Press release from the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District and the Ruth Lake Community Services District:
Protecting Our Water Supply and Natural Resources from Aquatic Invasive Species
The Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District (HBMWD) and the Ruth Lake Community Services District (RLCSD) are jointly announcing the implementation of a mandatory 30-day quarantine program for all watercraft entering Ruth Lake with ballast tanks or other components that cannot be drained. This measure is essential to prevent the introduction of Golden, Zebra, and Quagga mussels which are highly destructive aquatic invasive species that pose a serious threat to our water infrastructure, the lake’s ecosystem, and the region’s long-term water supply.
Why This Matters to Our Community
Ruth Lake is a critical water resource for the Humboldt Bay region. As your water wholesaler, HBMWD’s mission is to safeguard and sustainably deliver clean and reliable water to our community while protecting our natural resources and providing a resilient water supply for present and future generations. Invasive mussels have devastated water systems across the western United States, clogging intake infrastructure, degrading water quality, and costing communities millions of dollars in damage and remediation. Once established, these species are virtually impossible to eradicate. Prevention is our only viable defense.
How the Quarantine Program Works
All watercraft entering Ruth Lake are subject to the following requirements:
Watercraft Survey. All boat owners and operators must complete a Watercraft Survey form documenting vessel information and recent launch history.
Physical Inspections. All watercrafts will go through physical inspections to ensure they are completely cleaned, drained, and dried. If watercraft fails inspection, it must go through a mandatory 30-day quarantine.
30-Day Quarantine for Ballast Tank Watercraft. Any watercraft with ballast tanks or components that cannot be fully drained (such as wakeboard boats) will automatically fail inspection unless the vessel already carries a BLUE exit band from Ruth Lake. This quarantine period is in lieu of your watercraft going through decontamination.
Clean, Drain, and Dry. All boaters are reminded to clean their gear, boat, and trailer; drain all bilge, ballast, wells, and buckets; and allow equipment to fully dry before launching in any water body.
Where to Obtain Quarantine Bands
RED quarantine bands are available at the Ruth Lake Marina and Ruth Recreational Campground for $10.00.
For boaters in Humboldt County, quarantine bands are also available at two convenient locations: Reynolds RV (646 Hwy 36, Fortuna) and Pacific Outfitters (1600 5th Street, Eureka). Signage with quarantine instructions will be posted at all major launch and access locations.
A Shared Responsibility
Protecting Ruth Lake is a community effort. We are asking every boater, angler, and lake visitor to do their part. Compliance with the quarantine program is not optional.
Failure to comply may result in revocation of boating privileges and potential citation or eviction from the lake. These measures are in place to protect the water supply that serves our entire region, both now and for generations to come.
A digital rendering of a back country trail through Eel River Canyon. | All images sources from the Great Redwood Trail Master Plan unless otherwise stated.
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The roadmap is set. After four years of planning and public outreach, the Great Redwood Trail Agency (GRTA) has approved a master plan to guide the development of a 300-mile hiking, biking and equestrian trail along the abandoned railway between Humboldt Bay and San Francisco Bay. Once complete, the Great Redwood Trail is projected to be the longest rail-to-trail project in the nation.
Map of the envisioned path of the Great Redwood Trail. Click to enlarge.
The 738-page master plan — linked here — lays out a comprehensive framework for designing, constructing and managing the northern segment of the planned route, which follows the tracks of the defunct Northwestern Pacific Railroad through scenic stretches of rural Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties. (The southern portion of the trail is overseen by the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit and isn’t covered in the GRTA’s master plan.)
The wide-ranging document sets standards and priorities for community engagement and government-to-government partnerships with North Coast tribes. The plan also looks at each section of the railway, outlining various “opportunities” for recreation as well as potential “constraints” that could interfere with the trail’s build-out over the coming decades.
State Senator Mike McGuire, a driving force behind the monumental trail project, touted the approval of the master plan as a “major milestone,” but the real work has only just begun.
“This is a very momentous time, but it is also the beginning of a lot of work to come,” GRTA Operations Manager Bridget Nichols told the Outpost in a recent phone interview. “This document is really a celebration of hundreds and hundreds of hours of so many different people coming together to help us guide this process and move forward with a lot of care and intention. … It outlines where we’re going to go and gives us guidance on how to best incorporate tribes, community members, ecosystems and recommendations from government agencies and local municipalities.”
