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Well, Election Day isn’t the same since the pandemic and the state’s adoption of universal vote-by-mail. Election Day is just the culmination of Election Month. It’s less like grabbing hold of a 10,000-kilowatt transmission line and more like licking a 9-volt battery.

Still, the old rituals must be observed! And for many, that means procrastinating and procrastinating until today, when you gotta vote by 8 p.m. or forever hold your peace. And a lot of people are doing that, it seems. As of this morning, only about 16,000 ballots have been returned, according to county elections officials.

How do you vote? Remember that ballot you got in the mail? Fill it out, seal it in the envelope, sign it and drop it off at any of the county’s convenient drop boxes … or just pop it in the mail (as long as you’re sure it will be postmarked today.) Or maybe you want to vote at your polling place, like in the old days? There aren’t as many polling places as there were in the before times, but you can do that anyway. Your polling place should be listed on your sample ballot. If you don’t know it, you can show up at the nearest one – here’s a list – and they will help you. REMEMBER: If you go to your polling place, bring the vote-by-mail ballot that was mailed to you, if at all possible. That will save a lot of headache.

California also has same-day registration, if you are eligible to vote and for some reason not yet registered. They’re gonna be busy as hell today, but the good people at the Humboldt County Elections Office will help you with this or any other problem. They’re at 2426 Sixth Street in Eureka, and their number is (707) 445-7481.

Want to know where the candidates for local office stand on the issues? Peruse our LoCO Elections pop-up site, where those candidates have been busy taking questions from readers on all sorts of topics. Confused about who to vote for in the statewide races? Our friends at CalMatters have a cool guide that might help.

And when all is said and done, check back here on the Outpost this evening! We’ll be hitting up campaign parties just like in the pre-COVID days, and we’ll post the returns as soon as the Elections Office publishes them.

Happy Election Day, everyone!

From the Arcata Police Department:

On Friday, June 3, 2022, at approximately 2:03 am, Arcata Police Officers were dispatched to a shooting in the area of 5200 Carlson Park Drive in Valley West.  The adult male victim reported being shot at by an adult male named “Josh.”  Upon further investigation APD Officers learned there was a verbal dispute over suspected stolen property between the victim and 31 year old Joshua Lee Harris.  The dispute escalated to where Harris shot a handgun at the victim, missing him.  There were no reported injuries.

During the investigation Officers developed probable cause to arrest Harris in public.  On Monday, June 6, 2022, at approximately 12:58 pm, APD Detective Sergeant Chris Ortega was conducting surveillance in the Valley West area and located Harris walking near Giuntoli Lane and Valley East Boulevard.  Detective Sergeant Ortega arrested Harris.  Harris was in possession of a loaded handgun at the time of his arrest.  It is suspected, but has not yet been confirmed, that this handgun is the same one used during the commission of the crime. 

Harris was booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for multiple charges including assault with a deadly weapon, felon in possession of a handgun, possession of a loaded handgun, felony warrant for possession of stolen property and narcotics related charges.  This investigation is on-going.  Anyone with information is asked to call APD Investigations at (707) 822-2424.

Danny George Heavilin passed away at the age of 81 on April 22, 2022 under the care of Hospice and the staff at Seaview Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, Eureka. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Patricia Heavilin, five children, Shannon, Justin, Raymond, Carla, and Rachel, brother Jack Heavilin, sister Dolores Freiberg, and numerable grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. Danny was born in Lakeview, Oregon in 1940 to parents Oral (Slim) and Mary, lifetime cattle ranchers of Eastern Oregon.

Danny left the ranch in Fort Rock, Oregon, and enlisted in the Navy. Drawn by the allure of hazard pay he sought a position on a submarine, but he was instead posted to the destroyer USS Wilhoite (DE-397). Serving in Operation Deep Freeze meant extended deployments in dangerous ocean and for this he received a medal for hazardous duty. As a radarman sailing through Antarctic icebergs, Danny managed to get all the hazard without the hazard pay.

