Vicki Kay Cooper passed away peacefully on the morning of October 16,‬ ‭2024 with her cherished daughters by her side. Our beloved mother,‬ ‭grandmother (Grammoo), great grandmother (MoMo), sister, Aunt and‬ ‭friend had just recently celebrated her 82nd birthday. Vicki was born‬ ‭September 26, 1942 in Ogden, Utah to Frank Shone and Beverly Newren.‬

Vicki met the love of her life, her eternal companion, Donald George‬ ‭Cooper at Clear Lake while water skiing. That fall, by chance they met‬ ‭again at Brigham Young University at a back to school dance. Don and‬ ‭Vicki were married when Vicki was only 19. They moved to McKinleyville in‬ ‭1961 where it became their lifelong home.‬

‭Vicki’s first passion was being a mother. Her family meant the world to her.‬ ‭She always dressed her girls in matching outfits with perfect matching‬ ‭bows and never a hair out of place. She supported them through their lives‬ ‭in all their sporting events, dance recitals, even being a cheerleading‬ ‭coach, Blue Birds leader, summer camp leader, all the summer activities at‬ ‭the lake, teaching her girls to waterski at age 3, school shopping, helping‬ ‭write our english essays, and so much more. Love, grace, elegance,‬ ‭beauty, zebra, leopard, glitter & high heels best describe Vicki.‬

‭Vicki had a passion for her career in real estate and anyone that had the‬ ‭privilege of being one of her many clients through the years knew that she‬ ‭cared for each of them. Vicki started selling real estate in the early 80’s and‬ ‭found her permanent home with Sue Forbes and Forbes & Associates until‬ ‭2006 when she retired. Each year instead of sending out “boring”‬ ‭Christmas letters to her clients, she (Cami) would deliver a gift to each of‬ ‭her many clients to their doorsteps. This was a great reminder that she‬ ‭was passionate about her job and wanted her clients to know how much‬ ‭they were appreciated.‬

‭Vicki had a talent for transforming any space into a beautiful, welcoming‬ ‭home. Vicki’s decorating skills brought joy to all her family and friends, but‬ ‭nothing compared to her enchanting displays at Christmas. She loved to‬ ‭decorate for every holiday, but Christmas at Vicki’s was a magical, winter‬‭ onderland. Noone would argue that Vicki’s house at Christmas was‬ ‭spectacular with every room (even the bathrooms) decorated with her‬ ‭beautiful Gold Santas and sparkling ornaments. There was no space‬ ‭unfilled with her life size santas and beautiful decorations. Gold, glitter,‬ ‭lace & nutcrackers filled Vicki’s home with beauty at the holidays.‬ ‭

Vicki was born and raised a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of‬ ‭Latter Day Saints, took great pride in its history and gave freely to many‬ ‭years of service with youth and adults. Vicki had a strong testimony of the‬ ‭gospel of Jesus Christ and took any opportunity she had to share it with‬ ‭you. Vicki was famous for leaving subtle messages on the back of the toilet‬ ‭seat (an open article to something that needed to be read by her kids or‬ ‭grandkids). Vicki knew that Families are Forever and she found comfort‬ ‭knowing that she would be reunited with her loved ones again. Charitable,‬ ‭giving, successful, loving and compassionate is how Vicki will be‬ ‭remembered.‬

‭Vicki loved to travel. She and Don went many places through their 49‬ ‭years of marriage. Vicki’s favorites were Hawaii and Mexico. Vicki loved‬ ‭the sun. She would sun bathe until the sun went down. She loved to have‬ ‭a tan. She would say,”my tan skin makes me feel human”. “It’s me!”‬ ‭

