Press release from the Humboldt County Administrative Office:

Flights Expected to be Impacted for 12-Day Window in August 2023

The Humboldt County Department of Aviation will begin Phase 1 of the California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport (ACV) Runway and Electrical Rehabilitation Project in June. This project will be conducted in three phases to make much needed improvements to ACV’s primary runway, which was last rehabilitated in 1994.

Work required for this project will take place in three phases from June to December; however, commercial air service at ACV is expected to be impacted from Aug. 14 through Aug. 25. Other airport users including medical operators, US Coast Guard and general aviation users will be impacted by overnight closures at various times during the duration of the project. Travelers are encouraged to review the projected project schedule below and take it into consideration when making travel plans. 

Overview

Funding for this project was provided thanks to the advocacy efforts of Congressman Jared Huffman, who helped secure a $13 million Airport Improvement Program grant through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) covering 90% of the project costs.  The remaining 10% of the project costs will be funded by Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act Grant funding which was previously provided by the FAA to the County of Humboldt.
The Humboldt County Department of Aviation conducted a competitive bid process for this project, and awarded a contract to the low bidder on the project, Mercer Fraser, a Humboldt-based company.    
Work for this project includes two categories: upgrades to electrical/lighting infrastructure and pavement rehabilitation including, milling approximately two (2) inches off the surface of the airport’s primary runway and adding approximately six (6) inches of fresh asphalt for a new runway surface. This rehabilitation is expected to help the airport realize another 10-20 years of useful life out of the runway before another major rehabilitation project is needed. The work will be conducted in three phases with further details outlined below.  

Phase I

Phase I is scheduled to begin on Monday, June 5 and is currently expected to conclude on Aug. 12. This phase will focus on the initial electrical work including the removal of old lighting and electrical equipment and the installation of new lighting and electrical equipment. Work has been scheduled to minimize impacts to airline schedules with overnight closures of the main runway (Runway 14/32) from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. nightly (outside of normal airline scheduled operations at ACV) throughout Phase I. ACV’s secondary runway will remain open from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. each night for medical flights, US Coast Guard operations, and other general aviation users. Passenger airlines will not be able to utilize ACV’s secondary runway (Runway 1/19) as it is not large enough to accommodate commercial aircraft for takeoffs and landings.  

Phase II-A

Phase II requires a full airport closure. Phase II is scheduled to begin at 12:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 14, and is expected to be completed by 11:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 25. Airlines will not have scheduled arrivals or departures at ACV during this 12-day window.  As mentioned above, work for this phase will include milling 2 inches of pavement off the old runway surface and adding 6 inches of pavement to the runway. In addition, new markings will be placed on the new pavement. 

PHASE II-B

ACV will also be closed overnight from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. during this phase Monday, Aug. 28 through the morning of Friday, Sept. 1, and again beginning the night of Monday, Sept. 4 through the morning of Friday, Sept. 8. During this period, work will include milling and paving work on the taxiways connecting ACV’s runways. Regularly scheduled airline flights will continue to operate during this time.

Phase III

Phase III will include electrical work to bring the newly installed in-pavement lighting and electrical systems flush with the newly paved runway surface. This work is scheduled for 75 nightly closures of ACV’s main runway from midnight to 6 a.m. The dates for these overnight closures are expected to be Monday, Sept. 11 through Friday, Dec. 15.
Regularly scheduled airline flights will still operate during this last phase of the project outside of the overnight closure timeframes. Additionally, ACV’s secondary runway will remain open during the overnight closures for medical flights, US Coast Guard operations, and other general aviation operations. 

The Department of Aviation would like to thank the US Coast Guard-Sector Humboldt Bay, United Airlines, Avelo Airlines, and medical flight operators who partnered with the department to arrange this project’s schedule to minimize the impacts of this project for airport partners, operators, customers, and the community.

The Department of Aviation appreciates your patience while we work to make necessary improvements. This project will improve Humboldt County’s critical airfield infrastructure, providing many years of safe use for all airport partners moving forward. The Department of Aviation looks forward to completing a safe and successful project to improve the airport for the Humboldt County residents and visitors to enjoy in the future.  

