Bev Strubinger passed away at her home in Eureka on April 6, 2024.

She was born in Sacramento in 1947 to Fern and Del White. A highlight of Bev’s childhood was a trip from California to Europe on H.M.S. Queen Mary with her parents and sister, Barbara. She also enjoyed summer trips to Lake Tahoe as a child and throughout her life. She met her husband, Rich, in Sacramento in 1967. This year would have marked their 56th wedding anniversary.

Bev attended the University of California at Davis and was an elementary school teacher for many years. She primarily taught English as a Second Language at South Fortuna Elementary school. She was known for always having snacks in the classroom for her students.

Bev is survived by her husband Rich, daughter Julie, daughter-in-law Laura, Sister-in-law Sally, and niece Bonnie. Bev’s favorite activity was spending time with her family and friends. She was always planning the next special gathering. She loved camping, being outdoors, dogs, book club, gardening, and laughing. Bev was a special light to everyone she knew and she made them feel welcome and safe.

A memorial for family and friends is being held at the First United Methodist Church in Eureka at 520 Del Norte Street in Eureka on April 20th at 2 p.m.

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Marcia Mills. She passed peacefully on April 5, 2024. Marcia was born January 19, 1935 to Jack and Muriel Allen in Eureka. She grew up in McCann and graduated from South Fork high school, valedictorian of her class. She went to work for the County of Humboldt until she met the love of her life, Eldon Mills. They married August 15, 1953. They moved to Weott and started their family. In 1964 they moved to Eureka and finished raising their children.

Marcia and Eldon loved to travel. They had many travel friends to travel and cruise abroad with. Marcia had her favorite place, Kauai, Hawaii. Marcia and Eldon went many times to Kauai together before Eldon passed in 2009. She continued to go every year with her best friend, Maudie Walker, for many years after.

Marcia is survived by her children, Lisa (Mike) Barreto, Frank Mills, and Leslie (Dan) Scott; grandchildren Brian (Bethany) Barreto, Wiatt (Jasmine) Barreto, Shannon (Tony) Mills, Haley (Matt) Pedamonte, Wylee Scott, Ashtyn Scott, and Lindsey (James) Harris. great-grandchildren Jerykah (Austin), Bryson, Jayla, Kira, Bristol and Nash; and great-great-grandchild, Tatum.

Marcia is preceded in death by her husband of 56 years, Eldon Mills, and her son, Steven Mills.

There will be a celebration of life at a later date.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Marcia Mills’ loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here.

Angela Christine Knapp
Jan 25, 1969 – Apr 4, 2024

Angela was born in Eureka to Rick and Mary Lou (Mitchell) Knapp on January 25, 1969. Angie, 55, died tragically as result of major complications associated with a traumatic brain injury caused from a fall six months earlier. Until just recently due to her injury, she lived her entire life in Humboldt County.

Angie gave her parents and grandparents great joy growing up, especially with her natural athletic ability. In her early years, she played baseball, basketball and soccer, mostly with boys. As a teenager, she lettered in varsity basketball, volleyball and tennis at Eureka High. In spite of her 4’11” stature, she played every sport “big.” She graduated from Eureka High in 1987.

After high school, Angie was closest to Monica Hurst. They did everything together. They often worked at the same place and lived together much of the 20 years they knew one another. Tragically, Angie lost her best friend from cancer far too early.

After her brain injury, Angie spent three months at Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka. She received excellent care there, especially from Dr. Shin, who was committed to trying everything possible to help her. Afterwards, she was transported to a small skilled nursing facility in the San Fernando Valley. At the time of her death, she was a patient at West Valley Congregate Living for several weeks. She suffered cardiac arrest on April 4th while in a hospital awaiting a medical procedure. Her dad had visited her two weeks earlier at West Valley. He was very impressed with the facility and the dedicated nurses who were caring for her.

Angie’s death was preceded by her mother. She is survived by her partner, Kenny Hansen, father & step mother, Rick and Jean (Eureka); her brother, Randy & his son, Caleb (Bend, Oregon); and aunt & uncle, Vicki & Terry Johnston (Roseburg, Oregon).

No public services are planned.

Press release from the Bureau of Land Management:

Madeleine Grace Kelly, a painter and art instructor, has been selected for the spring session of the Bureau of Land Management Artist in Residence program at the King Range National Conservation Area. During her four-week residency, she will lead two community art workshops and plein air painting outings and offer a gallery showing of the art she creates while staying on the Lost Coast.

The residency begins April 24 and ends May 18 with a gallery showing at the Shelter Cove Arts and Recreation Foundation Gallery. Dates for the public workshops and outings will be announced as details are finalized.

“We are looking forward to hosting Madeleine with the Artist in Residence Program,” said Paul Sever, manager of the King Range NCA. “Her artistic approach should be well received at the community workshops.”

Kelly described a unique aspect of her residency in her AIR proposal.

“I collect water everywhere I go… I mix that water with paint to imbue my objects with the essence of time and place and the memory that the water carries,” she wrote. “I paint the spirit of the land to reflect our interdependence and kinship.”

