Danny Childress of McKinleyville passed from this earth on March 13, 2023 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Eureka. He was born in Fresno on November 11, 1963.

Danny was an avid fisherman and spent many hours on the Mad River. He also got his love of the guitar from his father. Growing up, Danny enjoyed playing with his siblings whether it be magic tricks or just cowboys and Indians. Danny never had children of his own so whenever he was around children he loved to entertain them with magic tricks and loved to dance. He had a heart of gold and will be missed dearly by his many friends and family.

He is proceeded in death by his father Wendell Childress, brother Michael (Bo) Childress, and his grandparents.

He left behind his mother Rolaine Benson, his sisters Kathy Dix and Deborah Wright, and brother Herbert (Big Eddie) Childress, step-siblings Edward (Michelle) Waggoner, Jennifer (Steve) Georgiana, and Janet (Dalvin) Webb and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins.

A private family service will be held at a later date.

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

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Citing increased seismic risk, Pacific Gas & Electric on Thursday announced that it will no longer close the spillway gates atop Scott Dam,  allowing more water to flow into the Eel River this spring while lowering the level of Lake Pillsbury by about 20,000 acre feet.

The investor-owned utility has historically closed the gates from April through October, but in a news release PG&E said “new information and updated analyses” revealed a higher level of seismic risk than previous evaluations.

”The most effective means of reducing risk in the near term is to store less water in the reservoir,” the utility said, adding that the decision to leave the gates open was made out of “an abundance of caution” and that the probability of an earthquake severely damaging Scott Dam remains “relatively low.”

“This is a very big deal,” said Scott Greacen, conservation director of the nonprofit Friends of the Eel River. “We think this is just the start of important changes in PG&E’s approach to removing Scott and Cape Horn dams.”

Those two dams, located 20 miles northeast of Ukiah on the Eel River, are components of the Potter Valley Project, a 100-year-old hydroelectric facility (albeit one that no longer produces power) that diverts water from the Eel to the East Branch of the Russian River and blocks salmon and steelhead from nearly 300 miles of spawning habitat in the upper mainstem Eel River.

A coalition of conservation groups last year sued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), saying native fish populations have been harmed by the Potter Valley Project in violation of the Endangered Species Act.

PG&E plans to decommission the project, and on Thursday the company said it will continue developing long-term mitigation measures, “which could include expedited partial or full removal of Scott Dam.”

That’s welcome news to environmental groups that have accused the company of “slow-walking” dam removal. In a press release, Friends of the Eel River said the seismic risk has been well-documented.

“We’ve been raising concerns about dam safety and reliability at the Potter Valley Project for years, so frankly this latest development is somewhat validating,” the group’s executive director, Alicia Hamann, said in the release.

The latest research shows that a fault line running through the reservoir is capable of producing earthquakes up to a magnitude 7, far greater than the magnitude 5.9 that PG&E used for previous seismic modeling, according to Friends of the Eel River.

In response to Thursday’s news, environmental nonprofit California Trout issued a statement that says, in part, “Today’s announcement from PG&E makes it clear that maintaining the status quo for the Potter Valley Project is no longer an option. We continue to encourage Russian River water users that have benefited from Eel River water diversions for the past century to plan for a future without those diversions, or to explore options for an ecologically sound, dam-free diversion facility.”

PG&E says that if federal regulators approve the plan to leave the spillway gates open, only minimum flows of five-to-25 cubic feet per second will be diverted into the East Branch Russian River from now on.

With about 26 percent less water in Lake Pillsbury, there won’t be as much available for summer and fall releases that support cold water fishery resources in the Eel River below Scott Dam — and also less for Russian River agricultural interests. As the Press-Democrat notes, the water releases will never be higher than they were in the 2020 and 2021 drought years.

Beth Salomone, director of the Mendocino County Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District, called PG&E’s move “a devastating blow to water right holders, reservoir operators and all Russian River watershed stewardship efforts.”

But environmental advocates on the North Coast say there’s no sense in prolonging the inevitable, and time is of the essence. 

“We need to get our native fish back to their headwaters, and that means removing both Scott and Cape Horn dams,” Hamann said. “As part of their license surrender and decommissioning process, PG&E is due to file a draft plan at the end of this year. Given the latest developments, and the urgency for both salmon recovery and eliminating the risk of dam failure, I expect that plan to outline a method for rapid dam removal.”

