A statement from The Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce:

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Donna Wright, CEO and  President of the Greater Eureka Chamber of Commerce. Donna’s leadership at the Chamber for the past five years has been transformational for the community. Her passion for being a catalyst for business growth, a convener of leaders and a champion for a stronger community has enriched us all.

A special thank you to the first responders of Eureka, whose assistance is greatly appreciated. Our deepest sympathies are with her family and all those who loved her.

The pony-napping in progress. |  Arcata Playhouse Security footage

The Arcata Playhouse’s 16-foot mascot “Peggy,” the peg-legged, polka-dotted pony that shoots bubbles out of its butt, mysteriously went missing Sunday morning.

Peggy at Greenview Park the next morning. | Photo provided by a reader

Upon checking security footage, Arcata Playhouse co-founder David Ferney told the Outpost that a group of pranksters likely wheeled the 1,000-pound pony away on Sunday at 1:36 a.m.

“It seems like there was a group of people that stole the pony [based on the security camera] audio, but only one person showed up on the camera,” Ferney said.

After playhouse employees spread the news about the missing pony on Facebook, residents spotted the hard-to-miss mascot at Greenview Park in the Arcata Bottoms around 10 a.m. —

nearly a mile away from its Creamery District home.

No official police report was filed over the pony-napping. However, responding Arcata Police Department officers escorted Peggy back to the playhouse as workers towed her back from her early-morning adventure.

“It was so fun to see the pony arrive by police escort!” Arcata Outdoor Event Grant Coordinator Shoshanna Anthony said. “So glad she came home safe.”

Ferney said that Peggy is usually locked away behind a fence, but that the mascot was left unsecured overnight near the circus tent for convenience purposes. 

“The short answer is, it wasn’t locked up in its usual home, but now it is,” he said.

Built in 2014 by local artist Lush Newton, Peggy has since become an iconic part of Arcata and is known to show up at local events, where she dazzles crowds with bubble blowing abilities.

Southern Humboldt resident Ryan Anthony Tanner was sentenced this morning to more than 39 years in state prison for shooting a man to death and terrorizing his own neighbors during a violent rampage in February 2020.

Judge Kaleb Cockrum, in sentencing Tanner for a slew of charges including voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping and arson, indicated he thought Tanner was a poor candidate for rehabilitation. His crimes, the judge said, were acts of pure selfishness.

Tanner shot 33-year-old Jason Todd Garrett to death with an assault rifle after forcing the Fortuna man to get into a bathtub in a remote cabin owned by Tanner’s father. He also set fire to the van Garrett had been riding in and burned down his father’s cabin to hide evidence.

About 10 of Garrett’s family members and friends attended the sentencing, with Garrett’s uncle, Utah resident Glenn Taylor, reading a statement on their behalf.

Taylor said his nephew’s death has been “excruciatingly painful” for the family, particularly for Garrett’s mother and the two younger brothers who idolized him.

He recalled the phone call from Garrett’s mother — Taylor’s sister — on Feb. 17, 2020. She was so distraught she was barely comprehensible.

“She said her son Jason had been kidnapped and tortured by a man named Ryan Tanner,” Taylor said. Tanner had been arrested that day.

A couple of days later Garrett’s body was found, buried under a water tank on Tanner’s property.

Under current California law, the 34-year-old Tanner will be released when he is 60.

“Ryan Tanner is going to be allowed to prey on society,” Taylor said.

Because Garrett’s family is very religious, he said to Tanner this morning, “We will have to find forgiveness for you. But none of us will ever forget it.”

He brought up Garrett’s memorial service, when so many people spoke about what a wonderful person he was.

“How many people will say great things about you?” he asked Tanner, who sat at a table between his attorneys Russ Clanton and Zack Curtis. Tanner made no statement at the sentencing.

Deputy District Attorney Whitney Timm, the prosecutor in the case, explained why it was decided to take a plea from Tanner rather than risk going to trial, a trial that may have ended in a hung jury or even an acquittal. Chief among the potential problems was key prosecution witness Christopher Champagne, an eyewitness who told wild stories when testifying during the preliminary hearing.

Champagne provided “hallucinatory testimony,” Timm said. Also, Champagne owned a weapon of the same caliber as the one used to kill Garrett. He never disclosed that fact. And months after the killing, Champagne brought in a bloody cloth and a knife and presented it as evidence.

