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• Caltrans Town Hall Does Deep Dive Into Last Chance Grade Project’s Impact to Trees; Agency Expected to Decide On Preferred Alternative This Summer

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Press release from Caltrans:

In a significant step toward securing a long-term solution at Last Chance Grade, Caltrans has selected a preferred alternative that could pave the way for constructing a tunnel along U.S. 101 in Del Norte County. 

This coastal stretch of highway south of Crescent City has long been marred by landslide activity and indefinite maintenance costs. As a vital artery connecting Del Norte County with its neighbors, any closure of U.S. 101 at Last Chance Grade has far-reaching economic and service consequences.

Caltrans has selected Alternative F, a 6,000-foot tunnel that bypasses area landslides and realigns the highway, in a move that is essential to advancing the Last Chance Grade Project efficiently. The proposed tunnel would be the longest constructed in Caltrans history.

Close collaboration with tribes, environmental groups, lawmakers, and other stakeholders resulted in a decision that maximizes long-term reliability. With construction estimated to cost around $2.1B in 2031 dollars, the tunnel avoids chronic landslides, coastal erosion, and the impacts of climate change while ensuring safety during seismic events. While the option presents challenges due to the sensitive environment and potential impacts on large-diameter, old-growth redwood trees, Caltrans is committed to delivering a successful project through partnership, community support, and collaborative mitigation efforts, exploring all avenues to stay on schedule while prioritizing quality, efficiency, and preservation. 

Alternative X, which wasn’t selected, involved re-engineering the existing route in the hopes it would be resilient among the area’s mapped landslides. 

Caltrans continues to seek all possible funding opportunities to realize this project. The project has remained on schedule and on budget and the project team is on track to finalize its environmental document by late 2025. Further design refinements would occur in the coming years. To keep on track, the project would need to fund design, support, right-of-way acquisition, and other costs by December 2025, and it would need to fund construction costs by 2029. If all goes according to plan, construction could begin as early as 2030. If that happens, the tunnel could be open as early as 2038, however, Caltrans is looking for any and all opportunities to accelerate this timeline. 

Caltrans remains appreciative to stakeholders and leaders for their support in this timely and important decision. 

A solution at Last Chance Grade has been desired for decades. The announcement of a preferred alternative follows the February release of the project’s Draft Environmental Impact Report and Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS), including a Draft Section 4(f) Evaluation. These documents were the culmination of extensive engineering and scientific studies, strengthened by far-reaching collaboration. 

“The selection of Alternative F is a testament to our commitment to providing a reliable long-term solution for Last Chance Grade,” said Caltrans District 1 Director Matt Brady. “We are grateful for the support of our community and partners, and we are confident that together, we can overcome the challenges ahead and deliver this critical project for the people of the region and the state of California.” 

“Caltrans has diligently pursued a stakeholder-guided process with tribes, community representatives, environmental groups, agencies, and business interests to arrive at the best possible option for this landslide-plagued stretch of U.S. Highway 101,” said U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman, who convened the Last Chance Grade Huffman Stakeholder Group in 2014. “These efforts have presented an option that is the safest and most reliable alternative for Last Chance Grade. I will continue to work tirelessly to ensure North Coast residents get the best project they can as we move toward funding and construction.”

“This bold alternative was chosen after much research and stakeholder involvement and will the most reliable solution in the long run,” said California Assemblymember Jim Wood. “I appreciate all the work that Caltrans and their many partners have done to move this crucial project along and I look forward to its eventual completion.” 

“After many generations of Del Norte County citizens traversing this fabled, continuously failing section of our state highway system, we have reached the conclusion to construct a tunnel with broad agreement among regional stakeholders,” said Del Norte County Supervisor Chris Howard. “Del Norte County is grateful to our community, tribal, environmental, and agency partners that have dedicated many years to finding a path forward.”

“After decades of inaction, the Last Chance Grade permanent improvement project is on the move,” said California Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire. “The decision to advance with a tunnel will finally give Del Norte the safe and secure passage on Highway 101 that the community has long deserved. Building this tunnel will be a feat in engineering that also protects the old-growth redwoods that have grown for centuries at this World Heritage Site and treats ancestral lands and cultural sites with the utmost care and sensitivity. This decision is an incredible milestone for Caltrans District 1 and represents six years of intensive collaboration and analysis. We owe huge gratitude to Del Norte neighbors for their patience along with city, county leaders, and tribal leaders, local environmental leaders, the State of California, and the federal government who have been working overtime to get this job across the finish line.”