HUMBOLDT TODAY: Governor Newsom is counting on tiny homes to ease California’s homeless problems; the sheriff’s office announces it has located the body of a missing man near Redway; plus, remember Fernbridge will be closed all weekend! Those stories and more on today’s newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.

FURTHER READING: 

• After More Than a Week, Sheriff’s Office Finally Locates Man Said to Have Fallen Off Steep Cliff to His Death Near Redway; Investigation of the Case Ongoing
• 55-Hour Fernbridge Closure Starts Tonight at 10 p.m.
• HUMBOLDT CONVERSATIONS: Talking Over the Jury Crisis in the Humboldt County Courthouse With Scott Anderson, Assistant Court Operation Manager

HUMBOLDT TODAY can be viewed on LoCO’s homepage each night starting at 6 p.m.

Want to LISTEN to HUMBOLDT TODAY? Subscribe to the podcast version here.

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The planning process for Arcata’s Gateway Area Plan is getting kicked into high gear over the next several months, and some major changes are happening around upcoming city meetings and opportunities for community engagement. 

If you read the Outpost’s most recent article on the Gateway Plan, you might have seen a schedule of upcoming workshops and Arcata Planning Commission study sessions, including one for this Saturday, March 18. So the first thing you should know is that the study session is not happening! Do not go to Arcata City Hall tomorrow morning, because no one will be there. The session has been canceled. 

Now, on to other changes related to the Gateway Plan. It turns out that this reporter was a little confused about the outcome of the council’s Gateway Plan discussion on March 1. But after talking to a couple members of the planning department staff, it was made clear that all the other upcoming public workshops will also be canceled and the planning commission will redirect its efforts toward producing drafts of the Gateway Plan documents. 

“The council has given the planning commission specific directions to give its recommendations on General Plan updates, form-based code and the Gateway Area Plan by July 18,” David Loya, community development director for the City of Arcata, told the Outpost in a recent phone interview. 

To be clear, the Gateway Area Plan – which aims to rezone 138 acres of Arcata to facilitate the development of more housing – is one component of the city’s General Plan, which is used to guide goals, policies and physical development in the city.  The form-based code is the framework the city will use to rezone and guide future development in the Gateway Area. Over the last few months, planning commission meetings and public workshops have been primarily focused on establishing the form-based code, going over details like how far the buildings are setback from the sidewalk, what the roofs and windows look like, the landscaping, building heights, etc. 

Map showing the Gateway Area and its four sub-neighborhoods

During the Arcata City Council meeting on March 1, the council brought up concerns that the public was growing restless, that community engagement was dwindling and that discussions surrounding the form-based code were not as they would like them to be. The council members decided that for them and for the public to be able to make suggestions about form-based code, they would need to be able to actually see the code. So, the council requested that the planning commission halt its upcoming workshops and study sessions and focus on providing direction to Ben Noble, the City’s design consultant, who will develop a draft of the form-based code as soon as possible. 

That code can then be used for creation of a new draft of the Gateway Area Plan and for the updated General Plan. All of this is supposed to be complete by the end of June and then the commission will look over all these documents at its meeting on July 11 and provide a recommendation to the city council for adoption. 

This may seem like a lot for the planning commission to accomplish between now and early July, and that’s true! It is a lot and to get it done the commission will need to be focused and diligent. During its most recent meeting on March 14, the commission voted to change its meeting start time from 6 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. to provide a little more time for this work, and the commissioners agreed to a decision-making framework and a set of “ground rules” to keep the meetings on track. 

The commission also agreed to implement a “bike rack” concept, which is the alternative name Loya came up with for a parking lot concept – a meeting strategy where any topic that comes up in discussion that can’t be addressed right away is added to a list to be addressed again later. Once the commission has gotten through its major agenda items, it will return to the “bike rack” items and work through them. 

Loya said that the commission will also be adding a few special meetings between now and July, as needed to meet the deadline and the commission will be holding a study session on Saturday, April 22 to provide its direction to Noble on the form-based code. 

Once these drafts are all available for public review, the city will again offer more public workshops and opportunities for community feedback before any of the plans are adopted. Loya also wanted to be clear that even though the planning commission will be recommending that the council adopt the documents in July, the council will not actually be able to adopt them until the council adopts the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the city’s General Plan. 

The draft EIR should be released by July and then will need to be circulated for six months, receive comments and then have updates made, before returning to the council for adoption. The goal is for the EIR, the updated General Plan and the Gateway Area Plan to be adopted by spring 2024. The purpose of the council looking over the draft plan in July is to then be able to provide concrete feedback and direction on the plan’s development. Then some questions that have so far been unclear, like how many stories are the buildings going to be? should finally be answered. 

