‘Pat’ (Donald) Gaskill
February 25, 1933 - April 3, 2023

He passed away peacefully to be with the Lord at the age of 90. His 90th birthday was celebrated with a wonderful party. It was a special day for him and he enjoyed it so much.

He was born in Iowa but made his permanent home in Humboldt County in the late 1950s. He met the love of his life, June, and they were married 55 years.

He served in the military during the Korean War and was stationed in Washington state. He was a logging truck driver and worked for numerous trucking companies throughout the years and Louisiana Pacific Mill for five years. Truckers knew him as “Squirrel” and “Big Hands Pat.” Anyone who met him and shook his hand could not get over the size of his hands, hence the nickname.

He and mom were members of Redwood Vintage Rods for many years. He loved his fast cars and street rods. They were also in the Redwood Country Kickers Dance Club. He was a big man but was so light on his feet and a great dancer. He could sure “cut a rug” with mom. Also a member of the Elks Club.

Dad was a loving husband, father,  grandfather,  great-grandfather, brother in-law and uncle. He was very proud of all his family and loved them wholeheartedly and this includes his brother (from another mother) Doug Gingerich. His coffee shop buddies were special to him also.

He is survived by his wife, June, children Leanne (Jeff) Johnson, Ron Harvey, Patricia Murray Frady, Pamela Nicholas, brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws, numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

Pat was preceded in death by Margaret Acorn (mother), Ralph Johnson (father) and Peggy Gaskill Sloan (daughter).

There will be a casual gathering of friends and family Sunday, April 23 from 2 to 4 p.m. at 2134 Hodgson St., Eureka.

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HUMBOLDT TODAY: The battle for the future of Eureka’s waterfront is now in full swing following a heated city council meeting Tuesday and word Wednesday that a group calling itself “Citizens for a Better Eureka” intends to file a lawsuit against the city. Details on that and other stories in today’s newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.

FURTHER READING: 

• Reported Crash on the Samoa Bridge Early This Morning, Which Supposedly Involved a Bicyclist Being Tossed Into the Bay, is Believed Not to Have Actually Happened
• Yurok Tribe Scores Big Grant to Continue Its Salmon Habitat Restoration Work on the Trinity River
• New Group — ‘Citizens for a Better Eureka’ — Says It Will Sue Eureka Over Downtown Housing Development
• CONVERSATIONS: City of Eureka Mental Health Clinician Jacob Rosen Talks About Providing His Services on the Streets
• Next Up in the Gateway Area Plan: Arcata City Council Will Reconsider the Deadline it Gave to the Planning Commission
• BOOKED: April 5, 2023
• K-12 Enrollment: Does the Increase in Homeless Students Indicate a Worsening Trend?

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.

PREVIOUSLY:  

• Next Up in the Gateway Area Plan: Arcata City Council Will Reconsider the Deadline it Gave to the Planning Commission

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Contrary to what the Outpost posted early this morning and what is stated in the staff report, the Arcata City Council will not be discussing the Gateway Area Plan during tonight’s meeting, due to the fact that the council will not have enough members present to weigh in on that particular topic. 

Councilmember Meredith Matthews emailed the Outpost earlier today to say that she will not be attending tonight’s meeting, something she had mentioned at the previous council meeting. “Because of my absence, there will be no Gateway Area Plan discussion, the conversation will revolve around the General Plan Update,” she wrote. 

Because Councilmembers Alex Stillman and Stacy Atkins-Salazar both need to recuse themselves from any Gateway Area Plan discussions, due to a Fair Political Practices Commission ruling, only three councilmembers – Matthews, Sarah Schaefer and Kimberly White – remain to discuss the plan. Without Matthews, the council will not have quorum. 

David Loya, community development director for the City of Arcata, confirmed with the Outpost that Matthews had mentioned her absence ahead of time, and that it was his mistake that the Gateway Area Plan portion of tonight’s discussion was placed on the agenda.

