UPDATE 4/11 below:

When Briceland Fire Chief Tim Olsen passed away suddenly on March 20, there was an outpouring of grief from the community. His vehicle became a memorial site where flowers and mementos were displayed. On this Sunday, April 13, there will be a more formal memorial at River Walk which will reflect Olsen’s importance to Southern Humboldt and beyond.

In what started as a spontaneous gesture by the fire crew but soon grew, the community left flowers, photographs and other mementos around Briceland Fire Chief Tim Olsen’s vehicle (Photograph by Supervisor Estelle Fennell.)

A large procession of fire trucks and other vehicles will leave Garberville at 10:45 a.m. on the 13th and arrive at the River Lodge in Fortuna around noon. There a ceremony will start at 1 p.m. with guest speakers including Sheriff Mike Downey, Supervisor Estelle Fennel, the president of the Humboldt County Fire Chief’s association, members of Briceland Fire Dept., representatives from state agencies, and others. 

“Tim was well loved and highly respected in many different aspects of our government. He made a lot of headway in making sure that rural fire departments are recognized and honored for all the work they accomplish,” explained Diana Totten, a member of Briceland Fire for fourteen years and a reserved captain for Briceland Fire for the last two years. “He put Southern Humboldt on the map with a lot of different agencies. He was well known for advocating that we are one big group of fire family and for advocating that when someone calls 911, they should get the same service as someone in the city. He was an example of professionalism to people here.”

Fire crews from other communities will staff Southern Humboldt neighborhoods so that all members of local fire departments will be able to attend Olsen’s memorial service. Cal Fire, Humboldt Bay Fire District, and Fortuna Fire will be covering the area to respond quickly should there be any fire. “It’s how the fire world comes together,” Diana Totten explained. “We have a real strong bond. The bond comes from us spending hours and days responding to fires and traffic accidents. It takes a special kind of person to get up at 2 a.m. and put their fire clothes on.”

“Myself and the fire department and Tim Olsen’s family can’t say enough of what it feels like to be the recipient of something like this when we’re usually the givers,” Totten added.

Other agencies around Humboldt and beyond have donated time, money and personnel, Totten said. “They’ve done all that before we asked.  That’s what Tim was so proud of being a part of.”

Members of the community are welcome to come to the service.

Briceland Fire Press Release:

The Briceland Volunteer Fire Department and the Olsen family would like to remind the community that the memorial for Briceland Fire Chief Tim Olsen is to be held on Sunday, April 13th, at 1 pm at the River Lodge in Fortuna.  A procession of fire and emergency vehicles will be leaving Garberville Cal-Trans at 10:45 am.

The procession will be traveling north on Redwood Drive through Redway to the Dean Creek Highway 101 on ramp and will then proceed north to Fortuna. 

To view the procession at the River Lodge, please plan on arriving no later than noon. The ceremony will be starting promptly at 1:00 pm.

Here’s the latest post in our “Be On the Lookout” series, where we highlight stolen items and ask you, our readers, to help your neighbors by passing on any helpful information to the appropriate law enforcement agency.

Last night, a blue Surly Pacer bicycle was stolen from near Greenview Market in Arcata. The serial number is M11093120. The bike had fenders and a rack.

Please contact the Arcata police at 822-2428 or 822-2424 if you have any information about its whereabouts.

Previous BOLO:

Have you ever noticed those little holes in the brick wall by Oberon on 2nd Street? [Who knows why they are there?] A. Nelson, who doesn’t wish to be known by her full name, was walking by the wall with her 13-year-old son earlier today. Her son noticed what Nelson calls “a communal pot dispensary.”

Honestly, we didn’t see this one coming.

Congratulations to the beautiful Humboldt Coastal Nature Center — do inanimate buildings care when you praise them? do they feel? — for winning this week’s Humboldt Approved. Formerly known as the Stamps House — since it was the retirement home of Charles and Rachel Stamps — the building was purchased by Friends of the Dunes in 2007. (More history can be absorbed here.)

Our knee-jerk guess for which local structure would take home this distinction was the Carson Mansion. But while LoCO‘s ever-positive comment host DISQUS no longer lists how many downvotes a comment receives (we’re bummed too, btw) it seems there was some backlash against the home of The Ingomar Club — note that even with its 62 votes, it falls beneath the Humboldt County Library’s 36 votes, an indicator that there’s some hate going on. Is it the exclusivity, people?

No matter. The HCNC wins this outright. Dune good.

PREVIOUSLY: All Past Humboldt Approved Winners

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Well, we hope you all enjoyed the super romantic dates you went on with the intel gleaned from last week’s Humboldt Approved. For this week’s dumb, small town popularity contest we want to know more about your taste in human-made structures. 

So what is Humboldt’s “best” building? See, this is one of the weeks when we’re hoping that the vagueness of the question will elicit creative responses. Like, what makes a building “the best”? That’s what we’re hoping you’ll figure out for us. Is it how the building looks? How functional it is? The activities that occur inside its walls? The fact that you got drunk there one time and that great thing happened? This is your “best,” friend.

Below is your weekly reminder on how to not waste your vote (some people will never not. We get it): 

To vote, look through the comments of this Humboldt Approved poll. If someone has already nominated the answer you would give for this week’s category, click the upvote arrow. If you don’t see your desired Humboldt Approved answer nominate it in a comment for others to upvote. (Please be careful to not duplicate answers; redundant answers will be deleted and potential associated upvotes will be lost.) Feel free to make your case by replying to/cheering on the answer you love most, but again the number by the arrows on the initial nomination is what counts.