Some of Kelly’s work can be viewed on her website, www.madgkelly.com

Kelly has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of San Francisco and will complete a Master of Fine Arts degree in May at the University of New Orleans, La. where she’s been an art instructor since 2021.

She will be the eighth artist to participate in the King Range AIR program, in which artists draw inspiration from the beauty of the Lost Coat. The program is a partnership between the BLM and the Shelter Cove Arts and Recreation Foundation.

Trinity County Sheriff’s Office press release:

On Friday, April 12, 2024, the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office was alerted to potential skeletal human remains, in a wooded area of Mad River, CA. Deputies responded to the area and identified the remains as human, collecting the remains as well as items about the remains.

Although the investigation is in the preliminary phases, no signs of skeletal trauma were observed. The remains however shall be reviewed by Pathologists and a full autopsy conducted.

Evidence in the general area of the remains led to a potential identity for the individual. The family of this individual has been contacted, just to advise them of the situation and the potential that the located individual was their family member.

DNA testing shall be used to confirm the identity, and once a positive identity as well as a cause of death are obtained, further press releases will be issued.

Although the matter remains under investigation, the Sheriff’s Office does not believe that the matter presents any danger to the public.

California is taking Huntington Beach to court again — this time over a change to its city charter adopted last month by local voters that would allow the city to require voter identification in municipal elections.

Conservative city officials in Huntington Beach pushed for voter ID, a popular policy in Republican states, to address concerns from constituents about election integrity that have increasingly cropped up in the wake of former President Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

But Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber announced today that they would seek to invalidate the new law for interfering with state protections of voting rights. The officials, both Democrats, argue that Huntington Beach’s ID requirement could disenfranchise voters and is unnecessary because there is not widespread fraud in California elections.

“It really is a solution looking for a problem, because we have not found this problem,” Weber said at a press conference. “We have worked very hard to make sure that every eligible Californian knows that they have the right to vote.”

The lawsuit, filed in Orange County Superior Court, contends that elections are an issue of statewide importance governed by statewide rules and that cities do not have authority to implement additional regulations that could interfere with a voter’s ability to cast a ballot.

Bonta said that Californians must already present identification and swear under penalty of perjury when they register to vote, allowing for a more expedited voting process. He said Huntington Beach had not provided a compelling reason for requiring voter ID at the polls.

“We believe that the position of the city of Huntington Beach is not only misguided, it is blatantly and flatly illegal,” Bonta said.

Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates said the law — which takes effect in 2026, and also authorizes the city to add more in-person voting locations and monitor ballot drop-boxes — is intended to increase participation in elections.

“The people of Huntington Beach have made their voices clear on this issue and the people’s decision on the March 5th ballot measures for election integrity is final,” he said in a statement. “To that end, the City will vigorously uphold and defend the will of the people.”

Bonta and Weber already warned Huntington Beach last fall that its voter identification proposal would violate a provision in California’s election code that prohibits “mass, indiscriminate, and groundless challenging of voters solely for the purpose of preventing voters from voting.”

City officials put the measure on the ballot anyway and it passed by 7 percentage points in the March primary. The Secretary of State’s office finally certified those results on Friday.

State Sen. Dave Min, an Irvine Democrat who represents Huntington Beach in the Legislature and is running for Congress, has separately introduced Senate Bill 1174, which would prevent local governments from implementing voter ID requirements, a direct challenge to the city.

In his statement, Gates pointed to the bill as further evidence that Huntington Beach currently has legal authority to require voter ID in elections.

This state’s lawsuit follows another long-running legal saga with Huntington Beach over housing. California has sued the city twice in the past five years for not meeting its obligations to plan for more housing, while Huntington Beach countersued last year, though that case was tossed in November.

The city in recent years has become a symbol of resistance against liberal California, with a newly-elected conservative city council majority jumping into battles over issues such as vaccine mandates, Pride flags and library books.

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

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It’s pretty much common knowledge at this point that Arcata (along with many other cities) is making a mad dash to plan for the creation of a lot more housing, both because it is badly needed and because it is required by the state. But one of the biggest roadblocks municipalities like Arcata face is that there is not a lot of undeveloped land left for building that housing. Arcata has been navigating this issue through promoting infill development, creating documents like the Gateway Area Plan, which aims to allow for housing to be built on all kinds of small or already partially developed sites that may not have been previously earmarked for development. 

Now the City of Arcata is exploring another widely available space for development– the air. More specifically, the air above Highway 101. 

That’s right. The City of Arcata is in the process of planning a project that would build entirely new land suspended above 101 between 14th and 17th Streets, connecting Northtown to LK Wood Boulevard. The project is known as the Arcata Cap – which would create about five acres of additional land that could be used to build housing and other community resources, while also providing a bike-and-pedestrian-friendly connection between the east and west segments of the city that are divided by Highway 101. 

“The cap makes perfect sense in this area for various reasons,” Netra Khatri, Arcata’s city engineer, told the Outpost in a recent phone interview. “The area between 11th and 17th Street, if you drive through the highway, you will see that the highway is low and the grounds on either side are higher…Around it there’s a lot of dead zone – an area that’s not generally used right now. And once you put a flat area on it you will be able to use that for various things. It could be housing, it could become a community park, it could be a transit hub, anything you want.” 