For more information about the Last Chance Grade Project, visit lastchancegrade.com. 

Press release from Arcata Fire District:

On Wednesday, June 12 at 6:30 P.M. three engines from Arcata Fire were dispatched to a commercial structure fire at the 1500 block of Nursery Way. The first arriving engine found light smoke coming from a commercial structure. Fire personnel entered the structure and confirmed the fire was out. There was smoke throughout the structure. At that point, the fire officer in charge canceled all additional responding fire units and began ventilating the building.

A neighboring business owner reported to fire personnel that he had entered the business where the fire was and had extinguished a Lithium Ion battery that was burning.

Fire damage was limited to E-bike components and a table within the business, and light smoke damage throughout the business space.

The cause of the fire was determined to be an E-Bike battery that was left charging and had failed.

Arcata Fire would like to thank citizen Andrew Jordan of Surfside Sips for his actions which likely saved the entire building and its contents. We would also like to remind the public to make sure that their fire extinguishers are charged annually and after use. Also, use caution when charging Lithium Ion batteries, and never leave them unattended while charging.

California has 44 state symbols, including a state folk dance, dinosaur and mushroom. But Assemblymember Diane Dixon says we need another — an official state seashell.

And she says the shell of the black abalone, an endangered marine snail, is the ideal choice — to represent resilience to climate change and to honor its history with Native American tribes.

“In my legislative package, we have a lot of serious bills related to public safety and business taxation, and one of my staff members said we don’t have a state seashell,” Dixon, a Republican from Newport Beach, said in an interview Wednesday. “I’m from the coastal district with 37 miles of coastal sand on the Pacific Ocean, and I thought we should look at something that protects that vital and critical natural resource.”

No opposition has emerged to her bill. The Assembly passed it on a 72-0 vote in April; the Senate could vote as early as Thursday to send Assembly Bill 2504 to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The shell of the black abalone — unique to the shorelines of California and Northern Mexico — could become one of 15 official state shells in the United States. It has a rich history for Native American tribes in the region: The snail was a source of food for thousands of years, and tribes used the shell for trading and to make jewelry and ceremony regalia.

Last weekend, Dixon talked about her proposal at KelpFest in Laguna Beach. Before she went on stage, Adelia Sandoval and other members of the Juaneño Band of Mission Indians, Acjachemen Nation provided a blessing.

“Part of her ritual was to honor and bless the ocean and the event was smoke coming out of the abalone shell,” Dixon recalled. “They had no idea I was gonna be talking about this.”

She said her announcement was “very touching” to both herself and the Native Americans who provided the blessing.

“My staff called this — given all the seriousness of other legislation at our times with inflation and all these other issues, like homelessness — kind of a fun bill,” she said. “But it’s more than fun now. I realized last weekend it’s really meaningful to people. And I’m just honored to be able to do this.”

Another reason Dixon chose the black abalone was to make Californians aware of the environmental dangers it faces. The black abalone became an endangered species in 2009 because of threats including overfishing, disease and natural disasters.

In 1983, the spread of withering foot syndrome — a fatal disease that affects the snail’s digestive organs — killed at least 80% of black abalone in Southern California. The population also took a large hit in 2020 after the Dolan Fire in Big Sur.

“We want people to know that it is a rare and endangered object and to leave it where it is,” Dixon said.

At an Assembly committee hearing, Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley spoke alongside Dixon to present the bill. In an interview Wednesday, she said it “will help us to get more education out to the community and inform people about the types of things that threaten this species.”

Foley’s brother-in-law studies the reproductive habits of black abalone, and she said they have had many dinner table conversations about its relation to climate change.

“Scientists are studying abalone to see the ways that it adapts to be able to withstand climate change, to withstand some of these diseases that have threatened it, to withstand the warmer waters where it needs to thrive in colder waters,” she said. “So I think it can be used as a species where we can learn the adaptive techniques that it uses and how we can model those techniques in our everyday lives and in our planning.”

