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June 26, 2003
Golden
shovels at Daly's
The shovels were spray-painted
gold when Eureka city officials and business leaders gathered
for a groundbreaking ceremony last week in front of the long
empty Daly's Department Store building.
City Councilman Mike Jones introduced
a series of movers and shakers who all celebrated the start of
work on refurbishing the newest portion of the three-part structure.
Among them was Steve Strombeck of Strombeck Construction, who
purchased two portions of the building from businessman Rob Arkley
and his wife Cherie. The Arkleys recently bought the Daly's complex
from the Humboldt State University Foundation. They held onto
the old State Theater portion and plan on restoring it and giving
it to a local nonprofit.
One speaker at the ceremony
was former Humboldt Bank president John Dalby, who was introduced
as the "proposed CEO of the proposed Redwood Capital Bank"
("proposed" since the bank has not yet received its
required charter). Strombeck said the bank would be his tenant.
Strombeck's first step will
be to build a Victorian-style façade that looks similar
to the exterior of the original building that occupied the site
(that building was torn down in 1937). [See photo below]
One major unanswered question:
What are the plans for the oldest portion of the property, one
of the last unreinforced masonry buildings in Old Town?
When another developer, Dan
Ollivier, was negotiating to buy the building last year, his
plan was to tear down the brick portion to make way for a parking
lot. Strombeck said he is still exploring his options and hasn't
decided what to do with the old building. "I'm just doing
one step at a time," he said.
The original building housing Eureka Printing, c. 1930s
Daly's Department Store Building, 1949
Architechtural rendering of the proposed new building for the
Daly's site
Computerized
voting machines may be on the way
Critics worry about potential
for abuse
by
EMILY GURNON
By the time the 2004 elections
roll around, Humboldt County voters may be choosing the next
president not with No. 2 pencils but with the touch of a finger
on a computer screen.
A federal law passed last year
is spurring the change. The 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAPA)
requires, among a host of sweeping changes, that a disabled-friendly
voting machine be available in each polling place by 2006.
The only machine that currently
fits that definition, said Humboldt County elections chief Lindsay
McWilliams, is called a "touch-screen." In such a system,
the voter is taken through several different screens, showing
different races, and votes by touching a finger to a particular
choice. When the voter is finished, the computer displays all
the votes and offers an opportunity to change or correct selections.
Rather than install only enough
machines to accommodate the disabled, Humboldt County hopes to
replace its entire "optical-scan" system -- in which
voters fill in their ballot choices with pencil and the cards
are read by a scanner -- with the new system.
"The reason for that is
if we have an optical-scan-based system, we're required to print
ballots for at least 80 percent of our registered voters,"
McWilliams said. "If we only have to print ballots for absentee
voters, then we can save $30,000 every county-wide election."
McWilliams estimated that buying
and installing the touch-screen system would cost between $1.5
and $2 million. Humboldt County has $987,000 being held for it
out of state voting modernization funds -- from last year's Prop.
41 -- and the federal government may pony up more. But the state
funds are not guaranteed; Humboldt County must put a plan in
place to spend them, or they will be given to another county.
McWilliams said his office is
currently working on a request for proposals (RFP), seeking bids
from computer companies that make the touch-screen systems. He
will ask the Board of Supervisors to approve the RFP in about
a month, he said.
Assuming the county finds enough
money, the new system could be in place as early as the November
2004 presidential election -- although that may be a stretch,
McWilliams said.
The touch-screens are not without
their critics, who fear that letting a computer keep track of
ballots would mean risking corruption and abuse.
"A voter's ballot is one
of the most important documents that exists in a free society,"
said Kim Alexander, president of the California Voter Foundation,
a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Davis. "To
entrust this document to an entirely computerized system run
on secret software with no paper audit trail is to ask voters,
candidates (winners and losers alike) and parties to exercise
blind trust in the voting system." Alexander made her remarks
in written testimony before the California Help America Vote
Act Advisory Board, which is working on implementation of the
new law.