Segment by Segment: Complexities and Opportunities Along the Great Redwood Trail
While some stretches of the Great Redwood Trail won’t see construction for at least another decade, several sections have already been built, are currently under construction or are deep in the project design phase. Of the 300-plus miles of envisioned trail, 47 miles are already open to the public, including nearly 12 miles along Humboldt Bay.
The master plan doesn’t set specific timelines for the completion of each stretch of trail, but it does rank the feasibility, impact and project readiness of the 43 segments on a scale of one to three stars. (Check out this table for a segment by segment breakdown.)
An abandoned train car near Dos Rios.
“The [segments] with more stars tend to be tier one,” Nichols said. For example, the Alderpoint section, a five-mile stretch between Cain Rock Railroad Bridge and Steelhead Creek, is ranked “tier one” because the rail line will be easier to convert than, say, the southern portion of Eel River Canyon, which is riddled with collapsed bridges and decaying train cars. “The Alderpoint segment is very feasible, infrastructure-wise, and we have community groups that are ready for it.”
“They want a better community for their children and for their families to live in, so we’re looking at ways to plan this trail segment that brings life and vitality back to Alderpoint,” Nichols said. “Building the trails would give local contractors an opportunity to work in their own backyard. … We’re also looking at how they can build jobs around maintaining the trail and the surrounding area to keep [residents] employed and to give them something of value that they want to participate in.”
“A lot of times, when we develop one segment of the trail — like the connection between Arcata and Eureka — that the community really wants, we’ll have more help and drive to make it happen,” she added. “We anticipate things like that happening as more and more segments get built.”
Other potential opportunities along the Alderpoint stretch include a cycling loop along Carter Creek that would connect to Fort Seward and a 30-acre campground and day-use area on a piece of GRTA-owned property near Steelhead Creek. As far as complexities go, there is a damaged bridge just south of Steelhead Creek that may require retrofitting or reconstruction.
Complexities and opportunities along the five-mile leg through Alderpoint.
Digital rendering of a potential layout for the Steelhead Creek campsite.
Many of the bridges, trestles and tunnels located elsewhere on the trail may be subject to reconstruction or replacement depending on the severity of the damage. The Loleta tunnel, for example, will require “significant remediation” because it’s structurally compromised.
The most complex segments of the trail — including a remote 42.5-mile stretch from Longvale to Island Mountain in Mendocino County and another section between Holmes and Stafford in Southern Humboldt — will have to undergo significant environmental remediation before construction can begin. About a dozen “constraints” are noted along both segments, especially through Eel River Canyon, where numerous landslides have destroyed bridges and collapsed tunnels.
“We’ll have to remove the rail cars that have slid into the Eel River and other railroad-related infrastructure,” Nichols said. “These are large restoration projects, but they’re not unachievable. We have funding that’s dedicated specifically to restoring the Eel, which is a Wild and Scenic river. As a state agency, it’s our responsibility to leave this area in a better place than the railroad did, and we’re really looking at this ultimately as a restoration project.”
A washed out corridor of a suspended track.
It’s a huge undertaking. That stretch through Eel River Canyon is about as rural as it gets, and there aren’t many roads out there. Much of the surrounding area is protected by the Wildlands Conservancy, which acquired the 26,600-acre Eel River Canyon Preserve a few years ago, and most of the rest is owned by old ranching families.
Given the access limitations, Nichols said the GRTA will have to work with adjacent landowners to get the railroad ruins out of the canyon.
“Now that we’ve completed the master plan, we can actually get into the nuts and bolts of how we’re going to do it, possibly through private access roads,” she said. “It’s going to be a huge project and a massive undertaking, that’s why we don’t have those segments of trail slated [for completion] for many years. There’s also a lot of cultural resources we want to address in the area, and work with tribes to make sure we’ve done our part before any of it is open to the public.”
During the development of the draft master plan, the GRTA sought input from 35 tribes across Northern California through in-person meetings with indigenous leaders, webinars and community workshops, and incorporated their feedback into the final document (section 2.2, pages 52-55). Several tribes expressed interest in either ownership or stewardship of segments of the trail that pass through their ancestral lands and asked for their leadership to be included in the design and planning process.
