and Urban Development
agency may have lost the city a $462,000 grant and could result
in his official censure by fellow councilmembers.
Machi wrote a letter to HUD
alleging improprieties with the handling of funds from past grants.
A few weeks later, the city's grant application was denied.
In response, Machi's colleagues
on the city council have put a resolution to censure him on the
agenda for the June 20 meeting. The meeting occurs after press
time, but councilmembers made it clear at the June 5 meeting
that they strongly disapprove of Machi's method of expressing
himself.
The grant was to be used to
purchase Foodworks, an economic development project, from the
Arcata Economic Development Corp. That purchase has proved complicated,
as negotiations concern not just the price of the building but
issues concerning debt owed by AEDC to the city.
Free HIV
testing day
Free and confidential HIV testing
will be offered around the county June 27 as part of National
HIV Testing Day.
Six sites in Humboldt County
will offer the service in coordination with the North Coast AIDS
Project and Humboldt County Public Nursing. The needle-shy are
also invited -- using the new Ora-Sure oral HIV test, no blood
draw is needed.
See this week's Calendar for
times and locations or call 268-2132 for more information.
Free lunch
program starts
Food for People's annual summer
lunch program has started, giving Humboldt County children the
chance to enjoy the same nutritious free lunches they receive
during the school year.
More than a third of Humboldt
County's children are eligible to receive free or reduced-price
lunches during the school year through a federal program. When
summer rolls around, the children often miss out on a good meal.
With nine locations around the
county, the summer food program seeks to fill that need. All
children are eligible and no certification is required.
"If children are to return
to school healthy and ready to learn, they need good food during
the summer months to support their growth and development,"
stated Jennifer Rishel, program coordinator for Food for People.
Call 445-3166 for locations
and times.
Miranda
dairy goes organic
The Miranda Dairy is making
the leap to organic with the help of $500,000 from the state
of California.
Hoping to capitalize on a growing
market, Dorice and Tim Miranda are the two newest members of
a burgeoning Humboldt County organic dairy community. There are
already at least two other dairies converting to organic, and
the Loleta cheese factory has started producing a line of organic
cheese (see Journal cover story, "It's the Organic
Cheese," Feb. 1).
Organic conversion is a long
and expensive process, and the dairy won't be certified organic
until fall. The Mirandas will use the money to purchase organic
feed, add 200 cows to their herd of 500 and pay for the certification
procedure.
The milk won't be marketed in
Humboldt County -- at least not yet. For the time being, it will
be sold to Clover Stornetta of Petaluma, which is unavailable
in Humboldt County at this time.
Benbow Lake
filling
Benbow Lake, a seasonal waterbody
created by a temporary dam on the south fork of the Eel River,
will be back this year.
The dam to create the lake wasn't
installed last year because of maintenance problems. That maintenance
was deferred and has yet to be completed, but the installation
of the dam was allowed this year by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The California State Parks Department
has announced the dam will be missing again next year as the
maintenance is completed. The long-term future of the lake depends
on the results of a study by the National Marine Fisheries Service,
which is concerned with the dam's effects on salmon and steelhead
populations in the Eel.
League chapter
cleans up
When you're one of 71 competitors
for a prize, odds are you won't win. Imagine how happy the Humboldt
County chapter of the League of Women Voters must be. It just
won five of the nine awards at the biennial LWV convention in
Los Angeles.
The Humboldt chapter won for
its efforts toward citizen education, website quality, voter
services, the overall quality of the chapter's newsletter and
the specific excellence of the league president's column.
Call the League at 444-9252
for more information.
COVER
STORY | CALENDAR
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© Copyright 2001, North Coast Journal,
Inc.
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