The conversation on the General Plan Update – the broader-scoping plan, which will guide development in the City of Arcata for the coming years – will still take place, as all the other four councilmembers are permitted to participate in those discussions. 

The Arcata City Council meets tonight (Wednesday, April 5) at 6 p.m. You can view the agenda and directions on how to participate here.

In the wee hours of this morning, there was a bit of a scare on the bay.

As noted by LoCO scanner-watcher “Todd,” at around 4 a.m., someone called 911 to report that a vehicle had struck a bicyclist on the Samoa Bridge, and that the bicyclist had been knocked over and into the water.

The California Highway Patrol also responded to the incident, as shown by their dispatch center transcripts. Coast Guard helicopters and Humboldt Bay Fire were also dispatched. They didn’t find anyone in the bay.

And now — according to the CHP and the Eureka Police Department — police now believe that this didn’t actually happen as reported. The bicycle in question was found, propped up on the side of the bridge without any apparent damage, and the person who called in the incident could not be recontacted. 

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PREVIOUSLY:

•  (PHOTOS + VIDEO) The Yurok Tribe is Leading a Massive Restoration Project on the Trinity River, and the Fish are Coming Back

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Press release from the Yurok Tribe:

The Yurok Tribe recently received a $3,990,587 grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for an urgently needed, large-scale river restoration project on the Trinity River.

“These funds will help us transform a severely damaged section of the Trinity into diverse, dynamic and complex habitat for salmon and steelhead,” said Frankie Myers, the Yurok Tribe’s Vice Chairman and President of the Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation. “I sincerely thank California Governor Newsom and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for investing in our effort to rebuild these invaluable fish stocks and make the Klamath Basin more resilient to climate change. These funds could not have come at a better time.”

The Trinity River is the largest Klamath River tributary. The salmon and steelhead spawning stream plays a major role in the Klamath Basin’s fish production and contributes much to the overall health of the interconnected watershed. Dams, widespread habitat degradation and water diversions have reduced the Trinity’s salmon and steelhead runs to a small fraction of their former sizes. The Yurok Tribe is engaged in collaborative, complementary efforts to restore habitat, improve water management and rebuild fish stocks on the Klamath and Trinity Rivers. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife grant is funding a significant portion of the Oregon Gulch Project, which is the largest fish habitat construction initiative in the Trinity River’s history.

“We are extremely grateful for the Newsom Administration’s considerable investment in the Oregon Gulch project on the Trinity River,” said Yurok Chairman Joseph L. James. “This project is part of our long-term plan to recover our fish runs and preserve an essential part of our culture.”

The Yurok Fisheries Department’s multidisciplinary team of restoration biologists, engineers and hydrologists, along with geomorphologists, wetland ecologists and botanists, designed the Oregon Gulch Project. The Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation is leading the implementation of the monumental rewilding initiative. Funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Trinity River Restoration Program and US Department of the Interior, the Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation-led Oregon Gulch Project aims to accomplish the following goals:

Restore complex floodplain habitat and natural river processes for the benefit of salmon and steelhead Increase habitat diversity for all riparian species (fish, frogs, turtles, birds, insects, etc.…) year-round within an approximately one-mile river segment Remove for than 500,000 cubic yards of mine tailing and restore 32 acres of degraded floodplain, wetland and riparian habitat for fish and wildlife Increase juvenile salmon and steelhead habitat by up to 1000 percent within the project reach Increase groundwater retention and restore riparian corridor Establish conditions for the river to access its valley, allowing the channel to evolve as well as create new fish habitat for many years to come

For most of the last century, the Oregon Gulch floodplain, located near Junction City, has been buried in more than 35 feet of gold mine tailings comprised of bowling ball-sized rocks, gravel and silt. The construction team will remove the dredge mining refuse and reshape the straight river channel into a sweeping arc or meander bend with large-wood elements, deep holes and wetlands. Over time, the approximately one-mile-long river segment is expected to evolve into a complex network of channels spanning a verdant floodplain within the 35-acre valley.

