Press release from the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services:
Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services (DHHS) Environmental Health officials shutdown the Elks Lodge in Eureka for two weeks starting Wednesday, Sept. 11, after health requirements provided last week to avoid closure, following a Shigella outbreak, were unable to be met.
Following the original outbreak, facility staff made sure the facility underwent a deep cleaning, and symptomatic individuals were directed not to participate in any food-related activities. However, it was recently discovered that some infected individuals continued to frequent the facility and serve food and drinks to patrons on at least two separate occasions.
DHHS Public and Environmental Health staff have been working closely with Lodge employees for the past two weeks after it was discovered that attendees at an Elks dinner on Wednesday, Aug. 28, may have been exposed to the illness.
On Sept. 3, Public Health was notified of three confirmed cases and five suspected cases of shigellosis contracted by people who had attended the event. Since the original event, Public Health Communicable Disease staff have identified a total of six confirmed cases and 61 probable cases through their contact tracing efforts.
Case numbers may continue to shift as individuals are tested through their health care providers and results become available to Public Health Communicable Disease staff for processing.
Twenty-three individuals who attended the event went to the emergency room with symptoms and at least one was admitted. Individuals who have been at the facility in the past two weeks and are experiencing symptoms should contact Public Health.
Earlier in August, there were at least three confirmed cases in the county. The two clusters do not appear to be connected.
Shigella germs are found in stool, and infection is spread by eating food or drinking liquids contaminated by an infected person, or when a person touches a contaminated surface or object and then touches their mouth or puts the object into their mouth. People who have contracted shigellosis typically experience a fever, abdominal cramps and diarrhea which may be bloody.
Onset of shigellosis symptoms usually occurs one to two days after exposure—but may take longer—and lasts around a week. Infected people can remain contagious up to six weeks after symptoms resolve.
Most people with shigellosis recover completely without severe complications. People with weakened immune systems are at higher risk. In rare cases, Shigella may cause bloodstream infections, seizures, kidney failure or arthritis.
The best way to prevent the spread of shigellosis is to wash hands:
Before, during and after preparing food
Before eating
Before and after caring for someone who is sick
After using the toilet
After blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing
After touching garbage
After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
After touching an animal, animal feed or animal waste
After handling pet food or pet treats.
People with shigellosis should:
Stay home from school or from health care, food service or childcare roles while sick
Abstain from sharing food
Abstain from swimming and hot tubs
Abstain from having sex for at least two weeks after symptoms resolve.
Anyone experiencing vomiting or diarrhea should wait until symptoms have resolved for 24 to 48 hours to avoid spread of stomach bugs or bacteria. It is especially important for individuals in health care, daycare and food services roles to follow these precautions.
If you are experiencing symptoms, contact your primary care provider or call Public Health at 707-268-2182.
They’ve been there so long that they’ve kind of just blended into the legend and lore of the Eureka waterfront, but those zombie locomotives stranded on the Balloon Track for the last quarter-century are finally moving out, nearly 10 years after they were officially declared a public nuisance.
Tim Callison, project manager for Security National — the company that owns the Balloon Track — sounded plenty relieved on the phone today.
“They figure it should take ‘em about a week to get everything out,” he said.
Callison said that the locomotives’ owner — a Matt Monson, out of Turlock — was saving one of them, which has some historic value. They’re strapping it on to some sort of big rig and trucking it back down someplace near Stockton. The rest of the engines are being scrapped on-site with heavy machinery.
Monson last spoke to the Outpost in 2016, when he promised action on the engines. He wrote:
I am in the slow process of moving them , this is a big and costly undertaking and takes time. Currently I am waiting for the moving equipment to be modified to move these … I am looking forward to getting these engines out of there and put this whole night mare behind me … matt
This was after Monson made an abortive attempt to get the trains out of here nearly a decade ago.
Callison said that the dysfunctional state of the railroad contributed to the stalemate over getting the giant, ungainly machines out of here. No one could just roll ‘em out to greener pastures.
