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It’s been a rough month for the staff at Singing Trees Recovery Center. 

Less than a month after reopening Singing Trees, a drug detox and rehab facility located in Southern Humboldt, the new owner, Amber Rose Bedell, was arrested on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and child endangerment – her third DUI arrest since 2016 and her second for child endangerment, according to state and county records.

Although Bedell has very little to do with the day-to-day operations at the facility, staff say her “unhealthy choice” has “affected not only the facility but also residents and employees.”

“Unfortunately it has affected people calling us and coming in,” Singing Trees counselor Marilynne Walpole told this Outpost in a phone interview this afternoon. “You know, even though we’ve had this chaos, the counselors have been able to focus on the clients and give them the best possible service and they’ve all been making great progress. We’ve been trying to stay focused on them and not on the outside stuff that keeps happening.”

Walpole offered her apologies to the community and emphasized her commitment to Singing Trees’ residents.

“We want to thank the community for being understanding, for being forgiving and, you know, and recognizing that we have no control over what other people do, just how we cope with them,” she said. 

When asked whether Bedell still owns the center under her nonprofit Pure Solution Family Services, Walpole said Bedell is “technically leasing it” from the previous owners Pattie and Chuck Watson. She emphasized that Bedell has “not been involved with any part” of the programming at the center. 

“[Pure Solutions] is still technically the owner, but I think I’ve seen [Bedell] maybe four times since January,” she said. “There’s a perception that she’s guiding us but – not anything towards her – we have been the ones that have done everything there. Our Program Manager Courtney [Bell] and her family did all the renovations. I’ve done the program content and the policies and procedures. Aside from doing the lease with the [previous] owners she hasn’t been involved. She’s basically the money person.”

In addition to the recent controversy surrounding Bedell’s arrest, the center’s phone has been on the fritz due to ongoing issues with Frontier and Suddenlink. 

“We’ve had issues before but it’s never gotten to the extent that it is now where people are unable to reach us,” Walpole said. “And if people can get through, you know, sometimes I’ll be in the middle of a conversation and the call will just drop.”

They shifted their main line to US Cellular but are still working with Frontier and Suddenlink to straighten out the issues with their landlines. In the meantime, Walpole encouraged people seeking services to get in touch via email. Singing Trees’ Program Manager Courtney Bell can be reached at courtney.bell@pure-solutions.org.

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Singing Trees released the following statement via PRWeb:

Singing Trees Recovery Center has been the center of controversy for the past few weeks as the new owner of Singing Trees made an unhealthy choice that has affected not only the facility but also residents and employees. Singing Trees Recovery Center remains open and is independently operated by a professional on-site staff team who will continue building a unique and beneficial program for all Singing Trees residents.

Singing Trees Recovery Center employees sincerely apologize for the situation and any negativity and/or distress it has caused residents, their loved ones, and the community. The employees remain steadfast and committed to all past, present, and future residents. Singing Trees aims to continue to have strong, positive communication within the team, making this a learning experience while having compassion and empathy.

“I would like to convey that the employees of Singing Trees have kept the resident’s safety first and foremost while maintaining ethical boundaries at all times,” states program manager Courtney Bell.

About Singing Trees Recovery Center:

This situation allows Singing Trees Recovery Center to display its core tools and belief systems, which include honesty, integrity, faith, empathy, and how to move forward in difficult and public controversy. Singing Trees Recovery Center is grateful for the opportunity to continue to serve the community in a much-needed capacity, while helping educate individuals so they may implement the tools they learn to have a healthy and successful recovery.

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Previously: 

• ‘It Was the Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Had to Do’: Singing Trees Owner Closes the Beloved Recovery Center After 31 Years Of Serving the Community
• After Closing Its Doors Late Last Year, Singing Trees Recovery Center Will Reopen Next Week Under New Ownership
• New Owner of Singing Trees Recovery Center Arrested for DUI and Child Endangerment, and in Odd Interview She Denies That the State Revoked Her Therapy License. (It Did.)

Rob Arkley is back at it again! This time with a new ballot initiative that would block new affordable housing in downtown Eureka and rezone the former Jacobs Middle School site for dense housing. (To be clear: more density is great! But Eureka City Schools, which owns the site, has already turned down an offer from the city to purchase the lot and California Highway Patrol is deep in negotiations to purchase some of the land.)

Jen Kalt of Humboldt Baykeeper and Matt Simmons of EPIC join the show to discuss Arkley’s previous ballot initiatives—whatever happened to the Marina Center?—and the consequences of the ballot initiative should it pass.

California newspapers of the mid-1800s are filled with the “feuds and fussin’s” of their editors, which quite frequently led directly to a duel on the outskirts of town. And because the populace in the mining and lumbering back country was usually cut off from the mainstream of news, the editors in these smaller communities weren’t averse to making up their own. The resulting verbal broadsides and “art of repartee” were fondly appreciated by these pioneers.