“It’s just that there are several major outstanding issues that we need to stop having open-ended conversations about,” Loya said. “The city council needs to tell us, ‘this is the direction we want you to go with these long-term planning documents.’”

As always, Loya encourages members of the community to email comments to comdev@cityofarcata.org. You can also keep up-to-date on meetings and workshops related to the Gateway Plan by signing up for e-notifications from the City of Arcata. Follow this link and sign up for Long-Range Planning & Community Visioning emails. 

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Press release from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office:

On March 7, 2023, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office received information that an unknown man had reportedly fallen off a steep cliff several days prior in the Ravencliff area off Redwood Drive, north of Redway.

Deputies responded and conducted a ground search of the area, which included treacherous terrain and thick vegetation, with negative results. Deputies continuously followed up on this investigation, utilizing an HCSO infrared drone and canvassing the area for potential witnesses.

On March 16, taking advantage of better weather, deputies conducted an additional ground search of the area. The improved conditions allowed for deputies to traverse further down into the vegetation where they located a deceased male.

Due to the terrain, Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue and Redway Fire were requested to assist in extracting the decedent. The decedent was recovered and placed in the custody of the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office.

An autopsy is scheduled for next week. The decedent has been identified; however, his identity is being withheld pending next-of-kin notification.

No determination regarding foul play has been made at this time. This death remains under investigation by the Sheriff’s Major Crimes Division.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank Southern Humboldt Technical Rescue and Redway Fire for their invaluable assistance with this investigation.

Anyone with information about this case or related criminal activity is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at (707) 268-2539.

Press release from Caltrans:

Following community engagement and feedback stemming from a March 6 town hall meeting in Ferndale, this weekend Caltrans plans to fully close Fernbridge on Route 211 in Humboldt County. The bridge between U.S. 101 and Ferndale will be closed from 10 p.m. on March 17 until 5 a.m. on March 20.

Motorists including emergency vehicles will need to use an alternate route during this time frame.

This 55-hour closure will allow crews to partially replace the bridge’s deck, repair abutments, repair columns, and conduct paving.

Caltrans thanks the community for its patience as this work will accelerate repairs at Fernbridge following December’s earthquake and subsequent storms. Barring unforeseen circumstances, two-way traffic should resume on the bridge at 5 a.m. on Monday, March 20.

People in Humboldt love to complain about the administration of criminal justice, but you want to know one thing they don’t often complain about? The fact that we have a dismal percentage of people who actually show up to do the civic duty of serving on a jury.

Earlier this week, the Outpost’s John Kennedy O’Connor spoke with Scott Anderson, assistant court operations manager for the Humboldt County Superior Court, to talk about the problem, explore potential solutions — prettier art in the jury room, anyone? — and to all but beg people to answer their summonses.

Video above, transcript below.

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JOHN KENNEDY O’CONNOR:

I’m joined now on Lost Coast Outpost by Scott Anderson, who’s the Assistant Court Operation Manager here at the Humboldt Superior Court. Scott thanks so much for joining us today and for sitting down with us. 

Well, there’s been a bit of an issue. A few months ago I interviewed Judge Elvine-Kreis about what is literally a crisis in the fact that jurors are not showing up when they’re summoned for jury service. A colleague of ours brought it to our attention last week as he was summoned and I think he said he was one of 18 out of 500 that actually came along when summoned. Is the situation getting worse?

SCOTT ANDERSON:

It is getting a little worse. Eighteen out of 500 does sound a little, I don’t know where that number came from, but it does sound a little low. The average return rate hovers between 7% on a really bad week to about 14% on a really good week, which is considered pretty low across the state.

O’CONNOR:

So perhaps, yeah, I mean I was going to compare with other counties, so perhaps the 18 out of 500 is not typical.

ANDERSON:

No, I mean that would be a very low percentage. Typically an average would be about nine and a half percent over the last twelve months … that would be the the average return rate of the jurors

O’CONNOR:

But this must be having a very big impact on not only the business of the court, but those people who are facing and needing justice.

ANDERSON:

I mean, it can cause delays in trials. It can also cause a bit of a burden for the jurors who do show up because it takes longer to get a panel of jurors to then seat a trial. So it does have an impact on both justice and the people who are coming to court.

O’CONNOR:

Are you having to cancel court hearings because there aren’t any jurors? 