But it was back at the port in Dunedin, New Zealand that he first met Patricia Graham. As was the custom in Dunedin, when a navy ship docked families would take a sailor home for a hot meal and to Sunday service in the morning. This introduced Danny to Kiwi hospitality, and to Patrica. After another, seemingly unlikely chance meeting some months later in Sydney, Australia, Danny was sold. Discharged from the service, he returned to Oregon and posted an engagement ring to Patricia asking for her hand in marriage. She consented in a letter (that Danny kept until the very end). Danny flew back to New Zealand and they married in Dunedin in 1963. Danny and Patricia honeymooned on the SS Oriana, stopping at Suva, Hawaii, Vancouver and finally San Francisco, where he bought two bus tickets to the ranch in Eastern Oregon and they stayed in San Francisco until their money was gone.

Danny worked before marriage as a fire spotter for the Forest Service; living high up in an observation tower along with his companion, Zeek, a small black border collie. To teach Zeek how to retrieve birds, Danny swam into freezing lakes to retrieve ducks with his own nose. Danny led by example, and he would joke about potty training Zeek from the balcony of his lookout 30 feet in the air.

After returning to Oregon with Pat, Danny simultaneously worked for the Forest Service, started their family, and earned his bachelor’s degree at Humboldt State University; the first Heavilin to attend college. He began working in fire research, then became involved in timber research, working for some years and publishing a number of highly reference publications. Later he was promoted to Silviculturist Supervisor for the Six Rivers National Forest. At the height of political turmoil surrounding spotted owls, 2-4D, illegal pot farms, and clear cutting, Danny somehow managed to reconcile his conservative cowboy roots within one of the final bastions of hippiedom that was Arcata in the 1970’s.

Even during those contentious years, people from all over enjoyed his company. Danny’s household was a haven for all, and dinners regularly lasted hours. As his family grew, his dinner table grew too. He built an enormous dining table from two inch thick solid oak, over eight feet long and four feet wide. The benches were packed shoulder to shoulder with hungry college students, neighborhood kids, foreign exchange students, and priests. Eventually, family became the recipients of many of the fine pieces of furniture he made.

One of Danny’s favorite events was an annual St. Mary’s Elementary School talent show, where Danny along with some close friends would don women’s evening dresses and parade on the catwalk in a mock fashion show. Prior to one such event, Danny was exhibiting his racy little black dress for a neighbor, when an officer cruised by on patrol. All six feet and three inches of Danny high-heeled it back home before the cop could circle around and come back to question him. He and other fathers of St. Mary’s School children delighted all over the years with ballet in work boots, discordant orchestra performances etc.

Once on a Lampoon styled camper van family vacation through New Zealand, during which one child was left behind by mistake in Christchurch, (and then again the same child disappeared from a 747 just prior to take-off), Danny nicked a shop’s awning with the overhead of the camper van. Pleasantries with the store owner were exchanged and the man assured Danny that he was intending to remodel anyway. Danny offered to help by backing up and hit it again.

Danny was an eminently practical and uncomplicated man. When one of his sons suggested he was going on a meditation retreat, Danny simply said, “Why are you gonna go there to just sit on your butt for 10 days?” But with that said, one of his greatest accomplishments was his evolution from a provincial, conservative Eastern Oregon up-bringing to an educated, well traveled, happy human being: from his engagement with hippies, liberals and all in his beloved Arcata community and the acceptance of his children’s choice of professions (becoming teachers and such) to quite literally becoming a latte-drinking Volvo-driver. He simply loved people and was just as likely to razz one for long hair as he was to give a stranger $20 for a hot meal.

Danny’s favorite piece of music was Smetana’s “The Moldau”, he cried reading Never Cry Wolf, liked to collect beach glass on long walks with his dogs, traveled overseas often but above all was extremely proud of his children, and loved spending time with his grandchildren.