In the first few pages of its executive summary, the master plan underscores the importance of “early and ongoing collaboration with local tribes” to protect culturally significant resources. Still, GRTA Executive Director Elaine Hogan acknowledged that “deep and trusting relationships with Tribal Nations and members take time to build.”
“Therefore, it’s on us to reach out often and in as many ways as we can,” Hogan wrote in an emailed statement. “We’ve heard specific concerns, inspiration and excitement, and everything in between. Every relationship, perspective, and conversation requires individual respect and attention.”
The GRTA Board of Directors is looking to hire a tribal liaison who will help assemble a tribal advisory board that will ensure tribal concerns are top of mind throughout the trail development process, Hogan said.
“While many Native folks engaged early and often, the relationship- and trust-building doesn’t stop once the Master Plan is done,” she continued. “[I]t is most helpful when Tribal leaders are willing to have direct conversations with GRTA staff about their needs and wishes. We’re doing our best now with our lean staff to advance these conversations, and look forward to even more once our Tribal Liaison Consultant is in place. We’re also hoping to formalize more Tribal partnerships as we move forward with design and implementation.”
An existing tunnel along Eel River Canyon.
The board has also passed several actions to increase tribal involvement in the trail project, including a professional services agreement with the Wiyot Tribe for cultural monitoring and memorandums of understanding (a government-to-government partnership) with both the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians and the Blue Lake Rancheria.
In a statement issued following the board’s approval of the master plan, Jason Ramos, Tribal Chairman of the Blue Lake Rancheria, said the Great Redwood Trail provides a “critical opportunity to restore fish habitat, protect cultural resources, and build an economy that benefits the North Coast communities who have always called this place home.”
“The master plan for trail development represents a meaningful step toward ensuring that Tribal communities are not just consulted, but are genuine partners in how this land is stewarded and celebrated,” he continued. “Blue Lake Rancheria is committed to staying at the table every step of the way.”
[DISCLOSURE: The Blue Lake Rancheria is a minority owner of the Outpost’s parent company, Lost Coast Communications, Inc.]
Existing trail in Blue Lake.
Improving Safety and Expanding Emergency Response
Yet another concern that’s been raised throughout the public review process is the issue of safety along the trail — especially on the remote, undeveloped stretches where emergency services are scant and cell service is nonexistent. Property owners along the trail have also expressed concerns about trespassing and other nuisance behavior from trailgoers.
In an interview with the Outpost last year, Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said it would be “impossible for [HCSO] to enforce anything along that trail, yet it is going to be our responsibility to do so.”
Nichols, the GRTA spokesperson you heard from earlier in this story, clarified that the agency never expected the sheriff’s office to patrol the trail. “We’ve been in direct communications with Sheriff Honsal and other first responders, and we take his concerns seriously,” she said. “A formalized approach to emergency response and enforcement will be needed, and we’re planning for that now, before segments are open to the public.”
The Eel River near Dos Rios.
Last year, the GRTA board approved contracts with two community-based organizations — The People of New Directions in Humboldt County and Friend of Boon in Mendocino County — to provide property management and supportive services to people experiencing homelessness on the trail. However, those organizations are focused on trails that pass through urban centers that are already open to the public.
“We plan on building out our own field operations and staff to be stationed in the back country who are trained in wilderness first response. We also plan on creating formal agreements with local law enforcement and volunteer fire departments to strengthen the rural emergency response capacity,” Nichols said. “We’re looking at this as an investment in community resilience, not a burden on local agencies.”
The GRTA is using the Lost Coast Trail as a case study to understand how first responding agencies work together to patrol a remote region. The master plan notes that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) uses an overnight camping permit system that helps staff and emergency responders keep track of who is camping on the trail and where they may be located. When an emergency does occur, the responsibility is shared among the BLM, sheriff’s office and U.S. Coast Guard.
“If the location [of an emergency] is close to a road or access point, the [HCSO] is the first responder,” the master plan states. “If it is easier to access from the water or by helicopter, the U.S. Coast Guard responds first. Humboldt County and the BLM also have an ATV that can be used to respond to incidents on remote portions of this trail.”
