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.
Leave a Reply
Recent Comments
 | typist jobs working… on The House that Arkley bui… |
 | Anonymous on Quick Notes |
 | Flying Duck on Quick Notes |
 | Advantage Conditioni… on Happy Sink o’ de Ma… |
| Anonymous on Eureka Fair Wage Act — W… |
| Anonymous on Quick Notes |
 | Thirdeye on EiC meets EPD |
Top Posts & Pages
This age-old multi-generational Huskies/Wildcat milkcan controversy has gone waaaaay too far! What now? The Fordale Huskcats? Hmmmm, that’s has a rather nice ring to it. Ok, I’m in. But, damn it, let Port Kenyon fend for themselves!
This is actually not as farfetched as you might think.
Think of all the floodplain housing they could build out there
Uhh NO!! Ferndale is just fine without Fortuna… Fortuna is stuck up and Ferndale is so cozy and sweet and laid back!
Good luck with that one…
Does this have anything to do with the Canadians attacking the U.S.?
Looks like someone trying to stir up some more s**t, as if we needed more!!
what’s the matter Ferndale? Fortuna too friendly and gay?
I live on Monument Mt. Beach front property has always been a dream of mine.
~Let the games begin!~
Well, if this is a real possibility, the line in the river folks would do well to not alienate potential allies (e.g. KHUM listeners, hippies etc).
Obviously an April Fool’s joke
Watch out Ferndale- Fortuna got to keep it’s redevelopment funding for their low income housing. They can dump it on your town and meet the mandate.
Take a look at the people involved. The sneaky toxic creeps are creeping.
Don’t go splittin’ no rivers!! I’m willing to spend a day wandering around Ferndale, shopping and sight-seeing. I have never done that in Fortuna, though I do visit it once in awhile. Keep them unique. Unique is getting harder to come by these days. It’ll be even harder when Eureka turns into Santa Rosa North soon.
Does everyone love milking udderly ridiculous cowspiracy theories and juicing up the bovines?
Cowlifornians, visit New FernTuna where you can smell our fresh dairy-aire, enjoying milkshakes instead of earthquakes and scoops of mint ice cream piled high with chips of chocolate cows whey pasture bedtime but without the fussy cowlories– and all the good cuds obeying their fodder and udder while everyone keeps their lawn mooed before hitting the hay. Oh, and they all Got Milk, too.
The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk.
~Ogden Nash
… or the one end can be… poo.
So when does Arcata annex McKinleyville?
hmmm – I bet we’ll find out the truth on Friday… April 1st.
This is the most ridiculous shit I’ve ever heard. While I agree that it could be a beneficial marriage for cost saving measures, it just doesn’t make sense socially. Fortuna could contract their effluent discharge to Ferndale, while the Victorian Village could contract administrative city functions to Fortuna (financing, planning, police). Most of the people on the new blog are worried about losing their identity, which in my opinion, is a justifiable concern. Things are a certain way in Ferndale and have been for generations … what people are forgetting, however, is that Ferndale was at one time rundown before the artists came in. The most ridiculous arguments against annexation center around the high school football rivalry and how no Ferndaler wants to be a Husky. If one thinks that reliving their high school glory days is a valid point in an argument, perhaps their school should fold in annexation. Just dont tell any Ferndalers that a school district and a city are two separate entities.
friendly fortuna? right!! LAFCO will never let it happen. it’s a lose – lose.
Keep the milkcan sacred, bro!
Both could disappear from the map and I’d be hard-pressed to care.
Ridiculous. Hell, why doesn’t Eureka just annex everybody? Think of the savings! I’d be glad to share our city council and mayor with them…just to get them off our backs.
Can you annex an incorporated area against its will? Can Arcata annex Eureka?
It sucks enough with Californi-duh muscling in on Humboldt’s turf. For real, I doubt this is what our ancestors had in mind when they talked about the greater government working around the will of the people, rather than head on against it. Homogenization Nation in action…
Ferndale traded-in its Glory long ago with all those big spec. homes and the creek side appeal for new mini-mansions that soon eclipsed into a deluged of raw sewage most Winters.
Remnants of their stubborn independence precluded installation of a treatment plant modeled after Arcata.
Fortuna already learned some painful sewage lessons and should have served as a warning to most of our other cities still run by the ol’ boys demanding their subdivision-windfall from Granddaddy’s land under the guise of “popperdy rights”.
Here’s how all this tittle-tattle chatter really went down. A report overheard straight from the Cream City grapevine:
LAFCO Rep: The cows wear bells around their necks?
Dairy Lama: Their horns don’t work.
LAFCO Rep: Can we ask how long cows should be milked?
Dairy Lama: About the same as short ones.
LAFCO Rep: Well, we need this land for annexation. We’ll trade you sewage for services. But the bunch of cows has gotta go.
Dairy Lama: Not a bunch, ‘herd.’
LAFCO Rep: Heard what?
Dairy Lama: Of cows.
LAFCO Rep: Sure, we’ve heard of cows.
Dairy Lama: No, I mean a cowherd.
LAFCO Rep: We’re not cowards.
Dairy Lama: No, a cowherd.
LAFCO Rep: So what? We’ve no secrets from cows.
Besides, we need this land for annexation. Can we get it moo-ving by April 1st?
Whoa boy, this thing has bigger legs than I suspected. I mean, it sounds technically like the right thing to do. But, I have to tell you, I’m not so sure. Lots of history there.
