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October 18, 2001
Flu
vaccines -- on time this year?
Health care providers are gearing
up for the seasonal flu vaccine clinic campaign and they have
good news: The vaccine may actually be here on time.
Last year significant delays
in the development of the vaccine -- which must be redesigned
every year -- caused disruption among health care providers and
cancelled clinics.
While a few shipments of vaccine
have already arrived, one local health care provider is being
cautious about scheduling clinics until its supply in is hand
-- St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka. Clinics will be announced soon.
The Humboldt County Public Health
Department has announced clinics available only to those 65 years
or older. They will be Oct. 29 at Redwood Acres in Eureka, Oct.
31 at Rohner Park in Fortuna and Nov. 1 at the McKinleyville
Kmart. All clinics are from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Mad River Community Hospital
is offering shots without restriction. Staff will give flu shots
while supplies last at the Oct. 27 Community Health Fair in McKinleyville's
Pierson Park from 8 a.m. until noon.
Two pharmacies in Eureka are
providing another avenue for people under 65 who want the vaccine:
the Myrtletown and Henderson Center pharmacies. Flu shots are
also available through many private physicians.
The Sutter Visiting Nurse Association
and Hospice of Humboldt begins a series of clinics this week.
The first clinic is being reserved for high-risk patients, including
individuals over 50 and those with weakened immune systems or
asthma. Those clinics include:
Lima's Pharmacy, McKinleyville
and Eureka, are offering the vaccine for $15 a dose from 9 a.m.
to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday while supplies last. Call 839-8500.
Longs Drugs Store on Myrtle
Avenue, Eureka, Oct. 19, 2-6 p.m.
Longs Drugs Store, Bayshore
Mall, Eureka, Oct. 20, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Longs Drugs Store, Arcata, Oct.
21, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
KMart, McKinleyville, Nov. 1,
10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Longs Drugs Store, Bayshore
Mall, Eureka, Nov. 16, 2-6 p.m.
Longs Drugs Store on Myrtle
Avenue, Eureka, Nov. 17, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Kmart, McKinleyville, Nov. 29,
noon-4 p.m.
Longs Drugs Store, Arcata, Nov.
30, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Medicare recipients may receive
shots free of cost and Sutter will bill Medicare. Call 524-8311
for more information.
Cal/OSHA
finds dairies unsafe for workers
Agriculture is an industry with
a lot of injuries and very little reporting, said Susan Gard,
spokesperson for the California Occupational Safety and Health
Agency. That's why her agency performed what's called a "sweep"
on local dairy farms in August.
State inspectors visited 14
dairies recently and found 13 of them had safety violations.
The estimated penalties are more than $116,000.
The most widespread problem
was tractor safety, which Gard called "a serious hazard."
Some problems were minor -- an insufficient first aid kit, for
instance. Other were potentially fatal, like leaving a manure
pit open. Gases from manure pits can cause people to suffocate
and have caused deaths.
Dairy farms are coming under
increased scrutiny following a series of fatalities in the Modesto
area in March.
"That's what caused us
to place an emphasis on dairies," Gard said. The inspection
sweeps are going on statewide.
Last year, Cal/OSHA performed
just 5 dairy inspections in the entire state. This year there
have been more than 100. Humboldt County was chosen as a target
because of the high concentration of dairy farms here.
There was a silver lining in
the inspectors' reports, Gard said: Humboldt County dairies are
watching out for the environment.
"What we are seeing is
a big emphasis on environmental safety." If dairies could
put that same effort toward worker safety, Gard said, they could
avoid citations, injuries and fines.
Watershed
analysis may replace THPs
The timber harvest plan process
has been made more accessible to the public, but it may not matter.
A new regulatory process for logging is in the works.
Approved unanimously by the
Board of Forestry earlier this month, the new system would focus
on the health of an entire watershed rather than smaller timber
harvest plans. Under the plan, a landowner would have the option
of choosing to look at how to maintain the health of a large
area -- skipping the rigorous timber harvest review process for
individual plots.