This kind of model “really demonstrates how remote trail systems can operate successfully with the right planning partnerships and management structures in place,” Nichols said, noting that private property matters will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
In the meantime, while the GRTA works out next steps for each segment, the agency is asking residents to avoid sections of the defunct rail line that aren’t officially open to the public.
“I know that there’s a lot of enthusiasm and people really want to get out there, but … it’s not all open to the public yet,” Nichols said. “We really want to encourage people not to go on unopened segments of the trail yet because we want to be the agency that follows through with the neighbors, reviews the safety of the infrastructure in that area and works with the tribes to protect the cultural resources.”
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If you’re still itching to make your thoughts known, the senior civics class at Redwood Montessori is conducting a survey on the Great Redwood Trail — linked here. The findings will be presented to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors in May.
And if you’d like to take it up a notch and have some decision-making power in the future of the trail, you might want to apply for the opening on the board of directors. More information here.
Michael Francis Jude
Goodman was born in Escondido, California, on March 23, 1950, to J.D. and Barbara Jean
Goodman. Michael died in Eureka on March 31, 2026.
Michael first came
to Humboldt County in
1973 to pursue a BA degree in Philosophy at Humboldt State. He graduated and
married his beloved wife, Hollie Ann (née Shaffer), in 1975. Michael
then took an MA in Philosophy
from San Diego State in 1978 and a PhD in Philosophy from Michigan State in 1986.
He
was hired as a lecturer at Humboldt State in 1984, secured a
tenure-track position, in 1987, and
climbed the ranks to full Professor of Philosophy. Michael retired in
2023. His areas of
specialization in scholarship and teaching were logic, philosophy of science, epistemology and the philosophy of David Hume, although as a junior faculty he taught many different courses,
such as the history of philosophy, epistemology,
metaphysics/ontology, philosophy of law and moral philosophy/ethics. Michael published four books in
philosophy and many papers in
philosophical journals. One of his favorite academic activities was
to read papers at
conferences. He delivered papers in Oxford (UK), New York, Athens
(Greece), Cordoba (Argentina),
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor (Michigan) and many other places. Michael had
an abiding love of classical literature, with a special place in his
heart for Shakespeare and
Dickens.
Michael contracted
polio as an 18-month-old in 1951. Paralyzed from the waist down for eight months, he received
daily therapy at the Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Multiple
surgeries occurred over the
years and he was ultimately able to engage in many sports activities.
He was most passionate
about surfing, baseball and racquetball. He couldn’t run fast but
he always gave it all he had,
whatever he tried. Music was another driving force in Michael’s
life.
He was a musician and
songwriter; he recorded 29 albums of music and played acoustic and
electric guitars, bass,
harmonica and some keyboard. He never liked the sound of his singing
voice but he tried hard
anyway.
Michael started
surfing at Tamarak, in Carlsbad, in 1962. His last surf session was
in Crescent City in 2011. He
loved the waves, the salt water, the freedom of movement, bottom
turns, cutbacks, some nose
riding, trimming and just riding. He joined the short-board movement
in 1967-68. His love of
surfing as an activity was unmatched. Michael’s second sport love
was baseball, played
Little League, Pony League and tried to play in high school but was
cut from the team because he
couldn’t run fast. He never got over that. In the early 90s, he
made friends with some people
when he was coaching Little League in Arcata and joined their
softball team. Some of the best fun
he ever had, he said.
As to racquetball, he learned to play in 1976
and decided that he
wanted to get good at the sport. He progressed and in 1977 wrote an
article about strategies
that players with some physical challenges could use. The article was
published and the racquetball
company Ektelon offered him a player contract. He ended up playing professional
racquetball for Ektelon for about 5 years. A great bit of fun and it
kept him in good shape. The other
thing that Michael really loved to do was take his boat out on Big
Lagoon fishing for trout
and steelhead. He often said that being on the water was some kind of
substitute for not being able
to surf anymore.