One such encounter took place in Humboldt County in 1859 between the junior editor of the Northern Californian and the editor of the Weekly Humboldt Times. The Californian was published in Union (Arcata) by Colonel Stephen Whipple and came out on Wednesdays. The Times was published Saturdays in Eureka by A.J. Wiley and edited at times by J.E. Wyman, an attorney who had been a superior court judge and would, in 1864, become the owner and publisher of the Times.

The two newspapers had been exchanging verbal rhetoric over politics even before the arrival of 21-year-old F.B. Harte, a moody, restless young man who had a fervent desire to be a writer. Two of his poems were already in print, their language flowery. Through the intercession of his friend, Charles Murdoch, of Union, Harte was employed by Whipple as a printer’s devil and reporter in early 1859. He soon learned to pare down his words and developed a descriptive style that was all his own. But Harte found few friends in the community who appreciated his satiric wit.

J.E. Wyman was Harte’s exact opposite. A volatile, energetic man who was not averse to “having a drink with the boys.” he hunted down news wherever he could find it, either along Eureka’s rollicking waterfront or somewhere else in the county. His paper reflected the feeling which was prevalent throughout California on the government’s “extermination” policy — the annihilation of the California Indian population.

Near the end of 1859 Harte was put in charge of the Northern Californian several times by editor and publisher, Whipple. Harte’s writing reflected his newfound confidence, since several of his poems and writings had been published in the Golden Era, a literary publication based in San Francisco which appreciated his penchant for satire. Earlier in the year he had lampooned Whipple, who was said to be “dating” in San Francisco. Harte wrote a description of Whipple’s appearance, including mention of his large bouquet of flowers, and told about him standing in a “glassy-eyed” state before the window of a dressmaker’s shop. Wyman, in the Times, chortled, “Come home, dear Stephen.”

On November 26, Wyman printed in what he said was an answer to a subscriber’s letter, a proud report of Eureka’s thriving business concerns, listing the sawmills, saloons, hotels, leather shops, etc., adding there were also two doctors and a dentist. This was too good a chance for Harte to let pass, and he promptly wrote an account of the business in Union which, of course, lampooned Eureka:

Our neighbor at the lower “end of the bay” has written an account of Eureka. The subjoined “idea” of Union was conceived and projected some time since by a friend who expected to be written to on the subject. Owing to the mortifying circumstances of his not having received any request to that effect, he was not induced to hand us the same for publication. There seems to be a vein of levity under all his seriousness and a vein of seriousness substratifying his levity:

“Union is a country town remarkable for having been the birthplace of several of posterity. The inhabitants are intelligent and warlike. Education has revealed the necessity of ‘going in when it rains,’ for which purpose several houses have been erected, and about half that number will be built as occasion arises. The people of Union are in the habit of eating three meals a day, at which time bells are rung at the principal hotels. It may be remarked as a singular circumstance that the omission of bell ringing would not in all probability alter the regular habits of the people. Owing to the cost of living a majority of the people ‘board.’ All other kinds of lumber are profitable. There is one flour mill, one saw mill and several other mills in town. Most of the latter are used for grinding coffee. The Northern Californian originates here. Union is not the capital of the U.S., but possesses many interests of object to capital, and some capital objects of interest. The End.”

On December 3, Wyman replied in a piece entitled “Now and Then:” “Occasionally some very good things appear in the Northern California — now and then some very silly things. For instance, the ludicrous description of the business in Union…It was intended to burlesque a local item which appeared in these columns last week.” Wyman stressed that the article of the week before was really printed in a response to questions submitted by a subscriber, and he had the subscriber’s name on file should anyone want to see it.

But “we admire a joke,” continued the Times’ editor, “and fully apereciate (sic) the bountiful supply of wit, humor, classical language and poetry which flow through the columns of the Californian, but we would suggest to our neighbor the propriety of selecting subjects for the exercise of his cargo of sarcasm which are not calculated to increase local prejudices, too much of which already exists — more particularly at this time than any other should they be avoided.”

Yet not to be outdone in the rich field of sarcasm, Wyman had to add, “With all due respect for the enterprise and brilliancy of the Californian’s editor, and without the slightest reference to the poetical production on the outside of his paper this week, we would like to enquire why he omitted, along with the mills there which grind anything from flour to coffee, to mention the ‘machine which grinds out poetry’.” This referred to “Why She Didn’t Dance,” a poem that Harte wrote and printed on page one.

Why She Didn’t Dance
by Frank “Bret”

Tell me brown eyed maiden, O, gazelle eyed houri.
Draped in gorgeous raiment, circumscribed in gingham
Round thy neck a coral, and from each auricular pendulous an earring;

Sittest thou so lonely, white the dance voluptuous
Twirls its giddy circles, twines its coils fantastic.
Charming like a serpent to the gently witching, scrapings of the fiddle. 

