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Hundreds of residents and visitors flooded down to First Street in Eureka’s Old Town last night to attend the third annual Christmas tree lighting celebration at the Dick Taylor Craft Chocolate factory.

“Yeah, it was definitely the biggest one so far,” co-owner Adam Dick said in a phone interview this afternoon. “This is the third time we’ve done it, and it’s been getting bigger year over year. But this felt like the biggest one for sure.”

The city had blocked off First Street between D and E, and crowds gathered shoulder-to-shoulder, sipping hot beverages and noshing various items from a pair of local food trucks as the Arcata Redwood Interfaith Gospel Choir performed:

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Over the past year, Dick Taylor owners Adam Dick and Dustin Taylor were able to widen the sidewalk in front of their chocolate factory, and it proved an ideal holiday gathering spot. Inside the factory, the pair addressed the crowd (or as many who could fit inside, anyway) ahead of a group countdown to the tree lighting.

Taylor remarked on his fond memories of attending the annual Christmas tree lighting that used to take place at the Eureka Inn, and he said that when he and Dick purchased this waterfront warehouse with such high ceilings, they realized the could revive the tradition.

Here’s the big countdown:

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Last we checked in with Dick Taylor, tariffs on imported cocoa were wreaking havoc on the industry. But speaking to us from inside the factory this afternoon, Dick said 2025 has been a strong year for the business. 

“We’re navigating most of these price hikes fairly well,” he said. “Some tariffs have been eased on Central American countries, but cocoa from Africa doesn’t fall under that. Maybe, in time, all cocoa will be exempt from tariffs.”

Dick said the holiday season is prime chocolate-selling time. 

“There’s something that must be in our mammalian brains,” he remarked. “When it’s really warm, people really don’t eat as much. But at soon as November rolls around, people just seem to start craving chocolate.”

Out on the street, tiny cups with free samples of drinking chocolate were being snatched up as fast as employees could set them on trays. Dick said the business’s workforce has allowed him and Taylor to enjoy some of the fruits of their labor.

“[Last night] was a blast for us, too,” he said. “We have such a good crew here now, a really good staff. They’re so capable. In the early days it was Dustin and I doing all the stuff. Now, with this good crew, we can socialize and talk to some of the people who’ve been buying our stuff for years.”

As he prepared another batch of chocolate for the masses, Dick said he’s happy with how the tree-lighting ceremony went down.

“It felt like a good, positive community event, which is all we could hope for.”

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Welcome to Edgewater County, a rural community in picturesque Northern California — a place where outlaws cultivate marijuana in the forested hills, Cal Fire firefighters fight forest fires and justice goes by the name of Sheriff Mickey Fox.

This, as some of our TV-watching readers have no doubt discovered, is the fictional setting of the new CBS police procedural drama Sheriff Country. It’s a spinoff of the popular series Fire Country, which debuted three years ago and also takes place in Edgewater County. As we noted at the time, the trailer for Fire Country featured a brief but unmistakable helicopter/drone shot of Rio Dell. Fun!

Alas, like the late-2000s sci-fi series Eureka and the Netflix soap Virgin River, these fictional versions of our region were filmed almost entirely in Canada. Nonetheless! When it comes to scene-setting, sometimes you need the real deal. Your cinematographer can maybe settle for, say, Milton, Ontario, or Langley, British Columbia, for your building exteriors, but when it comes to majestic aerial views, there’s no substitute for the Eel River Valley.

The trailer for Sheriff Country includes a brief, bird’s eye shot of Rio Dell and Scotia. And some eagle-eyed Ferndale residents recently spotted sky-high footage of their Victorian Village in the show’s fifth and sixth episodes. The images below are all from those two episodes. Blink and you’ll miss ‘em, so we’ve preserved them here for your leisurely enjoyment.

Attention, Eurekans! Would you like to have a meaningful impact on new developments in our fair city? Now is your chance. 

Next week, the City of Eureka will host a community town hall — Designing Density with Neighborhoods in Mind — to gauge public opinion on proposed design standards for infill housing and new developments. The city is seeking public input to ensure that the new design standards protect and maintain what we love about our neighborhoods while also supporting a wider range of new housing options. 

Staff with Eureka’s Planning and Building Department have been hard at work developing both subjective and objective design standards for infill development. The proposed regulations are still in the works, but Eureka City Councilmember Kati Moulton thought it’d be a good time to get the public involved in the process. 