Michael is survived
by his beloved spouse, Hollie; their children Matthew (Catheline)
Goodman, Anna Goodman, Jay
(Lauren) Goodman, and Moira Pitlock; grandchildren Caleb Pitlock,
Faith Pitlock, Grayson
Pitlock, Cibella Goodman, Adlei Goodman and Jack Goodman; brothers
John (Colleen) & Mark
(Eileen) and their families; sister Mary Rojas and her husband Tony
Rojas; and his
brother-in-law Mark Shaffer. He is also survived by his dearest
friends Don & Karen Bale of Vista,
Calif., Steve Castaneda of San Juan Capistrano, Frank Caetano of
Arcata, Ed Hirsch of Arcata,
John McGuire of Eureka, Ben Marschke of McKinleyville, Stan Mortel of
East Lansing, Michigan,
and Jimmy Foot of McKinleyville.
Michael was a
devoted parishioner of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Arcata. He was
a Fourth Degree Knight of
Columbus and he greatly valued the many friends he made in the church
and in the Knights, and
also the lawn crew.
Funeral information below:
St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Arcata, 11 o’clock on Tuesday the 7th, with a reception at his home following the service.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Michael Goodman’s family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
Carl (Mike) Pullen was born and raised in Fairfield, California. From birth, he was blessed
with a strong body and a handsome face. But it was his brilliant mind — paired with a rare
ability to apply knowledge in practical, effective ways — that truly set him apart.
Mike was an only child, the son of an only child, and that independence often showed once
you knew him well. Knowing Mike taught those close to him how to appreciate the good in
people and forgive — or sometimes simply overlook — the rest. After all, life itself is a mixed
bag.
Mike graduated from Fairfield High School in 1975 and went on to attend a two-year diesel
mechanic trade school in Tennessee. After completing his training, he returned to Fairfield,
where he owned and operated a decorative iron shop.
During those years, Mike drove a cammed-out, performance ’69 Mach 1, which he
regretted selling until the day he died. He was lucky to have a grandfather, Royce Pullen,
who managed the machine shop, as a civilian, at Travis Air Force Base, and together they
built a blueprinted street-strip motor. For the muscle car enthusiast, Mike described his
cherished Mach 1 like this: “It was a three-fifty-one Windsor, bored thirty-over with TRW
forged slugs, a lumpy Crane cam, and Harland Sharp roller rockers up top. It had a seven-
fifty Holley double-pumper feeding it, and it would twist to six-five-hundred all night.” For
the rest of us, it was a race car barely pretending to be a street car and Mike loved to race it
around town.
In 1985, Mike married local Fairfield beauty Shelley Culotty. Together they were blessed
with two sons, Nolan Pullen and Trevor Pullen, both of whom have grown into stand-up
men. Nolan and his wife, Marissa Estrada Pullen, further blessed Mike with two beautiful
grandchildren, Bryce Pullen, age seven, and Byrdie Pullen, age three, who brought him
great joy and pride. Mike loved being a father. He taught his boys how to hunt and fish, how
to weld, and how to work with their hands — skills they carried to the highest levels and
which made him deeply proud.
Following his marriage, Mike made several career transitions. He became a certified welder
and worked in gas refineries, then spent a few years maintaining grounds for the Fairfield
School District.
In 1989, Mike began studying for the Hospital Inspector of Record (IOR) exam through the
State of California’s Office of Statewide Planning and Development Department. At the
time of his death, Mike still held a valid class A, IOR license, bearing one of the oldest
active numbers in the state.
After receiving his certification, Mike worked at a Northbay Hospital in Fairfield for several
years before making the move to Redcrest, in 2007. He fell in love with Humboldt County
and often declared he would never leave — and he never did. He spent countless hours
exploring the backroads on his Harley and hiking alongside the South Fork of the Eel River
with his dogs, Beastie, Chloe, and Evie. He often said that while he may not live in the most
beautiful place on earth, there is no place more beautiful than Humboldt County.
Mike served as the Inspector of Record for Saint Joseph and Redwood Memorial Hospitals
for almost sixteen years. During his tenure, he worked with numerous design teams and
construction crews, closing many complex projects — most on time and within budget.
Mike was accomplished, and if you asked his partner of twenty-two years, Denise Eastham
Phelps, she would tell you that bringing Mike home to Humboldt County to perform
hospital project inspections was one of the best things she ever did for her community.
When it came to his work, Mike always focused on efficiency, integrity, and cost-effective
outcomes. He often said, “I always ask myself what’s in the best interest of the project —
that’s my focus.” He would have wanted that principle remembered.