After asking around, it was told to me, Charlie Hanson’s property out at Alton was the first acquisition via CalTrans. And because of Sandy Prairie Road out by Miranda’s Rescue, it makes sense. Does anyone remember when the Sandie Prairie summer bridge used to exist between Drake Hill Road and East Ferry Road off of Grizzley Bluff Road? In the 1960′s. The flood took care of that in ’64 Look on Google Maps and you can see where it was.
Well, right through those dairies on the Ferndale side, there were a mass of sewage pipes laid out for subdivision expansions coming off of East Ferry Road through Waddington. I’ve heard rumblings over the years about Waddington Villa subdivision, but it was just talk. The dairies out there (especially a former Humboldt County 1st Dist supervisor candidate’s dairy) are located in that region. My family had land on the Metropolitan side during the 60′s and my uncle mentioned Waddington Villa when I was young. But, the dairies would never sell.
So, here it is, the next generation and Humboldt Creamery is no more. Now, it makes sense to those property owners to sell and conservation easements just aren’t an issue because the Waddington Villa development has been grandfathered in place.
I’m told there just isn’t enough usable land for housing developments on the Fortuna side of the river anymore and annexing had to be done to be able to combine municipal services for infrastructure expansion.
Boy, you ask around to the right oldtimer locals (or be married into them) and they say this has been the plan all along since the ’64 flood.
Anyway, I’m having all kinds of memories of the friendly rivalries that have existed between the two towns and I’m sad to see that come to an end. But, really, if the Fortuna/Ferndale high school FFA students can work together all these years (My dad was Fortuna High Class of ’46) then so can all of us.
Just remember, these are government agencies we’re talking about. This probably won’t happen for another 4 or 5 years, minimum. I have to wonder…Will that former 1st District candidate run against Clif Clendenan in the next Dist. 2 race? He would only have to move to the Fortuna side of the river for a few months to do it. As we know, we’ve seen that kind of thing happen before.
“Now, it makes sense to those property owners to sell ”
which property owners???
“I’m told there just isn’t enough usable land for housing developments on the Fortuna side of the river anymore and annexing had to be done to be able to combine municipal services for infrastructure expansion. ”
Oh. And what does “infrastructure expansion” mean? Looking around the rest of the county, it means BAD. McKinleyville is rapidly turning to shit because of “infrastructure expansion”…the wake of which hasn’t even begun. The wake of “infrastructure expansion” done in the late 90′s and early 0′s is here…roadside dumping exploded, cars being rifled through in all neighborhoods where doors were once comfortably left unlocked. BAD.
i.e….permanent residence and their kin (people who want to live in a nice peaceful small town, not just real estaters) should take priority over developers and construction money, ya?
This is the dumbest thing I’ve heard of, including some of the lame-ass comments. (“Both could disappear from the map and I’d be hard-pressed to care” being one of them). “Obviously an April Fool’s joke” is pretty much on the mark and if it’s not it should be. Guess it was a slow news day in Humboldt, oh yeah, that’s right, there was a major mudslide in SoHum that is being covered intelligently and with a lot of verve and class. This non-insular, intelligent, Fortuna resident is switching gears to something really worthwhile, like this:
http://kymkemp.com/2011/03/30/101-closed-north-of-garberville/
That was a good history and read, Mr. Rowley. I’d never heard of this before. Thank you. An interesting and insightful ‘bigger leg’ story of what was/could be… the Friendly Village of Waddington Villa.
“obviously an april fools joke” says stoney creek…was it ever an april fool’s joke in mckinleyville? Or _______? Sorry, it doesn’t matter how thorough the discussion of a mudslide gets, it just isn’t my idea of intellectual stimulation.
Hey Random Guy,
Perhaps you misunderstood my remarks. I DO believe this is nothing more than a joke but if it wasn’t, I would be greatly disturbed. One of the marvelous things that makes living in Humboldt so wonderful is the diversity that exists in our individual communities. I would be devastated to see that disappear, especially at the hands of developers. I love the land and the individual cultures that exist here; I am renewed by it, it makes our communities better and stronger and when it is exploited by greedy folks, we all suffer.
Also, do not mistake what is interesting in topic with how beguilingly it is presented. Activists here would do well to note that mudslides presented carefully can ring with poetry when presented against narratives that are punctuated with shrill, dull, polemics.
Speaking of which, I find your comments to be thought provoking and heartfelt…
Gotcha…when it comes to mudslides, I’ll just look at the pictures. You’ve set my subconscious wheels in motion to use the word “polemics” in conversation soon…
Let’s take a moment and have a look at Mr. Ken Zanzi. In Jan. of this year he was chosen by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to fill Bonnie Neely’s seat on the Coastal Commission. Donna Tam’s TS headline read “Zazi Ready to Tackle the Marina Center Development”
He got a friendly boot from the Coastal Commission when Brown came into office although the boot is not yet final. Now it also appears that Mr. Zanzi is on Humboldt Local Agency Formation Commission along with Virginia Bass and others.
I am not sure what the story is but it worth keeping an eye on.
You can tell this whole thread is an April Fool’s joke, because if it was real, the Henchman would be all over it!
Those Seven-O-Heaven guys are all over this.
They’re yucking it up again over these matters of serious importance. Do they get paid for this? They got a good gig going on. It’s tough keeping up with the good humors of Humboldt.
PUNKED! KHUM says it’s a gag. Maybe the two towns are working on some agreement over a sewage system, which could involve LAFCO. I don’t know.