For more information and updates on the California Redwood Coast Humboldt County Airport, please visit flyacv.com.

The other day Sheriff Billy Honsal stood up before the Board of Supervisors and gave board members something of a scolding.

The topic was an upcoming budget shortfall. His department stood at risk. There had been some talk in the air of allocating some hotel tax money to the arts and to community theater, as the county had hinted it would do in its ballot measure last summer, and whether or not that was what triggered him Honsal wanted to throw some ice water on the proceedings.

“I don’t feel the desperation that you all should be displaying here,” he told board members.

Now, the budget shortfall is indeed going to cause some pain in county government. That is true. But when I heard the sheriff talk about “desperation,” I thought: Desperation? My dude, didn’t your office just hand over $4,562.50 of the budget to our lawyer for no reason?

I checked. It had.

Here’s the story, which you should know because it involved your money and it says something about how your government works. Or how it can work, at times.

Back in December 2021, the county Office of Emergency Services announced that it had partnered with a private company called Zonehaven. Working with the company, the Office of Emergency Services divided the county up into 300 or so “zones” for emergency service purposes. In the event of fire or flood or tsunami, residents could go to the Zonehaven map and find out their live evacuation status, or they could get text message alerts tied to their particular zone. Pretty cool!

Because I collect geographic information that may be useful to our reporting, I wrote the Sheriff’s Office, which runs the Office of Emergency Services, to say: Hey, could you send me a copy of that map data?

And I was kind of surprised at the answer, which was: No, we will not send you that data. It was surprising because geographic data maintained by the government is, pretty unambiguously, a public record. It belongs to the public. The county itself maintains a web page where you can download all sorts of this kind of data whenever you like.

I filed a formal request under the California Public Records Act. About a month and a half later, the county finally responded. Again I was denied. I was told that giving the Outpost the data could put the community at serious risk — could, in fact, “result in otherwise preventable injury, loss of life, and/or damage to property and/or environment.” The fear, apparently, was that the Outpost would take the map we had requested and use it to make our own version of Zonehaven to compete with the Office of Emergency Services — and that our own, hypothetical competing version of Zonehaven wouldn’t be as up-to-date as the real Zonehaven in the event of an emergency, and therefore people would die.

This was ridiculous for a couple of reasons. One: We had no intention of building our own Zonehaven-killer, and the data we were requesting wouldn’t have allowed us to if we did. We only wanted to know how the zones were divvied up on the map, which we could use — just as an example — to figure out about how many people would be evacuated, in the event that a zone were evacuated. We didn’t ask for real-time information about which zones were under evacuation orders or not, and we didn’t want that information. The Sheriff’s Office was correct: The real Zonehaven works great for that purpose, and if we want people to have the most up-to-date information, which we do, that is where we will point people.

The second reason it was ridiculous, as the Office of Emergency Services would demonstrate a few months later, is that it didn’t really care about having out-of-date information out there in circulation. During the Willow Creek fires last summer it slapped Zonehaven screenshots all over social media, where a user might stumble over them days or weeks after the fact. They’re still there. (See here, here, etc.)

After the county turned me down with this excuse, I requested the same map data from six other California counties who had contracted with Zonehaven. One misunderstood the request and sent a PDF instead, one never wrote back, but the other four sent it straight over with no fuss at all. That was enough.

So that’s when I got my lawyer involved, which meant that the county had to get its lawyers involved, which meant that the Board of Supervisors had to discuss the issue in closed session, which meant god knows how much staff time spent on the issue.

Finally, at some point in the chain — I don’t know where — some cooler head prevailed and persuaded everyone that the law was what it was, and they’d do best to cut their losses before going to trial. Fourteen months after we first asked for the data the county gave use everything we’d asked for, without restriction, and it wrote our lawyer a check for $4,562.50 to pay for his time and expenses.

###

How much is $4,500? If you look at it one way — the way county government looks at it — it’s almost nothing at all. It wouldn’t do anything to close the budget gap that Honsal was talking about. It’s about .02 percent of the Sheriff’s Office’s annual budget, or about .002 percent of the county’s annual general fund revenues. You wouldn’t think twice about throwing away .02 percent of your annual income on a whim. Maybe, if you’re like some people, you’d think even less of it if the money you were throwing away didn’t belong to you in the first place. If you were just the custodian of that money.