Vicki is survived by her greatest joys in her life, her daughters Julie Cooper,‬ ‭Joni Riojas(Hector Riojas) Cami Cooper Claros (Eddie Claros)‬ ‭Grandchildren Jaime Johnson, Kyle Cooper, Preston Johnson, Tyler‬ ‭Cooper, Kelby Cooper, Alexandra Claros Shepherd (Joseph Shepherd)Tor‬ ‭Claros and Kalyssa Claros. Great Grandkids Donovan Cooper and‬ ‭Tatyana Cooper. Her “adopted” daughter Joann Garber, Grandkids Carissia‬ ‭Andersen and Cailin Olsen. Great Grandkids Adley Pedrotti, Jianna and‬ ‭Coyer Andersen. Vicki is also survived by her brother Fred Butler.‬

Vicki is preceded in death by her husband Donald George Cooper, father‬ ‭Frank Shone, mother Beverly Jean Billings, Brother Frank Shone Butler‬ ‭and grandson Tyson Eduardo Claros.‬‭

A graveside service will be held on December 28, 2024 at Oceanview‬ ‭Cemetery for family and friends at 11 a.m. 3975 Broadway, Eureka‬ ‭Celebration from 2-5 at 2400 Mather Road, McKinleyville, CA 95519‬.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Clyde Richard Terry, Jr., a lifelong resident of Humboldt County. During the very stormy month of February in 1938, he was born in Eureka. Clyde died on October 26, 2024 at his Eureka home surrounded by his family as he wished. Clyde’s parents, Clyde Sr. and Elizabeth, joked that his birth was very expensive since the weather only permitted his dad to work three days that month: the day his mom went into labor forcing her to take a taxi to the hospital, the day Clyde Jr. was delivered, and once again a taxi ride to bring Clyde Jr. and Elizabeth home from the hospital. His father joked Clyde’s birth cost double his wages for the month.

During Clyde’s 86 years he was a beloved baby brother, uncle, husband, girls’ dad, grandfather and great grandfather. Chances are if you shopped for groceries in Eureka or Arcata between 1954 and 1995, you were waited on by Clyde, the smiling grocer with the dark curly hair. People asked for his help in stores even after he retired.

Clyde loved animals which was fortunate since he put up with caring for horses for almost 40 years so his daughters and oldest grandson could each have a horse. He lost the last mare when his youngest grandson was 2 months old so he decided to share golf with Rique and insisted on buying his great-grandson, Donny, a junior set of golf clubs so they could play miniature golf. The cost was probably the same, but the upkeep was considerably easier. Clyde liked to keep busy in his retirement. He decided to turn the horse pasture into a park which gave him an excuse to buy tractors and tools. The park allowed his beloved dogs & grand dogs a wonderful place to roam and an excellent place for his great grandson to practice baseball. Clyde loved to play golf. One day at the Muni, a doe decided to climb into the golf cart with Clyde to share his banana. Clyde enjoyed sharing his 5 acres with the deer, even if they did eat more apples than he did.

It is with great gratitude that Clyde’s family will remember him. He was fiercely proud of his children, grandchildren and great grandson. His wife was very proud of him for saving the lives of three swimmers, a mother and daughter in our local river and a young boy in a motel pool.

Clyde is survived by his wife of 64 years, Josephine McBeth Terry; his two daughters Lela Razo (Sam) and Sheila Rhodes (Rob Lane); his two grandsons Allen Terry (Rachel) and Rique Razo; his great grandson, Donny Terry; his brother Eugene Terry (Katie); and his sister-in-law Judy George (Rick); as well as many nieces and nephews and cousins. He was preceded in death by his brother, Edward (Imogene); and his sister, Laura Schlenker (Louis); his parents Clyde Sr. and Elizabeth; and his in-laws Harold and Arkisi McBeth. He lost his neighbor and good friend, Michael Griffith, shortly before he passed.

The family wishes to extend special thanks to Dr. Shahram Abbassi, Dr. Tony Anagnostou, John and Rob McBeth, Sam and Rique Razo, Allen Terry, Jacob Woody, Rob Lane, Sophia from Home Health and our plumber, Isaac Kennedy.

Clyde wanted a celebration, not sadness!