Art thou sighing, sighing, for the “distant prairie, ” and the meek eyed heifer dormant in the meadow
Where thy fancy fondly drew the lacteal fluid from the class mammalia? “

Or hast thou a passion, called by some, erotic.
Superimposed on man, by Love’s first faint induction;
Countest thou the petals of the rosy hours
Waiting for thy ‘feller’?”

Raised her brown eyes softly, that reflective maiden.
Raised her sweeping lashes, like sable curtain.
From its crimson portals poured her honied accents
As she made me answer:

“I’ve jest sot and sot — till I’m nearly rooted,
Waitin for the fellers, dern their lazy picters.
Stranger, I’ll trot with ye, ef you’ll wait a minit.
Till I chawed my rawzum.”

Harte made sure two poems adorned page one on December 7. Then he reprinted the Times rebuttal and gleefully took it apart:

Then…and Now?

The article alluded to was simply a burlesque of a burlesque, and little befitting the Olympian majesty of such a rebuke. We give the dignified conclusion of the Times’ notice of Eureka, upon which our folly was based:

“Of the societies there are the Humboldt Library Association, one Lodge of Masons, one of Odd Fellows, and the Ancient and Honorable Order of E. Clampsis Vitiis.”

Was this a joke? If it were, the clown has no right to make a dignified personal issue with the ringmaster who cracks his whip and his joke at his fellow actor; still less has the editor of the Times any reason to use the cant of “local prejudice” as a shield in such an encounter.

We deem this explanation due to any whom we may have unwittingly offended. Our contemporary’s style we won’t criticise. We leave it to the higher law of etymology and syntax. Noah Webster might object to the exercise of any cargo, but Noah Webster, though an editor, was not a critic.

Reserving our wit for the peroration, in flattering imitation of our superiors, and in the hope of saying something that may combine “classical” learning, “humor,” “sarcasm” and “poetry,” we would remark that somebody’s article reminds us of a description of modern Pompeii —” A patched structure of mud and straw, remarkable as being erected over an ancient italic base.”

Wyman’s reply of December 10 reads: ‘ “… the apology of the Northern California of Wednesday last … is perfectly satisfactory to us — at least the part we can comprehend. We did not, however, expect to have our ‘larnin kritisized’ in ‘ettemology’ and ‘swine-tax.’ We acknowledge the superiority of our neighbors, and although we have never represented ‘Kalamity’ County in the legislature, nor written poetry for the ‘Golden Era,’ we can readily understand and fully appreciate such beautiful and purely original sentiments as: ‘I’ve jest sot and sot till I’ve nearly rooted.”

Readers could laugh at Harte’s jab at the Times editor’s writing ability and also laugh at Wyman’s parry. But to catch the impact of Wyman’s thrust regarding the phrase having “never represented Kalamith County in the legislature,” they would have had to know that Colonel Whipple (and Wyman) dabbled in politics. (Whipple was appointed colonel by the legislature during the Klamath Indian Wars of 1852; he was later appointed Indian agent for Klamath and Humboldt Counties. Klamath County, by the way, was one of California’s original counties, but because of alleged dishonesty on the part of its government its size was chipped away by the formation of other counties, such as Humboldt, and was finally dissolved in 1874.)

In the December 10 issue Wyman also pecked at the Union newspaper and its acting editor: “LARGE RADDISH. Some friend has laid a very large and peculiar shaped raddish on our table. We intend sending it to the Northern Californian as a present to the junior editor.”

Harte fielded each attack with finesse on December 14, Regarding the radish he reprinted the Times article and wrote: “If the peculiar shape of the radish be owing to its being so very badly spelt, we would remark that we have already too many specimens from that editor’s table.”

Regarding “ettemology” and “swinetax” Harte wrote this little story:

The hogs about Union have petitioned for the repeal of the ‘Hog Ordinance.’ They give as a reason that they don’t know anything about a ‘swine-tax.’ 

And regarding poetry and politics:

We were once acquainted with an individual who never published any poetry, or represented any county. His singular condition may be attributed to the fact that the publishers rejected the former and the people didn’t nominate him to the latter.

Three days later Wyman responded:

The editor of the Northern Californian once knew an ‘individual’ who didn’t represent ‘any county’ because the people didn’t nominate him. We have the pleasure of an acquaintance with an individual who didn’t represent a county after the party did nominate him.

There the matter stayed, although in January Harte printed that on New Year’s Eve, “someone who ought to know better chose this time to get drunk and create a disturbance.” There is no way to prove the gentleman in question was really Wyman; if it were, the Times preferred to remain quiet—perhaps because Wyman’s fondness for imbibing was too well known. Eureka had its own term for “having one last drink,” called “Let’s wing round the circle.” It was said to be “the favorite expression of A. J. just before he is carried to bed,” according to the Times a few years later.