Sound insane? It might be. But, impossible? Well, city and state government agencies certainly don’t think so. In fact, this plan just became part of the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) project Reconnecting Communities: Highways to Boulevards – a pilot program created after the the adoption of Streets & Highways Code 104.3 that funds the conversion of underutilized highways into multimodal corridors. And the City of Arcata was selected to receive a big ol’ chunk of grant funding to realize this literally lofty goal. 

Khatri said that the exact amount of money Arcata will receive for this project is still unknown, but that Arcata was among three communities selected to receive the funding, along with San Diego and San Francisco. Khatri said that Caltrans has made $148 million available in grant funding, which will be divided (not necessarily equally) between the three awardees. 

And though $148 million is a hefty sum, it will not get any of these projects anywhere near completion. As you can probably imagine, building acres of new land on top of a highway will be an extremely expensive and involved project that will take years and probably hundreds of millions of dollars to complete. Khatri said that the money Arcata receives will go toward the planning phase, including conducting studies, community outreach and drafting the plan. Any remaining funds will be used to leverage additional funding in the future for implementation of the project. 

Arcata’s proposed improvement areas

Arcata’s vision for this project includes more than just the proposed highway cap. The idea, Khatri said, is to “reconnect Arcata” in the areas that have been separated by the highways, and the project also proposes improvements to Samoa Boulevard and the Valley West neighborhood. Khatri said that it is still not completely clear what those improvements would look like, but would likely include adding additional highway crossings, either building new bridges or improving existing bridges to be more friendly to bicyclists and pedestrians.

The idea, for Arcata’s project and the other projects Caltrans is funding, is that if we build more places for people to walk and bike across the highway that they will do so, and that would help further lots of California’s goals – decreasing greenhouse gasses by discouraging driving cars and improving public health by encouraging biking and walking. 

“Our city is divided by 101 exactly in half,” Khatri said. “We used to have 17 or 18 connections – streets connecting the east and west. Right now we have only five connections. Those are all bridges and some of them don’t even have proper bike lanes and sidewalks.” 

And it is true that some of the places where you can cross the highway are pretty dicey for cyclists and pedestrians. There is only one dedicated pedestrian bridge, which crosses over the highway at 17th Street and connects to Cal Poly Humboldt campus. The bridge that crosses on Samoa Boulevard (Highway 255) has no sidewalk or bike lanes, and although that certainly does not stop many people from crossing on bike or by foot, it can be pretty scary. If someone prefers not to risk it, they currently have to make their way up to Seventh street for another option to cross 101. 

But if increasing people’s ability to cross Highway 101 is the big issue, why not just focus on improving the existing bridges and maybe adding a couple more? That seems like it would be a much more feasible solution than this highway cap idea. But Khatri said it’s about more than just improving accessibility between the different sections of Arcata, it’s also about improving our environmental ecology by creating more green space on the highway cap and “reconnecting the forest to the bay.” 

“At one point this was forested land and because of the industrial revolution or other aspects of human nature, we went into development and we – I wouldn’t say the word destroy, but that’s the first thing that comes to my mind – have destroyed the forest, the creek. Jolly Giant Creek at some point was an open creek but right now it’s covered by downtown.” 

By creating a highway cap, the hope is that it can help the city’s return to a simpler time, before the community was torn in half by four lanes of asphalt, when humans and other living things could freely roam across the land. 

The idea is not totally new or unique to our region and many other communities are planning, or having even begun constructing highway caps – also referred to as highway lids or land bridges – as a way of returning the highways to the land without actually removing the road. One example is the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, which is currently under construction in Agoura Hills and will cover a portion of Highway 101 to provide a place for wildlife to safely cross. Up in Portland, Ore. the I-5 Rose Quarter Improvement Project just clinched a $450 million grant to build a highway cap over the I-5 freeway to reconnect the Albina neighborhood to the city’s downtown. Another similar and already completed project is the Presidio Tunnel Tops in San Francisco, where portions of the Presidio Parkway run underground, with the park sitting atop. 

Again, Arcata’s project is still in the very early planning stages. As for Arcata’s next steps, Khatri said that the City of Arcata will be working with Caltrans to form community partnerships and will be working with Cal Poly Humboldt, Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG), Arcata House Partnership, the Wiyot Tribe and more to draft a plan that would provide the most community benefits. The City will also be seeking community feedback and Khatri said that staff will announce opportunities for public input over the next year or so.  

Since this is a pilot program, Khatri said, all the involved agencies are still figuring out the best way to roll out the projects and allocate the funding. It will likely be at least five years before we see any actual development on the project. But Khatri is confident that it will happen and said that, even though he was very skeptical about the idea at first, the new availability of funding and the launch of other highway cap projects has made him much more confident. 

“Very frankly, like five years ago when I first heard about this, I was like, ‘Well, this is impossible. The cost is going to be in the hundreds of millions and we will never get that much,’” Khatri said. “But you know, five years ago, we were applying for grants in the amount of two, three, four million. But now we are applying for grants for like $20 million.”