“We spent all of last year talking about larger developments on public land,” Moulton said, referring to the long-blighted Jacobs Campus that was at the heart of a convoluted land swap between the Eureka City Schools District and a mysterious private developer. Long story short, the deal went up in flames, and the school district opted to sell the property to the California Highway Patrol. “Now it’s time to talk about the other side of the picture, which is smaller [developments] that are going into our neighborhoods and what folks want to see there.”

In this context, “design standards” refers to a checklist of sorts that developers and architects can refer to when drawing up plans for a new build. 

“You know, what should a building look like from the road? How far should the top story be set back so there’s as much lighting on the building around them as possible?” Moulton said. “Giving developers a checklist [explaining] this thing has to be this many inches wide, and you have to have this many textures or this number of windows per square feet of wall. That kind of stuff.”

The town hall will take place on Monday, Dec. 8, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. in Council Chambers at Eureka City Hall – 531 K Street. Want to attend remotely? Sign up here. 

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PREVIOUSLY:

• Activists Will Attempt to Persuade Eureka City Council to Add Anti-War Resolution to Future Agenda

A well-backed effort by about a dozen public commenters at last night’s Eureka City Council meeting resulted in a resolution calling for an end to military bombings on Venezuelan boats being added to the next city council meeting’s agenda on Dec. 16. 

The council also unanimously decided to send a 2017 resolution affirming its dedication to human rights to California’s elected representatives in Washington, with a letter added for context.

“All this divisiveness and hate is really boring and it’s painful and it’s hurtful and we really it doesn’t help any of us,” Mayor Kim Bergel said, a tad effusive. “It really doesn’t help any of us.”

The new resolution, written by the Humboldt Anti-War Committee, claims that Eureka has a responsibility to hold the government accountable for violating international laws, and should also support the exit of troops and arms from the Caribbean and an end to sanctions on Venezuela. A call asking for advocates to show up to the city council meeting brought in plenty of activists, many of whom said that they had a moral obligation to do anything they could to stop the extralegal killings of Venezuelan civilians. 

“Kids are struggling, classrooms are understaffed, teachers and aides are not paid nearly enough,” said one public commenter. “And our money’s going to bombs being dropped on boats in Venezuela, probably on the mainland soon. I think this is our opportunity to shovel it back in any way we can…It’s a no-brainer. I think it would mean a lot.”

Bergel said she had remembered the 2017 resolution while listening to the commenters, and thought it relevant enough to be worth sending again. She read through the whole resolution aloud. 

“In light of the current climate in our country and the negativity and hate that is being fostered,” the resolution reads. “…We will never back down on human rights, whether in healthcare, the workplace, or any other area threatened by others who treat people as objects to be demeaned or objects to be assaulted.”

Eureka’s city clerk said she wasn’t sure which government officials the resolution was being sent to. 

Besides Bergel’s comments, there was little discussion on the topic from the other councilmembers.

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Caltrans District One just posted the following to its Facebook page:

THEFT IMPACTING SLIDE RESPONSE ALONG ROUTE 36: Caltrans and our contractor have been dealing with recent theft while responding to the slide along Route 36 near Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park in Humboldt County.

Thieves have targeted an excavator, a skip loader, and changeable message signs, stealing fuel and batteries worth thousands of dollars. When crews arrive at disabled equipment, it slows our efforts to keep the highway open and drives up project costs.

We’ve also seen other vandalism in this corridor, including equipment at postmile 25 that was broken into with ignition systems destroyed, and a changeable message sign on another Route 36 project that was shot with a shotgun last year.

If you see suspicious activity around construction equipment or message signs in this area, please call 911 to report it.

Also,Photo: Caltrans District 1Photo: Caltrans District 1 a reminder that a full closure of Route 36 at this location is scheduled for this weekend, December 6 and 7, to support slide-response work. The roadway is expected to close at 8 a.m. on Saturday, December 6, and reopen at 6 p.m. on Sunday, December 7. During this time, crews are planning helicopter operations to remove hazards from the slide area, which are weather- and fog-dependent. The long detour uses Routes 299 and 3. Emergency vehicles will be accommodated through the closure if necessary.

