PREVIOUSLY:

• (UPDATED with Photos) 41-Year-Old Fortuna Woman Arrested for Threatening to Kill Government Officials, Says Fortuna Police

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This afternoon, Humboldt County Superior Court Commissioner Frances K. Greenleaf granted the County of Humboldt an extension on a temporary restraining order against Fortuna resident Aunna Bollman, 41, who was arrested earlier this month for threatening to kill numerous local government officials and their families. There are 55 individuals requesting protection under the restraining order.

Bollmann

During today’s hearing, the court considered a restraining order request from Deputy County Counsel Thomas Chapin on behalf of the County of Humboldt but, because Bollman has yet to obtain an attorney, Commissioner Greenleaf agreed to issue a short continuance on the matter.

Bollman appeared in court, seeming composed and dressed in a navy blue jumpsuit with her blond hair swept up in a ponytail. She explained that she had not had a chance to talk to an attorney since she was arrested on Aug. 3, noting that the Fortuna Police Department has taken her phone at the time of her arrest. 

Several Humboldt County officials appeared in court as well – including Human Resources Director Zachary O’Hanen, Clerk-Recorder and Registrar of Voters Juan Pablo Cervantes, Deputy County Counsel Goldy Berger and Fourth District Supervisor Natalie Arroyo, who was accompanied by her husband, Jason Lopiccolo. None of them spoke during today’s hearing.

Bollmann is scheduled to appear in court on Friday, Sept. 15 for the next hearing on this restraining order. A criminal hearing against Bollman has yet to be scheduled.

PREVIOUSLY:

• Humboldt OES: Fernbridge Closed Again For Damage Assessment Following This Morning’s 5.4 Shaker
• The Future of Quake-Damaged Fernbridge is Uncertain; New Bridge May Need to Be Built, Caltrans Says
• CROSSING THE WATER: Getting Over the Eel to Ferndale, Before and After the Bridge

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The following info was released Friday by the California Department of Transportation:

Please join Caltrans for another public workshop regarding future access in and out of Ferndale. The workshop will be held on Wednesday, August 30 at Ferndale City Hall from 5:30 to 7 p.m. More information about future Ferndale access can be found here.

Time for a Deeper Dive

In June, Caltrans met with community members to get your input and ideas for the future of transportation access and mobility in Ferndale. Now we’re inviting you to come share your insights on the benefits and challenges of different ideas about access into and out of Ferndale.

How do you envision future community access to Ferndale?

Which potential avenues should we explore further?

This workshop is the second in a series of initial steps in Caltrans’ engagement with the community, and will include opportunities to:

• Hear an update on work on Fernbridge
• Learn about the Caltrans planning process
• Give input on transportation ideas generated by the community. 

Light refreshments will be provided.

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In the meantime, over on its Facebook page, Caltrans District 1 offered the following update on repairs at Fernbridge:

All the equipment needed for repairs on Pier 2 has been mobilized. An oscillator – a piece of drilling equipment that rotates steel pipe casing back and forth into the earth to help facilitate the drilling of piles — is on its way and will be in use soon. Crews have finished putting in metal sheet piles for a cofferdam around Pier 2. Think of the cofferdam as a watertight barrier that is needed for foundation construction.

Additionally, we’ve wrapped up some CFRP strengthening. That means using carbon fiber-reinforced plastic to make the bridge even tougher. We’ve also been filling in some additional cracks. It’s like giving the bridge a superhero suit! Now, we’re digging down to the bottom of the cofferdam to place a concrete seal course to enhance its effectiveness and keep it watertight.

Thanks for your patience and understanding as crews work hard to keep traffic moving over Fernbridge safely.

UPDATE: An owner has been found! The photos were stolen out of her trailer during a recent move, but she tells LoCO she’s happy to get these back. 

Because of Chickenbutt9000, the world is a better place. Well played.

# # # 

A local Redditor who goes by the name “Chickenbutt9000” posted earlier today that they’d come across someone’s trove of family snapshots. They’d like to reconnect the memories with their owner if that’s possible. 

The photo album was discovered on the roadway near the intersection of First and T streets in Eureka. Below is a sampling of the over-a-dozen photos in the collection. 

LoCO is under the impression that the vast majority of Humboldt residents have never attempted to navigate Reddit. If the people in these photos are familiar to you, you are welcome to reach out to us and we’ll help connect you or, if you’ve got the know-how, reach out to Chickenbutt9000.