"The prudent thing to do
while vendors improve their technology to provide an audit function
is to limit the deployment of electronic voting machines to one
per polling place to comply with the HAVA and state disability
access requirements, and retain paper-based systems for other
polling place voters and for absentee voters," Alexander
said.
McWilliams said he understands
the concerns, but expressed confidence in the touch-screen system.
"Riverside County has been
using a touch-screen system since 1999 and getting rave reviews,"
he said. Alameda County has also implemented it. "Bigger
counties are doing this with what appears to be great success.
[And] my personal experience with the technology makes me feel
comfortable with it."
He stressed that the equipment
would be put through a dry run before an actual election, and
that members of the public are invited to participate in the
testing of it.
"The potential for mischief
is nil," he said. "Our safeguards are very, very good,
and we are not going to let those slip just because we're adopting
some new technology."
The
man behind the funny money
by
HELEN SANDERSON
"If we were to sit on the
plaza for a while and watch the people walk by, I'd be able to
point out to you all of the families that have money and those
that don't; and do you know why?
"It's not what they wear
or how they talk," Fhyre Phoenix went on. "You can
see it in their faces, the lines in their faces. Wealthier people
don't have the same struggle. The stress and discomfort that
poor people live with is written right on their face."
Fhyre Phoenix, 49, wants to
see those stress lines diminish. With his Community Currency
project he plans to subsidize workers who receive less than $10
an hour -- what Phoenix regards as a minimal living wage. The
"money" they are funded with will then be used to buy
goods and services from other members.
The new money, which hit the
streets in mid-May, supplements low-income employees with 100
community dollars a month for the first year they are involved
in the program. In return, the applicant must offer a service
to the community, for which they will be paid partially in community
dollars. Additionally, they must pay $10 a month in "real
money" to advertise their work in a publication called the
Arcata Bay Bioregion's Community Currency Directory.
The service that the currency
holders offer, Phoenix hopes, will be something that the person
loves doing. He said the work most people do for the traditional
greenback is not fulfilling.
"Can you imagine if everyone
was doing what they were passionate about and getting paid for
it?" Phoenix said. "We'd be living in a much happier
place if that were the case."
Phoenix became concerned with
wage issues when he was 14. Working on a farm in Connecticut,
he and eleven other boys were paid $1 an hour -- 60 cents less
than minimum wage. Phoenix rallied the other boys to strike if
they were not given a 25 percent pay increase. The strike never
took place. The farm owner listened to the grievances and increased
everyone's pay.
Since then, Phoenix has been
involved in an array of labor and activist work. At various times
he has been a public school union president, executive director
of three non-profits including Arcata House, an ACLU representative
and grant writer for a number of agencies including St. Vincent
de Paul's. Along the way he earned a master's degree in human
services administration.
Phoenix called the currency
project a culmination of all his past experience.
But the community cash is only
the beginning. Bigger plans for Arcata have been filtering through
Phoenix's imagination. His vision for the future, in fact, can
be seen by anyone carrying a five-dollar denomination of Community
Currency. The colorful artwork on the bill, created by local
artist Joyce Jonte, depicts part of Phoenix's dream for Arcata.
Three distinct differences are
apparent in the rendering of the town square. The statue of McKinley
is no longer in the center of the plaza. Replacing the monument
to the 25th president, which has watched over the town square
for close to 100 years, is a gazebo.
"I want to sell McKinley
on eBay," Phoenix said. "It's well past time that we
take [the statue] down. A colonialist president should not be
honored here in the first place; it's a disgrace to Americans."
The proceeds of the sale, Phoenix
suggested, could then be used to revamp the plaza, which would
be used by bands, like those that play at the farmers' market.
Other out-of-sync elements in
the 5-dollar community note is the absence of the Bank of America,
which currently stands on the corner of G and Eighth streets.
Taking its place is the Northcoast Community Organizing Center
-- another project that remains a vision. The center would be
a training facility for community activists.
In the meantime, Phoenix is
content with providing the public with a little more colorful
pocket change. Currently, 52 people have their services listed,
many with multiple skills to offer, among them yoga instruction,
singing lessons, computer consulting and horse training, to name
a few.