Look at it the other way, though — the way we citizens look at it — and $4,500 is a decent chunk of change. It’s about a month’s worth of wages for a beginning correctional officer in the county jail, or about two months of an in-home support services worker for the county’s disabled. A community theater company could do a lot with $4,500.

Maybe more to the point: $4,500 is about half again as much as my family pays in property tax in a year. Probably your family pays somewhere near the same. County government only gets a small percentage of our property tax. So think of that: County government took the property taxes it received from four or five of us this year, and it pissed it away on just this one petty and imperious and, finally, wrong effort to withhold public records. And you never would have known about it were I not writing this now.

There’s a third way to look at it, and that is from the perspective of the great Paul Nicholas Boylan, our bulldog-like attorney, who was just honored with a well-deserved lifetime achievement award from the Northern California Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. For Boylan, $4,500, minus expenses, equals not such a bad bit of work. He’s done it up and down the state for 30 years, including several times in Humboldt County, and he’s going to keep doing it because it’s a gas. “It’s fun when they underestimate you,” Boylan tells the SPJ. “It’s fun creating attitude adjustments.”

And thank god he keeps at it, because there is sometimes a tendency for some people in government service to forget which way this is all supposed to work. You get in there, you make a career, you climb the ladder, you build your own little fiefdom … after a while, you don’t serve. You rule. This is the attitude that the Boylans of the world come along and adjust. We need a hundred more of him.

Do you think the county learned anything from this episode? I hope it did. Probably it didn’t. But now you know, at least, and maybe when you next talk to your representative on the Board of Supervisors — or the city council, or the school board, or etc. — you could put in a word. You could say: I know it’s not a lot for you, especially since its not yours, but could you please put aside your pride, follow the law, remember who you work for … and quit blowing our tax money on LoCO’s lawyer?

###

It’s been a while since we’ve heard any Gateway Area Plan news, but the plan – which would rezone 138 acres of land mostly west of the downtown area to allow for the creation of high-density housing and mixed use developments – is still in the works, and the Arcata Planning Commission will be discussing the controversial plan during a big study session this Saturday, Feb. 11. 

Unlike a regular meeting, study sessions are meant to serve as an opportunity to go over documents, receive presentations and provide feedback, and no formal action is usually taken. So this session will not result in any binding decisions about the Gateway plan, but should provide some solid guidance for future decisions about how the city wants new buildings in the Gateway Area to look.  

The commission will primarily be discussing form-based code standards – a term you’ve probably heard thrown around a lot, if you’ve been closely following Gateway plan discussions. But what exactly are form-base codes? Well, form-based codes regulate land development based on the physical form of structures, such as height and aesthetic, rather than focusing on separating land uses. (If you want to learn more about form-based codes, you can watch this video from the City’s Form-Based Code Workshop.)

After taking public comment toward the beginning of the meeting, the commission will discuss building placement and massing standards, which includes how far buildings would be set back from the sidewalk, the footprint of the buildings, and the topic the community has seemed most concerned about: building height. There has been a lot of debate among the commission in the past about how many stories should be permitted for new buildings in the Gateway Area, but an official recommendation has still not been made. 

The study session will also focus on building façades and roof design standards and the commission will address features including windows, doors, roof forms, entryways and building materials and colors. In general, the proposed Gateway Plan aims to create buildings that are interesting, varied, not too “box-like” and reflect the character of Arcata. City staff has compiled a “look book” with some different examples of building designs that the commissioners can look at for some different ideas of what they want to see in the Gateway. 

Lastly, the commission will take a look at Emeryville’s bird-safe ordinance, which requires certain standards of new construction to help “reduce the risk of bird-to-building collisions.” Among other things, the ordinance requires that at least 90 percent of glass on new buildings include features that allow birds to view it as a solid object. This can include screens, grates, netting, patterns on the glass, opaque glass or other glass treatments. If Arcata is going to have a lot of new buildings, we want to make sure that this doesn’t cause an increase in bird injuries! 