Dixie Garrett died peacefully on July 11, 2023 with family at her bedside. Born Dixie Lee Ashenhurst on August 5, 1936 to Grace (Holloway) and Hayes Ashenhurst of Lamoni, Iowa, Dixie went on to live a life unbent by convention.

Daughter of a military family, Dixie spent her early childhood in far off places such as Tsingtao China and the Phillipines, eventually settling in San Diego, CA. Her parents divorced when she was eighteen; each remarrying on the same day. After graduating from La Jolla High School, Dixie returned to Iowa to attend Graceland College. During her first summer break, while visiting her father and new stepmother in Sasebo, Japan, Dixie was to find her heart’s home. The people, country and culture of Japan were to remain Dixie’s life-long love.

It was while in her early 20s, pursuing degrees at San Diego State University, that Dixie met and married Rod Garrett, future architect of Burning Man’s Black Rock City. Dixie and Rod were counter-culture bohemians with a crowd of beatnik friends in North Hollywood, San Diego at Mira Mar Ranch, and in Marin County. Throughout both their lifetimes, Dixie and Rod told stories of high times with the likes of Lenny Bruce and Tommy Smothers.

The changing culture of the early 1960’s drew the young couple north to Sausalito, where they rented a houseboat on the bay and became good friends and neighbors with Zen philosopher Alan Watts and painter Yanko Varda. In 1965 the two divorced and Dixie was left with life-long heartbreak. As a single mom with two young girls in tow (Spring and Kelley) Dixie did what she could to make ends meet, teaching art classes and renting out rooms. A son, Manning, was born to her in 1969.

As her family’s black sheep, Dixie forswore undergarments, took up the teachings of Sant Mat and moved her children to far northern California in 1970. There, with a few partners, Dixie briefly opened and shortly thereafter closed “That Vegetarian Place” restaurant in Redding.

Inhabiting an artistic and intellectual soul, Dixie possessed a mastery of the spoken word and a keen wit. Dixie wove color and mood around herself in the form of poetry, pastel, sculpture and handmade clothing. She knitted explorations into ponchos. She wrote notes and brainstorms. She got frustrated and angry. She loved and enjoyed and exposed her kids to a wide range of open-minded, cultural experiences. Though the family was poor, Dixie always made holidays special for her children.

Dixie lived a quiet life with her kids under the giant oaks of Bella Vista in Shasta County for many years. In the late 1970s she “pulled herself up by her bootstraps” taking a job as the food stamp outreach coordinator for the FNICO (Far Northern Interior California Outreach) — an acronym she coined and proudly touted. Her new job gave the family a standard of living previously not experienced. Mid-life, Dixie and her second daughter traveled to Japan, where Dixie had the great pleasure of reconnecting with her adopted family the Hamasakis who called her “Dikusi-san.”

In the 1980s Dixie emerged as a creative force in the Redding community theater scene, taking on dramatic and comedic roles that were performed to great accolades and that are still fondly recalled by a great many fans.

After her kids had grown and moved on, Dixie spent many years in a little creekside house in Redding under a cool, leafy canopy. An owl lived in her tree. She had cats. Possum and raccoon were friends. She taught ESL at Shasta College. She knitted, she dipped in her soaking pool and she kept abreast of politics.

To be near her daughters, grandson and new granddaughter Dixie moved to McKinleyville in the early 2000s. Many fine family times were had there. Always a creative genius, Dixie explored computers and digital photography in later life, greatly enjoying herself and often capturing the sacred (and perhaps the profane) of everyday moments and minutiae.

Dixie is preceded in death by her mother Grace and her stepfather Charles, her father Hayes and stepmother Marian.She leaves behind much loved younger sister Ralene Rizzo (who sadly passed away three weeks after Dixie) and kindred-spirit brother Tracy DePue, along with her nieces Abigail Stout and Lora Davis and nephew Tony Rizzo. Dixie is survived by her daughters Spring Garrett (Mitch Higa) and Kelley Garrett (Sandra Rosas), her son Manning Garrett, her grandson Ryley Garrett, granddaughter Rayna Higa, cat Furnando and many dear friends.

Dixie was assuredly one-of-a-kind and will be greatly missed. One can see her in the setting sun, the rising moon, in butterflies and orange poppies. A memorial will take place at a later date. Please email springmay@mac.com for details.

Though Dixie bore the burden of ill health in her final years, she was a good sport about it and kept her sense of humor to the end. And, as Dixie was fond of quoting Looney Tunes, “the the the that’s all Folks!’