The Balloon Track is a former spur line of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, which ran between the Bay Area and Humboldt until 1998, when the storm-wracked line could finally bear no more traffic. The engines have been stranded on the site for at least that long.
The North Coast Railroad Authority, the public agency that managed the battered line, was finally dissolved in 2021 and its assets handed over to the new Great Redwood Trail Agency.
Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:
Jean Marie Etherton, age 63, of Eureka, was located safe in Eureka around 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 11. Etherton has been reunited with her family and is currently receiving medical treatment at a local hospital.
A thorough Search and Rescue (SAR) operation was launched on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 8 after Etherton’s family reported her as a missing person to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO). Deputies, HSCO SAR volunteers and K-9s, California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA) volunteers, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Humboldt Bay Helicopter, as well as HCSO thermal drone and ATVs were deployed as resources during this search effort on the first day. More resources were called in the days following the initial search launch, and a mutual aid effort ultimately led to the successful location and rescue of Etherton.
The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the following agencies for their participation in the successful and effective search and rescue operation:
Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue
Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue
Marin County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue
Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue
Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue
California Rescue Dog Association (CARDA)
California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES)
Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services
Redwood Acres, for providing housing of volunteer personnel
Ridgewood Heights Baptist Church, for allowing the Command Post to operate onsite
United States Coast Guard
Public citizens, for calling in tips and checking video surveillance
Remember that cool Humboldt Historian story we ran back in January about downhill skiing at Horse Mountain?
If you missed it, go check it out at the link above. It was all about a very fun, very brash, very Humboldt scene that used to exist out there. The scene boasted a ski lodge, rope tows, a snack shack and all sorts of homespun lingo and legend particular to the place.
Well, back in August a local group called “The Horse Mountain Grippers,” dedicated to memorializing that scene, finally got the go-ahead from Caltrans and county government to install an interpretive kiosk at Berry Summit that will tell the tale of Horse Mountain skiing in really beautiful detail. The Grippers raised all the money to build the thing themselves.
Next week they’re having a big event out at Berry Summit to break ground on the project, and if you’re a historically-minded citizen, a hardcore ski nerd, a friend of the Walsh family or just someone infused with the Hiouska spirit, you are invited to attend! They’ll be gathering at the Summit on Friday, September 20 at 11 a.m. for “fun, refreshments, giveaways and celebration.” Ski apparel is very much encouraged!
Below, please find designs for the eight gorgeous panels they’ll be installing up at the Summit, so that future travelers who stop off to check the view might be edified about this quintessentially — and, alas, bygone — Humboldt subculture. Click to enlarge.
As winter temperatures approach, the use of fireplaces, wood stoves, space heaters, and other alternative heating methods tends to rise. This increase
in heating appliance use can lead to a higher incidence of residential fires during the
colder months. To help keep your home safe from fire this winter, consider these essential
fire safety tips.
Some safety tips that apply to all types of heating appliances:
Do not place floor coverings, clothing, or furniture over floor furnaces.
Move combustibles away from floor and wall furnaces. This includes furniture.
Have your furnace cleaned and serviced to ensure safe and efficient operation.
Inspect the walls and ceiling near the furnace or heater; if the wall is hot to the
touch or discolored, discontinue use immediately, and have the appliance
checked.
If you heat with wood, move combustibles at least 36” away from the stove or
fireplace. Again, this applies to furniture as well.
Never discard hot ashes inside or near the home. Place them in a metal container
outside and well away from the house or other buildings.
Have your stove pipe, chimney, or flue cleaned and inspected prior to use.
We aim to prevent furnace, heater, and wood stove fires this year and beyond by
reminding our communities of the steps necessary for safe appliance use. If you have
any questions, please reach out to the Arcata Fire District at 707-825-2000.
Despite the Los Angeles Harbor College student ID that proves otherwise, Citlali Gonzalez hasn’t felt like a college student.