The study session will be held in the city council chambers at Arcata City Hall (736 F Street) on Saturday, Feb. 11 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Yes, that is a pretty long meeting. Luckily, snacks and beverages will be provided! This meeting will be in-person only, and there will be no virtual option for attendance.

If you are unable to attend this meeting, there will be second form-based code workshop on Thursday, Feb. 23. There will also be other meetings leading up to finalization of the Gateway Area Plan, expected to be completed by the end of spring. The Outpost will do its darndest  to post meeting updates as they become available. 

You can view the full study session agenda here.

###

PREVIOUSLY:

• ARCATA’S GATEWAY PLAN: City Releases Draft Plan For Developing Housing in the 138-Acre ‘Gateway Area’ of Town, and Wants Your Input
• Arcata City Council Approves Plan to Convert Valley West Hotels to Homeless Housing, Reviews ‘Gateway Area Plan’ to Create High-Density Housing in Town
• GUEST OPINION: Gateway Plan Does Housing the Right Way
• ARCATA’S GATEWAY PLAN: Planners Propose Converting K and L to One-Way Streets; Transportation and Safety Committee Will Review Plan This Evening
• Confused About Arcata’s Gateway Area Plan? There are Still Opportunities to Learn More and Provide Feedback About How You Want the City to Create More Housing
• Arcata Mayor Atkins-Salazar Can’t Participate in Gateway Plan Work, Says State’s Fair Political Practice Commission in Response to City’s Request for Guidance
• (UPDATE) Arcata’s Mayor Can’t Participate in the City-Defining Gateway Area Plan; These Two Current Candidates for City Council Probably Can’t Either, for the Same Reason
• HUMBOLDT HOLDING UP: Catching Up on the Arcata Gateway Plan With Senior Planner Delo Freitas
• Want to Learn More About Arcata’s Gateway Plan? City Holding Public Meeting on Wednesday to Answer Your Questions
• A Big Week for the Arcata Gateway Area Plan: Planning Commission, Historical Landmarks Committee to Look at the Area’s Past and Future 
• A Big Public Meetings on Nordic Aquafarms and Arcata’s Gateway Area Plan Tonight
• ARCATA’S GATEWAY PLAN: Big Meetings Coming! Planning Commission to Consider New Public Engagement Approach Ahead of Big Study Session Later This Month
• TONIGHT at ARCATA CITY COUNCIL: Council to Review Request for ‘Gateway Plan Advisory Committee’, Receive Update on Wastewater Treatment Plant
• ‘Gateway Plan Advisory Committee’; Councilmembers Brett Watson and Alex Stillman Argue Over Stillman Not Recusing Herself From Gateway Meetings
• ARCATA’S GATEWAY AREA PLAN: Arcata City Council and Planning Commission Joint Study Session Tonight; Maximum Building Heights May be Set
• Big Gateway Study Session Produces Few Tangible Results
• What’s Next for Arcata’s Gateway Area Plan? Community Development Director Offers Clarification on Results of Recent Study Session
• TODAY in the GATEWAY PLAN: Arcata Planning Commission Will Discuss Plan’s Potential ‘Community Benefits’ During Special Meeting

Norma Johnson cracks a faint smile as she adjusts her stylish cat-eye glasses.

She’s at St. Mary’s Center’s cafeteria in West Oakland, where older adults in interim housing or living on the streets can drop by for a free meal. But Johnson’s mind is elsewhere. Her treasured red leather rocking chair, along with most of her belongings, sits in a storage unit. She’s afraid if she doesn’t pay her $500 balance soon, the storage unit operator will auction everything.

“I gotta pull a rabbit out of my hat,” Johnson, 65, said during a rainy January day. “I don’t want to lose the things I do have. I don’t have a house, and now I won’t have,” she hangs her head before finishing that sentence.

Unexpectedly, Johnson finds herself in the middle of a budding crisis: aging without a home.

California accounts for about a third of the nation’s homeless people, and among this population, seniors are estimated to be the fastest-growing group. One key indicator is the state’s tally of people accessing homelessness services. From 2017 to 2021, California’s overall senior population grew by 7% but the number of people 55 and over who sought homelessness services increased 84% — more than any other age group — according to the state’s Homeless Data Integration System.

