'A Pretty Self-reliant Bunch' 

Editor:

You can say what you want about the folks behind the mysterious company that made the strangely high bid to buy the Jacobs campus property from the Eureka City Schools district, about whom all we know is that Rob Arkley is definitely not one of them, and/or about former district Superintendent Van Vleck, who signed the deal with the mysterious company and then "stepped down," but they seem like a pretty self-reliant bunch. Because apparently, based on Mr. Greenson's recounting of the evidence, they negotiated the whole deal, including that weird complication of transferring to the district a piece of rental property, without consulting any assessors, engineers, consultants, real estate agents, etc. That's pretty impressive, though maybe slightly suspicious.

But I guess they just got together over a couple of locally-brewed ales, and, in a spirit of civic betterment, knocked out the deal and sealed it with hearty handshakes. Of course, from the district's point of view, it would probably have been better to require the mysterious company to seal the deal with something more substantial than a promise. Because it sure sounds like the mysterious people behind the mysterious company can just change their minds later on — maybe think, "Why should we pay so much more than the only other bidders?" — and walk away from the deal. Especially since, if they did, it sounds all they'd have to pay are the escrow cancellation fees. That could well be a good investment for somebody (not Arkley, of course) who wanted to claim that "there's no need to build affordable housing in Old Town because we can build all the housing we need on the Jacobs campus property, which is being purchased by a mysterious but oh-so-well intentioned company that coincidentally wants to build affordable housing in Eureka!" Maybe Superintendent Van Vleck should have consulted somebody about that?

Bill Hassler, McKinleyville