Numerous single logs and groups of whole trees with root wads attached will facilitate the evolution of this river reach. When seasonal high flows collide with the wood elements, the corresponding hydraulic pressure will produce new side channels and/or scour deep holes, where adult salmon and steelhead will rest during the spawning migration. The same pools and secondary channels will offer concealed places for juvenile fish to pick off prey without expending too much energy fighting the fast current. The large wood will also help restore the river’s connections to its sprawling floodplains, where baby salmon and steelhead will find ample food, shelter and respite from high flows. The Oregon Gulch project site is immediately downstream of one of the Trinity River’s most productive salmon spawning grounds. The restoration work will increase juvenile salmon and steelhead habitat by up to one-thousand percent within the targeted area.

In addition to smothering the riparian ecosystem, the towering mine tailings confine this river reach, which better resembles a ditch than a spawning stream. The Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation hired several local contractors, including Yurok citizen-owned V & P Services and Marrufo Trucking, to remove the 516,480 cubic yards or more than 1 billion pounds of rubble to clear the way for the restoration of the riparian corridor. The Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation used a special machine to sort out some of the spawning-sized gravel and alluvial silt from the mine tailing for later use in the restoration project. The majority of the rocky material will be crushed and incorporated into local road projects.

As a result of the removal of the mining refuse, the reconnection of the floodplains and reintroduction of large wood, this river segment will function more like a natural, self-sustaining stream. For example, the large wood elements will trap and store large quantities of fallen leaves and branches. Microbes and invertebrates will breakdown these organic materials and release nutrients back into the riparian environment. Many of the insects will become food for baby salmon and steelhead too. When the river spills onto the porous floodplains, water will recharge underground aquifers at a more rapid rate. This will allow more water to remain in the river for a longer period of time. Additionally, the underground storage system will later release clean and cold water back into the river. Restoring these natural processes will ensure the river valley continues to serve fish and wildlife as the climate changes.

Climate change has already started to reduce annual precipitation amounts in Northern California. The decrease in rainfall and snowpack is contributing to increases in river temperatures and the frequency of fish-killing disease outbreaks in the Lower-and Mid-Klamath because there is often not enough water to flush pathogenic bacteria and parasites from the system. As juveniles and as adults, Trinity-born salmon are often exposed to elevated pathogen levels and water temperatures when travelling the lower 44 miles of Klamath to and from the ocean. After the four Klamath dams are removed in 2024, Klamath and Trinity-origin salmon will not experience such high water temperatures and pathogen densities.

Prior to the installation of the dams, at least one million spring and fall-run salmon spawned in the Klamath Basin each year. In 2022, less than 55,000 fall Chinook salmon (including hatchery fish) and approximately 4,000 spring-run fish returned to the Klamath and Trinity Rivers. In response to the 2023 fall Klamath salmon forecast, fisheries managers are poised to close the ocean commercial fishery in California this year. The Yurok Tribe will be cancelling its commercial fishery for the fifth year in row to protect salmon stocks. More restoration work is required on both rivers to help fish numbers rebound.

“Salmon and steelhead numbers will gradually improve on the Trinity and Klamath Rivers after the four dams are removed,” said Yurok Fisheries Department Director Barry McCovey Jr. “I am confident that we can rebuild salmon stocks through dam removal, habitat restoration, and proper water management, to a level that would support tribal, ocean commercial and recreational fisheries.”

The heavy equipment work on the Oregon Gulch Project will wrap up this fall. After the machines move out, a crew will establish a wide variety of well-adapted plants, including native grasses/forbs, shrubs and trees, at key locations within the project site. The vegetation will further improve habitat for salmon and steelhead as well as many different native wildlife species.

While increasing salmon and steelhead production is the primary goal of the Oregon Gulch Project, the restoration of the immense riparian corridor will benefit other culturally important fish species, such as Pacific lamprey and threatened coho salmon. The restored river valley will also aid a myriad of native amphibians, birds and mammals, due to the abundance of food, water and shelter.

A new group has announced that it will sue the city of Eureka over its big downtown housing development push.