Timm said when Tanner is released at age 60, he should be less prone to violence. Not only does the prosecution have a duty to the victims, she said, but a duty to protect the public from people like Tanner.

As for the sentence, “Mr. Tanner deserves every day of it. He deserves much more for what he did to Jason.”

Killing Garrett was Tanner’s most heinous act during the weeks he was on a paranoid rampage. In addition to admitting the manslaughter, kidnapping, arson and weapons charges involving Garrett, Tanner also pleaded guilty to: setting fire to a van owned by Natalie Pierce, making criminal threats against Champagne, assaulting his former girlfriend Vanessa Womack with a firearm and carjacking neighbors Jeff Condos and Larry Kirk and assaulting them with a firearm.

Additionally, he pleaded guilty to the kidnap a year earlier of Devin Stebbins, who said he went to work on Tanner’s property and Tanner held him captive there by using threats and violence.

After the sentencing today, Garrett’s uncle Robert Taylor, who traveled from Nevada, said Tanner “didn’t get enough. He should never be released.”

Tanner originally was charged with murder. He had pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

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Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

Medeiros

A Rhode Island man wanted for the murder of a Kneeland woman has been arrested in Santa Cruz.

Austin Michael Medeiros, age 27, was taken into custody by the Santa Cruz Harbor Patrol on April 10, 2022, at approximately 4 p.m. for reportedly attempting to steal a boat. Medeiros was transferred into the custody of the Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD). During a search of Medeiros incident to arrest, SCPD officers reportedly located a loaded stolen firearm and approximately 29.3 grams of psychedelic mushrooms in Medeiros’ possession.

Medeiros is currently being held in the Santa Cruz County Jail on fresh charges of grand theft (PC 487(A)), carrying a loaded stolen firearm (PC 25850(C)(2)) and possession/transportation of a controlled substance (HS 11391). He is pending extradition to Humboldt County on warrant charges of murder (PC 187(A)), evading a peace officer (VC 2800.2(A)), assault (PC 240), battery (PC 242) and possession of a controlled substance (HS 11377(A)). His bail has been set at $1 million.

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

YouTube video of Thursday’s meeting, queued up to the item in question.

Though a permanent solution still eludes commissioners for the time being, at Thursday night’s meeting the Humboldt County Planning Commission made some progress on the question of which of its members should sit where.

The agenda item was brought forward by Commissioner Brian Mitchell following the fiasco of the previous meeting, in which a couple of commissioners were scrunched together too closely on the dais.

Mitchell — who visibly struggled to get his words out during the nine-minute discussion, perhaps due to strong emotion over the topic — proposed seating members according to seniority, with the commission chairperson in the middle and the two longest-serving members of the seven-member commission on his or her left and right and so on down to the edges, where the very newest members would sit.

His proposal received some pushback from Commissioner Mike Newman, who proposed, instead, that the five members of the commission directly appointed by a supervisor sit in the chairs of the supervisor that appointed them, with the two at-large appointments seated on the edges — or “wings,” in Planning Commission parlance. But Newman withdrew after the commission came to the realization that no one knew if the supervisors always sat in the same seats.

After much back and forth, with Chair Alan Bongio and Commissioner Melanie McCavour offering helpful suggestions to make sure Mitchell’s concerns were being addressed, a consensus seemed to form: The commission’s chairperson would sit in the middle, with three members on either side, and care would be taken to ensure that each member got roughly equal space.

Mitchell seemed to be ready to go along with this, but threw a last-minute curveball into the works. He would take it upon himself, he said, to draw up a formal seating chart before the commission’s next meeting, which is currently scheduled for the evening of April 21. At that point, Mitchell said, he will offer up the plan for consideration and critique of the full commission.

At the direction of Chair Bongio, Humboldt County Planning Director John Ford agreed to place the item on the next meeting’s agenda. Stay tuned.

Below: The full transcript of the discussion

TRANSCRIPT

HUMBOLDT COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION CHAIR ALAN BONGIO:

Okay, so now we’ll move on to other business — and this was agendized, I believe, by Commissioner Mitchell — to talk about the Planning Commission seating chart. So I’ll let you…

HUMBOLDT COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSIONER BRIAN MITCHELL:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s been a while since we’ve all met here, and during that time we’ve had members leave the commission, and some come on.

I don’t know the exact protocol before, but it seemed to me that when I was the newest member on the commission I was on the outside, and it sort of … funneled into the chair being in the middle and fanned out from there.