For comparison, the number of people accessing homelessness services across all ages increased 43% during this time period.

Elderly people who are homeless include those who have been unhoused for a long time and are getting older. But they also include those who are part of a growing trend, research shows: people experiencing homelessness for the first time after age 50.

Those at increased risk of losing shelter tend to be older adults who live alone and on fixed incomes, with little to no savings. A main contributor, experts say, is that as California rents soar, seniors’ income streams, including Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security Income, have not kept up.

Black Californians have long been overrepresented in the unhoused population — representing about 6% of the state’s population but close to 30% of those accessing homelessness services, state data show.

“For many of us, there’s a picture in our mind connected to substance abuse or mental health issues. And for maybe a quarter of people who are currently unhoused, that is a cause. But most people becoming homeless today do so for economic reasons,” said Sharon Cornu, executive director at St. Mary’s Center, a nonprofit group that operates several services for older adults, including transitional housing.

“As someone in this age group, I can tell you, it’s remarkable to think about; you’ve kept yourself employed and housed and above water this whole time period, and in what ought to be golden years, here you are out on the street,” she said.

Respite at St. Mary’s Center

Just last summer, Johnson was living in a three-bedroom house she shared with a housemate and working at a COVID-19 testing site. But her situation changed suddenly. She had to stop working to undergo surgery for an old back injury. Then her housemate of almost three years moved out, leaving Johnson on the hook for the full $2,500 rent that she could not afford on her own. 

After she lost her place, Johnson was referred to St. Mary’s Center, where she currently shares a trailer with five other people. Everyone who stays at St. Mary’s transitional housing units is 55 or older and many have bounced from the streets to shelters to living in cars or staying with relatives. Here, they have access to a case manager. The goal is to link them to any health and social services they may need and help them find permanent affordable housing. 

Stories like Johnson’s are common among people who have been through St. Mary’s Center — barely making ends meet, an injury or stint of bad health having forced them to leave jobs sooner than they had hoped. In some cases, the death of a loved one, family conflicts or abusive relationships left people without a place to stay. 

Others, like Elbert Lee Jones Jr., spent decades on the streets. Born in Germany to a military family, he and his family moved to Oakland when he was 5 years old. As a young adult, he worked in fast-food restaurants, laundromats and convenience stores.

“I had jobs, had a life, until cocaine came knocking on the door. It came knocking on the door and really messed up a whole lot,” Jones said.

Strong and mostly healthy, he managed on the streets for a long time. Then about three years ago, he woke up in his tent to foot pain so unbearable he could barely stand. An ambulance took him to the closest emergency room, where doctors told him he had gangrene on his toes; they would have to amputate all of them.

“They said ‘If you hadn’t come in when you did, you’da been dead,’” Jones said. “That was the darkest part of my life right there.”

After some time healing at a nursing home, he was back on the streets. In a wheelchair and about to turn 60, his situation was getting more complicated. So when the clinical director at St. Mary’s Center approached Jones under a freeway overpass last year and offered him a place to stay, he accepted. He was reluctant at first, he said. It had been a long time since he’d trusted anyone.

On the streets, 50 is the new 70

Research has shown that living on the streets — eating and sleeping poorly, being exposed to the elements, not getting proper medical care and losing medication during encampment sweeps — will prematurely age, sicken and kill people. That is why when speaking about the homeless population, advocates and experts often refer to “seniors” as anyone 50 and above. 

By the time homeless people are in their 50s and early 60s, they look much more like other people in their 70s and 80s, said Dr. Margot Kushel, director of UC San Francisco’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.

“Everything is shifted back about 20 years,” Kushel said. “The health problems that we normally associate with aging  — vision problems, hearing problems, cognitive impairments, difficulty bathing, difficulty walking — all of those things start much younger.”

Their situation could also trigger anxiety, depression and substance use.

Recently, the state launched incentives for Medi-Cal providers, who serve low-income patients, to start and grow street medicine programs. Historically, most of these programs have been funded by philanthropic groups and foundations. And perhaps now more than ever, these programs play a crucial role, but in limited numbers they can only do so much for this medically needy population. Routine care and timely diagnosis are more difficult when people are moving from one encampment or shelter to another.

