The county was hoping to have all the funding in place to acquire some timberland for recreation, conservation, and revenue behind Eureka, but there’s been a slight holdup with one of the funders.

Hank Seemann, Deputy-Director of Environmental Services for Humboldt County Public Works gave KHUM an update this afternoon about the proposed McKay tract community forest.

(00:28):

“There are three funding sources for this first phase of acquisition. The first two have already allocated their funds for a total of 2.2 million dollars and then the third source was the state wildlife conservation board for almost  4 1/2 million dollars. They have meetings every quarter, and we’d been thinking that they were gonna have their meeting to approve their funding in December, then that got pushed to February, and then we just got word in the last few days that it got pushed to May.”

Seemann said the delay was due to a technicality on the land’s appraisal, but that it was actually a relief.

(1:41):

“It shouldn’t jeopardize the likelihood of that funding being available, it’s just pushing it back. But in reality, I think it’s actually a fortunate delay…

(2:36):

“What’s a challenge is that it’s a long-term enterprise and it’s a large undertaking. So we’re still working on putting the pieces together, so this extra time is very welcome.”

Hear the KHUM interview below:

SeemannAudio

In other McKay Tract forest news, those wondering about revenue projections should pour this financial report into their eyes. According to a mass email from the Public Works department: 

Humboldt County staff continue to analyze the projected costs of developing access points and trails, improving roads, and performing the necessary functions and services (management, operations and maintenance, patrols and public safety).  Staff will develop a financial plan to support the Board of Supervisors’ decision whether or not to accept the property to own and manage as a community forest.  A project report with the financial plan will be made available to the public when it is completed and a public meeting will be scheduled.  A date for the public meeting has not been scheduled, but the most likely timeframe for the meeting is March 2014.

 

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