You can vote for as many nominees as you deem worthy but, of course, the more you do that the more watered down your initial vote becomes. That’s math.

We reserve the right to delete superfluous/lame comments that make the voting/comment section hard to sift through. Please try not to get offended when your comment battle reply is deleted. We’re trying to do something here.

While many weeks we look for two winners — one winner from the metropolises of Eureka and Arcata, and one from Humboldt’s smaller communities — due to the nature of this category, this time we’re gonna limit it to one. Voting closes next Friday at noon and soon after a winner will be declared.

Now tell us your fav building, HumCo.

Those are blueprints, if that’s not clear.

April Parrott of Eureka got a sweet Specialized bike for her birthday 13 years ago to the day.

Late last night or early this morning, she got a not-so-special birthday unpresent, after bike thieves ripped her ride from the front of her house on G Street near Henderson Center.

Have you seen this bike around town today? It’s a navy blue and gray Specialized Cruiser Hybrid, and April would like it back if that is at all possible. If you have any information, call the Eureka Police Department at (707) 441-4060 and reference case number #3C-143059. If you’re outside of Eureka but spot the bike, contact your local law enforcement agency.

A person with a place on Highway 36 sends along an interesting letter he recently received via snail mail. Titled “MMJ Dispensary Looking for Grow Partners,” some entity calling itself “Blue Wave Cultivators” asks the recipient to get in on the ground floor of an exciting new business opportunity — selling weed to an unspecified dispensary.

“From the looks of the it they took the addresses off of the county’s property records and sent a lot of people that owns property out the 36 one of these,” our informant writes.

There’s a lot to be skeptical about, here. First of all, this “Blue Wave Cultivators, LLC” seems to have absolutely zero Google profile, and it is not listed in the California Secretary of State’s online database of state business agencies. For another: Hey, this is a buyer’s market, isn’t it? You gotta work this hard to find weed?

We left a voicemail with “Bryan Maupin” of “Blue Wave Cultivators” this morning at the Fresno-area number listed below. No calls back yet. We’ll let you know.

Letter from “Blue Wave Cultivators” follows, or get a PDF of it at this link:

MMJ Dispensary Looking for Grow Partners

Blue Wave Cultivators, LLC is looking for a few more grow partners to help supplement our growing demand for MMJ product. We are legal, legit, and conduct good business. We are looking for established growers who need additional avenues to sell product in a safe, legal and secure way. Indoor, greenhouse, outdoor and trim product welcome.

What we do for you;

• One Point of contact— You will only have to work with one person.
• Payment Upfront—We NEVER ask for credit or to front product, Payment upon pickup.
• We come to you—You don’t have to worry about transportation.
• We pay fair market pricing—We are not looking to lowball growers on their hard work.

Number of grow partners is limited so if interested please contact us right away.

$500 REFERRAL FEE—if you do not grow MMJ or have no interest in growing but know others that do feel free to pass this letter onto them. If a business arrangement is made between Blue Wave Cultivation and the referred party a $500 check will be immediately issued to you—Guaranteed!

E-mail is best. Send a brief description of your products (indoor, greenhouse, outdoor, trim grade A, B or C), a couple pictures and your target pricing. We will reply back to you within 24 hours or less. From there we can schedule a phone meeting and see if we are a good fit for you.

Thank you for your consideration,

Bryan Maupin
VP of Operations
Blue Wave Cultivators, LLC
Phone: (559) 725-1759
Email: bluewavecult@gmail.com

Disclaimer

Blue Wave Cultivation is NOT affiliated with any local or federal law enforcement agencies. This is a legitimate offer from a legitimate company looking for extra grow partners. This letter is mailed randomly. Your name and address was obtained from a public records search. 

Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office press release:

On 04-04-14, at approximately 4:30 p.m., the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office was notified by an absentee landowner that someone had caused environmental damage to the owners property off of Highway 36 near milepost 26.03. The owner reported someone had cut down trees, dug out a pond with heavy equipment and marijuana was growing on the property. The growing marijuana was starter plants, which the owner destroyed.

The property owner also told the Sheriff’s Office Dispatcher he was notified by the Bridgeville Volunteer Fire Department that they responded to a structure fire on the owner’s 180 acre parcel of property on 04-03-2014, at approximately 4:00 a.m. The three story unoccupied cabin on the property was destroyed by the fire and burnt to the ground. The property owner was responding to the property to evaluate damage to the property and cabin. The owner was requesting a deputy meet him on the property.

On 04-05-2014, at approximately 9:30 a.m. deputies met with the landowner on the property. When deputies met with the landowner he showed deputies the remains of the burned down cabin and told them that just prior to the their arrival, he noticed what may be burnt human remains in the debris. The property owner told detectives no one was supposed to be living in the cabin or on the property.

Deputies examined the possible human remains and called for Sheriff’s Detectives, California Department of Justice, the Humboldt County Arson Task Force and the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office to respond.

After detectives arrived on scene, they met with property owner who gave the detectives and deputies written consent to search the property which they did. Cal Fire Investigators responded to assist with the fire investigation and environmental damage to the property. Cal Fish and Wildlife responded to assist with the environmental damage investigation. The Coroner confirmed the burnt remains were human. A Humboldt State University Anthropology Professor, who used to be a Humboldt County Deputy Coroner, and three of her students were summoned to the scene to assist with the death investigation due to human body being destroyed by the fire.

At this time it is unknown whether the body is male or female. The identity and cause of death are being investigated by the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office.

Anyone with information for the Sheriffs Office regarding this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Sheriffs Office at 707-445-7251 or the Sheriffs Office Crime Tip line at 707-268-2539.