Events went along quietly for the next month until February 26, 1860. Whipple was in Eureka, again on his way to San Francisco, leaving Harte in charge of the paper. At four o’clock on a Sunday morning, Wiyot Indians, asleep on what was called Günther Island, were massacred. With them were friends and relatives from the lower reaches of the Mad and Eel Rivers. Only a very few escaped the knives, axes and hatchets of the reported five or six white men. Two gunshots were fired and heard in Eureka.

A number of Union residents were awakened by the anguished cries of the Mad River Indians as they passed by on their way home. From the impression made on Harte, it seems quite likely he saw a number of the victims himself, many of them dead, dying or disfigured for life. It was said that there were about 70 Indians on the island and only a very few escaped death or wounds in the massacre.

Harte elaborated on the slaughter under a 14-point headline:

INDISCRIMINATE MASSACRE OF INDIANS WOMEN AND CHILDREN BUTCHERED

…Little children and old women were mercilessly stabbed and their skulls crushed by axes. When the bodies were landed in Union, a more shocking and revolting spectacle never was exhibited to the eyes of a Christian and civilized people. Old women, wrinkled and decrepit, lay weltering in blood, their brains dashed out and dabbed with long grey hair. Infants, scarse a span long, with their faces cloven with hatchets and their bodies ghastly with wounds…

Whipple in his account forwarded from Eureka said it was a sickening and pitiful sight.

But Harte wasn’t through yet. In writing an editorial he gave the reasons leading to the massacre, but then to the indignation of the populace he more than condemned the atrocity:

The people of this county have been long suffering and patient. They have had homes plundered, property destroyed, and the lives of friends sacrificed. The protection of the Federal Force has been found inadequate…

But we can conceive of no palliation for woman and child slaughter. We can conceive of no wrong that a babe’s blood can atone for. Perhaps we do not rightly understand the doctrine of ‘extermination.’ How a human, with the faculty of memory, who could recall his mother’s grey hairs, who could remember how he had been taught to respect age and decrepitude, who had ever looked upon a helpless infant with a father’s eye could with cruel unpitying hand carry out the ‘extermination’ that his brain had conceived—who could smite the mother and child wontonly and cruelly — few men can understand. What amount of suffering it takes to make a man a babe-killer is a question for future moralists. What will justify it should be a question of present law.

Such an editorial written for a proextermination readership could only bring scorn upon Harte and the Northern Californian. The rival Times felt it had to defend the massacre:

There are men in this county, as there may be elsewhere, where the Government allows these degraded diggers to roam at large, and plunder and murder without restraint, who have become perfectly desperate, and we have here some of the fruits of that desperation. They have had friends or relatives cruelly and savagely butchered, their homes made desolate, and their hard-earned property destroyed by these sneaking, cowardly wretches; and when an attempt is made to hunt them from their hiding places in the mountains, to administer merited punishment upon them, they escape to friendly ranches on the coast for protection…

…If in defense of your property and your all, it becomes necessary to break up these hiding places of your mountain enemies, so be it; but for heavens sake, in doing this, do not forget to what race you belong.

We say this in all kindness, and sincerely hope that such an indiscriminate slaughter may never occur again in this county.

So much feeling was stirred up in the county that two months later, in April, a grand jury investigation was called. But as no one came forward to accuse the “perpetrators of this outrage,” there were no indictments.

In March of 1860 Harte was asked to leave Whipple’s employ. Major A.H. Murdock, Whipple’s partner, admitted that articles written by Harte had put Murdock in possible physical danger. Present day reports that Harte “sat at his desk with loaded revolvers” seems to be an exaggerated statement. Harte, it was said, “couldn’t hit the side of a barn,” and no one knew it better than he. Perhaps the idea was suggested from a much earlier remark Harte made in the paper with reference to a few things left with him which were waiting for Whipple’s return: “…a derringer, which won’t imitate his (Whipple’s) example and go off, a challenge, two quarrels, a letter written in an indignant female hand…”

Francis Bret Harte left the redwood country on the steamer Columbia on March 26. Whipple wrote a friendly send-off, published in the Northern California, saying he wished Mr. Harte great success and was sure his talent would be soon recognized. Editor Wyman even reprinted Whipple’s remarks. A few months later the Northern Californian merged with the Times.

Four years later, though, Wyman remarked on his erstwhile rival’s success: “Mr. F.B. Harte, formerly of this county, and a very pleasing writer, has taken charge of the Californian, a literary paper published in San Francisco.” Absence had made the heart grow fonder.

San Francisco, at this time in history, had become a mecca for aspiring writers; in fact, all facets of culture had a ready audience in the gold-plated city, already on fire with its own ambition. Harte, his style polished by his efforts on the Northern Californian, found ready employment and a measure of acceptance in the literary world that centered on Montgomery Street. With the publishing of “Luck of Roaring Camp” (1868), he was on his way to national fame.