The group includes a number of familiar names, including: Rob Arkley’s Security National; former city elected officials Nancy Flemming, Connie Miller, Marian Brady, Mike Newman and Frank Jager; and former candidates for city office Anthony Mantova, Michelle Costantine and John Fullerton.

We’ll have much more on this later, of course, but for now here’s the press release from Citizens for a Better Eureka:

A large number of downtown Eureka businessowners and residents are filing a lawsuit Thursday, April 6, 2023, against the City of Eureka in California Superior Court, Humboldt County, over the city’s activities related to affordable and low-income housing projects on downtown parking lots. The thirty-two petitioners, known as Citizens for a Better Eureka, claim the city failed to meet the requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) to properly assess the environmental impacts of the housing developments planned for city parking lots.

The petitioners are asking the court to stop the city from further actions on the proposed projects and restart with an honest study of impacts to traffic, pedestrians and public safety, air quality, neighborhood compatibility, and other impacts, not just parking.

“While we support finding ways to meet affordable housing needs, the City’s process has been flawed from the beginning,” the group’s members said. “They are using outdated and inaccurate parking lot studies, some performed during COVID, as well as not fully assessing all the environmental impacts in making their decisions.”

Citizens for a Better Eureka includes Security National, with over 200 employees based in downtown Eureka, former city mayors, former city council members, local businessowners, and residents. They jointly have stated the City Council members and staff have not listened to city residents and business owners who have consistently said the developments will not only ruin downtown businesses but create an unsafe environment.

The petitioners have said in public hearings there isn’t enough downtown parking and employees and customers will have to walk even further in unsafe conditions created by the number of homeless camping out on the sidewalks, the traffic (especially on US 101), and the rising number of attacks on pedestrians. The petitioners also noted that the City’s plan to place housing on these lots is unacceptable.

“We understand the city is under significant pressure to comply with the state housing requirements for affordable and low-income housing,” the petitioners said. “We believe the city must first thoroughly analyze the impacts of these projects as well as perform a needs assessment on transportation and necessary amenities, such as grocery stores, before moving forward. There currently is not adequate public transportation to allow residents to get to and from work, shopping, schools, medical appointments, and other places necessary to carry on normal life and very few of these services are found in the walkable downtown area.

Citizens for a Better Eureka includes: Security National, Dan Marchetti, Andy Cleveland, Cindy Olsen, Shane Blackwell, Michelle Constantine, John Fullerton, Sondra Kirtley, Chuck Ellsworth, Laura Bringhurst, Jorge Bravo, Holly Blackwood, Ben Smith, Anthony Mantova, Mike Munson, Jim Morrison, Marion Brady, Roger Miller, Connie Miller, Nancy Flemming, Susan Santsche, Chris Lehto, Rebecca Blanc, Michael Newman, Christopher Larsen, Jennifer Rudick, Nina Chadwich, Frank Jager, Steve Cunningham, Lacy Cunningham, Ray Conti, and Rod Anderson.

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We’re getting close to wrapping up a series on the City of Eureka’s current efforts to address homelessness and the mental health crisis. We’re trying to get a sense of what the city is hoping to accomplish on a variety of fronts — policing, economic development, mental health services, etc.

Last week we spoke with a couple of people working on this front:

• Sierra Wood, director of the “Pathway to Payday” program, which teaches job/career skills to city residents from a variety of backgrounds.

and

• Jeff Davis, the head of UPLIFT Eureka, which serves to coordinate much of the work the city is doing for people suffering from homelessness and mental health impairment.

Today we’re talking with Jacob Rosen, coordinator of the city’s new Crisis Alternative Response of Eureka (CARE) program. Once it’s fully operational, CARE will be able to dispatch trained mental health workers to assist people who are experiencing an active mental health crisis on the streets of Eureka.

How’s it going so far? Video above, transcript below.

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JOHN KENNEDY O’CONNOR:

Welcome to another Humboldt Conversation. I’m here today with Jacob Rosen, who is the Managing Mental Health Clinician for the Crisis Alternative Response of Eureka. That is quite a title.