Yes, she recently finished her associate degree in human services and, yes, she is transferring to Cal State Dominguez Hills this fall. Still, as someone who for the past year has been mostly taking online classes, college doesn’t feel like the social experience she’d imagined fresh out of high school five years ago.
Like Gonzalez, roughly half of California community college students are taking classes online — a significant shift compared to the years before the COVID-19 pandemic. While community college data shows that its students perform worse in online courses compared to in-person ones, many college officials defend the shift to online learning.
The “modality,” whether a class is in-person or online, is irrelevant, said Rebecca Ruan-O’Shaughnessy, who oversees educational services and support for the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. She said what matters is “engagement” — the degree to which students interact with their peers and their professors.
Nationally, the federal government is concerned about a lack of oversight for the growing number of online courses. The California State University and University of California systems have also increased the number of online classes to varying degrees, though research on online success rates at four-year universities is limited.
In July, the U.S. Education Department proposed new rules that would call on colleges and universities to collect more data about online courses, including students’ attendance. “We have been hampered in the ability to fully understand students’ participation in distance education, account for differences in outcomes and conduct oversight, accurately measure taxpayer expenditures on distance education programs, and gauge the success of such education,” wrote the department.
The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office responded to the regulations by submitting a public comment document, saying they hope the department will consider the “new costs” to develop the infrastructure to collect the data. The UC also answered publicly, saying data collection might create “confusion and stymie the development of future online education programs.” In an email to CalMatters, the Cal State system stated they were “generally in support” of the regulations and trust that the federal department will consider the potential impact on diverse student populations juggling different responsibilities.
Meeting students ‘where they are’ means going online
For 23-year-old Gonzalez, who works 40 hours a week at her day job, the convenience of online education is paramount. “It works for my schedule,” she said, adding that it’s allowed her to make time for things that help her well-being, like Jiu Jitsu. Gonzalez said that the best professors structured their courses in bite-sized pieces by breaking up lectures into shorter videos and adding quizzes after each reading. They were also quick to respond to emails.
There are typically two kinds of online courses: synchronous classes, where the professor and students meet in real-time, and asynchronous classes, where students watch pre-recorded videos or otherwise learn independently. Community college data of the past few years shows that students in synchronous classes have consistently performed better than asynchronous ones. Historically, students in synchronous classes get more interaction with their professors and that “real-time engagement” can translate into better performance, said Ruan-O’Shaughnessy.
Nonetheless, asynchronous classes are popular among students and, according to state data, these classes outnumber synchronous ones by more than 170,000 course offerings. If students want these courses, then colleges need to “meet them where they are,” said Ruan-O’Shaughnessy — and they should do so in a way that doesn’t jeopardize the quality of their education. She and other community college leaders are pushing to expand access to online counselors, tutors, and other support systems that can serve students online, both synchronously and asynchronously.
For Amber Chiang, a communications lecturer at Cal State Bakersfield, the aspect of “engagement” is also top of mind. In the online public relations courses she teaches, she said she supplements the lack of face-to-face class time by offering synchronous online office hours and using different communication platforms, such as Slack and Discord, for students to communicate with her and with each other.
Amber Chiang works from her desk in the living room of her home in Bakersfield on Sept. 3, 2024. Chiang, a communications Lecturer at Cal State Bakersfield, has been teaching online since before the pandemic. Photo by Larry Valenzuela, CalMatters/CatchLight Local
But she prefers asynchronous instruction because she said it’s more convenient for students. “It’s making it possible for them to further their careers in a way that they may not have had an opportunity to,” Chiang said.
Lower performance for Black, Hispanic students in online courses
In California’s community colleges, students who enroll in online classes skew older, according to a study by researchers at UC Davis, UC Irvine, and the University of Pennsylvania. It raises a question: are these students performing worse because class is online or because they have other family or work obligations that younger students don’t?
