The Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees directed staff on Aug. 29 to reach out to the California Highway Patrol about resuming negotiations for a potential purchase of the former Jacobs Middle School campus following the recent disintegration of an agreement with a mystery developer that had halted previous talks with the agency. The option […]
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Eureka City Schools to Talk Jacobs, Grand Jury Response
The California Highway Patrol appears to be back at the table, negotiating to purchase 8.3 acres of the former Jacobs Middle School campus from Eureka City Schools. A closed session item for the board to conference with Superintendent Gary Storts, the district’s negotiator, concerning price and terms of payment of a potential deal with CHP […]
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‘Loss’
When Mad River Community Hospital recently announced it plans to suspend labor and delivery services in October, the news was met in the local community with a mixture of shock and grief as word spread via social media. “Literally so sad to see this go,” one local mother posted. “My birthing experience there and the […]
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Freeing Aaron Bjorkstrand
It’s July 23 and Aaron Bjorkstrand is dressed in a jail jumpsuit, on his way through a long hallway that connects the jail to the Humboldt County Courthouse. When transferred to the jail six months earlier, Bjorkstrand says he immediately noticed it had changed over the years. “When I was there, it was still new,” […]
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Merritt Perry Begins Tenure as Arcata’s City Manager
Merritt Perry became Arcata’s new city manager this week, moving north after a six-year tenure holding the same position in Fortuna. Perry has been praised by Arcata city councilmembers for projects he completed in Fortuna and his past city work in Arcata. The Arcata City Council approved Perry’s hire at its July 17 meeting, picking […]
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A Jury of Their Peers
On a recent Thursday afternoon, two teenagers appeared in court after taking responsibility for minor offenses they committed in separate incidents that brought them into contact with law enforcement. While an official hearing, this one diverged from standard proceedings in several ways, most markedly in that the teens’ peers filled the roles of counsel and […]
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Eureka City Schools’ $6 Million Jacobs Deal is Dead
The Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees voted unanimously in closed session Aug. 8 not to extend the escrow period for a $6 million property exchange agreement with a mystery developer in advance of a deadline the following day. On Aug. 9, the developer, AMG Communities-Jacobs, LLC, released an unattributed statement announcing it had “decided […]
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‘We Gotta be Somewhere’
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s message on homelessness in recent weeks has been clear: The state will no longer tolerate encampments, and cities shouldn’t either. Californians who live on the streets, as well as the outreach workers who support them, say they’re already feeling the difference. Places where someone used to be able to pitch a tent […]
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Eureka Street Art Festival’s Last Splash
If there’s a drab, gray concrete wall in Eureka, it’s not the fault of Jenna Catsos, Michelle Cartledge or Swan Asbury. The three women have been the driving force behind the annual Eureka Street Art Festival for the past seven years. “It got started in 2018, when Michelle Cartledge was on the Economic Development Commission […]
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New $88 Million Microgrid Project Aims to Power Hoopa, Karuk and Yurok Tribes
A joint effort between local tribes, Cal Poly Humboldt’s Schatz Energy Research Center, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the Redwood Coast Energy Authority just received $88 million in Department of Energy funding to bring a solar microgrid system to Hoopa, Yurok and Karuk tribal members in an area more prone to electrical outages than […]
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‘Regrettably Deficient’
The Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office has decided not to prosecute 27 of the 39 people arrested during the week-long occupation of Siemens Hall on the Cal Poly Humboldt campus in April, while cases involving the other 12 have been referred back to the University Police Department for further investigation. District Attorney Stacey Eads told […]
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‘Inadvertent Disclosure’
As controversy swirled in the months after the Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees abruptly decided to forgo a $4 million purchase offer from the California Highway Patrol for its old Jacobs Middle School property and instead entered into an unusual $6 million deal with a mystery developer, the district’s superintendent maintained he did not […]