JACOB ROSEN:

It is.

O’CONNOR:

You’ve only just recently joined up with Eureka, and you’ve created a new program.

ROSEN:

Yeah, so I started with the city on August 1st of last year, and was brought over to kind of start this mental health team to be out in the community, kind of a sister program to Uplift, and then also working with the Community Safety Engagement Team with the Eureka Police Department.

O’CONNOR:

Yes, we’ve actually spoken to Commander La France on a different conversation, and you are partnering very closely with the police.

ROSEN:

Yeah, very closely. In fact, when our team is fully up and running, our calls will actually be dispatched through their dispatch center.

O’CONNOR:

Okay, now, it’s currently a pilot in the pilot phase, I should say, but what results are you seeing so

ROSEN:

So far we’re seeing really positive results. We kind of soft launched things in January, middle of January. We got two case managers on board and so it’s been myself and two case managers, and I’ve been having to split my time between development and then being out in the field. And so, I mean, we’ve been able to see a lot of clients. We’ve been kind of carrying probably on average about 15 clients a week. Where we’re kind of having routine check-ins. We’re able to kind of dive in a little deeper just because we don’t have as many kind of barriers to starting services. You know, we don’t need a beginning assessment. We’re not doing insurance. We’re not going to work with a lot of the stuff that that causes hoops to jump through before folks actually can start to get help. And so we’ve been able to really kind of deep dive and work with some clients, you know, even daily sometimes to get them to substance use treatment or to get the medical treatment and it’s we’ve seen some really really nice success rates. We’ll be able to … I’m actually in the process of pulling our kind of first couple months of data right now. So I don’t have any juicy tidbits to throw out as far as percentages go. But it’s overall it seems positive so far.

O’CONNOR:

Now, it’s called “Crisis Alternatives,” so what alternatives are you able to offer people who are indeed in crisis?

ROSEN:

Yeah, so depending on the crisis and the safety situations, you know, there will be situations where law enforcement can’t be removed from that situation, right? There’s a safety concern, either the client or staff safety is at risk. And so we will have law enforcement accompany us for things that where there isn’t a safety concern, we can actually respond to that independently. So if there’s, you know, a concern that someone is speaking nonsensically and just seems really confused and is having a difficult time at a local store in Old Town Eureka … eventually, when our team is up and running, that would be something that we can just respond to without law enforcement showing up. And then that way that frees their their team up to be able to go and do law enforcement things. And then we can spend more time with that individual and help connect them to services and kind of provide more of a mental health approach than a legal approach.

O’CONNOR:

And how many people are on your team? Is it growing?

ROSEN:

It is growing. So our end goal is going to be three to four mental health clinicians and five to six mental health case managers. Right now we have two case managers and then myself. As we kind of sort out funding, either through grants or contracts, then we’ll be kind of moving into hiring more folks and getting it up and running.

O’CONNOR:

Now, we spoke to the mayor recently, and she has said that mental health is something that she’s just passionate about. So this is something that I think is going to develop more in the future. How will the program expand in the future?

ROSEN:

I think the program will expand in, I mean, just through phase one, at least getting, you know, full staff, being able to provide seven day a week crisis coverage, and really being able to kind of dive in and help a lot of the folks in the community, collaborating with agencies, networking, that kind of thing. What I keep in the back of my mind, and that I’d love to see is eventually getting some method established to be able to have a psychiatric prescriber out in the field with us so that we can kind of almost operate like a one day a week, we have like a psychiatric urgent care, where maybe folks who they lost their meds or they had stopped taking their meds, you know, a year ago, but they’re ready to start again. And we can kind of help identify these folks through the week. And then on the day that we have the prescriber, we can kind of go out into the field and we can kind of bring the doctor’s office to the individual instead of having to bring the individual to the doctor’s office. 

O’CONNOR:

Now, it’s mental health that you’re focused on, but obviously that can be triggered by other things — for example drug use etc. We’ve seen quite a lot of negative commentary from people who just say, well, these people should help themselves if they’re using drugs etc. That seems a very non-compassionate way to react to these issues.