The study controlled for these issues, in part by looking at students who enrolled in both online and in-person classes, but found that those taking online classes, especially asynchronous ones, still performed worse. The performance gap between online and in-person courses was particularly high for Black and Hispanic students.
While Gonzalez received A’s throughout her last year taking online courses at Harbor College, she recognized the advantages of in-person instruction. She said she opted for an in-person statistics class because she knew she might struggle with an online math course.
Citlali Gonzalez checks her college emails at the dining room table at her home in Wilmington on Aug. 31, 2024. Photo by Zaydee Sanchez for CalMatters
She said attending class in person helped her focus better, and since she knew she would have questions, it was quicker to ask them directly to her professors than communicate via email. Being on campus also made it easier for her to attend tutoring sessions, which helped her master the material.
“When it comes to something that I feel was so difficult for me, I was like, I can’t do it online because I’m not going to be disciplined,” Gonzalez said.
Online success at four-year institutions is hard to define
The Cal State and UC systems have also grown their online education offerings, though there are fewer compared to the more than 1 million unique community college students each year who enroll in at least one online course. For the Fall 2024 semester, Cal State campuses enrolled more than 800,000 students in online classes – a sum which double counts students who enrolled in more than one online course – according to data provided by Cal State spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith. In the same academic year, over 100,000 undergraduate students at the UC enrolled in online courses, said Ryan King, director of communications for the UC. The UC also double counts students in its data.
Data from the Cal State system shows that students in synchronous and asynchronous online classes performed better than in-person ones in the 2023-24 academic year. However, studies looking at online learning at four-year institutions are inconclusive after considering different variables, such as the complexity of courses being offered, the instructor’s experience teaching online, and the type of students who choose to take online courses.
A 2021 study looked at students taking an economics class at a highly selective public liberal arts college in New York and found only a slight difference in grades between students who attended lectures in person and those who only accessed the lectures online. While students learning online performed slightly worse, the study recognized that since the type of student choosing online classes is so varied, “any estimated gap between the two modalities would be biased,” meaning it could be due to a student’s background or experience.
Additionally, online course offerings at the Cal State system are only slightly above their pre-pandemic numbers and have been consistently decreasing since 2021. The Cal State data is looking at a much smaller scope of students than those attending a community college.
The UC did not provide systemwide data.
Promoting online education — despite ‘messy data’
Online education isn’t new, nor are its problems. Internet-based courses began at California’s community colleges in the early 2000s and grew slowly over the following decades to the point where about 1 in 3 students were taking online courses before the onset of the pandemic. Since 2006, when the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office first collected data, students in online courses performed worse than those in person, but the gap has narrowed over time.
Still, the data is “messy,” said Alyssa Nguyen, the senior director at the Research and Planning Group for the California Community Colleges, a non-profit organization. Before the pandemic, she said there were very few synchronous classes and the data didn’t effectively track how student performance in those classes might differ from others.
Both the UC and community college systems define a course as online even if only half of the class takes place remotely. The Cal State definition leaves more room for interpretation, saying an online class is any course “that is offered via computer/internet,” Bentley-Smith said. This can include hybrid classes or classes where students meet synchronously once a week and work asynchronously for the rest of the week.
Rolin Moe is the executive director of UC Online, which supports online education at the UC. He said the pandemic helped people realize the benefits of technology in education but that “without thoughtful design,” courses ran the risk of lowering UC standards. To ensure quality, Moe said UC Online has provided more than $50 million over the course of 11 years directly to campuses to help develop online courses. UC professors also have access to experts in online course design through the UC Learning Center that assist with their technology needs.
Chiang at Cal State Bakersfield received training and a certification from Quality Matters, a nonprofit organization that provides services and resources for educators to strengthen their online courses.
Ruan O’Shaugnessy, with the community college system, said her team is working to improve the quality of its online instruction by helping professors engage students, especially in asynchronous classes. In one popular professional development program championed by the system, professors are encouraged to send individual messages to students before the semester begins and to make their lectures more interactive and accessible. In separate studies, two community colleges found that those changes can lead to an increase in the number of students who pass the course.