Lying in bed at Seaview, he insisted he was “just relaxin’, and when visitors dropped by he would still greet them with his favorite greeting to all “You’re looking good for a kid!”

Danny lived a rich and full life, inspiring countless people, and left the world better than he found it. He is deeply missed by many family and friends. Internment at St Mary’s cemetery, date to be determined.

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Charles Eugene Davy
Dec. 27, 1943 - May 31, 2022

Rancher and retired AFA certified farrier Charles Eugene Davy parted ways with his loved ones to join the love of his life in heaven on May 31 2022. His wife, Julie Mae Davy, and he shared humor, generosity, and love as they both battled cancer. They fought courageously together for many years.

Charles was born December 27, 1943 at Scotia Hospital. He was the second of four siblings born to Charles and Lois Davy. He spent his first years of life in Shively before moving to a dairy farm in Ferndale. The family parted ways with their dairy farm and moved to Grizzly Bluff where they raised beef cattle. Charles attended and graduated from Fortuna High School in 1962. He experienced and persevered through the ‘64 flood. After graduation he decided to pursue a major in agriculture at Fresno State. He returned to Humboldt and worked at Eureka Office Supplies while doing farrier work in the evenings.

While working at Eureka Office Supplies he met his first wife, Ruth Linton, and had their two children, Karmen and Jennifer. Charles shared a love for horses and agriculture with his daughters. As a jack-of-all trades, he could fix or build anything and he dedicated countless hours to his hobbies. He roped, participated in sheep dog trials, dabbled in woodworking and photography, bronc riding, fishing, hunting, and raising suffolk sheep and black angus cattle. He was recognized in Boone and Crockett records of North American big game. He trained multiple horses and was a marksman shooter in the National Guard. He also loved tinkering on his tractor. He both loved and hated that darn thing, but it had a very important purpose, as he used it to keep Esther Lane’s road maintained so the mail truck could deliver to his neighbors. Charles was also well known for being one of Humboldt’s oldest and most loved farriers.

In 2002, Charles married his soulmate Julie Mae Lane. Together they took on the world, making many memories along the way. They shared horse trail adventures, traveling, lots of fun-filled family activities such as barbecues and apple squeezes, and raised many critters on their mini farm. Together they traveled to Vermont, Maine, Hawaii, and explored the ancient ruins in Mesa Verde and Colorado. They also shared a calling to their church.

Charles was a soft spoken, kind, and generous man who made people feel grateful for the time they got to spend with him. He had a great sense of humor and loved making people laugh. Charles never lost his humor or work ethic despite the many health obstacles thrown at him. He was always helpful and useful, even as recently as two weeks ago, when he helped his daughter and granddaughter care for their goats where more than one laugh was shared amongst everyone. Charles always made everyone feel welcome and he will be missed by all who knew him.

Charles is preceded in death by parents, Charles and Lois Davy, wife Julie Davy, and sister Judy Bolsted. He is survived by his children Karmen Davy, Jennifer Davy, children he gained through marriage Sarah and Tyler Sumner, Mary McLean who was like a daughter to him, grandchildren Kelsey Davy, Jaycie Davy, Britnee Davy, Hannah Underhill, Hayden Underhill, and, 6 soon to be 7, great-grandchildren that brought him absolute joy, his brothers George Davy, Bob Davy, his nephews, and niece Bob Davy Jr., Annette Vandehouf, Kyler Davy, Josh Davy, and Adam Davy and their children. He also leaves behind his horse Bob, his dog Sam, and numerous chickens.

A funeral service is scheduled for noon, July 9, at Saint Albans Church in Arcata. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in Charles’ name to Saint Albans Church at 1675 Chester Ave, Arcata, CA 95521.

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Cheryl Ann Pries gained her angel wings on May 25, 2022 at the age of 66. You could say that Cheryl lost her battle with cancer, but the truth is she fought with every breathe until she took her last. There is no loss when you never gave up the fight. Cancer doesn’t win. It takes. Always too soon.