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The author appreciates the generosity of Martha Beers Roscoe for excerpts from her copy of the Northern Californian, the cooperation received from the reference librarians at Humboldt State University and the Humboldt County Library.

Harvey Danney Harper (Dan) was born in Eureka on August 22, 1946, and passed away on July 18, 2023. He is survived by his wife and best friend of 43 years, Beverly H. Harper; son Trevor Harper and his wife Wendy of Freshwater; daughters Courtney Harper and her partner, Matt Garrett of Freshwater, and Elizabeth Henderson and her husband, Spencer of West Linn, Oregon; sister Elizabeth Anne Lawson and her daughter Starbright of Eureka; stepbrother Clarence ‘Butch’ Parton of Eureka; sister-in-law Donna Harper of Courtland, California; nephew Eric Harper and his wife Maiko, and their daughters Sophie and Lauren of Dallas, Texas. He is also survived by his grandchildren Morgan, Marshall, and Rose Marie Harper of Freshwater.

He was preceded in death by his mother, Mildred Johnson Harper; brothers Geddes E. Harper and Michael G. Harper; stepmother Elizabeth A. Harper; and father, Harvey G. Harper.

Dan grew up in Humboldt County, attending Marshall Elementary and Eureka High School. He attended Humboldt State University in Arcata. Dan left his studies at Humboldt State to pursue his dream of becoming a race car driver. He worked during the day at the family Ford Dealership in downtown Eureka and spent the evenings working on his race cars. His racing experience included the Continental Formula 5000 Series and later the Northern Auto Racing Club (NARC) Sprint Car Series. Dan raced on a shoestring budget and depended on his friends’ help, for which he is forever grateful.

After learning he was not getting particularly rich or famous racing cars, he spent more of his working career helping the family automobile business grow and moving the operation to its current location on the highway. He is a past member of the Eureka Rotary Club (1974 to 1984) and a former President of the Eureka Chamber of Commerce. He is a member of the Arcata Chamber of Commerce and the Ingomar Club.

Dan enjoyed being with his family and spending time at Hawkins Bar, Mad River, and Big Lagoon.

In Dan’s earlier years, he was an avid duck, deer, and bear hunter; however, after shooting a bear on Friday Ridge in Trinity County, a spiritual feeling came over him, and he quit hunting. He did continue to fish all over the United States, Mexico, and New Zealand. His greatest thrill in fishing was letting them go!

At Dan’s request, no services will be held. In lieu of flowers, donations, or anything else, Dan requests that you and your loved ones go out to a nice dinner and enjoy life!

Dan’s family would like to thank Hospice for their comfort and care.

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• Former Humboldt Public Health Officer Talks About Her Plans for a Non-Profit Senior Care Community, Volunteering As COVID-19 Contact Tracer and How the County Has Handled the Pandemic
• Cal Poly Humboldt Pays Almost Double to Swipe 16-Acre Arcata Property, Foiling Long-Term Plans for Senior Living Community

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After years of searching, Life Plan Humboldt (LPH) – a local nonprofit dedicated to planning, building and supporting a mixed-income senior housing community in Humboldt – has secured a location for its planned project, after signing an agreement with Anne Pierson for the 14.58-acre property south of Hiller Road in McKinleyville. 

“The contract assures that Life Plan Humboldt can finalize ownership once construction plans are approved, licensing is secured, deposits are collected from future residents, and financing is obtained,” said a press release sent to the Outpost on Thursday. 

Up until last year, LPH was very close to obtaining a 16-acre property on Foster Avenue in Arcata, which had previously been planned to house the Creek Side senior housing project. When Foster Avenue LLC decided to sell the property, LPH spent more than a year negotiating with the company to buy the property for $3 million and construct its own vision for a senior living community. But in 2022 the company instead accepted an offer from Cal Poly Humboldt, which had agreed to pay nearly double the asking price.

But despite the hiccup, LPH is now able to move full steam ahead with its planning and funding processes and, Doctor Pat Girczyc, vice president of LPH, said that the nonprofit is very excited about securing the McKinleyville property, which was the group’s second choice out of five locations that had been considered. This is also a great time to be building something like this in McKinleyville, Girczyc said, with plans for a  McKinleyville town center in the works. 

LPH presdident Ann Lindsey and property owner Ann Pierson celebrate their agreement

“This was a place we’ve been really interested in,” Girczyc told the Outpost about the McKinleyville property. “It’s more of a blessing in disguise that we didn’t get the property in the Arcata bottoms. … It’s an exciting time for McKinleyville and this project is exciting because it’s innovative for our part of the state, for our community.” 

Girczyc said that the nonprofit is currently working to complete the necessary surveys of the property, finalize design plans and start choosing an architect. Another important step LPH is working on is finding investors and raising enough money to complete the purchase of the land and move forward with construction. Realistically, Girczyc said, it will be five or six years before the project is complete. 