Please join us for a celebration of life open house on Sunday, December 8th at Rob and Debbie McBeth’s Barn, 1123 Freshwater Road, Eureka, from 1-4 pm.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Clyde Terry Jr.’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

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PREVIOUSLY: 

• With Only About 8,000 Humboldt County Votes Left to Tally, The Results are All the Same as They Were On Election Night — and are Now All But Certain (Except in Blue Lake)

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With just over 2,400 ballots yet to be counted from across the county, things remain pretty much unchanged since last week, when we noted that only the race for three open seats on the Blue Lake City Council remains undecided.

Challengers Michelle Lewis-Lusso remains the top vote-getter among the seven candidates, followed by John Sawatzky, whose vote count stands at 249 with this latest update. Right behind him are incumbent Mayor Adelene Jones and challenger Kat Napier, both of whom, remarkably, have received exactly 243 votes. 

Incumbent Christopher Guy Firor is theoretically within striking distance with 232 votes.

It’s impossible to say how many of the remaining 2,431 uncounted ballots were cast by Blue Lake residents. Regardless, this nail-biter will drag out for at least another week. 

Up in Arcata, Alex Stillman remains ahead of challenger Genevieve Serna — with 3,221 votes to Serna’s 2,781 — all but cementing her victory for re-election alongside fellow incumbents Stacy Atkins-Salazar and Sarah Schaefer.

The “no” vote on Measure F remains just a hair below 70 percent. That thing got pummeled. 

Click the link below for the full list of updated results.

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Here’s the press release:

The Humboldt County Elections Office has released its third post-election results update following Election Day.

The Elections Office has approximately 2,431 unprocessed ballots as of today, Friday, Nov. 22.


All valid vote-by-mail ballots will be counted regardless of the outcome or closeness of any race if they were postmarked by Tuesday, Nov. 5 and were received by Tuesday, Nov. 12.

The Humboldt County Office of Elections will continue to post the results of the Nov. 5, 2024 General Election every Friday by 5 p.m. leading up to the certification of the election prior to Tuesday, Dec. 3.

For more information on the results of the election, please visit the Elections Results webpage or call 707-445-7481.

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The Humboldt County Planning Commission on Thursday unanimously approved conditional use permits for The Hills, LLC and Shadow Light Ranch, LLC – a controversial cannabis operation located in the hills just east of Garberville  – despite objections from neighbors and some members of the public who believe the project violates state and federal law.

The commission voted 5-0 in favor of the project, with Third District Commissioner Noah Levy and Fifth District Commissioner Peggy O’Neill absent.

The project application, submitted by Garberville resident Joshua Sweet in 2016, includes 60,940 square feet of existing cannabis cultivation (50,940 square feet of outdoor and 10,000 square feet of mixed-light cultivation), a proposed 10,080 square-foot wholesale nursery to support on-site operations, a 13,472-square-foot processing facility and roughly 5,184 square feet for employee housing. 

The proposed project also includes the decommissioning and restoration of three unpermitted ponds that were at the center of a legal dispute with the California Water Boards and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). Earlier this year, Sweet agreed to pay $1.75 million – $500,000 to the Division of Water Rights, $175,000 to the North Coast Water Board, $75,000 to CDFW and another $1 million for remediation work – for “diverting water from illegal onstream reservoirs without first obtaining permits required” through the state.

At Thursday night’s meeting, Sweet reassured commissioners that the state-mandated mitigation measures “are already in play,” adding that the three ponds are “no longer there.”

Sweet | Screenshot

“We’ve been in negotiations with the water board for … eight years now [and] an enormous amount of work has gone into this,” he said. “There is some wetland restoration program that has to happen in the next two years, but other than that it is resolved. There’s a few culverts that have to go in as well, but pretty much 90 percent of it is taken care of and 100 percent of it is negotiated and done. So there’s no more need to hash out anything between the agencies and myself, I feel like we’re getting along now and things should be moving forward smoothly.”

Even so, the cannabis cultivation project has drawn criticism from some residents along Wallan Road, a primary access point to the 560-acre property, who worry about increased traffic along the narrow county road. 