Cheryl was born on October 16, 1955 in Scotia. She met the love of her life, Larry Pries, in the late ‘70s and they were married on July 6, 1983. They enjoyed hunting trips, days, nights, and weekends at the races, but most importantly just being together. Their love and bond were unmatched. We find peace knowing they are together again and together forever.

Cheryl loved her family and her friends. She wasn’t one to ask for much, but she was always the first to offer help. She found joy in giving and being there for her family and friends. She lived a beautiful life. She loved watching her grandkids and great grandkids grow up. You could always find her at a game, recital, or event cheering them on! They were her world.

Cheryl was a talented quilter and enjoyed trips with her girlfriends. She had a passion for animals, domesticated or not. In essence she had a passion for life and all it entailed.

Cheryl will be missed dearly by her community, her family, and her friends. Her memories will live with us all forever. When you think of her please remember all of the times when she was happy, healthy, and full of life. Those are the memories she would want you to hold closest to your hearts. And please, as hard as it is to do, find it in your heart to understand that she is no longer in pain, no longer fighting, and is now resting at peace.

Cheryl is survived by her brothers Tim and Michael, her grandchildren Kelly (Kaitlyn), Cari (Jimmy), Crystal, and Tony, her great grandchildren Arisela, Reece, Piper, Harper, Gunner, Palmer, Emily, Tyler, Jonathan, Joshua, and Ezekiel, and her many friends who were like family. Cheryl is proceeded in death by her loving husband, Larry Pries, her parents Richard and Harriet, and her sister Bonnie.

A closed casket viewing will be held at Gobles Fortuna Mortuary at 9 a.m. followed by a graveside service at Sunset Memorial Park beginning at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday June 8, 2022.

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On Thursday the Outpost reported that, contrary to some celebratory pronouncements at Sen. Mike McGuire’s “Stop the Toxic Train” town hall the previous night, the effort to ship coal out of Humboldt Bay is not dead.

That’s because, earlier that day, the North Coast Railroad Company LLC (NCRCo), a shadowy corporate entity, had filed paperwork with the Surface Transportation Board indicating that it still planned to file an Offer of Financial Assistance in hopes of purchasing the long-defunct stretch of rail line between Willits and Eureka, plus a few branch lines along the way.

The company had missed the Surface Transportation Board’s May 31 filing deadline by a day, a mishap it attributed to “unforeseen vacation travel delays and related issues,” but the filing urged the Board to overlook that fact. 

While the credibility of this coal train proposal has been in question since it first reared its sooty head, the effort nevertheless jeopardizes the prospects for the Great Redwood Trail, a state-led initiative to railbank the 320-mile rail line between the Bay Area and Humboldt County for conversion to a “world-class, multi-use rail-to-trail project” along the state-owned right-of-way. 

Cut to today, when attorneys for the Great Redwood Trail Agency, the state agency in charge of managing that right-of-way, effectively called “bullshit” on this coal choo-choo scheme in a filing that points to some dubious details in NCRCo’s overture and asks the Surface Transportation Board to reject it.

For one thing, agency attorney Charles Montange notes, the company did miss the clearly specified filing deadline, and its excuse — that its two attorneys experienced simultaneous vacation mixups — sounds a bit suspicious.

“It is hard to believe they both experienced travel delays at the same time,” Montange writes. “They simply failed to prepare their filing in a timely fashion.” He goes on to call this an “inexcusable lack of preparation.”

More amusingly, fellow Great Redwood Trail Agency attorney Elizabeth Coleman managed to get a look at some financial data that had been inadequately redacted from NCRCo’s latest filing, and the numbers hiding behind the blacked out-page aren’t quite what you’d expect from a company that claimed earlier in the process to be “capitalized to the tune of $1.2 billion.”