The alternative review process
will be in place for a year. If successful, the board hopes to
make it permanent in 2003.
The logging industry, which
proposed the plan, applauded the plan's passage. The wood products
industry has long complained that the THP review process was
too time-consuming and inflexible. The new process would allow
them to get large swaths of land approved for harvest at once.
Others were less exuberant.
The North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, for example,
has objected to the lack of monitoring provisions to assess watershed
health.
At the same time, the traditional
timber harvest approval process has been revamped to increase
public comment. A law authored by Sen. Wesley Chesbro and signed
by Gov. Davis Oct. 9 doubles the public comment period on THPs.
Under current law, parties have
15 days to enter comments; that period is now 30 days.
Chesbro said in a written statement
that a longer public comment period was necessitated by the increasing
complexity of harvest plans. Simple or small timber harvest plans
will continue to have 15-day public comment periods.
"This bill will help the
public, local governments and community groups play a more active
part in the logging decisions that affect our communities,"
Chesbro said.
CORRECTION
TO THE ABOVE STORY:
The new watershed analysis process
would alter, but not replace, the current timber harvest plan
approval process.
'Gypsy'
Chain lawsuit settled
The lawsuit stemming from the
1998 death of logging protester David Nathan Chain was settled
out of court last week.
Chain, known to fellow Earth
First activists as "Gypsy," was protesting logging
on Pacific Lumber Co. land near Grizzly Creek Sept. 17, 1998.
A 135-foot tree felled by PL logger A.E. Ammons struck and crushed
Chain. Ammons said he did not know Chain or other protesters
were in the area. Other Earth First protesters said he did.
No criminal charges were filed
against Ammons. However, Chain's family filed suit against PL
and Maxxam, its Houston-based parent company.
That lawsuit was scheduled to
go to trial Oct. 15 in Oakland, but a settlement was announced
Oct. 11. The amount of compensation received by the family is
undisclosed, but other provisions include a memorial, protection
of the grove immediately surrounding the tree that killed Chain,
and a community forum.
That forum -- made up of Chain's
mother, Cindy Allsbrooks of Texas, a PL representative and a
representative of the environmental community -- will discuss
the dangers of logging protests. Humboldt County law enforcement
has also been invited.
Logging protests flared up again
this spring in the remote Mattole watershed, where PL was harvesting
old-growth Douglas fir [see "Standoff
in the Mattole," May 31].
CR lands
Presidio contract
A team of College of the Redwoods
instructors who specialize in historical preservation are working
on a first-of-its-kind contract with the U.S. Park Service to
begin restoring the Presidio in San Francisco.
Bill Hole, director of the College
of the Redwoods Historic Preservation and Restoration Technology
program, said the one-year agreement calls for Hole and fellow
instructors Dane Cowan and Jill Macdonald to take turns teaching
a practical field techniques course in historic preservation
and restoration to more than 200 of the Presidio's national park
employees.
"We'll take a couple of
their historic buildings and use them as a hands-on lab,"
said Hole. "The Presidio Trust wants its employees to become
sensitized to historic preservation. We will teach through doing."
He said this was the type of
program expansion he envisioned when the program was started
five years ago.
"From conception, I saw
this program as having a global interest. We designed it to work
with this region, the state, nationally and beyond. It relates
to sustainability and preserving what we have," Hole said.
"We think that the Historic
Preservation and Restoration Technology program is exactly what
a community college program should be," said CR President
Casey Crabill, who travelled to Sacramento with Hole two weeks
ago to accept a Governor's Historical Preservation Award for
the program.
"Community colleges have
always been said to build communities," Crabill said. "This
restores them as well."
Stewart
honored by Democrats
Arcata Mayor Connie Stewart
will be honored as Democrat of the Year Thursday at a dinner
at the Eureka Inn. The 17th annual event, sponsored by the Democratic
Central Committee, begins at 6 p.m.
Stewart is the office manager
for the Northcoast Environmental Center. Tickets to the fund-raiser
are $50. For information, call 445-3366.