If chosen as the state shell, the black abalone will be permanently enshrined in the California State Capitol Museum.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

On Wednesday, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara unveiled an effort to force insurers to resume writing policies in high-fire-risk areas — part of an overall plan to address the state’s insurance crisis.

The Insurance Department proposed three different pathways for insurers to meet minimum requirements for writing policies in areas deemed “high risk” or “very high risk” by Cal Fire. Regulators said this hybrid approach takes into account the state’s complex geography as well as the different levels of risk big and small insurers can afford to assume. Lara said this should help homeowners who have lost coverage or been forced to turn to the last-resort FAIR Plan.

Insurance companies will have these options:

• Write 85% of their statewide market share in high-risk areas. The department explains it this way: “If a company writes 20 out of 100 homes statewide, it must write 17 out of 100 homes in a distressed area.”
• Achieve one-time 5% growth in the number of policies they write in high-risk areas.
• Expand their number of policies 5% by taking people out of the FAIR Plan, which has been growing exponentially.

The department also released a map that shows where wildfire risk and FAIR Plan policies are concentrated, as well as a list of counties and ZIP codes of high-risk areas, that correspond with the requirements. Regulators will update these areas at least once a year.

The proposed options aren’t technically requirements, because the state cannot legally require insurers to write either homeowner or commercial property policies. But the state expects insurers to comply because failure to do so would mean insurers would not be able to take advantage of something they’ve lobbied for long and hard: catastrophe modeling.

Lara unveiled the first part of his plan to allow for catastrophe modeling in March; this is the second part of that plan. Catastrophe modeling takes into account historical data and combines that with projected risk and losses — something insurers have been able to do in every other U.S. state but California. Once Lara’s overall plan takes effect as promised at the end of the year, insurers will be able to use catastrophe modeling.

Wednesday’s announcement made clear what the companies will have to do in return.

“Insurance companies need to commit to writing more policies and my department will need to verify those commitments and hold them accountable,” Lara told reporters this morning. When they submit rate reviews, insurers will state which of the pathways they choose. If they don’t fulfill the requirements of that pathway, “my department will use its law enforcement authority and reconsider rate reviews,” the commissioner said.

Lara’s staff said they established the requirements for minimum coverage in distressed areas after talking with different stakeholders, including insurance companies that said the requirements were achievable.

Insurance industry representatives and Consumer Watchdog said yesterday that they were still looking over the details of the Insurance Department’s draft regulations.

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CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

Donald Alan Nielsen, 84, the grandson of Swedish and Danish immigrants who settled on the Arcata Bottom in the early 1900s, passed away the first week of April following complications from a fall.

From an early age, Don worked on the farmers’ and ranchers’ fields on the Bottom weeding, mowing, and baling hay, and later worked as a night watchman at the Simpson Mill to support his family and to earn his college expenses.

Don attended the College Elementary School and Arcata High School, where he was active in debate, a delegate to Boys State, and graduated with honors in 1957. As a promising undergraduate at Humboldt State College, Don taught mathematics at College of the Redwoods and worked part-time as a sports writer on The Humboldt Standard newspaper in Eureka. At HSU, he was a staff writer on the Lumberjack and the Sempervirens annual. After completing his Bachelor of Science in math at HSU, he was awarded a graduate fellowship at Washington State University, Pullman.

Midway through his Fellowship, during a Christmas trip to Arcata, Don and his wife Jeanette and young son Randy were marooned in Arcata during the “thousand-year flood” of 1964. Unable to return to his teaching at WSU, Don completed his Master’s in mathematics at HSU, and also earned a lifetime teaching credential. After a year teaching math in Yreka, Don accepted a position to teach accelerated mathematics in the Northern Humboldt Unified High School District, which included 28 years at McKinleyville High School and five years at his alma mater, Arcata High School, retiring in 1999.

Don was a very private and modest man, but to the kids who knew him on the field and in the classroom he rocked. Don’s collection of yearbooks reflected tales of hard-won subject mastery, and stories about his exuberant teaching style spent in a classroom where the chalkboard was crowded with mathematical formulae. Students thanked him for his patience, kindness and good humor. In retirement, he was often stopped on the Plaza or elsewhere in the community by a former student who queried, “…Remember me, Mr. Nielsen?” followed by a snapshot of a special moment from high school days.