In a sworn declaration, Coleman says she was examining a document from NCRCo — one that purports to be a bank statement from Self-Help Credit Union in Greensboro, N.C. — and noticed that when she copied-and-pasted the text from the Adobe PDF format to a Micosoft Word format, transaction information from the bank statement was suddenly visible. 

What did the statement show? A list of transactions to and from a man named Jason Justin Wight, whom we interviewed last September. He’s a self-described “independent consultant” who to date has been the only quasi-public face of NCRCo. The statement also included transactions from a company called TerraNova Strategies LLC, for which Wight is the senior partner.

More telling than the names, though, were the numbers. Montange notes that there’s an account labeled “Money Market” that shows beginning and ending balances in the $15.7 million range. That’s a lot of money in most contexts, but it’s well below “the tune” of $1.2 billion that the company was claiming to have on hand last year.

Montange drily observes that NCRCo “appears to have lost over 98% of its capitalization claimed last August … .”

And there’s reason to doubt the veracity of even that figure. Coleman’s declaration notes that the bank statement, which includes only one page, labeled “Page 1 of 3,” reports the account balances for the period of March 31 through April 21. The starting balance is mere $1,471.65 and the ending balance is $2,025.96.

Montange, for one, is skeptical.

“Aside from some sort of inadvertent mix-up or fraud, there are no ready explanations for how an account claiming to contain over $15,700,000 on the same page also represents its contents as only $1,471.61 for the same date,” he writes.

Montange lists a few other reasons why the Surface Transportation Board should reject the coal company’s takeover bid. Meanwhile, three other Offers of Financial Assistance have been made, and while they describe less-ambitious proposals for much shorter segments of the right-of-way, they, too, could threatening the future of both the Great Redwood Trail and the Bay Trail between Arcata and Eureka.

The job of examining the merits and credibility of those proposals lies entirely with the Surface Transportation Board.

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PREVIOUSLY:

• Aiming to Ship Coal Out of Humboldt Bay, Shadowy Corporation Makes Bid to Take Over NCRA Line
• Sen. Mike McGuire Introduces Legislation Meant to Derail Proposed Humboldt Bay Coal Train Route
• Consultant in NCRA Rail Takeover Bid Says Project Has Been Misrepresented, But Document Reveals Coal Connections and Wiyot Tribe Involvement
• ‘Coal Does Not Align With Our Values’: Wiyot Tribe Executives Say Proposals Did Not Specify Cargo, Council Would Not Support Project
• Huffman, Thompson Pen Letter to Buttigieg Opposing Federal Loans for ‘Disastrous’ Coal Train Project
• Surface Transportation Board Ruling Issues Serious Blow to Annie and Mary Trail Efforts, Opens Door for Coal Train Interests to Make Their Case to Scuttle Great Redwood Rail-to-Trail
• COAL TRAIN NOT DEAD: Shadowy Corporation Files its Paperwork After the Deadline Due to ‘Vacation Travel Delays,’ Hopes Federal Surface Transportation Board Will Give it a Pass

Press release from the California Highway Patrol:

On May 24, 2022, at approximately 1510 hours, the CHP Trinity River Area was advised of a vehicle vs. motorcycle crash on SR - 299 in front of the Salyer Store in unincorporated Trinity County. CHP Willow Creek units were the first to arrive on scene and discovered the driver of the Toyota had fled the scene. The motorcycle rider was transported to a hospital in Humboldt County for suspected major injuries.

Upon further investigation it was determined that Mark Raymond Sneesby, was the driver of the 1987 Toyota who then fled the scene of the collision. An arrest warrant has been issued for Sneesby on June 2, 2022 for Felony Hit and Run.

Sneesby is a white male, 6’-2”, 205 lbs. with brown hair and eyes. Sneesby may be in the Salyer or Willow Creek areas. Anyone with information as to his whereabouts is encouraged to call CHP dispatch at ( 530 ) 242-3210.