Eureka sales tax goes up Friday

Sales tax in Eureka will raise half a percentage point to 9% starting Friday.

More than 54% of Eureka voters approved ballot Measure O in the November 2010 election. The supplemental transaction and use tax, which supporters said was necessary to fund police and fire services, medical response, street maintenance, environmental programs, zoo, parks and recreation.  The tax hike will expire after 5 years.

The passage of the measure requires a citizen’s oversight committee to conduct annual audits of all expenditures generated by the tax to ensure fiscal accountability and public participation.

It will be fun to watch how much goes to health and safety and how much goes to the zoo.

101 closed north of Redway

Both lanes completely closed following landslide 5 miles north of the Redway exit.  The asphalt is buckled as seen in this photo from the KMUD website.  KMUD reports the closure will last a minimum of 2 weeks.

More photos.

Benefit for Crescent City harbor

[From Surfrider Humboldt.]

On Friday, April 1, Ocean Conservancy, Humboldt Surfrider and Humboldt Baykeeper present an extra special Ocean Night at Arcata Theatre Lounge. This time, donations from the monthly event will go toward The Redwood Regional Rotary Relief Super Fund to provide support and assistance to Del Norte County fishermen devastated by the tsunami.

Lost Coast Communications radio stations KHUM 104.3/7 FM and KSLG 94.1 FM are sponsoring April’s Ocean Night.

Ocean Night has been a staple of ATL’s monthly calendars since 2009. The event is all-ages, donation-based and includes a post-film raffle. Movies for the Friday, April 1 event include Drive-Thru Japan, a “search for waves in the land of the rising sun” and Baja Wave Document, directed by veteran Hollywood film editor Chris Figler, portraying the efforts of WiLDCOAST and fishermen in Baja California to preserve the last wild coastlines of the peninsula.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m., movies start at 7 p.m. For updates on this and future Ocean Night events, see arcatatheater.com, surfrider.org/humboldt, humboldtbaykeeper.org and caloceans.org. To donate money or raffle prizes, call Jennifer Savage at (707) 477-8283 or Humboldt Baykeeper at (707) 268-8897.

Fortuna to take over Ferndale?

Some folks in Ferndale are drawing a line in the river — the Eel River, that is — over the idea that the friendly city of Fortuna will annex the Victorian village.

Make your voice heard loud and clear and let the “powers that be” know that YOU are drawing a LINE IN THE RIVER and that you stand firmly and vehemently opposed to this proposed annexation.  Ferndale is NOT Fortuna.  Help us preserve the unique character of our beloved Victorian Village by saying “NO!” to this ill-conceived plan.

Follow the debate, or help organize a revolt at LineInTheRiver.org.

Lost Coast Outpost

Former North Coast Journal editor and current Lost Coast Communications guy slash McKinleyville Press columnist Hank Sims appears to be doing some kind of hybrid journalism thing on his new blog, Lost Coast Outpost.

There’s audio clips and original text and feeds to other local blogs. LCO (or LoCO, if you prefer) even looks good on a mobile device unlike ye olde NCJ Blogthing. (That would be Hank’s own doing, of course, since he never optimized the NCJ blog site for mobile users.  But hey, he’s already ahead of the competition).

He’s also doing it social media style on the Twitter and Facebook.

Hybrid indeed.

Chris Crawford RIP

A champion for conservative causes and candidates in Humboldt County has died following a brief battle with liver cancer.

Chris Crawford passed away on March 26th.  A funeral is planned for April 5th memorial is planned for 5:00pm Monday April 11th at the Arkley Center.

Crawford served as president of Justice Served, a court management alliance.

He was an outspoken opponent of Measure T, a 2006 voter-approved initiative that banned outside corporate contributions to Humboldt County elections, but was later struck down in court. More recently he helped lead the charge for Measure N, which paved the way for a zoning change on Eureka’s blighted Balloon Track property in support of property owner Rob Arkley’s Marina Center project.

Crawford served as a past Chairman of the Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce.  He was a regular writer for the Times-Standard‘s Tech Beat column.

Humboldt Growers Association reviews county marijuana ordinance

Tune into KMUD‘s Monday Morning Magazine show tomorrow at 8am to hear folks from the Humboldt Growers Association and blogger Kym Kemp talk about the marijuana ordinance proposed for the unincorporated parts of Humboldt County.

For a deeper look at the issue download HGA’s review of the ordinance. If you’d rather look at it online, Kym has it on her blog.

Thanks to HGA’s Joey Burger for sending this. Monday Morning Magazine is a great show and the Humboldt Herald would like to encourage host Dennis Huber or anyone associated to advise listeners of guests and topics in advance. A Sunday afternoon tweet would be fine. Or go old school and set up an email list.

Naval blasts linked to dolphin deaths

Naval training exercises such as those protested by Humboldt and Mendocino County residents are killing dolphins off the Southern California coast.

A spokesman said the Navy has an “excellent track record” when it comes to training, and the exercises will continue.

The dead dolphins were unable to comment on the Navy’s alleged excellency.

Full story.

New York Times, meet Humboldt

The New York Times magazine has a nicely-worded piece about Humboldt County.  It describes our “hysterical shifts in landscape” and a “huge rainbow that seemed like the meteorological equivalent of a crazy person’s laugh.”

Locals and visitors alike might get a chuckle out of this passage:

My unfussy room [at the Arcata Hotel] had a claw-foot tub and a piping hot space heater, and seemed a great bargain for $99. I went back to the desk and asked if I might stay on through the rest of the week, which, incidentally, would overlap with New Year’s Eve. The desk clerk — ground down, I imagined, by her daily dealings with local free spirits and individualists — looked at me like I’d asked to crash for free on her couch.

“O.K.,” she finally said. “But you can’t bring a bunch of crazy, noisy people back to your room.”

“I don’t know any crazy, noisy people here,” I told her.

“You’re going to meet some, believe me,” she said.

“Well, even if I do, I don’t think I’ll want to bring them home with me.”

“They can be very persuasive,” she said.

The image also comes from the NYT.  It’s a screen shot of an interactive map detailing “racial and ethnic concentrations.”

Humboldt is very white (77%) but based on the growth rates of other groups it appears the times are a changin’.

Brinton speaks out for First Amendment

Arcata City Councilman Shane Brinton responded to the city’s recent 4-1 vote that reaffirmed support for its controversial Panhandling Ordinance. The ordinance makes it a crime for any person to hold a sign that asks for money.

“The purpose of the First Amendment is to protect free speech, even speech that makes some people uncomfortable,” Brinton said in a press release. “Panhandling is a problem that we should address as a community, not by denying citizens their constitutional rights.”

Brinton said he was disappointed that his fellow councilmembers failed to take the opportunity to repeal the ordinance and work together to pursue real solutions.

Arcata may be facing a lawsuit by resident Richard Salzman who says the ordinance is unconstitutional.