“[T]he biggest concern is the use of Wallan Rd as an access,” according to a letter submitted by Agnes and David Patak. “There are places on the road where it’s beyond potholes and no matter how many times you fill them they don’t last and just become worse. It is only a one lane road and cannot handle anymore traffic. They propose to build housing which takes big trucks to deliver the supplies. THIS IS NOT A COMMERCIAL ROAD FOR COMMERCIAL USE!!!”

County staff convened a neighborhood meeting at the end of last month to discuss the project with folks living near the project site. As expected, the conversation centered around traffic impacts on Wallan Road. 

“[It] is a county-maintained road and has nothing to do with me,” Sweet said. “During that public meeting, I point-blank asked everyone ‘Do any of you know which cars are associated with my project or not?’ and not one person could say. So, basically, they were unaware of … who was doing what and when. I had already implemented the program to send heavy equipment [and] delivery trucks … around the back road, so the traffic that they’re talking about is not me. It’s an accumulation of 45 different parcels, five cannabis companies and four heavy equipment operator companies.”

During the discussion, Planning Manager Cliff Johnson acknowledged the recent appellate court ruling that determined cannabis is illegal in California “because federal law says so.” The shocking determination emerged from a lawsuit – JCCrandall LLC v. County of Santa Barbara – over the legality of transporting an illegal product on a private easement without explicit permission from the property owner.

“It’s the county’s position that that court case is not applicable to the situation in Humboldt County,” Johnson said. “[Santa Barbara] County’s land use development code requires that the county must find that the streets and highways are adequate and properly designed to carry the type and quantity of traffic generated by the proposed use. … That’s a different situation than what occurs in Humboldt County.”

All three speakers who spoke during the public comment portion of Thursday’s hearing brought up the recent state appellate court decision and asserted that the Planning Commission would be breaking the law if it approved the permit.

“You cannot approve a conditional use permit for cannabis – particularly to transport cannabis – because by approving this permit without consent [of neighboring landowners], you are forcing [them] to violate a federal law,” said one commenter, who did not identify herself. “And in that case, the court clearly says that cannabis is illegal under federal law … regardless [of] what California wants to believe. … This is the law of the land right now [in] California, and in the Supremacy Clause that’s all that counts.”

Another commenter, who did not identify himself, noted that the county’s position on the easement issue “is clearly at odds with the decision made by the appellate court” and, like the previous speaker, urged the Planning Commission to deny the project.

“It doesn’t really matter what ordinance – or any other doctrine or document  – that the county has talking about easements; it cannot trump the federal law,” he said. “If the commission chooses to thumb its nose at this decision, it’s going to be on record and it’s going to come back to bite the county later on … and I don’t think the taxpayers really want to be putting up more money to fight legal situations that could have been averted by a simple Planning Commission decision saying, ‘Hey, look, this isn’t right.’” 

Appearing via Zoom, Deputy County Counsel Joel Campbell-Blair said the county is still trying to figure out “what it all means,” given that the ruling was issued less than a month ago and is being appealed by the County of Santa Barbara. 

“When the state issues permits, it doesn’t apply to us and, therefore … it doesn’t have the force of law,” Campbell-Blair explained. “The state has not stopped issuing permits. They don’t feel like that applies to them either. We’ll kind of see where it goes … but I would just maybe warn or caution everybody not to over-apply the case. You know, when judges make law, they make law only as to the issue that was right before them, and that was [the case with] the Santa Barbara County code provision.”

Commission Chair Thomas Mulder asked about transporting cannabis on forest service roads, which are federally maintained. “I do recall that there are some projects out there we’ve approved that use forest service roads, and there’s a direct comment from the U.S. Forest Service if memory serves, that says it’s federally illegal and they don’t support it,” Mulder said. “This isn’t the first time federal illegality has been referenced in regards to accessing a project, is that correct?”

Early in the statewide permitting process, Planning and Building Director John Ford said the county adopted a policy that it would not “approv[e] the use of the road” for cannabis transport. Instead, the property owner would be responsible for “taking the risk.”