And just also the fact that your station [Ed. note: the staff’s] makes it so that there’s there’s more people crammed in this area then that side. And I just wanted to see if there’s anything we do to address either of those issues.

CHAIR BONGIO:

Okay. Do you have some thoughts on what you think might…

I … this … I’ve been here for about almost 10 years and other than when you’re at the chair, it just was wherever they seated you. I don’t think there’s ever been a official … I just went where the plaque said I was supposed to sit.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSIONER MELANIE MCCAVOUR:

I think last week was particularly bad in terms of the layout, and I think what happens is because there’s five supervisors and seven commissioners…

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

Yeah.

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

… they tend to get crammed towards that end, and I think maybe if everyone just slid down like we were forced to last time, because it was so obvious …

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

Yeah.

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

… that could help. Which would mean that our chair would be a little bit less in the middle, but I don’t think that’s an issue.

CHAIR BONGIO:

Doesn’t matter to me.

The director… We were talking about this before the meeting — maybe, director, you could give your your thoughts.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY PLANNING DIRECTOR JOHN FORD:

I don’t know that there’s a rhyme or reason for it. There’s a couple different things you could think about. I think that Commissioner Mitchell brought up the idea of the more experienced, longer-tenured planning commissioners sitting towards the middle.

There’s, perhaps, the idea of having the commissioner sit where their supervisor sits, with the at-large appointments, you know, placed in appropriate locations either at the end, or someplace else.

There’s many different ways to do it. It just really is up to the commission. I don’t know that there is anything written that gives direction on this.

CHAIR BONGIO:

Go ahead, Mike.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSIONER MIKE NEWMAN:

Well, since this is brought up, I’m, I’m … My thoughts are, put it along the lines of where the supervisors seat, and then have the two at-large on each outside wing, which would make it simple, there.

I don’t know if the supervisors have a specific placement — like, one, two, three, four, and then the alternate would be the chair, which goes in the middle — from wherever they were assigned for that policy or that term year.

So that was my thought, there. Just to make it consistent.

CHAIR BONGIO:

Okay. Go ahead, Thomas.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSIONER THOMAS MULDER:

So, I’ve never sat up here before but I used to follow these meetings a lot.

It doesn’t really make a preference to me. From my memory, when I used to come to these meetings it was kind of like Commissioner Newman mentioned, where the people sat wherever their district appointed them. They sat there, and then at-large were on the outside.

That’s just the way I remember. I didn’t take notes and pay a lot of attention to that. That’s just how I remember it.

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

So, well, from what I remember, I think I’ve always sat here. I think we were put here initially and we’ve just maintained the same spot that we were given initially.

But do you have a preference for your seat, Commissioner Mitchell?

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

Not necessarily. I just wanted to bring the topic up because we haven’t had to to do readjustments and …

You know, my recollection is, I…  When I was first appointed, and the newest person here, I was sat on the very edge, and the Chairman’s in the middle, so it made some logical sense to … to … to arrange it that way, but …

It’s not a strong preference. It was just something we hadn’t talked about and I wanted to address.

CHAIR BONGIO:

I’ll go along with whatever everybody else wants. I kind of … My place has kind of been chosen for me. So when you kick me out of here, then I’ll go to an end or something. I don’t know.

I guess from listening to the conversation, the only thing I don’t think would be fair is if the at-large people always get stuck out on the end, because they’re they’re no different than the rest of us.

So I don’t think it’s fair to always make them be out on the wing, though it’s no better or worse seat than anywhere else, to be honest.

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

So do you think it would just help if we all shifted down?

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

… and had three, Chair, three? I definitely think that would be a major Improvement.

CHAIR BONGIO:

That would work. That works for me. That work … would that work for you, Mike? Seems like it.

COMMISSIONER NEWMAN:

What do you mean by that?

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

That means Noah would sit here. [Ed. note: Commissioner Noah Levy was absent from the meeting.]

COMMISSIONER NEWMAN:

So are you talking about numbering through, with the districts? And then the outside wings being the at-large?

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

No, we’re just all shifting down a seat.

CHAIR BONGIO:

So we just would have three on each side of me.

Noah is usually right here, so… Well, Thomas is usually next to you and Peggy is down there, so… I don’t know if Peggy’s gonna go back to there, but there’ll be three on this side and there’ll be three on that side and I’ll be in the center. [Ed. note: Commissioner Peggy O’Neill was also absent.]