Eureka Police Department press release: 

On August 12, 2023, at about 12:48 a.m., Officers with the Eureka Police Department responded to 4th and A Streets for the report of a female covered in blood. Officers contacted a 41-year-old female victim who was suffering from multiple stab wounds. The female was transported to the hospital by ambulance and has since been treated and released.

Officers followed a blood trail from 4th and A Streets to 4 th and Commercial Streets, locating the crime scene in the street. Surveillance provided from several businesses helped detectives identify the suspect as 19-year-old Trinity Thomas-Remington. It appears the victim and Thomas-Remington were acquaintances and had previous disturbances with each other.

On August 23, 2023, Thomas-Remington was contacted by the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office in the Samoa area. Detectives responded to the location and transported the female to EPD for questioning. Thomas-Remington was arrested and booked into the Humboldt County Correctional Facility for attempted murder.

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Detective Bailey at dbailey2@eurekaca.gov or (707) 441-4215.

Sequoia Park Zoo press release:

In appreciation for those serving our community and beyond, Sequoia Park Zoo is offering free admission to firefighters. Visitors may present an active firefighter ID card with photo (Department ID or Union ID) or a Red Card (for wildland firefighters) with matching personal photo ID to receive free entry for themselves and a guest.

City of Eureka and Sequoia Park Zoo gratefully acknowledge the members of Humboldt Bay Fire, Cal Fire, and the countless agencies and departments who protect the people, homes, and wildlands in our region and around the world.

“We are happy to offer admission to the heroes who combat fires and keep our communities safe,” says Jim Campbell-Spickler, Director of the Sequoia Park Zoo. “While they are here in our community, these folks are our neighbors, and we welcome them and thank them for their service.”

Although fire plays an important role in maintaining diverse ecosystems, climate change and human impacts have created situations where fires are occurring more frequently and with higher intensity. In addition to the destruction of property and the loss of human life, catastrophic wildfires can displace native wildlife and alter fragile habitats, which may take decades to repair and recover. Now, more than ever, it is critical to support the brave firefighters and responders on the front lines of these disasters.

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During a three-hour study session on Tuesday night that included  comments from more than two dozen community members, the Arcata City Council made one significant decision about the Gateway Area Plan — to eliminate the controversial K-L Couplet, which would have converted K and L streets into one-way traffic, and to instead consider alternative options for calming traffic in the area. 

Tuesday’s meeting was the first of several joint study sessions planned over the next several months to go over the extensive plan to rezone 138 acres of town to facilitate the development of high-density housing in Arcata. It was also the first time the council had discussed the plan. All of the commission members and Councilmembers Sarah Schaefer, Meredith Matthews and Kimberly White used Tuesday’s study session to focus on three important aspects of the plan: the K-L Couplet, proposed building heights and inclusionary zoning. (Councilmembers Alex Stillman and Stacy Atkins-Salazar have recused themselves from all Gateway conversations because they both own property within 100 feet of the Gateway Area.) 

K-L Couplet 

The first topic addressed by the council and commission was the proposed K-L Couplet, which the Planning Commission had recommended as the preferred option for addressing concerns of increased traffic along the two streets, once more housing developments start coming in. Planning Commission Chair Scott Davies began by giving an explanation on the commission’s recommendation. 

“The view and lens through which we looked at the couplet was, what can we do and which plan would most increase the safety for biking, pedestrian and alter-abled members of our community,” Davies said to the council during the study session. “We determine that the couplet did the most to achieve this goal.” 

Commenter sings

The proposed couplet has been one of the most controversial aspects of the Gateway Area Plan, with many community members, especially those who live or work on L Street, urging their local government to ditch the proposal in favor of creating an L Street Linear Park, something that was proposed as a part of the Rail with Trail Feasibility Study done in 2010. A petition was even circulated in favor of the Linear Park and signed by more than 260 1,100 community members. 

Many of those community members showed up to voice their support for the linear park on Tuesday, including the very first speaker (or should we say singer?) of the night, Leslie Quinn, who provided her opinion through a song, set to the tune of the Sesame Street theme song, asking “Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Linear Park?” while dressed in a green onesie that looked like a chameleon. (Or frog? Not really sure.) Other commenters mentioned that the couplet was too “car-centric” and that a park would provide great benefits to the community, including safety and recreation.

And the council members agreed with the public on this one, unanimously requesting that staff remove the couplet option from the Gateway Area Plan and research alternative options, such as a Linear Park. Schaefer was also interested in exploring a “woonerf” style street, something that cars would share with bikes and pedestrians, but with much lower speed limits and other traffic-calming features. 