The most famous and successful
community currency project began in 1991 in Ithaca, N.Y. Paul
Glover, founder of the Ithaca HOURS project, said that for any
community currently project to be successful, established merchants
must accept it.
"We began with whoever
was willing to begin, and let the rest see the benefits as we
grew," he wrote in an e-mail response to a reporter's query.
Pileup
in the safety corridor
What began as a routine traffic
stop along the Highway 101 safety corridor Sunday afternoon ended
up as a five-vehicle pileup in which two California Highway patrol
cars were damaged.
The incident began at 4:40 p.m.
when CHP Officer Dave Blood spotted a southbound Toyota Corolla
without a current registration sticker. When he pulled the car
over north of Jacobs Avenue, between Arcata and Eureka, Blood
discovered that the driver, Jonathan Moreno, 26, of Eureka, was
driving without a license. A check of the database showed he
also had outstanding warrants from the Humboldt court dating
from May 2000, when he failed to appear after being cited for
driving without a license, without registration and with no proof
of insurance.
Moreno was arrested, handcuffed
and secured in the front seat of Blood's vehicle. Officer Katherine
Smith was called to the scene to provide back-up. Tow-truck driver
Theodore Urbina arrived and began hooking up Moreno's vehicle
for impoundment.
It was then, at 5:03, that a
1987 Lincoln Town Car driven by 50-year-old Betty Sue Kindley
of Eureka suddenly drifted off the road. She rammed Smith's patrol
car and sent it slamming into Blood's patrol car, which then
plowed into Moreno's Toyota, popping the smaller car up onto
the hood of Blood's Crown Victoria. To top it all off, Smith's
patrol car soon burst into flames from fuel leakage in the engine
compartment.
Kindley, who apparently was
not wearing her seat belt, was removed from beneath her steering
wheel and taken to St. Joseph Hospital along with Urbina, who
had been unable to jump out of harm's way. Moreno was examined
before being booked into Humboldt County Jail.
A dispatcher for Pacific Towing
reported that Urbina was released from the hospital but did not
go to work on Monday. The extent of Kindley's injuries was unclear.
According to Capt. Steve Pudinski
of the Highway Patrol's Arcata office, Kindley was not "under
the influence" when the accident took place. He said that
the temporary loss of two cruisers would not impact enforcement
along the safety corridor.
North
Fork Eel protected
The U.S. Forest Service violated
the law when it allowed livestock grazing along a federally protected
stretch of the North Fork of the Eel River, a federal judge ruled
last week.
Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton of
San Francisco said that the Forest Service violated the federal
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and other federal laws by permitting
the grazing. Five grazing allotments are located in the vicinity
of the 15-mile stretch of the North Fork Eel, designated a federal
Wild and Scenic River in 1981.
The ruling was a major victory
for two environmental groups, the Environmental Protection Information
Center, based in Garberville, and the Center for Biological Diversity,
a Tucson, Ariz.-based organization. The two groups contended
that the grazing was damaging water quality and fish habitat.
Board
cuts jobs
The Board of Supervisors approved
the county budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Tuesday and
the bad news was that 237 positions will be cut.
The good news is that most of
those positions are currently vacant. But that was small consolation
to the county employees who will lose their jobs.
The county is currently facing
a $3.2 million shortfall. Although the imbalance will be redressed
by the recent cuts, that does not mean the county's money troubles
will go away -- not with the state government in the throes of
an epic budget crisis.
"We're going to find ourselves
back here next year," said County Administrative Officer
Loretta Nicklaus. "We need a multi-year approach to deal
with the budget."
Democrats
to slam recall
The central committee of Humboldt
County's Democratic Party is coming out against the effort to
recall District Attorney Paul Gallegos.
Party officials will announce
their opposition at a press conference on Thursday at the Eureka
Inn. Supervisor John Woolley, an opponent of the recall, is expected
to be on hand.