ROSEN:

I would agree with that. And I think what’s difficult is when we look at heart disease or we look at lung disease, we can identify the organ that is having illness. And when we look at mental health, it’s really difficult to identify that organ. We know it’s the brain, but we don’t know everything about the brain. We’ve never scanned the brain. We don’t have the technology to look at every neuron connection and all that. And so when the brain goes wrong, it goes wrong in many ways quite fabulously in the sense that it’s a wide range of things that can happen, whether it’s a chemical imbalance and we become depressed or whether because of a past experience we have really profound anxiety and our threat response system is just firing nonstop. There are so many different things in that singular organ that can present with different symptoms it’s kind of hard to understand.

The other piece of that is that our brain controls decision making. That’s where our judgment is centered. And so when we have an issue with our lungs, we can talk to a doctor and then we can make an informed decision around treatment. When our brain, the decision making organ, is having difficulties of its own, it’s really difficult for some folks to actually have the capacity to make those decisions. And they develop a symptom called anosognosia, which is the symptomatic lack of insight. So that individual loses the ability to kind of like step outside of themselves in retrospect or look at their behavior and really see like, oh, I’m sick or this behavior is abnormal. This doesn’t fit with society. And so when they lose that ability to recognize that, that’s when they kind of keep going along in that path of their symptom. And it’s difficult for them to actually engage in treatment. And so for those folks who are experiencing that, when you say, well, they just need to make better decisions and pull themselves up, they literally can’t. It’s very hard.

O’CONNOR:

Now, what other initiatives would you like to see in the future that will help with alternative responses?

ROSEN:

I think that doubling down on the idea of housing first is really important. I think that, you know, a lot of substance use treatment and mental health treatment is not effective if folks do not have a roof over their head. And at the same time, we also need to make sure that when we take a housing first approach, it’s not housing last, right? We can’t just put folks in housing and then pull back. We need to be able to help get folks into housing and then also pour resources in, help them get connected to mental health services, substance use services, but then also connect them to resources in the community and make sure they can feel involved again.

I mean, if we don’t help folks have motivation to buy into society and re-engage and work or volunteer or participate in some group, then it’s really difficult to have motivation to continue buying into all these other treatments because mental health treatment and substance use treatment is not easy. And so giving folks motivation, giving them that buy-in, it’s really helpful.

O’CONNOR:

And that’s I think one of the strong things that Uplift Eureka is doing. We’ve spoken to Jeff Davis, we’ve spoken to Sierra Wood, and there are a number of different programs that are all dovetailing to help people in different aspects. Maybe it’s finding a job once they’ve found a home, once they’ve found support for their mental health issues.

ROSEN:

Absolutely. And the City of Eureka is really trying to intentionally have some overlap, right? There’s the law enforcement and mental health piece with the CSET team, right? So there’s kind of the accountability mental health component and then you have a mental health team that also can do some case management kind of bridge into uplifts territory and then you have uplift which is, you know, really diving into a lot of this homeless services and social services, but then also they, you know, they’re outreach workers. I mean, they’re frontline mental health workers. If someone’s having a crisis they’re the first ones who are going to see it.

And, you know, whether that’s calling in our team or whether that’s calling law enforcement or whether that’s just talking to them and, you know, de-escalating in that moment, they’re the first kind of the frontline out there. And so, you know, with the city kind of dovetailing all these resources together, we can really provide a more comprehensive service to the community, which is our goal.

O’CONNOR:

Well, there’s a lot happening and as I say, you’re very new in the role, it’s a very new program, but we’d like to talk to you again in the future.

ROSEN:

That’d be great.

O’CONNOR:

Perhaps got some stats on how this is being affected.

ROSEN:

Yeah, I’d love to do that. That’d be excellent.

O’CONNOR:

Well, Jacob, really a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much for having a Humboldt Conversation with us today, and join us again for another Humboldt Conversation soon.