Mike battled Type II diabetes for many years without complaint. After enduring several
amputations in recent years, he succumbed to acute kidney failure on January 3, 2026, at
the age of sixty-eight, in the ICU at Saint Joseph Hospital in Eureka.
It is often only when life is ending — or has ended — that we truly grasp how short it is: a
highly perishable product with a fixed expiration date. We spend the first half building it and
the second half trying to keep it from falling apart. Not long before his death, Mike said, “I’d
rather be under construction when I die.” And so he was.
Gratitude is at the heart of finding good in the world — especially in our relationships with
the ones we love. Mike is deeply missed by those who knew and loved him.
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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Mike Pullen’s family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.
The beautiful old Cascade Theater, located in the heart of our Congressional colony. Photo: Publichall - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
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The Shasta County League of Women Voters — love the League! — will host the first big Congressional candidates forum of the cycle at the beautiful Cascade Theater in downtown Redding this afternoon, starting at 5 p.m., and we are told that KRCR-TV will live-stream the thing on its YouTube page.
Tune in! It should be fun. Redding was only soldered on to the progressive-heavy Second Congressional District last year, as part of Gavin Newsom’s big gerrymander (and/or counter-gerrymander) initiative, and no doubt some Reddingites still resent the fact. There will be some culture clash, for sure.
Incumbent Jared Huffman, who has represented the North Coast since 2012, will be in attendance, as will candidates Gregory Burgess (no party), Tim Geist (R), Robin Littau (R), Paul Saulsbury (R), Angelita Valles (R) and Rose Yee (D). Nicolette Hahn Niman, who made a splash when she entered the race a couple of weeks ago, will be absent, alas.
See you in the YouTube comments! We’ll come back to this post and embed the live stream when it begins, if we can.
Arcata’s city council members voted pretty much as expected on the two most interesting items on last night’s agenda — but not without a smattering of controversy.
Tourism Website
VisitArcata.com is supposed to be Arcata’s all-purpose destination for tourists interested in exploring the area, but it’s a bit dilapidated. It’s not very accessible or easy to navigate; some of the information on the site is out-of-date; none of it is pleasing aesthetically. City manager Merritt Perry said that organizations like Humboldt Made and the Arcata Chamber of Commerce had told him that it was one of the worst in the county. (The chamber’s executive director Meredith Maier told the Outpost earlier this week she’d like to take the site over completely.)
The city is in charge of running it, but staff have little time and money to update it. “The whole problem is that we haven’t really spent any money on it historically,” finance director Tabatha Miller said; councilmember Alex Stillman decided it’d be worth it to ask staff to investigate.
An item allowing city staff to take some time to decide what the site needed and consider issuing a notice telling potential contractors that they were accepting bids to revamp it was included on the consent calendar. Councilmember Stacy Atkins-Salazar pulled it for discussion. She had some quibbles with allotting up to $25,000 for the project and wanted to wait until the city had completed its economic strategic plan, and said she thought Arcata’s Instagram was serving them well enough.
Stillman disagreed. With the summer and peak tourist season approaching, it’d be valuable to make the website usable as quickly as possible. “It’s not doing as much as it could do,” she said. “And it’s really important, I think, with the economy, and what’s going on, to really see if we can’t attract and promote what we have.”
The other councilmembers present thought spending the time investigating the redesign options was worth it, but spending the money wasn’t. The proposed $25,000 would have come out of a $269,000 fund the council uses for community projects, such as last year’s Friday Night Markets and the Choose Humboldt campaign. The council set aside $100,000 from that fund for supporting the completion of the economic strategic plan.
It’s not a lot of money considering the scope of the project, city manager Perry said. “Updating a website and staying on top of it for tourism and marketing is a huge effort,” he said. “$25,000 is actually a small part of that.”
Atkins-Salazar proposed that they direct the city to decide how they wanted to change the website, and then authorize spending the money when the plan was completed; the council voted 3-1 in favor of the idea. (Stillman voted “no”; Meredith Matthews was absent.)
Even if they did kick in the funds, it’s probably too late for the site to make a difference anyway, council member Sarah Schaefer said.
“If we want to be quick on this, we should have done this back in January to have a website ready by tourism season,” she said. “Even if we’d go forward on this, it’s not going to be attracting people to Oysterfest, attracting people to North Country Fair, enjoying this lovely summer weather that we have away from the heat. It’s not going to be ready by then anyway…these things take time. We know the pace of government.”