LPH’s employees and volunteers, including the nonprofit’s president Ann Lindsay MD, have been working since 2019 to bring a Life Plan Community to Humboldt, something that they see as filling a gap in our area’s senior housing options. Unlike an assisted living facility, a Life Plan Community offers independent living for seniors and focuses on promoting an overall healthy and active lifestyle, as well as providing a social community for its residents. 

There is still a lot of work to do before finalizing a design for the development, but initial plans include more than 200 cottages and apartments that could hold one or two people, with 60 units being set aside for low-income residents. The community will also hold a community kitchen, other common areas and lots of outdoor recreation opportunities, including parks and trails. 

Girczyc also wanted to mention that LPH is currently trying to gather feedback from potential residents on what amenities and features they would like to see included in the design. There is a move-in survey available on LPH’s website, for people to weigh in and help LPH’s plans for the community and help gauge who is interested in moving into the community once it is built. 

Girczyc said that, once built, the LPH campus will be a huge asset to the community. Not only will having a large group of people move to the area be good for businesses in McKinleyville, but establishing more housing options for seniors is a growing need amid the “Silver Tsunami.” Seniors moving into LPH will also free up other housing stock, while still allowing seniors who have family or other ties to Humboldt to be able to stay in the area if they want to move into a Life Plan Community. 

“I think that [this project] provides an opportunity for the community to preserve the experience and information of people who’ve lived and worked in the community their whole lives, and allow them to be able to stay here and continue to contribute to the community,” Girczyc said.  

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When Betty Kwan Chinn first saw the design of the colorful new mural being painted along an exterior wall of the Eureka homeless center that bears her name, the local humanitarian hero was stunned: The imagery, which includes mourning doves, sunflowers and a coastal landscape interspersed with a playful poem about hope, struck Chinn as a depiction of her own life story.

She remembers turning to the artist behind the mural, 33-year-old Mir de Silva, with a question.

“I asked her, ‘Do you know me? Where’d you get my story?’” Chinn recalled. 

De Silva didn’t know Chinn’s harrowing life story — not the early part, anyway. She just knew of Chinn’s tireless work with the homeless.

Raised in a military family, de Silva moved to Humboldt County eight years ago, attending College of the Redwoods and Humboldt State University, graduating with degrees in art education and studio art.

“I moved here in 2015, and I’ve heard every myth and tale of her, you know, taking the shoes off her feet while driving around in the Hoopa area to provide shoes for the homeless — all the stories, and I was like, you know, she’s cool,” de Silva said.

Standing with de Silva in front of the partially painted mural earlier this week, Chinn explained how she sees her own story in its images.

“When I was really young, I wanted to die,” she began.

To understand how she sees such darkness in this cheerful mural, you’ll need a bit of context.

Chinn was just seven years old when she was turned out of her family’s home in China’s Guangdong province during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. North Coast Journal News Editor Thadeus Greenson described this period of her life in a 2016 profile:

Targeted because of her parents’ wealth and Christian beliefs, Chinn spent years homeless on the streets. Alone, with her mother jailed and her siblings hauled off to labor camps, she found refuge in a garbage dump and foraged for food. Mao’s Red Guard forbade Chinn from speaking to people and hung a wooden sign around her neck with wire that read “child of the devil.” She was ostracized and beaten, and years later would have to relearn how to speak. She lived like this for four years until — after having seen family members tortured and killed — Chinn and three of her siblings fled, hiking hundreds of miles before swimming across the Pearl River Delta to freedom in Hong Kong.

The story Chinn sees in this new mural is not that one, exactly, but rather the hope that paradoxically sprung from such a grim existence, a period so bleak that, at her lowest point, she wanted to die. Until …

“A little tiny bird, he scratched my face, and when I saw him [fly away] I said, ‘I have a dream, and someday I’m going to fly out of here. I’m going to free myself,’” Chinn said. “And then I see the bird there!” She gestured up at the golden-hued mourning dove half-painted on the wall behind her, its wings spread in flight.

She finds the mural’s sunflowers another potent image, their dish-shaped heads a source of inspiration even when the sun itself is not shining. And the sketched-in coastal scene reminds her of that long swim to freedom across the Pearl River Delta.

“It’s really, really the story of my life, and every time I look at that bird it really gives me a lot of encouragement,” Chinn said, her face beaming with happiness.

“And then they have this poem in here. Even better!”

The poem, composed in spoken word style by de Silva’s neighbor, Rashad Hedgepeth, is an irreverent paean to hope. (The word appears nearly 20 times in the short composition.)

”The hope they talk about, this is real,” Chinn said. “You have no idea how many people stop by and write it down or take a picture. It’s beautiful.” Gesturing toward de Silva, she added, “She’s really wonderful. Good artist.”