UNKNOWN STAFF MEMBER:

[Inaudible] … no rhyme or reason … [Inaudible]

CHAIR BONGIO:

I figured that was what happened.

COMMISSIONER NEWMAN:

All I’m saying: Consistency with, maybe, the number of districts, and that becomes the norm, and then the at-large on the outside, which is what it was before when I first came on in 2018.

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

No. It wasn’t …

CHAIR BONGIO:

I don’t think it’s ever been by …

COMMISSIONER NEWMAN:

No?

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

No.

CHAIR BONGIO:

… that we were sat where our supervisors were.

COMMISSIONER NEWMAN:

And I they think they move around too. That’s why …

CHAIR BONGIO:

I agree with that. They do.

COMMISSIONER NEWMAN:

… I have no preference. Just equal spacing, I think, is the key part as to what you were asking there, Commissioner Mitchell. Just having enough equal space instead of being crowded at one end. Yeah.

CHAIR BONGIO:

Maybe you and Thomas can arm-wrestle for who gets the end position.

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

[To Mulder] Okay. It’s all yours. [Chuckles.]

CHAIR BONGIO:

So is that good? We’ll just put three on each side.

COMMISSIONER MCCAVOUR:

Sounds good.

CHAIR BONGIO:

All right. [To Mitchell] You OK with that?

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

Yeah.

I think I’d like to draw up a draft proposal for the chart and just say “Here’s what I think makes sense,” and you guys can say “this is dumb” or “this makes sense,” and …

CHAIR BONGIO:

Okay. So do you want to bring this back, then, is what you’re saying?

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

Yeah!

CHAIR BONGIO:

Okay.

COMMISSIONER MITCHELL:

I’ll take it upon myself to put together something that makes sense.

CHAIR BONGIO:

All right. So, director, could you agendize this on next meeting again, so we can look at that?

DIRECTOR FORD:

Yes, I will.

CHAIR BONGIO:

Thank you.

Photo: Matt Filar

Your President of Positivity never let the threat of hypothermia stand in the way of her love of the children of her community. That’s why this Saturday she’ll be participating in the Discovery Museum’s annual frigid fundraiser: The Perilous Plunge. Go see your neighbors propel themselves into Humboldt Bay this Saturday at noon at the foot of F Street and support fun educational opportunities for local youth. 

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The public has just one week left to weigh in on the draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the proposed removal of the lower four Klamath River dams – the largest river restoration project in American history. 

The 990-page document, which was released by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in February, contains the evaluation of the environmental, cultural and economic impacts associated with dam removal, as well the potential consequences of a “no-action alternative.” 

Removal of the four dams on the Lower Klamath River will open 420 miles of salmon spawning habitat as well as improve water quality and reduce critical temperature conditions that cause disease in threatened salmon species. Under the “no action alternative” the Lower Klamath Project would continue to operate as it does today.

“There would be no disturbance of existing environmental conditions at the site, and there would be no new environmental protection, mitigation, or enhancement measures,” the DEIR stated. “…The no-action alternative would not address the water quality and disease issues which, when combined with the ongoing trend of increased temperatures, pose a substantial risk to the survival of one of the few remaining Chinook salmon populations in California that still sustain important commercial, recreational, and Tribal fisheries.”

FERC’s relicensing proceedings would resume under the “no-action alternative” and it would have to determine “whether and under what conditions to relicense the project,” according to the DEIS. The current licensee, PacifiCorp, decided not to seek a license for the project and, as it stands, no other entity has come forward to continue operating the project for hydropower generation.

“Until a surrender order is issued, the project features would be maintained and operated by Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) and the states [of California and Oregon],” the DEIS continued. “Ultimately, the project would have to be either relicensed or decommissioned because perpetual annual licensing is not authorized under the [Federal Power Act].”

Under the proposed action listed in the DEIS, the Lower Klamath Project would be decommissioned as proposed by PacifiCorp and the KRRC “with the inclusion of all of their proposed mitigation measures” and conditions issued by the California Water Board and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, as well as the biological opinions issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Comments on the DEIS may be submitted through April 18. Following public review, FERC will put together the final EIS and issue a permit for dam removal.

If everything goes according to plan, dam removal is slated to begin in early 2023.

The DEIS can be found here.