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December 21, 2000
Eureka Schools
eye changes
Last week Eureka City Schools
Superintendent Jim Scott announced a set of proposals that could
lead to reassignment of 500 students to different schools and
the closure of Marshall Elementary.
The district is facing declining
enrollment and a serious budget shortfall, around $800,000 last
school year with an additional $1.2 million deficit projected
for this school year. (See Journal
story Dec. 7.)
"There's no question that
that's an issue in our district at this time," said Paul
Gossard, principal of Marshall Elementary. "We have to be
fiscally responsible. Right now we have eight elementary schools
and the average size is just over 300. It makes sense to downsize
the number of schools. However the thing that's putting the issue
in sharp focus in terms of Marshall is the facilities issue at
the high school."
The plan calls for redesignation
of Marshall Elementary, located across the street from Eureka
High, as an extension of the high school campus. It would give
the high school room to deal with overcrowding, an opportunity
to do away with decaying portable classrooms and provide space
for a juggling of classrooms during a required seismic retrofit.
The second part of the board's
recommendation deals with grade-level alignments. The plan calls
for conversion of Winship and Zane into middle schools with all
district 6th grade students shifting to those sites. In addition
Worthington K-8 school will be converted to a K-5 school.
The school board will take action
on the proposals at its meeting Jan. 10.
Hospital
sale complete
Escrow was expected to close
Tuesday on the sale of General Hospital to the non-profit Sisters
of St. Joseph of Orange Corp., owners of St. Joseph and Redwood
Memorial hospitals.
Of General's 498 employees,
490 were offered continuing employment at St. Joseph. Eliminated
were either top administrative positions or some former St. Joseph
employees who were not eligible for rehire. General Hospital
Chief Executive Officer Martin Love's final day was last week.
One major anticipated change
is the switch to a new health plan, said St. Joseph Spokeswoman
Laurie Watson Stone. General Hospital employees were under a
locally administered health plan while St. Joseph workers were
covered by Blue Cross. Since Blue Cross rates are expected to
increase 45 percent after the first of the year, all employees
will be covered under the General plan.
Crabs founder
dead at 84
Lou Bonomini, founder of the
Humboldt Crabs, the oldest continuously running semiprofessional
baseball club in the nation, died Sunday at the age of 84.
Bonomini, a native of Blue Lake
and former Eureka High School baseball star, founded the Humboldt
Crabs in 1944 as a player and coach. He managed the club from
1945 until he retired in 1986.
A mass is scheduled for 10 a.m.
Thursday at St. Bernard's Catholic Church.
Housing
self-help grant
A McKinleyville housing project
for low-income families has received a $99,981 grant.
The Self-Help Housing program
(see In the News,
Oct. 12), administered by the Rural Communities Housing Development
Corp., will provide housing to 23 low-income families. The families
are required to put in about 40 hours a week building the house
but are provided with expert advice and easier financing.
The program so far has been
financed by a $579,650 predevelopment loan from the California
Department of Housing and Community Development and $900,000
in low-interest loans from Humboldt Bank. The grant, also from
the department, will help to pay for construction supervision,
training, house plan selection and help with building permits
and inspections.
Home
Depot by the bay?
The owners of the Bracut Industrial
Park have applied for county permits to demolish 10 buildings
-- 77,600 square feet of existing industrial space -- and build
a 115,400-square-foot, concrete block and steel post building,
with a 28,000-square-foot garden center and a parking lot with
603 spaces.
The project, on the site of
the current home of the Mill Yard and A&I Roofing north of
the Indianola cutoff on Highway 101, appears to meet all the
specifications of the retailing giant Home Depot, according to
an agent for owners Dennis and Arlene Hess of Willow Creek.
"I'm not going to tell
you no," said Dave Schneider of Pacific Affiliates Inc.
"Quite obviously it could be Home Depot, but from our standpoint
-- Mill Yard or Home Depot -- you have the same issues no matter
what."
That's true, according to Humboldt
Community Development Director Kirk Girard. The parcel is properly
zoned and the new building would not even be a change in use
for the industrial-zoned parcel. But the county now requires
a new conditional use permit for large retailers locating on
county property, even if the parcel is already properly zoned.
The permit process will allow
the county to assess the full impacts of the project and allow
for public comment. In addition to a conditional use permit,
the project will require a Coastal Development Permit from the
state and sign-off from a number of other public agencies, including
Caltrans.