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In another (perhaps less significant) coincidence, de Silva is painting her mural around the same time as the latest Eureka Street Art Festival, though this project is independent of that endeavor. Chinn explained that it’s being entirely financed by one generous donor, who wants to remain anonymous.

“I didn’t know that!” de Silva exclaimed.

She (de Silva) initially sought to get the project funded through a round of 2022 grants administered by the Humboldt County Association of Governments, but it was an awkward fit — the agency asked specifically for projects to convey the hardships created by the local housing shortage — and the opportunity passed.

But the board of the nonprofit Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless Foundation still wanted a mural, and its members signed off on de Silva’s design, though it took her a while to come up with one.

“I was really intimidated when I saw the size of the wall,” she said. 

In search of a starting point, she asked Hedgepeth to compose a poem about hope and then used his words as inspiration.

“I was hanging onto the idea of a bird in flight being a very hopeful image and going across a lot of denominations — spiritual people, environmentalists … I feel like the bird flying is a really universal symbol,” de Silva said.

White doves struck her as too cheesy, but she feels strongly about showcasing native flora and fauna in her murals, and since our region has its share of mourning doves, they fit the bill.

But the prospect of filling such a large wall was still daunting.

“I had a lot of sleepless nights,” she said. Thankfully, she was able to use the 11-inch planks of the building’s siding as a grid on which she could map out her design.

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“So I was able to freehand this with chalk,” she said of the mural. “It makes it so much easier than me trying to get a projector. … It’s a lot more loosey goosey, which you’d think would make it more intimidating, but it actually helped me to make this kind of a fun, meditative process instead of me being hell-bent on it being perfect.”

De Silva, like Chinn, hopes the mural brightens up this generally drab stretch of the city and inspires the people who come across it.

”I know that a lot of people consider the homeless problem an aesthetic issue,” de Silva said, noting that Chinn tends to focus her efforts in parts of the city that some residents deliberately avoid. “And so that’s where artists come in and try to make that [area] a little bit more positive. I love what she’s doing. I think drawing positive attention to what she’s doing is important.”

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For years, the California Highway Patrol has had its sights set on the former Jacobs Junior High School campus in Eureka’s Highland Park neighborhood as a potential location for its new headquarters. That vision is beginning to take shape.

Local CHP officials held an informational meeting at Fort Humboldt Historic State Park on Thursday afternoon to gauge community opinion about the proposal. There were around 20 attendees, including several representatives from the City of Eureka and a few community members, all of whom seemed to support the development.

“Honestly, I’ve lived here for 28 years, about a block away from that eyesore, and I can’t even imagine why anybody would not want this building,” said one resident of the Highland Park neighborhood, who chose not to identify herself. “It would blow my mind if somebody did not want this building because it’s just horrendous to look at right now. I support this 100 percent.”

The proposed facility would be positioned on the corner of Allard Avenue and Utah Street, in the footprint of the former school, with patrol traffic likely flowing west to Highway 101 via McCullens Avenue. Humboldt Area CHP Captain Commander Larry Depee, formerly of Del Norte County, compared the conceptual design of the building to the CHP headquarters that was built in Crescent City in 2019. 

“I was part of the planning through groundbreaking and all the way through us moving in, so I have a pretty good idea about what happens with the new facilities from inception to the point where we’re actually using it as a functional facility,” Depee said. “We had some hiccups with it but we were able to overcome those. We listened to the public. We want to be a good neighbor. And all of the issues that we had, we were able to come up with some sort of resolution, some sort of compromise that worked, and we want to do the same here.”

CHP has been looking for a spot for a new facility since 2014, Depee said. The agency has looked at properties “all the way from McKinleyville, down south to Fortuna” but the former Jacobs Campus has proven to be one of the most promising sites, being somewhat centrally located in Eureka with easy access to the highway.

Captain Commander Depee.

“Nothing has been set yet,” Depee continued. “We’ve decided on approximately how much property we need. … CHP has many facilities and they’re all about the same. The plans, they look the same with very minor differences.”

Sacramento-based CHP Lieutenant Brandon Baldwin added that all CHP facilities must be in compliance with the Emergency Services Act, which ensures that the building would “be able to withstand any type of major natural disasters. 

“One of the biggest obstacles in Humboldt – aside from limited land availability in the area – is being outside of a tsunami zone,” Baldwin said. “That way if  – heaven forbid – a tsunami does strike the area, the CHP facility would be out of the disaster zone. We they could still go out and provide assistance to this community without being affected adversely.”

New CHP facilities also include a “community room” to provide a gathering place for small meetings, Baldwin said. “As much as it is a home for us as a department, it’s also part of the community,” he said. “It really is the people’s house. So we want to be able to afford a portion of that area to be used for community purposes.”

There’s still a long road ahead. CHP is working with the Eureka City Unified School District to acquire the property, but the agency still needs to get approval from the state and the Department of Finance, Baldwin said.