Outside of the planned closure, one-way traffic control will continue with delays of up to 15 minutes. Please travel cautiously through the construction zone.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office needs the public’s help to locate a runaway juvenile, Shayde Evan Kelley, 16-years-old, of Salyer.  Kelley was reported missing on Sept.15, 2025 after he failed to return home from Hoopa High School.

Kelley is described as a Native American male, brown hair, brown eyes, approximately 5-foot-11 inches tall and weighing approximately 165 pounds.

Anyone who has seen or knows the whereabouts of Shayde Kelley is asked to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at 707-445-7251 and refer to case number 202504160. 

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Situated at the gateway to Redwood National and State Parks, the long-overlooked community of Orick has struggled for years to realize its potential as a tourist destination. Now, a group of Cal Poly Humboldt students is trying to change that. 

The student-led project, “Orick Rising,” aims to draw more visitors to the economically depressed town by revamping and beautifying its main street. The hope is that increasing curb appeal will encourage Highway 101 travelers to stop, explore and spend money in town.

While the project’s primary focus is increasing tourism in Orick, the students are working with locals to ensure their vision honors the unincorporated community’s “cultural identity” and improves the “overall quality of life for residents.” 

“We want them to be involved,” said Nancy Nazario, one of four recreation administration majors working on the project. “Some people are averse to change, but, hopefully, any improvements that are made are in the hands of the community. … We’re working on a time constraint — this is just a one-semester project — but, in the future, I’m hoping to come back, even to just work on small improvements.”

“We started off with the idea of just bringing some basic ideas to the community to find out what they really want,” said Mike Sanchez, another recreation administration major at Cal Poly Humboldt. “We really wanted them to identify with the ideas we came up with, so it’s more reflective of [Orick] and doesn’t feel like we’re just coming in to improve the economy.”

Last semester, the group of students put together a report, “Orick Rising: Assessing the Tourism Potential of Orick, California,” that looked into the region’s tumultuous history and current challenges, analyzing how “natural, built, cultural and economic systems shape a community’s identity, functionality and appeal for residents and visitors.”

The report outlined several short-term strategies to attract travelers, including the development of a trail along the levee and the construction of a new visitor’s kiosk and/or self-guided tour system that would share the town’s history via QR codes.

The students also floated the idea of putting together a festival-type event that would complement the Orick Rodeo but occur during the off-season. However, that idea seemed a little too ambitious for a single-semester project, Sanchez said.

The group of students presented the report at a community meeting in September, where Orick residents were encouraged to provide feedback and share their own ideas.

“Meeting participants showed support for projects by applying stickers to project boards,” said Ara Pachmayer, associate professor of tourism management at Cal Poly Humboldt. “Of the meeting attendees, many residents expressed interest in moving forward with the main street beautification proposal, and that is what the class is pursuing with the community.”

Now that they’ve got a plan in place, the students are meeting with the Orick Main Street Beautification Planning Group, a collection of local stakeholders. 

Humboldt County’s Economic Development Program Manager Peggy Murphy attended the September community meeting and said she was impressed by the students’ proposal, noting that she was “truly inspired by the professionalism, openness and grace each of them has shown throughout the process.” While the beautification project may seem like a small step in improving Orick’s economic future, “real change often begins with a catalyst.”

“Downtown and tourism-oriented investments help create a stronger sense of place,” Murphy said. “Orick sits at the gateway to the redwoods, one of the most iconic destinations in the world, yet it has historically captured only a fraction of the tourism economy passing through. Strengthening the town center and adding amenities that reflect local culture, and landscape could help Orick tap into that opportunity.”

“Also, these kinds of projects often spark broader economic development,” Murphy added. “This momentum has the potential to attract small businesses, hospitality services, eateries and recreation-based enterprises that diversify the local economy.”

Sociology major Steven Ochoa hopes the beautification project will provide the morale boost needed to encourage property owners to improve the façades of buildings along Highway 101 and, eventually, bolster infrastructure all throughout town.

“We can see that as being a little bit outside of tourism, but that infrastructure is still really important when you’re trying to invite potentially thousands of people that are going to the redwoods and aren’t stopping in Orick to now stop there,” Ochoa continued. “We don’t want to overwhelm what is there already, right?”

The students’ current focus is tracking down the grant funding needed to bring the project to life. Until then, the group will keep meeting with the planning group to set priorities and finalize beautification plans.