And simply put, “There is no medicine as powerful as housing,” Kushel said. 

Researchers for one UCSF study published last summer followed homeless people 50 and older over eight years in Oakland and found they were 3.5 times more likely to die early compared to other seniors in the city. In the study, the median age of death was 64.6 years old, compared to 76.1 years for all Americans. The main causes of death for the unhoused were heart disease, cancer and drug overdose. 

“At this point, I feel like our shelters are slowly becoming de facto nursing facilities.”
— Sara Mirhadi, Chief Program Officer at Poverello House

The health needs of seniors can be complex. And most shelters are not equipped to serve a geriatric population. Programs that serve seniors specifically, like the one at St. Mary’s Center, are few and far between.

Across the state, shelters are being overwhelmed by unhoused people who need more than these facilities can provide. For example, ideally, shelters would have a nurse on site, but that could cost about $90,000 a year per nurse, which most facilities wouldn’t be able to afford, said Sara Mirhadi, chief program officer at Poverello House, which provides food, shelter and social services to homeless people in downtown Fresno. 

In the past several years, her shelter’s population has gotten older and their disabilities have increased. A number of those who come in regularly are in wheelchairs and need help using the bathroom. When you add conditions such as dementia and mental health issues, caring for this population becomes even more challenging, Mirhadi said.

“At this point, I feel like our shelters are slowly becoming de facto nursing facilities,” she said. “I’ve had to ask staff to do a lot of things that they normally wouldn’t do.”

The Fresno-Madera region has seen one of the biggest jumps in homelessness among the 55- and-older population, increasing 216% from 2017 to 2021, state data shows. Coincidentally or not, rents and home prices in the Fresno area have skyrocketed in recent years. Other areas that saw more than a two-fold increase in homelessness among this age group include the Yuba-Sutter area, and Yolo, San Francisco, Merced and Alameda counties. (Homeless data is tracked by regional agencies whose territories can include a single city or several counties.)

“I think we need to really take a hard look at what we’re doing for our elderly population, because they should not be in a shelter,” Mirhadi added. 

Making a dent in homelessness

In January 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom released California’s Master Plan for Aging, a 10-year blueprint on how to better prepare the state for a graying population — a quarter of the state’s residents will be 60 or older by 2030. The rollout of this plan also comes at a time when an estimated 2 million seniors are considered economically insecure, struggling to afford rising rents and health care costs. 

The No. 1 priority in that master plan is increasing affordable housing options for seniors, allowing them to age in place. The plan lays out goals and initiatives that legislators and the administration can pursue over time. 

“Once homeless, older individuals face really unique barriers that make it extremely difficult for them to get housed again, so putting the emphasis on homeless prevention and making that a front and center strategy of dealing with older adult homelessness is something that we are seeing more attention paid to,” said Patti Prunhuber, director of housing advocacy at Justice in Aging, a legal advocacy group focused on senior poverty.

One proposal Prunhuber and other advocates are pushing for this year is Senate Bill 37, carried by Sen. Anna Caballero, a Merced Democrat, that would create a state-run housing subsidy program for elderly people and those with disabilities at highest risk of becoming homeless. A similar bill died in the legislature last year after it failed to receive funding in the state budget. 

A state subsidy program would supplement federal assistance programs — such as Section 8 vouchers —  that help about 10.2 million Americans with “extremely low incomes” afford rent. With demand outpacing supply, only about 4 out of every 10 people eligible for a federal rental subsidy receive it, said Sharon Rapport, California policy director for the Corporation for Supportive Housing, a nonprofit organization that advocates for homelessness prevention and a sponsor of the bill. 

The goal of a state program would be to help people obtain federal rental vouchers, but in the meantime provide state-funded help. This way, more older adults will be able to stay in their current homes, she said.

“The state should be in this business too because the feds alone can’t solve homelessness and the state alone can’t solve homelessness,” Rapport said. “But they can make a big dent in it and eventually solve it if they’re both putting in resources toward programs that work.”  