The City of Eureka was in active property negotiations with the Eureka City Schools Board of Education up until last September when the school district declined “the city’s best and final offer” of $2.8 million for the entire 14.09-acre property – $1.2 million below the school district’s reported asking price of $4 million. The school district has not disclosed how much it is currently asking for the property, but it did confirm that CHP is the only entity involved in formal property negotiations. 

“Eureka City Schools is still in active negotiations with the California Department of General Services (DGS), the entity representing CHP,” district spokesperson Sierra Speer Dillon wrote in an emailed response to the Outpost.

Thursday’s meeting seems to indicate that negotiations are getting a little more serious, but Dillon stated that “There has yet to be reportable action at this time.”

Similarly, John Gambone, project director with DGS’ Real Estate Services Division, emphasized several times throughout the meeting that DGS and CHP are in the beginning stages of negotiations with the school district. 

Eureka City Councilmember Kati Moulton spoke in favor of the proposed development, noting that members of the South Eureka Neighborhood Alliance had asked nearby residents what they wanted to see happen at the former Jacobs campus “and CHP joining the neighborhood was really high on the list,” she said.

Councilmember Moulton questions Depee.

“I think it’d be welcomed,” Moulton continued. “Folks are concerned about what it’s going to look like [and] how it’s going to fit into the neighborhoods, so I’m really happy to hear you addressing that right off the bat. … I love the idea of you integrating into the neighborhood, being a bigger part of everything there and having folks feel like you’re a part of the neighborhood and not this sort of alien thing that just plopped down.”

Depee emphasized that CHP “definitely doesn’t want to be that large, anonymous agency that nobody can talk to.”

Moulton asked more about the community room Baldwin had mentioned and whether it would be a place that could offer shelter and relief during an emergency. “Sometimes folks will open up public buildings for charging a phone during a power outage or, you know, heating during extreme weather or something like that. Is that a resource that we could talk about and have access to?” 

During his time in Crescent City, Depee said CHP would work with the California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) to offer services in their community room. “My assumption is that we will do the same thing here,” he said. “We will do everything that we can to work with all of our allied agencies and to work with the community to offer up as much as we can with this facility.”

Moulton also asked if the public would have a chance to weigh in on the appearance of the building, given that “people are going to live across the street from this thing presumably for decades.”

Baldwin said CHP would be willing to work with the community on superficial aspects of the building’s design, like the color of its roof, but said there would be other, more technical aspects that would be out of their control. 

“For example, there would be a radio tower on top of the building,” he said, noting that the tower would be approximately 140 feet tall. “It’s really up to CalOES where that tower will be located because they’ll have to bring out a large lift and see what would be the best radio connectivity to the radio towers around here. That will dictate where the tower goes on the property.”

The Outpost asked Depee how patrol traffic from the facility would impact the surrounding neighborhood. Depee said Crescent City’s new headquarters was built in a business district and the agency worked with community members to develop a local standard operating procedure (SOP).

“So we said we would not turn on the siren, we wouldn’t be responding fast, until we got to U.S. 101. This would be something very similar,” he said. “Now, obviously, there will be calls that are gonna necessitate us traveling a little bit faster, but we’ll have that SOP in place. Our supervisors and myself are ultimately responsible for it and we will manage that and ensure that our troops are driving safely through these areas. … We’ll do everything we can to mitigate or eliminate any impacts to traffic if it’s not necessary.”

Depee added that CHP would work with the Eureka Police Department to address criminal activity in the neighborhood.

“Our agencies work very well together,” he said. “If there was a call for service, we would immediately respond. We don’t even generally wait for a request. If we’re the closest unit, we’re going to respond.”

We also asked what would happen to CHP’s existing facility on Samoa Boulevard in Arcata. Depee said Caltrans took over CHP’s old facility in Crescent City and said, “That’s probably something that we would look into.”

If the deal moves forward, it would throw a big wrench in the gears for a group of Eureka residents that want to see the site turned into housing.

Just last week, two Eureka residents – Michelle Costantine-Blackwell and Michael Munson – filed a “notice of intent” to circulate a petition to put an initiative on the ballot that would require the City of Eureka to amend its General Plan to rezone the Jacobs site for housing in an attempt to stop the city from building housing on underutilized downtown parking lots.

It’s unclear whether rezoning the Jacobs Campus for housing would actually result in a new housing development on the site. As previously stated, the City of Eureka has expressed interest in building market-rate housing on the site, but it seems CHP is now the main contender.

Negotiations are still ongoing.

Previously:

• As Pressure From Neighbors Mounts, Eureka School Board Poised to Decide What to Do With Abandoned Jacobs Campus
• Eureka School Board Votes to Sell Abandoned Jacobs Campus; California Highway Patrol Has Expressed Interest in the Property
• Who Will Get the Former Jacobs Campus? Bidders for Blighted Site in Highland Park Are the City of Eureka and the California Highway Patrol, With a Decision Coming Soon