Eureka officials gathered at the Wharfinger building Thursday for the first of two all-day sessions. | Photo by Ryan Burns.

Eureka’s two-day “strategic visioning” workshop began this morning in the time-honored manner of workshops the world over: with an ice-breaker. City staffers, Eureka Police Chief Andy Mills, Humboldt Bay Fire Chief Bill Gillespie and all five City Council-members were asked to take a colored piece of paper from the round tables at which they sat and write their name on it, along with an adjective that starts with the same letter as their first name.

Next followed the introductions, complete with new descriptors. There was “Mellow” Miles Slattery, the city’s parks and recreation director; “Mellow” (again) Councilmember Marian Brady; “Resourceful” Rob Holmlund, the city’s community development director, and so on.

The workshop, which is being facilitated by a Minnesota company called Hue Life, is designed to produce an updated set of goals and guiding principles for the next three to five years. 

“It’s nice to have a new idea of what the current council wants to get done,” said Natalie Arroyo, Eureka’s Ward 5 representative. In November’s general election Austin Allison was elected to represent Ward 4 and Heidi Messner ran unopposed for the Ward 2 seat. 

Long-term visions already established by city leaders imagine Eureka as “a beautiful, historic and dynamic seaport city” with a “thriving regional economy” and a populace that enjoys “a livable and sustainable community” with “abundant choices for leisure time.”

A planning document created in June 2014 set a number of short-term goals, including street improvements, technology upgrades, “an attractive south entrance/gateway,” reduced homelessness (a “top priority”), an expansion of commercial port activities, diversified local businesses and yet another east-west rail link study (a “high priority”). 

The city encouraged public input for the two-day workshops, but no members of the public were present this morning. If you’d like to get your voice heard, the workshop will continue Friday at 8:30 a.m.