With the help of housing navigators at St. Mary’s Center, Jones has spent the last eight months filling out applications for subsidized housing. If everything goes as planned, he expects to have his own studio apartment in Oakland by the end of this month.

It’ll be a far cry from his 20-plus years on the streets, he said. 

He has a vision for his place: “I want it to be homey, warm. A place you could be comfortable in,” he said. “I’m going to have pictures up on the walls. I’ve got a green thumb. I’m going to have plants. It’s gonna be nice.”

Johnson said she, too, dreams of having a place to call her own again. 

“I don’t want to have to worry about people leaving me behind with the whole amount of the rent,” she said. “I don’t want to do that anymore.” 

###

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

Audrey Jennifer Wells
September 19, 1931, to December 1, 2022

Audrey Wells passed away peacefully at the age of 91 with her family by her side. As she desired, she was able to stay in her home in Myrtletown thanks to her loving family, caregivers, and the support of Hospice.

Audrey was born September 19, 1931, to Audley Maurer and Jennie Sandkulla Maurer. She was the younger sister to John (Marian) and Alan (Betty) Maurer. A lifetime resident of Humboldt County, Audrey attended Eureka City Schools, graduating from Eureka Senior High School.

She attended Humboldt State University while working for her father’s construction company, Fred J. Maurer & Sons, as a bookkeeper. It was during this time that Audrey met Carleton (Corky) Wells, and they married in 1951. They lived a life dedicated to their family, having three children Lindsay, David, and Tracey. There were frequent camping trips to Richardson’s Grove and to the Larson’s cabin in Willow Creek in the summers, but also bigger adventures such as to San Francisco, Tahoe and Disneyland. While Corky loved social outings such as Friday nights at the Elks Club, Audrey was just as happy curling up on the couch at home and reading a good book. (She recommends the Gamache series of books by Louise Penny and the Jack Reacher series by Lee Child.) Audrey and Corky had been married 42 years when he prematurely passed away in 1993. Audrey spent the next 29 years supporting her family in ways big and small. The family home was the center of annual Christmas, Easter, July Fourth and family birthday celebrations; as well as hosting periodic events such as weddings, baby showers, and Super Bowl parties. While she had several types of fruit trees, she was best known for her lemon tree, which produced enough fruit for the entire neighborhood to stop by and pick when needed.

Audrey worked in the home as a bookkeeper when her children were young, waiting until all were asleep to pull out the receipts, paperwork and the clackety old adding machine. Later, she went to work for the Humboldt County Appraiser’s office, retiring after a lengthy and successful career. Some of her best friends came from her work world; Karen Templeton, Tiny Hershberger, and Mari Wilson among them. If your property tax bill was accurate in the 1980s and 1990s you can credit this hardworking gang.

Audrey loved all the Bay Area professional sporting teams; including the Giants and 49ers. But she saved her most passionate devotion for the Warriors, and her favorite player Steph Curry. Indeed, she had her Warriors blanket covering her on her bed at the time of her passing. Audrey is survived by son David (Kathy), daughter Lindsay (Fernando), daughter Tracey (Vince), her grandchildren Jamie (Deanna), Katy (Omid), Jessie and Christopher (Jessie), and numerous nieces and nephews and other family members.

The family would like to thank our mom’s caregivers Wendy, Brandie and Hazel for their care and dedication. We would also like to thank the exceptional staff at Hospice. Without these special people we could not have cared for Mom at home, fulfilling her one final wish.

At the time of her death, Audrey was looking forward to the birth of her first great grandchild. A celebration of life will be held when the new baby, Shyla Delara Talai, is able to join us in honoring and celebrating Audrey our mother, grandmother and friend.

###

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

Harry Spurling finished his earthly course on Tuesday evening, January 31, 2023, at home in Willow Creek. He was 74 years old.

He was born in Southern California in 1948. However, he was fond of saying he was made in Japan, where his parents, R. Wayne and Ellen Spurling, met after WWII.

The family moved to Sunny Brae, Arcata, where Harry eventually became the oldest of six children. As a young boy, the neighborhood was his playground. He loved riding bikes and playing in the woods with his friends and brothers.