Farmers
drop mediation
Klamath Basin farmers announced
last week they are pulling out of federal mediation that was
intended to balance competing demands from fish, wildlife and
crops.
The mediation was begun after
a court ruled against the farmers' claims that the Bureau of
Reclamation failed to follow environmental laws in shutting off
water to farms.
The board of the Klamath Water
Users Association, representing 1,000 farms, may choose to file
a new lawsuit. Farmers claim losses of more than $200 million
from the shutoff of irrigation water.
Potawot
Health Village opens
After 10 years and $18 million,
the United Indian Health Service's new health and wellness clinic
has opened. But clinic isn't quite the word. With a vegetable
garden and orchard, and acres of restored wetlands, the Potawot
Health Village is one part health center, one part park.
The medical center itself offers
not only standard ambulatory medical care but nutrition counseling,
vision, dental care, a diabetes clinic and a pharmacy.
The new center replaces the
Tsurai Health Center in Trinidad. UIHS serves approximately 16,000
Native Americans in the region.
Preparing
for fine wine
Can't tell a merlot from Madeira?
Help is on the way.
A nationally recognized wine
expert is coming to town to tutor would-be connoisseurs for the
annual College of the Redwoods Autumn Vintage Wine Auction Gala.
Evan Goldstein, one of fewer
than 50 accredited master wine tasters in the United States,
writes for Santé magazine and appears regularly
on radio shows in San Francisco. He will teach a comprehensive
course on varietal wine tasting Oct. 18 at the Red Lion Inn.
The class is a prelude to CR's
fundraiser Saturday, Oct. 20, called the Autumn Vintage Wine
Auction Gala. Travel packages, gourmet dinners and unique wines
from across California and the Northwest will be on the auction
block.
Proceeds will go to the new
Hospitality Institute at CR. It's a natural match, as one of
the fields for which the institute will train individuals is
food and beverage service. Last year's auction raised $125,000
for the college.
To register for the wine-tasting
class, call 476-4136. For more information on the Wine Gala,
call 476-4357.
Teacher
of year named
A teacher at Dow's Prairie Elementary
in McKinleyville has been named Humboldt County's teacher of
the year.
Sandra Henry, who teaches the
third grade, has been at the school since 1986. She has helped
children with after school programs and developed monthly math
nights, during which both parents and children get involved in
math curricula.
Henry, who has already been
honored by both the Humboldt County Office of Education and the
McKinleyville School District several times, is now in the running
for the California Teacher of the Year.
Hobart out
of Kinetic lead
Hobart Brown is finally giving
up the lead in the Kinetic Sculpture Race.
The 67-year old Ferndale resident
founded the World Championship Kinetic Sculpture Race 30 years
ago. He is turning control of the race over to an association
of nonprofit organizations that will stage the annual race as
a benefit. The transaction included assumption of $87,000 in
accumulated debt.
Hobart, who is a sculptor and
runs a gallery in Ferndale, was not available for comment. Representatives
said he just left for Australia, where he will enjoy a Southern
Hemisphere summer until March of next year.
Race on
for school chief
Louis Bucher, Humboldt County's
superintendent of schools for the past 19 years, announced last
week that he will not seek another term.
Bucher, whose term runs out
in December 2002, said in written statement, "I'm not retiring
or stepping down." He is "stepping aside" to make
room for new leadership. He intends to continue part-time teaching.
Candidates will receive their
first real shot at the seat in two decades; Bucher has run unopposed
in his last four races. First to announce was Carl Del Grande,
who served as director of curriculum and instructional services
at the Humboldt Office of Education for many years and more recently
as interim superintendent of Ferndale Unified School District.
Del Grande taught at St. Bernard
and Fortuna high schools and had been principal at Eureka High
School before his county schools post.
The election for Bucher's seat
will be held in March. Candidates have until early December to
file for the ballot.
COVER
STORY | EDITOR/PUBLISHER | CALENDAR
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© Copyright 2001, North Coast Journal,
Inc.
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