A not-uncommon sight at 100 Airport Road.

One thing that we’ve all learned over the past week is that a whole lot of Humboldt’s finest is being pumped out of an otherwise nondescript warehouse complex in Rohnerville. That complex — which the Sheriff’s Office names as “McKenny Industrial Warehouses” in a press release earlier today — sits at 100 Airport Road, at the corner of Drake Hill. This isn’t the first time it’s been in the news.

Back in March 2012, a Sheriff’s Office squad pulled 1,500 plants out of one of the units. A year later — in June 2013 — a federal marijuana trafficking investigation out of Salt Lake City landed at the same facility, where another 800 plants were found. This week, a representative of the Humboldt County Drug Task Force told the media that they have been up there five times in recent months.

What is it about these warehouses? Is it the individual electric and water meters on each of the units? Is it the easy access to Rohnerville Airport? Laissez-faire oversight from management? These questions are still unanswered.

We can, however, answer one question that was repeatedly brought up by the LoCO commentariat underneath yesterday’s post. That is: Who owns the thing? Yesterday your Lost Coast Outpost communed with the records in the Humboldt County Courthouse, and we think we can now clear up this somewhat confusing matter.

McKenny Industrial Warehouses — the facility in question at 100 Airport Road — is owned by Neal McKenny, one of the three brothers who owns the McKenny Do It Best hardware stores in Arcata and Myrtletown. The matter is somewhat confused, because the business right next door to McKenny Industrial Warehouses — is called “Airport Road Storage,” and its address is variously given as 500 or 1000 Airport Road. Airport Road Storage, which has never been subject to any criminal complaints, so far as we can tell, is co-owned by McKenny’s brother and hardware store chain partner, Kevin McKenny, and Alan and Mary Bongio. Alan Bongio and Kevin McKenny are members of the Humboldt County Planning Commission.

The two facilities are somewhat similar and it would be somewhat difficult to distinguish them as separate businesses, even leaving aside the fact that they are owned by brothers. A chain-link fence separates the two storage facilities, but they sit side-by-side in an area where there are no other industrial or commercial buildings. Airport Road Storage, though, seems to be much more of a traditional ministorage facility, whereas McKenny Industrial Warehouses serves a more commercial clientele. As stated above, the warehouses each have their own electrical and water meters.

Deeds of trust in the Humboldt County Recorder’s Office show that each McKenny bought his Airport Road parcel in 2006, after they were subdivided by local businessman Travis Schneider.

To repeat: The storage facility co-owned by Humboldt County Planning Commissioners Kevin McKenny and Alan Bongio is not under investigation in any way. Operations in the facility next door, owned by Kevin McKenny’s brother Neal, is. Today’s press release from the Drug Task Force notes only that the current investigation is ongoing. Given the, uh, chronic problems at 100 Airport Road, could Neal McKenny be a subject of that investigation?

California Health and Safety Code Section 11366.5(a) states:

Any person who has under his or her management or control any building, room, space, or enclosure, either as an owner, lessee, agent, employee, or mortgagee, who knowingly rents, leases, or makes available for use, with or without compensation, the building, room, space, or enclosure for the purpose of unlawfully manufacturing, storing, or distributing any controlled substance for sale or distribution shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year, or pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 of the Penal Code.

But the key word, there, would seem to be “knowingly.” Officers would have to show that Neal McKenny has been more than a victim of the growers who keep infesting his establishment.

The Lost Coast Outpost placed a call to Neal McKenny’s office this morning. It was not immediately returned.

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