According to a source, the committee
believes that the main claim of the recall's proponents -- that
Gallegos is soft on crime -- is bogus. One piece of evidence
for that, the source said, is that the filing of violent and
serious felony cases over the first five months of this year
is up 23 percent compared to last year, when Terry Farmer was
the district attorney.
Rash
of robberies
Eureka police believe the same
man may be responsible for three bank robberies in the city since
June 14.
The man, described as white,
in his late 20s to early 30s and about 5 feet 10 inches to 6
feet tall with a thin build and blond hair, was still at large
as of press time Tuesday.
The rash of robberies began
on June 14 at the Wells Fargo Bank on G Street. A week later,
on June 21, Humboldt Bank in Henderson Center was hit. The third
heist took place on Monday at U.S. Bank on Fifth Street.
Anyone with information about
the robberies is asked to call the Eureka Police Criminal Investigations
Unit at 441-4300.
No
new home for Educare
For lack of a motion by the
Arcata City Council last week, a local daycare has been denied
a future home.
Humboldt Educare's lease on
its current daycare facility will expire in 2005. It is presently
located on Union Street on the old Equinox school property (now
Big Lagoon Charter School). The proposed site for the new preschool
was located just across the street, on Samoa and Union, in a
wetlands area.
In addition to being concerned
about allowing construction in an environmentally sensitive area,
council members did not like the fact that a second phase of
construction -- a residential complex that would have been located
on a parcel adjacent to he Educare building -- was not before
them last week.
"It looked like a way for
[developer Steve] Strombeck to get his foot in the door to build
housing on that property, and less about Educare's new building,"
Mayor Bob Ornelas said.
Strombeck said at the meeting
that in exchange for being allowed to fill in wetlands to build
the project, he would rehabilitate other wetlands in the same
general area.
Cell
tower approved
A controversial cell phone tower
planned for the Arcata Bottoms has been approved by the county.
In a 4-2 vote last week, the
Humboldt County Planning Commission granted Cal-North Wireless
permission to operate a 50-foot tower near Moxon Lane and School
Road.
The City of Arcata has said
it will appeal the decision to the Board of Supervisors. Residents
of the area have opposed the tower, arguing that exposure to
the radio waves may pose health risks. Supporters have said the
emissions are within safety thresholds set by the Federal Communications
Commission.
Arcata
budget passed
The Arcata City Council adopted
the city's 2003-04 budget last week with no layoffs, though a
handful of vacant positions have been frozen and fees for a number
of services have been raised.
In addition, the balanced budget
comes at the expense of the city's reserve fund, about $200,000
of which -- a third of the total fund -- is being used to cover
rising costs for such things as employee health insurance and
retirement benefits.
Fire
chiefs rebuffed
At a packed meeting Tuesday,
the Board of Supervisors did not grant a request from the Humboldt
County Fire Chiefs' Association for $378,000 in Proposition 172
funds.
However, the board directed
that a committee be formed to analyze how to better support local
firefighters.
Proposition 172, voted into
law in 1993, was set up in part to allocate a one-half percent
sales tax to county and city public services. County staff maintains
that fire districts do not fall into the category of either city
or county entities and are therefore ineligible for the money.
This, in conjunction with tight budget times, means the county
"is in no position to give consideration to a redistribution
of these funds to support outside agencies," according to
a county staff report.
Correction
A news item in last week's paper
about a business park in McKinleyville contained errors and omissions.
The 53-acre parcel near the Arcata/Eureka Airport, site of the
Holiday Inn Express, presently has 15 acres that are serviced
by roads, water and sewer pipes. The longtime owner of the property,
McKinleyville developer Steve Moser, is now extending that infrastructure
to 25 additional acres on the property, bringing the total usable
land to 40 acres. Three buildings will soon be built there: an
8,000-square-foot office building, to be occupied by Moser Properties,
Bay Point Mortgage and as many as three additional tenants; a
2,000-square-foot building, which at this point has no tenants;
and a 5,000-square-foot facility that will house an accounting
firm, Hartley, May and Abrahmsen.
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