The Caltrans' approval was the
deciding factor a number of years ago when Wal-Mart attempted
to build a store at the Indianola Road intersection -- on the
site of the old drive-in theater. Caltrans said traffic from
a Wal-Mart would require an $80 million full-cloverleaf intersection.
The project was later withdrawn.
The Bracut traffic proposal
is unique, Giraud told the Journal. It calls for the addition
of acceleration and deceleration lanes, closing the existing
median break to eliminate crossing and left turn movements against
through highway traffic. Travellers from Arcata and McKinleyville
would enter using the existing right-hand turn lane. Traffic
from Eureka and south would have to travel beyond the current
intersection opposite the KOA campground, make a U-turn in the
new median lanes half-way to the Bayside cutoff, and re-enter
Highway 101 traffic heading south.
The county planning department
is in the initial stages of gathering information on the request
which involves notifying all potentially affected agencies including
Caltrans. The city of Arcata sent a letter Dec. 14 to the county
opposing the project as proposed, citing the project's scale
and location.
Breast cancer
grants
Breast cancer is the most common
form of cancer in women, with more than 200,000 diagnoses a year
in the United States alone. With early detection, the disease
is usually curable -- and grants are now available to fund a
grassroots detection drive.
The North Coast Breast Cancer
Early Detection Partnership Program is now offering minigrants
of $5,000 or less. Organizations and individuals interested in
starting programs that either get more women screened or promote
healthy lifestyles are eligible for the funding.
Of particular interest to the
program are projects that reach out to underserved populations:
African-Americans, Pacific Islanders, American Indian and lesbians.
For more information or an application, call Maureen Lawlor at
445-8121 ext. 6302.
Samoa under
new ownership
The historic company town of
Samoa was sold Dec. 13 by the Simpson Timber Co. to the Samoa
Pacific Group, LLC, a corporation set up expressly for the purchase
by two Humboldt business couples, Lane and Kathryn DeVries, and
Dan and Kendra Johnson.
Lane DeVries, co-owner and chief
executive officer of the Sun Valley Bulb Farm, is a native of
Beverwyk, Holland. He came to Humboldt County in 1983 to grow
flower bulbs -- which he has done ever since. Dan Johnson, owner
of DanCo Builders, is Humboldt born and raised. Both said at
a press conference after the sale was officially closed that
they were primarily interested in preserving Samoa because of
its historical and cultural significance.
"It is our goal to restore
Samoa to its past glory and improve the town," DeVries said.
Much is unknown about the purchase
and future of the town. The sale price is unknown, although it
was more than the minimum bid of $1.7 million; the identity of
other bidders remains a well-guarded secret; DeVries and Johnson
left the financing for the project an enigma, saying only it
hadn't involved banks; and the nature of future improvements
to the town remains unknown pending completion of a master plan,
which DeVries said could be expected in the next six to 12 months.
What is known is that two major
improvements are planned for the near future. DeVries confirmed
that the town would soon be receiving natural gas service and
that the sewage system would be replaced within the next two
years.
Also made clear is that the
town's purchase was an investment by four individuals and not
the companies with which they are associated.
DeVries said, "If there
are any flowers, it will be in front of the hostelry."
That wasn't entirely a true
statement, however. Sun Valley lilies were delivered with the
letters informing residents of the identity of their new landlords.
.
Plaza people
pay the price
Three new city ordinances aimed
at dealing with Arcata's downtown homeless population to be considered
at the City Council meeting Dec. 20. The ordinances attempt to
deal with what many feel has become a growing problem for local
businesses and residents -- aggressive panhandling or harassment
of people trying to shop on or walk across the plaza.
The first of the three ordinances
prohibits parking overnight in the lot next to Redwood Park,
where many of the downtown denizens camp for the night. The second
would impose a plaza-wide ban on dogs unless they are leashed
and being led from point A to point B, and would limit smoking
to the sidewalks on the far north and south sides of the plaza.
A third ordinance would prohibit sitting or lying on sidewalks,
curbs, planters, monuments or other public property.
"The objective is to minimize
the impact on downtown and northtown businesses," said Dan
Hauser, Arcata's city manager. "They don't deal with the
long-term problem," he added.
Steve Lazar agreed. Lazar, a
six-year Arcata resident and long-time opponent of Plaza regulations,
was the only person at a Dec. 6 council meeting to speak out
against regulations.
"They don't deal with the
situation, they just try to push it elsewhere," he said.
"They are limiting access to our public spaces for everyone.
We need to come together as a community and have the solidarity
not to put up with this behavior rather than regulate it into
a corner."
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