“After reviewing the comments that were submitted by the council members, it seems that we are pretty unanimous in seeking alternatives to the K-L couplet and supporting this original vision of a linear park on L street,” Schaefer said during the meeting. 

Building Heights 

Unlike with K and L streets, the council was unable to come to consensus on what has surely been the other most controversial aspect of the Gateway Area Plan – how high the buildings should be allowed to be built. 

Map showing Gateway Area and the four sub-districts it’s divided into. Click to enlarge

Since the plan was first introduced, the working theory has been that creating the amount of housing Arcata needs will require much denser developments, which in turn would require much taller buildings. Currently Arcata only allows for a maximum of four stories in the city, and city staff recommended raising that to as high as eight stories in some sections of the Gateway Area.

This was a tough subject for planning commissioners to agree on also, but after months of review the commission ultimately recommended that building heights be capped at seven stories in the Barrel District, six stories in the Gateway Hub, five stories in the Gateway Corridor and remain at four in the Gateway Neighborhood. 

Chair Davies said that the commission had recommended these heights because the “best way to provide a bikeable, walkable community and to protect greenspace outside of the city is to build as densely as possible.” 

“I’ll just add we’re in a housing crisis,” Commissioner Matthew Simmons added. “So when we’re talking about building heights, we’re also talking about places for people to live…Reducing building heights creates fewer places to live and exacerbates our housing crisis.” 

Schaefer and Matthews largely agreed with the commission’s recommendation, but White had a very different opinion and said she would like to see buildings be capped at five stories in the Barrel District, four stories in parts of the Gateway Corridor and three stories in the rest of the Gateway Area. 

“I understand that density will house more people,” White said during the meeting. “But is it about cramming everyone in [like] sardines, or is it about making this a livable Arcata where people want to thrive and live?”

This sparked a tense debate between White and the commissioners and the other two council members. Both Schaefer and Matthews said they would not be comfortable going below four stories, which is already the height permitted throughout the city. Davies added that although he understood White’s concerns, lower building heights would drive costs up, and he told White that if she wanted to keep smaller buildings she would “have to let go of any idea that you’re in support of affordable housing.” 

The other reason for supporting larger buildings, Davies explained, is that the plan includes a “community benefits program” that requires developers to provide additional community benefits, including things like public art creation and more green spaces, depending on how high they want to build. The higher the building, the more benefits they have to provide. You can view the full list of proposed benefits here. 

Unable to agree on the building heights, the council ultimately directed staff to provide more materials to the council, including presentations from a wide range of developers. 

Inclusionary Zoning

The final segment of the study session focused on the Gateway Area Plan’s Inclusionary Zoning requirements, which would set the percentage of low-income to very-low-income units a developer would need to provide with any new housing projects. The requirement would apply only to developments with more than 29 units. 

The Planning Commission recommended that the inclusionary zoning requirement be set at four percent for “very low income” and nine percent for “low income,” meaning that if a new development includes at least 30 units, the developer would be required to make nine percent of the units affordable to low-income households and four percent for very-low-income households.

The reason for these percentages, Davies explained, was that city staff and the commission agreed it would be sensible to set the percentages below the State Density Bonus Law. The law requires that developers be permitted to build more units, if they agree to provide a certain percentage of “affordable units.” For example, if the development includes at least five percent “very low income” and 10 percent “low income” units, the developer will be allowed to build 20 percent more total units. If the city were to set its inclusionary zoning limits too high, then it would be pointless, because the developer would already qualify for the density bonus. 

If it’s difficult for you to wrap your mind around this subject, you’re not alone. The city councilmembers again felt that they would need more time and information on the subject before making a decision on the inclusionary zoning requirements for the Gateway Area Plan. 

Mayor Schaefer said that the council will likely hold another study session for only the council to discuss the subject in more depth and also said that the city will hold another public workshop to gather feedback on the Gateway Code, which will guide development in the Gateway Area. Schaefer largely agreed with the commission’s recommendation and also stressed the importance of making sure that future projects including housing for low-income residents, but also for middle-class residents. 

“Seeing a Gateway Area Plan that both prioritizes and has inclusionary zoning that is sensible and is set at a level that will encourage housing to be built underneath our own community benefits program, instead of under a state program, is going to be essential to make sure that we are providing some set amount of affordable units within those projects, but we are also creating housing for people who really need it, who don’t qualify for affordable housing,” Schaefer said