Fourth District Commissioner Jerome Qiriazi noted that the Planning Commission is “not approving [the] transport of cannabis, we’re approving production.”

At-Large Commissioner Sarah West acknowledged concerns raised during public comment but emphasized that she and other commissioners are not lawyers and, as such, rely on county counsel’s legal expertise. “They are the expert in this situation … so I will be depending on them for their legal interpretation.”

After a bit of additional discussion, First District Commissioner Iver Skavdal made a motion to approve the project and associated permits. Qiriazi offered a second but asked to amend the motion to correct a couple of small inaccuracies in the mitigated negative declaration (MND) for indigenous artifacts. Skavdal agreed and the motion was approved 5-0.

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PREVIOUSLY: 85-Year-Old Garberville Man Found Shot Dead on Bell Springs Road Yesterday; Case Still Under Investigation

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The above documentary short, directed and produced by Keely Brazil Covello and Michaela Brazil Gillies, investigates the unsolved 2021 murder of 85-year-old rancher Richard “Dick” Grayson Drewry, who was shot in the head while sitting in his vehicle on Bell Springs Road, near Island Mountain Road.

With the proximity to “Murder Mountain,” the killing naturally gave rise to speculation about the incident’s connections to the illicit marijuana industry. The people interviewed in this handsomely produced short (which was released via the website Real Clear Politics, of all places), describe various theories surrounding the unsolved case, including whether Drewry was the victim of organized crime, a personal vendetta or something else.

Like other examples of the unsolved-weed-murder(s) genre, this one deploys a bit of sensationalism. However, the case does have genuine built-in thriller elements. Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal, at one point, says Drewry’s killing “has all of the Hollywood makings of a hit,” meaning a planned execution rather than a box office success, we assume. 

“Dick Drewry’s investigation — his homicide — that case is absolutely the manifestation of what everyone is concerned about who works out in the hills,” Mendocino County Sheriff Matthew Kendall says in the film.

Eventually, after multiple sources back out of interviews, the two investigative filmmakers nervously travel to the remote New Harris General Store, where co-owner Rob Gellman tells them, on camera: “We know who killed him. The cops know who killed him. It was over water.”

Gellman declines to identify the alleged perpetrator. Nonetheless, the clues lead the duo to some suspicious Facebook posts in which a local woman appears to be implicating her own father in the crime.

A title card before the closing credits says the case remains open.

UPDATE, 8:22 a.m.: The highway is open! Shortly after this post was published, Caltrans updated its alert to say it’s only the Hookton Road offramp that’s currently closed. Proceed with caution.

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Caltrans is reporting that Hwy. 101 southbound is fully closed at the Hookton Road offramp, south of College of the Redwoods, due to emergency work.

This spot is at the bottom of the hill leading up to the Loleta offramp, and as you can see in the above LoCO file photo it is very prone to flooding. We assume that’s the nature of this emergency work.

The estimated reopening is currently listed as 11:59 p.m., though that may simply be a placeholder meaning, essentially, “We don’t know.”

The Outpost will update as new information becomes available.

Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On Nov. 2, the Humboldt County Sheriff–Coroner’s office responded to the abandoned power plant in Blue Lake for a death investigation. The Humboldt County Coroner’s Office led the investigation and conducted an autopsy on the decedent. The decedent has been identified as Jason Quinton Miller, age 50, of Blue Lake. 

The autopsy confirmed that Miller’s cause of death is electrocution with extensive thermal burns, terminal fall from heights, and chronic methamphetamine abuse. 

Miller was known to be living in an encampment in Blue Lake before his death. At the time of his death, Miller was trespassing on City of Blue Lake property and appeared to be stealing copper wire from a live power line.

Anyone with information about this case 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.

Receive HCSO news straight to your phone or email. Subscribe to news alerts at: humboldtsheriff.org/subscribe.

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PREVIOUSLY: Sheriff’s Office Investigating Apparent Electrocution Death at the Blue Lake Power Plant