As he reached adulthood, he searched for the purpose of life. That journey took him back to the book his mother had read to him as a child. Recognizing the Bible as the truth, Harry began to associate with the Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses and made it his life’s work to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.

On January 3, 1976, he married Patricia, his faithful wife for 47 years. During their early years, they traveled to the Sioux and Navajo reservations where they shared their hope that God’s Kingdom will restore peace on earth among every nation, tribe and language. (Revelation 7:9, 14) Later, they settled in Willow Creek.

During their 42 years living in Willow Creek, Harry and Patricia loved hiking and have been to many of the lakes in the Trinity Alps. In the past several years, they also took yearly trips with Patricia’s sister and brother-in-law to such places as Lassen and Yosemite, where Harry enjoyed seeing evidence of Jehovah God’s handiwork.

All along, Harry worked diligently to provide for his family. He was well known as a jack-of-all-trades in the Trinity River area. He could clean it, unlock it, replace it, mow it, paint it — all while being the best neighbor he could be.

Remembering his roots, Harry took on the job of preserving his father’s photographs taken in post-war Japan. He painstakingly digitized hundreds of images and then curated gallery showings at Humboldt State University and in Weaverville.

Harry has been described as a helpful and generous friend, a true brother when there was a need. Countless friends and family received his help on a moment’s notice. He was willing to travel hundreds of miles when needed to assist a friend in distress. For those who knew him, the name Harry Spurling will bring to mind a man who gave thoughtful advice rooted in Scripture. His comments, his public discourses, and his prayers revealed the depth of his spirituality.

Harry was preceded in death by his parents, R. Wayne and Ellen Spurling and his brother William Spurling.

He is survived by Patricia, his wife, by his brother, Patrick Spurling of Zurich, Switzerland, sister-in-law, Jo Anne Spurling, sisters and their husbands, Joy and Mark Smelser of Independence, Mo, C. Michelle and Ron Pontoni of Bayside, and Melody and Troy Poff of Redwood Valley. And he left behind his loved ones in the Willow Creek Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The family wishes to sincerely thank Kathryn Stollmeyer PA-C, for her compassionate care of Harry.

A memorial service will be held at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses at 65 Blue Jay Lane, Willow Creek, on February 18th, at 2 p.m. It will also be streamed via Zoom. ID: 878 1554 8254. Passcode: 692952

###

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

Lyn Edward Bagley was tragically taken from this earth on December 21, 2022 at the age of 53 from a hit and run accident on Highway 299. He was born February 3, 1969 to Carl and Frances Bagley in Fortuna.

Lyn — a.k.a “the Legend” and a.k.a “The Bags” — was a friend and brother to many. He was a larger-than-life kind of guy, literally and metaphorically. His height measuring in at 6 foot 6 inches, he stood out in a crowd. Lyn loved playing baseball (catcher) as a young man. His favorite sports teams were the San Francisco Giants, Las Vegas Raiders or as he was growing up the Oakland Raiders, and the Los Angeles Lakers. Lyn was the kind of guy that would give the clothes he was wearing for a person in need and he would do anything for any of his friends or family. He was a big guy with a bigger heart. He lit up the room with his smile and sense of humor. He was the protector of many. He will be missed tremendously by so many.

Lyn had worked for different lumber companies in Humboldt County for many years. He also worked for Professional Tree Services, where he met and made many friends.

Lyn is survived by his brothers, Eddie Shields, and Dale Bagley; nieces and nephews, Shayla Verbich (Mike), Shaun Bagley, Skylur Bagley, and Ryan Shields; his many aunts, uncles and cousins on both the Bagley and Smith side; and we can’t forget about his fur friend Toby.

He is preceded in death by his parents Carl Edward Bagley and Frances Irene Bagley, grandparents, Harold Arthur Smith and Hattie Irene Smith, sister-in-law Sherry McDonald.

There was a private burial service on January 18, 2023 in Fortuna. A celebration of life (pot luck style) is scheduled for Saturday February 11, 2023 at 1 p.m. at Sequoia Park in Eureka. If you are able, please bring a side dish and a good story.

Thank you to all of Lyn’s friends and family members for the wonderful pictures, memories and kind words. It means so much!

###

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