Public Safety Committee
Arcata’s public safety committee, a citizen-led body dedicated to talking about public safety issues and giving its recommendations to the city council, hasn’t met since April 2023. Save for a representative from the Arcata Police Department, it has no members. Every month, city staff put out a notice telling the public its monthly meeting has been cancelled, and the inconvenience has become too annoying — so the city council decided to debate axing it.
It was established in 2016 after a 28-year-old man assaulted a student near Arcata Elementary School, and it had some eager members for the first few years of its existence, said APD Chief Chris Ortega. But after a while, enthusiasm flagged, and people started to quit. Meetings were unable to achieve a quorum. Ortega said only two people applied for a position since it last met, despite the city’s efforts to fill them.
Killing the committee wouldn’t impact residents’ ability to share their public safety concerns, Ortega said. The committee was not a “functioning body.” City council meetings, where any resident can share their input with the city, fill pretty much the same niche, he said, and there’s “ongoing engagement” between APD, elected officials, city hall, and the community.
“[Ending the committee] does not change public safety services policies, priorities, or accountability mechanisms,” Ortega said. “It simply updates the municipal code by removing a committee that is no longer active.”
Several public commenters disagreed, saying ending the committee would reduce police oversight; Sarah Schaefer clarified that it was never a police oversight committee, though there might be a place for that in the future.
“They weren’t reviewing cases,” she said. “They weren’t reviewing police conduct. They were mostly just making recommendations on various pet projects in the community or needs that they saw or heard about from the public.”
“Oftentimes, the work of these task forces can sunset, and it loses that momentum, and loses the energy behind it because the historical memory is gone,” Schaefer continued. “I think going back to the true root, and what we want, is an important part. Right now repealing this committee makes sense.”
The council voted unanimously in favor of nixing the committee.
A previous version of this article said that the committee was established after the killing of Josiah Lawson instead of an assault on an elementary schooler. The Outpost regrets the error.
At a special meeting on March 31, 2026, the Eureka City Schools
Governing Board voted to provisionally appoint Jess Pettitt to serve as Trustee for Area 5. Pettitt
will complete the remainder of Jessica Rebholtz’s term, which runs through December 2026.
Pettitt. Profile picture via LinkedIn.
Pettitt, a longtime Eureka resident of 20 years, brings a broad background in education,
facilitation, and community-based work. A professional speaker by profession, Pettitt has
worked across K-12 and higher education settings, including teaching, curriculum development,
mediation, and supporting educators and organizations throughout the region.
The Board conducted interviews with all applicants during the special meeting, asking each
candidate to reflect on their experience, connection to Eureka City Schools, and approach to
governance. The conversation also focused on the role of a trustee as part of a governance
team - balancing accountability, maintaining clear boundaries, and making decisions that reflect
the needs of learners and the broader community.
Throughout the process, candidates were asked to speak to issues aligned with ECS’s Designing
Tomorrow framework, including equitable access for learners, transparent communication, and
the ability to navigate complex or difficult conversations with care and integrity.
Pettitt’s responses reflected a strong belief in public schools as safe spaces that build both
academic skills and a sense of belonging, emphasizing curiosity, collaboration, and community
connection. She also highlighted the importance of honest, human-centered communication
across all parts of a school system to build trust and strengthen relationships.
“As a former teacher myself, getting involved in my local community is important to me, and
what better way than serving as an appointed member on the Board of Trustees?” Pettitt asks.
“Schools are safe spaces in my neighborhood, serve as polling places, meeting spaces, and serve
my neighbors as an employer, and where their children become life-long leaders and learners.”
Superintendent Gary Storts shared, “Jess’s appointment reflects our ongoing commitment to
strong, learner-centered governance. She brings both professional expertise and a genuine
passion for public schools as places of belonging and opportunity. I look forward to partnering
with her and the Board as we continue shaping a future-ready system for all learners.”
Pettitt will be officially seated at the regular board meeting on April 9, 2026.
The provisional appointment allows the Board to continue its work without interruption while
staying focused on its goals for students and the community.
For more information about Eureka City Schools, visit this link.