In addition to umpiring the Humboldt Crabs games, Don coached McKinleyville boys’ and girls’ basketball teams, and coached the 1988 Girls’ Softball Team to the North Coast and the Humboldt-Del Norte Championship. In 2008, Don was inducted into the McKinleyville Hall of Fame, and the honoree at its Homecoming festivities and parade.

From an early age, Don was an enthusiastic outdoorsman, having learned to fish and hunt from his dad, skills he passed along to young people during backpacking adventures into the Marble Mountains and Wilderness Alps. He was also a Master Gardener who shared his gardening skills with numerous HSU students, whose lives were enriched by learning how to produce their own food.

As a member of the Sierra Club, Friends of the Dunes, and the international travel organization Servas, Don lived the life of a conservationist and preservationist locally and abroad through travel and service. Though he did not see himself as an activist, he readily supported several efforts in the mid-‘80s to preserve his own and nearby agricultural properties on the Arcata Bottom from further development and exploitation. He was also an enthusiastic explorer with his wife of 35 years, Carol, in Italy, France, England, and in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, and the Southwest.

Predeceased by his parents Anders and Anna Carlson Nielsen, his brother Curtis, and aunt and uncle Herbert and Erminia “Snookey” Carlson, Don leaves his spouse Carol Kirkby McFarland, Arcata; son Randy (Sharmini) Nielsen, of McKinleyville; grandchildren Melynda (Joey) Blake of McKinleyville, Kyle (Lily) of Fortuna; cousins Gary (Cathy) Carlson of Simi Valley, and David (Judy Tsou) of Seattle, WA, nephew Curtis (Melissa) Nielsen of Shelton, WA; and his lifelong friend Archie (Vivian) Day. And with special thanks to the Barnwell family, whose Chalk Mountain Ranch at Bridgeville hosted years of hunting trips; and to Tim and Sherry Klassan for their Reel Steel sport fishing voyages.

Don specified no services, but thought planting a garden, a walk in the wilderness, contributing to a civic effort and supporting education were good things.

John Wesley Yagotin of Eureka passed away, with loved ones at his side, on Friday, April 19, 2024, at Eureka’s Providence St. Joseph’s Hospital, following a brief illness. He was 72.

John was first-born to Philip and Connie Yagotin of San Francisco. John enjoyed many adventures as a young boy in the Bay Area suburbs in the 1950s and ‘60s. Summer was never long enough for John as he spent his time exploring and hiking in the nearby parks and beaches, where he developed a life-long love of the outdoors. John’s appreciation of the beauty and tranquility of nature led him to call Humboldt County his home for over 40 years.

He was a man of many talents and interests, excelling in various fields and always eager to learn something new. His curiosity and passion drove him to explore different subjects, from international cooking and music, to science, religion and classic literature. John felt most at home in the great outdoors and often said that standing surrounded by the towering redwoods was to him, standing nearer to the Creator. He was a true outdoor enthusiast, and a family camping legend who brightened every adventure with his cleverness and practicality. He enjoyed playing the guitar, both acoustic and electric, and more recently began playing the ukulele. John was active and fit well in to his 70s, and took enjoyment in riding his bike across town to and from work, as the weather permitted.

Over the past 50 years John had a varied career path that spanned the newspaper industry, finance and retail. For many years, John had his own computer repair business. Most recently he was a part of the dedicated team at Eureka’s Albee & Buck Wholesale Distributors.

John is survived by his loving partner for the past 24 years, Susan Gillespie; his two children of his first marriage, son Jesse Yagotin (Elizabeth) and daughter Jill Adams (Jason); twin daughters from his second marriage, Lauren Parker (Robert) and Amy Mixer (Jason); and step-children Bryan Gillespie (Melissa), Elise Mohr (Jon Paul), and Christiane Adams (Chase). John is also survived by his sister Phyllis Branam of Oregon, and sixteen grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his mother, Constance Reno; step-father Arthur Reno; father, Philip Yagotin; and step-mother, Charlotte Yagotin.