ANDERSON:

We’ve never had to cancel a jury trial. We have postponed a jury trial by a day or two, or even up to a week, in order to get a panel of jurors built.

O’CONNOR:

Now, I always thought that being summoned was punishable by law, by not turning up. But am I wrong about that?

ANDERSON:

It is punishable by law. The Humboldt Superior Court has never taken a punitive stance for jury services. We’ve never punished folks for not doing it. Jury service is your civic duty, and I think everyone here — judges included — would hope that everyone would want to be their civic duty.

O’CONNOR:

But wouldn’t that be a remedy that might actually help in the situation should you be pursue that?

ANDERSON:

It could be, and there’s discussions. Again, we’ve never taken a punitive stance and I think there’s an apprehension about going down that road.

O’CONNOR:

Now, one of the issues is … I’ve actually never been, I’ve never served on a jury, but I know that if I was called it would be financially very difficult for me,  and I think that’s another impact that people have to consider. They simply don’t, can’t afford to serve on a jury, let alone for a long time.

ANDERSON:

Sure. Humboldt County has a lower, you know, closer to the poverty rate than a lot of other counties, so we do have a large percentage of folks that are excused for that purpose. You can usually ask, you can go online, we have an online portal when you’re summoned, you can ask for a postponement or an excusal for that reason. Oftentimes you may have to come in and then explain in person why you have that problem. But yeah, financial hardship is, I think, 25% of the jurors that come in are excused for that reason.

O’CONNOR:

When I spoke to the judge he said as a result of all of these sort of impacts, most of the jurors who do serve tend to be much older. And so is there really not even a representation of the society around Humboldt on a given jury?

ANDERSON:

There are a lot of retired folks who do jury service because they have the time and they’re available. A lot of government employees do jury service because they’re paid by their employer to do the jury services. A lot of other employers — Costco — pays their employees to do jury service. So you’ll find there is an actual pretty good chunk of the population that is paid to do jury duty.

California does have a pilot program going currently. Humboldt County was not selected in that pilot program, but they are experimenting with higher jury fees. The current fee is $15 a day — with inflation kind of a low amount. They’re looking at raising it and seeing if that has an impact in getting folks in the door.

O’CONNOR:

I mean that’s for the day. 

ANDERSON:

Yes, for one day. And starting in January the court didn’t begin paying folks two ways for their travel up until this January you’re only paid to the courthouse not on your way home now you are given mileage both ways.

O’CONNOR:

Now, one controversial point … because when I interviewed Judge Elvine-Kreis I got a lot of negative messaging from people saying, “Well, why would I serve on his court? Why would I serve on his court?” Because I think there is a perception that he’s got some difficulties, some legal difficulties and he’s using the court perhaps to push them off for his own benefit, so therefore people are feeling very negative towards serving on his court. Is that something that’s come up? Is that something you’ve heard about?

ANDERSON:

I mean, I have heard folks say that, but again, he is one of eight judges. And he is not currently in any of the trial courts. So you won’t be serving, I mean, you’re not serving in his court, you’re serving in our court, everyone. This is our community court, this serves our community. And you would be serving with any one of our eight judges.

O’CONNOR:

Now, what incentives? We’ve talked obviously about perhaps getting better pay for people etc, but are there any other incentives the court could offer without necessarily legislating to do that, to get people to attend?

ANDERSON:

We’ve looked at maybe trying to put some artwork up in the jury assembly room. Maybe that would help make it more interesting. But no, short of the legislature changing some rules there isn’t a lot of incentive. We have coffee.

O’CONNOR:

I was going to say, are people fed if they come?

ANDERSON:

Yeah, we have to have coffee and tea …

O’CONNOR:

No lunch?

ANDERSON.

No lunch. Once a year on the jury appreciation week we do have food, but there’s no budget for that, uh… any other time.

O’CONNOR:

I does strike me, these are small things that could make a big difference.

ANDERSON:

No, again, I think that jury services is a civic duty and we would hope that every person in our community would want to do that duty to make the community a safer and better place.

O’CONNOR:

And not just for that, I think anybody who’s needing justice deserves the fairest justice. And the jury system is tried and tested. We’re getting that.

ANDERSON:

Been around since the Greeks.

O’CONNOR:

Absolutely. Well, Scott, great to meet you. Thank you so much for your time.

ANDERSON:

Thank you.

O’CONNOR:

And join us again on lostcoastoutpost.com.