Michael Mogull, a math and statistics faculty member at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo, said he has learned over time what best practices work for his students since he began teaching online in 2017.
Mogull’s class includes weekly discussion posts where students share what they learned in class and group quizzes where students can get together and discuss the quiz. He also uses Pronto, an educational texting app where students can reach out to each other and Mogull with any questions. The app also has a video call feature where students can create subgroups to work together.
However, Mogull has noticed some students may not be as excited for group work and are less willing to participate.
“I think students are getting more used to the online, asynchronous modality,” Mogull said. “I think it’s still up to the student to kind of decide: is this the right format for me? Like, am I self motivated enough to be doing all this stuff without the requirement of attending lectures twice a week?”
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Adam Echelman covers California’s community colleges in partnership with Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education.
Briana Mendez-Padilla is a fellow with the College Journalism Network, a collaboration between CalMatters and student journalists from across California. CalMatters higher education coverage is supported by a grant from the College Futures Foundation.
CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
William
Steven “Bill” Reynolds August 1939- June 2024
William
Steven “Bill” Reynolds passed away June 26, 2024 at the age of 84
after a short but courageous battle with cancer. Bill was born on
August 11,,
1939 to Dick and Ann Reynolds in Fort Bragg, where he was raised and
where
he graduated
from Fort Bragg High School in 1957.
Bill
lived a life of service to not only his family but to his country and
community. After serving in the US Navy following high school, Bill
worked odd jobs until 1964, when he and high school friend Wes
Sondrol traveled to Eureka to test for firefighter positions with
Humboldt No. 1 Fire Protection District. In December of 1964, Bill
was hired full-time as a firefighter and began a 34-year career with
the fire
district.
Throughout his time with the district,
he advanced through the ranks, serving as a firefighter,
lieutenant,
and eventually as a fire
captain,
where he spent most of his career.
In
1991 Bill was chosen as the Humboldt Fire District Career Firefighter
of the Year, recognizing his exemplary service to the department and
the community. Even in retirement Bill’s loyalty and love of the
fire
department
remained. He enjoyed being invited to the stations by the younger
firefighters
to talk to them about his career, big fires that he had been on and
funny anecdotes from his career. He took a lot of pride in the fire
service legacy that he spawned, with his son Billy being hired by
Humboldt Fire District and eventually becoming deputy
fire
chief
with Humboldt Bay Fire, and his grandson Taylor carrying on the
family tradition becoming a firefighter
with CalFire.
After
retirement Bill could most often be found in his garage restoring his
cars with his neighbor and friend Larry O’Keefe. He loved spending
time with family, attending car shows to show his ‘55 Chevy and
visit with his car show friends, and watching his beloved SF Giants
and 49ers. Above all, Bill was a faithful son, husband, father and
friend, and will be greatly missed.
Bill
wanted everyone to take comfort in knowing that in his passing that
he is now with the Lord. In giving his life to Jesus it gave him
great comfort in knowing that he would see all of his loved ones
again someday.
He
is survived by the love of his life and wife Dottie Reynolds; five
children: Kelly, Steven, Angela, Billy, and Heidi, and spouses. Bill
had eight
grandchildren and five
great-grandchildren,
two sister-in-laws, their families, and his niece Rachelle. He was
preceded in death by his father, Dick; mother, Ann; and brother, Bob.
A
memorial service will be held on Saturday, September 28 at 2 p.m. at
the Eureka Moose Lodge, located at 4328 Campton Road
in Eureka. Friends and family are invited to remember a life well
lived and share stories!
In
lieu of flowers Bill requested donations be sent to the Alisa Ann
Ruch Burn Foundation. More information on the burn foundation can be
found at https://www.aarbf.org/.
###
The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Bill Reynolds’ loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.