John’s family would like to acknowledge appreciation for the care provided by Dr. Tony Anagnostou, Dr. Dusten Macdonald, and the compassionate medical and administrative team at Providence.

A celebration of life will be held at a later date, at one of the local redwood parks that were so dear to John.

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The Eureka City Council met for a special budget study session on Tuesday evening to review the proposed spending plan for the 2024-25 fiscal year, and to take a closer look at city departments and divisions funded by the General Fund. 

The City of Eureka is looking at a $1.1 million budget deficit in the upcoming fiscal year due to “relatively flat” sales tax revenues and rising employee salaries and benefits. At the council’s last meeting budget hearing on June 4, Eureka Finance Director Lane Millar reassured the council that it is not unusual for the General Fund to show a deficit, noting that sales tax goes up and down every year.

“[This] tells us that things are a little bit tighter than they were a couple of years ago,” Millar said at last night’s study session. “On the expenditure side, labor agreements, salaries and benefits are going up almost across the board … and those are hitting the department’s budgets.”

Millar went over the projected expenditures for each department and division that receives funding from the General Fund. The Eureka Police Department is projected to receive $16.9 million from the General Fund, up by about $898,000 from the current fiscal year. 

EPD is broken into two divisions: communications and enforcement. Millar noted that the growth rate for enforcement is projected to be “less than average” in the next fiscal year due to a reduction in unfunded liability payments through CalPERS. “Fortunately, we expect that to go down by about $300,000 next fiscal year,” he said. “But unfortunately, it’ll go right back up the following fiscal year.”

General Fund expenditures for Fiscal Year 2024-25. | Screenshot

The city has also earmarked $8.2 million for Humboldt Bay Fire, $7.9 million for Community Services, $3.1 million for Public Works and $1.8 million for the Community Access Project for Eureka (CAPE) and Crisis Alternative Response Eureka (CARE), the city’s homeless outreach programs. The remaining General Fund allocations are broken down in the pie chart to the right.

Millar’s presentation focused on the benefits of Measure H, a 1.25 percent sales tax approved by voters in 2020. The tax measure has boosted the city’s finances in recent years and is expected to contribute $12.5 million in the upcoming fiscal year, representing roughly 30 percent of the General Fund’s revenues.

“Measure H has significantly changed operations in a very positive way,” Millar said. “It’s made us more financially sound but I think we’re at a point where growth has slowed down, and I believe that we will plateau at this point, in terms of growing staff and operations and incorporating new services.”

Still, the tax measure has allowed the city to expand critical services, including its CAPE and CARE programs, which are partially funded by outside sources. 

Eureka City Manager Miles Slattery added that Measure H “has been huge” for the city’s parks. 

“We’ve probably increased our staffing in the parks [division] by 30 percent,” Slattery said. “Since Measure H, we’ve got a dedicated maintenance worker in Old Town [and] a dedicated maintenance worker along the Waterfront Trail. … Carson Park wouldn’t have been done without Measure H [and] Highland Park – which will be done by the end of June – wouldn’t have been done without Measure H. It’s been invaluable to our quality of life facilities and programs as well.”

Turning to questions from the city council, Councilmember Leslie Castellano asked Millar to explain why EPD’s unfunded liability payments were predicted to fluctuate in the next few years. 

“CalPERS has an investment portfolio, and every year they earn or lose a certain amount of money, but that rate isn’t applied right away,” Millar explained. “[T]here’s typically three years before that change to the portfolio hits our unfunded liability payment. You may remember that what happened during COVID was a huge market correction and then it quickly went back up. … That one year with that large return, essentially, reduced future unfunded liability payments.”

He added that the city could look into pension obligation bonds as a means to fund the unfunded portion of its pension liabilities and prevent fluctuation, but said: “Rates are still too high to consider that option.”

Councilmember G. Mario Fernandez asked if the staff was equipped to handle potential funding cuts at the state level that would affect CAPE and CARE. Millar said both programs will continue to receive grant funding “for at least another year,” but acknowledged that many of the positions within those programs are funded through state grants.

After a bit of additional discussion, the council agreed to accept the report but did not take any formal action on the item.

The city council is expected to finalize the proposed budget at its next meeting on Tuesday, June 18. That agenda can be found here.